Search Results for: from first to last

Many people are under the impression that Wes Scantlin, the singer and guitarist of Puddle of Mudd, is the sole creative force behind the group’s pain-stricken melodies. That’s not the case. His bandmates help shape the arrangements and throw in complementary parts, and there’s an even more powerful influence at work – one that’s ingrained in Scantlin’s blood. Unlike the many hard rock bands who sing about how badly their parents screwed up their lives, Scantlin has nothing but praise for his dad, who helps the singer decide which Puddle songs make the cut and which are scrapped. “I bounce… Read more »

Coming soon to a Windows PC near you: Apple Computer Inc.’s. popular iTunes online music store, which analysts say will join an already crowded market that could mute its chances of repeating the success of the Macintosh-only version. The computer maker is set to unveil this week the long-promised Windows-compatible version of its online music service. Last week, it sent invitations to reporters for an event on Thursday in San Francisco proclaiming, “The year’s biggest music story is about to get even bigger.” An Apple spokesman declined further comment. Yet now, some analysts say that while iTunes for Windows may… Read more »

After a highly publicized failed attempt last year, ‘N Sync singer Lance Bass still hopes to go into space one day. And if a group of Houston middle school students has any say, Bass will do it in “Lance’s Lab” while eating chicken strips with salsa, wearing stylish pants and T-shirts and listening to and recording music to fight motion sickness. On Wednesday, Bass visited Ortiz Middle School as part of World Space Week, which commemorates the Oct. 4, 1957, launch of Sputnik 1, the first human-made satellite, and the Oct. 10, 1967, signing of a treaty that governs exploration… Read more »

It’s been 2-1/2 years since the Island Def Jam Music Group acquired a 50% stake in Roadrunner Records. However, the longtime rock-metal independent label still feels like an indie despite its major label parent, president Jonas Nachsin says. “In terms of the Roadrunner’s indie spirit, I don’t think we’ve lost any of that,” Nachsin says. “When the partnership was done, I think the first thing that was decided was not to do anything, which was a very sage and important game plan because when something is working, the last thing you want to do is start to mess with it.”… Read more »

Incubus have set a February 10 release date for their fifth studio album, but one of the new songs is available now. A live version of “Pistola” is featured on Live at Lollapalooza 2003, the first in a new series of sanctioned bootleg CDs available only at www.incubusbootlegs.com. All profits from the bootlegs will go toward the band’s new Make Yourself Foundation, which will disperse funds each year to charities such as the Painted Turtle and Surfrider foundations. “It’s something all of us have been musing about for the last couple of years, because we’ve all been interested in different… Read more »

Shout it on out: Tears for Fears is back. After reuniting for a weekend benefit, Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, the original Tears for Fears, are heading back to the studio to record their first album together in more than a decade. The duo performed together for the first time in years at this past weekend’s Andre Agassi’s Grand Slam for Children Benefit in Las Vegas. By Monday, Arista Records President and CEO Antonio “L.A. Reid” had announced that the newly reformed band had signed with the label and will release a new album this spring. A 2004 is also… Read more »

Vivendi Universal and General Electric Co. have agreed to merge the French company’s Hollywood studio and other U.S. entertainment assets with GE’s television network NBC, creating a media giant with an estimated value of $43 billion. The terms of the deal announced Wednesday were largely unchanged from a preliminary agreement reached a month ago, when the two companies entered exclusive talks about a merger and sketched out broad outlines for a combined company to be called NBC Universal. The new company will include the NBC television network and its cable channels CNBC, MSNBC and Bravo and Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo. From… Read more »

Arista on Oct. 21 will release a Sarah McLachlan EP as a download, to be available for the first 30 days exclusively via Apple’s iTunes Music Store. “Acoustic Live EP 2003” has five cuts recorded in concert earlier this year: a pair from McLachlan’s new album “Afterglow,” due Nov. 4, and three older tracks. “Fallen,” the first single from “Afterglow,” debuted in two versions last week on Billboard’s Hot Digital Tracks chart, at No. 1 (album mix) and No. 4 (radio mix). The former logged 2,500 paid downloads, the largest one-week tally in the chart’s three-month history. Both tracks were… Read more »

All-American Rejects are itching for new tunes. The Oklahoma rockers’ self-titled debut was released by Dreamworks in January, but it’s really almost a year-and-a-half old, having been first released last fall by indie Doghouse Records. “We’ve got some new stuff going on,” says guitarist Nick Wheeler. “We’re totally stoked on doing a new album.” More than half of the new album is already in demo form or in the head of frontman Tyson Ritter. “He comes up with the melody and the basic chord structure, and then I’ll come in and do the music-theory, geeky shit to it,” Wheeler says.… Read more »

The music industry is hoping that the availability of child pornography on peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa will help put file sharing out of business. Record executives have been frustrated that Congress hasn’t acted to curb piracy on these services, but some are now optimistic that lawmakers will intervene. “This is like Al Capone and taxes, which is how the government got him,” says Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope Records. “This shows peer-to-peers for what they really are.” At a September 9th Senate hearing on the connection between porn and peer-to-peer, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, warned about the “great risk… Read more »