Search Results for: every time i die

In 1993, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, the Smashing Pumpkins and Pavement brought AIDS activism into the bedrooms of grunge-obsessed teens on the benefit album ” No Alternative” marrying music to message in a way that registered strongly with Generation X. The project, organized by the Red Hot Organization — an international production company dedicated to fighting AIDs through pop culture — and released by Arista Records sold 292,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan and generated several modern rock radio hits. But the success was a mixed blessing; other major labels went out of their way to… Read more »

There is no chance that Axl Rose and his former Guns N’ Roses bandmate Slash will reunite. One of the pair will “die” before such an event could occur, Axl Rose said. The frontman told Billboard that the dispute between the pair would never be healed. He went on to say that Guns N’ Roses in its current guise, could tour in the near future. “In regards to Slash,” he said, “I read a desperate fan’s message about, ‘What if one of us were to die, and looking back I had the possibility of a reunion now.’ My thoughts are,… Read more »

Indie heavyweights Nettwerk, INgrooves, IRIS Distribution, RoyaltyShare and Wind-up have all signed deals to have their music featured and sold on MySpace Music. Indie aggregators The Orchard and IODA signed on several months ago. Today’s announcement leaves Merlin and its supporters including Koch and Beggars as the last large indie holdouts. When MySpace Music launched late last year, the indie community cried foul because they had not been offered the same equity position that the social networker gave the four major label groups. “Without an equitable participation by independents, that creates a situation that is both unhealthy and dangerous,” Merlin… Read more »

Bernie Mac, the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor and comedian who worked his way to Hollywood success from an impoverished upbringing on Chicago’s South Side, died Saturday at age 50. “Actor/comedian Bernie Mac passed away this morning from complications due to pneumonia in a Chicago area hospital,” his publicist, Danica Smith, said in a statement from Los Angeles. She said no other details were available and asked that his family’s privacy be respected. The comedian suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body’s organs, but had said the condition went into… 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 »

In the last month, two very different West Coast live music venues have met two very different fates. In Los Angeles, the resolutely DIY noise and punk outpost the Smell celebrated its 10th anniversary with a series of shows featuring scene stalwarts like No Age and Abe Vigoda. In Seattle, however, music fans mourned the sudden closing of the Crocodile Cafe; the 16-year-old space, which was heralded as the “living room of grunge,” closed unexpectedly December 16. In an age where clubs seem to come and go in the blink of an eye, one that remains open into its teens… Read more »

Do you know what time it is? Well, according to the invisible clock, it’s 9, though no one seems to be sure if that means a.m. or p.m., or why the difference is important. And, of course, there are some who still can’t even see the clock – you know, since it’s invisible and all – so they’re busy trying to figure out the 23-character word puzzle, even though everyone seems to believe that they’ve already solved it, despite the fact that they have no proof to support that belief. Confused? Well, you must not be a Panic! at the… Read more »

F. Scott Fitzgerald may have depressingly opined that “there are no second acts in American lives,” but Nada Surf is certainly making the case for second acts in indie rock. The band had an accidental alt-rock radio hit in 1996 with “Popular,” only to be signed and then summarily dropped by Elektra. This sort of rise and fall would spell the end for many bands, but Nada Surf kept on going, buying back and reissuing its shelved major-label album, “The Proximity Effect,” in 1998. Since then, the band released two records on Seattle-based indie Barsuk: 2003’s “Let Go,” which has… Read more »

In 2004, U.K.-based independent label Memphis Industries released the sample-heavy, intentionally lo-fi and daringly jarring “Thunder, Lightning, Strike,” the Go! Team’s debut full-length CD. The buzz was deafening, so in 2005, the label entered a joint venture with Sony BMG to distribute the album internationally, with the major’s Columbia subsidiary handling it in the United States. It’s a turn of events that every band dreams of — unless that band is the Go! Team. The brainchild of Ian Parton, the Go! Team was never supposed to be mainstream. Parton set out to make “dirty” pop songs — danceable, catchy tunes… Read more »