Search Results for: four year strong

By the close of business Wednesday, concert promoters across the country will know how many Internet-savvy baby boomers are hungry for the music of a generational hero, Bob Dylan. Dylan, whose “Love & Theft” album will be released Sept. 11, is taking a page from mega-sellers such as the Backstreet Boys and U2: a limited number of tickets for 32 North American concerts will go on sale Wednesday for fans who follow his activities on the Web site http://www.BobDylan.com. Although Dylan has toured relentlessly since the release four years ago of the album “Time Out of Mind,” which won three… Read more »

Former Beatle George Harrison, who has been battling cancer, said on Monday that reports of his imminent death had been exaggerated. The reclusive star, responding to weekend press reports that his health was fading fast, said in a statement that he was “active and feeling very well.” Harrison and his wife Olivia said through a statement released in London that they were “disappointed and disgusted” by the reports. The 58-year-old musician has been treated for a brain tumor at a clinic in Switzerland, having already undergone an operation for lung cancer earlier this year. The Mail on Sunday newspaper said… Read more »

MTV announced today the nominees for the “2001 MTV Video Music Awards.” Fatboy Slim tops the list with nine nominations for his video “Weapon of Choice,” which is directed by Spike Jonze and features actor Christopher Walken dancing. In addition, U2 and Alicia Keys will perform at the “2001 MTV Video Music Awards.” It was also announced that the eighteenth annual awards show will broadcast live from New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center on Thursday, September 6, 2001 at 8:00PM (LIVE ET/Tape Delayed PT). Additional performers and presenters will be announced soon. Other top nominees tied with… Read more »

Try as they might to display a more mature side as songwriters and lyricists, the members of Green Day – a third, fourth or maybe even fifth-generation punk band – are still working the same schtick that powered them to rock supremacy in the mid-1990s. It’s snotty and obnoxious, a blur of three- and four-chord rockers strung together in a manner that puts exclamation points after every barre chord and chorus. But when it’s working, Green Day is far and away the head of the class. Green Day delivered an involving, career-spanning show that included five tunes from the new… Read more »

U.S. album sales have declined in the first half of the year, despite the demise of song-swap service Napster, which the recording industry claimed would depress sales and hurt their bottom lines. According to New York-based SoundScan, which tracks music retail trends, sales of current albums – recordings released less than 18 months ago – have fallen about 8 percent year-to-date, while sales of all albums fell about 2.8 percent. Many music company officials shrug off the decline, blaming it on a lack of mega-hits and a slowdown in the economy. Many also predict the trend will improve in the… Read more »

SmackDown! Records, the music label of World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, will offer its first new artist release this fall with Neurotica, the eponymously titled new album from the hard hitting Florida-based band. “We are going to be releasing two to three new artists per year, and we’re excited that our first new artist is a band as strong and talented as Neurotica,” said Ron McCarrell, President, SmackDown! Records. “We want SmackDown! Records to be known for finding and developing unique musical talent, and for effectively using the marketing power of World Wrestling Federation Entertainment and its various media platforms to… Read more »

Epic Records and Divine Recordings are proud to announce the August 14 release of OZZFEST: 2001 THE SECOND MILLENNIUM, a collection of headbanging anthems from the 2001 Ozzfest tour. This release features the strongest and most diverse lineup to date including performances from all three Ozzfest stages also marks the first time any of these artists have appeared on the same compilation. OZZFEST 2001: THE SECOND MILLENNIUM was recorded over two days in the Midwest at the beginning of the tour, this 16-track live collection includes work from rock godfathers Black Sabbath (“The Wizard”) and Zakk Wylde’s (Ozzy guitarist) Black… Read more »

Punk-funk rockers 311 have earned the third top 10 debut of their career with the arrival of their sixth album, From Chaos, on the Billboard 200 album chart. The group’s Volcano Records debut claimed the Number 10 spot, selling more than 82,000 copies, according to sources. Nick Hexum, 311’s frontman, tells LAUNCH that he knew they were on to something with From Chaos, just based on the reaction by fans since the album’s release last week. “We’re definitely having the strongest reaction of any debut ever, you know, because, our breakthrough album, our third album, took over a year to… Read more »

To Lars Frederiksen, his band Rancid, his label-mates on Epitaph and Hell-Cat Records, and his favorite bands are all about being part of a family – a punk rock family. Fresh off a tour playing with tour with two, high-powered Hell-Cat bands, Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards and the Dropkick Murphys, Frederiksen is set for Rancid’s stint on this summer’s Vans Warped Tour and readying a new, high-tech Rancid release. There’s no time to rest for this tattooed, mohawk-sporting, family man. Rancid will join the roving punk festival on June 22nd in Phoenix along with Epitaph label-mates Pennywise, the Bouncing… Read more »

Pop kingpin Billy Joel is working on two new projects, and he doesn’t have to sing a note or plink a piano key for either one. The first is a classical piano album of new songs, which is being arranged by established concert pianist Hyung-ki Joo. On June 25, Joel will travel to Vienna, Austria, to supervise the project, which he hopes to have available for release by the fall. The tentative title is Music for Solo Piano, but Joel isn’t totally sold on the name. “I’m thinking of calling it Unsung, but that could be confusing because people may… Read more »