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About two months before the release of his band's third studio album, "When the World Comes Down," All-American Rejects singer/bassist Tyson Ritter is spending most of his free time drinking beer and engaging in kite-flying wars on the beaches of Northern Florida. "I've been getting completely hammered and enjoying myself," Ritter says from his home in Destin, Florida. "I'm 24 and I know I'm not going to be able to do this s–t when I'm 50. Sometimes you've got to live." The All-American Rejects frontman has reason to enjoy his time off. In the two years since the release of… Read more »

EMI is preparing to launch a music service by the end of the year, representing the latest direct-to-consumer business being planned by a major label. "This is not an effort to compete with iTunes or Amazon," said a source familiar with the situation. The service may live on EMI.com, which is dedicated to a mix of corporate and artist news. The music service will feature a mixture of paid and free content and also might include non-EMI artists as well. EMI is positioning the effort, which was first reported Wednesday in the Financial Times, as an experimental "consumer lab." One… Read more »

Travis Barker said he’s “thankful to be alive” after the plane crash in Columbia, South Carolina, last month that killed four people and seriously injured him and DJ AM. The former Blink-182 drummer opens up about the accident in the new issue of Us Weekly. “I hate planes,” he said. “My biggest fear ever is to be involved in a plane crash, so when that happened … well, I’m just thankful to be alive! I’m just grateful to be here at all.” Barker then choked up a bit, the mag said. Barker left a hospital in Georgia last week and… Read more »

David Pakman, CEO of eMusic, will leave the subscription service at the end of the year. Pakman explained his departure on Monday, and yesterday disclosed that his next destination would be VC firm Venrock. Pakman championed DRM-free music, viewing the measures as anti-consumer. This has been a phenomenon, along with his commitment to editorial investment – a stark contrast to Apple’s iTunes music store which one reader after launch called “an airport kiosk without the cigarettes and chewing gum.” Pakman grew the eMusic subscriber base from 10,000 to 400,000 in his four years as boss, turning it into the second… Read more »

Paul McCartney is returning to his Fireman alias after a decade away from the musical collaboration with producer Youth. McCartney will release “Electric Arguments” by the Fireman on November 17 via MPL, an imprint of his London-based publishing company. The 13-track album will be manufactured and distributed by U.K. indie One Little Indian worldwide except in the U.S., where ATO will issue it. The third set from the Fireman, “Electric Arguments” is the first to feature vocals and is described as “entirely different” from the dance and electronic music of previous releases. McCartney and Martin “Youth” Glover, a former member… Read more »

MySpace, the world's largest social networking site, on Wednesday unveiled a long-expected joint venture with all four major music companies in a bid to compete with Apple Inc's market-leading iTunes store. MySpace Music is designed to win fans with a mix of unlimited free music, comprehensive music catalogs, concert tickets, merchandising and other entertainment features. The launch of the new service had been dogged by speculation on the start date and the ongoing search for a chief executive. But the biggest challenge for the new venture was signing a deal with the fourth-largest music company EMI Music, which had held… Read more »

The Gym Class Heroes have experimented so much on their latest CD that even frontman Travis McCoy can’t quite describe the group’s newly formed sound. “It’s like our last two efforts combined in a sense, but pushed further. Hence the title ‘The Quilt.’ It’s like a patchwork of sounds, different arrangements (and) real lyrics,” says McCoy, trying to explain the CD, released earlier this month. “Musically, I think it’s a big cocktail of everything that’s inspired us over the past two years,” he said. “It is definitely rooted in hip-hop and hip-hop is like the main course on the plate,… Read more »

Chicago radio stations and sports bars have begun spinning “All the Way,” a Chicago Cubs-themed ditty written by Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder at the request of Cubs legend Ernie Banks. The track, with lines like “Our heroes wear pinstripes / pinstripes in blue / give us a chance to feel like heroes too,” was recorded last month during a Vedder solo show at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre. According to Pearl Jam’s Web site, “All the Way” will be available for download in the “next few days,” and may also be sold on CD and “souvenir 45 singles.” Vedder is a… Read more »

A year after vowing never to perform on the MTV Video Music Awards again, hip-hop star Kanye West will close the show’s 25th annual ceremony in Hollywood on Sunday, joining a lineup that includes Christina Aguilera and the Jonas Brothers, organizers said. The outspoken rapper was upset by his treatment at last year’s show, when his performance was relegated to a small stage in the Las Vegas venue. West also failed to win any prizes, and accused the music cable network of exploiting Britney Spears, who inadvertently stole the show by badly lip-synching and dancing to her new tune. The… Read more »

With his spiky mohawk, cluttered canvas of tattooed skin and punk rock pedigree stretching back to childhood, Travis Barker isn’t exactly pleading to be taken seriously as a hip-hop head. A former drummer for the multi-platinum-selling power pop trio Blink-182 who also has done turns behind the kit for rock outfits including the Aquabats, +44 and Box Car Racer, he boasts impeccable Warped Tour credentials and critical props as one of modern rock’s most exciting, exacting percussion players. But a funny thing happened when Barker posted a video of himself on YouTube last September drumming thunderously in time with Southern… Read more »