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You’ll usually find R.E.M. playing arenas and esteemed concert halls. But this week, the rock hall of famers were among the acts trying to catch a break and artists looking to build their audience at the sprawling South by Southwest music festival. The multiplatinum rockers played Stubbs BBQ shortly after midnight Wednesday before an energetic crowd of a couple thousand, marking the first time they’ve played the annual extravaganza in their nearly three-decade career. But it’s hardly a downgrade: Playing a showcase at SXSW has often been a way for a veteran act to make a big splash with a… Read more »

Mike Smith, the lead singer of the 1960s British band the Dave Clark Five, died on Thursday of pneumonia at an English hospital, his U.S. agent said. Smith, 64, was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday morning with a chest infection resulting from complications of a 2003 spinal cord injury that had left him paralyzed from the waist down, his New York agent, Margo Lewis, said in a statement. His death at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, north of London, came just two weeks before the Dave Clark Five — one of the leading bands of the 1960s “British invasion” — was… Read more »

Luke stands on his seat and strums wildly on his copycat rock guitar. Isabel and Jasper pogo and body slam with the best of them in the mosh pit. Potential crowd surfers and stage divers are held back by minders. The gig is in south London, the star is “Mr Ray,” and the audience are mostly between three and four years old. This is “Kindie” — a combination of kids’ and “indie” or independent music and a genre which is taking hold of British pre-schoolers and bidding to oust the grinding of “The Wheels on the Bus” from the family… Read more »

The integrity of “American Idol” as a contest for raw, undiscovered talent was called into question again after an Irish singer who once had a major-label deal, and solo album that flopped, advanced to the top rung of the competition this week. Dublin native Carly Smithson, who formerly recorded for MCA Records under her maiden name, Carly Hennessy, was one of the 24 “Idol” contestants who made it on Wednesday to the semifinal rounds voted on each week by the show’s home TV audience. Online critics immediately seized on her initial success, and her professional recording background, as further evidence… Read more »

Troubled British singer Amy Winehouse is the perfect poster girl for the current state of the music industry. Music isn’t her problem. Everything else is. That’s exactly the same situation that the music industry – faced with lagging sales, a lack of star power and defection from its biggest moneymakers – finds itself in these days. And when the music industry has problems, the Grammys – celebrating their 50th anniversary Sunday – do as well. Winehouse and her stunning R&B revivalist debut “Back to Black” (Universal Republic) are up for six awards; she’s the only artist nominated in all four… Read more »

There’s nothing like 1.3 billion potential ticket buyers to attract the attention of the live entertainment business. With the world’s largest population and an exploding economy, China may represent the future for international touring artists. That’s why the three biggest players in the U.S. live entertainment business — Live Nation, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and Ticketmaster — have all staked claims in China. It’s virgin territory. “In China you have a huge potential market, a clean slate and opportunities you don’t see in more mature markets,” Ticketmaster CEO Sean Moriarty said. “There is no established way of doing business yet,… Read more »

Panic! At The Disco have unveiled more details about their second album – which is due out next March. Guitarist Ryan Ross said that the follow-up to their 2005 debut, ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out,’ will draw more from the band’s live sound than their previous album. “We just wanted the record to sound like four people playing a song,” Ross told Billboard. “A lot of the songs are definitely more geared toward playing live; we didn’t think about that on the last record.” Ross, who also writes the band’s lyrics, said that the band have been “working backwards”… Read more »

Every record collector’s library contains a handful of forgotten classics, great records mismanaged by labels and lost to the annals of history. In recent years, some specialty labels have started reissuing these records for new audiences. Among them, Hacktone Records, founded in 2005 by Rhino Records veterans David Gorman and Michael Nieves. “Our goal is not to cater to completists or to be a legacy label,” Gorman said. “We’re not putting out lost demos by famous acts or throwing a few bonus tracks on a well-known record and putting it back out.” Rather, they acquire the rights to lesser-known works… Read more »

Of all the members of ‘N Sync, who would have guessed that Lance Bass was the first to take the marital plunge? But the former boy-bander has revealed exclusively to E! News that back in “like, ’99, 2000,” owing to “one of those crazy moments,” he tied the knot with a girlfriend after a wild night in Sin City. “People do stupid things in the heat of the moment. I’ve been in Vegas where I’ve gotten married for, like, five minutes,” he said. “No one talks about that though.” Bass, who announced his homosexuality to much fanfare last year, declined… Read more »

Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady who championed conservation and worked tenaciously for the political career of her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson, died Wednesday, a family spokeswoman said. She was 94. Johnson, who suffered a stroke in 2002 that affected her ability to speak, returned home late last month after a week at Seton Medical Center, where she’d been admitted for a low-grade fever. She died at her Austin home of natural causes about 5:18 p.m. EDT. Elizabeth Christian, the spokeswoman, said she was surrounded by family and friends. Even after the stroke, Johnson still managed to make occasional… Read more »