Search Results for: mark mcgrath

On Tuesday, Nappy Roots spent the first part of their day performing free of charge for sixth- and eighth-grade assemblies at Middle School 52 in the Bronx. Later that night, it was all about the Benjamins as they opened for Sugar Ray at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom. Although the six-man collective is on the rise via its single “Awnaw” and rubbing shoulders with the likes of Mark McGrath, its members still don’t feel like stars. Their next single, “Po’ Folks,” finds them ballin’ on a budget. “Its real, it’s the bare necessities,” Skinny DeVille said of the song. “It’s real simple.… Read more »

Sugar Ray lead singer Mark McGrath isn’t sure what all the fuss between the American Music Awards and Grammys is about. “It’s a petty argument and I think it can all be resolved. The people getting hurt at the end of the day are the fans,” he said backstage Wednesday night. “Being down in South Central, can’t we all just get along?” he said, echoing Rodney King’s plea after the 1992 Los Angeles riots. AMA producer Dick Clark sued Michael Greene, president of the Recording Academy, for $10 million in December. Clark alleges that Greene has for years siphoned talent… Read more »

Despite recent box office duds from Mariah Carey (Glitter) and ‘NSync’s Lance Bass and Joey Fatone (On the Line), musicians are continuing to pile up the film roles. Rapper Snoop Dogg, who most recently starred in Bones and The Wash (with Dr. Dre), has signed on to appear in the upcoming big-screen adaptation of the classic ’70s police-action series Starsky and Hutch, starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, according to Australia’s News Interactive (www.news.com.au). The Warner Bros. film is being directed by Todd Phillips (Road Trip) and is due next year. Snoop Dogg will also appear as himself, along with… Read more »

As showbiz celebrities and hired models watched in awe, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger let it loose during a rare solo concert at a tiny Los Angeles club Thursday. Jagger’s new album hits stores next week, and he chose the 770-capacity El Rey Theatre near Hollywood as the venue for his only concert performance to promote the release. “This is the world tour for this album, ‘Goddess in the Doorway,”‘ Jagger, 58, told the invite-only crowd. “You can say you were at every gig, OK?” Wearing a sleeveless red T-shirt emblazoned with the Statue of Liberty over the slogan “Liberte,”… Read more »

Pudgy and shy, 13-year-old Matt Shafer had an outlet in rap but few to really share it with – until a chance day he saw Bob Ritchie work the deejay’s turntable. “Wickie-wickie-wickie,” was how the skinny, smug 16-year-old Ritchie scratched records during a deejay contest, his baseball cap’s visor flipped up and a rapper’s clock dangling from his neck. The showman did his thing backward, even upside down. “Everything about him was cool – the way he dressed, the way he talked. I admired him, looked up to him. He was kind of like an older brother to me,” Shafer… Read more »

Live365 (http://www.live365.com), the world’s largest Internet broadcasting community with over 38,000 Internet radio stations, today announced the launch of Sugar Ray Radio, the complete and personal Internet radio station of the band Sugar Ray. The station is set as a unique destination to view both new and original music as well as a comprehensive selection of Sugar Ray’s personal favorite songs by other artists. The new offering, powered by Live365, is accessible through Live365.com (http://www.live365.com) and the Sugar Ray official free email service http://mail.sugarray.com. Additionally, users who log on to Sugar Ray Radio or Live365 can receive a free email… Read more »

Newport Beach doesn’t raise no quitters. Sugar Ray first presented themselves in 1995 as horn-dog pop funksters with Lemonade and Brownies and were roundly ignored. Floored appeared two years later with a gloss of self-parodying Swingers hip, and the lilting “Fly” took wing, planting band mouthpiece Mark McGrath’s chiseled cheekbones and parti-colored hair in front of every camera or mike that would pause long enough to listen to him joshingly appreciate his group’s success. Having been tagged nobodies and one-hit wonders, Sugar Ray got both mad and even, releasing 14:59 – their position on the clock of fleeting fame –… Read more »

With production and rapping courtesy of megaplatinum hip-hopper Kid Rock, you’d think Uncle Kracker’s debut, Double Wide, would have been a sure-fire hit. Kracker, who came to prominence as Kid Rock’s DJ, released his southern-rock-hip-hop album last June to a collective shrug. The poppy first single “Yeah Yeah Yeah” failed to hit the charts and a follow-up single, “Follow Me,” seemed headed for the same dead end. Then, earlier this year, “Follow Me,” with a video featuring a cameo from pal Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray, began to pick up steam. Suddenly the soft-spoken Kracker was camping out in the… Read more »

“We still like to go and bash our heads out and play really loud rock,” says Sugar Ray drummer Stan Frazier. Though best known for acoustic-flavored pop hits like “Fly” and “Every Morning,” the band grew up on a diet of California punk and Eighties New Wave, and its fourth album draws on those roots. The self-titled album, out June 12th, was recorded in Los Angeles with Don Gilmore, who has produced recent albums by Lit, Eve 6 and Linkin Park, and features a guest vocal appearance by 311’s Nick Hexum. The songs were written by all five members: Frazier,… Read more »

Sugar Ray recently had a chance to live out their dreams – or at least their dream videos – when the pop-rockers shot a clip for the single “When It’s Over.” “Each guy has their dream sequence – like if they had the video of their choice, what would it be?” drummer Stan Frazier explained on the set of the video shoot over the weekend. Guitarist Rodney Sheppard steps into Bruce Lee’s shoes and kung-fu fights basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; DJ Homicide chills in a strip club featuring imagery pulled from his favorite hip-hop videos; bassist Murphy Karges rocks out… Read more »