EMI Group plc

Now That's What I Call Good News!: Now! Music Series To Give Up The Ghost

Not all signs of the record biz's struggle for life are depressing. Thanks to EMI's $1.9 billion merger with Universal Music Group, a few things will get shaken up, including a chance the wretched informercial sludge Now That's What I Call Music! series will be put six feet under.

No, Seriously: Chumbawamba Have A Storied Anarchist Past

Last week Chumbawamba, the nonsensically named band responsible for the ubiquitous nonsensically named hit "Tubthumping," announced it was calling it quits after 30 years. The news item drew reactions ranging from "Oh yeah, that 'I get knocked down' '90's band?" to "They were still around?" and also ... More >>

Calvin Harris Announced as Headliner for Sound Wave Music Festival

See also: Club Candids: Calvin Harris at Myst See also: Sound Wave Music Festival 2012 Announced for September When Scottish electopop producer and vocalist Calvin Harris appeared in Scottsdale in January, he nearly caused a riot. Thousands of club kids and EDM fans were crushed into the now-defunc ... More >>

Literal Band Names: Radiohead, Black Keys, Meat Puppets, and More

There are some weird band names out there, so we let our imaginations go wild to envision what some of these names would literally look like. We chose Radiohead as our jumping off point because love them or hate them, the band is playing at Jobing.com arena tonight, and it's sure to be one of the ... More >>

What's Selling? Top Ten Lists from Valley Record Stores

Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues ​Want to know what new release discs and platters are moving across the Valley at local record stores? We've got you covered with another installment of What's Selling. Looks like Fleet Foxes are doing pretty well this week, with their heady folk album Helples ... More >>

Warner Music Group for Sale: The Multi-Billion Dollar Battle for Ownership Winds Down this Week

Wikimedia CommonsWarner Music Group artist Madonna​Warner Music Group -- home to acts like Led Zeppelin, Green Day, and Tempe-based indie rock band The Maine -- is for sale. If you think it's tough outbidding other eBay users for a rare record, you should see the bidding battle currently underway ... More >>

Honoring the People Who Died Listening to Great White and the People Who Didn't

Five Japanese Bands For Your Heavy Rotation

Jonathan McNamaraHystoic Vein performs at the Japan Preview Day Show during SXSW 2011.​U.S. fans of Japanese Music face one, ever-present obstacle in their quests to discover new J bands: They're not here. Up on the Sun constantly monitors upcoming concerts from Japanese bands. In good years, that ... More >>

Interpol's Sam Fogarino Talks Carlos D, Record Labels and What's Next For The Band

Interpol​ In this week's print edition we ran a story about the the recent reboot of New York City's most fashionable gloom-rockers Interpol. For the piece we caught up with Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino to talk about some of the recent changes the band has undergone. Most notably of which is th ... More >>

The Rage Music Festival and the Coming Evolution of Christian Rock

Now on iTunes: The Beatles Catalog

​Stop the world. Apple has announced that the Beatles catalog is finally available on iTunes, according to Billboard. I love when Christmas comes early.After plenty of rumors went around yesterday about what Apple's big announcement regarding iTunes was going to be, practically everything under th ... More >>

What Does The Suburbs Hitting #1 Mean for Indie Rock?

​Arcade Fire is an indie band. I don't say that just because they sound like an indie band -- though they do -- but because they're actually signed to an indie label.All three Arcade Fire albums came out on Merge, a North Carolina-based company that was started in 1989 so D-I-Yers Superchunk could ... More >>

LCD Soundsystem: This Is Happening

​What more can be said about May's slate of new releases that hasn't already been said? I have been proclaiming this month as the year's best for new releases, and LCD Soundsystem only solidify that with their newest effort, This Is Happening. The lead single from the album "Drunk Girls" was a war ... More >>

Lady Gaga and Cyndi Lauper Collaborate on Nonprofit Lipstick Line

​It's never surprising when Lady Gaga makes headlines, and given that Cyndi Lauper has been laying down the law on Celebrity Apprentice, it should come as no surprise that she's making headlines with her own ventures outside of the show. According to feministing, Lauper and Gaga teamed up with the ... More >>

Chris Martin Pissed With EMI?

Chris Martin​Apparently, Chris Martin and his record label, EMI, are not on the same page when it comes to news about when Coldplay's new album coming is out. Martin says it will hopefully be released by Christmas of this year, but EMI says that isn't true. Apparently, when asked whether Coldplay' ... More >>

Was John Mayer's Racist Comment Taken Out of Context?

​No, not exactly. The recent controversy over John Mayer's interview with Playboy has been discussed from nearly every angle since the article came out. The journalist who interviewed him, Rob Tannenbaum, said that there was much more to the interview than the tiny blip that got repeated, re-poste ... More >>

Big Four Music Labels to Launch New CMX Album Download Format

Music's big four are launching CMX in the hopes of offering fans more for their digital music download bang -- will it work?​As announced Saturday, the Big Four music labels -- Sony, EMI, Warner and Universal -- are all planning a new technology that will allow an album sleeve to be included in di ... More >>

Ida Maria and a Brief History of Scandinavian Pop

Joni Mitchell

Shine
(Hear Music)

The Price of Payola

Someone's listening after all

Everyone Gets a Deal!

The son of Napster moves to sign every unsigned band on Earth

Greene Party

The producer

Kings of the Castle

Rap duo Akwid represents a new generation of Mexican Americans

Richard X

Richard X Presents His X-Factor Vol. 1 (Astralwerks)

When Online Got Off Base

Or: How Mark Cuban would have and could have saved the music biz

Cyber-Hit Factory

Tonos.com is connecting aspiring songwriters with the teen-pop music machine

File Shearing

After whacking Napster, the labels needed their own digital download alternatives, and fast. It shows.

Southern Knights

Reissue of two classic early '80s albums spotlights the seminal power-pop magic of the dB's

Haul the Dreck

It seems every fa-la-la-la-lousy Christmas recording is in light rotation, but not these holiday turkeys

Famous and Tired

Pop stars complain about their jobs like everyone else. Here's what's happened when some of their gripes have actually made it to tape.

Bellvue

To Be Somebody (Golden Seal)

Sleaze Queens

The hard-rocking women of the L.A.-based Betty Blowtorch prove their mettle with Are You Man Enough?

Hanging On to Something

Older, wiser Pistoleros are no longer defined by rock 'n' roll, but they're still committed to it

Bop the Question

Drawing insight from the month's best in jazz, blues and heritage, Gumbo answers readers' nagging queries

Britneymania!

What would the face of rock history have looked like if the British Invasion had been a Britney Invasion instead?

Beer, Cigarettes and Has-Beens

Stumbling through 48 hours in Hollywood

Replica for a Heavyweight

Will EMI's remastering of 11 classic albums with the original packaging on CD and 180-gram vinyl make you buy your favorite records one more (last?) time?

Molten Wax

Sub-mission

After 30 years, Apple finally does Yellow Submarine right

Celebrate Good Times, C'mon!

Merge and Matador reach 10 years of indie success

Jonesing for Joan

Trashman laments the decline of the American record store, and gets his Joan Jett fix

Concealed Weapons

Despite some misfires, The Pistoleros keep looking for a break and say that rumors of their demise are greatly exaggerated

Kind of a Drag

With Atomic Cafe defunct, Victims In Ecstacy try to establish a new base for their heavy camp

The Trashman

Where unit-shifting heroes of rock are exposed as the passionless poseurs they really are

Playing God

The Artist gives a divine performance while saying to hell with the music industry

Recordings

The Artist Formerly Known As Popular

Contract and Expel

Famous parting shots from artists formerly "under exclusive arrangement" with their labels

Voice Over

MERCURY RISES AGAIN, OR FREDDIE'S STILL DEAD, VOL. 4REPACKAGE TRACES QUEEN'S FIRST STEP ON THE ROAD TO OVERINDULGENCE