Search Results for: Nick Major

The All-American Rejects will be honored with ASCAP’s Vanguard Award at the 24th Annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards, which will also salute the songwriters and publishers of ASCAP’s most performed pop songs of 2006. The invitation-only event will be held on April 18, 2007 at The Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. The band’s principal songwriters Tyson Ritter and Nick Wheeler will also receive two ASCAP Pop Awards for “Dirty Little Secret” and “Move Along,” and will perform during the awards ceremony. Other 2007 ASCAP Pop Award-winning songwriters scheduled to perform are: The Fray’s Joe King and Isaac Slade (“Over… Read more »

Every day, the roughly one million people who visit the iTunes Store home page are presented with several dozen albums, TV shows and movie downloads to consider buying — out of the four million such goods the Apple site offers. This prime promotion is analogous to a CD being displayed at the checkout stands of all 940 Best Buy stores or featured on the front page of Target’s ad circular. How do bands get these boosts? Who decides whether Arcade Fire is plugged at the top of the iTunes site — or whether Nickelback gets no mention? Apple has jettisoned… Read more »

With Sting’s simple “Ladies and gentlemen, we are the Police,” one of the most iconic bands of the last 30 years ended a long absence from live performing to launch the 49th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night. Blasting off with the unmistakable, reggae-fied “Roxanne” riff from guitarist Andy Summers and the hard jazz drumming of Stewart Copeland, the Police lived up to their top billing on the show, providing a spirited kickoff to one of the most anticipated reunions in a year full of get-backs. With a buff-if-balding Sting in fine form and voice, the trio’s homage to a… Read more »

SAN FRANCISCO–Apple ® today announced that more than two billion songs, 50 million television episodes and over 1.3 million feature-length films have been purchased and downloaded from the iTunes ® Store (www.itunes.com), making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store. “iTunes has crossed another major milestone by selling over two billion songs–with over a billion of them sold in the last year alone–making it by far the world’s most popular music store,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “And by selling 50 million TV shows and over 1.3 million movies to date, iTunes is already the largest… Read more »

It’s New Year’s Eve in New York and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is headlining the buzziest indie rock bill in town. The eclectic quintet — which has risen to notoriety for selling more than 110,000 copies of its 2005 debut album in the United States without the help of a record label — has plenty to celebrate. The band is using the show at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom to preview a half-dozen tracks from its self-released sophomore set, “Some Loud Thunder,” due January 30. CYHSY’s most rabid fans don’t need much of an introduction to some of the new material.… Read more »

As far as explanatory statements from musicians go, this one by Relient K frontman Matt Thiessen about his band’s new album, Five Score and Seven Years Ago, sort of takes the cake for general awesomeness: “We had already come up with the title of the album, so I decided to write some lyrics about John Wilkes Booth. I hope people don’t think it’s a concept record about Abraham Lincoln or anything like that.” Gee, why would anyone think that? After all, there are tons of albums out there that nick their title from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (“Four score and seven… Read more »

One sunny afternoon not long ago, Dick Copaken sat in a booth at Daniel, one of those hushed, exclusive restaurants on Manhattan’s Upper East Side where the waiters glide spectrally fro table to table. He was wearing a starched button-down shirt and a blue blazer. Every strand of his thinning hair was in place, and he spoke calmly and slowly, his large pink Charlie Brow head bobbing along evenly as he did. Copaken spent many years as a partner at the white-shoe Washington, D.C., firm Covington & Burling, and he has a lawyer’s gravitas. One of his bes friends calls… Read more »

Burbank, CA – Since the April 26, 2005, release of “Trouble Is Real,” his debut album on Reprise Records, singer and songwriter Johnathan Rice has emerged as one of the most promising up-and-coming young vocalists and songwriters on the scene today. While building a loyal following here in the U.S., Rice’s popularity overseas is exploding at an alarming rate, especially in the UK: “‘Trouble Is Real’ is a tremendous debut,” enthused The Guardian. “Although indebted to Bob Dylan, Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley, it is a record of singular ambition.” The excitement surrounding Rice is certain to spike when he… Read more »

Forget “Kumbaya” and “Home on the Range.” Next year the lyrics of punky-spunky Karen O may be heard around the campfire. While her band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are in the very early stages of a new album, Karen says they’ve been toying with some folky sounds for their follow-up to Fever to Tell. “There is some acoustic guitar – a first – and Brian [Chase] has been studying tabla, so we may throw some of that in there, too,” she said in an e-mail. “YYY campfire sing-alongs, YYYs go rustic.” While her tongue may be planted firmly in her… Read more »

Toronto, Ontario – Strutting onstage in unison, the five founding members of Duran Duran – on their first major arena tour since reforming in 2001 – looked suspiciously like an aged version of the Backstreet Boys. Thankfully, the opening chords of “Reach Up For The Sunrise” from their 2004 release Astronaut announced that this would be a genuine rock concert and that the only onstage dancing would come in the form of singer Simon LeBon’s spastic, Elaine Benes-like gyrations. The guy may have presence, but he’s got no rhythm whatsoever. It didn’t make a difference, though. “Hello, Toronto,” LeBon cooed… Read more »