Search Results for: Record Store Day

Score one for the grotesque over the gangsta. “The Golden Age of Grotesque,” the newest album by Goth rocker Marilyn Manson, topped the album sales charts in the past week, selling about 118,000 copies in the week ended May 18, industry tracker Nielsen SoundScan said on Wednesday. Gangsta rap artist 50 Cent was No. 2 with his major label debut, “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” which sold 107,000 copies, taking its cumulative sales to 4.7 million. The newest release by Manson, the self-proclaimed “Antichrist Superstar,” features songs with headbanging riffs including “Use Your Fist and Not Your Mouth.” Opening at… Read more »

When her new album, Hotel Paper, hits stores June 24, Michelle Branch wants you to remember what Aaliyah said almost a decade ago: Age ain’t nothing but a number. “I just want [people] to actually listen to the record and, I guess, give me a chance,” the 19-year-old singer said recently. “I don’t know, younger artists, people kind of write us off as being this novelty kind of thing, and people forget that George Harrison was 17 when he was in the Beatles, U2 was my age… the Rolling Stones, everyone. It doesn’t matter how old you are, it shouldn’t… Read more »

With anticipation building to a feverish pitch in advance of the imminent release of the eagerly awaited Led Zeppelin live recordings, Atlantic Records has announced that “LED ZEPPELIN DVD,” a 2-DVD set, will be shipping quadruple-platinum in the U.S. alone, and “HOW THE WEST WAS WON,” a 3-CD set, will ship platinum. “The enormous pre-release response from retailers and fans alike to the announcement of these Zeppelin releases dramatically demonstrates the enduring power, timeless influence, and undiminished popularity of this truly phenomenal band,” said Atlantic Group Co-Chairman/CEO Val Azzoli. “To have been associated with Zeppelin for their entire career has… Read more »

The only person who gets to poke fun at Eminem is…himself? That’s the word from Weird Al Yankovic who, despite gaining permission from the rap superstar to parody his hit “Lose Yourself” in a tune called “Couch Potato,” couldn’t convince his Em-inence to let Yankovic do the same in a music video. One would think the hip-hopster would stand up and oblige a comedian who’s made a career out of satirizing the likes of Michael Jackson (“Eat It,” “I’m Fat,”), Madonna (“Like a Surgeon”), Nirvana (“Smells Like Nirvana”) and Coolio (“Amish Paradise”), but the answer was an unequivocal no. While… Read more »

Mullets, Chevelles, BMX bikes, muscle cars, cheesy mustaches. The science of guitar solos by White Lion and Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt. These are ’80s things bands like Blink-182 like to poke fun at. Damone’s Dave Pino, however, isn’t laughing with them. “That whole mullet thing, American Hi-Fi and Sum 41 can goof on that stuff – the Camaro-driving guy with the mustache. It’s funny and I get it, but it’s offensive to us,” said Pino, the musical mastermind behind Waltham, Massachusetts, rockers Damone. “In this town, we’re stuck in some ’80s suburb,” Pino explained of the working- class Boston ‘burb of… Read more »

Nearly two years after it sued Napster into submission, the recording industry has discovered it’s not enough to try to beat Internet music purveyors whose digital distribution techniques allow copyright violations. It also has to join them. To discourage piracy, the multibillion-dollar industry has in recent months moved beyond lawsuits against file-swapping services. It has employed hacker tactics to flood such sites with bogus files and even taken to suing students who created mini-Napsters on college networks. At the same time, however, the music labels have finally embraced the very online distribution model many had long resisted, one that analysts… Read more »

The Donnas have nothing on the Bens. The three members really are named Ben, and you may have heard of them: Ben Folds, Ben Kweller and Ben Lee. The solo singers officially became a group, or at least a side project, when they recorded four songs together in Nashville last month. “There’s some new wave on there, a piano ballad that Folds sings, a countryish song,” Kweller said Saturday backstage at Coachella. “It’s just all three of us writing songs; there’s not any one particular sound. It’s all three of us singing, big harmonies.” After the three-day studio session, the… Read more »

It’s time to buy, mix, and burn, according to Apple Computer Inc. The Silicon Valley company that angered the recording industry with its “Rip. Mix. Burn” ad campaign was expected to launch an online music service Monday that promises to make it easier for consumers to pay for music downloaded from the Internet. The announcement is the result of an intense effort by Apple CEO Steve Jobs to court music industry executives, who have been leery of digital music downloads, and have aggressively filed lawsuits and pushed for new laws to stem the illegal copying and distribution of copyright works.… Read more »

While most acts go on the road in support of new albums, several Def Jam Records artists will launch a tour next month behind the release of a new video game. Hosted by Method Man, the Def Jam Vendetta tour will encompass concert performances by Capone-N-Noreaga (CNN), Keith Murray, and Joe Budden, as well as a gaming contest where players will go head-to-head on the recently released “Def Jam Vendetta” video game. The tour will kick off May 10 in Milwaukee and visit more than 20 cities through early June. In each market, Murray, CNN, and Budden, as well as… Read more »

Just days after trying to turn the tables on illicit song-swappers by flooding the Net with bogus tracks from her American Life, Madonna was on the receiving end of some computerized comeuppance this weekend. An unknown assailant hacked into Madonna’s official site, www.madonna.com, on Saturday and posted the real MP3s of every song from American Life, which is due in stores Tuesday. Last week, the Material One and label Warner Bros. Records tried to thwart would-be pirates by issuing dummy song files to sites like KaZaA and Morpheus. The files appeared to be leaked tracks from American Life, but when… Read more »