Search Results for: the driver era

AUSTIN, Texas – Every March, the music industry throws on a pair of shorts, slathers on the SPF 45 and heads on down to Austin for South by Southwest, a weeklong celebration of bands, BBQ and (sometimes free!) beer. It’s a brutal bacchanal and music marathon powered by thousands of acts playing in hundreds of venues – at all hours – plus an unreal number of open-bar tabs and fancy private parties. Sleep is not exactly a top priority, so MTV News has dispatched three of its most tireless reporters into the fray. They’ll be filing reports a few times… Read more »

Late in the afternoon of Jan. 16, a SWAT team from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, backed up by officers from the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office and the local police department, along with a few drug-sniffing dogs, burst into a unmarked recording studio on a short, quiet street in an industrial neighborhood near the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The officers entered with their guns drawn; the local police chief said later that they were “prepared for the worst.” They had come to serve a warrant for the arrest of the studio’s owners on the grounds that they had violated the… Read more »

The members of Bayside were asleep in their van on Halloween morning 2005 when the vehicle hit a patch of ice near Cheyenne, Wyoming, and skidded out of control. The driver tried to correct his steering but was unable to keep the van from rolling. “I remember when the crash first started,” singer Anthony Raneri recalled. “I had no idea what was going on. I was jolted, and then I hit my head and passed out. And I woke up after the van fell.” While Raneri and guitarist Jack O’Shea escaped with scrapes and bruises, drummer John Holohan was thrown… Read more »

Following are previews of albums due out within the next few months from debut acts or under-the-radar artists due for a breakthrough. PAOLO NUTINI Scottish singer/songwriter Paolo Nutini, who turns 20 January 9, was one of the most noteworthy breakout artists of 2006 for Atlantic Records in the United Kingdom. After an appearance at South by Southwest in Austin last March, his debut single, “Last Request,” reached No. 5 in July on the British charts and also became a substantial airplay hit. His debut album, “These Streets,” subsequently opened at No. 3 with out-of-the-box sales of 35,000, according to his… Read more »

Perhaps Simple Plan and Good Charlotte will spend their upcoming co-headlining tour discussing the works of existentialist Jean-Paul Sarte or decrying the appointment of ultraconservative Paul Wolfowitz as the head of the World Bank. Because, wow, both groups have gotten plenty serious all of a sudden. It all started last week, when Good Charlotte filmed the woe-is-the-world video for their new single, “We Believe”. And now Simple Plan are upping the angst ante with the clip for their new single, “Untitled.” In the video – directed by Marc Klasfeld (Sum 41, Thursday) – the normally rambunctious Montreal pop-punkers are tackling… Read more »

New York – The Thanksgiving weekend kicked off with a bang for U.S. music retailers, turned into a whimper and rebounded nicely. “Friday exceeded our expectations, and then Saturday was softer than expected,” reports Bob Higgins, chairman/CEO of Trans World Entertainment in Albany, N.Y. “Overall, the weekend was good and we are still positive that it will be a good holiday season.” Likewise, Jim Urie, president of Universal Music & Video Distribution, reports: “We are getting a pretty consistent story from retail; overall, it was not great, but not horrible. Friday was great – in fact, better than great –… Read more »

Right about now, we’re thinking 50 Cent would have rather been in da club than on da stage. The chart-topping hip-hopster cut short his set at Britain’s Reading Festival over the weekend after getting booed and pelted with plastic bottles by a hostile audience just minutes after he began performing. Accompanied by his G-Unit crew, 50 Cent hadn’t even taken the stage at the legendary U.K. music bash on Sunday evening when the cranky crowd of 55,000 began yelling insults at the former crack peddler and hurling plastic cups. Things got even worse when the lights came up on 50… Read more »

Authorities were considering criminal charges Wednesday against the Dave Matthews Band and one of its tour bus drivers for allegedly dumping human waste from a bus into the Chicago River, dousing a tour boat filled with passengers. The announcement came a day after the state sued the band and driver Stefan Wohl, accusing them of violating state water pollution and public nuisance laws. The lawsuit seeks $70,000 in civil penalties. Chicago police said surveillance footage from nearby buildings shows a bus crossing the grated bridge Aug. 8 as the tour boat passed underneath. “Certainly, this is the bus that discharged… Read more »

One of the hottest concert tours has come to an end – Civic Tour featuring Dashboard Confessional. From nightly crowd sing-a-longs to 10 fans so far winning fully customized Dashboard Confessional Honda Civics, this year’s Civic Tour has proved to be a box office and audience success, and continues to keep concertgoers involved. Fans still have one last shot at winning the final customized DC Civic through the “Drive Away With Dashboard Confessional” national online sweepstakes at http://www.civictour.com. Contest ends on September 2, 2004 and is open to licensed drivers 18 and older. “Being on this tour allowed us to… Read more »

Like the song says, you’ve got to hide your love-or at least your priceless Beatles stash-away. Preferaby in a battered old suitcase. A British man on holiday Down Under took a gamble and ponied up $37 for a suitcase at a flea market in Melbourne, Australia, and made an Antiques Roadshow-worthy discovery. The case contained a virtually priceless collection of Beatles memorabilia, including signed photos, concert programs and unreleased recordings, according to the London Times. Fab Four aficionados are speculating that the treasure trove is the long-lost archive of Beatle crony Mal Evans, considered by many fans to be the… Read more »