Search Results for: Avril Lavigne

Sometimes, the heaviest rock can coexist with the purest pop. When garage-rock band the Mooney Suzuki started out in 1997, all they wanted to be was an ass-kicking group that paid homage to the Stooges, the Stones, the MC5 and the Nuggets box set. Then, in 2002, they got a taste of success with their roaring sophomore record, Electric Sweat, and suddenly they wanted more – way more. So the New York band hooked up with the Matrix – the production team that has worked with Avril Lavigne, Christina Aguilera and Hilary Duff. The move was a risky one: Diehard… Read more »

Hanson’s third studio album, Underneathdebuted at #1 on Billboard’s independent sales chart today. Released on their own, self-funded 3CG Records last Tuesday, the album debuted at #25 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart today, making it one of the most successful self-released albums of all time. The success of Underneath puts Hanson inrare company with the very few other artists such as Prince and Ani DiFranco who have scored Top 25 chart positions on previous self-released titles. In an effort to gain more creative control of their music and a more direct relationship with their fans, Hanson formed 3CG Records last… Read more »

Arista Records, home to such acts as OutKast, Dido and Avril Lavigne, is in the process of being restructured, sources said Tuesday. Many Arista artists are being moved to Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) corporate siblings Jive Records, RCA Records and J Records, sources said. Layoffs are expected, though some positions will be redeployed to other parts of BMG. Arista will, however, remain a label complete with some artists, an A&R team, marketing and promotions staff, sources said. A spokesman for closely held BMG declined to comment on the moves at Arista but in a statement said: “BMG is in the… Read more »

Beyoncé Knowles, multiplatinum sweetheart of the music award show circuit this year, was exhausted. She’d just appeared on the Vibe Awards and breathlessly arrived across town just in time to change clothes and take bows at the VH1 Awards. “Too many,” she said as she leaned against a wall backstage. Bad planning by VH1 and Vibe? Not really, there were four award shows that week including the American Music Awards and they were bound to butt heads somewhere. With television networks relentlessly reaching for younger viewers, an unprecedented 26 music award shows are now on cable and network TV. “There’s… Read more »

O-Town broke up in November not only because some members wanted to go solo, but because they needed to – at least if they wanted to make money. “Unfortunately, as O-Town, we had to sign a lot of contracts that weren’t in our best interest as artists, coming together the way we did on a TV show,” Ashley Parker Angel revealed recently. “There just came a time where we knew it was that time to step off and pursue those individual goals, and that’s where we’re at right now, but we remain the best of friends… and it was the… Read more »

Antonio “L.A.” Reid, who took the helm at Arista Records nearly four years ago and oversaw platinum successes from acts including OutKast, Pink and Avril Lavigne, has left the label, it was announced Tuesday. Reid became president and CEO of Arista in May 2000 after the company’s founder and CEO, Clive Davis, left because of parent company BMG’s mandatory retirement policy. Reid was not available to comment, according to an Arista spokeswoman. Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, chairman and CEO of BMG, called Reid “one of the music industry’s top record men.” “His passion for working with and developing some of the world’s… Read more »

Bertelsmann AG and Sony Corp. announced a preliminary plan to merge their music businesses Thursday, setting the stage for a music company that would vie for world primacy with Universal Music Group. A merger of Sony Music Entertainment and Bertelsmann’s BMG, if it comes to pass, would bring together the world’s No. 2 and No. 5 music companies as the industry struggles with losses blamed on music piracy. The new company, to be called Sony BMG, would be equally owned by Sony and Bertelsmann and run by Andrew Lack, chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment. Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, the… Read more »

While Kelly Osbourne is still in the early stages of working on her second album, the singer has tapped the Midas touch of the Matrix production team (Avril Lavigne, Liz Phair) to record a new track, “No Apologies,” for the set. “It’s basically about how I go through my life,” she says. “I make mistakes, I do what I do, and I don’t apologize for it because it’s part of growing up.” Osbourne is also hoping to work with another hit maker, former 4 Non Blondes frontwoman Linda Perry, who helped Pink pen songs from her multi-platinum Missundaztood. “I think… Read more »

A couple of years ago, a crazed Mooney Suzuki fan bum-rushed the band during a show and squirted mustard on singer/guitarist Sammy James Jr.’s fuzz box guitar pedal. The guy was apparently pissed that the garage rockers had “sold out” and signed with tiny indie label Estrus Records for their 2000 debut, People Get Ready, so he shouted, “Why don’t you have Estrus buy you a new one!” If that’s how he felt then, things could get much uglier next year when the band releases its as-yet-untitled third album, the first under its new deal with Columbia Records. Not to… Read more »

Collection of Exclusive, In-studio Sessions@AOL Recordings to Hit Streets October 14th America Online, Inc., the world’s leading interactive services company, and Atlantic Records have announced the forthcoming release of Sessions@AOL, a compilation CD featuring some of the best performances from AOL(R) Music’s groundbreaking program, Sessions@AOL. Due in stores on October 14th, the album will feature tracks from a diverse array of talent, performed in small studios or rehearsal spaces where the artists had complete creative control over the delivery of their songs. As a result of the unique settings in which these artists performed for AOL, the album includes rare… Read more »