Search Results for: say anything

Between them, sisters Jessica and Ashlee Simpson have had one high-profile divorce, an embarrassing lip-synch scandal, plastic surgeries both obvious and subtle, blame for a Dallas Cowboys loss, and an impresario father looming over it all. Each shot to prominence – and up the pop charts – by taking the primrose path of MTV reality shows. Each has had shining success at selling records, followed by abject failure. And that’s just a sampling. If you’re a celeb-watcher (or football bettor), it’s juicy stuff. If you’re a Simpson sister, it’s beginning to look like a critical mass of negativity. Of late,… Read more »

Heath Ledger, the Australian-born actor whose breakthrough role as a gay cowboy in the 2005 movie “Brokeback Mountain” earned him a nomination for an Academy Award and comparisons to the likes of Marlon Brando, was found dead Tuesday in an apartment in Manhattan with sleeping pills near his body, the police said. The police said Mr. Ledger, 28, was found naked on the floor near the bed in an apartment in SoHo that he had been renting. The chief police spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said the police did not suspect foul play. “There was no indication of a disturbance,” he… 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 »

2007 was a year of duality for music. While the industry continued to tank, it was quietly a very good year for rock ‘n’ roll and indie music. The Boss returned with his old band, the Police actually got along and even Led Zeppelin reunited. The most exciting music was busy breaking down barriers. Arcade Fire played in intimate churches; Web site TakeAwayShows.com and the film “Once” returned music to the streets; and a certain British band eliminated a very big middle man. “In Rainbows,” Radiohead: The much-ballyhooed online release of “In Rainbows” in some ways obscured what an excellent… Read more »

Taking Back Sunday drummer Mark O’Connell still isn’t exactly sure what went wrong. After a show in Phoenix in August, he simply stopped being able to walk.“I got off the bus and it just hit me and I fell to the ground,” O’Connell said. “The guys were like, ‘What are you doing? That’s not funny.’ And I was like, ‘I can’t move.’ They kept saying, ‘Get up, you’re fine’ and they got me into the hotel lobby and I sat on the couch. … I crawled on the floor through the lobby and onto the elevator to my room. I… Read more »

The death of a rock musician last month outside a popular downtown music club has been ruled an accidental drug overdose. Casey Calvert, the guitarist of the band “Hawthorne Heights,” was found dead in the band’s tour bus outside the 9:30 Club just before the band’s show on Nov. 24. The District’s chief medical examiner determined the cause of death to be “acute combined effects of opiate, citalopram and clonazepam intoxication.” Citalopram (also known by the brand name Celexa) and clonazepam (also known by the brand names Klonopin and Rivotril) are prescription drugs. Citalopram is used to treat depression, and… Read more »

Dance musician Moby has launched a Web site that gives his music away — to the right people, of course. He is licensing his music for free via mobygratis.com to help out indie and student filmmakers. “I was a philosophy major and I had a minor in film,” he says. “Ever since then, I’ve had a lot of friends in the world of independent and nonprofit film production. Their recurring complaint is that it’s really difficult to license music for movies that have no budgets, so I thought I would start this Web site which very simply provides free music… Read more »

F. Scott Fitzgerald may have depressingly opined that “there are no second acts in American lives,” but Nada Surf is certainly making the case for second acts in indie rock. The band had an accidental alt-rock radio hit in 1996 with “Popular,” only to be signed and then summarily dropped by Elektra. This sort of rise and fall would spell the end for many bands, but Nada Surf kept on going, buying back and reissuing its shelved major-label album, “The Proximity Effect,” in 1998. Since then, the band released two records on Seattle-based indie Barsuk: 2003’s “Let Go,” which has… Read more »

Christina Aguilera flaunts her pregnancy in an upcoming issue of Marie Claire magazine. The 26-year-old singer is shown wearing a cropped jacket, hoop earrings and a ring on the cover of the January issue, on newsstands Dec. 11. Excerpts from the story were released Wednesday. Aguilera and her husband, Jordan Bratman, were married in 2005. The singer says she learned she was pregnant while on her recent “Back to Basics” tour. “We were planning on starting to try after the tour. And so, I had gone off the Pill to prepare my body, because I didn’t know how much time… Read more »

Casey Calvert, guitarist for post punk/ rock band Hawthorne Heights, was found dead early Saturday morning. Calvert was 26-years-old. According to several accounts Calvert appeared healthy on Friday night while spending time with friends before going to sleep for the night. Those same reports indicated that Calvert passed away at some point while sleeping. Calvert’s sound played a big role in Hawthorne Heights and its highly successful second album If Only You Were Lonely which debuted at #3 on the Billboard charts and produced the hit single “Saying Sorry.” Hawthorne Heights had a show in Detroit, Michigan on Friday night… Read more »