Search Results for: four year strong

Musicians Ryan Ross and Jon Walker, both of Panic at the Disco fame, are leaving the band behind according to a posting on Panic’s Web site: Ryan Ross and Jon Walker will be leaving Panic at the Disco to embark on a musical excursion of their own. Though the four of us have made music together in the past, we’ve creatively evolved in different directions which has compromised what each of us want to personally achieve. Over the years, we have remained close and honest with each other, which helped us to realize that our goals were different and that… Read more »

Vans Warped Tour kicks off its 15th year of rocking up summer in Pomona, Calif. on June 26, and this year Fearless Records has four acts heading out for two months of punk rock mayhem. The Maine continues a killer year with a headlining slot on The Hurley Stage, while both  A Skylit Drive and  Breathe Carolina will play the entire tour on the SmartPunk Stage.   Also joining them on select dates will be  Every Avenue, which is set to take Warped by storm for a second year from July 24 – August 23. The Fearless tent will be… Read more »

Death Cab for Cutie kicked off its U.S. tour last night with a stop at Philadelphia’s Tower Theater, a converted movie house with acoustics ready-made for frontman Ben Gibbard’s supernaturally clean and earnest whisper. Gibbard, recently engaged to fellow indie icon Zooey Deschanel, took the stage after solid performances from opening acts Cold War Kids and Ra Ra Riot and delivered an intimate solo rendition of “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” to a quiet, seated crowd. The rest of the band emerged and hit their stride with “The New Year,” a cut off of 2003’s “Transatlanticism” that ended… Read more »

NASHVILLE —  Watch Nathan Followill breeze into his local Nashville watering hole, and it’s obvious that he’s well known and well liked by the crew at McCabe’s Pub. Clad in sweats and a Yankees cap, the Kings of Leon drummer comes off more as cool local guy than international rock star Nothing in this manner indicates that his Nashville-based rock band’s fourth album is finally making the Kings as big in the United States as they have been in Europe since 2004, when the group had back-to-back No. 1 singles in the United Kingdom According to the band’s label, RCA,… Read more »

In between the raunchy humor and nudity, Blink-182 managed to make a huge impact on other bands and devoted fans. Perhaps without even knowing it – and definitely without ever really trying – Blink-182 have somehow become one of the most influential bands of the past 20 years. This might seem like a bit of a stretch. After all, aren’t these the same guys with the discography of di– jokes? The ones who gave their albums titles like “Enema of the State or Take Off Your Pants and Jacket?” Well, yes. But they’re also the same guys who featured Robert… 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 »

Two years after Steve Jobs declared that DRM was dead and a year after Amazon launched its DRM-free download store with all four major labels, the vast majority of tracks on iTunes are still delivered with a little piece of code that restricts transfer and use. What is taking so long? Perhaps deep down Steve Jobs doesn’t really want to unlock iTunes. After all, Apple has profited greatly from the closed loop between the iPod and iTunes. But since early summer, reports have come from all corners that iTunes, which currently offers only EMI and some indie product DRM free,… 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 »

At the American Music Awards on Sunday (November 23), Miley Cyrus, celebrating her 16th birthday, broke character a bit, performing a saucy, seductive version of her new single, “Fly on the Wall”; Mariah Carey delivered a riveting rendition of “I Stay in Love”; and a barely lucid Scott Weiland ironically introduced Pink’s performance of “Sober,” calling her “one of the greatest artists of our time.” Later, Pink even joined Sarah McLachlan for a duet on “Angel.” The New Kids on the Block and Christina Aguilera both performed medleys of their most beloved tunes. Justin Timberlake gave us a lesson on… Read more »