Search Results for: against the current

The Grammy Awards return to New York for the first time in five years on Sunday, with songs influenced by the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks on the city in the running for the music industry’s top annual prizes. Veteran rocker Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising” and country singer Alan Jackson’s emotional “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)” are both nominated for Song of the Year. Young singer and pianist Norah Jones with her mellow mix of jazz, blues and country song and album “Come Away With Me,” is among eight stars most frequently mentioned by music critics as… Read more »

In an aggressive move to boost subscriptions, online music firm Listen.com on Thursday cut what it charges users to burn songs from its Rhapsody service from 99 cents to a loss-making 49 cents. The drastic discount underscores the lengths to which legitimate online music companies will go to jump-start the fledgling marketplace, which is competing against still popular unauthorized services like Kazaa which attract millions with offers of virtually limitless content for free. “We look at this as a limited-time promotion and an effort to get people in the door,” said Matt Graves, a spokesman for independently-owned Listen.com. “We may… Read more »

Incubus filed suit against Sony Music on Thursday seeking to be released from their recording contract with Sony subsidiary Epic Records. The suit – filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in Santa Monica on behalf of singer Brandon Boyd, guitarist Mike Einziger, drummer Jose Pasillas and bassist Alex Katunich – asks a judge to allow them to set aside their original deal, which they claim they have satisfied. “This isn’t Courtney Love or some other artists where we’re walking away from a deal,” said the band’s manager, Steve Rennie, referring to a suit settled last year in which Love sought… Read more »

A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld as constitutional a law that barred a pirate broadcaster from ever obtaining a license for a low-power FM radio station or from being involved with a station. The court, by a 7-1 vote, ruled the law and the government regulations implementing it do not violate free-speech rights under the First Amendment. The full court reversed a ruling last year by a three-judge panel of the appeals court that struck down the law. Acting on a mandate from Congress, the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules in 2001 that banned anyone who had been a… Read more »

Hilary Rosen, who led the music industry’s fight against online piracy, turning an obscure trade group into a major player in the debate over copyright protection, said Wednesday she will quit as chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America. Rosen, who will resign by year-end after 17 years with the RIAA, led the group recently in victorious copyright infringement battles against Napster and Aimster and this week’s judgment against Verizon Communications to stem piracy on the Internet. But despite the wins on the legal front, the music industry finds itself entrenched in one of its most tumultuous periods,… Read more »

Sheryl Crow, an activist for recording artists’ rights, brought her own message against a possible war with Iraq to Monday night’s American Music Awards. Crow accepted her award for pop-rock female artist wearing a white T-shirt emblazoned with the message “war is not the answer” in black sequins. She had the V-neck shirt specially made. “I just think there’s a really vital, sweeping peace movement out there that’s not getting covered in the press, so I just kind of try to do my part,” she said backstage. “I think war is based in greed and there are huge karmic retributions… Read more »

Nick Carter will launch his first solo tour on February 17, and from the looks of it, he’s going to have to get used to playing much smaller stages than he did with the Backstreet Boys. Carter will kick things off with a date at the Staircase in Pittston, Pennsylvania. The 17-date theater tour in support of his solo debut, Now or Never, is currently scheduled to run through a March 9 date at the Fillmore in San Francisco, according to his spokesperson. The solo stint comes on the heels of a $75 million lawsuit Backstreet Boys filed in November… Read more »

“What the hell is your problem, Manitoba? Phone me and tell me what your god damn problem is with our DVD.” That’s the message that Sum 41 guitarist Dave “Brown Sound” Baksh would like to send to the Manitoba government. Last night, the Manitoba Film Classification Board informed Sum’s label, Aquarius Records, that the bonus DVD, Cross The T’s And Gouge Your I’s, that is packaged with copies of the band’s new album Does This Look Infected? has officially been rated R. That means, if kids under the age of 18 want to buy the album without the DVD being… Read more »

Count Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong among those not supporting President Bush’s moves toward potential war with Iraq. The singer-guitarist is hoping to parlay his band’s popularity into a petition expressing his opinion and the opinion of others like him. Speaking on his band’s official website (greenday.com), Armstrong says: “For those of you who are opposed to the war in Iraq, I want to set up a petition on greenday.net to send to George W. Bush strongly urging him to rethink his plans for a military invasion. This petition isn’t only for people who live in America but people… Read more »

The lyrics to the song “This Is My Life Story” by MXPX run through my head as I hopelessly scramble to the very back of the line. I left later than I had hoped, got caught up in D.C. traffic, and arrived about 5 minutes before doors were scheduled to open. Once inside, I rush to get as close to the stage as I possible. While mashed between about five teeny boppers and their “boyfriends,” anticipation runs through my bones as I eagerly await the first performance. First up is Further Seems Forever. I was a little skeptical about this… Read more »