Search Results for: The Aces

Radio remains one of the most powerful marketing tools available to the recording industry, despite skyrocketing costs of gaining access to the airwaves via independent promoters. While word-of-mouth, video and Internet brush fires occasionally catapult unknowns to stardom, radio remains the most reliable and efficient means of enticing listeners to record stores. Yet many fans surfing the airwaves are far from satisfied. The complaint: Consolidation has made radio even more cookie-cutter bland, with narrow, unimaginative playlists. Demographic targeting and audience testing eliminate variety, stifle regionalism and foist the least objectionable music on the public. Failing to recognize that an individual’s… Read more »

Strahov Stadium has had it all – communist rallies, anti-globalization protests, gymnastics exhibitions, drive-through movies and, now, Ozzfest. The crumbling structure, which stands as the largest stadium in the world per square foot, lent itself well to Ozzy Osbourne and his latest touring comrades, who hit the venue Thursday night for the seventh stop on the metal tour. With their stage parked in the middle of the field, the hard rockers used only half of the 200,000-capacity stadium, carving out an almost cozy cradle for Bohemia’s metalheads within the concrete monolith. While the tour got off to a less-than-grand beginning… Read more »

Controversial pop artist Eminem rapped his way to No. 1 in Britain’s pop charts Sunday, knocking manufactured group Liberty X off the top spot after just one week. The American rapper’s single “Without Me” beat off stiff competition from the likes of boy band Westlife to go straight in at No. 1, according to figures from the Official UK Charts Company. Liberty X, comprising finalists from the hit show “Popstars” and once dubbed “flopstars” by the British press, fell to No. 2 with “Just a Little.” Liverpudlian all-girl group Atomic Kitten proved no match for Eminem, entering the chart at… Read more »

To truly enjoy basking in the light, it’s important to grasp what it’s like to be alone in the dark. The Red Hot Chili Peppers know this. Having endured drug addiction and crumbling relationships as well as fame and great wealth, they’ve developed a respect for the dynamic between yin and yang, pleasure and pain, elation and despondency. And on their new album, By the Way, which comes out July 9, the band continues to explore the dynamic between such polar opposites. While half of the album reflects a fun-loving, enthusiastic vibe, the disc is equally weighted with darker and… Read more »

When drummer Pat Wilson described Weezer’s latest live show tendencies recently, he separately mentioned Neil Diamond, Spinal Tap, Tool and Phish in a matter of minutes. Needless to say, the band’s summer tour should be interesting. Dates have not been announced, but Wilson and frontman Rivers Cuomo said Weezer will spend six weeks hitting amphitheaters across America with Dashboard Confessional beginning in mid-July. The Stokes will also join the bill on a couple of dates. “It’s gonna be awesome,” Wilson said. “The sound just goes. In an arena, it sounds stupid, but when we hear stuff and it goes out… Read more »

EMI Group emerged on Tuesday from a dismal year of slumping profits confident that things could only get better, but the music giant’s shares spun lower as a glum industry outlook rattled already jangled nerves. EMI, home to artists such as Radiohead and Kylie Minogue, posted a sharp but expected 40 percent fall in adjusted pre-tax profit and said its radical overhaul was going to plan despite an industry ravaged by an economic slowdown and piracy. The world’s third biggest music company saw its battered stock slide almost seven percent as analysts took fright after a post-results meeting, shrugging off… Read more »

Fred Durst is about to start “Rollin’,” for real. The Limp Bizkit frontman will direct “Lords of Dogtown,” a feature-film adaptation of the current big-screen documentary “Dogtown and Z-Boys” which details the origins of skateboarding. Production is scheduled to start in late summer, according to Durst representatives at the Firm. The nonfictional account tells the tale of a group of surfers who take their extreme moves to the street and then the world. What starts as a few dudes sliding around emptied, in-ground swimming pools evolves into a full-fledged sport worth millions of dollars in sponsorships and televised events such… Read more »

Elvis Costello and his band, the Imposters, were nearing the end of a rousing, rocking set at a Manhattan club when the audience’s attention began to wander. As he started his final encore, the chilling tale of a jilted sociopath, “I Want You,” loud conversations and laughter could be heard from the Bowery Ballroom bar. Costello didn’t say anything, or even look annoyed. Instead, a malice-filled reading of the song did the work for him. The music quieted to a whisperlike level as Costello stepped away from the microphone to shout the line, “Did you call my name out as… Read more »

Even after your favorite band has entered the studio, anxiously waiting for its next album is a lot like waiting for water to boil – the closer you watch, the longer it seems to take. But if you’re eagerly anticipating the next Radiohead disc, maybe you should hold your breath. In a May 11 Web chat on fan site ateaseweb.com, frontman Thom Yorke said the band is currently working on its next record, and making good progress. “It’ll be [ready] sooner than you think,” Yorke wrote. “We are working bloody hard on it. We are trying to be a bit… Read more »

Sometimes the occasional beer interrupts a recording session. Other times, all that recording just gets in the way of a good party. The sessions for Sharpen Your Teeth (May 21), the debut from Modest Mouse singer Isaac Brock’s Ugly Casanova side project, had some of the former and way too much of the latter. Recording the atmospheric album “involved a lot of beers, some recording, then some beers and more recording, if we got to it,” said Brock, 26. “It was largely a hangout with recording involved.” But who is Ugly Casanova? Well, if you believe the elaborate story cooked… Read more »