My Chemical Romance Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance and Bert McCracken of The Used have taken time out of the Taste Of Chaos tour to record a cover of the Bowie-Queen classic, “Under Pressure.” The song will be a part of Linkin Park ‘s Music For Relief charity to benefit last year’s tsunami victims. No release date has been set yet. Way told MTV.com they have teamed up to play the song live during some shows to let people know that it exists. As for other MCR news, Way says they started working on a follow up to Three… Read more »
When dealing with tortured Utah scream-pop kewpies The Used, it’s all too easy to smirk at the appropriateness of their name or at singer Bert McCracken ‘s tryst with Kelly Osborne (or, for that matter, his name in particular). But then, it’s fair game when the band is, in the midst of their umpteenth interview of the day, ordered to sign hundreds of posters and CD booklets to promote their latest emo goldmine, In Love And Death. “It’s just stuff you have to do,” says mussed blond guitarist Quinn Allman, absently scribbling his John Hancock on yet another insert. “There… Read more »
It was as if the tattooed hand of a punk rock god reached down and anointed Andrew W.K. The hard partying rocker was enthusiastically playing his anthem “I Get Wet” as the skies opened up and a torrential downpour put an early end to the eighth stop on this year’s Vans Warped Tour. He always sports a maniacal smirk and a dirty T-shirt, but even W.K., surrounded on the stage by a dozen head-banging fans, couldn’t help but laugh. Just one week into a grueling cross-country summer trek, the ninth edition of the punk and extreme-sports tour experienced both kinds… Read more »
Liam Lynch was onstage about two minutes total, yet it was his song that best summed up Saturday’s 11-hour KROQ Weenie Roast. It was truly the “United States of Whatever.” As in, whatever goes. Good Charlotte unplugged, Pink got the party started with the Transplants, and Jane’s Addiction played unannounced, proving nothing was off-limits at the trend-setting radio station’s 11th annual summer festival. The lineup itself was a little bit of whatever, and certainly more diverse than last year’s “diet Ozzfest,” as Jack Osbourne called it. All three stages showcased a variety of bands, although it was surprisingly the main… Read more »
During “On My Own,” the first and only song the Used played for a radio station concert in Cincinnati on May 27, vocalist Bert McCracken slumped to the ground, where he lay unable to sing. Then he apologized to the crowd and staggered offstage. McCracken was rushed to a hospital and treated for intense chest pains, nausea and vomiting. He was later diagnosed with acute pancreatitis, a severe inflammation of the pancreas caused by autodigestion of pancreatic tissue by its own enzymes. The condition most often stems from alcohol abuse or gallstones, according to the University of Maryland Endocrinology Health… Read more »
When radio programmers have hammered the final nail in the coffin of the Used’s “Buried Myself Alive,” the band will move on to “Blue and Yellow,” the fourth single from its self-titled album. The track is the group’s most melancholy and melodic. With its understated piano, vulnerable vocals and trickling, undistorted guitar, “Blue and Yellow” sounds like a relationship song, and it kind of is, but not of the boy-wants-girl variety. “It’s a song about me and [frontman] Bert McCracken’s friendship,” guitarist Quinn Allman explained. “When the band started to really pick up and people started to really get interested,… Read more »
The taste of ink is sweet these days for the Used, who have signed on for next year’s Vans Warped Tour and will likely ink an agreement soon with another major summer outing. “Ozzfest too, I think. We are crossing our fingers,” joked singer Bert McCracken, who, as Kelly Osbourne’s boyfriend, has a pretty decent foot in the door. McCracken said the Used will tour through October, beginning in January, headlining a West Coast trek with Taking Back Sunday, New Transit Direction and the Blood Brothers. An East Coast stint will follow in February with Finch, the Movielife and My… Read more »
Kelly Osbourne stoked hostilities between the Osbourne family and former Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan at the New York City area radio show, Claus Fest, in Uniondale, New York on Thursday night (December 12). Corgan and Sharon Osbourne had a tiff several years ago, after she quit as the Pumpkins manager. The feud came alive again at the Almost Acoustic Christmas in Los Angeles on December 7. At that show, Kelly’s boyfriend, Bert McCracken of the Used, allegedly tried to trip Corgan, who performed with his new band Zwan. Corgan allegedly struck back by kicking McCracken in the stomach, according… Read more »
Dashboard Confessional and Jack Johnson played acoustic, and Beck and Coldplay celebrated Christmas, but otherwise KROQ-FM’s annual Almost Acoustic Christmas was a two-day, 20-act festival all about rocking. And the sold-out event was certainly crammed with rock and roll moments, particularly the announced live debut of Audioslave (they played a secret club show the night before), and an amusing rendition of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” orchestrated by Beck and the Flaming Lips and featuring Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba, Johnson and a horribly off-key Juliette Lewis. (Click here for photos from the show.) Audioslave were the talk… Read more »
Just in time for the start of summer, The Used have announced the arrival of their B-sides album, MEDZ, which is slated to drop on June 21. Additionally, the group has released the gripping title track. Vocalist robbietheused shares a C.S. Lewis quote to unveil the deeper meaning of the B-sides collection: “Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say ‘My tooth is aching’ than to say ‘My heart is broken.’” Opening through an… Read more »
