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BMG, the music division of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG, announced yesterday that it has agreed to take control of Zomba Music Group, the record label that revived the teen pop genre with the likes of Britney Spears and ‘N Sync. The deal, which is estimated to be worth $3 billion, will end Zomba’s status as the world’s largest independent label. It will also provide a huge payday to Zomba founder, Clive Calder, who industry insiders credit with being out in front of some of the biggest trends, including teen pop, rap and Christian rock. Spears and ‘N Sync have… Read more »

Even if he doesn’t ever say, “This is the first song off our new album” in concert, believe it or not, Ozzy Osbourne still has something in common with Robin Zander. Like Zander’s Cheap Trick before him, Osbourne recorded his performance at Tokyo’s Budokan Arena and will title the resulting live LP Live at the Budokan (though Cheap Trick’s legendary 1979 release was titled Live at Budokan, for those scoring at home). The 13-track album, boosted with bonus CD-ROM video footage, is due June 25, according to Osbourne’s Web site. A home video, issued on both VHS and DVD formats,… Read more »

Popular music has been upended by every technological advance from electricity and the phonograph to cassette tapes and recordable CDs. The switch from analog to digital accelerated the pace of illicit duplication and distribution, sounding the loudest alarm yet. As Napster struggles to survive, other sites from Gnutella to KaZaa are filling the void. Last week, labels and music publishers sued Audiogalaxy, a booming file-swapping network that lured 3.5 million users in March. The complaint: The Recording Industry Association of America, on behalf of labels, is vigorously seeking to stamp out proliferating Web sites that permit free downloads of music.… Read more »

Strahov Stadium has had it all – communist rallies, anti-globalization protests, gymnastics exhibitions, drive-through movies and, now, Ozzfest. The crumbling structure, which stands as the largest stadium in the world per square foot, lent itself well to Ozzy Osbourne and his latest touring comrades, who hit the venue Thursday night for the seventh stop on the metal tour. With their stage parked in the middle of the field, the hard rockers used only half of the 200,000-capacity stadium, carving out an almost cozy cradle for Bohemia’s metalheads within the concrete monolith. While the tour got off to a less-than-grand beginning… Read more »

Sonic Youth will take their sixteenth album, Murray Street, out on a twenty-two-date tour, starting August 1st in Dallas. The tour will be the group’s second as a five-piece, as the group brought producer Jim O’Rourke onboard while promoting their last studio record, 2000’s NYC Ghosts and Flowers. The dates will run through a September 1st appearance at the Bumbershoot festival in Seattle and include a free concert at Central Park in the band’s hometown of New York City. The majority of Murray Street, which will be released on June 25th, was written last summer, and the band recorded the… Read more »

In addition to the release of their new album, Murray Street, next month, Sonic Youth have begun work on a trio of reissues, the first of which, Dirty, is scheduled for release this summer. The band has been pouring through unreleased demos and songs for the series, which will see Dirty, Daydream Nation and Goo remastered and reissued with new liner notes and a bonus CD of new material. “It’s pretty much together,” singer-guitarist Thurston Moore says of the new Dirty. “We weren’t too interested in putting live stuff on there; it would take forever to go through it. But… Read more »

Alien Ant Farm’s tour bus collided with a truck in Cáceres, Spain, early Wednesday morning (May 22), resulting in the bus driver’s death and the band sustaining minor injuries. The members of the band were taken to a nearby hospital, roughly 200 kilometers west of Madrid, according to a Dreamworks Records spokesperson. Singer Dryden Mitchell sustained back injuries, guitarist Terry Corso broke his ankle, bassist Tye Zamora injured his foot and drummer Mike Cosgrove entered the hospital with cuts and bruises as a result of the accident. The bandmembers were asleep in their bunks at the time of the crash,… Read more »

Lance Bass of ‘N Sync is competing with a former NASA official for the next seat on a Russian spacecraft. Dmitry Malashenkov, spokesman for Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems, said Tuesday that Bass and ex-NASA employee Lori Garver were undergoing medical tests at the Moscow center to evaluate their fitness for space travel. They must spend time in a pressurized chamber and undergo a centrifuge test to determine how their bodies would respond to the spacecraft’s liftoff. The results will be forwarded to a state commission, which will deliver a final report on both candidates’ fitness, Malashenkov said. Russia’s space… Read more »

Billy Bob Thornton’s counting on an Elvis sighting. The “Monster’s Ball” actor and screenwriting Oscar-winner for “Sling Blade” began a two-week, nine-city concert tour Friday showcasing his rockabilly musical roots. He announced he’s going to team up with rocker Elvis Costello on dates in Minnesota, Michigan and Ohio. Thornton, who began his music career playing drums and opening for artists including Humble Pie, Hank Williams Jr. and the Earl Scruggs Review, met Costello during the actor’s recent European tour. Costello joined him on stage for a surprise guest appearance in Dublin. “I have always been an admirer of Elvis Costello,… Read more »

Swedish experimental extreme metal band Meshuggah have been praised by the mainstream music press and metal mags alike, and have cultivated a loyal underground following since their first LP, Contradictions Collapse, was released in 1991. But even the largest crowds at a European metal festival pale in comparison to the millions that heard Meshuggah on “The Osbournes” when Jack, in an effort to piss off the family’s obnoxious neighbors, blasted “Future Breed Machine” from the band’s 1995 album, Destroy, Erase, Improve. The young metal powerbroker also recruited the band to play the second stage of this year’s Ozzfest, and the… Read more »