idobi had the chance to sit down with Forrest Kline of Hellogoodbye at a one-off show in New York City on November 29th. Kline talked about the band’s change in sound, signing to Old Friends Records, and future plans.
When bands decide to strip down, it can mean one of two things. For A Loss For Words it meant grabbing a couple guitars and recording an acoustic EP. Returning To Webster Lake has the band giving their songs a new life and three cover songs a unique twist.
Is Mary J. Blige aiming for a career makeover? The R&B superstar covered Simon & Garfunkel’s classic pop tune “Bridge Over Troubled Water” at the Grammys on Sunday, and now she’s in the midst of a remake of one of the most iconic hard-rock anthems of all time: Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.”
Lenny Santiago has a rich history in the rap game. His hands have been in almost all Roc-A-Fella Records releases (sans Kanye West’s), and now he is running things over at Def Jam as vice president of A&R. He signed DJ Khaled and also spearheaded the A&R work on Jadakiss’ The Last Kiss and Fabolous’ upcoming Loso’s Way (due July 28th), and his big fall project is the new one from Ghostface Killah. But hold up: There’s been some controversy over whether Ghostface will really live up to early descriptions that the record that will be an R&B album. Tony… Read more »
The Grinch might be stealing Christmas from music retailers, but thanks to Josh Groban and Oprah, there’s still some singing in Whoville. For the sales week kicked off by Super Tuesday–the release date before Thanksgiving when record labels typically schedule their big guns–the figures were abnormally bad, with only one Top 10 bow and a seven-week-old album topping the charts. Still, that album, Groban’s Noël, can thank last week’s performance on The Oprah Winfrey Show for driving it past Alicia Keys and into the number one spot. Noël crowned the Billboard 200 by selling 405,000 copies for the week ended… Read more »
At some point, Cobra Starship mastermind Gabe Saporta is really gonna have to decide if having a keytar player in his band is worth it. Sure, the keytar is totally awesome – name another instrument good enough for Donald Fagen, Prince and “Weird” Al Yankovic – but in getting to the bottom of the Starship’s split with ‘tar player Elisa Schwartz (a less-than-harmonious parting of ways involving stolen iPods, clandestine spa sessions and late-night Britney Spears-fueled dance parties) you start to wonder if perhaps Saporta would be better off having never hired a keytar player in the first place. “The… Read more »
For an album about a mute, the latest Mars Volta opus sure has a lot to say. It’s a concept album of sorts, but since nothing with the Mars Volta is ever simple, Frances the Mute isn’t a concept easily explained. Not that the band won’t try. Instead of looking at the upcoming album as an idea, they see it as a character, a resurrected body based on the thoughts of a stranger seeking to find his adopted parents, written in a diary found by former bandmember Jeremy Ward (who later died in 2003) while working as a repo man.… Read more »
Where Evanescence were once propelled solely by a pair of songwriters, the creative process has become a lot more democratic since the departure of guitarist Ben Moody. And yet Amy Lee continues to get the ball rolling the way she always has: behind closed doors. “I write by myself initially,” the band’s singer explained. “That’s the way I’ve always written, just working on pure thought by myself. Then I bring it to the table with whoever I’m collaborating with.” After Moody split in late 2003, he was replaced on tour by former Cold guitarist Terry Balsamo, who permanently joined the… Read more »
Efforts by the music sector to curtail online piracy and develop digital music services like Apple’s iTunes are the first glimmers of hope for the battered industry, the head of Sony Corp.’s U.S. operations said Wednesday. U.S. Chief Executive and Chairman Howard Stringer said at a media breakfast that the April launch of Apple Computer Inc.’s online music service, iTunes, which lets music fans download some songs from all five major record labels for less than a $1 each, was a “sea change” and a “wake-up call.” “Steve Jobs (Apple CEO) has liberated us,” Stringer told media executives and journalists… Read more »
Jackson Browne has spent a fair amount of the past several years trying to heed his own advice and take it easy. He’s still got a world of trouble on his mind, dismayed by the poverty and politics of the United States, concerned about his relationships with friends and family. But he is also full of enthusiasm for, among other things, the band he is on the road again with this summer and for Spain, a country he reckons has found the secret of life. This fall Browne will release his first album since 1996, titled “The Naked Ride Home.”… Read more »
