Category: Music

Napster Files for Chapter 11
Napster Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, seeking court protection from creditors as music industry heavyweight Bertelsmann AG follows through on a plan to take over what’s left of the company.
The Internet music-swapping service has agreed to sell its assets to Bertelsmann for $8 million in cash and the assumption of certain liabilities, according to papers filed in a Delaware court, Dow Jones reported.
Calls to a Napster spokeswoman were not immediately returned Monday.
Bertelsmann said May 17 it would buy Napster for $8 million ó slightly more than half what it had previously offered to purchase the company ó to pay Napster’s creditors as part of a financial reorganization. Napster’s board rejected that offer.
The bankruptcy filing is the swan song for a company that three years ago set off a frenzy of online song-swapping that attracted millions of users, as well as the ire of the recording industry, which sued for copyright infringement.
At its peak, Napster boasted some 60 million users and seemed at once to symbolize both the excitement of the digital revolution and the worst nightmares of the established recording industry.

have You Picked Up Your CD Yet?
Weezer is plotting it’s own future.

…The Rolling Stones are planning a massive re-issue campaign of their first few releases.

It’s THE Show Of The Summer!
David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar might not be fond of Van Halen these days, but they’re certainly–and justifiably–proud of the music they made during their separate tenures fronting that band. Thus, it wasn’t surprising that Van Halen songs were the stars of the show when the two singers opened their joint summer tour on Wednesday at the Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

This Proves The Old Addage That If You Put Out Stuff That People Want, They Will Buy It (PS To The Record Labels- Sales Are Down Because You Have Been Releasing Too Much Crap!)
The new Eminem CD shows that, contraray to what they are saying, that the music labels can prosper.

This Will Make Bruce Very, Very Happy!
An unreleased song is the highlight of a new Beach Boys collection.
Stay calm Bruce! Stay calm!

Eminem’s New CD Debuts Atop Charts
Eminem’s new album made its debut at No. 1 on the album charts, according to figures released Wednesday.
“The Eminem Show,” featuring the song “Without Me,” sold about 285,000 copies for the sales week ending Sunday ó the day it was officially made available for sale.
The album was originally set for release June 4, but it was bootlegged so heavily that his label, Interscope Records, moved the sale date up to Tuesday. Late last week, they took the unusual step of making the record available to retailers two days earlier, and the album reportedly was made available as early as Friday at some stores.
The disc is Eminem’s follow-up to his Grammy-winning disc, “The Marshall Mathers LP,” which sold a then unprecedented 1.7 million copies in its first week of release in 2000.

Borland rebuffs Durst’s invite to rejoin Bizkit
Despite Fred Durst’s bizarre online appeals for ex-bandmate Wes Borland to return to the fold, the guitarist is in no hurry to rejoin Limp Bizkit.
Durst recently posted Borland’s personal e-mail address and told fans to drop him a line, asking him to rejoin the group, which has been holding open auditions for a replacement.
Borland was not amused, appearantly he didn’t appreciate his personal e-mail being posted.
And anyway, most of the fans who sent him mail encouraged him NOT to reunite with Durst and company.
“Although I did not read the hundreds of e-mails themselves, I took time to browse over the subject titles,” Borland wrote. “75% or more of all the e-mails pleaded for me not to return. I was amazed. Thank you all for the support. You again have let me know that you agree with my decision”.

Ozzy’s Daughter Covers Madonna
The daughter of stadium-packing rock star Ozzy Osbourne may have a hit of her own soon, covering an artist quite unlike her dad.
Kelly Osbourne has released a remake of Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach” as part of the soundtrack album from the family’s hit MTV reality series. “The Osbournes,” the highest-rated series in MTV history, follows the daily life of dad Ozzy, mom Sharon, 17-year-old Kelly and 16-year-old Jack.
Kelly Osbourne has never had a singing lesson and did not plan on a recording career, but the Madonna fan said she’s pleased with the results.
“I was really surprised at how well it turned out,” Osbourne told reporters. “When I hear it on the radio, I’m like I still can’t believe that I have a song on the radio.”
It wasn’t supposed to be Kelly’s song, though. Her 18-year-old sister Aimee, known as the mysterious Osbourne because of her refusal to take part in the MTV series, picked the song.
“She was originally supposed to sing it, but didn’t want to. And it was her idea for me to do it,” Osbourne said.
And what does Madonna think of Osbourne’s version of her 1986 hit?
“I heard she liked the song but I don’t really believe it until, like, you hear it firsthand,” Osbourne said.
As for her family’s hit TV show, Osbourne said copycat shows are a “stupid” idea.
“People like it so much. It’s because it was like a first-time thing. And it was just us being us,” she said. “Any other family who would ever do it, they would try and compare it to us, and it might not live up to the expectations that people have.”

Eminem- “The Eminem Show” (Aftermath/Interscope)
Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?
On “The Eminem Show” – the follow-up to the 8-million-selling “The Marshall Mathers LP” – he’s by turns a bad-boy rapper, a sensitive father, a neglected son and a disaffected American.
At its best – which is most of the time – the 20-track disc spotlights Eminem in peak form with clever lines and fierce delivery.
At its worse, it’s predictable posturing with swaggering talk of self-importance, guns and the usual potty-mouth rants.
The Detroit rapper is angrier than ever, but he swings wildly from mood to mood on this more personal disc.
Album opener “White America” echoes “The Real Slim Shady,” stressing at once his popularity and his persecution.
In “Without Me,” Eminem rightly points out the hip-hop world “feels so empty without me.”
We see Eminem at his corniest in “Hailie’s Song,” a doting number he wrote for his daughter. But the venom flows again when he lashes out at the government, his ex-wife Kim and – most chillingly – his mom.
“Remember when Ronnie died and you said you wished it were me? Well, guess what, I am dead. Dead to you as I can be,” he spits in “Cleaning Out My Closet.”
The posing and misogynism are tiresome, but “The Eminem Show,” while flawed, proves that Eminem deserves to be master of ceremonies.