SOUTH HACKENSACK, N.J. – A cold Saturday in the middle of January was not enough to dissuade a crowd of approximately 150 loyal fans gathered inside a converted warehouse for a good old-fashioned evening of sing-a-longs and hand clapping.
Green Day has been delivering power-punk to the mainstream since Billie Joe Armstrong clutched a monkey in “Longview” nearly 15 years ago. The trio has done it all with one foot firmly entrenched in its hometown East Bay punk scene, stating its allegiance to gutter punks and Gilman Street at every possible chance. It’s been both a blessing and a curse, eternally indebted to the past, but inching ever closer to the future. With the reigning punk royalty out of the picture the past couple years, the number of punk releases declined sharply. Anyone hoping Green Day would bring… Read more »
I am often asked, “How to do I attract a agent?” But first an artist needs to ask themselves, “Am I ready for a booking agent?” The venues and promoters that you want to work with are running businesses. They use your fans to make money and how many fans you have helps them calculate how much they’ll pay you. An agent is also running a business. So the first question they ask themselves is, “Can the 10-15% that I collect from this act fuel the engine that runs his business?” It is true that most agents… Read more »
LOS ANGELES, CA – New Jersey artist, Socratic will release their sophomore full-length, Spread the Rumors on May 6th 2008. Produced by Mark Hoppus (Blink 182, +44), Spread the Rumors is the full-length follow-up to 2005’s Lunch For The Sky. Socratic envisioned recording an album with the same impact as blink 182’s Enema of the State, where every song is a single. Imagine their excitement when Mark Hoppus not only liked their demos, but also agreed to produce Spread the Rumors. Duane Okun, Socratic’s lead singer says, “Although we’re kind of at opposite ends of the musical spectrum from Blink… Read more »
In the last month, two very different West Coast live music venues have met two very different fates. In Los Angeles, the resolutely DIY noise and punk outpost the Smell celebrated its 10th anniversary with a series of shows featuring scene stalwarts like No Age and Abe Vigoda. In Seattle, however, music fans mourned the sudden closing of the Crocodile Cafe; the 16-year-old space, which was heralded as the “living room of grunge,” closed unexpectedly December 16. In an age where clubs seem to come and go in the blink of an eye, one that remains open into its teens… Read more »
After failing to crack the million mark with her last two albums, Janet Jackson is wary of using the “c” word to describe her upcoming release, “Discipline,” which hits stores on February 26. “I think a comeback is when you leave and then you … come back,” Jackson said with a laugh during a recent interview. “People are always quick to use that word ‘comeback,’ but I never went anywhere, really.” “Discipline” marks her 10th studio disc, and her debut release for Island Def Jam after more than a decade at Virgin Records. Her last album, 2006’s “20 Y.O.,” stalled… Read more »
Conor Oberst sits in a dive bar, pulling on Winston Lights and throwing back intermittent gulps from a beer bottle. This isn’t the downtown New York- or Los Angeles-variety “dive” with the beautiful people and the perfectly curated juke box. This is the suburban Omaha sort, where a handful of pear-shaped, geriatric regulars sit drinking, solo, at two in the afternoon, mumbling conversations to themselves. The juke box plays only AC/DC. Oberst, better-known as Bright Eyes, is here — away from his handlers, bandmates and friends that dot the frigid Omaha landscape — to confront the perception, more or less,… Read more »
Before they became flush with major-label cash, Jimmy Eat World had to rely on good old-fashioned ingenuity to make things happen. Everything they did – from booking shows and studio time to hawking merch and demo cassettes – they did on their own (believe it or not, some bands actually work this way). So it should come as no surprise that they’re taking that same DIY approach to their videos. While on tour in Japan earlier this month – in support of last year’s Futures album – frontman Jim Adkins picked up his camera and PowerBook and started making short… Read more »
Somewhere between the slight goofiness of the barbershop quartet and the life-or-death dramatics of the opera, there lies a cappella, a form of harmonized singing usually reserved for bow-tie-clad lawyers-to-be at Ivy League colleges across the Northeast. But one group of students at George Washington University is aiming to change all that, by bringing a cappella to the hoodie and studded-belt set. They’re called Emocapella (spelled with one “p,” which, in itself, is way emo), a bunch of sensitive lads who harmonize tunes by emo faves like Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday and Saves the Day at nearly sold-out concerts… Read more »
Having sold millions of copies of their 1997 debut, Middle of Nowhere, Hanson may have a few dollars to spare, but they’ll never part with their Penny. In fact, it’s pretty much impossible to get away from Penny. Contrary to the assumption that the co-protagonist of Hanson’s new single is an omnipresent girlfriend, Penny is actually a catchall for the memories and experiences that define a person. Everyone’s got a Penny. “There’s lots of symbolism in that song – like driving down the highway and smoking cigars in the summertime,” Taylor Hanson said. “Life is sometimes in little pictures. You… Read more »
