Search Results for: robert smith

Blink-182 are continuing their fine tradition of potty humor album titles, following up 2001’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket with Use Your Erection I and II. Drummer Travis Barker revealed the Guns N’ Roses-inspired name at Saturday’s KROQ Weenie Roast, where he performed with the Transplants. He said the album is due October 28, although a spokesperson at the band’s label said it’s scheduled for November. According to Barker, a collaboration with his friends the Neptunes is still just in talks, but Blink-182 are definitely working with a few guests, including DJ Shadow, Dan the Automator and singer Robert… Read more »

Approximately two-and-a-half decades after beginning his career, Cure mastermind Robert Smith is working on his first solo album, a collection of collaborations with several of his friends. Smith actually began working on the concept during the making of the last Cure album, last year’s Bloodflowers, but has had to put the project aside three times due to various concerns surrounding his group as well as the availability of others. He said, “The basic songs have been recorded and I’m intending to collaborate with on each one with a different artist. That’s why I have to have, like, a clear run… Read more »

Throughout their two-decade career, the Cure have always made music for lonely hearts, so it’s only fitting that frontman Robert Smith be alone for once. Smith hopes to begin recording his first solo album in January or February, once he’s through promoting the Cure’s Greatest Hits, which includes two new songs and acoustic renditions of fan favorites. The pale-faced misanthrope said he started fostering ideas for the LP after finishing the Cure’s last studio album, 2000’s Bloodflowers, and it’s been an on-and-off endeavor ever since. “I was just at the point of coordinating it all earlier this year when the… Read more »

Guitarist Robert Quine, one of punk rock’s most daring soloists, was found dead Saturday in his New York apartment. He was 61. According to close friend and guitar maker Rick Kelly, who discovered Quine’s body, the musician died of a heroin overdose Memorial Day weekend. He had been despondent over the recent death of his wife. Born in Akron, Ohio, Quine was heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground, whose music he recorded obsessively while living in San Francisco. He moved to New York in 1971 and became the lead guitarist for bassist Richard Hell’s important group the Voidoids, with whom… Read more »

Composer, conductor and arranger Michael Kamen, who led the San Francisco Symphony in its collaboration with Metallica for the band’s 1999 S&M album, died at home in London of an apparent heart attack Tuesday (November 18), according to his publicist. He was 55. Known for being something of a rock and roll classicist, in 1974 Kamen served as musical director for David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs tour, and he’s worked on orchestrations for Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Queen, Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan. In 1991 he arranged an orchestral version of Aerosmith’s “Dream On” for MTV’s 10th anniversary celebration, but it… Read more »