Search Results for: from first to last

Is Ashlee Simpson pregnant? And, if so, is that the reason she and Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz announced their engagement last week? Well, according to a pair of well-known gossip publications, the answer to both questions is a resounding “yes.” Of course, Wentz begs to differ. In an e-mail to MTV News, Wentz denied reports that surfaced Monday (April 14) on the Web sites of OK! magazine and Us Weekly that he and Simpson, 23, are expecting their first child. “There is a witch hunt for people to be pregnant whenever they get engaged in Hollywood,” he wrote.… Read more »

New York rock band Interpol will return to duty this summer for a run of European and North American festival dates, beginning July 3 in Norway. The trek will likely be the last in support of the band’s 2007 album, “Our Love To Admire,” before it gets busy on its next album. The only North American date confirmed so far is the Pemberton Festival in British Columbia on July 26. “We didn’t really do much of the summer festivals last year,” drummer Sam Fogarino told Billboard.com. “It will be the last hit-it-home, end-on-a-good note.” The new album, its first for… Read more »

Linkin Park, Chris Cornell and the Bravery will perform on the main stage of the fifth annual Projekt Revolution tour, set to begin July 16 at the Tweeter Center outside Boston. The Linkin Park-reared trek is scheduled to visit 24 U.S. cities, running through August 24 at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Houston. Ashes Divide (featuring A Perfect Circle’s Billy Howerdel) will also perform on the main stage. Atreyu, 10 Years, Hawthorne Heights, Armor For Sleep and the Street Drum Corps will appear on the smaller Revolution Stage. Tickets for select dates go on sale to the general public… Read more »

As I write this, iTunes ranks as the 2nd largest seller of music in the U.S. — only Wal-Mart’s physical stores sell more. Digital revenue is real, and there is a lot of it being earned. Sales from iTunes alone can provide a band enough revenue to achieve true financial success. Don’t take my word for it, just look at some of the sales by the following unsigned artists utilizing the Net for both digital distribution and marketing: Kelly sold over 500,000 songs in five months, Eric Hutchinson sold 120,000 songs in three weeks, The Medic Droid sold over 25,000… Read more »

Folksy French-Israeli singer Yael Naim found commercial success after her song “New Soul” played in Apple’s MacBook Air laptop ads, pushing the song to No. 7 on U.S. music chart Billboard’s Hot 100. She already had gained fame for what some saw as a comic choice to cover pop singer Britney Spear’s “Toxic,” singing a soulful, poignant version of the commercial hit while playing piano. But Naim, 29, whose self-titled new album was just released in the United States two months earlier than originally planned following the success of the Apple ad, says she’s not worried about being seen as… Read more »

Search for an artist on any of the popular search engines, and the top three results are practically guaranteed: the artist’s official Web site, Wikipedia entry and MySpace page — often in that order. But while artists and their handlers devote massive attention to the Web site and MySpace, the Wikipedia page is often overlooked. Recent data suggests they may want to reconsider their priorities. According to data provided to Billboard from Yahoo — the second-most popular search engine on the Web after Google — those searching for artist information are selecting the Wikipedia entry link over artists’ MySpace pages… Read more »

Multi-platinum Island Records group Fall Out Boy announced today that they are attempting to set a Guinness World Record, for the first band to play a concert in all seven continents, in a time frame under 9 months.   The band kicked off the record in Johannesburg, South Africa late last summer, then toured through Europe, Asia, Australia and North America last fall.   The South American show will take place in Santiago Chile on March 23, followed up by King George, Island in Antarctica on March 25, where they hope to receive the Guinness World Record. Fall Out Boy… Read more »

Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90. Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30 a.m. local time after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva told The Associated Press. Clarke was regarded as a technological seer as well as a science-fiction writer, and was known as “the godfather of the telecommunications satellite.” His most famous novel, “2001: A… Read more »

Ola Brunkert, a former drummer for ABBA and one of only two musicians to play on all the Swedish pop superstars’ albums, died in a freak accident at his home on the Spanish island of Mallorca. According to authorities, Brunkert fell into a glass door in his dining room and slashed his throat. He apparently attempted to stanch the blood flow with a towel and apparently went outside to call neighbors for help. But he lost consciousness and collapsed. According to published reports, a neighbor discovered Brunkert ‘s body, in a pool of blood, in the garden outside the musician’s… Read more »

The online release of the new Nine Inch Nails album, “Ghosts I-IV,” resulted in just under 800,000 transactions in its first week, totaling $1.6 million in revenue, the industrial-rock band has revealed. The tally includes free and paid downloads, as well as advance orders for physical configurations like various limited-edition vinyl releases, CDs, and a boxed set. “Ghosts I-IV,” the band’s first release since becoming a free agent last October, went on sale March 2 at its Web site, http://www.nin.com. Fans can receive the first nine songs from the 36-track project for free, or can pay $5 for the entire… Read more »