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Sometimes, Washington is as hot as Bangkok. OK, I stole that line, but it was baking hot at RFK Stadium Saturday for the HFStival, the annual, all-day, relentlessly eclectic rock extravaganza put on by local radio station WHFS-FM (99.1). An estimated crowd of 60,000 blazed under a pre-summer sun, moseying in and out of the stadium from parking-lot attractions that included a forest of beer trucks, giant inflatable corporate logos, two more bandstands – one for national acts, the other for local acts such as Washington Social Club and Jimmie’s Chicken Shack – and, for the truly adventurous, a Ferris… Read more »

An antique piano formerly used by Elton John and pictured on an album cover, was auctioned off over the weekend for $164,500, well below the minimum estimate of $300,000, organizers said on Sunday. The other big seller at Heritage Galleries’ auction in Dallas on Saturday was a guitar used by late Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain. It sold for $117,500, down from a minimum estimate of $250,000. (All sale prices include a 17.5 percent buyer’s fee.) The instrument with the highest estimate, the upright bass used by late Motown session musician James Jamerson on such early ’60s tunes as “My Guy”… Read more »

A reclusive record executive dubbed “the Howard Hughes of the music business” has toppled Paul McCartney to become Britain’s wealthiest music millionaire in the latest list of the rich and famous. Clive Calder, the mastermind behind such stars as Britney Spears and ‘NSync, rocketed to number one in the Sunday Times music industry list after selling his independent Zomba label to German media giant Bertelsmann AG. “He is the Howard Hughes of the music industry,” said the list’s author Philip Beresford who put Calder top with an estimated worth of 1.23 billion pounds ($2.28 billion). “We have scoured the world… Read more »

Formerly known as “the band with the guy from ‘Rushmore,’ ” Phantom Planet packed Irving Plaza Friday night with fervent young fans – mostly of the female persuasion. Although “the guy from ‘Rushmore,’ ” drummer Jason Schwartzman, left to pursue his acting career, the ladies still had something to scream about. Lead singer/guitarist Alex Greenwald, a former Gap model clad in torn, skintight jeans, was an instant heartthrob. It also didn’t hurt that guitarists Jacques Brautbar and Darren Robinson, bassist Sam Farrar and new drummer Jeff Conrad were easy on the eyes. “Hello New York!” Greenwald greeted the enthusiastic audience… Read more »

The Grammy RSVPs are in and it looks like the boobylicious Super Bowl tandem of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake are still on the guest list, but Luther Vandross will be MIA. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the group behind the Grammys, told E! Tuesday that “as of right now, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake are still on the Grammys. “If we took everyone who is controversial off the show, no one would perform.” The remark came in the wake of CBS affiliates asking the network to broadcast Sunday’s Grammy Awards on a slight delay in case… Read more »

For the humdrum New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers, putting on a show to match the glitz, glitter and star power of the rest of Super Bowl Sunday was no easy task. Typical of America’s biggest unofficial holiday, the game was only the icing on an over-the-top extravaganza. There was a gleaming new $450 million stadium to show off, a slew of pricey new ads, and Beyonce, Janet Jackson and P. Diddy to share the field. The biggest cliffhanger of the week wasn’t who would win, but whether Janet’s brother, Michael, would show up. He didn’t, but Justin Timberlake did,… Read more »

On Jan. 6, San Francisco’s Moscone convention center pulses with all the energy of a rock concert. A crowd sprinkled with hip-hop teenagers, digerati, and aging hippies streams in to hear the annual state-of-the-Mac keynote from Apple Computer Inc. Chief Executive Steven P. Jobs. Every facet of the event bears the fingerprints of the obsessive Jobs – right down to the music that fills the air. This year, it’s the King himself, Elvis Presley. Later, Jobs rolls the tape of Apple’s famous “1984” ad that ran on Super Bowl Sunday that year – and hasn’t been broadcast since. Only this… Read more »

The stage’s platforms, ramps and angular slabs of metal made it look like a futuristic factory floor, and Linkin Park proved to be the gleaming machine that keeps the warehouse in brisk business. In concert at Nassau Coliseum Sunday night, the band was precise and efficient, the members taking on their roles like theater veterans. They ran from side to side without colliding, waved their arms in tandem, leapt from oversized milk crates and waded into the crowd to spread the Linkin love. And for added flair, they brought out an acrobatic breakdancer during “Nobody’s Listening.” Their musical performance was… Read more »

When Benji Madden asked to borrow an acoustic guitar from a friend, he got more than he bargained for. Not only did he wind up with the guitar in his possession, but an entire band to go with it. So goes the story of New York’s Lola Ray, the second band signed to D.C. Flag, the record label founded by Good Charlotte’s Benji and Joel Madden. When Benji phoned friend Peter Robinson for a spare guitar to play an impromptu acoustic show, Robinson’s friend John Balicanta came along for the ride and managed to hand Benji a demo tape. The… Read more »

Rick Van Santen, a co-president of Goldenvoice, a Los Angeles concert promotion company that ushered punk rock from the fringes of the music scene to a wide audience, died last Sunday at his home in Ventura County of flu-related complications, his Goldenvoice partner Paul Tollett said. He was 41. In the 1980s, a time when major promoters shunned punk because of its reputation as a violent subculture, Goldenvoice presented acts in large, established rooms with quality sound, such as the Hollywood Palladium and the Palace (now the Avalon). “There cannot be any L.A. band since the early ’80s that was… Read more »