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You’ll usually find R.E.M. playing arenas and esteemed concert halls. But this week, the rock hall of famers were among the acts trying to catch a break and artists looking to build their audience at the sprawling South by Southwest music festival. The multiplatinum rockers played Stubbs BBQ shortly after midnight Wednesday before an energetic crowd of a couple thousand, marking the first time they’ve played the annual extravaganza in their nearly three-decade career. But it’s hardly a downgrade: Playing a showcase at SXSW has often been a way for a veteran act to make a big splash with a… Read more »

It may be almost 38 years since they officially split but the ability of all things Beatles to shake the world continues unabated. If proof were needed, reports yesterday that Sir Paul McCartney had given the go-ahead for the Fab Four’s back catalogue to be made available on iTunes and other digital download services “within months” made front-page news and set fans’ internet chat rooms buzzing. Official “no comments” that anything was imminent from both Apple Corps, owners of the Beatles’ legacy, and Apple, the creator of iTunes, which dismissed suggestions as “rumour and speculation,” could do little to dampen… Read more »

Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz is opening a punk-themed unisex beauty parlor in Chicago, according to the New York Daily News. Wentz will call it The Clandestine Industries salon. Head stylist Ben Mollin from Bravo’s “Shear Genius” is already booking appointments, but the first snips won’t happen until the hair cuttery opens in April. This isn’t the first time Wentz has branched out beyond the music industry. He has his own fashion line – Clandestine Industries Clothing (coming soon to your local Nordstrom) – and opened the Angels and Kings bar, in New York, last April with friends Gym Class… Read more »

The following message was sent to Starting Line fans via email Wednesday evening: From all the east coast to west coast states I want to feel the warmth from the buzz that I create But I’m really not too sure If it’s ever gonna happen But I know that I’m not too concerned Imagine getting your first job when you were 15 years old and doing that exact same job for the rest of your life. Even if it’s the dream job that most people would kill for, eventually you need to stop for a minute and see what else… Read more »

As expected, Nine Inch Nails is utilizing the Internet to disseminate its new instrumental album, “Ghosts I-IV,” which went live at 9 p.m. ET tonight (March 2) via the Trent Reznor-led group’s Web site. “Ghosts” will also see physical release via RED Distribution on April 8, Billboard has learned. Fans can receive the first nine songs from the 36-track project, which was recorded during “an intense 10-week period last fall” and likely to spawn additional volumes, for free, or the entire album can be obtained digitally for $5. “I’ve been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for… Read more »

If you ask Boy George if he really wanted to hurt him, the answer’s an emphatic no. The “Karma Chameleon” purveyor pleaded not guilty Thursday to a charge of false imprisonment for allegedly chaining a male escort to a wall and threatening him at the former’s east London home last April. George, 46, whose real name is George O’Dowd, turned up at Snaresbrook Crown Court dressed in black and sporting shades. The ’80s icon was mostly mum during the 20-minute hearing except to enter his plea and confirm the conditions of his bail. He subsequently left without speaking to reporters.… Read more »

Mike Smith, the lead singer of the 1960s British band the Dave Clark Five, died on Thursday of pneumonia at an English hospital, his U.S. agent said. Smith, 64, was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday morning with a chest infection resulting from complications of a 2003 spinal cord injury that had left him paralyzed from the waist down, his New York agent, Margo Lewis, said in a statement. His death at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, north of London, came just two weeks before the Dave Clark Five — one of the leading bands of the 1960s “British invasion” — was… Read more »

The Spice Girls' shelf life has finally expired. What started out as plans for an 11-date comeback tour and inevitably morphed into an all-out, months-long globe-trotting phenomenon, concluded in Toronto Tuesday night, when the Girls wrapped up their Return of the Spice Girls World Tour. "Our time is up…we've come to the end of the road…there are tears of both sadness and joy," the group collectively posted in a farewell message to their website Wednesday. "Who would have though that our reunion could have turned out to be this amazing? It just shows what can grow out of an exciting… Read more »

With their previous album, Still Not Getting Any …, Montreal band Simple Plan had a rather simple plan in creating it, not straying too far from the power-punk formula found on their debut, No Pads, No Helmets … Just Balls. But the band’s plan concerning its self-titled third effort, now out in stores, was anything but simple. Three new producers were brought into the mix, resulting in an album that keeps things fresh for the group and a bit more adventurous for the listener. “I think the longer you take to make something, the prouder you are of it when… Read more »

Amy Winehouse and Paul McCartney set their recent troubles aside to steal the show Wednesday at the Brit Awards, the British music industry’s most prestigious prizes. Rockers Foo Fighters and British bands Take That and Arctic Monkeys were all double winners at Britain’s equivalent of the Grammys. Although she wasn’t up for any awards, troubled retro-soul diva Winehouse received a rapturous reception when she appeared to perform “Valerie” with Mark Ronson. She followed that up with the sultry ballad “Love is a Losing Game” from her breakthrough album “Back to Black.” Winehouse, who appeared composed and confident, urged the crowd… Read more »