Blog: Spinner.com

Filed under: R.I.P. Larry Busacca, Getty Images NEW YORK (AP) - Phil Ramone, the Grammy Award-winning engineer and producer whose platinum touch included recordings with Ray Charles , Billy Joel and Paul Simon , has died at 72. Ramone's son, Matt Ramone, confirmed the death. The family did not immediately release details of the death, but Matt Ramone says his father was "very loving and will be missed."

Filed under: News , RPM , New Releases , EDM Ture Lillegraven / GQ In the April issue of GQ, the magazine tags along with Avicii , as he discusses his craft, "technically it's not that hard ," calls Paris Hilton a "stalker," and reveals that he's never actually taken ecstasy, which explains a lot. "I mean, I want to take it. But I'm sort of afraid of anything that makes you feel out [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , New Music , Exclusive , Q + A Jeff Katz The story of Beth Hart flows wild and restless like some Delta River that might've inspired one of the songs on her funky and seductive new record, Bang Bang Boom Boom . In the late '90s, it seemed the world was her oyster and her career was one that was set that power [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , Exclusive , RPM , EDM YouTube The 2013 edition of Ultra Music Festival , the country's largest annual dance music festival, practically swallowed downtown Miami. Celebrating its 15th year, the festival expanded to Coachella-size proportions, offering two separate weekends with largely similar lineups. As if anyone needed proof that EDM has reached critical mass in the U.S., both of those weekends sold [...]

Filed under: News , R.I.P. Courtesy Sabian BOSTON (AP) - Robert "RZ" Zildjian, founder of the Sabian Inc. musical cymbal manufacturing company, has died. He was 89. Sabian announced Zildjian's death on its website Thursday. The firm was closed until Monday and the company announcement had no details about his death. Zildjian founded Sabian in 1981 after a legal battle with his brother, Armand, over their inheritance of the family business, Avedis [...]

Filed under: News Don Emmert, Getty Images After a career spanning more than four decades, Billy Joel may retire from performing live in concert. The hitmaker told ABC News Radio that his upcoming shows in Sydney, Australia, and New Orleans, Louisiana, will be a "big test" for him.

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News Lollapalooza We've been had before, so don't blame us (if we're wrong) in posting this " leaked " 2013 Lollapalooza lineup. According to Consequence of Sound , this image was posted last night, and has basically been confirmed by The Chicago Tribune as real. The Cure , Nine Inch Nails , Mumford and Sons , the Killers , [...]

Filed under: News , News Today, Oh Boy! Getty Images Although details are a bit sketchy, New Found Glory 's singer Chad Gilbert is probably lucky to be alive after an electric shock onstage during a show in Anaheim, Calif. last night. According to Australian site MusicFeeds , Gilbert collapsed at Chain Reaction, where the group was recording their first live album. The band has made no comment on what transpired on their official site [...]

Hard Rock International With their new exhibit "Gone Too Soon," Hard Rock International has collected artifacts from some of the most influential musicians to die before they got old. Featuring clothing, instruments, yearbooks and handwritten letters, lyrics and contracts from John Lennon , Amy Winehouse , Buddy Holly , Kurt Cobain , Jimi Hendrix and many more, it reminds fans of the humanity of the late artists, and makes one consider why we're so fascinated with their legacies. "The allure of eternal youth [...]

Filed under: News , The Hit List , Music Appreciation PA The modern music world is no stranger to scandal and weirdness. Chris Brown hitting Rihanna. Ozzy Osbourne biting the head off a bat. Phil Spector's murder trial. But stuff like that isn't limited to the modern day. Pre-21st century composers may seem boring, but sometimes they were anything but. From mysterious deaths, to visions of ghosts, to crazy fans, the lives of composers were fraught with drama. [...]

Filed under: News , Video , Exclusive , New Releases Getty | Ausmotive.com Who cares about a Saab 900? A whole bunch of people, evidently. Vampire Weekend discovered this recently when they inadvertently angered enthusiasts of the Swedish car manufacturer by burning two of its discontinued 900 series cars in a promo for their upcoming album, Modern Vampires of the City . The video, which features the [...]

Filed under: Exclusive , New Music SideOneDummy Records Restorations is a band doing punk differently. Hailing from Philly, the five-piece band serves up a richer, more aspirational take on the kind of punk sound rooted in American rock, pioneered by mainstays Social Distortion and Bad Religion . Their new full-length album, entitled LP2 , drops April 2 via SideOneDummy Records . "Kind of Comfort" [...]

Filed under: Video , Exclusive Weapons of Mass Entertainment It's easy to forget that even the most legendary musicians grapple with self-doubt. Stevie Nicks reminds us of that in a new documentary, "In Your Dreams," which chronicles the making of her album of the same name. In the exclusive clip below, Nicks discusses the recording of "Secret Love," a song she wrote for Fleetwood Mac 's Rumours but never properly [...]

Filed under: News , R.I.P. Bandcamp Jay Smith, a guitarist best known for his work with east coast rocker Matt Mays , died Wednesday while the band was on tour in Edmonton. "As you can all imagine, we are completely devastated," Mays wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday evening, March 27. "However, in our heart of hearts we know that we need to Play on. Jay's family as well as the band [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , Exclusive , RPM Getty Images It's my third day in Miami and I feel great, so after a couple of hours of work, I climb to the roof of my hotel to see who's around. Fool's Gold boss Nick Catchdubs is DJing his label's party at the pool , so I have breakfast beers with my L.A. buddy Christine Morales, while L.A.'s legendary mayor/rap kingpin Mike [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , Exclusive , RPM , Q + A , EDM Getty Images This past weekend marked a major milestone for Steve Angello , the 30-year-old dance-music heartthrob best known as one third of Swedish House Mafia . On Sunday night (March 24), the act, whose other members are Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso , played its last-ever show at the Ultra Music Festival in downtown [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News Ian Gavan, Getty Images LONDON (AP) - The Rolling Stones will be taking the stage again this summer at one of Britain's leading music festivals. The Stones' appearance at the 2013 Glastonbury Festival - set to take place from June 28 to June 30 - was revealed Wednesday in a line-up posted on the festival's website. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and The Stones [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , Politics as Usual Matthew Good Facebook Vancouver-based platinum-selling-in-Canada musician Matthew Good is already well-known in certain circles across America. Mostly it's got less to do with his music (he just released compilation Old Fighters to reacquaint the U.S. with his tense guitar rock), and more to do with his worldview. See, Matthew Good is a very socially and politically aware person and [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , New Music , New Releases , 47 Second Review Mute That the bristling gloom-rock of Crime & the City Solution sounds like Nick Cave in both relentless musical push and lyrical intensity is no accident. The often-dormant Australian band can boast direct lineal connections to the Birthday Party and new album American Twilight , the band's first in 13 years, fairly matches [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , Holy Hell , News Today, Oh Boy! , Music Appreciation YouTube For as long as freshly-scrubbed boys have been assembled into crack singing units designed to conquer the hearts and wallets of hot-blooded girls with their harmonies, synchronized dance moves and floppy hair, those same girls have been crafting all sorts of fantastical stories about the objects of their desires and disposable incomes. But they used [...]