Though 2008 bared just four albums worthy of our highest acclaim, 2009 delivered the following 10 essentials: Boys Like Girls Love Drunk The Friday Night Boys Off the Deep End Fun. Aim and Ignite Green Day 21st Century Breakdown Michael Jackson This is It Paper Route Absence Paramore Brand New Eyes Say Anything Say Anything The Secret Handshake My Name in Lights Third Eye Blind Ursa Major
On the first day of the Bamboozle only one group of unlikely special guest superstars could outshine much-adored headliners Fall Out Boy. Still riding a two-year wave of rediscovery, arena-rock diehards Journey appeared as the secret performers for a four-song set. Or “Journey” as it turned out – the group was really a stellar Long Island cover band called Evolution. Blasting out “Separate Ways,” “Faithfully,” “Any Way You Want It” and “Don’t Stop Believing,” Evolution cued a wildly mixed audience reaction, with some fans literally shrieking or running towards the stage and others angrily storming away en masse. But even… Read more »
It’s early January, and occasional downpours drench thousands of fans as they file into Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium for Sound & Speed, an annual event featuring country stars and NASCAR drivers. Camo-clad devotees and their children, some dressed in miniature racing suits, line up for an autograph and a picture. The event is the perfect mix for those who consider autographs from Dierks Bentley and Dale Earnhardt Jr to be treasured booty. NASCAR fans and country music fans are eager to rub elbows with drivers and artists alike, something both circuits are eager to take advantage of. The 2009 race season… Read more »
Los Angeles – Vanessa Carlton is realistic. She knows today’s musical environment is not always friendly toward pop-oriented artists who play their instruments and write their songs, as she does. In fact, Carlton says she is gladly straddling the fence between “being true to myself as a musician and being embraced commercially” with her sophomore album, “Harmonium,” due Nov. 9 from A&M/Interscope Records. “It’s nice to be back and be the alternative to the more calculated, poppy acts out there,” the 24-year-old artist says. “I feel lucky that I’m able to appeal to real music lovers, and it also somehow… Read more »
The newly private Warner Music Group, having significantly reduced its worldwide staff, is now turning its cost-cutting efforts toward its artists. As part of the integration of Atlantic and Elektra into one label, Warner Music Group’s new management team is looking at the artist roster with the goal of paring it “from 180 to below 100,” says WMG U.S. Recorded Music chairman/CEO Lyor Cohen. The company is attempting to get the roster down to a size that’s in proportion with the organization and respectful of the acts remaining on the roster, Cohen says. It’s unclear which specific artists might get… Read more »
Blink 182, Green Day, and Filter are among the artists featured on an upcoming album saluting Fender musical instruments. The Players: Powered By Fender comes out April 22nd, and it also includes songs played on Fender instruments by Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette, Remy Zero, the Goo Goo Dolls, Smash Mouth, Third Eye Blind, the Gin Blossoms, Sugar Ray, Collective Soul, Eric Clapton, Aerosmith, and the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band. The full tracklisting for The Players: Powered By Fender includes: Sheryl Crow, “Steve McQueen”; Eric Clapton, “Superman Inside”; Aerosmith, “Just Push Play”; Alanis Morissette, “Surrendering”; Blink 182, “All The Small Things”;… Read more »
After scoring a hit in 2000 with their first single, “Flavor of the Weak,” American Hi-Fi were showered with praise and press. The experience of playing stadiums and landing mainstream radio play influenced frontman Stacy Jones to write the title track of the band’s new album, The Art of Losing. “We started out playing these sh-ty little clubs all over the country, and it was f-ing great,” explained Jones. “Then when ‘Flavor of the Weak’ started getting played, we found ourselves on these bills where we were playing between Dream and the ‘Moulin Rouge’ chicks. I just remember looking at… Read more »
The past two years have been a turbo-charged merry-go-round for Maryland punk-pop group Good Charlotte. The band’s debut single, “Little Things,” from its eponymous 2000 album, drove the group to the top of the “TRL” heap, and a Warped tour and outing with Blink-182 helped spread the Good vibes far and wide. The group’s new single, “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous,” is currently heating up airwaves, and a video for the song, which features cameos by ‘NSYNC’s Chris Kirkpatrick, Tenacious D sideman Kyle Gass and former Minutemen and Firehose member Mike Watt, is getting lots of love as well.… Read more »
It makes sense that Backstreet Boys crooner Nick Carter is releasing his debut solo album Now or Never the week of Halloween. Some Backstreet fans will likely think of it as a delicious treat, while others might view it more as a fiendish trick. On the album, which comes out October 29, Carter leaves behind the glossy harmonies and grandiose production of Backstreet Boys and heads in a more ’80s pop-rock direction that will thrill some and alienate others. Now or Never features 12 songs pared down from 37 written for the disc. Songwriters include Carter, the Matrix, Mark Taylor,… Read more »
Turnout was thin Saturday for the second day of an event organizers promoted as a hybrid of music festivals and extreme sports. The Beyond 2002 Super Festival offered five stages of hip-hop and rock music, as well as motorcyclists, snowboarders and skiers. Organizers Todd Ross, 24, and Justin Moss, 23, said they tried to include the most popular elements of youth culture in one event. But by late Saturday afternoon, the second day of festival, only about 2,000 people were attending the event they had hoped would draw at least 20,000. “It’s not quite what we would have expected,” Moss… Read more »
