Search Results for: pop-rock

Rapper Eminem walked off with four MTV Video Music Awards on Thursday, including one for Video of the Year, in a show bookended by rousing performances by Bruce Springsteen and a rare appearance by heavy metal rockers Guns N’ Roses. Eminem, who also won awards for Best Male Video, Best Rap Video and Best Direction, said of the “moonman” statuette that was MTV’s symbol in its early days, “I’m taking this home for rap – period.” His video “Without Me” won Video of the Year honors. The rapper won four MTV awards in 1999 and 2000. The mood at the… Read more »

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, EpicRecords.com has donned a new hue, a new site intro, and two new promotions to celebrate the many themes and universality of love. The now-blushing EpicRecords.com has launched the “Language Of Love” Sweepstakes featuring 14 individual contests, showcasing 14 artists, exploring 14 degrees of love from Lost to True to Family to Unrequited. A highlight of the promotion is the online premiere of “A New Day Has Come,” the title track from quintessential love-songstress, Celine Dion’s forthcoming release that arrives in US stores on March 26. The “Language Of Love” Sweepstakes is being cross-promoted… Read more »

Justin, JC and Lance, meet your newest competition: Archie, Jughead and Veronica. That’s right, the man behind such pop creations as the Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync and O-Town is moving onto a different type of two-dimensional character: Boy-band mogul Lou Pearlman says he’s teaming up with Archie Entertainment to launch real-life music groups based on The Archies and Josie and the Pussycats comic books. With the help of former BMG President Strauss Zelnick, Pearlman’s Trans Continental Entertainment is staging a nationwide search for young musicians to become the next Archie, Jughead, Veronica and Betty, in preparation for a new album,… Read more »

Alanis Morissette is tidying up her next album, tentatively titled Under Rug Swept, for release in February, and she’s giving fans a little taste of her new material online. As previewed on a recent tour, Morissette’s new songs hark back to the provocative pop-rock of 1995’s Jagged Little Pill and steer away from the moody, Eastern-influenced sound of 1998’s Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. Lyrically, she takes a more reflective, mature stance without abandoning the raw, confessional sentiments that endeared her to fans in the mid-’90s. The Canadian singer/songwriter wrote and produced the new disc without the help of Glen Ballard,… Read more »

Rob Thomas’ pre-Matchbox Twenty recordings are finally seeing the light of day, thanks to a former bandmate who spent a half a decade trying to put “the nail in the group’s coffin.” Don’t Play With Matches, the only studio album by Tabitha’s Secret (which featured Matchbox Twenty bassist Brian Yale and drummer Paul Doucette as well as Thomas), is due for October 9 release. Guitarist Jay Stanley – who, along with guitarist John Goff, parted ways with the band in 1995 – fought a five-year legal battle to get the album released. “It’s about putting the past behind me, putting… Read more »

Smash Mouth’s enterprising front man Steve Harwell has teamed with Sound Management CEO Robert Hayes, Tambourine Music president, Scott Kellner, and veteran rocker Jack Blades to form Spun Out Records. With a combination of 30 years experience in the entertainment industry, Hayes and Kellner will control business operations, while Harwell and Blades will handle A&R and creative elements. Spun Out has already signed San Francisco’s pop-rock band, Fuse, rap-rock-funk band Triple Seven, hard rock band Soul Circle and twelve-yearold country pop-singer, Brittany Breed, the winner of Ed McMahons’ “The Next Big Thing.” Blades has twenty successful years in the business,… Read more »

Try as they might to display a more mature side as songwriters and lyricists, the members of Green Day – a third, fourth or maybe even fifth-generation punk band – are still working the same schtick that powered them to rock supremacy in the mid-1990s. It’s snotty and obnoxious, a blur of three- and four-chord rockers strung together in a manner that puts exclamation points after every barre chord and chorus. But when it’s working, Green Day is far and away the head of the class. Green Day delivered an involving, career-spanning show that included five tunes from the new… Read more »

Hollywood recording artists Youngstown have landed a slot opening for Jessica Simpson on the latter’s upcoming “Dreamchaser” tour beginning August 8 at the Bell County Expo in Belton, Texas. “Down For The Get Down,” Youngstown’s eagerly awaited sophomore album, is scheduled to hit stores on August 7th. Produced by Julian Raymond (Fastball), Oliver Leiber (BBMak) and Guy Roche (Christina Aguilera, Aaliyah), “Down For The Get Down” fully delivers on the promise of trio’s 1999 smash debut, “Let’s Roll.” The disc is best described as pop with punch, blending harmony andattitude with sweet, sincere ballads and in-your-face bounce. Billboard praised the… Read more »

Though making last year’s Return of Saturn was a long, often straining process for No Doubt, the band has learned to loosen up for its successor. As the Southern California pop-rockers work to get it out by year’s end, they continue to take a free-form attitude, collaborating with producers from all over the musical spectrum, including reggae, hip-hop, electronica and new wave. “I think this [album] is going to be our happy road,” said guitarist Tom Dumont. No Doubt, who spent two years on Return, have already laid down tracks for the still-untitled disc with red-hot production duo the Neptunes… Read more »

Alanis Morissette has returned to the jagged little sound that made her famous. The Canadian singer debuted eight new songs during a show Friday night, providing a generous preview of her next album, which is sitting in limbo while she fights a contract dispute with Maverick Records. Much of the new material harked back to the edgier pop-rock of Morissette’s 1995 smash, Jagged Little Pill, and steered away from the moody, Eastern-influenced sound of its follow-up, 1998’s Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. Accordingly, the two-hour performance – the first of two consecutive nights at Los Angeles’ El Rey Theatre – was… Read more »