Search Results for: NeX GEn

New York – After taking himself out of the music business “to regenerate, get free of myself and make an album for the right reasons,” Billy Idol has completed his first album featuring new songs in over 10 years, aptly titled DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND. The CD, which may or may not be named after a location deep inside the Idol mind, is scheduled for release on March 22, 2005, and is the English rocker’s first for CSP Records/Sanctuary Records. The first single, “Scream,” is a down and dirty love romp featuring the sinister signature guitar of Steve Stevens and Idol’s rock… Read more »

Los Angeles – Nearly 45 years after Stevie Wonder’s live harmonica workout “Fingertips, Pt. 2” topped the charts, the soul visionary’s musical charm still enthralls. From preteen wunderkind to adult visionary, his musical evolution embodies a “What’s next?” curiosity that still burns brightly as fans anticipate his first new Motown album in 10 years, which he hopes will come out in April. “Hopefully, that little boy will always stay in me,” Wonder said in a recent interview with Billboard. “The part of me that’s still eager to discover; who welcomes new, unbroken ground. When that ground is being broken, there’s… Read more »

Throughout their last two albums, Sum 41 have been almost synonymous with either revved-up pop-punk or over-the-top heavy metal. That may all change thanks to their new single, “Pieces.” The Goons, as their fans are affectionately referred, had better brace themselves for associations with things more on the sensitive side of the spectrum, like warm, fuzzy cardigans and online journals. Although it retains the band’s customary big guitars, the melody and subject matter are a lot gentler than signature songs “Over My Head (Better Off Dead),” “Fat Lip” and “In Too Deep.” “We’ve had slow songs before, but we’ve never… Read more »

Anyone who visited their Web site and thought that Hearts That Hate were the next big thing out of the emo scene is about to get a reality check from MC Lars. The fictitious band has a starring role in “Signing Emo,” the second single off Lars’ Laptop EP. The song, a send-up of the bandwagon-jumping that goes on in the music industry, finds a 40-year-old, overweight and out-of-touch A&R exec named Marty feeling pressure from his boss to ink an emo band – any emo band – to the label because the boss’ daughter likes Dashboard Confessional. Just before… Read more »

Tupac Shakur has always meant different things to different people. But if you ask anyone who knew him personally or followed his career, they’ll all agree he was compelling, if nothing else. Eminem, for one, was so moved by Pac that he approached Shakur’s mother, Afeni, and asked to work on the deceased icon’s next posthumous album, Loyal to the Game. “I wrote to Afeni and said, ‘Please consider letting me produce this album,’ ” he told MTV News a few weeks ago in Detroit. “I just feel, as a longtime fan of Tupac… his music, his persona, his everything.… Read more »

ChartAttack: Do you get teased mercilessly for being on our Sexiest Musicians cover [Oct. 2004]? Adam Gontier: Yeah, my band members are the worst for teasing me about the whole “sexy” thing. Most of my friends and family members laugh about it, but really, I know they’re all jealous. Why did it take so long for America to tweak to “I Hate Everything About You?” Don’t they hate everything? I think, for us, it was a good thing that “I Hate” took so long to catch on in America. These days, in this industry, it’s mainly about a label releasing… Read more »

After Interpol ring in the new year, the quartet with a penchant for wearing black will bestow upon its fans a touch of evil. “Evil” is poised to be the next single off Interpol’s latest album, Antics, according to a Matador Records spokesperson. It follows the band’s current single, “Slow Hands.” A video was shot earlier this month, before the group left for its European tour, and is currently being edited. The clip and the radio single are expected to surface in mid-January. Directed by photographer Charlie White, the clip marks the first time the photogenic band won’t star in… Read more »

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – The evolution of digital downloads marks another milestone on November 23, 2004, with the debut of UMe Digital, the world’s first all-digital download label from a major music company. UMe Digital product – individual songs, EPs, and full-length albums – will be distributed exclusively online. With its unparalleled music and video marketing capabilities and the power and scope of UMe to place songs in films and TV shows and commercials, UMe Digital offers unprecedented access and exposure for artists. The releases on UMe Digital will be consistent with UMe’s philosophy of marketing established acts and acts… Read more »

Seattle – Fans of Bob Dylan, the songwriter who has been called the conscience of the 1960s generation, will be able to see items from the artist’s early career and listen to rare recordings at an exhibit opening in Seattle this weekend. Dylan’s handwritten lyrics for “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Like a Rolling Stone,” as well a 24-minute recording of Dylan’s first concert in New York, which was never commercially released, are featured in “Bob Dylan’s American Journey 1956-1966” at the Experience Music Project. The collection is the first comprehensive exhibit of Dylan’s work, according to Jasen Emmons, the… Read more »

New York – Jerry Wexler is the classic record business guy. For more than three decades, Wexler, as co-owner of Atlantic Records and later senior VP at Warner Bros. Records, signed and worked with scores of vocalists and instrumentalists, and produced some of the greatest rock and soul records ever made. Now 86 and long retired, Wexler is still applauded as an insightful producer, crafty deal-maker and promoter, divining rod of hit songs and occasional writer of songs and liner notes. “He is one of my greatest heroes,” Sire Records founder Seymour Stein says. “Jerry is a consummate record man… Read more »