Search Results for: decade

After a 25-year absence from the #1 album spot, J Records artist Rod Stewart with his album Stardust… The Great American Songbook: Volume III enters the Billboard 200 Album chart at #1 on a first week Soundscan total of 240,043 copies sold. The Songbook albums are a musical and cultural phenomenon, and are now the biggest-selling ongoing series of new music recordings in history. This is also Rod Stewart’s first ever #1 debut on the Billboard Top 200 chart. Stardust is the follow-up to 2002’s It Had To Be You… The Great American Songbook (which spent 85 weeks on the… Read more »

Renee Gilinger was on Philadelphia’s South Street recently asking the youthful, jeans-and-T-shirt crowd waiting in line for a heavy-metal concert, “Are you planning to vote?” Gilinger’s outreach is part of what is shaping up to be the nation’s biggest and most expensive effort ever to get out the youth vote. “It’s crazy to ignore this constituency,” said Gilinger, Pennsylvania director for the Young Voter Alliance, a coalition of Democratic and Independent groups working to register young people in five swing-vote states, including Pennsylvania. “I got names and contact information for 40 to 50 people,” she said. “That’s 40 to 50… Read more »

Holding its festivities for the first time in the city of skin, Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards was sizzling, energetic and colorful – yet tame, by MTV standards. There were no wardrobe malfunctions (sorry TiVo). Britney didn’t kiss Madonna like last year – or anyone else, for that matter (neither were at the blowout affair). The most skin shown was from Usher, who preened in front of the camera barechested as simulated raindrops fell on his chiseled body during the opening performance. Even the Christina Aguilera was classy, dressed sexy yet demurely as she debuted a jazzy number, “Tilt Ya… Read more »

The trophy is a silly Moonman. Treasured memories include girl-on-girl kisses, a flying Fartman and the bobbling of a pasty-covered breast. Where other shows confer honors and respect, this one relishes gaffes, guffaws and giggles. Forget “The envelope, please.” It’s time to push the envelope. MTV’s Video Music Awards is among the most irreverent of awards shows. Which may be precisely why it matters. “It’s pop music; how seriously can you take it?” said MTV news correspondent Kurt Loder. “It’s not Martin Heidegger or something. There’s a lot of empty pomp associated with other shows, like the Oscars and even… Read more »

Tens of thousands of fans screamed and danced Saturday in a fantasyscape of upside-down trees and silver moose for the first in a series of farewell concerts by the Vermont-based jam band Phish. Applause rippled through the audience as Phish took the stage and wasted no time launching into its first song, “Walls of the Cave” from the 2002 album “Round Room.” Starting off slow, the ballad grew more feverish as lead singer Trey Anastasio broke into a guitar solo, the start of a prolonged jam that worked concertgoers into a steady, pulsing groove. The first set of the two-day… Read more »

The Van Halen reunion is looking to be one of the biggest tours of the summer. It marks the first time in almost a decade that Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar have graced the same stage. “It just felt right,” drummer Alex Van Halen says. “Sammy and I got together, and it was like we hadn’t missed a beat. The moment we hit the studio and started making music, that was it. Making music is what is the center of this band – that and the friendship.” The tour, which kicks off Friday in… Read more »

With a new album dropping in June and a summer concert schedule in place, all seemed normal enough in the Phish camp as this week began. But the group shocked fans Tuesday with the announcement that it will break up following a two-day festival in Coventry, Vermont, on August 14-15. Frontman/guitarist Trey Anastasio wrote on the band’s Web site, “We all love and respect Phish and the Phish audience far too much to stand by and allow it to drag on beyond the point of vibrancy and health. We don’t want to become caricatures of ourselves or, worse yet, a… Read more »

No one is really more surprised about this success than me,” says Isaac Brock, lead singer of indie-rocker heroes Modest Mouse, who, after a decade of struggles, disappointments and near-breakups, finally have a hit record. The group’s fourth album, Good News for People Who Love Bad News, debuted at Number Nineteen on the Billboard Album Chart in April, is still hanging tough at Number Twenty-three this week and has sold more than 300,000 copies. Modest Mouse’s video, “Float On,” is an MTV buzz clip, and they were one of the first bands announced for this year’s Lollapalooza. “We’ve been such… Read more »

The Backstreet Boys were congregating backstage at Saturday’s Wango Tango On-Air festival when a herd of security guards nearly tumbled them. “They were like, ‘Move out of the way, get up against the wall,’” Nick Carter recalled later, smiling and likely embellishing a bit. “And then William Hung came through.” “Who?” Kevin Richardson asked. “Well Hung?” Joke or not, on a bill that included Janet Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, Jessica Simpson and a dozen other acts, William Hung was the headliner. After 14 hours of pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B and everything in between, the “American Idol” reject, dressed in a paisley… Read more »

The pioneering rock supergroup Yes- currently celebrating their 35th anniversary – is en route with acoast-to-coast North American spring 2004 itinerary that launched April 15 andruns through mid-May. The historic arena tour – in the grand scale of pastYes excursions – presents the band’s formidable “classic” line-up of 1969co-founders Jon Anderson and Chris Squire, along with Rick Wakeman, SteveHowe, and Alan White, all three of whom started with Yes in the very early’70s. The three-hour 35th anniversary shows bring to life essential Yes songsfrom throughout the visionary prog-rock icons’ extraordinary career, as wellas the brand new composition, “Show Me.” The… Read more »