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Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker sued the Rockstar energy drink company Wednesday, accusing it of wrongfully using his picture. The Superior Court lawsuit said the Rockstar Web site published a photo of Barker “holding a can of one of Rockstar’s beverages, and identifying him and his endorsement by name” without his consent. The lawsuit claims invasion of privacy, unfair competition and misappropriating his likeness to promote the product. Barker is “a prominent figure in the rock music world,” according to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified punitive and statutory damages. Calls to the Rockstar Beverage Corp. were not immediately returned Wednesday.… Read more »
For the typically rowdy rock band on the road, “scoring” might not necessarily have anything to do with film music. Yet over the last couple of decades of making music, a number of rock talents have made the career leap from arenas to scoring stages, and the ranks of today’s A-list composers include many with rock ‘n’ roll pedigrees. Randy Newman had a successful career as a songwriter and solo artist; Mark Mothersbaugh was a founder of Devo; and Danny Elfman started out in Oingo Boingo (a band that also included future composers Steve Bartek and Richard Gibbs). Trevor Rabin… Read more »
Rock band Yellowcard will soon travel to the Persian Gulf and perform for service men and women as part of a USO/MNC-I expeditionary entertainment tour. This is the first USO tour for Yellowcard, who will hang out with armed forces, sign autographs and treat U.S. troops to a selection of hit songs from all their albums. Their latest album “Paper Walls” debuted at no. 13 on the Billboard charts and sold more than 40,000 copies in its first week. Recognized for their trademark sound infused with entwined guitar lines, airtight vocal harmonies and flourishes of violin, Yellowcard has… Read more »
Nobody would ever confuse R.E.M. for Metallica, but the guitars have definitely been turned up for the Georgia group’s 14th studio album, “Accelerate.” The follow-up to 2004’s “Around the Sun” is due in stores April 1 via Warner Bros. Nearly all the material was tested out during a summer run in Dublin, although manager Bertis Downs said a few of those songs didn’t make the cut, and a couple of album tunes were held back from live airings. Mostly gone is the drowsy vibe of “Around the Sun,” which was a commercial and critical disappointment. New tunes such as “Living… Read more »
The Material Girl is about to become a Hall of Famer. The ever-evolving Madonna was announced as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee on Thursday along with John Mellencamp, The Ventures, Leonard Cohen and The Dave Clark Five. A panel of 600 industry figures selected the five acts to be inducted at the annual ceremony, to be held March 10 in New York. “The 2008 inductees are trailblazers – all unique and influential in their genres,” Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation President and CEO Joel Peresman said in a statement. “From poetry to pop, these five… Read more »
Cover bands and tribute bands have been a mainstay of the music scene for decades. When a company licenses a composition, it may find that licensing the original master recording is outside the budget or unavailable for licensing. Hiring the original band members to rerecord the song may not be an alternative because of contractual rerecording restrictions in the band’s record deal, the members no longer sound like they once did or they may be dead. So when someone wants to record a cover version of a song, when does it violate the original artist’s rights? Michael Novak, the Detroit-based… Read more »
