Search Results for: Not My Weekend

Sitting in an outdoor cafe for lunch the other day, Richard McDonnell mentioned he was working on just three hours of sleep. The former investment banker, who founded and runs the small, independent record label MAXJAZZ, was up nearly the entire night before in St. Louis, reading up on key buyers at record retail chains. Now he was in Washington for an afternoon meeting at the Kennedy Center, then had plans to go to Chicago the next day to see one of the singers on his roster, Carla Cook, perform at the Chicago Jazz festival. This whirlwind schedule is not… Read more »

Just when it seemed all systems were go, it now appears that Lance Bass’ trip into space may be off – though his team insists otherwise. When Bass returned to Moscow over the weekend following a weeklong crash course at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Russian space officials didn’t welcome the singer with open arms. The sticky issue of payment had not been resolved by the last Russian deadline of Friday (August 30), and on Tuesday (September 3), the Russian Space Agency pulled Bass off his training regiment in Star City. To make matters seem more dire, spokespeople for… Read more »

As Justin Timberlake works on his solo album and Lance Bass prepares to go into space, Joey Fatone isn’t about to be the odd man out of ‘NSYNC. For his downtime during the boy band’s hiatus, Fatone’s broadening his acting résumé to include the Great White Way – as the lead in “Rent”. “It’s very exciting,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to do Broadway…. About a year ago I went and saw ‘Rent,’ and it was really cool, and I thought it would be a cool show to do. It’s so edgy and so based on real life. It’s something… Read more »

Justin Timberlake’s debut solo project is not only one of the most anticipated albums of the year, it is one of the most well guarded. The ‘NSYNC star has been in and out of recording studios all year, yet neither his record label nor his management will say anything about the record. Still, the music industry is buzzing and details are trickling out. Most are coming from collaborators – and there appear to be many – but Timberlake himself has spilled a few beans. Phoning in to Orlando’s WJHM-FM last week, he told DJs the album will be out “hopefully… Read more »

Michael Jackson’s surprise attack on Sony Music as racist has grabbed headlines, but many in the music industry have turned a deaf ear – suspecting the pop star has been motivated by self-interest rather than a concern for civil rights. Jackson, under contract with Sony until 2004 and among the highest-paid pop stars of all time, appears to be trying to pressure Sony into breaking the deal so he can exit with his valuable trove of master recordings, industry sources said. They say Jackson’s assault was prompted mostly by anger at Sony for the poor showing of his latest album,… Read more »

Trey Anastasio spent 17 years ripping genres apart and sticking them back together at odd angles with the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink uber-jam band Phish. So maybe it’s no surprise he’s whipped up another unusual concoction: a jam/swing hybrid dotted with sugary-sweet love songs and chamber music. The self-titled release has the elements you’d expect from Anastasio, from the drawn-out, frenetic jams to the catchy guitar riffs. But it’s also a departure: It’s got horns, it’s got soul, it’s got more horns. It’s clearly not a Phish album hiding under a different name. “I’ve been listening to a lot of big band music,”… Read more »

A quarter-century after they shot to infamy with the scathing anti-royal song “God Save the Queen,” the Sex Pistols are reuniting in the summer of Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee. The legendary punk band will perform July 27 at London’s Crystal Palace sports center, singer John Lydon said today (May 16). The 76-year-old monarch is marking 50 years on the throne with a series of public events around the country, including a pop concert in the grounds of Buckingham Palace on June 4. The Sex Pistols have not been invited. Lydon – formerly known as Johnny Rotten – gave details… Read more »

Few albums have been as closely guarded as Eminem’s The Eminem Show. No one at Interscope Records has a personal copy, and journalists who want to review it have to go to special listening sessions where representatives from the rapper’s management deliver the disc, sit through the sessions and then take the record back to keep it out of enemy hands. Despite such precautions, all 20 songs were leaked to the Internet by May 11, a full three weeks before the disc’s release date. The tracks are available on various file-sharing services. Plus, bootleg vendors began selling the CD on… Read more »

“The Osbournes” have not only captivated you, your bleeping grandma and your bleeping hairdresser, but probably your favorite bleeping rock star as well. The most popular series in MTV history, with nearly 8 million viewers a week, has acquired a particularly loyal audience in perhaps the only people who can truly relate to the madness – other musicians. Incubus, for example, fell so hard for the show they asked their management to record it when they are on the road and send them copies for tour bus screenings. Singer Brandon Boyd said when “The Osbournes” is on, his eyes are… Read more »

Pete Yorn plans to release two albums next year – the follow-up to 2001’s acclaimed Musicforthemorningafter and a record he made before his major-label debut. While the former will feature the same introspective singer/songwriter roots rock showcased in singles like “For Nancy (‘Cos It Already Is)” and “Strange Condition,” the latter will reveal another side of Yorn, who is currently touring with Weezer. “At the time, I was really into Guided by Voices, so it’s lo-fi, really blown-out vocals and guitars,” Yorn said backstage at the Coachella Festival in Indio, California, this weekend. “A lot of reverb. I started every… Read more »