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Even though Led Zeppelin are one of the best-selling rock bands in history (the technically untitled Led Zeppelin IV is among the handful of records that have sold more than 20 million copies in the U.S.), the critics have never really liked ’em. Be it Robert Plant’s screeching vocals, Jimmy Page’s self-indulgent guitar solos or the band’s pilfering of classic American blues, the Zep didn’t receive the greatest reviews in their day and shockingly, never won a Grammy Award (though Robert Plant and Jimmy Page won for Best hard Rock Performance in 1998 for their relatively lame “Most High”). Led… Read more »

Nashville – Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell will make his first foray into the Christian music market next fall when he releases his debut solo album. Littrell is talking to producers, but hasn’t nailed anyone down. He does have some songwriters in mind, though. “I would like to collaborate with Michael W. Smith,” he says. “We’ve been talking about that for years, and now we can start getting these things in motion. I’m looking for outside stuff, and I’ve got a lot of material in my head as well.” Littrell, who grew up attending a Baptist church with his family in… Read more »

Wrap your head around this – you’re in a rock band that has been relatively ignored for about three years, despite having a couple of albums and a ton of singles under your belt. And then suddenly, out of the blue, people start hearing about you – but only because no one knows about you. Weird? Yeah. But that’s basically how things transpired for Scottish rockers Idlewild just a few years ago, flipping their world topsy-turvy in a sadistic twist of ironic fate. Idlewild: “I guess it started with SPIN Magazine naming 100 Broken Windows (the band’s 2000 release, it’s… Read more »

New York – The Pixies wrapped their reunion tour Saturday with two shows at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom, capping a trek that lasted nearly eight months and saw them play to sold-out audiences across the world. While it’s unclear if the influential alt-rock band plans to attempt a follow-up to its last studio album, 1991’s “Trompe le Monde,” which came out a year before it went on hiatus, there is new product on the way. A film crew followed the tour throughout the year for a documentary DVD. A separate DVD is also in the works culling on-stage footage. “I… Read more »

New York – Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins are looking to collaborate with a new voice, but the TLC stars insist they’re not trying to replace the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. “Nothing has changed. We’re not replacing Lisa,” Thomas told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “We’re not looking for a new member.” Last month, the pair announced they were launching a search to find a vocalist to perform with them in concert and for one track on TLC’s upcoming greatest hits project – a journey that will be the subject of a UPN reality show,… Read more »

Los Angeles – None of the Grammy nominees was more surprised than Chris Morris, who was taking notes along with the rest of the press corps Tuesday morning when he heard his name announced among the luminaries. Morris, who joined The Hollywood Reporter as music editor in September, was nominated for the liner notes he wrote for “No Thanks! The ’70s Punk Rebellion.” That Rhino Records compilation of various artists gives an overview of the genre’s early days by gathering 100 songs in a four-CD boxed set. Morris contributed a definitive context for the music in a thoroughly researched 116-page… Read more »

Just like in professional wrestling, a band’s entrance music provides a pretty good forecast of what’s to follow. When Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” filled an arena, Hulk Hogan’s irrepressible fortitude wasn’t far behind. The sound of glass shattering typically prefaced a Stone Cold-style beat-down. And this past summer, when Joe Esposito’s “You’re the Best,” off “The Karate Kid” soundtrack, rained down upon an unsuspecting rock club, it meant that one of the most immodest bands around was about to deliver its musical equivalent of a jump-front kick to the head. “We thought it was the funniest thing,” explained Fall… Read more »

Record labels are embracing new technologies in search of music’s next big thing Joe Berman looks for new bands. Typically, that means hanging out in dive bars, enduring hours of unlistenable music by groups whose rock-and-roll dreams far exceed their talent, praying for the occasional act that shows promise. About 16 months ago, however, the Los Angeles-based talent-finder sat at home scouting the globe for groups. He typed “New Zealand indie rock bands” into his computer search engine and found Steriogram, five lads from the town of Whangarei in New Zealand. They had a song and a video posted on… Read more »

So much for that “Ebony and Ivory” stuff. At least as far as Stevie Wonder and Eminem go. Speaking to Billboard magazine, Wonder comes to the defense of old Motown roster mate Michael Jackson, saying he was “disappointed” Em mocked Jackson’s child-molestation allegations in the rapper’s video for “Just Lose It.” “Kicking someone when he’s down is not a good thing,” Wonder tells Billboard. “I have much respect for his work…[b]ut I was disappointed that he would let himself go to such a level. “He has succeeded on the backs of people predominantly in that lower pay bracket, people of… Read more »

Washington – Most musicians and artists say the Internet has helped them make more money from their work despite online file-trading services that allow users to copy songs and other material for free, according to a study released on Sunday. Recording labels and movie studios have hired phalanxes of lawyers to pursue “peer to peer” networks like Kazaa, and have sued thousands of individuals who distribute copyrighted material through such networks. But most of the artists surveyed by the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project said online file sharing did not concern them much. Artists were split on the… Read more »