Search Results for: indie rock

New York – Inside the giant factory of cool known as MTV headquarters, a crew of hip twentysomethings has been hard at work creating a two-headed monster. This beast wants to be man’s new best friend. On Sunday, during the Super Bowl halftime, MTV2 is relaunching with a new focus on 12-24 year-old guys – and a new logo. This silhouette of a dog with two heads (you may have seen the intentionally vague posters) is at the center of the new MTV2. The revamped network will maintain most of its current music programming, bonded with swirling graphics and constant… Read more »

Record labels are embracing new technologies in search of music’s next big thing Joe Berman looks for new bands. Typically, that means hanging out in dive bars, enduring hours of unlistenable music by groups whose rock-and-roll dreams far exceed their talent, praying for the occasional act that shows promise. About 16 months ago, however, the Los Angeles-based talent-finder sat at home scouting the globe for groups. He typed “New Zealand indie rock bands” into his computer search engine and found Steriogram, five lads from the town of Whangarei in New Zealand. They had a song and a video posted on… Read more »

Nelly had a fair amount of success earlier this fall when he suckered his fans into buying not one, but two new albums on the same day: the party-pumping Sweat and the slow-jammin’ Suit. You’ve got to have some moxy to pull off the two separate albums released on the same day trick (Guns N’ Roses and Tom Waits – who’ve both pulled it off – aren’t exactly your typical artists). If anything, Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst has moxy. The indie rock heartthrob will not only release two albums on the same day (January 25), but he’s planning to launch… Read more »

New York – The upcoming Nirvana box set, “With the Lights Out,” features 18 previously unreleased audio tracks and four video clips from the archives of venerable indie label Sub Pop, to which the Kurt Cobain-led band was signed early in its career. Included are three Leadbelly covers recorded in August 1989 at Seattle’s Reciprocal Studios, with assistance from Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan and then-Trees drummer Mark Pickerel. Cobain had designs on forming a group around these players, to be named Jury or Lithium, but it never materialized. “When Lanegan was in the studio recording… Read more »

New York – Of the multitude of New York-based rock bands to garner recent media attention, surely the most unique musical personality belongs to TV on the Radio, a Brooklyn quintet whose two releases on Touch & Go have fueled major interest. Curiosity peaked after the group – then the barely-out-of-the-loft project of lead singer Tunde Adebimpe and producer/multi-instrumentalist David Sitek – released the five-track EP “Young Liars” in July 2003. The record blindsided the indie rock community with the title track, the haunting dirges “Blind” and “Staring at the Sun” and an a cappella doo-wop cover of the Pixies’… Read more »

The Rolling Stones and Radiohead got theirs from song titles, U2 and the B-52’s from military aircrafts and Lynyrd Skynyrd from their old gym teacher. And the stories behind new millennium band names are no less random: Yellowcard According to these So-Cal pop-punkers, “yellowcard” is a take on the ever-popular Frat house idiom, “party foul,” proving drunks can be simultaneously obnoxious and witty. Perhaps Ewan McKegger was already in use. Coldplay Chris Martin and his mates, originally called Starfish, were friends with a band called Coldplay. When that band gave up the name, Starfish asked if they could use it.… Read more »

With a couple of modern rock radio staples behind them (such as the smash, “Bound For The Floor,” off of their second album, As Good As Dead) Local H is back with a 14-song assault entitled, Whatever Happened To PJ Soles?, set for release on April 6th. Featuring Scott Lucas on vocals/guitar, Brian St. Clair on drums, plenty of hooks and of course, an abundance of Lewis‚ acerbic wit and wry observations, Whatever Happened To PJ Soles?, finds the Chicago two-piece sounding better than ever. Tracks such as “California Songs,” “Dick Jones,” “Everyone Alive,” “PJ Soles,” (named after the forgotten… Read more »

Last monthwe told you that guitarist Bill Priddle had been absent from the latest batch of Treble Charger shows, seemingly replaced by Kelly Osbourneguitarist Devin Bronson. At the time, representatives from Treble Charger’s label, BMG, told ChartAttack that Priddle was merely taking a break from his TC duties, wanting to spend time with his young daughter. The temporary break explanation turned out to be nothing but a record label spin job – Priddle has now confirmed that he left Treble Charger permanently in early September. Priddle claims that he intended to leave Treble Charger of his own free will once… Read more »

EMusic today announced it has signed a distribution agreement with Vagrant Records, a wildly successful independent label specializing in punk/alternative music. Under the terms of the agreement, EMusic will distribute both Vagrant’s catalog and new releases to members of its MP3 subscription service. Beginning today, EMusic subscribers can download full albums from such Vagrant artists as Dashboard Confessional, Saves The Day, The Get Up Kids, Alkaline Trio and Paul Westerberg, among others. Today’s agreement builds on EMusic’s extensive catalog of more than 250,000 MP3s from over 900 leading independent labels. EMusic allows its 70,000 members unlimited access to its catalog… Read more »

Rapper Eminem walked off with four MTV Video Music Awards on Thursday, including one for Video of the Year, in a show bookended by rousing performances by Bruce Springsteen and a rare appearance by heavy metal rockers Guns N’ Roses. Eminem, who also won awards for Best Male Video, Best Rap Video and Best Direction, said of the “moonman” statuette that was MTV’s symbol in its early days, “I’m taking this home for rap – period.” His video “Without Me” won Video of the Year honors. The rapper won four MTV awards in 1999 and 2000. The mood at the… Read more »