Search Results for: atlantic records

New York – Warner Music Group Corp., one of the world’s largest record companies, on Friday disclosed plans to go public, filing with regulators to sell up to $750 million worth of common stock. In a Securities and Exchange Commission statement, the company did not estimate how many shares or at what price it planned to offer its stock in the initial public offering, but said shares will be sold by both the company and several shareholders. Proceeds from the deal will be used to repay debt and for general corporate purposes, according to the SEC document. New York-based Warner… Read more »

Maybe you can blame it on some indie-minded guilt. On March 1, Death Cab for Cutie – longtime independent stalwarts recently inked to Atlantic Records – will drop The John Byrd EP, the final release for them on tiny Seattle label Barsuk Records. The EP will only be available in two places: on Barsuk’s Web site or in record stores who are members of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores. It could be the result of a guilty conscience. But it’s more than likely not. “We just wanted to have a properly recorded live record out there, because bootlegs show… Read more »

Los Angeles – Led Zeppelin got a “whole lotta” belated love from the music industry on Saturday, earning a lifetime achievement Grammy in recognition of a career that changed the face of rock ‘n’ roll. The English band was one of 10 performers, alongside the likes of rockabilly hellraiser Jerry Lee Lewis, blues belter Janis Joplin and country crooner Eddy Arnold, celebrated at a luncheon one day before the Grammy Awards. During their 12 years together, Led Zeppelin never won a Grammy, even though they were arguably the biggest band of the 1970s, a combo whose blues-based rock anthems resonate… Read more »

The only thing on Ed Roland ‘s 41-year-old mind these days is getting younger. In fact, the entire Collective Soul crew has found a way to combat the aging process. “It feels like we’re 20 again,” says Roland, leader of the glossy grunge group. Collective Soul haven’t taken a magic anti-aging pill though. Instead, the group have returned to rock ‘n’ roll after a four year absence with their latest disc, Youth. Roland, who looks the same kind of youthful as Bono, is bundled up in a heavy winter coat and dawns dark sunglasses, even though it’s too dark to… Read more »

New York – Jerry Wexler is the classic record business guy. For more than three decades, Wexler, as co-owner of Atlantic Records and later senior VP at Warner Bros. Records, signed and worked with scores of vocalists and instrumentalists, and produced some of the greatest rock and soul records ever made. Now 86 and long retired, Wexler is still applauded as an insightful producer, crafty deal-maker and promoter, divining rod of hit songs and occasional writer of songs and liner notes. “He is one of my greatest heroes,” Sire Records founder Seymour Stein says. “Jerry is a consummate record man… Read more »

Los Angeles – Given such song titles as “Baby Hold on to Me,” “Can You Handle It,” “The G Spot” and “U Got That Love,” the general theme of Gerald Levert’s music is easy to divine. His brand of sensuous R&B has provided romantic sustenance to a devoted fan base ever since his 1991 solo debut, “Private Line.” But Levert takes an unexpected turn on his eighth solo outing, “Do I Speak for the World?” As the title implies, the Nov. 30 release finds the 38-year-old singer/songwriter/producer pursuing more socially conscious topics: patriotism, activism, religion and the future of mankind.… Read more »

New York, Ny – Punk superstars Simple Plan saw plenty of action as their new album Still Not Getting Any…soared to the top of the charts. The band’s sophomore album entered the Billboard Top 200 at #3 (trailing closely behind hard core rappers Jay Z/R. Kelly and Trick Daddy.) The album, with sales of 139,928, marks the band’s highest chart position to date and the highest rock debut this week. In addition to their monstrous success stateside, Still Not Getting Any…topped the chart in their native Canada at #2 and was the #3 top selling album in Japan. “Simple Plan… Read more »

Brandy is bidding adios to her longtime record label, Atlantic Records, her publicist said Monday. The news might have something to do with the “Top of the World” chantuese no longer being, well, on top of the world. Once a staple of MTV and urban radio, the 25-year-old R&B singer has recently been eclipsed by a new crop of teenage divas. Despite solid reviews and a huge promotional push from Atlantic this past summer for her fourth release on the label, Afrodisiac, the disc quickly disappeared from the upper echelons of Billboard ‘s pop charts after a number three debut… Read more »

Ray Charles, the Grammy-winning crooner who blended gospel and blues in such crowd-pleasers as “What’d I Say” and ballads like “Georgia on My Mind,” died Thursday, a spokesman said. He was 73. Charles died at his Beverly Hills home surrounded by family and friends, said spokesman Jerry Digney. Charles’ last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated the singer’s studios, built 40 years ago in central Los Angeles, as a historic landmark. Blind by age 7 and an orphan at 15, Charles spent his life shattering any notion of musical boundaries… Read more »

Time Warner Inc.’s $2.6 billion sale of Warner Music Group to an investor group led by former Universal media conglomerate chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. was completed Monday, and the newly formed independent music company began an anticipated wave of cuts by ousting three high-ranking label executives, sources said. Atlantic Records co-chairman Val Azzoli and president Ron Shapiro stepped down, as did Elektra Records chief executive Sylvia Rhone, a source close to the company said on condition of anonymity. Rhone had been at Warner for at least a decade. Azzoli and Shapiro had also been with the company for several years.… Read more »