Search Results for: the early november

Industrial vets’ “Houses” targets White House So claims Al Jourgensen, frontman for the legendary industrial-metal band Ministry. And he’s not lying. The group’s new record, Houses of the Molé (released today), is a nine-track assault on everything George W. Bush, from the straight-talking, thrashy opening track “No W” all the way through the brooding, artsy finale “Worm.” Even the album title is a slap at the Oval Office. “We like tipping our hits to classic rock, so why not [Led Zeppelin’s] Houses of the Holy?” says Jourgensen, laughing. “Besides, I live in Texas, and molé is a way of life… Read more »

A Delaware Chancery Court judge has ruled that Los Angeles should be the venue for the hearing of the bitter legal clash between Warner Music Group (WMG) and top Warner act Madonna’s Maverick Records. WMG filed its preemptive action against Maverick in Delaware on March 24, seeking a declaratory judgment. Maverick filed its own suit the following day in California Superior Court in L.A., claiming that WMG had breached its 12-year-old joint-venture pact with the label, which is gearing up for the May 18 release of Alanis Morissette’s new album. The suits are believed to be tied to ongoing disputes… Read more »

Beyoncé Knowles, multiplatinum sweetheart of the music award show circuit this year, was exhausted. She’d just appeared on the Vibe Awards and breathlessly arrived across town just in time to change clothes and take bows at the VH1 Awards. “Too many,” she said as she leaned against a wall backstage. Bad planning by VH1 and Vibe? Not really, there were four award shows that week including the American Music Awards and they were bound to butt heads somewhere. With television networks relentlessly reaching for younger viewers, an unprecedented 26 music award shows are now on cable and network TV. “There’s… Read more »

Even when adopting the most drastic measures, record labels seem helpless to prevent albums from surfacing online before their release dates. So now one label is taking the “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach. Four months before the debut album by New York trio the Secret Machines hits stores, Reprise Records, a Warner Bros. subsidiary, is making it available for sale online. In a campaign tied to Reprise’s online marketing campaign, the label is trying to make sure fans have a legal way of acquiring new music they hear about on the Internet. “[When] there’s no legal alternative,… Read more »

Sony Corp.’s earnings plunged 26 percent for the latest quarter as expenses for job cuts and other restructuring costs and lower profits from its electronics, moviemaking and video games business offset profit improvement in its music business. But the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant said Wednesday its sales rose for the October-December quarter and it boosted its profit forecast for the year due to a gain on a currency investment. Sony said it earned 92.6 billion yen ($875 million) in the October-December period, down from 125 billion yen a year earlier. Sales inched up 0.7 percent to 2.32 trillion yen… Read more »

Britney Spears’ two-day-old marriage to a childhood friend was dissolved Monday shortly after the pop superstar filed for an annulment, claiming she didn’t fully understand what she was doing when she got hitched on the spur of the moment. Clark County Family Court Judge Lisa M. Brown signed the order at 12:24 p.m., said Las Vegas attorney David Chesnoff, who was cleaning up after a weekend frolic between Spears and Jason Allen Alexander. “There is no marriage now,” Chesnoff told The Associated Press. “Jason agreed to this completely. They’ve made a wise decision. I know they care about each other.… Read more »

Pop star Britney Spears marched down the aisle in Las Vegas, marrying a childhood friend from Louisiana, according to news reports. The 22-year-old singer married Jason Allen Alexander of Kentwood, La., early Saturday at the Little White Wedding Chapel on the Strip, according to People.com, the Web site for People magazine. But an unnamed source close to singer told the Web site that the wedding was a joke that went too far and Spears is planning an annulment. Calls to Spears’ representatives were not immediately returned. The bride wore jeans and baseball cap, according to People.com, and had a hotel… Read more »

Michael Jackson Under Seige: Day 43: CBS and Jackson’s camp yesterday denied a published report that the network added $1 million to the license fee it paid the singer for a prime-time music special to get him to talk to “60 Minutes” about the child molestation charges he faces. “Categorically false” is how CBS News, in a statement, labeled the report, and Jackson adviser Charles Koppelman, who first brokered the music special in September, called the New York Times report “nonsense.” In other Weird and Wacky World of Michael Jackson news, the Nation of Islam held a news conference yesterday… Read more »

The future of the music industry is being held, quite literally, in the palm of a twentysomething’s hand. Not the “business” side of the music industry – you know, the folks you’ve perhaps heard weeping into their bowls of caviar over the 31 percent decrease in album sales over the course of the past year, a downturn the suits pin on the advent of digital music downloading and CD burning. No, the “art” side of music business is being forceably changed. Artists are either coming to terms with changes in the ways their music is distributed – or doggedly railing… Read more »

A little time in rehab is better than a little time in jail. Courtney Love, who has been in entertainment headlines regularly over the last couple of months, has been in a drug and substance rehabilitation centre for the last two weeks, according to her lawyer. Ron Fischetti told MTV.com that Love had been staying at Wavelengths – a live-in center that has aided stars with drug and alcohol problems (including actor Robert Downey Jr.) – since November 21 and was doing “extremely well.” In early October, Love was arrested for being “under the influence of a controlled substance” (read… Read more »