In case you haven’t heard, the formerly unsinkable airship of cash known as the music industry is currently crashing down from the heavens in a ball of flames, hurtling toward the Earth at supersonic speeds. In fact, at this point it’s only a matter of time before it smashes into terra firma with the impact of 10,000 atomic bombs, blowing a hole clear through North America, causing the seas to boil and sending clouds of black soot skyward, blotting out the sun and eventually ending life as we know it.At least that’s how the members of Stars see it. “It’s… Read more »
Los Angeles – Don’t tell Hot Hot Heat keyboardist/vocalist Steve Bays that press coverage doesn’t matter: The reviews for “Make Up the Breakdown,” the band’s 2003 effort for Seattle-based Sub Pop Records, had a direct influence on the act’s major-label debut. “People said we sounded like Dexys Midnight Runners, so I went out and bought a Dexys Midnight Runners album,” Bays says. What he heard resulted in the current single “Goodnight Goodnight.” The song, which Bays describes as a cross between OutKast’s Andre 3000 and early Beatles, takes a keyboard-laced dancehall groove into a chorus that downshifts the song. The… Read more »
What everyone always wants to know is: who’s the worst? Meaning: which really famous person out there is a berk whose lack of personality is in inverse proportion to their abundance of fame? And the answer is, of course, all of them. No, it’s not. It’s Jon Bon Jovi. The next question – who’s the best, of course – is more difficult. The interviewees I like are the ones that turn out to be more than you expected, whether that’s more intelligent, or honest, or bonkers, or fun, whatever. And there are plenty of those. Madonna (sharper), Björk (wilder), James… Read more »
Jimmy Eat World guitarist Tom Linton says headlining a show in his hometown was a dream come true. “I saw my first concert here – it was The Cure,” Linton said an hour before playing at the Mesa Amphitheatre recently in this Phoenix suburb. “I went out there today and I lay out there on the grass and just looked at the stage. I can’t describe this feeling. It’s craziness.” Before the band took the stage, the largely teenage crowd chanted, “Jimmy, Jimmy.” They sang along once the band started playing. Jimmy Eat World’s self-titled album went platinum in September… Read more »
According to their folklore, electronic rap act Anti-Pop Consortium came together to “disturb the equilibrium.” With left-of-center releases like 2000’s Tragic Epilogue and last year’s Shopping Carts Crashing, lyricists Priest, Beans and M. Sayyid and DJ E. Blaize have gotten off to a pretty good start. But they’re nowhere near done. Their third full-length album for Warp Records, Arrhythmia, hit stores April 2 and, according to Beans, is their best yet. “I think it’s a nice middle ground between the stuff that we were doing on Tragic to where we’re going,” Beans said, stroking his red mohawk. “It’s a bit… Read more »
Britney Spears, a former Mousketeer, is at the center of an aggressive drive into the movie business by a handful of young pop stars molded by the music industry and MTV. Not since the 1960s, when singers like Elvis Presley, Frankie Avalon, Fabian and Johnny Cash crooned their way onto movie screens, have studios produced as many star vehicles to showcase the hip-shimmying musical talents of the day’s teen idols. Their holy grail is “The Bodyguard,” starring Whitney Houston, which grossed $122 million and relaunched a pop song that became a perennial hit. The soundtrack is one of the best… Read more »
In case you’re not convinced that Britney Spears really does love rock and roll, the pop princess, who covered the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” on her last album, has put another dime in the jukebox and come up with an even more telling rock classic for her next one. Spears has recorded Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ 1981 hit “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” with hitmaker Rodney Jerkins for a scene in her upcoming movie, “What Friends Are For,” as well as for her still-untitled third album, which a Jive Records spokesperson said is tentatively due November… Read more »
In case you’re not convinced that Britney Spears really does love rock and roll, the pop princess, who covered the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” on her last album, has put another dime in the jukebox and come up with an even more telling rock classic for her next one. Spears has recorded Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ 1981 hit “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” with hitmaker Rodney Jerkins for a scene in her upcoming movie, “What Friends Are For,” as well as for her still-untitled third album, which a Jive Records spokesperson said is tentatively due November… Read more »
When the superstar pop vocal group ‘N Sync sat down to pick the songs for its upcoming album, the quintet found itself at odds with its record company. The Florida-based group, which has sold more than 25 million records worldwide since debuting in 1997, wanted to rock the boat with “Celebrity,” which is due in stores July 24. But Jive Records executives worried that too much change might make fans disinclined to buy, buy, buy like they have in the past. “They were like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t like that song. I don’t think you should go there. It’s… Read more »
Even up until the day of the concert, I wasn’t fully prepared for what I was about to experience.
