Search Results for: The Home Team

The former music exec, who stepped down as head honcho at Sony Music in January, has teamed up with Universal Music Group to head up a modern-day version of a retro record label. The mastermind behind the careers of Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Jennifer Lopez will run Casablanca Records, a label founded by Neil Bogart that had its heyday in 1970s with acts like KISS, Donna Summer and the Village People. According to UMG execs, a five-year contract was inked Monday (reportedly to the tune of $50 million), and Mottola is ready to start producing for the New York-based… Read more »

Assembling a promotional campaign for a veteran band that has been out of the spotlight is a tough enough feat. But Capitol Records is facing the daunting task of reintroducing a group that hasn’t released a new album in 13 years. Luckily, the campaign behind pioneering alternative rock outfit Jane’s Addiction’s “Strays,” due July 22, has had a huge prerelease boost from first single “Just Because.” The song is No. 4 on Modern Rock Tracks after four weeks, returning Jane’s Addiction to the top of the format at which it scored five top 15 hits between 1988 and 1991. The… Read more »

Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough said he’s working on his debut solo album, which will feature both Spanish and English songs. Dorough revealed that the Backstreet Boys are currently on hiatus, and the individual group members are pursuing their own respective interests. Brian Littrell and his wife are enjoying spending time at home with their 6-month-old baby boy, Kevin Richardson is opening up a music school in Kentucky and looking for investment properties in Alabama, Carter has his offshore power boat racing team to keep him busy, and Denise McLean, the mother of A.J. McLean, has written a book about her… Read more »

The Boston Herald reports that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band may be booked to play two shows, September 6 and 7, at Fenway Park, the home of baseball’s Red Sox. The team will be out of town those two days, playing the New York Yankees in the Bronx. The Boston dates have not been confirmed. The newspaper said “arrangements are in progress” and also claimed the concerts will be part of a ballpark “Glory Days Tour” that may also bring The Boss to Yankee Stadium in New York and Wrigley Field in Chicago. Springsteen and the band are… Read more »

EMI Group, home to stars from the Rolling Stones to Norah Jones, came under more pressure to find a suitor on Wednesday after its debt was slashed to “junk,” sending its shares to their lowest level in more than 10 years. EMI, the world’s third-largest music company, saw its stock slump 13 percent after Moody’s slashed its debt below investment grade late on Tuesday on concerns about the weak outlook for the music industry, stoking fears about the group’s profits and dividend. Faced with an increasingly gloomy outlook, EMI has been in talks in recent months with two rivals –… Read more »

Could 2003 be the year that EMI finally finds a mate? Frenzied gossip among executives at this year’s Midem music industry conference on the French Riviera would suggest so. As a new group of suitors eyes the EMI dowry, which includes the Beatles back catalog, bets among the glitterati at Cannes are that the world’s third biggest music company will pair up with one of its old flames: BMG or Warner Music. Yet some still hold out hope for a more dramatic swoop by private equity houses led by an industry guru – cash-rich Clive Calder being one contender after… Read more »

Instead of visiting a bounty on any single artist, the nominations announced Tuesday for the 45th Annual Grammy Awards were sprinkled around in an unusually equitable manner-eight musicians tied for the most nominations with sounds as diverse the elegiac rock of Bruce Springsteen, the gossamer, jazzy blends of newcomer Norah Jones and the whipsaw rhymes of Eminem. In year’s past, a glut of nominations would push as single artist such as Lauryn Hill or Carlos Santana above the fold, but this year the flattened field presented more subtle story lines amid the sprawl of 104 categories. Among those themes: The… Read more »

The tail end of last year wasn’t among the highlights of Slipknot’s seven-year career. Although the band’s third album, Iowa, dropped in late August, prompting maggots everywhere to rejoice, tragedy struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon a couple of weeks later, temporarily curbing fans’ elation and fostering an environment in which songs such as “Everything Ends” and “I Am Hated” weren’t among the most welcome. Factor in the bad news that percussionist Clown’s wife had taken ill, and that the band was touring in the midst of a slumping economy, and the bulb-nosed performer wasn’t the happiest of… Read more »

Papa Roach will infest the U.S. in January on their third headlining tour in almost as many years. Jerry Horton, Dave Buckner, Tobin Esperance and Jacoby Shaddix will set out on a three-month tour, on January 13 in Vancouver, British Columbia, a DreamWorks spokesperson said. Only the first leg of the tour has been confirmed, though the band is expected to then travel up the East Coast, into Canada, and then across the Northern U.S. before wrapping up in Sacramento in mid-April. Swedish rockers Blindside will open, and a third slot may be filled by regional acts. Papa Roach’s last… Read more »

Faced with adverse publicity to copy protection on CDs, a year ago Bertelsmann Music Group bravely gave in and promised to replace a clutch of Natalie Imbruglia CDs which were protected by Midbar’s Cactus Data Shield. But a year is a long time, BMG is at it again, this time apparently set on applying copy protection to all its music products. Not, of course, that this should be surprising. The music companies are absolutely intent on copy-proofing their products, and although they’ll maybe retreat a little when irate consumers pelt them with ordure, they’ll be right back just as soon… Read more »