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For Taking Back Sunday, New Again is more than an album title, it’s a declaration. “We kicked around a bunch of different titles, but that one always remained the top of the list, and that’s because it really does feel like a new band,” vocalist Adam Lazzara said. Taking Back Sunday is not turning their collective back on what is already a storied past. The rejuvenated group is looking clearly to the here and now. “Leading up to this record we took the biggest break that we’ve taken since we started touring just to kind of learn how to be… Read more »

Christopher Hicks has been appointed Executive Vice President, Def Jam Recordings, it was announced today by Antonio “L.A.” Reid, Chairman, Island Def Jam Music Group.   In his new position, Mr. Hicks will assume overall responsibility for the acquisition and develop ­ment of new talent, overseeing producers and guiding the creative vision and brand recognition of the legendary Def Jam label as it celebrates its 25th year anniversary in 2009.   Mr. Hicks will report directly to Mr. Reid, and to Steve Bartels,   President & COO, Island Def Jam Music Group, on operational matters.   Mr. Hicks will be… Read more »

Three years ago, Cobra Starship weren’t even a band. Two years ago, they weren’t one either, but at least things were beginning to happen. Gabe Saporta – tired of watching his band Midtown being mired in the major-label quagmire – began writing songs on his own, under the name of Cobra Starship (apparently borrowed from a brand of vintage jackets). Somewhere along the way, he got tapped to write the theme song for the Samuel L. Jackson flick “Snakes on a Plane,” which became the first official Cobra release. Since then, they’ve released two full-lengths, kicked out a keytar player… Read more »

EMI has made a number of key appointments to its new Music Services’ division. Merchandising and packaged goods veteran Peter Palmer will lead EMI’s global Merchandising group. Dominic Pandiscia will head a global Label Services unit and Violet Gonzalez, who joins EMI from Live Nation, will establish a new sponsorship department. “Music Services is all about delivering revenues to EMI’s artists, as well as to the independent label and artist community. We now have the industry’s only one-stop shop for accessing a global marketplace of traditional and non-traditional commercial partners,” said EMI Music Services President Ronn Werre.   “This team… Read more »

Four years after a stroke, Dick Clark is relishing the prospect of another New Year’s Eve celebration determined to appear for his 36th year in Times Square And he’s hardly surprised by the current state of the music industry he helped build – he predicted this, after all. Clark, who turned 79 last month and has been in front of the cameras for 61 years, said in a recent interview by e-mail that his involvement in “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2009,” diminished though it may be, is a labor of love and “not really a… Read more »

These days, the old west rail hub of Las Vegas, New Mexico, is little more than a dusty economic dead zone amid a boneyard of bare mesas. In national elections, the town overwhelmingly votes Democratic: More than 80 percent of all residents are Hispanic, and one in four lives below the poverty line. On February 5th, the day of the Super Tuesday caucus, a school-bus driver named Paul Maez arrived at his local polling station to cast his ballot. To his surprise, Maez found that his name had vanished from the list of registered voters, thanks to a statewide effort… Read more »

The Gym Class Heroes have experimented so much on their latest CD that even frontman Travis McCoy can’t quite describe the group’s newly formed sound. “It’s like our last two efforts combined in a sense, but pushed further. Hence the title ‘The Quilt.’ It’s like a patchwork of sounds, different arrangements (and) real lyrics,” says McCoy, trying to explain the CD, released earlier this month. “Musically, I think it’s a big cocktail of everything that’s inspired us over the past two years,” he said. “It is definitely rooted in hip-hop and hip-hop is like the main course on the plate,… Read more »

When Hartmut Ostrowski was an up-and-comer in Bertelsmann’s printing and services division in the 1990s, his bosses were discouraged from speaking at meetings of the top executives. In the glamorous world of Bertelsmann, a global media empire with music, television, and publishing properties – Germany’s answer to Time Warner – services were viewed as strictly a backstage function. Now, with Mr. Ostrowski at the helm of Bertelsmann, the stagehands are striding into the spotlight. Two weeks ago, he named Markus Dohle, a 39-year-old German who runs the company’s printing operations, as chief executive of Random House, the world’s largest consumer… Read more »

Never-before-seen photos have surfaced of Elvis Presley rocking Madison Square Garden in all his jumpsuited glory. The images were taken in 1972 by George Kalinsky, the official photographer of the famed arena, the singer’s estate said Wednesday. Kalinsky came across the photos while working on a campaign for a billboard company called “Great Moments in New York.” Now one of them is on display as part of the campaign on a three-story billboard atop the Virgin Megastore in Times Square; it shows The King glancing up, his outstretched arms holding the cape of his glittering jumpsuit. Kalinsky needed to get… Read more »