Search Results for: b-side

Now that pop music has been peppered with so many Avril clones, these days Lavigne is acting out her best Green Day, Bob Dylan and Metallica impressions. Lavigne’s covers of songs by those artists appear on the bonus audio disc that comes with “My World,” the singer’s first DVD, due November 4, according to an Arista Records spokesperson. Green Day’s “Basket Case” was a staple of her live set, while her version of Metallica’s “Fuel” was performed at the mtvICON tribute to the metal band in May. “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” recorded while on tour in London, appeared on the… Read more »

What everyone always wants to know is: who’s the worst? Meaning: which really famous person out there is a berk whose lack of personality is in inverse proportion to their abundance of fame? And the answer is, of course, all of them. No, it’s not. It’s Jon Bon Jovi. The next question – who’s the best, of course – is more difficult. The interviewees I like are the ones that turn out to be more than you expected, whether that’s more intelligent, or honest, or bonkers, or fun, whatever. And there are plenty of those. Madonna (sharper), Björk (wilder), James… Read more »

Jack White, one half of the White Stripes duo, continues his fascination with one of his heroes, country music star Loretta Lynn. White is producing tracks for Lynn’s next album, reports the Detroit Free Press. The seeds for the unlikely match were sown when Lynn’s daughter discovered that the White Stripes’ album White Blood Cells was dedicated to the country superstar. The Stripes also recorded a version of Lynn’s “Rated X,” which was released as a b-side. After being invited to Loretta Lynn’s house, Jack White and Lynn hit it off, and he then asked Lynn to perform with the… Read more »

After suing Internet file-sharing service Napster and contending with the marketing nightmares of digital downloading, Metallica are making peace with the enemy – sort of. The band has partnered with Seattle DSL Online provider Speakeasy and developed www.metallicavault.com, a Web site that will contain hours of downloadable live recordings, demos and B-sides for free. Here’s the catch: Fans have to purchase the band’s new album, St. Anger, to get a code that allows them access to the site. That should mean increased sales figures for the band, but consumers who buy the disc will get a lot of bang, chug… Read more »

EMusic today announced it has signed a distribution agreement with the Beggars Group, which will provide subscribers access to hundreds of titles from nine high-profile UK labels. Today’s agreement builds on EMusic’s extensive catalog of more than 250,000 MP3s from over 900 leading independent labels. EMusic allows its 70,000 members unlimited access to its catalog of high- quality MP3s for one low monthly price. Unlike other subscription services that offer only streaming and significant restrictions, EMusic uses the popular MP3 format and allows members the flexibility to easily burn their music to CDs and transfer it to portable MP3 audio… Read more »

As if a live CD of every show on their current tour weren’t enough, Pearl Jam have begun selling a live DVD of a December club gig at the Showbox Theater in Seattle. “Live at the Showbox” is available only on the band’s official Web site and at their concerts and features the full set from a December 6 warm-up for the band’s current world tour. Though it does not have any bonus features, the live disc differs from the group’s extras-laden “Touring Band 2000” DVD thanks to the intimate setting in the 1,000-plus capacity theater. The new DVD boasts… Read more »

Pearl Jam’s new effort, Riot Act, debuts at Number Six and 3 Doors Down’s new album, Away From The Sun, enters at Number Eight on this week’s Billboard 200. 3 Doors Down’s Brad Arnold revealed that the huge success of the band’s debut, The Better Life, gave the band freedom with the new album. “With your music, when it succeeds you just gradually can pull people, I guess, more to the things that you want them to hear. Or maybe you can get them to accept things that maybe they wouldn’t accept off a first record or something. I don’t… Read more »

In the late 1970s, Elvis Costello wore a punk snarl to go along with his sharp suits and horn-rimmed glasses. Twenty-five years later, the prolific troubadour has replaced it with something more subtly sinister. Cruel Smile, a companion LP to Costello’s latest studio album, When I Was Cruel, features B-sides, rare cuts and live versions from that album, as well as a handful of fan favorites. Due October 1, the 14-track enhanced CD also includes the video for When I Was Cruel’s “45,” according to an Island Records spokesperson. Costello selected the tracks himself, most of which were previously unavailable… Read more »

Forty-six years after Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps helped define the rockabilly sound with their signature hit “Be Bop a Lula,” Vincent’s first two records, 1956’s Bluejean Bop! and 1957’s Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps, will be re-released with bonus tracks on September 17th. Vincent himself died in 1971 at the age of thirty-six from a ruptured stomach ulcer, but bassist Jack Neal – one of two surviving members of the group, along with drummer Dickie Harrell – still remembers the early recording sessions vividly. “It was great to go ahead and cut a record where all the… Read more »

If it weren’t for Good Charlotte filling in three dates for Garbage, it could have been called the Just a Girl tour. Three of the hardest-rocking women in music will join forces when their bands – No Doubt, Garbage and the Distillers – hit the road together in October. Pop-punkers Good Charlotte will take Garbage’s spot for the first three dates, before Shirley Manson and her cohorts hit the tour October 15 in West Kingston, Rhode Island. Interspersed with the tour, No Doubt will play three dates with the Rolling Stones in Detroit, Toronto and Atlanta. Gwen Stefani’s band is… Read more »