Search Results for: decade

If practice makes perfect, the Aerosmith/Kiss tour should be faultless. After all, the bands have got nearly six decades of experience between them. Thirty-two dates over 11 weeks are scheduled for the nationwide trek, which begins August 2 in Hartford, Connecticut, and runs through October 18 in San Bernardino, California, according to a spokesperson for tour promoters Clear Channel Entertainment. Saliva, on the heels of their latest album, Back Into Your System, will serve as openers for the entire tour (see “Saliva Show Their Stinky Selves And Say, ‘Kiss And Aerosmith, Dude!’). Aerosmith and Kiss began their recording careers in… Read more »

New York’s finest new rock acts will be anthologized on “YES New York,” a 15-track collection due June 3 from Wolfgang Morden, the soundtrack imprint of Vice Records. The album kicks off with a previously unreleased live version of the Strokes’ “New York City Cops” recorded in Iceland, and concludes with an acoustic version of “Our Time” performed by Unitard, a side project of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. “As transplants to New York, we had spent a decade watching the New York rock scene kinda suck with too many Heartbreaker wannabes and noisy sound-alikes,” executive producers Chris White and Brian… Read more »

The music of pop-jazz chanteuse Norah Jones garnered seven Grammy awards Sunday night, catapulting her past crowd favorite Bruce Springsteen and his three awards for the Sept. 11-inspired “The Rising.” As unknown as Springsteen was acclaimed before the last year, Jones won four individual Grammys while her producer, engineers and the writer of her hit “Don’t Know Why” were honored as well. “I never ever thought that the music I made would become popular music, so this is amazing,” Jones said as she picked up an award for best pop vocal album. She also won for best female pop vocal,… Read more »

From rampaging bikers at the Rolling Stones’ infamous Altamont show in 1969 to deadly stampedes by fans of the Who and Pearl Jam, the most notorious rock concert tragedies have generally been linked to the biggest names in the business. That is, until Great White took the stage of a tiny Rhode Island nightclub Thursday night. The heavy metal “hair” band, which reached the brief apex of its career in the 1980s, will now be forever remembered for a devastating fire that stands in a class by itself as the deadliest episode in the annals of rock ‘n’ roll mayhem.… Read more »

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 »

Beatles fans received a double treat Tuesday with announcements of a new world tour by Paul McCartney and the release of a DVD of a 1994 jam session by McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison. McCartney said he plans to include several Beatles songs in his first British tour in a decade, scheduling 22 songs from his Fab Four days for each two-and-a-half hour arena concert. Seven dates in April have been announced for the “Back in the World” tour, including stops in London and Manchester, northern England. McCartney then plans to tour France, Spain, Germany and Scandinavia. The world… Read more »

Phil Spector, the legendary record producer whose “wall of sound” helped change the sound of pop music in the 1960s, was arrested Monday for allegedly shooting a woman to death at his suburban mansion. Spector, 62, was seized at the castle-like estate around 5 a.m. after someone in the home called authorities. He was released shortly after 7 p.m. after posting $1 million bond, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Rich Pena. Attorney Robert Shapiro, whose clients have included O.J. Simpson, was representing Spector. “I don’t know answers to any of this,” Shapiro said by telephone from the Alhambra Police… Read more »

Hoping to shine in one of the music industry’s few bright spots, Dreamworks Records on Wednesday announced a joint venture with newly-formed Melee Entertainment to release music DVDs that go beyond the typical concert video genre. With music video DVDs selling at a fast clip and in sharp contrast to the recording industry’s protracted decline in CD sales, Dreamworks and Melee hope in part to cash in on the trend while also developing a roster of creative talent. Melee president Bryan Turner, former co-owner and chief executive of Priority Records, an urban-slanted label sold to EMI Group Plc in 1998… Read more »

From Bruce Springsteen’s breakthrough “Born to Run” to Led Zeppelin’s hit “Stairway to Heaven,” some of the biggest classic-rock titles of the 1970s were inducted on Friday into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The 1975 album that launched Springsteen as a superstar and the 1971 Zeppelin ballad that became one of the most heavily played tracks of the rock era were among 21 recordings to gain Hall of Fame status this year. The eight albums and 13 singles bring to 606 the number of titles recognized since 1973 by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for their enduring… Read more »

Blamed by shareholders for AOL Time Warner’s sharp fall in fortunes, Steve Case said he will step down as chairman of the conglomerate he helped create – a marriage of old and new media first hailed as revolutionary but now struggling for a future. Case’s departure means the company’s leadership will be without any of the key architects of the blockbuster merger of America Online and Time Warner in 2001. The company said Sunday he would step down in May. In a brief statement, Case said he had concluded AOL Time Warner was better off without him as chairman. “Some… Read more »