SoundExchange has released a series of false statements to destroy the credibility of SaveNetRadio Coalition and the Internet Radio Equality Act. ThereIsNoRadio is a small webcaster that will be permanently silenced if this bill does not become law.
Just before Sum 41 released “March of the Dogs,” a song from their upcoming Underclass Hero album, to iTunes, frontman Deryck Whibley posted a bulletin on the band’s MySpace page stating that, while the track is “lyrically … one of the more political songs on the album,” it was by no means indicative of Hero’s content, adding, “This will NOT be a political record.” And why would Whibley post such a caveat? Perhaps it has something to do with the intro to “Dogs,” a spoken-word bit in which Whibs declares: “Ladies and gentlemen of the underclass, the president of the… Read more »
The untimely death in 1996 of 33-year-old pop/jazz singer Eva Cassidy struck a deep chord with Chuck Brown. Washington, D.C.’s godfather of go-go had teamed with Cassidy on the 1995 release “The Other Side.” “After we lost her, I didn’t want to do anymore studio work,” Brown said. But cajoling from songwriter/producer Chucky Thompson and business manager Tom Goldfogle changed Brown’s tune. “We’re About the Business” (due April 24 from Raw Venture) is the musician’s first set of primarily original material since Cassidy’s death. That’s not all. Rapper Eve samples his No. 31 1974 R&B hit “Blow Your Whistle” on… Read more »
There are actors who sing and singers who act, but throughout pop history few entertainers have successfully balanced those twin careers. Neither could Hilary Duff, though not due to lack of effort. While her career as a pop diva skyrocketed – she released two platinum albums and a best-selling greatest-hits disc in just three years – the former Disney child star found her acting career stalling. Despite her considerable star wattage, Hollywood had difficulty seeing Duff beyond her past sugary sweet roles and good girl persona (no rehab or pantyless partying here). “It always shocks me the lack of openness,… Read more »
A Hempfield Area High School sophomore spent 12 days in juvenile detention after authorities in Westmoreland County mistakenly charged him with making a March 11 bomb threat, in part because the district had not changed its clocks to reflect daylight-saving time. Cody Webb, 15, of Hempfield, was arrested March 12 and charged with a felony count of threatening to use weapons of mass destruction and misdemeanor counts of making false alarms to public entities, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and making terrorist threats. Webb, an honors student involved in student council, tennis and the Japanese Club, was immediately taken to the… Read more »
Conor Oberst sits in a dive bar, pulling on Winston Lights and throwing back intermittent gulps from a beer bottle. This isn’t the downtown New York- or Los Angeles-variety “dive” with the beautiful people and the perfectly curated juke box. This is the suburban Omaha sort, where a handful of pear-shaped, geriatric regulars sit drinking, solo, at two in the afternoon, mumbling conversations to themselves. The juke box plays only AC/DC. Oberst, better-known as Bright Eyes, is here — away from his handlers, bandmates and friends that dot the frigid Omaha landscape — to confront the perception, more or less,… Read more »
The recent death of Brad Delp, lead singer of the rock band Boston, has been ruled a suicide, police in New Hampshire said on Wednesday. Delp, 55, was killed by carbon monoxide piped through a tube from a vehicle’s exhaust pipe into a bathroom where he was found dead on March 9, said Lt. William Baldwin of the police in Atkinson, a southern New Hampshire town where Delp lived. With Delp’s big, wailing voice, Boston scored hits with “More Than a Feeling,” “Long Time” and “Peace of Mind.” The band’s popularity peaked in the late 1970s but it remained active… Read more »
Among the legions of acts booked for this year’s South by Southwest Music and Media Conference and Festival March 14-18 in Austin, here are 10 that people will be talking about. THE PIPETTES Sure, the Pipettes revel in the ’60s girl group sounds of the Ronettes and the Shangri-Las. And yes, they even conjure up cool memories of British sister-in-song, the beehived Mari Wilson, who covered similar musical ground in the ’80s. Still, the trio, who hail from the British seaside town of Brighton, manage to make songs like “Pull Shapes,” “Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me” and “Dirty Mind”… Read more »
We’re not even 20 seconds into the show, and Ryan Seacrest is already suggesting that we’re in for one helluva train wreck tonight. “We don’t havhe Paula! But we’ll find her, right?” This is “American Idol”? It’s the last round of semifinal performances, and nothing could be worse than Tuesday’s embarrassing men’s show . Well, I guess if they let Antonella sing for the entire episode I’d reconsider that statement. But with a group of girls this talented, even an off-night would be worth watching. And Paula’s top-of-the-show disappearing act certainly suggests that it may be chock full of potential… Read more »
It’s understandable that Adam Levine would admit to “going a little mad” as Maroon 5 embarked on the follow-up to their multiplatinum, Grammy-winning Songs About Jane. “It’s one thing making a record, but it’s another thing making a record when you’ve had all this success and there’s all this pressure, and you say you don’t feel it and pretend you don’t, and then one day you wake up and it knocks you in your face,” the singer said. Levine responded to the pressure by, well, partying. “I worked my ass off for four years, and I thought, ‘I’m going to… Read more »
