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For their latest album, veteran Boston rockers Aerosmith decided it was time to return to their blues roots. Thus, Honkin’ On Bobo – possibly the most memorable title of 2004 – was born. The 12-song disc, released March 30, saw Aerosmith tackling old blues/roots covers such as Muddy Waters’ I’m Ready and Mississippi Fred McDowell’s You Gotta Move plus one Aerosmith original, The Grind. Drummer Joey Kramer, down the line from San Antonio, Tex., prior to the band’s Thursday night stop at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, said the concept has been in the works for a long time. “The new… Read more »

Universal Music Group will raise the suggested retail price of its CDs by $1 to improve profit margins for merchants after many balked at the company’s push to slash prices, a source familiar with the plan said Friday. The move could leave consumers paying about $11 for a popular CD. Universal’s new suggested retail price will be $13.98, but most retailers typically charge less than that amount. UMG is the world’s biggest record conglomerate, with artists that include U2, Eminem and Shania Twain. Its move comes just three months after the company cut wholesale prices and reduced its suggested retail… Read more »

A reclusive record executive dubbed “the Howard Hughes of the music business” has toppled Paul McCartney to become Britain’s wealthiest music millionaire in the latest list of the rich and famous. Clive Calder, the mastermind behind such stars as Britney Spears and ‘NSync, rocketed to number one in the Sunday Times music industry list after selling his independent Zomba label to German media giant Bertelsmann AG. “He is the Howard Hughes of the music industry,” said the list’s author Philip Beresford who put Calder top with an estimated worth of 1.23 billion pounds ($2.28 billion). “We have scoured the world… Read more »

Slipknot’s lighting guy deserves a raise. His chaotic visual display so accurately complements the band’s turbulent music that even with the sound turned off, Slipknot’s punishing assault would come across loud and clear. At Monday’s stop of the Jägermeister Music Tour, which began March 30 in Orlando, Florida, whirring red emergency lights translated the dizzying guitar lines of Jim Root and Mick Thompson. Blinding white strobes pulsed in time with Joey Jordison’s unrelenting bass drums. The sickly green hues that backlit the nine masked bandmembers manifested the music’s creepy, menacing tones, while reality-distorting black lighting frequently bathed the stage, suggesting… Read more »

The Foo Fighters will replace Guns N’ Roses in the May 30 headlining slot at the Rock in Rio festival in Lisbon. Guns N’ Roses last month pulled out of its planned performance at the event, citing the departure of guitarist Buckethead. The performance would have made GNR the first act to perform three times at the festival. Buckethead is already in the midst of a solo tour opening for Particle. Rock in Rio will stretch over two weekends, May 28-30 and June 4-6 in the Portuguese city’s Bela Vista Parque. The Foo Fighters will top a “World Stage” bill… Read more »

It’s a good thing for Ryan Key that there’s no age requirement on nostalgia. His band, Yellowcard, is on the brink of a bright future thanks to a hit single that reminisces about the past. “It covers a broad, general topic without being too cheesy about it,” Key said of “Ocean Avenue.” “It’s one of those songs that kind of just captures that feeling of nostalgia and missing home and trying to get somewhere in your life that you can’t find anymore, because you’re all old and everything sucks and you’re not with your friends anymore.” Those sentiments seem better… Read more »

Kelly Osbourne, the 19-year-old daughter of heavy metal star Ozzy Osbourne, has checked into a drug rehabilitation center for an addiction to painkillers, her parents said. Ozzy, 55, and Sharon Osbourne, 51, talked about their daughter’s drug problem Friday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” Sharon Osbourne said that an English tabloid notified them Friday that they had a photograph of Kelly in an apparent drug deal. Kelly Osbourne was confronted and eventually acknowledged a drug problem “after a lot of twisting,” Sharon Osbourne said. Osbourne’s younger brother, Jack, 18, checked himself into a drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic last… Read more »

Keeping with the playful attitude that is Simple Plan, lead singer Pierre Bouvier called in to the MTV TRL Countdown yesterday from Vancouver to announce he and his Simple Plan buddies had parted ways after constant fighting over the direction the band was heading. After several fans called in to the TRL hotline supremely disappointed, Pierre phoned in to TRL once again to reveal that indeed this was an April Fools Day joke. Of course that did not stop the band’s message board and management office phones from going crazy. Hits and postings on both the band’s website and message… Read more »

“At the end of every show we’d grab handfuls of these stickers we made at Kinko’s with our name and website,” says Steriogram frontman Brad Carter. “We’d toss ’em to our fans from the stage, 300 or 400 stickers every night.” Carter laughs at the band’s ultra-humble approach to building fan loyalty. But it’s working. Steriogram’s homemade stickers, website and music videos, together with its enthusiastic courting of street teams and high school kids, helped launch the rock-hiphop group from obscurity in Auckland, NZ, to a major deal with Capitol Records. “Our goal was to play in America because our… Read more »

Oops! girl Britney Spears was forced to cut short an encore after her concert last Thursday in Moline, Illinois, and cancel a Friday performance in Chicago after she hurt herself during a complicated dance routine. Spears was performing a new song, “Boom Boom,” when the mishap occurred, according to reports. Perhaps she hadn’t worked out all the kinks in the routine-in any case, Spears was forced to abandon the stage. Several minutes later, she reappeared on the stage in a white bathrobe and apologized to her fans for cutting the performance short. The “Toxic” singer had planned to continue with… Read more »