Search Results for: Alan Day

Raving about the new guy: ages-old process where rock bands make the fresh blood feel comfortable and entirely loved as they and the person in question stroke each other’s fur in front of the intense examination of press and/or public. Ages-old thrashers-cum-rockers-cum-thrashers again Metallica proved to be no strangers to this tradition as they unveiled their latest bass player Robert Trujillo to Toronto at the Summer Sanitarium tour. “The quality of musicianship in the band nowadays is so high! Rob’s a killer bass player so it’s awesome to jam with him. It feels so natural to be jamming in a… Read more »

Chad Kroeger sings about “a world full of killing and blood spilling” in the hit song “Hero,” and in that kind of world Nickelback’s melodic relationship songs don’t seem to have quite as much impact as they once did. Perhaps that’s why Kroeger boosted the musical heft and lyrical import for the band’s third record, The Long Road, due September 23. Sure, there are still enough love songs and light, lighter-raising moments to make the gals swoon. But even on the slower tunes, the guitars shudder with raw intensity, conveying Kroeger’s aim to shed the mainstream pop image he cultivated… Read more »

Despite the major labels’ success in clearing hundreds of thousands of tracks for purchase online through services like Apple’s iTunes Music Store, some top artists continue to resist authorizing the dismantling of their albums for Internet consumption as a la carte singles. Some acts are requiring that their music be sold exclusively in album bundles. For example, Linkin Park recently pulled its music as a singles offering from digital services. Sources say the band has expressed concerns about undercutting album sales. Other acts with similar stipulations about their work include Radiohead, Madonna, Jewel and Green Day, sources say. Top acts… Read more »

In late April, Madonna gave a rare in-store concert before 400 fans to plug her new American Life album. Outside the event, which took place at Tower Records in New York’s Greenwich Village, another 2,000-plus fans thronged. For years, Tower has harnessed such star power to burnish its credentials as a purveyor of hipness. “It was the buzz around town,” boasts store manager David Montes of the Madonna love-in. But the splashy appearance obscured a harsh backstage truth: Tower Records is in such deep trouble that its parent, privately held MTS Inc. in West Sacramento, has put the company on… Read more »

A good bar band singer knows the importance of conversing with the patrons. “Did you come to have fun?” Justin Timberlake asked after taking the House of Blues stage early Tuesday morning (June 17) for his first crack at what he’s dubbed the Show After the Show. “The point of this is to have fun.” And fun it was, yet it certainly seemed there were other reasons for JT – as he was billed – to play a club show a few hours after the lights went up on the Justified and Stripped Tour at the Staples Center. Mainly, the… Read more »

Liam Lynch was onstage about two minutes total, yet it was his song that best summed up Saturday’s 11-hour KROQ Weenie Roast. It was truly the “United States of Whatever.” As in, whatever goes. Good Charlotte unplugged, Pink got the party started with the Transplants, and Jane’s Addiction played unannounced, proving nothing was off-limits at the trend-setting radio station’s 11th annual summer festival. The lineup itself was a little bit of whatever, and certainly more diverse than last year’s “diet Ozzfest,” as Jack Osbourne called it. All three stages showcased a variety of bands, although it was surprisingly the main… Read more »

The competition for online music customers is heating up. RealNetworks launched RealOne Rhapsody on Friday and simultaneously dropped the price of burning from 99 cents to 79 cents per track. Subscribers to the existing RealOne SuperPass entertainment service already have been receiving Rhapsody’s Internet radio product. These 900,000 customers will gradually be migrated over to the complete replacement service, which includes the customizable professionally programmed and custom radio stations along with on-demand streaming, extensive music information and editorial comment, features and recommendations. Real Networks vp marketing Dan Sheeran said new customers will see only RealOne Rhapsody to minimize confusion. RealOne… Read more »

Apple(R) today announced that over two million songs have been purchased and downloaded from its revolutionary iTunes(R) Music Store since its debut 16 days ago. Continuing the trend set during the first week, over half of the songs purchased to date were purchased as albums, further dispelling concerns that selling music on a per-track basis will destroy album sales. “Response to the iTunes Music Store has been phenomenal – we’ve clearly hit a chord with users,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re adding new songs every day, giving music lovers even more reasons to legally download their favorite music.” The… Read more »

Made Compilation has released a compilation CD of independent artists at the Skate & Surf Festival this weekend. Included on the CD are tracks from Army Of Me, Brand New Disaster, Breaking Pangaea, In Clover, Over It, Power Lloyd, Star Hide Fire, and 555, as well as an acoustic version of Day That I Die by Good Charlotte. Stop by the Made booth and pick one up. Army Of Me (armyofmeonline.com) Army of Me hails from the Washington DC area, and since the middle of 1999, have toured the east coast relentlessly. Army of Me realizes that it takes hard… Read more »

Controversial Irish singer Sinead O’Connor, once famously booed offstage for tearing up the Pope’s picture, declared on Thursday that she’s had it with the music business and with being famous. “As of July 2003, I shall be retiring from the music business order to pursue a different career,” wrote O’Connor – who distinguished herself in the 1990s as much with her shaven head and brash opinions as with her music – on a Web site devoted to all things Sinead, (http://www.sinead-oconnor.com). Although the site is not the official home page for the singer, Lellie Capwell, a spokeswomen for Vanguard Records,… Read more »