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Los Angeles – Mike Love and the rest of the surviving Beach Boys stayed away, but luminaries such as Neil Young and Jeff Beck showed up in Hollywood on Friday as the music industry honored Brian Wilson at a black-tie bash. The troubled genius behind the fabled vocal group was feted as man of the year at the 15th annual MusiCares dinner, a Grammy-related event that raises money for musicians in need. While previous gatherings took place in glamorous hotel ballrooms, this year’s was held at the Hollywood Palladium, a run-down concert venue infamous for attracting drive-by shootings a few… Read more »

Forget the stage, it’s been almost a decade since Jerry Cantrell, Sean Kinney and Mike Inez – a.k.a. 75 percent of ’90s grunge icons Alice in Chains – have even been in the same room. Sure, they’ve jammed with each other in various permutations since Alice last played a show together (a 1996 taping of MTV’s “Unplugged”), but never all three together. So when they announced that they’d be taking the stage again this month, it had to be for a good reason. “We all saw what happened with the tsunamis in Southeast Asia. It was such an overwhelming tragedy,”… Read more »

It seems that things really are “unwell” in the Matchbox Twenty camp, as guitarist Adam Gaynor has reportedly left the band. According to Billboard.com, after being with Matchbox Twenty throughout their three albums – which have sold 20 million copies worldwide – the guitarist has left without any official statement. The band have also remained tight-lipped, but a source told Billboard that the band didn’t want to “renew his services.” Ouch. Matchbox Twenty are currently on a break as many of the members are busy with other projects. Obviously, the most highly anticipated of those is singer Rob Thomas ‘s… Read more »

New York – Tenacious D will be joined by such rock heavyweights as Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, Beck, Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl and Queens Of The Stone Age principal Josh Homme at a Jan. 17 benefit in Los Angeles for the victims of the Asian tsunami. The Wiltern Theatre event will also boast an appearance by actor Will Ferrell. Tickets are $60 and $100. The show is being organized via the new collective Music for Relief, with proceeds to benefit the American Red Cross. Meanwhile, producers Quincy Jones and Jermaine Dupri have postponed the all-star recording of “We… Read more »

New York – Christmas sales came in the nick of time, saving the holiday selling season for most merchants at the last minute. After watching sales waver on an almost daily basis in the first half of December, most retailers say that because the weeks before and after Christmas were strong, stores could top last year’s numbers. “Christmas was late coming, but once it did, it came crushing in,” says Geoffrey Caruso, manager of the Amoeba store in Berkeley, Calif. “In the first part of December, it vacillated from day to day.” Indeed, Nielsen SoundScan numbers confirm that for the… Read more »

Los Angles – You only need one word to sum up the year in pop 2004: Usher. Clearly, it was his house. The rest of us were just overnight visitors. It began innocently enough, right at the beginning of the calendar year. On the Billboard Hot 100 dated Jan. 10, 2004 (coincidentally, the 55th anniversary of the introduction of the 45 rpm record), the highest new entry was “Yeah!” by Usher Featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris. Six weeks later, “Yeah!” had assumed pole position, and remained there for 12 weeks, tying it as the longest-running No. 1 (with “Lose Yourself”… Read more »

Los Angeles – Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz continued their reign on the year-end Top Independent Albums chart for the second year in a row. The self-proclaimed “Kings of Crunk” finish the year with two of the top five titles on the indie chart. After breaking through in 2003, the Atlanta-bred party-rap trio of Lil Jon, Big Sam and Lil Bo remained steady sellers throughout 2004. The act’s BME/TVT release “Kings of Crunk” has spent more than 100 weeks on the Top Independent Albums chart, and has now led the chart two years running. To date, the album… Read more »

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A small memorial started by a handful of fans blossomed into an outpouring of grief and celebration Thursday, less than 24 hours after the shocking slayings at the Alrosa Villa club where Pantera/ Damageplan guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott and three others were killed. Despite the rain and cold temperature, hundreds of fans gathered outside the weathered metal club to pay homage to their hero. They erected makeshift crosses, laid yellow roses in honor of Abbott’s Texas roots and burned candles in his honor, but mostly they shared stories, asked each other why anyone would do such a… Read more »

Anyone who visited their Web site and thought that Hearts That Hate were the next big thing out of the emo scene is about to get a reality check from MC Lars. The fictitious band has a starring role in “Signing Emo,” the second single off Lars’ Laptop EP. The song, a send-up of the bandwagon-jumping that goes on in the music industry, finds a 40-year-old, overweight and out-of-touch A&R exec named Marty feeling pressure from his boss to ink an emo band – any emo band – to the label because the boss’ daughter likes Dashboard Confessional. Just before… Read more »

New York – Rock ‘n’ roll fans with deep pockets can buy a Beatles guitar or a mugshot of the pop star formerly known as Cat Stevens at what Christie’s said on Wednesday was its biggest auction of show business memorabilia. The Gibson SG electric guitar, played by George Harrison from 1966-1969, is the star attraction among over 400 lots, ranging from Britney Spears’ book report to a handwritten 1991 letter from the late Kurt Cobain to Courtney Love. The guitar, expected to fetch around $500,000, was used while recording the Beatles’ “Revolver” album and in two Beatles films “Paperback… Read more »