Search Results for: nirvana

The reasons why longtime underground rock act AFI signed with major label DreamWorks aren’t surprising – bigger video budgets, global distribution, press machine. However, drummer Adam Carson tells Billboard.com it’s what the band doesn’t partake in that defines the musically intense outfit. “We wanted to make sure we were in bed with a company we felt good about, to make sure there were no surprises, make sure that everyone was working for us, and we approved of the way they go about doing their work,” says Carson. “And maybe, more so than other bands, instead of taking the free drinks… Read more »

Online music service pressplay has reached deals to distribute music from several leading independent record labels, including Sub Pop and DreamWorks. The deal Monday brings a host of well-known artists to pressplay, such as Nirvana and Frank Zappa, and expands the selections from the subscription music service to more than 250,000 songs. Pressplay also reached a deal to distribute music for the independent labels Palm, Ubiquity, Rykodisc/Ryko Label Group, important additions to the service already heavy with a mainstay of popular music, said pressplay CEO Mike Bebel. “We focus very much on what we perceive to be the most relevant… Read more »

Online subscription music service pressplay said on Monday it has reached agreements with a number of independent record labels that will add artists like Frank Zappa, Nirvana and Nelly Furtado to its catalog. Pressplay, a joint venture of the music arms of Japan’s Sony Corp. and France’s Vivendi Universal, said it signed deals with DreamWorks, Palm, Ubiquity, Rykodisc/Ryko Label Group and Sub Pop, bringing its total available songs to about 250,000. The company also said that, starting with the Feb. 14 launch of version 2.5 of its service, it will add interactive features to its radio service allowing users to… Read more »

Singer-actress Courtney Love was detained Tuesday at Heathrow airport after an airline claimed she verbally abused the crew of a trans-Atlantic flight. Love was “verbally abusive toward our cabin crew and disruptive” on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Los Angeles to London, airline spokesman Paul Moore said. No one was injured on the Boeing 747, which carried 201 passengers and 20 crew. TV channel Sky News aired pictures of Love, 38, being escorted by two officers from the plane to a police van on the runway after the flight landed about 11 a.m. She smiled at the camera and covered… Read more »

TRUSTcompany is gearing up to hit the road on their first national headline outing. The Alabama-based quartet’s major label debut, “The Lonely Position of Neutral”, has continued to make its mark since its late summer debut at #11 on the Billboard Album Chart. The album was produced by Don Gilmore (Linkin Park, Lit, Eve 6) and mixed by Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Jeff Buckley, Rage Against The Machine). The band recently performed at the ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’ and at European festivals to over 30,000 fans. The “Lonely Position of Neutral” is already certified Gold. Comparing the sounds of… Read more »

A Florida man has been arrested and charged with murder after DNA linked him to the death of rising punk-rock star Mia Zapata in 1993, police said Saturday. Seattle police said Jesus C. Mezquia, 48, was arrested late Friday in the Miami area. His DNA profile matched a sample taken from the crime scene more than nine years ago, police said. Zapata, the 27-year-old lead singer of The Gits, was last seen alive July 7, 1993, in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Her beaten body was left on a street curb more than a mile away. She had been strangled with… Read more »

More than a decade after the height of the Seattle rock explosion, Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains are long gone and Mudhoney have become a cult band. Pearl Jam are the last man standing. And despite their best efforts to maintain a low profile, their Riot Act debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling more than 165,000 copies. No one could be more surprised than guitarist Mike McCready. “I’m amazed that people are even still wanting to listen to us,” he said. “With all the other music out there and the shifting times, I’m surprised that… Read more »

Eddie Vedder has found plenty of material in mortality over the years. His band, Pearl Jam, was born of a heroin overdose more than a decade ago. Rival songwriter Kurt Cobain of Nirvana committed suicide while at the height of popularity. Two of Pearl Jam’s biggest hits, “Jeremy” and “Last Kiss,” deal with teen death. Now comes renewal, an appropriate topic as the lead singer and his bandmates re-emerge from their most proximate shock: the deaths of nine fans trampled during the 2000 Roskilde festival in Denmark. “Riot Act,” released Nov. 12, is Pearl Jam’s first studio album since the… Read more »

The Eminem show was everywhere this week as two albums by the rapper commanded top spots on the U.S. sales charts ahead of the Friday opening of his highly anticipated debut movie. The newly released soundtrack to his film “8 Mile” – which features music by Eminem as well as other rappers such as Jay-Z, Nas and D-12 – debuted at No. 1 on the charts, selling an estimated 702,000 units in the week ended Nov. 3, according to music tracker Nielsen SoundScan. The album features three new solo songs by Eminem, who has the starring role in the movie… Read more »

Kurt Cobain regretted using heroin to ease the pain of a stomach ailment but could not bring himself to stop, and talked of shooting himself, according to excerpts from the late Nirvana star’s diaries. The writings, printed in Newsweek this week, are from the upcoming book “Journals,” which contains letters and diary entries from the 1980s until 1994, when Cobain shot himself to death at age 27 in his Seattle home. While some of the entries are rambling or humorous, they reveal a man tortured by drug addiction and illness. “… I decided to use heroine (sic) on a daily… Read more »