Search Results for: the voice

If it looks for a Duff, and repeatedly tries to contact a Duff…it just might be a stalker. An 18-year-old Russian immigrant arrested for threatening Hilary Duff was sentenced Friday to 117 days in Los Angeles County jail and five years probations after pleading no contest to a felony stalking charge. Police picked up Maksim Myaskovskiy in November after a private investigator from the security firm Duff uses for protection said that the teenager had threatened to kill the starlet at an industry event. The accused originally pleaded innocent but he remained in custody, unable to come up with $1… Read more »

Last we heard from Garbage, in the fall of 2005, the group was going on an indefinite hiatus. Fortunately for fans, that break is not turning out like, say, Blink-182’s “hiatus.” “We’re recording a couple new songs at the end of February,” drummer Butch Vig revealed recently. “I think everyone’s excited about getting back in a room and playing some music together.” The new tunes will be included on a Garbage greatest-hits album the band is putting together for release later in the year. “We’ve been working on it for a while,” Vig said. “There was originally talk about doing… Read more »

A new bill introduced in the US Senate this week would force satellite, digital, and Internet radio providers (but not over-the-air radio) to implement measures designed to restrict the ability of listeners to record audio from the services. Called the “Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act” (PERFORM), the bill is sponsored by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Joseph Biden (D-DE), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). If the name of the bill sounds familiar, it should. The bill was originally introduced in April 2006 with the support of the RIAA. It died in committee, but the… Read more »

SAN FRANCISCO – Apple’s new iPhone appears to be the clearest statement yet of what Steve Jobs’s impact has been on consumer electronics. It is not that he invents new technologies. He refines existing ones. Mr. Jobs himself acknowledged that when asked during an interview on Tuesday whether he thought the iPhone represented a trend toward the convergence of computing and communications. “I don’t want people to think of this as a computer,” he said. “I think of it as reinventing the phone.” If the iPhone succeeds commercially, it will be new proof of Mr. Jobs’s power and influence over… Read more »

One of the most astonishing things about the new Apple iPhone, introduced yesterday by Steve Jobs at the annual Macworld trade show, is how Apple managed to keep it a secret for nearly two-and-a-half years of development while working with partners like Cingular, Yahoo and Google. The iPhone, which won’t be available in the United States until June, represents a close development partnership with America’s largest wireless phone company (Cingular, now a part of AT&T, has 58 million subscribers), the world’s largest e-mail service (Yahoo has a quarter-billion subscribers worldwide), and the world’s dominant search company. Although speculation was rampant… 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 »

Irish rocker and humanitarian Bono will become a knight of the British empire — but the U2 frontman won’t be called “Sir.” Bono, 46, will receive his honorary knighthood from the British ambassador to Ireland, David Reddaway, in a Dublin ceremony shortly after New Year’s Day. The Dubliner, whose real name is Paul Hewson, won’t be entitled to use the title “Sir” because he is not a national of Britain or the Commonwealth of former British colonies. A spokesperson said the singer was flattered by the honor and hoped it will help him open diplomatic doors in his campaign for… Read more »

One sunny afternoon not long ago, Dick Copaken sat in a booth at Daniel, one of those hushed, exclusive restaurants on Manhattan’s Upper East Side where the waiters glide spectrally fro table to table. He was wearing a starched button-down shirt and a blue blazer. Every strand of his thinning hair was in place, and he spoke calmly and slowly, his large pink Charlie Brow head bobbing along evenly as he did. Copaken spent many years as a partner at the white-shoe Washington, D.C., firm Covington & Burling, and he has a lawyer’s gravitas. One of his bes friends calls… Read more »

OAKLAND, Calif. – Music retailers are turning to high-tech firms that combine computer analysis with the art of listening to come up with new music suggestions for consumers based on what they already like. In a computer-crammed space at Savage Beast Technologies, divergent melodies seep softly from headphones worn by young men and women who listen to music with the intensity of submarine sonar operators. Their job is to discern and define attributes in tunes by artists as diverse as teen diva Hilary Duff and jazz legend Miles Davis. The listeners classify hundreds of characteristics about each song, including beat,… Read more »

Burbank, CA – Since the April 26, 2005, release of “Trouble Is Real,” his debut album on Reprise Records, singer and songwriter Johnathan Rice has emerged as one of the most promising up-and-coming young vocalists and songwriters on the scene today. While building a loyal following here in the U.S., Rice’s popularity overseas is exploding at an alarming rate, especially in the UK: “‘Trouble Is Real’ is a tremendous debut,” enthused The Guardian. “Although indebted to Bob Dylan, Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley, it is a record of singular ambition.” The excitement surrounding Rice is certain to spike when he… Read more »