It was probably only a matter of time before Frances Bean Cobain — the daughter of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and Hole mastermind Courtney Love — dipped her toe into the ocean of the music business.
In 1993, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, the Smashing Pumpkins and Pavement brought AIDS activism into the bedrooms of grunge-obsessed teens on the benefit album ” No Alternative” marrying music to message in a way that registered strongly with Generation X. The project, organized by the Red Hot Organization — an international production company dedicated to fighting AIDs through pop culture — and released by Arista Records sold 292,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan and generated several modern rock radio hits. But the success was a mixed blessing; other major labels went out of their way to… Read more »
Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong has hinted that their forthcoming new Butch Vig-produced album could take a “powerpop” direction. The frontman did not reveal song titles or details of the songs they are currently working on in the studio, but name-checked the Creation, the Who, the Beatles , Cheap Trick , and the Jam as possible influences. “I really like f–king with arrangements,” Armstrong told Alternative Press Magazine. “I always try to look at the possibilities of how you write powerpop music. “How do you take something–and it could be anything from the Creation and the Who to the Beatles… Read more »
Even though she’s a good few years away from taking stubby pencil to paper herself, Dave Grohl’s baby daughter Violet gets full credit for influencing her daddy’s writing style. For the Foo Fighters’ founder and frontman, the 2006 birth of his first child added a personal, often confessional tone to his lyrics. “Having a child made me feel like a superman in a way because I had to be,” says Grohl, who turns 39 this month. “Just as I can’t be afraid to ride the Spiderman roller coaster at Magic Mountain when it’s time, I can’t be scared of writing… Read more »
Amazon today launched a public beta of “Amazon MP3”, a new digital music download store with a huge selection of a la carte DRM-free MP3 music downloads. Amazon MP3 has over 2 million songs from more than 180,000 artists represented by over 20,000 major and independent labels. Every song and album on Amazon MP3 is available exclusively in the MP3 format without DRM software. This means that Amazon MP3 customers are free to enjoy their music downloads using any hardware device, including PCs, Macs, iPods, Zunes, Zens, iPhones, RAZRs and BlackBerrys; organize their music using any music management application such… Read more »
It has finally come to this: labels are simply giving their music away. A new Web site named SpiralFrog.com allows visitors – with label approval – to download music free of charge. It launched Monday in the U.S. and Canada after a beta-testing period. The fine site features more than 800,000 tracks and 3,500 music videos, and promises hundreds of thousands more soon. It makes money through advertising, rather than by the 99-cent downloads popularized by Apple’s iTunes. The service, founded by Joe Mohen, pays record companies part of its advertising revenue. Thus far, Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, the… Read more »
Atreyu’s Lead Sails Paper Anchor rocketed onto Billboard’s Top 200 this week at No. 8, and Billboard’s Rock and Hard Rock Album charts at No. 1, making it the highest-charting album of the band’s career. The debut is also significant in that Atreyu distinguish themselves as one among a very short list of hard rock acts to have debuted in the Top 10 this year. News of the album’s explosive arrival follows a flurry of headline-making moves for Atreyu, who were recently named as a headliner on one of the biggest tours of the new year: “Rockstar Taste of Chaos… Read more »
“We grew up in a small town and didn’t know anything about the music industry or major labels,” he recalled. “All I knew was that Nirvana had signed to Sub Pop, and I thought that was cool.” Although Hot Hot Heat got its start as a screamo band, by the time it made contact with Sub Pop, its sound had mutated into what would soon be known as dance-punk. The band stood at the forefront of a movement that would explode on the indie rock scene within another year. Sub Pop head of A&R (artists and repertoire) Tony Kiewel realized… Read more »
Acclaimed metallic rock act ATREYU have announced plans for a headlining tour in support of their upcoming Hollywood Records debut, Lead Sails Paper Anchor. The much-buzzed-about album arrives in stores on August 28th and the tour begins September 9th at the Big Easy in Boise, ID, with openers Haste The Day, It Dies Today plus a special guest to be announced. Atreyu, who will grace the October cover (on stands Aug. 21) of Revolver magazine, are currently previewing select songs from the new album while on the Family Values Tour, which sees them third on the bill and sharing the… Read more »
The Kurt Cobain documentary which features voiceover from the Nirvana frontman himself is due to be released in the U.S. in October. AJ Schnack’s documentary film Kurt Cobain: About A Son is set to come to cinemas in New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle in early October. According to Schnack’s blog: “The film will open in New York at the IFC Centre on Wednesday, October 3 at Landmark’s Nuart in Los Angeles on Friday, October 5 and in Seattle at Landmark’s Varsity on October 12. Additional cities and dates will be announced soon.” The film sets impressionistic images of Washington… Read more »
