Search Results for: great good fine ok

Talented kids living in the middle of nowhere Canada get bored, learn some instruments and write some songs. Throw in several accomplished producers (Linda Perry, Phillip Stier and The Matrix) overseeing some of the latest in North American pop, and thus is born Lillix – a quartet of teenage and young twentysomethings who sing about angst and life with eternal girl-powered optimism. “Falling Uphill” is a solid but not groundbreaking debut, and one that will please the teen set – even those looking for some edgier bubblegum. A blend of tight harmonies (the track “Quicksand” is a great example) and… Read more »

“Surreal” is about the only word to describe it when that kid you remember from “Gremlins” and “Goonies,” all grown up now, is rocking out in the middle of a record store. And surreal it was when Corey Feldman and his band played for a bewildered crowd numbering less than a hundred recently at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard. As fans and curious shoppers waited (and waited), a drummer, a guitarist, a bassist named Pharaoh and a keyboard player (none of whom would look lost at a construction site) along with two backup singers crowded onto a makeshift stage, where… Read more »

Forty-six years after Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps helped define the rockabilly sound with their signature hit “Be Bop a Lula,” Vincent’s first two records, 1956’s Bluejean Bop! and 1957’s Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps, will be re-released with bonus tracks on September 17th. Vincent himself died in 1971 at the age of thirty-six from a ruptured stomach ulcer, but bassist Jack Neal – one of two surviving members of the group, along with drummer Dickie Harrell – still remembers the early recording sessions vividly. “It was great to go ahead and cut a record where all the… Read more »

“American Idol” winner Kelly Clarkson may have the magic to put RCA Records back on top. All the major record labels are pulling out their big-gun releases for the fourth quarter in hopes of hitting some high numbers to make up for the year’s extreme sales dip. RCA has been struggling overall because of a weak release schedule. The label has thus far scored hits only with Dave Matthews Band’s “Busted Stuff,” which has sold more than 1.2 million units, and critically acclaimed postpunk band the Strokes, whose “Is This It” has passed the half-million mark. Clarkson’s two-sided single release,… Read more »

“Let’s just say the doctors know more about me than I know about me,” Lance Bass told reporters convened for a press conference at Moscow’s Savoy Hotel. For the last four months, the ‘NSYNC star has endured a battery of physical examinations in the pursuit of becoming the next civilian in space. On Friday (May 31), he announced that he’d finally passed the medical component of qualifying for a seat on a Russian rocket mission this fall. “With such a thorough physical, you’re going to find things that you might need to take care of,” Bass said, explaining an outpatient… Read more »

Bennett Zier has a fine idea for a new radio format. His eyes light up as he tells you about it. “We play Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Bobby Darin,” he says. “The great thing about it is what we call it. You ready?” He pauses. “Vegas Radio! Is that great or what?” Zier can imagine the whole scene – the deejays, the jingles, the ironic retro-swinger patter. It’s his music, the kind he plays in his car. He’s in love with this idea, and with his natural salesman’s charm, he’s making you love it, too. So why doesn’t… Read more »

Ozzy Osbourne and his family are outraged by Ted Nugent’s criticism of The Osbournes TV show. “I think it’s an indictment to the soullessness of modern man that we get a kick out of witnessing a magnificent creature reduced to a blithering hopeless idiot,” Nugent was quoted as saying in the New York Post’s Food section. The quote appeared in an article published Wednesday (May 15) on Nugent’s new book Kill It & Grill It: A Guide To Preparing Wild Game And Fish. LAUNCH caught up with the Osbournes at a Wednesday (May 15) press conference to announce the June… Read more »

Sometimes the occasional beer interrupts a recording session. Other times, all that recording just gets in the way of a good party. The sessions for Sharpen Your Teeth (May 21), the debut from Modest Mouse singer Isaac Brock’s Ugly Casanova side project, had some of the former and way too much of the latter. Recording the atmospheric album “involved a lot of beers, some recording, then some beers and more recording, if we got to it,” said Brock, 26. “It was largely a hangout with recording involved.” But who is Ugly Casanova? Well, if you believe the elaborate story cooked… Read more »

John Ondrasik and his band Five For Fighting will be touring with the Goo Goo Dolls beginning June 7 in Atlantic City. The Goo Goo Dolls dates come on the heels of Five For Fighting’s headline tour which culminated May 1 with a sold-out show at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. John Ondrasik has been winning kudos from critics for his live performances. Dan Aquilante, writing in the New York Post (March 14, 2002) praised Five For Fighting’s “… low-fi, high-energy show at Irving Plaza… this guy has a songbook full of tunes, many of which are as… Read more »

Anticipation for the Talking Heads’ arrival backstage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony last night was high; reporters hung around waiting until well past midnight. And when David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison and Chris Frantz finally showed, there was only the briefest of silences before the question came up: “How did it feel to play together and are there plans for a reunion?” “One thing at a time,” Harrison said, diplomatically. “It was great tonight.” The band addressed the issues that had kept them from performing together for eighteen years, claiming that reports of acrimony… Read more »