Search Results for: extreme

MTV plans to make a documentary film on the life of Tupac Shakur, the 25-year-old rap star killed in a 1996 drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. His mother, Afeni Shakur, will be the documentary’s executive producer. “The past five years have been extremely painful watching and listening while others incorrectly attempted to define who my son really was,” Shakur said Monday. “Now, through patience, the strength of my family, and faith in God, the true story of Tupac will finally be shared with the world.” Lauren Lazin, vice president of MTV News and Documentaries, will direct and produce the still… Read more »

Soul Asylum recently celebrated the group’s twentieth anniversary with a show at First Avenue in Minneapolis. “It was extremely touching,” says singer/guitarist Dave Pirner. “It seemed like First Avenue was overflowing with love. I’m getting emotional just thinking about it. I really couldn’t get a grip on the fact that we had been together for that long.” Now that the balloons are popped and the champagne bottles drained, Soul Asylum are back doing what’s kept the group together these last two decades: writing new music. “We don’t know where or when we’re going to put this out,” says Pirner of… Read more »

The world’s big record labels are finally rolling out online subscription services smack in the middle of the holiday season that caps the music industry’s worst year in at least a decade. In coming weeks, music fans – who have for years been pulling everything from Radiohead to Madonna off the Web for free from services like Napster – will be introduced to a new breed of money-for-music services like PressPlay and MusicNet, which have been developed by the major record companies. Several smaller independent firms like FullAudio and Listen.com will soon be launching subscription services too. Industry officials and… Read more »

ARTISTdirect CEO Ted Field today announced that industry veterans Jim Swindel and Marc Benesch have joined the executive management team. Swindel has been named executive vice president of sales and marketing, while Benesch joins as executive vice president of promotion. Both appointments are effective immediately. Swindel is a 25-year veteran of the record business who will oversee all sales and marketing efforts aspects of the label’s roster, beginning with upcoming releases by singer/songwriter Custom, and hip-hop trio NAAM Brigade. He will also work closely with Field and Vice Chairman Marc Geiger on the development of other digital music ventures. As… Read more »

Fleetwood Mac, the Anglo-American pop group that shrugged off bitter internal rivalries to emerge as one of music’s great survival stories, is back in the studio recording its first album since a successful 1997 reunion. The band hopes to tour late next summer “with any luck,” co-founder Mick Fleetwood told Reuters, alluding to its wildly unpredictable 34-year progression from British blues combo to California rock institution. But it would not be a Fleetwood Mac project without some drama. In this case, singer/keyboardist Christine McVie, one of three key songwriters, has retired from rock ‘n’ roll. Tired of the travel, she… Read more »

Fleetwood Mac, the Anglo-American pop group that shrugged off bitter internal rivalries to emerge as one of music’s great survival stories, is back in the studio recording its first album since a successful 1997 reunion. The band hopes to tour late next summer “with any luck,” co-founder Mick Fleetwood told Reuters, alluding to its wildly unpredictable 34-year progression from British blues combo to California rock institution. But it would not be a Fleetwood Mac project without some drama. In this case, singer/keyboardist Christine McVie, one of three key songwriters, has retired from rock ‘n’ roll. Tired of the travel, she… Read more »

Early ’90s superstar Vanilla Ice is back with a new album, Bi-Polar, which came out last week. Ice produced the set, which features guest appearances from Chuck D, La Tha Darkman, Insane Clown Posse, and Josh Brainard, formerly of Slipknot. Bi-Polar features eight hardcore tracks and 17 hip-hop tracks. LAUNCH recently spoke with Ice, who explained why he decided to return to the musical arena. “What brings me back to music is just, you know, I played a lot of shows since October ’98. October ’98 is when I released Hard To Swallow, which was an album I did with… Read more »

Island Def Jam/Def Soul yesterday announced four new executive appointments. Carol Corless has been named Senior Director of Production; Chonita L. Floyd named Senior Director of International Marketing; Karen Wiessen has been named Senior Director of Media & Artist Relations; and Daniel Kruchkow has been named Manager, Online Grassroots Marketing for Def Jam/Def Soul Records. All four new executives will be based in New York. Corless’ main focus will be to oversee the scheduling and production of commercial and promotional releases for Island Def Jam, and will involve interaction with the creative, distribution, promotion, sales, and A&R departments. Previously, Corless… Read more »

Britney Spears’s first live, full-length HBO concert special, Britney Spears Live From Las Vegas at the MGM Grand on November 18, promises to be full of surprises. However, those surprises will not include her highly-anticipated duet with Cher on “The Beat Goes On,” which Spears covered on her 1999 debut album,…Baby One More Time. Cher was forced to cancel the planned duet because of a conflict with the European promotional schedule for her upcoming studio album, Living Proof. “When they asked me, ‘Who would you like to do a duet with?’ I was, like, ‘Please lets do it with Cher… Read more »

“This tragic event has awakened a new interest in news and information for 12-25 year olds that had never existed before,” says Cromwell Broadcasting’s “Czar of Programming” Brian Krysz, referring to the terrorist acts of nearly a month ago. And would anyone argue with his statement? This generation has had its defining moment, just as the Great Depression and World War II were for our parents or grandparents, or the assassination of JFK and the Vietnam War so clearly defined the next generation. After the events of September 11th, 2001, everything in our world, including radio programming, has entered a… Read more »