Search Results for: The Aces

They don’t have a record deal. They don’t have a music publishing deal. But they are on their way to having a hit single with “Set Me Free” off “The Hulk” soundtrack. Collectively, they’ve sold 70 million albums worldwide. Velvet Revolver’s lineup is stocked with the bad boys of rock supergroups, including Guns N’ Roses vets Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, David Kushner of Suicidal Tendencies and former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland. Thursday night, they play their first official show – a free, fans-only, short set after an international news conference – at the El Rey in… Read more »

After months of auditions and wavering between top contenders, the group known simply as the Project – featuring ex-Guns N’ Roses members Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum – has finally decided upon a singer. Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland officially gets the coveted singer spot, according to the Project’s spokesperson. Although a name for the band has not yet been chosen, one of several possible names being volleyed about in a band meeting recently was Velvet Revolver, according to a source close to the Project. Weiland announced himself as the singer in mid-May, which the band at the… Read more »

Scott Weiland pleaded not guilty to charges of drug possession Monday (June 2), and offered to put himself in rehab before his next court date. The Stone Temple Pilots singer had been arrested last month in Burbank after police stopped him for a minor traffic violation and found what they believed to be drugs. He was charged with two felony counts of possession of heroin and cocaine. Jennifer Lynn Sires, a 29-year-old woman traveling with him whom he reportedly met in rehab, was also arrested on the same illegal substance possession charges. Her arraignment is on Tuesday. According to a… 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 »

It’s not entirely official, but it looks like Justin Timberlake’s contribution to this summer’s soundtrack will be Justified’s steamy opening track, “Senorita.” “When I heard [the music] I felt this groovy summer thing,” the singer said Tuesday (May 20), beatboxing the Neptunes beat. So for the lyrics Timberlake crafted a summer tale, creating the subject in his head rather than basing it on his own life, like he did with “Cry Me a River.” “On that sunny day/ Didn’t know I’d meet,” he sings in the opening verse. “Such a beautiful girl/ Walking down the street/ Seen those bright brown… 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 »

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 »

Investigators have found a document that suggests the owners of a nightclub where 99 people died in a fire promoted its capacity well above the limit that night, according to attorneys representing people considering lawsuits in the disaster. The document, found recently in the rubble of The Station, is an unsigned contract between the club’s owners and the band Great White, according to the attorneys. They said it shows the owners promoted the club’s capacity as 550 for the Feb. 20 concert. West Warwick town officials have said the club’s maximum capacity was 404, if all the furniture was removed.… Read more »

The music industry said on Thursday it had begun cascading pamphlets on universities across the globe in its latest blitz against online piracy. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a global trade group representing major and independent music labels and publishers, said it had begun issuing brochures to universities in 29 countries in Europe, South America, Asia and Australia spelling out the legal and technological snares of online file-sharing networks. “In Canada and Europe we have found institutions where users are uploading thousands of files using university computer networks,” said Allen Dixon, general counsel at IFPI in London.… Read more »

A jury decided Thursday that Michael Jackson owes a concert promoter $5.3 million for backing out of two concerts planned to celebrate the millennium on New Year’s Eve 1999. The verdict came in a $21 million breach-of-contract lawsuit filed against the singer by German concert organizer Marcel Avram. Jackson’s attorneys said it was Avram who canceled the shows over concerns they would not be profitable. The jury deliberated for nearly two weeks. Avram’s attorney, Louis “Skip” Miller, said he was pleased that the jury found Jackson was at fault. “The jury believed Avram, they did not believe Michael Jackson. That’s… Read more »