Search Results for: The Maine

Ted Perry, whose Hyperion Records label explored a wide range of classical music, has died at age 71. Perry died Sunday in a London hospital of lung cancer, said Mike Spring of Hyperion. Perry, who had worked with several record companies in Britain and Australia, founded Hyperion in 1981 and drove a cab to keep the struggling operation going. While driving, he heard a broadcast performance of the songs of Hildegard von Bingen, the 12th-century German abbess, and contacted the artists. The resulting 1981 recording, “A Feather on the Breath of God,” was a success and put the company on… Read more »

Six retail record store chains ? hurting from competition from CD burning, online music and large discount stores ? are teaming to offer consumers digital music downloads in their stores and over the Internet. The stores have formed a joint venture called Echo that will provide technology and allow them to offer individual tracks for downloading to portable devices and computers. The stores are Best Buy, Tower Records, Virgin Entertainment Group, Wherehouse Music, Hastings Entertainment Inc. and Trans World Entertainment Corp., operator of FYE, Strawberries and Coconuts stores. “We’re trying to make digital music work in a mass market way,… 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 »

Hip-hop phenomenon Eminem trounced all comers in 2002 and tentatively claimed top album of the year honors after selling more than 7.4 million copies of “The Eminem Show” (Interscope/Shady) in the U.S., according to figures released Thursday by Nielsen SoundScan. The album’s performance defied a sharply downward trend in the industry as a whole, as CD album sales tumbled by 9% to 624.2 million for the year through Dec. 22. In fact, Slim Shady beat his nearest rival, Universal Music Group label mate Nelly by more than 2.6 million discs. Nelly’s “Nellyville” (Universal) shifted just under 4.8 million albums and… Read more »

An alleged backstage dispute resulted in two people being shot in the parking lot outside a concert by veteran punk group T.S.O.L. and others at the House Of Blues in Los Angeles on Saturday night (November 23). One male victim suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder while another was hit in the jaw outside the landmark Sunset Strip club, according to a statement released by the West Hollywood sheriff’s station. Both victims were treated on the scene and transported to local hospitals, while the latter also underwent surgery. He is currently listed in good condition. The suspect fled the… Read more »

The Blasters’ singer and guitarist Phil Alvin speaks like the band plays: short, fast and furious. “My father was very upset when I quit school,” he said, trying at breakneck speed to make his words catch up with his thoughts. “He took the neck of my guitar and screwed it to the dustpan. Then he scooped the dog crap with it, and left it in the garage. Every time I turned on the light on, I’d have to walk past it.” But Phil ignored his father’s exhortations, and with the help of his younger brother Dave, formed one of the… Read more »

The bad boy rapper beat the boy band member in the battle for the top spot on the album chart. The soundtrack to Eminem’s movie “8 Mile” remained at No. 1 for a second week, despite competition from ‘N Sync’s Justin Timberlake. “8 Mile” sold about 508,000 copies for the week ending Sunday, bringing its total to 1.2 million, according to industry figures released Wednesday. The movie opened at No. 1 at the box office this past weekend, grossing about $51 million and drawing strong reviews. Timberlake’s solo release, “Justified,” was a close second in its first week in stores,… Read more »

The Eminem show was everywhere this week as two albums by the rapper commanded top spots on the U.S. sales charts ahead of the Friday opening of his highly anticipated debut movie. The newly released soundtrack to his film “8 Mile” – which features music by Eminem as well as other rappers such as Jay-Z, Nas and D-12 – debuted at No. 1 on the charts, selling an estimated 702,000 units in the week ended Nov. 3, according to music tracker Nielsen SoundScan. The album features three new solo songs by Eminem, who has the starring role in the movie… Read more »

The embattled record industry got more bad news on Sunday as a study showed online sales of music dropped 25 percent in the first nine months of 2002. The survey by research firm ComScore Networks Inc, which monitored more than 1.5 million Web users, showed online sales of music – in the form of physical singles, albums, CDs and tapes – fell to $545 million from $730 million in the same period a year earlier. Sales of digital downloads were also included in the survey but accounted for a tiny portion of the total, ComScore said. As the music industry… Read more »

As one of the forefathers of rap, with a history of social activism, Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay was an unlikely target for the kind of violence that killed rappers Tupac Shakur or the Notorious B.I.G. He was married with three kids, and a fixture in the Queens neighborhood where he grew up. Yet authorities were searching Thursday for the gunman who killed the 37-year-old disc jockey with a gunshot to the head inside his recording studio. “Jam Master Jay was a longtime family man and one of the founders of the group that knocked down all the doors for hip-hop,… Read more »