Search Results for: decade

Henry Rollins isn’t a fan of much metal music these days. He even claims to have never listened to an entire Rage Against the Machine song. That doesn’t, however, mean he can’t relate to the Bizkit bunch. A seasoned singer, author, actor and spoken-word performer, Rollins has a knack for relating to most everything. “I hear some guy sing, ‘You f ed me over, you bitch.’ I used to write those songs,” Rollins said from his Los Angeles office last month. “When the girl left me, she got at least a 20-page indictment in my journal and two songs about… Read more »

Wilco’s long-rumored split with Reprise Records is official, and the Chicago-based group is actively shopping their fourth, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, in an attempt to get the record released by the end of the year. The dispute over the album began in June, when Wilco delivered a finished copy to the label and it was rejected by a pair of A&R men. When the band refused to make changes, the two sides began negotiating Wilco’s departure. “Wilco went for the side of the road instead of the middle,” says a label source, “and that’s not necessarily what the record company was… Read more »

In an ever-shrinking world, artisans are often drawn to fusions that would have been unthinkable a generation or two ago – often, these boundary-breaking combinations work better on paper than in practice. Afro Celt Sound System, which has been at it for the better part of a decade, makes good on an unlikely melange of cross-cultural influences only hinted at by the band’s moniker. At this, their first Gotham show since 1999, the ensemble drifted between lilting bits of bucolic melody (generally anchored by the lovely uilleann piping of Emer Mayock) and unabashedly sensual rhythmic pulse (heightened by the contributions… Read more »

In the years since August 1, 1981, when MTV first went on air by broadcasting a song presciently called “Video Killed the Radio Star,” the cable channel has helped to turn musicians as different as Duran Duran, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Tupac Shakur, Marilyn Manson, and Britney Spears into cultural touchstones. MTV helped to mainstream rap music and to pioneer the trend toward reality television with shows like The Real World. And the channel has been at the center of any number of pop culture brouhahas, whether involving cartoon bad boys Beavis and Butt-head, sexually provocative and spiritually outrageous videos by… Read more »

Rock-band theme songs went out with the Monkees, but you wouldn’t know that when Susan Cowsill of the Continental Drifters steps to the microphone for “Someday.” It sounds like she’s singing about the very reasons for her band and its work. “I’m gonna pay my bills and stand where I stand,” she sings, “and maybe even start a little rock ‘n’ roll band. And maybe my friends will give me a hand. And if that doesn’t take away my sorrow, I’m gonna get up again and do it tomorrow.” Eyes closed, she holds the last note – bathed in the… Read more »

Had Russell Watson followed some early career advice, the classical tenor might be singing ‘N Sync-like pop tunes instead of arias. “I was told, ‘Oh Russell, join a boy band, leave the opera to the Italians,”‘ the 27-year-old Brit recalls hearing from agents. “That just made me more determined.” His determination has paid off handsomely. Watson, who is not classically trained and who got his start singing Meat Loaf and Lionel Richie songs in the pubs of Manchester, has become an opera sensation with the release of his debut disc, “The Voice.” Already a best-seller in Britain, the album has… Read more »

The music industry is calling for tough new federal legislation to thwart the pirate CD industry. The call comes as the industry-funded anti-piracy unit this morning crushed 120,000 illegal CDs worth more than $2.4 million. The unit’s manager, Michael Speck, says at the moment, music fraud is too easy and too tempting. Mr Speck says most artists have been ripped-off, as the pile of destroyed CDs illustrates. “Bestsellers for the last five decades, from ABBA right through to Zappa – there’s probably not a mainstream artist that wasn’t represented at some level in there,” he said. “You’ve got to remember… Read more »

Radio airplay is and has been the primary driver of retail record sales in the United States. Some estimate that nearly 90 percent of sales is the direct result of an artist being exposed on radio. But today, radio is joined by an array of other media choices: MTV, BET, and VH1, digital downloads, and streamed audio. Consumers borrow friend’s CDs and tapes, and see live performance. Any record label or promoter would be remiss by ignoring any one of these outlets since they all help to sell music. In the first-ever project of its kind, James Schureck at Jeff… Read more »

Rob Thomas stepped off an airplane feeling like a bona fide rock star, with nearly 12 million copies of his band’s freshman album sold and the follow-up effort following closely behind. But when he handed his passport over to a control officer, she asked: “Are you Rob Thomas of Santana? The guy who sang ‘Smooth?”‘ “I was like ‘No! I’m Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty,”‘ he recalled during a recent interview. Thomas’ work on 1999 smash “Smooth,” which earned Santana record and song of the year at last year’s Grammy Awards, has gained him more celebrity than the success he’s… Read more »

A new album from the band named after a place the sun doesn’t shine will finally see the light of day next month, complete with a track co-written by an “American Bad Ass.” Experimental rockers the Butthole Surfers will release their first album in five years, Weird Revolution, on August 28, even though the family of Malcolm X forced the band back to the drawing board at the 11th hour. In the lyrics on the track “The Weird Revolution,” frontman Gibby Haynes copped a passage – save a few words – from one of the assassinated black activist’s most famous… Read more »