Search Results for: extreme

Los Angeles – U2 has sold more than 120 million albums worldwide and won 14 Grammy Awards during the course of its 26-year career, so you would think that there would be a level of ease that comes with a new release. Not so, says the Irish band’s longtime manager Paul McGuinness. “There is absolutely no resting on our laurels,” he tells Billboard. “I say to people we have to break the band every time we put out a record.” And this is with an album that McGuinness expects to debut at No. 1 in “32 or 33 countries.” “How… Read more »

Pity the television fan who doesn’t like the music of U2. After a blizzard of Apple iTunes commercials featuring the band’s new single, “Vertigo,” blanketed television screens nationwide in October, the band is once again turning to the tube to usher in a second wave of exposure. To promote their new record, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which drops Nov. 23, the Irish foursome will pull musical guest duty on NBC’s Saturday Night Live later this month. And, in an even more novel strategy, the band is teaming with CBS’ runaway hit CSI to will roll out tracks from… Read more »

Major and independent record labels today announced the first-ever retail availability of the much anticipated DualDisc – a two-sided disc made up of a CD player side and a DVD player side. A broad range of titles have begun to hit retail shelves in the first wave of products that will continue throughout the holiday season and into next year with releases from EMI Music, Silverline Records, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group. DualDisc is a new music product that combines audio and video content on a single disc. In addition to a full album… Read more »

After a 25-year absence from the #1 album spot, J Records artist Rod Stewart with his album Stardust… The Great American Songbook: Volume III enters the Billboard 200 Album chart at #1 on a first week Soundscan total of 240,043 copies sold. The Songbook albums are a musical and cultural phenomenon, and are now the biggest-selling ongoing series of new music recordings in history. This is also Rod Stewart’s first ever #1 debut on the Billboard Top 200 chart. Stardust is the follow-up to 2002’s It Had To Be You… The Great American Songbook (which spent 85 weeks on the… Read more »

Good Charlotte, Lostprophets, Coheed and Cambria and other Sony BMG Music affiliated artists will be found on the in-game soundtrack to “ATV Offroad Fury3.” Exclusive to Sony’s PlayStation 2 game platform, the highly anticipated videogame ships Nov. 2 and marks a creative partnership between Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) and Sony Music. The array of tracks from well-known and up-and-coming rock, funk, hip-hop and techno acts was selected to amplify the extreme gameplay and intense offroad racing excitement. Other artists heard in the game include Chevelle, Eighteen Visions, Crossfade, Future Leaders Of The World, the Mooney Suzuki, Midtown, Killradio and… Read more »

Phish fans were streaming out of the concert site early Monday on their way home, and police reported no major traffic problems. Fans started leaving the band’s two-day festival on Sunday, even before Phish played its last set. More than 60,000 fans attended the band’s farewell concert. Early Monday morning, traffic was steady in the southbound lane of Interstate 91 as those fans made their way out of northern Vermont. “Traffic is moving slowly, but much faster than it was coming in,” said state police Sgt. Bruce Melendy, who was driving north toward the concert site on Interstate 91 early… Read more »

What a week for Perry Farrell. Just days after his beloved Lollapalooza summer concert tour got canned due to poor ticket sales comes news his three Jane’s Addiction bandmates have joined forces with another singer to form a new group. The on-again, off-again Addiction had reunited last year to record the album Hypersonic, the band’s first since 1990’s Ritual de lo Habitual. But a statement from Jane’s Addiction guitarist (and Carmen Electra sidekick) Dave Navarro says that the band is officially off again and that he, bassist Chris Chaney and drummer Stephen Perkins have moved on with Skycycle vocalist Steve… Read more »

Whisps of fake fog spilled from the stage and dissipated into a light breeze rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean as 7,000 satisfied fans shuffled toward Nathan’s Hot Dogs, the Wonder Wheel or the D-train. So ended the beginning of the end for Phish, who performed Thursday and Friday at Coney Island’s baseball stadium beside the sea, KeySpan Park. The shows launched the band’s farewell tour, which will culminate August 14 and 15 at a festival in Phish’s home state of Vermont. But fans didn’t let any sadness show at these gigs: Even when the sky opened up and drenched… Read more »

JUST days after the European launch of Apple Computers’ online music store, a chorus of customers are voicing their complaints. The lack of songs from artists on independent record labels – which account for a quarter of the UK market – has left iTunes looking like a poorly-stocked American import store, lacking local talent such as Travis and Franz Ferdinand. “Most Scottish acts are on independent labels,” says Alison Wenham, chairman and chief executive of the Association of Independent Music (AIM), which represents the majority of the UK’s indie labels. “Celtic acts typically start off very strong in their home… Read more »

With a new album dropping in June and a summer concert schedule in place, all seemed normal enough in the Phish camp as this week began. But the group shocked fans Tuesday with the announcement that it will break up following a two-day festival in Coventry, Vermont, on August 14-15. Frontman/guitarist Trey Anastasio wrote on the band’s Web site, “We all love and respect Phish and the Phish audience far too much to stand by and allow it to drag on beyond the point of vibrancy and health. We don’t want to become caricatures of ourselves or, worse yet, a… Read more »