Search Results for: decade

Hollywood music emporium Amoeba Records has long been considered one of America’s coolest record stores, but it got even cooler when it was paid a visit on Wednesday, June 27 by none other than Sir Paul McCartney. The legendary former Beatle made a rare appearance at the shop to play an intimate live gig that was by far Amoeba’s biggest event yet. Diehard Macca-maniacs camped out on Sunset Boulevard for three days and flew in from as far away as Japan to attend the free “secret” show, and the legendary former Beatle rewarded their devotion with 90 minutes of Fab… Read more »

Recently, Maureen Callahan wrote a piece for the New York Post about Crush Management, the NYC cadre that shepherds the careers of Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, the Academy Is … , Boys Like Girls and Armor for Sleep (or, as Callahan puts it, “basically any band that a 13-year-old girl with a blog and a Hot Topic habit obsesses over”). Aside from providing readers with some genuinely bananas quotes from songwriter/ rock-and-roll vampire Butch Walker about credibility (especially considering this is on his résumé), the article is excellent primarily because it floats the hypothesis that the artists… Read more »

The Smashing Pumpkins announced Monday they will give nine concerts in Asheville and eight in San Francisco this summer in the band’s first residencies in more than a decade. The band will perform at the Orange Peel in Asheville on dates from June 23 to July 5, and at the historic Fillmore in San Francisco on dates from July 22 to August 1. According to information posted on the band’s Web site, fans attending any of the shows are allowed to capture them with audio and video recorders. “They were looking for one West Coast venue and one East Coast… Read more »

British rock band New Order, which arose from the ashes of post-punk band Joy Division in the early 1980s, has broken up, according to a Web posting by the group’s bass player. “I’m relieved really hated carryin on as normal with an awful secret so lets move on shall we?” Peter Hook wrote in a blog published on Wednesday on his MySpace page. Hook first revealed the split as an aside during an interview last weekend with Manchester radio announcer Clint Boon, when he said, “… me and Bernard (Sumner, New Order singer/guitarist) aren’t working together.” Hook and Sumner have… Read more »

For nearly a decade now, Tom Gabel has made a career of pissing people off. He played shows in Laundromats as a one-man acoustic act known as Against Me! before forming a full band (adding electric guitars = selling out!). He leapt from indie No Idea Records to equally indie Fat Wreck Chords (changing labels = selling out!), tinkered with Against Me!’s sound on 2003’s As the Eternal Cowboy (production = selling out!) and finally decided to sign with a major label in late 2005 (major label = selling out!). Whatever the situation, it seems he’s always derived some sort… Read more »

Rage Against The Machine played its first show in seven years last night (April 29) to close the 2007 edition of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. The foursome tore into staples like “Testify,” “Bulls on Parade,” “People of the Sun” and “Guerrilla Radio” to one of the largest main stage crowds in the event’s history. Guitarist Tom Morello was in particularly blazing form on “Know Your Enemy,” and the band grooved in lockstep throughout, as if no time had passed since it was last active. Rage has thus far only scheduled four other shows in… Read more »

NEW YORK – On Saturday, more than 67,000 young activists took to the streets in 15 cities across the U.S., to raise awareness about the plight of refugees in Ugandan displacement camps. The funny thing is, once they were on those streets, they didn’t leave. Instead, they slept there, in impromptu villages made of cardboard, subsisting only on crackers and water, in a show of support for those displaced by the Ugandan government. And among those 67,000 activists was Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz. The event was called Displace Me, organized by Invisible Children, a California nonprofit group aimed at… Read more »

Young indie rockers Arctic Monkeys, who made history with Britain’s fastest-selling debut album in 2006, are out to prove they are no one-hit wonders with their second record released on Monday. Critics wonder if the weight of expectation will be too much for the musicians from the northern city of Sheffield, among the first to make it big by harnessing the power of the Internet. Alexis Petridis, music critic for the Guardian newspaper, called “Favourite Worst Nightmare” arguably the most anticipated second album in a decade. Judging by early reviews and the reaction of fans at gigs across the country,… Read more »

The company representing The Beatles has settled a 30 million-pound ($59 million) royalty dispute with EMI Group, in a deal that could finally pave the way for the Liverpool band’s music to go online. Apple Corps, the company owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison, said in December 2005 it would sue the record company after negotiations broke down. Apple Corps said an audit had determined EMI had not been fulfilling the terms of its contract. “We have settled on mutually acceptable terms and there will be no further comment,” a spokeswoman… Read more »