Search Results for: Summer School

For then 15-year-old Travis McCoy, high school gym class was nothing more than an excuse to chat about music with buddy Matt McGinley. McCoy, who was an aspiring rapper, was the frontman for a local band, and McGinley played drums for another in their native Geneva, N.Y. The summer after sophomore year, McGinley’s band landed a party gig, and McCoy, who happened to be at the same gathering, stepped to the mic and began to rhyme along with it. Thus Gym Class Heroes was born and went on to release three independent albums before signing to Fall Out Boy principal… Read more »

31 minutes ago Avril Lavigne’s soundtrack pit stop “Keep Holding On” from “Eragon” — top 10 at adult top 40 and top 20 at mainstream top 40 — shows the softer side of the artist . . . and basically a lady-in-waiting before reigniting her full-on persona via third full-length “The Best Damn Thing,” due April 17. Its launch single, the signature pop-punk anthem “Girlfriend,” spits beats per minute like a chainsaw, as Lavigne fires off, “Hey! Hey! You! You!/I don’t like your girlfriend/I think you need a new one/Hey! Hey! You! You!/I could be your girlfriend.” Although she has… Read more »

When an event has been around for 13 years, it’s usually time to shake things up. And while Ozzfest chose to do that by going free, the Vans Warped tour opted to piece together one of its most diverse rosters to date. The tour, which will kick off June 28 at Chula Vista, California’s Coors Amphitheater, is currently slated to play 45 shows through an August 25 date in Los Angeles with a lineup that includes Coheed and Cambria, Bad Religion, New Found Glory, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Cute Is What We Aim For, Bayside and Canadian rapper K-os. Among the… Read more »

Ruben Studdard is telling kids in Alabama not to be like him. The “American Idol” winner, who is a spokesman for the Scale Back Alabama weight-loss campaign, spent Tuesday taking a fitness message to schools in hopes of helping Alabama shed its weighty reputation. “I don’t want y’all to be like me. I don’t want y’all to get to college and stop working out and forget all the things you have to do to be healthy,” Studdard, 28, told students at Montgomery’s Capitol Heights Junior High School. “I want y’all to continue working out for the rest of your life… Read more »

With Sting’s simple “Ladies and gentlemen, we are the Police,” one of the most iconic bands of the last 30 years ended a long absence from live performing to launch the 49th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night. Blasting off with the unmistakable, reggae-fied “Roxanne” riff from guitarist Andy Summers and the hard jazz drumming of Stewart Copeland, the Police lived up to their top billing on the show, providing a spirited kickoff to one of the most anticipated reunions in a year full of get-backs. With a buff-if-balding Sting in fine form and voice, the trio’s homage to a… Read more »

MxPx has rejoined Tooth & Nail Records, reestablishing a strong and familiar relationship that dates back to the beginning of the legendary Washington state trio’s illustrious recording and touring career. “We were at a place where, somehow, we found ourselves on this freeway looking at a Tooth & Nail off-ramp. And it looked pretty good!” says singer/bassist Mike Herrera. After three albums and two EP’s on Tooth & Nail (including the landmark “Life in General”), as many more for a major label and 2005’s widely-hailed return to form “Panic,” MxPx is hard at work in a Seattle studio on what… Read more »

Geneva, NY-based crossover rap/rock group Gym Class Hero’s are here to put fun back into hip-hop. As frontman Travis McCoy reveals, we couldn’t agree more; “Everybody takes themselves so seriously, it’s become a fashion show more or less. We want the vibe to be as fun as possible.” It’s hard to imagine anything less fun than their new single “Cupid’s Chokehold”, set for it’s UK release this month (February 12th) after already burning up across North America. The band have even catapulted themselves from relative newcomers to serious U.S. chart contenders with the cut – currently being featured atop MTV’s… Read more »

LOS ANGELES CA – Drive-Thru Records’ recording artist HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW has decided to disband due to professional and creative differences, it was announced yesterday via the Drive-Thru Records website. The New Jersey based group expressed their gratitude in this statement: “To our families, friends and most importantly, our fans, thank you for all your love and support over the past six years.” HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW was formed in Stanhope, NJ by lead singer Joe Reo and lead guitarist Rob Freeman, who met in high school. The group signed to Drive-Thru Records in summer of 2002 and released… Read more »

Underoath drummer Aaron Gillespie will release the debut album from his side band, the Almost, April 3 via a joint venture with Tooth & Nail and Virgin Records. “Southern Weather” will be supported by a spring tour as well as a long stint on the Vans Warped Tour this summer. “I wrote all the songs last year when Underoath was in the studio doing ‘Define the Great Line,’” Gillespie tells Billboard.com. “I’d do all the drums, then have a three-week to a month lull between doing drums and singing. I got so bored, so I wrote these 11 songs.” Gillespie… Read more »

The end of 2006 also marks the end of the current congressional session in the House and Senate, closing the door on the Deleting Online Predators Act. Let’s take a look at why this legislation, which passed overwhelmingly in the House this summer, died such a slow death. Those of you who’ve been following this blog from the get-go are undoubtedly aware of the Deleting Online Predators Act, or DOPA. But for those of you who don’t frequent my humble column on a regular basis, here’s the skinny. DOPA, introduced last May by Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick and a coalition of… Read more »