Search Results for: decade

Showing no signs of fatigue or question marks about making a show revolve around material from her last two albums, Madonna started her final stop on the Drowned World Tour Sunday with a mesmerizing and confident performance that puts to shame any singer who thinks she might have a shot at Ms. Ciccone’s pop throne. Madonna frames blocks of songs in various settings, using mix-and-match motifs that yield differing results. In the end, she emerges triumphant – a reminder of why her star has never dimmed. Hundred-minute show closes on “Holiday,” Madonna’s first top 40 single from way back in… Read more »

Rob Thomas’ pre-Matchbox Twenty recordings are finally seeing the light of day, thanks to a former bandmate who spent a half a decade trying to put “the nail in the group’s coffin.” Don’t Play With Matches, the only studio album by Tabitha’s Secret (which featured Matchbox Twenty bassist Brian Yale and drummer Paul Doucette as well as Thomas), is due for October 9 release. Guitarist Jay Stanley – who, along with guitarist John Goff, parted ways with the band in 1995 – fought a five-year legal battle to get the album released. “It’s about putting the past behind me, putting… Read more »

The Beastie Boys’ Grand Royal record label shut down Friday, citing “mounting debts, decreasing assets and exceedingly harsh industry conditions.” Home to highly praised rockers At the Drive-In and Luscious Jackson – both of whom have broken up – Grand Royal was one of the most popular artist-owned labels of the last decade. “This is one of the most difficult decisions we’ve ever had to make,” Beastie Boy Mike D, who took over operations as his bandmates got involved in other projects, said in a statement. “Over the years the Grand Royal family had grown to include some of the… Read more »

If one point was driven convincingly home at this all-day modern rock festival, it’s that southern California has a lot of really great bands treading the boards these days. Six of the best of the bunch (which also includes Stone Temple Pilots, No Doubt, 311 and even Blink-182) headlined this charity gathering, sponsored by L.A.’s KROQ-FM, and Levi’s – and each band’s strong performance lived up to the considerable preshow hype. The post-Sublime reggae-dub bunch Long Beach Dub Allstars kicked off the action on the bigger of two stages around 4 p.m. with 30 minutes of laid-back tracks from their… Read more »

By the close of business Wednesday, concert promoters across the country will know how many Internet-savvy baby boomers are hungry for the music of a generational hero, Bob Dylan. Dylan, whose “Love & Theft” album will be released Sept. 11, is taking a page from mega-sellers such as the Backstreet Boys and U2: a limited number of tickets for 32 North American concerts will go on sale Wednesday for fans who follow his activities on the Web site http://www.BobDylan.com. Although Dylan has toured relentlessly since the release four years ago of the album “Time Out of Mind,” which won three… Read more »

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 »