Search Results for: The Maine

Even though a bum knee kept singer Julian Casablancas from performing with his band on select dates of Weezer’s Enlightenment Tour, the Strokes will be back on their collective feet October 1 when they kick off a two-month victory lap around North America. The tour marks the one-year anniversary of the release of the Strokes’ debut, Is This It?, which has sold over 640,000 copies to date. The NYC garage poster boys are simply happy to be on the road again. “The album is being received a lot better then I dreamed of two years ago,” Casablancas said. “I really… Read more »

Viewers of Fox’s summer megahit “American Idol” won’t have to wait long to hear the first single from whomever wins the competition. Simon Cowell, the snarly Brit judge-recording exec who’ll be producing the track, said he’ll have the song in stores within three weeks of “Idol’s” Sept. 4 finale. He’ll achieve that feat by asking all of the three remaining finalists to record the song – an original composition Cowell describes as a “big power ballad” similar to Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time.” RCA Records has already committed to giving the “Idol” winner a $1 million recording contract that… Read more »

EMI Group Plc played down chances of an attempt to merge or sell its business on Friday, saying it was more convinced than ever it was best off alone despite a rapidly shrinking music industry. Signs so far this year point to a steeper than expected decline in global music sales of four percent, but the world’s third biggest music group remains on track to meet its targets, EMI’s head of recorded music Alain Levy said. “When we originally announced a merger with Warner Music, we made clear the best option after that was to remain as a stand-alone. That… Read more »

*NSYNC star and Britney Spears’s former boyfriend Justin Timberlake is now reportedly dating an older woman, Janet Jackson. The new romantic pair is said to have hooked up at a birthday party for rapper Missy Elliott, with other celebrities in attendance, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Spider-Man’s Tobey Maguire, according to the New York Post. An unnamed eyewitness claimed, “Janet and Justin just started making out in front of everyone. It’s like they wanted the whole place to know.” Jackson’s ex, Jermaine Dupri, allegedly first spotted them together two weeks ago at a Los Angeles nightclub. Another source claimed, “Janet was… Read more »

All things must pass-including criminal sentences-and that has the family of the late George Harrison ticked off. The rocker’s wife and son are angrily objecting to the release last week of the deranged fan who broke into the ex-Beatle’s mansion in December 1999 and nearly killed him in a knife attack. An independent panel in England comprising a judge, a psychiatrist and a British citizen determined 36-year-old Michael Abram, a former drug addict who suffers from schizophrenia, was well enough to be released back into the community and set him free on July 4 from the Scott Clinic, a psychiatric… Read more »

Independent online music company Listen.com said on Monday it had clinched a licensing deal with Universal Music, becoming the first Internet song provider to feature content from the five major record labels. Under the latest deal, Universal Music, a unit of media giant Vivendi Universal, will make its digital catalog of titles available to Listen’s Rhapsody service. Both Listen.com and another independent service, FullAudio’s MusicNow, are competing with big-label backed services known as MusicNet and Pressplay. Industry analysts have remained skeptical that any of these services will take off, particularly since until now, none of them, including MusicNet and Pressplay,… Read more »

Trey Anastasio spent 17 years ripping genres apart and sticking them back together at odd angles with the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink uber-jam band Phish. So maybe it’s no surprise he’s whipped up another unusual concoction: a jam/swing hybrid dotted with sugary-sweet love songs and chamber music. The self-titled release has the elements you’d expect from Anastasio, from the drawn-out, frenetic jams to the catchy guitar riffs. But it’s also a departure: It’s got horns, it’s got soul, it’s got more horns. It’s clearly not a Phish album hiding under a different name. “I’ve been listening to a lot of big band music,”… Read more »

German media conglomerate Bertelsmann has agreed to acquire Napster in a deal that will keep the controversial file-sharing service alive for the near future. Napster CEO Konrad Hilbers and Shawn Fanning, Napster’s creator, will remain with the company. On Tuesday Hilbers announced his resignation after Napster’s board of directors rejected a deal for the company to be acquired by the German company. Fanning at that time also decided to leave the company, sources said. Under Friday’s deal, Bertelsmann will pay $8 million to Napster’s creditors to acquire the company’s assets. The transaction opens the door for Napster to file for… Read more »

After 10 months of legal wrangling, the Dixie Chicks are expected to sign a new deal soon with Sony Music Entertainment, according to Billboard magazine. Sony has been home for the Texas trio for the past five years, but recent rumors had the Chicks heading to Capitol Records. Last July, the group’s attorneys served Sony with notice that its contract was terminated “by reason of Sony’s material misconduct and material breaches.” The Chicks still owed five albums, so Sony responded with a lawsuit to keep the group from leaving. The cross-complaint called the Dixie Chicks’ charges “trumped up and baseless,”… Read more »

That new album Mariah Carey has been recording on the down low has finally landed a home… on her own label. The Universal Music Group announced Wednesday (May 8) that they have signed the biz’s most highly touted free agent to a new deal that will see one of its branches, the Island/Def Jam Music Group, distribute the music released by Carey’s yet-to-be-named company. “I’m incredibly happy,” Carey said in a statement. “It’s a tremendous and unprecedented opportunity to be working in tandem with [Universal Music Group Chairman/CEO] Doug [Morris], [Island/Def Jam President/CEO] Lyor [Cohen] and [Interscope Geffen A&M Chairman]… Read more »