Search Results for: foo fighters

Despite frequent lineup changes, there is one common thread between each Taking Back Sunday song. “If at the end we’re all red-faced and sweaty,” bassist Matt Rubino says, describing the band’s energetic live shows, “then you know it’s a Taking Back Sunday song.” The group’s aptly titled album New Again, due June 2 from Warner Bros, heralds a move toward a more grown-up modern-rock sound, with catchier choruses and beefier guitars. Guitarist Matthew Fazzi replaces Fred Mascherino. Producer David Kahne says his goal was to capture the “power and scope” of the band’s live show and to “make sure all… Read more »

One night in the late 1990s, Conan O’Brien was hanging out in a Detroit bowling alley after shooting a remote segment with Ted Nugent (”I rode around in the woods with him, we had a guitar duel and then fired guns,” he recalls). “I have this vague memory of these really cool kids coming over and hanging out with us,” he says. “I knew nothing about them or what they did.” A few years later, O’Brien learned he had met Jack and Meg White that day when he popped into a Saturday Night Live rehearsal to check out the White… Read more »

This year’s transformation of the annual Grammy Awards nominations announcement into a full-blown prime-time TV special could help provide a badly needed boost in sales at a difficult time for the music industry. But the December 3 “Grammy Nominations Concert Live!” telecast on CBS fell short of being a ratings winner. The one-hour show finished fourth in its 9 p.m. time slot, averaging 7 million viewers, behind NBC’s “Life” with 8.1 million, Fox’s “Secret Millionaire” with 8.1 million and ABC’s “Private Practice” with 7.8 million, according to Nielsen Media Research The audience for the nominations special was also less than… Read more »

He had one of the biggest opening sales weeks of 2008, and now, Lil Wayne is the year’s most-nominated Grammy contender. Wayne and his latest LP, “Tha Carter III,” lead the pack with a total of eight nominations, while one of the year’s other biggest sellers, Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends,” garnered seven nods. Jay-Z, Ne-Yo and Kanye West each earned six nods, while Alison Krauss, John Mayer, Robert Plant, Radiohead and Jazmine Sullivan received five each. Adele is up for four – including Best New Artist – as are Lupe Fiasco and T.I. The… Read more »

How do you get VIP or backstage passes at concerts? I’m not a crazy, but I would love to meet Foo Fighters next time they play here. –Jenna, Melville, N.Y. I’d like to take this opportunity to dedicate this column to Kevin, That Other Jonas, who gets such little love from the kids. Everyone is always going on about Foo Fighters or Rihanna or the two hot Jonas Brothers. Doesn’t anyone want to hang out backstage with What’s-His-Name Jonas? Kevin? No? Anyway, no matter. From what I learned today from Industry insiders, you stand very little chance of a backstage… Read more »

It’s 4 a.m. on the last night of the South by Southwest music conference, and Jim James is belting out Rod Stewart’s “You’re in My Heart.” A few hours earlier, the My Morning Jacket frontman dazzled an intimate crowd at an Austin church with a mostly solo acoustic set, and the full band’s three other performances during the week were some of the most acclaimed of the industry event. But of all the places James could be right now, it’s a cozy terrace suite at Austin’s famed Driskill Hotel, surrounded by a few close friends, a bucket of Miller Lites… Read more »

The 9:30 Club just hit the trifecta, winning the top three national awards for nightclubs in as many months.   The latest: the 9:30 Club has been named Nightclub of the Year by the POLLSTAR Concert Industry Awards. POLLSTAR, the industry’s leading concert trade publication, honored the 9:30 Club for its professionalism, achievements and abilities. The Pollstar Concert Industry Awards are determined through a vote of U.S. and international music business professionals. “The 9:30 Club is all about the people who work there. It would really be nothing without them.   I can’t thank them enough,” said Seth Hurwitz, chairman… Read more »

In a slow week for new releases, mellow crooner Jack Johnson remained No. 1 on the U.S. pop album charts Wednesday, while newly minted Grammy winners Amy Winehouse and Herbie Hancock surged into the top five. Johnson’s “Sleep Through the Static” sold 179,545 copies in the week ended February 17, according to Nielsen SoundScan, enough to lead the field for a second week. Canadian rock band Simple Plan’s self-titled album started at No. 14 with 39,000 copies — 100,000 copies short of the No. 3 debut for its previous release, 2004’s “Still Not Getting Any…” Overall sales were down 11.6… Read more »