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AJ McLean remembers the conversation well. Kevin Richardson was having doubts about his future in the Backstreet Boys, and one night in the dressing room after a 2005 show, he told his friends in the mega-selling boy band how he was feeling. “There’s some things I need to do first, for me,” McLean recalled Richardson saying. The group had been discussing “when we wanted to start recording again,” McLean said. “Everyone was ready, but that was the first time Kevin put it out in the atmosphere that he wasn’t.” The Boys needed some time to digest Richardson’s news. In June… Read more »

If there were any doubts that the White Stripes — consisting solely of guitarist Jack White and his “big sister” drummer Meg — could rock out the cavernous Madison Square Garden, the duo erased them with their debut there Tuesday night. “I don’t believe we’ve played this barn before,” joked the guitarist toward the end of their blistering set. Touring to promote their critically acclaimed new release, the explosive “Icky Thump,” the White Stripes made no concessions to the size of the venue. They played sans special effects for much of the set, save for a giant disco ball hanging… Read more »

Claiming that their free-speech rights had been violated, Mötley Crüe filed suit against NBC, the network that banned the group for dropping the F-bomb on a live New Year’s Eve broadcast of “The Tonight Show.” “This ban constitutes governmentally pressured censorship and violates the law the same as if the government itself had ordered the censorship,” read the suit, filed in Los Angeles federal court on Tuesday. Claiming the ban was a result of an attempt by the network to pacify the government in light of its crackdown on indecency, the band says in the suit that the action has… Read more »

Now that Brian “Head” Welch has discovered Christianity, and changed his title from “founding Korn guitarist” to “former Korn guitarist,” he feels like there’s nothing left to explain to the band’s fans. But he’s always open to a good conversation. “When it was first announced that I was leaving the band and rededicating my life to Christianity, I thought it was weird that people thought it was weird,” he said. “And rather than maybe giving Christ a chance, people just start trashing my decision, because they’re afraid of taking that chance. If people cared about me, they would sit down,… Read more »

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Lisa Marie Presley is keeping Graceland but selling the bulk of the Elvis estate, including rights to her father’s name and image, in a deal worth approximately $100 million. Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. announced an agreement Thursday to sell 85 percent of its assets to businessman Robert F.X. Sillerman, founder of music and sports promoter SFX Entertainment. The Presley estate brought in almost $45 million last year. Sillerman said more aggressive marketing, supported by capital raised through a new publicly traded company, can make Elvis an even bigger earner. Presley occupies a unique place in American pop… Read more »

Things aren’t going well. Sure, everyone’s favourite bumpkin/despot has just been put in charge of the world’s biggest army again, but when it comes to portents, that’s nothing compared to Skinny Puppy touring a new record. Few bands have captured fear, tension and apocalyptic misery as well as the Vancouver industrial icons and with Herr Bush entrenched for another four years, it makes perfect sense that Ogre and cEvin Key (aka Kevin Ogilivie and Kevin Crompton) would choose now to re-emerge with a new record and a new stage show. And judging by the large Kool Haus crowd of older… Read more »

Whisps of fake fog spilled from the stage and dissipated into a light breeze rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean as 7,000 satisfied fans shuffled toward Nathan’s Hot Dogs, the Wonder Wheel or the D-train. So ended the beginning of the end for Phish, who performed Thursday and Friday at Coney Island’s baseball stadium beside the sea, KeySpan Park. The shows launched the band’s farewell tour, which will culminate August 14 and 15 at a festival in Phish’s home state of Vermont. But fans didn’t let any sadness show at these gigs: Even when the sky opened up and drenched… Read more »

JUST days after the European launch of Apple Computers’ online music store, a chorus of customers are voicing their complaints. The lack of songs from artists on independent record labels – which account for a quarter of the UK market – has left iTunes looking like a poorly-stocked American import store, lacking local talent such as Travis and Franz Ferdinand. “Most Scottish acts are on independent labels,” says Alison Wenham, chairman and chief executive of the Association of Independent Music (AIM), which represents the majority of the UK’s indie labels. “Celtic acts typically start off very strong in their home… Read more »

“It’s our most ambitious album to date,” says Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day’s forthcoming American Idiot, a concept record the trio has dubbed a “punk rock opera.” The sprawling thirteen-song album, due in September, tells the tales of such characters as “Saint Jimmy” and an unnamed female protagonist “Whatzhername” living in a heated political climate. “I wanted to try to find some human relationship throughout it,” Armstrong says. “A lot of it is coming from trying to have a relationship between different people and yourself, but being surrounded by total chaos… I didn’t want to make people feel like… Read more »