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For someone who claims he never wanted to be on stage, Badly Drawn Boy has a hard time getting off of one. Damon Gough’s alter ego displayed his stamina with a marathon set that both delighted and exhausted a sold-out Toronto crowd. The singer-songwriter set the tone for the evening right off the top, claiming that it was “good to be back in America.” From that point on, his curious mix of affability, crustiness and wit had the audience hanging on every sung or spoken word. And there were plenty of both in the nearly three-hour performance. Backed by a… Read more »

Los Angeles – Somehow Outkast have managed to get some work done in between collecting all their trophies. The hip-hop duo – who were big winners at the recent MTV Europe Awards, American Music Awards and World Music Awards, among others – have nearly completed two different records and have just finished shooting their long-awaited HBO movie. Titled “My Life in Idlewild,” the movie was written and directed by longtime Outkast video director Bryan Barber and features Big Boi and Andre 3000 acting alongside Ving Rhames, Paula Jai Parker (“Friday”), Terrence Howard (“Ray”) and Malinda Williams (“Soul Food”), among others.… Read more »

London – EMI Group PLC, one of the world’s ‘big three’ music companies, reported a fall in sales and a net loss for the first half of its fiscal year Friday but said it expected an improvement in the second half when its album release schedule kicks in. EMI, whose artists include Coldplay, Norah Jones, Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams, said it was confident the global music industry was returning to a growth phase after a sales slump from 2000 to 2003. Chairman Eric Nicoli said the global industry recorded a decline of 1.3 percent for the first half of… Read more »

Infinity Broadcasting on Wednesday said it had severed ties with independent promoters, following the lead of other radio chains that have stopped the controversial practice of taking payments in return for playing new songs on their stations. The move comes just over three weeks after U.K. music giant EMI Group Plc confirmed that the New York Attorney General had begun a probe of how music companies influence what songs are played on the radio. “We’re not going to be utilizing independent promoters, effective immediately,” said Karen Mateo, a spokeswoman for Infinity Broadcasting, a unit of Viacom Inc. Infinity declined further… Read more »

New York – The bookkeeper for rap label Murder Inc. was indicted on money laundering charges by federal prosecutors who are probing ties between drug dealers and the recording home of such platinum-selling acts as Ja Rule and Ashanti. Cynthia Brent, 39, was arrested at her New Jersey home Monday and was charged with laundering drug proceeds and structuring cash deposits to avoid federal reporting requirements. The laundering charges involve more than $1 million in drug money, according to the indictment against her. Brent pleaded not guilty at her arraignment Monday afternoon and was released on $200,000 bond. Her lawyer… Read more »

New York – Of the multitude of New York-based rock bands to garner recent media attention, surely the most unique musical personality belongs to TV on the Radio, a Brooklyn quintet whose two releases on Touch & Go have fueled major interest. Curiosity peaked after the group – then the barely-out-of-the-loft project of lead singer Tunde Adebimpe and producer/multi-instrumentalist David Sitek – released the five-track EP “Young Liars” in July 2003. The record blindsided the indie rock community with the title track, the haunting dirges “Blind” and “Staring at the Sun” and an a cappella doo-wop cover of the Pixies’… Read more »

Prancing around in flattened, jet-black hair and with eyeliner so thick that Keith Richards would cringe, it’s no wonder that screamo mongers From First To Last (or From Worst To Ass as some were calling them) weren’t exactly hitting it off with the aging skater punks that comprise most of Bad Religion ‘s fanbase. Working through a quick half-hour set of typical yet passionate suburban youth anthems laid down over recycled Grade riffs, they were… openers. To their credit, the band worked hard at winning over the less than half-full crowd and eventually did rouse a portion of us into… Read more »

Toronto – Perhaps it was best that Green Day were in Canada on the evening of the U.S. presidential election; after all, it’s here that they can share the almost unanimous anti-Bush sentiments in an almost-packed Air Canada Centre. “Well, hopefully tomorrow we’ll have a brand new President,” Billie Joe Armstrong said to a roar of cheers. “I fuckin’ hate him and I think he’s more of a threat to the world than Saddam Hussein.” And though the dads of pop-punk were away from home, the enthusiastic crowd – which included one fan with a “Fuck Bush” sign – made… Read more »

Saturday marks the second anniversary of the death of Jam Master Jay. As his family members have pressed on, they continue to keep their loved one’s name alive. A small gathering is planned in the Hollis neighborhood of Queens, New York, on Saturday (October 30), and in January they want to put on a benefit concert to celebrate what would have been the Run-DMC DJ’s 40th birthday. “Basically, we are doing fine,” Jay’s mother, Connie Mizell, said on Monday in New York. “We thank God we are doing as well as we are. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say… Read more »