Search Results for: decade

A New York operation accused of pirating music to the tune of millions of dollars was raided this week by U.S. Secret Service agents and record industry investigators in what they called the largest ever seizure of music piracy equipment in the U.S. About 35,000 pirated CDs, 10,000 DVDs and the equivalent of 421 CD burners were confiscated, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said in a statement. Three people were arrested in the Monday raid in an industrial complex in the New York City borough of Queens and charged with trafficking counterfeit labels, criminal copyright infringement and trademarket… Read more »

Dashboard Confessional and Jack Johnson played acoustic, and Beck and Coldplay celebrated Christmas, but otherwise KROQ-FM’s annual Almost Acoustic Christmas was a two-day, 20-act festival all about rocking. And the sold-out event was certainly crammed with rock and roll moments, particularly the announced live debut of Audioslave (they played a secret club show the night before), and an amusing rendition of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” orchestrated by Beck and the Flaming Lips and featuring Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba, Johnson and a horribly off-key Juliette Lewis. (Click here for photos from the show.) Audioslave were the talk… Read more »

More than a decade after the height of the Seattle rock explosion, Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains are long gone and Mudhoney have become a cult band. Pearl Jam are the last man standing. And despite their best efforts to maintain a low profile, their Riot Act debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling more than 165,000 copies. No one could be more surprised than guitarist Mike McCready. “I’m amazed that people are even still wanting to listen to us,” he said. “With all the other music out there and the shifting times, I’m surprised that… Read more »

Eddie Vedder has found plenty of material in mortality over the years. His band, Pearl Jam, was born of a heroin overdose more than a decade ago. Rival songwriter Kurt Cobain of Nirvana committed suicide while at the height of popularity. Two of Pearl Jam’s biggest hits, “Jeremy” and “Last Kiss,” deal with teen death. Now comes renewal, an appropriate topic as the lead singer and his bandmates re-emerge from their most proximate shock: the deaths of nine fans trampled during the 2000 Roskilde festival in Denmark. “Riot Act,” released Nov. 12, is Pearl Jam’s first studio album since the… Read more »

Dublin’s docklands redevelopers, who angered U2 by tearing down the group’s hallowed old studios, are giving Bono and his colleagues a high-rise penthouse replacement, the two sides announced Tuesday. “The new Dublin is something I’m really excited about,” Bono told a press conference alongside leaders of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. Earlier this year the state-backed developers successfully fought U2 in court for the right to tear down a building at Hanover Quay where the band had recorded most of its records since the early 1980s. The building became a place of pilgrimage for U2 devotees, some of whom spray-painted… Read more »

For those about to rock, the Rock Hall salutes you – by inducting several heroes of metal, punk and new wave into next year’s class. AC/DC, the Clash, the Police, and Elvis Costello and the Attractions will lead the class of 2003 when they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, organizers announced Thursday (November 7). Other artists recognized include blue-eyed soul singers the Righteous Brothers, whose “Unchained Melody” and Phil Spector-produced “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ ” remain classics. Sideman and non-performer inductees remain to be announced. AC/DC, who formed in 1973 and… Read more »

Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney (news) said on Sunday he would postpone the final and biggest concert of his current world tour in Melbourne out of respect for the victims of the Bali bomb blasts. The only Australian show on November 23 in front of over 30,000 fans was to be McCartney’s first date Down Under in more than a decade, but the singer’s spokesman said a nationwide tour was now under consideration for 2003. “As a mark of respect to both the families who have lost loved ones and to the families of the injured, I have decided to… Read more »

In an industry that obsesses over first-week album sales, heavy MTV rotation and radio airplay, the Shortlist Music Prize is trying to help offbeat or niche recording artists find a wider audience. Now in its second year, the contest taps successful musicians to champion the work of peers who have yet to make an impact on the charts. Among this year’s “listmakers” are India.Arie, Alanis Morissette (news), U2’s Larry Mullen Jr., and filmmakers Baz Luhrmann (news) and Spike Jonze (news). “Most of the attention that records get as far as awards and all that stuff is based on record sales,… Read more »

Any band that continues playing while one of its members bleeds profusely has gotta be punk rock, regardless of how poppy its harmony-filled songs are. Montreal’s Simple Plan did just that during a recent show in Detroit when a member of the crowd expressed his love by flinging a bottle of water at drummer Chuck Comeau’s head. “I stopped playing for a minute and took a towel to wipe my face, and it was just covered in blood,” Comeau recalled. “But we had two songs left, so I kept going. Every break I would just stop and pull out the… Read more »

Elvis rolled the Stones on the U.S. pop album charts, depriving the veteran rockers of what would have been their first No. 1 album in 21 years, according to sales data issued on Wednesday. The Elvis Presley (news) retrospective “Elvis: 30 #1 Hits” sold nearly 337,000 copies in the week ended Oct. 6, its second week of release, while the Rolling Stones’ hits package “Forty Licks” opened at No. 2 with sales of 310,000 units, according to tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan. The Stones’ tally marks the best album debut of their career since SoundScan started tabulating the charts with point-of-sales… Read more »