Idolator

The worst-kept secret in rock became less of a secret today, when Green Day dropped MTV a line confirming that, yes, they were the same band as the Foxboro Hot Tubs, whose song "Mother Mary" hit the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart a few weeks back. "We think that the only similarity [between the Hot Tubs and Green Day] is that we are the same band. That is basically the only similarity," the band's e-mail said. Why did the Bay Area trio decide to make this announcement? I asked Corporate Rock Still Sells columnist Al Shipley if he had any theories, and you may be unsurprised to learn that they mostly involve marketing. More »

Hey, remember Social@Ross, the $15,000-a-ticket concert series that allowed Hamptons types to sit on ottomans and suck down top-shelf cocktails while they listened to live shows by Prince, James Taylor, Tom Petty, Dave Matthews, and Billy Joel? You may be surprised to hear it, but tickets aren't selling very well—even though only 1,000 were going to be made available! At least that's what we're guessing from this e-mail that went out to the Dave Matthews Band's fan club and made its way to Bob Lefsetz's inbox. It's hawking tickets to this Saturday night's show for the Crazy-Eddie-low price of $250 a pop. (For those of you who don't feel like doing the math, that's a 92% discount—and you still get free parking!) More »