Search Results for: ghost

Chris Blackwell knew he wanted to be a part of the documentary 1 Giant Leap as soon as musicians Jamie Catto (Faithless) and Duncan Bridgeman played him the rough demos of songs they’d written for the program. The same man whose gut feeling led him to sign Bob Marley and U2 to his Island Records imprint heard what the two musicians had to offer and gave them the green light. “I loved the music of it,” says Blackwell of the documentary due out in March. “I loved the way the music was put together. I loved the different influences of… Read more »

While Dec. 31, 2001, may not rank up there with the millennium celebrations, there’s still plenty of top-notch live music being presented in the clubs and arenas of the U.S. this New Year’s Eve. So, if you’re planning to get off the couch while Dick Clark rings in 2002 in Times Square, rest assured that there are worthwhile options in most major cities. In New York, band of the moment the Strokes will open for perennial indie favorite Guided By Voices at the famed Apollo Theatre. Further downtown, Phish’s Page McConnell will premiere his new band, Vida Blue, which features… Read more »

The music industry finally received the holiday gift it had been hoping for this week, as the album charts got a formidable one-two punch from alt-rock superstars Creed and the perennially popular “Now That’s What I Call Music” compilation series. “Weathered” (Wind-Up), Creed’s follow-up to the platinum blockbuster “Human Clay,” sold nearly 900,000 copies its first time out, according to SoundScan data for the week ended Nov. 27. Those numbers made “Weathered” the biggest bow since ‘N Sync’s “Celebrity” shifted 1.9 million out of the gate last summer. Nipping at Creed’s heels was the eighth installment of the “Now” series… Read more »

“Scream” director Wes Craven and longtime producing partner Marianne Maddalena have signed with the William Morris Agency. The duo had been represented by Intl. Creative Management. Craven, whose “Scream” trilogy grossed more than $350 million at the domestic box office, and Maddalena have an overall deal at Miramax/Dimension. Craven’s credits include “Music of the Heart,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Vampire in Brooklyn.” The next picture Craven is likely to direct is “Pulse” for Dimension, based on a Japanese ghost story from which Craven will develop a script.

Nurse Abby Lockheart has just been dumped. She is in the middle of the rather painful process of moving her stuff out of her ex-boyfriend’s apartment. And to make matters worse, Cake’s “Short Skirt/Long Jacket,” a song about the things a man is looking for in a woman, is playing on the radio. On “ER,” popular music is becoming a bigger part of the story line with every episode. “It adds something to the show every time we use it,” “ER” supervising producer and writer Scott Gemmill said. “It’s amazing what music can bring to a scene.” There’s a new… Read more »

Altering the title of Bush’s new single-“Speed Kills” to “The People That We Love”-might not be the only change Bush has to make on its forthcoming album Golden State. Another track on the October 16 release, “Head Full Of Ghosts,” contains the lyrics, “I’m at my best when I’m terrorist inside,” a line that Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale noted “is the worst line on the album in this time.” Bush’s Rossdale enacted his own preemptive strike for the song and its controversial line. He told LAUNCH what was behind the lyrics. “The fact that a lot of the time we’re… Read more »

The nation’s capital became a ghost town Tuesday as Hollywood lobbyists and media functionaries absorbed the impact that twin terrorist attacks on Washington and Gotham will have on politics, showbiz and everyday life. Schedules that were jam-packed with hearings and meetings early Tuesday were erased by the end of the day. In the wake of an official declaration of a state of emergency, most Hollywood lobbyists headed home early. Entertainment reps in Washington are a tight crowd, even if they don’t always see eye to eye, so there were numerous phone calls back and forth to ensure that colleagues were… Read more »

Though they’d rather be making their own movies, Sonic Youth are back in the studio laying down atmospheric music for a French film and noisy dinosaur rock for their next album. “We’re improvising and getting into these long, elaborate stretches of music and keeping an ear for soundtrack cues but at the same time listening for how they would work for song elements,” singer/guitarist Thurston Moore said last week. “We sit around drinking iced coffee, and then we start getting it together and playing and all hell breaks loose and it just becomes like a creative mosh pit for a… Read more »

Just standing still Monday night in Central Park, you couldn’t help but feel suffocated by the 85-degree wet heat that blanketed the city. So imagine how Erykah Badu felt as she danced around and sang her emotional ditties for the crowd at the park’s SummerStage venue. She was so hot she had to take off her dress in the middle of her set. “Thank you God for this breeze,” Badu said during a breakdown in her performance of “Didn’t Cha Know” early in the show. Dressed in a peach dress, matching headdress and gloves that came to her elbows, the… Read more »

Touring as one of Tina Turner’s backup singers inspired actress Gloria Reuben to make her own music. The former “ER” star wants her effort to resemble the acoustic sound of Bruce Springsteen’s album “The Ghost of Tom Joad.” Reuben doesn’t have a record deal, and said she may just put the music on her Web site. She spent two months touring the United States and Canada singing and dancing with Turner after four seasons on “ER.” “It was unbelievable. Just imagine what it was like being on a stage with her shaking your thing,” Reuben said. “In every city I… Read more »