Search Results for: fireworks

Feist’s musical palette contains many emotional colors, but there’s something to be said for joy. More than anything, a playful spirit explains why this was the Canadian singer-songwriter’s breakout year – that, and a well-timed iPod commercial. She’s up for four Grammy Awards at the Feb. 10 ceremony, including best new artist. One of Feist’s videos shows her flying through the air and literally being pulled back to Earth by someone suspicious of her fun. Another depicts her dancing through fireworks in what one onlooker at the production told her “looks like what falling in love feels like.” Her clip… Read more »

With an emphasis on the visual over the audio, MTV from its inception has never been “about the music.” But after seeing interest in its signature trophy show wane in recent years, the network put the spotlight where it belongs for a music awards show: on the concert stage. The result of this brainstorm, and a few other format changes to its Video Music Awards? The most watchable show in many a Moon Man outing. Even if that isn’t saying much. And this despite opening with an onstage career suicide by Britney Spears. More on that later. The 2007 VMAs… Read more »

New York – Nobody, but nobody was worried when Paul McCartney stripped off his jacket midway through his halftime performance at the Super Bowl. All he revealed was a long-sleeved red shirt. Nothing malfunctioned. And if he wore any nipple jewelry, he mercifully kept it to himself. NFL officials wanted a safe halftime show after last year’s Janet Jackson fiasco, and McCartney delivered. It was sweet nostalgia for the people stunned by Jackson’s MTV-produced spectacle, if a bit off-putting for the kids: Each of his four songs was more than 30 years old. Surely you recall last year’s climax to… Read more »

BAGHDAD, Iraq – While Saddam Hussein spent a second New Year’s Eve in a jail cell, a Southern California rock band known for such albums as “Hitler Bad, Vandals Good” and “Look What I Almost Stepped In” played in the heart of his former empire. The 3rd Brigade of the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division got a one-hour show by punk perennials The Vandals during a modest Friday night party in the Green Zone. The show was one of the few entertainments provided for U.S. troops in Iraq on New Year’s Eve, a day marked chiefly by a relative lull in… 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 »

A year ago, Smile Empty Soul really were nowhere kids. With no album or single out yet, they were riding around in a dilapidated van that was crowded and playing in dilapidated clubs that weren’t. Now the bandmembers ride in a comfortable bus, get recognized even before they take the stage, and their single “Nowhere Kids” is blowing up at radio. Not only do Smile Empty Soul now have the luxury to travel in style, they can afford creature comforts and absurd indulgences. “We have a ridiculous amount of totally illegal fireworks on our bus,” bassist Ryan Martin admitted. “It’s… Read more »

Linkin Park’s upcoming DVD offers an up close and personal look at the band’s live show, but not as personal as it could’ve been. At Monday’s premiere of “Live in Texas,” guitarist Brad Delson said the band inserted a surgical camera inside singer Chester Bennington, but “it was kind of an invasive process. The shots turned out to be weird, so none of those shots made the final cut,” he deadpanned. “Yeah, they weren’t action shots,” Bennington said, smiling. “He’s got a clean colon, we learned that much,” Delson added, finally breaking into laughter. Still, “Live in Texas” does have… Read more »

Marred by fiery riots a year ago, the Leeds leg of Britain’s Carling Weekend made a sold-out, subdued and sunny return this weekend. Metallica, Linkin Park, Staind, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, AFI, the Polyphonic Spree, Hot Hot Heat, Good Charlotte, Sum 41, the Libertines, Blink-182, the Cooper Temple Clause, Death in Vegas, the Streets and many others played the open-air arena and three tents at the festival’s new site, Bramham Park. Fifty thousand people were on hand each of the weekend’s three days, but police reported that only twenty-seven arrests were made this year – in contrast to the chaos… Read more »

Brotherly pop trio Hanson, who unwittingly ignited a teen pop craze when they stormed the charts six years ago with the catchy anthem “MMMBop,” are stripping down this summer. Isaac, Taylor and Zach Hanson have recorded their first album in three years, “Underneath,” and will lay the groundwork for its release early next year by launching an acoustic tour next month. They also will sell an acoustic record at the shows. Casual fans who still carry an image in their minds of three cherubic, pubescent youngsters are in for a surprise. All are strapping young men, and middle brother, Taylor,… Read more »

“American Idol” Ruben Studdard is lucky he has a healthy ego. Not only is “Idol” runner-up Clay Aiken beating the champ on the Billboard singles charts, but on the fifth stop of the “Idol” summer tour, the spiky-haired crooner proved that he’s winning the battle for the hearts and minds of “Idol” fans across the country. Even before the nine “Idol” finalists took the stage at U.S. Bank Arena Sunday night to perform a nearly two-and-a-half-hour medley of covers, the mere sight of Clay’s face on the two Jumbotron screens flanking the massive neon ballroom set was enough to elicit… Read more »