Search Results for: through being cool

After Simple Plan finish their 2004 headlining tour, the French Canadian pop punkers will hit the studio to work on their second record. And they won’t be starting from scratch. They’ve already written the skeletons for 10 to 15 new songs, not including the new track “Crash and Burn,” which was on a bonus three-song audio CD included with their recent “A Big Package for You: 1999-2003” DVD. The song, which balances an insistent punk beat and buzzing guitars with harmonized vocals, is about the difficulties of returning home after being on the road. “Being away from our families and… Read more »

There’s one drawback to Blink-182’s decision to release “I Miss You” as their next single. “This is the thing, the song’s really hard to play,” singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge said backstage at KROQ-FM’s annual Almost Acoustic Christmas on Sunday. “We’ve never played it before. We might play it in the future, or we might have it on a ghetto blaster onstage and we might do an interpretive dance. It’s one of those things, but it’s gonna be good, though, no matter what it is.” It’s not like the band doesn’t have a good excuse for not having the ballad of sorts… Read more »

“‘Paul Doesn’t Like Friendster Because It Involves Putting In An Effort’ there, there you go, that’s your headline!” says Paul Hawey, drummer of one of Canada’s most loveable and danceable bands, Hot Hot Heat. Hawey offers me the teaser line to this story because he and his mates, consisting of singer Steve Bays, guitarist Dante DeCaro and bassist Dustin Hawthorne, have been way too busy to concern themselves with that uber-popular online community for friend-making. There is a reason for that, actually there are many reasons keeping the Victoria, B.C. natives occupied and one of them has to do with… Read more »

What everyone always wants to know is: who’s the worst? Meaning: which really famous person out there is a berk whose lack of personality is in inverse proportion to their abundance of fame? And the answer is, of course, all of them. No, it’s not. It’s Jon Bon Jovi. The next question – who’s the best, of course – is more difficult. The interviewees I like are the ones that turn out to be more than you expected, whether that’s more intelligent, or honest, or bonkers, or fun, whatever. And there are plenty of those. Madonna (sharper), Björk (wilder), James… Read more »

For their current single, “Enemy,” Sevendust have taken a couple of cues from hip-hop. They’ve half-rapped the verse, and they’ve put their beef with another musician on wax. The song is a diatribe directed toward ex-Coal Chamber frontman Dez Fafara, who is currently in the band Devildriver. “Enemy” was written and largely sung by drummer Morgan Rose, whose wife is former Coal Chamber bassist Rayna Foss-Rose. The song, a full-on character assassination with a bruising verse and huge, melodic chorus, features such lines as, “Look at your face, look at your name/ Funny you’re a loser with only yourself to… Read more »

Despite an apparent cease-fire to the mudslinging between Fred Durst and Britney Spears, the Limp Bizkit frontman just can’t seem to say enough about the sexy singer. Onstage Saturday at a free concert in London’s Finsbury Park, Durst introduced the tune “Break Stuff” by taking a swipe at the pop star. At the opening of the Significant Other single with the prophetic line, “It’s all about the he said, she said bullsh-,” Durst made his proclamation. “How many people out there have had one of those f–ed-up days?” he asked the crowd. “I can remember quite a few f–ed-up days… Read more »

While their cover of Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” may be poised to stay strong at rock radio well through the end of summer, the Ataris are looking forward to the fall. That’s when they’ll release their next single, “The Saddest Song.” Frontman Kris Roe wrote the piano-driven number about his relationship with his estranged daughter and his experience growing up without a father around. “I hope I get the chance to make it up to you/ We got a lot of catching up to do,” he sings. “We started playing that song live two years ago and kids… Read more »

Lots of artists hype their songs in movie soundtracks and TV ads. Positive punkers MxPx do that too, but they’re also relying on the Bush administration to help get the word out. “Well Adjusted,” one of the songs from their new album, Before Everything and After (September 16), is being used in a TV public service announcement by the President’s Council on Drug Abuse and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. In January, the same song was used in a Diet Pepsi commercial that aired during the Super Bowl. “We thought, ‘This is great,’ ” bassist and vocalist Mike Herrera… Read more »

The Donnas have nothing on the Bens. The three members really are named Ben, and you may have heard of them: Ben Folds, Ben Kweller and Ben Lee. The solo singers officially became a group, or at least a side project, when they recorded four songs together in Nashville last month. “There’s some new wave on there, a piano ballad that Folds sings, a countryish song,” Kweller said Saturday backstage at Coachella. “It’s just all three of us writing songs; there’s not any one particular sound. It’s all three of us singing, big harmonies.” After the three-day studio session, the… Read more »