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C. Michael Greene has resigned as the head of the organization that hands out the music industry’s most prestigious award, the Grammys, following an emergency board of trustees vote to remove him from office. Greene resigned Saturday night at an emergency meeting attended by more than three dozen trustees of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Greene, 52, had three years remaining on his contract and will receive a severance package of $8 million, much of which will be covered by insurance and includes his bonus from the CBS Grammy contract. He is… Read more »

For those who think rap-rock is just about tapped out, Quarashi would like to present their spin on the genre. “We’re trying to do rap music the way Joey Ramone would have done rap music,” said Sölvi Blondal, the band’s producer and drummer. “What we are trying to do is punk-rock rap music, but a little bit more 1990s, like when Public Enemy was doing Fear of a Black Planet and when Cypress [Hill] was coming up with their first album. We tried to approach that style…. We didn’t want to be like Limp Bizkit or these bands that are… Read more »

When Pink phoned Lenny Kravitz last month, the party starter made sure the reason for her call was not at all missundaztood. “I was like, ‘You should come down for rehearsals.’ And he was like, ‘What are you rehearsing for?’ And I was like, ‘Your tour,’ ” Pink explained. “I’m like, ‘You would be very smart to take me on tour.’ And then like two or three weeks later he called and we hooked it up. I take what I want.” She certainly does, especially when it comes to men. For her next video, “Just Like a Pill,” Pink requested… Read more »

While Alice in Chains – whose singer, Layne Staley, was found dead Friday – influenced an incalculable number of bands, perhaps no one echoes their legacy like Godsmack. From Tony Rambola’s jarring bursts of guitar to Sully Erna’s angry, impassioned vocal delivery, Godsmack have sonically followed Alice in Chains’ lead while adding their own distinctive edge. To Erna, Staley was more than just part of the grunge foundation on which bands like Godsmack, Creed, Tantric and Puddle of Mudd built their sound. The Alice in Chains singer’s raw urgency vaulted the former drummer front and center before one of today’s… Read more »

When Jacoby Shaddix (a.k.a. Coby Dick) was bashing his forehead bloody with the mic night after night on last year’s Ozzfest, it became pretty clear that Papa Roach were a tortured, turbulent group – one far removed from the cookie-cutter rap-metal bands to which it was frequently compared. As if to hammer home the point, the band has distanced itself even further from its former peers on Lovehatetragedy, which comes out June 18. Aside from a rapped section in the first single, “She Loves Me Not,” and a few half-spoken vocal lines in various other songs, there’s nothing on the… Read more »

Twelve hours, four stages and more than 40 bands marked the end of the three-day Skate and Surf Festival on Sunday. Held at the Asbury Park Convention Hall, the second installment of the now annual event featured performances from Bouncing Souls, Face to Face and the Descendents, among many others. While the Warped Tour travels from town to town with many of skateboarding and BMX culture’s best-known athletes and favorite artists, the stationary Skate and Surf tends to be more down-home, offering quarter-pipes and rails to anybody bold enough to show up with a bike or a board and a… Read more »

Imagine your friends’ reaction when at your next Sunday night no-holds-barred karaoke jam you not only perform a rockin’ rendition of Ozzy’s “Crazy Train,” but you kick it out gripping a mic autographed by the self-proclaimed prince of darkness himself. Now that’s the stuff of which local legends are made. An array of artists including Osbourne, ‘NSYNC, Christina Aguilera, the Dave Matthews Band and Moby have signed on to contribute their John Hancocks to “Bid for Hearing,” a charity auction beginning April 29 on eBay which will feature microphones autographed by various musicians. Nelly Furtado, AC/DC, Hank Williams Jr. and… Read more »

A near-capacity crowd at Key Arena greeted headliners Incubus Friday night with open arms and open eyes – and deafening, wall-vibrating screams. Thousands of hollering fans – many encased in freshly purchased T-shirts from the merch tables – couldn’t be wrong: After more than a decade in the business, and years of touring far smaller venues with middling success, the band from sleepy Calabasas, California, has most definitely arrived. But before they took to the stage, their So-Cal neighbors, Hoobastank, warmed up the Key with a thunderous half-hour set. The foursome had no problem filling up the arena with their… Read more »

Two New York tribute events are in the works for May 19, which would have been late Ramones frontman Joey Ramone’s 51st birthday, Billboard.com has learned. Ramone’s mother Charlotte Lesher and brother Mickey Leigh are organizing a benefit concert at the Bowery Ballroom, which will raise funds for the not-for-profit Joey Ramone Cure for Lymphoma fund. Lineup and ticket information is still being finalized. Just up the road at the city’s legendary CBGB club, Ramones creative director Arturo Vega will stage the Bowery Electric Festival. Last month, Vega supervised the recording of “The Bowery Electric,” a tribute song penned in… Read more »

Nearly 40 years after he wrote the lyric “He not busy being born is busy dying,” Bob Dylan clearly still believes that estimation is right on the mark. Looking snazzy in a black cowboy hat and old-school Western suit, the 60-year-old folk-rock icon was tireless, fearless and masterful throughout his 140-minute show Thursday at the Arena. Within shouting range of Treptow Park, where he played in 1987 when the area was still communist East Germany, the Arena is a onetime bus depot and hangar that now serves as one of the city’s largest music venues. The 7,500-capacity, standing-room-only space served… Read more »