Search Results for: grammy

Days after Recording Industry Association of America president Hilary Rosen lashed out at the Recording Artists Coalition in a speech at the South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas, accusing the group of oversimplifying its dispute with record companies over recording contracts, Eagles and RAC leader Don Henley fired back. “Hilary Rosen is, and always has been, the one who engages in gross oversimplification of the issue designed to elicit a sympathetic response from the media, lawmakers and the public,” Henley says. “Ms. Rosen well knows that this is a very complex matter that will require lengthy discussions by… Read more »

They represented the anti-establishment, so it was a bit odd to see the Ramones so happy to become part of the music establishment as members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But for the remaining members of the punk rock originators – whose lead singer, Joey Ramone, died last year – Monday night’s induction at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel represented long-overdue respect for the band that helped revolutionize rock with their rapid-fire, guitar-heavy songs. “I’d like to congratulate myself, and thank myself, and give myself a big pat on the back,” joked Dee Dee Ramone. “Thank you Dee Dee,… Read more »

Madonna’s no beautiful stranger to spy films – she’s acted up a storm as Breathless Mahoney in 1990’s “Dick Tracy” and contributed one song to the 1999 spy spoof “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.” Now she’s going for the real thing – shaken, not stirred – with the title track to the 20th James Bond film, “Die Another Day.” “We are thrilled that Madonna, who is recognized as the world’s most exciting songwriter and performer, has agreed to compose and sing the song for the first James Bond movie of the new millennium,” said the film’s team of… Read more »

Copies of the purported 26-minute R. Kelly sex videotape sent anonymously to the offices of the Chicago Sun-Times last month have made their way on to the streets of New York City. The tape allegedly depicts Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Kelly and three separate women, one believed to be underage, participating in intercourse, fellatio, and urination. Street vendors throughout the five boroughs are selling the tape in VHS and DVD format. One vendor told New York’s Daily News, “It’s the hottest video in town. I sell about a dozen of them every day, but this is my last copy.” LAUNCH was… Read more »

South by Southwest, Austin’s annual music conference that usually showcases the best new artists coming down the pike, kicked off, oddly enough, with a plea to go back. The call came from Robbie Robertson. The onetime leader of the Band expressed mild alarm at the state of the music business during his keynote address Thursday morning. Go back, he suggested, to that first moment of musical discovery. “Music took us on a journey, and we’re still on that journey,” he told a packed ballroom at the Austin Convention Center, noting that his own first impressions came during childhood visits to… Read more »

The man of constant sorrow should have plenty of cause to celebrate, though Brandy might be kind of crabby. After 63 weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart, the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack will levitate to #1, beating out the R&B crooner, who seemed headed for a chart-topping debut. Last week, O Brother, which has sold over 4 million copies since its December 2000 release, jumped from #15 to #2 after being graced with a Grammy for Album of the Year. While the album will move up on the chart with sales of 160,000 copies, it sold around… Read more »

Pink will kick off her first ever headlining tour on May 2nd in Phoenix. The twenty-seven-date tour will hit mainly theaters from coast to coast. The jaunt comes in support of her sophomore release, Missundaztood, and on the heels of her recent Grammy win for “Lady Marmalade,” along with Christina Aguilera, Mya and Lil’ Kim. As for Missundaztood, the album remains a Top Ten mainstay sixteen weeks after its release, and with another week in stores will likely top 2 million copies sold. Tickets go on sale this week. Pink Tour Dates: 5/2 – Phoenix, The Webb Theater 5/5 –… Read more »

Fresh from his Grammy win for Best Short Form Music Video, Fatboy Slim – a.k.a. Norman Cook – is touring the U.S. looking for samples, prepping for the follow-up to 2000’s Halfway Between the Gutters and the Stars. “I just generally needed the turnover of new source material to work with, and L.A.’s a good place to do it,” Cook says. “I’m just looking for weird noises and little loops. I tend to go on the haircuts on the [album] sleeve. It’s got to be 1970 to 1976. Pre-1970s production wasn’t really too hot, and post-’76 everyone went disco. So… Read more »

When the Dave Matthews Band decided to scrap an album’s worth of material they recorded in 2000 with producer Steve Lillywhite and start anew with Glen Ballard for the album Everyday, it wasn’t because the songs weren’t good enough. They just needed time to age. While the recordings have been widely distributed on the Internet since then, that didn’t stop the band from re-recording them for its yet-untitled sixth studio record, due this summer. New versions of “Lillywhite Sessions” tracks, including “Grey Street,” “Grace Is Gone,” “Big Eyed Fish,” “Bartender,” “Diggin’ a Ditch” and “Kit Kat Jam,” will grace the… Read more »

Eddie Vedder, Anthony Kiedis and John Frusciante may have grown up believing the punk axiom “kill your idols,” but on March 18 they’ll be among the presenters honoring their forefathers at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. New York’s posh Waldorf-Astoria hotel will host the hall’s 17th annual induction dinner, which will air March 20 on VH1 at 9 p.m. Vedder will induct punk progenitors the Ramones – sans singer Joey Ramone, who died of cancer in April – and Kiedis and Frusciante will usher in alternative rock pioneers Talking Heads. Grammy darling Alicia Keys will do the honors… Read more »