Search Results for: new years day

Just a little over a year after dropping his multiplatinum third LP, My Name Is Joe, the album’s namesake is preparing to release a follow-up, Better Days, on December 4, his quickest album turnaround ever. “I’m at a good label now,” he said with a smile. “The freedom there is a lot better than it was before. I wasn’t happy where I was, which was Mercury [Records].” The strife caused by recording for Mercury was nothing compared to the anxiety he suffered in the wake of the September 11 attacks. On that unforgettable day, he was sitting in his new… Read more »

The world’s big record labels are finally rolling out online subscription services smack in the middle of the holiday season that caps the music industry’s worst year in at least a decade. In coming weeks, music fans – who have for years been pulling everything from Radiohead to Madonna off the Web for free from services like Napster – will be introduced to a new breed of money-for-music services like PressPlay and MusicNet, which have been developed by the major record companies. Several smaller independent firms like FullAudio and Listen.com will soon be launching subscription services too. Industry officials and… Read more »

Out Tuesday (November 20) is…All This Time, the live album Sting recorded in Tuscany, Italy, on September 11. The tone of the performance was, of course, affected by that day’s terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., and Sting pulled a planned webcast of the concert after performing just one song, “Fragile,” as a tribute to the victims. Using a larger band that includes string and horn players, Sting employs different arrangements on most of the album’s 15 songs, and he said that throughout his career he’s felt the freedom to tinker with even his biggest hits. “I’ve… Read more »

Headliners in their own right, singer Gwen Stefani and her bandmates in No Doubt were so eager to showcase their forthcoming album, “Rock Steady,” they started touring as an opening act two months before the CD was due for release. Back on the road after an 18-month hiatus, No Doubt will be playing warmup dates for veteran Irish rockers U2 into early December. But far from feeling overshadowed by Bono and friends, Stefani sees the U2 gig as the perfect way for No Doubt to bring itself back in public view and prepare for the Dec. 11 release of its… Read more »

ARTISTdirect CEO Ted Field today announced that industry veterans Jim Swindel and Marc Benesch have joined the executive management team. Swindel has been named executive vice president of sales and marketing, while Benesch joins as executive vice president of promotion. Both appointments are effective immediately. Swindel is a 25-year veteran of the record business who will oversee all sales and marketing efforts aspects of the label’s roster, beginning with upcoming releases by singer/songwriter Custom, and hip-hop trio NAAM Brigade. He will also work closely with Field and Vice Chairman Marc Geiger on the development of other digital music ventures. As… Read more »

Britney Spears’ new album debuted at the top of U.S. sales charts, making her the first female solo act to reach No. 1 with her first three albums, according to statistics released Wednesday. And she’s not even 20 yet. The 19-year-old pop teen queen’s new album “Britney” sold 745,744 copies in the week ended Nov. 11, usurping the sales figure crown from Michael Jackson, the self-proclaimed “King of Pop,” according to SoundScan, which tracks retail music sales. Jackson’s “Invincible,” his first album of original music in six years, fell to No. 3 with sales of 202,341 copies this past week,… Read more »

Fleetwood Mac, the Anglo-American pop group that shrugged off bitter internal rivalries to emerge as one of music’s great survival stories, is back in the studio recording its first album since a successful 1997 reunion. The band hopes to tour late next summer “with any luck,” co-founder Mick Fleetwood told Reuters, alluding to its wildly unpredictable 34-year progression from British blues combo to California rock institution. But it would not be a Fleetwood Mac project without some drama. In this case, singer/keyboardist Christine McVie, one of three key songwriters, has retired from rock ‘n’ roll. Tired of the travel, she… Read more »

Fleetwood Mac, the Anglo-American pop group that shrugged off bitter internal rivalries to emerge as one of music’s great survival stories, is back in the studio recording its first album since a successful 1997 reunion. The band hopes to tour late next summer “with any luck,” co-founder Mick Fleetwood told Reuters, alluding to its wildly unpredictable 34-year progression from British blues combo to California rock institution. But it would not be a Fleetwood Mac project without some drama. In this case, singer/keyboardist Christine McVie, one of three key songwriters, has retired from rock ‘n’ roll. Tired of the travel, she… Read more »

Island Def Jam/Def Soul yesterday announced four new executive appointments. Carol Corless has been named Senior Director of Production; Chonita L. Floyd named Senior Director of International Marketing; Karen Wiessen has been named Senior Director of Media & Artist Relations; and Daniel Kruchkow has been named Manager, Online Grassroots Marketing for Def Jam/Def Soul Records. All four new executives will be based in New York. Corless’ main focus will be to oversee the scheduling and production of commercial and promotional releases for Island Def Jam, and will involve interaction with the creative, distribution, promotion, sales, and A&R departments. Previously, Corless… Read more »

First album together in eight years finds band returning to its roots. For many years over the past two decades, New Order crafted cynical synth-pop that radiated with alternative dancefloor chic. But on Get Ready, the band’s first record together in eight years, New Order have done something they haven’t tried since their pre-Order days. They’ve rocked out. While the album still shimmers and shivers with electronic textures, it’s anchored by organic instrumentation and galvanic grooves. “60 Miles an Hour,” Get Ready’s second single, sounds like a beefier spinoff of the band’s hit “Blue Monday,” and “Rock the Shack” is… Read more »