Search Results for: from first to last

The girls still screamed every time former bar mitzvah singer Justin Guarini flashed his pearly whites, but it was soulful girl-next-door Kelly Clarkson who took home the title of “American Idol” Wednesday night. Coming off her bravura performance on Tuesday, the 20-year-old Burleson, Texas, cocktail waitress brought down the house moments after being crowned the champion of the talent contest. “I can’t believe it’s happening to me,” Clarkson sang, as fireworks rained down behind her during a performance of her soon-to-be-released first single, “A Moment Like This.” A choked-up Clarkson blew a line during her command performance (one of her… Read more »

Among those cheering Eminem’s sweep at last week’s Video Music Awards were the members of Aerosmith. The band, currently touring with Run-D.M.C. and Kid Rock, has a connection with “Slim Shady”-Eminem sampled the Aerosmith classic “Dream On” for the track “Sing For The Moment” on his latest album, The Eminem Show. Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton said that the Boston rock veterans were both surprised and pleased by the move. “We were really excited, you know, when we first heard that he wanted to do it, and it came out great,” he says. “It kinda surprised me a little, in a… Read more »

Age brings change, but the changes were decidedly for the better Tuesday when the Rolling Stones kicked off their Licks World Tour, named for an upcoming compilation that marks the British supergroup’s 40th anniversary. On their ’90s tours, the Stones had largely become a grizzled stadium jukebox. On this trip, however, in addition to mixing stadium, arena, theater and club dates – often in the same city – the band is taking new liberties with its set lists. Tuesday’s two-hour-plus tour opener at the FleetCenter included its share of rarely and never-played nuggets that thrilled and puzzled the arena crowd.… Read more »

Digital-music subscription service Pressplay will offer subscribers access to exclusive new online tracks to stream or download from forthcoming albums well in advance of their release on CD, the company said Wednesday. The first material for the program, which will offer songs from both established and developing artists, will come from upcoming work by Bon Jovi, LL Cool J, Nine Days and Natalie Cole. Once the albums are out, users will also be able to transfer the selected tracks to a portable device and burn them onto a recordable CD. Separately, Pressplay is set to announce Thursday that its service… Read more »

A U.S. court hammered the final nail in the coffin of maverick music service Napster on Tuesday when it blocked a bid by German media group Bertelsmann AG to buy the one-time cult and now defunct Web site. Killing off a deal to revive the bankrupt service that millions of fans used to swap music over the Internet, a U.S. bankruptcy court rejected Napster’s sale to Bertelsmann after record labels and songwriters opposed the deal, saying the offer price was not fair. Faced with no financing, no revenues and no other buyers, Napster said it would most likely be forced… Read more »

In his continuing bid to be the hardest-working man in rock, Travis Barker has piled a few new endeavors onto his overstuffed plate. On top of firming up plans for side project the Transplants to drop their debut LP, setting off on the road with Box Car Racer, and preparing the new Blink-182 album, the drummer somehow found time to bring his collection of vintage Cadillacs up to 11 with the addition of a ’54 Coup De Ville and ’78 El Dorado. Although the Transplants album doesn’t yet have an official title, it’s scheduled for release October 22, according to… Read more »

As the Rolling Stones kickoff their “Licks” world tour in Boston this week, patience is finally paying off for fans who were driven out of their heads over the years by the woeful state of the band’s back catalog of 1960s albums. Key works have long been unavailable on CD, while the albums that are available sounded awful: not surprising since the product on the shelves was transferred to CD back in 1986 when the technology was still in its infancy. But satisfaction has arrived with the recent ABKCO Records release of 22 remastered albums, the fruits of a 10-year… Read more »

‘N Sync singer Lance Bass was asked to leave Russia’s cosmonaut training program because his sponsors didn’t come up with the $20 million for a trip to the International Space Station, a Russian space official said Tuesday. Sergei Gorbunov, spokesman for the Russian Space Agency, said the Russians negotiated with Bass “in good faith,” but “his sponsors didn’t fulfill the conditions of the contract and we never received the money.” The U.S. pop star had been granted several deadline extensions after failing to get the money needed to secure his seat, Gorbunov said. He said the decision to end negotiations… Read more »

For about an hour Wednesday, it sure seemed like it, with the Recording Industry Association of America’s own Website declaring: “RIAA against music sharing? Not anymore!” But that wasn’t the sentiment of the association; it was the work of hackers. The illegal intrusion came hard on the heels of an industry survey that pointed the finger at file-sharing Websites for declining CD sales-an accusation those sites refute. It’s the second time in recent weeks the industry group’s Website has been attacked, but this assault was even more devastating. Last time, the site was merely frozen by an overload of connection… Read more »

Guns N’ Roses’ surprise performance at Thursday’s 19th annual MTV Video Music Awards was easily the night’s highlight presentation, even though P. Diddy, Eminem and Justin Timberlake had more pizzazz and Bruce Springsteen and Sheryl Crow had more heart. Click here for the complete 2002 MTV VMA Winners List. The group – which included longtime GN’R keyboardist Dizzy Reed and a batch of new faces like ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, ex-Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck and guitarist Buckethead – kicked off its medley with “Welcome to the Jungle,” the song that had thunderingly announced GN’R back on their first… Read more »