Search Results for: ep

Forget the stage, it’s been almost a decade since Jerry Cantrell, Sean Kinney and Mike Inez – a.k.a. 75 percent of ’90s grunge icons Alice in Chains – have even been in the same room. Sure, they’ve jammed with each other in various permutations since Alice last played a show together (a 1996 taping of MTV’s “Unplugged”), but never all three together. So when they announced that they’d be taking the stage again this month, it had to be for a good reason. “We all saw what happened with the tsunamis in Southeast Asia. It was such an overwhelming tragedy,”… Read more »

New York – At a time when reality and youth lifestyle shows – not videos – dominate MTV’s main programming hours, the network is looking to music-related contests, tour sponsorships and other off-channel marketing initiatives to drive its identity as a music brand. Case in point: MTV in February is sending eight contest winners on a private island getaway with Columbia Records act Destiny’s Child in a stunt it is billing as Destiny’s Isle. The promotion – which MTV has been plotting since last August and was aggressively promoting last fall – will culminate with clips from an afternoon meeting… Read more »

Los Angeles – Epitaph Records built its foundation on punk rock. But just before last year’s presidential election, the label’s most biting political commentary arrived courtesy of Sage Francis, a 27-year-old rapper from Providence, R.I. The song “Slow Down Gandhi” sarcastically rips into liberals and conservatives alike, casting a cynical eye at warmongers and the “cool kids” who “were rocking votes.” With a perfectly articulated delivery that recalls Chuck D, Francis builds each verse with a mixture of activism, paranoia and humor. “If they could sell sanity in a bottle, they would be charging for compressed air,” he quips. Epitaph… Read more »

During an interview a few months back, Serena Pruyn – the enthusiastic frontwoman for Can-rockers Oliver Black – said her band were in no rush to get signed. The Welland, Ontario, quartet were taking their time perfecting a live set and building a loyal audience while several record companies courted the increasingly popular group. It seems Oliver Black are now ready and have announced details of their first record deal. Turns out they’ve signed to New York City label TVT Records and Universal Music will distribute them here in Canada. TVT is famous for introducing Nine Inch Nails to the… Read more »

With the metal world still reeling from the shocking murder of Dimebag Darrell Abbott, it seems that a second Damageplan album might be in the works. Damageplan’s manager Paul Bassman recently told Billboard.com of a nearly completed recording that the band had laid down just prior to Abbott’s death. Bassman also mentioned that according to Abbott’s brother, Damageplan drummer Vinnie Paul, the band have every intention to get the music to the fans as soon as possible. It’s not known how much material was completed or when the album may be released. When Abbott was killed, Damageplan were touring behind… Read more »

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 »