Search Results for: carr

When the powers-that-be asked Dashboard Confessional’s frontman if he would pen a tune for the “Spider-Man 2” soundtrack, Chris Carrabba had just one question. And it wasn’t about money, deadlines, or a particular feel that they were looking for. “Do I get to see the movie early?” asked the admitted comic-book geek. After receiving an affirmative response to his query, the rest was all downhill. “I was a big fan of ‘Spider-Man,’ the comic-book, and I thought the first movie was brilliant,” Carrabba said. “Spider-Man is such an underdog, but he makes good. I always liked that.” Carrabba already had… Read more »

There’s a reason Hoobastank’s next video seems a lot like their last one: The band is going in the same direction for the follow-up, so much so that the new clip will act as both a prequel and a sequel. Thanks to nonlinear storytelling, “Same Direction” will make “The Reason” seem as though it should be sandwiched inside the tale told in the new video, which establishes what happened before “The Reason” and reveals what happens afterward, with just as many twists as its predecessor. In “The Reason,” the bandmembers stage a diversion so they can carry out the elaborate… Read more »

When Britney Spears fell down during a video shoot for “Outrageous” earlier this month, the impact was immediate. Her fall has set off a chain of events that’s resulted in the cancellation of her summer tour – something insiders are estimating will cost her as much as $1 million a week in lost revenue from ticket and merchandise sales. But what of the fall itself? Still pictures from paparazzi showed a play-by-play of the incident but failed to capture the essence of the moment – the onset of injury, the expression on the singer’s face, her puzzled dancers’ reactions as… Read more »

Days after touching down in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sum 41 were forced to evacuate the African country when gunfire and explosions outside their hotel jeopardized their safety. The band was visiting the war-torn nation to film a documentary, in association with the charity War Child Canada, on the impact of the Congo’s longstanding civil war that has killed more than 3.5 million people since 1998. In Bukavu, near the Rwandan border, fighting erupted near Sum 41’s hotel between government soldiers and troops aligned with a renegade commander, according to a band spokesperson. “Bullets were coming through windows and… Read more »

Having sold millions of copies of their 1997 debut, Middle of Nowhere, Hanson may have a few dollars to spare, but they’ll never part with their Penny. In fact, it’s pretty much impossible to get away from Penny. Contrary to the assumption that the co-protagonist of Hanson’s new single is an omnipresent girlfriend, Penny is actually a catchall for the memories and experiences that define a person. Everyone’s got a Penny. “There’s lots of symbolism in that song – like driving down the highway and smoking cigars in the summertime,” Taylor Hanson said. “Life is sometimes in little pictures. You… Read more »

When speaking this month to a representative from Soundscan, the company that provides much of the data for the Billboard Top 200 Chart, I learned things that would contradict reported statements by the RIAA. Mainly that US labels have had a significant reduction in sales over the past three years. Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, responded personally, put his rebuttals on the record and in the process exposed intriguing insight into the way the RIAA calculates “losses.” Soundscan is a service owned by Nielsen, the company that computes TV ratings. Soundscan uses the barcodes on CDs to register sales… Read more »

This year is a milestone for the Vans Warped Tour, as the hard rocking fest enters its tenth year of carrying the post-punk banner. Footage of some of last year’s touring bands – including the Used, the Ataris, Sum 41, Glassjaw, Pennywise, Rancid, Thrice and Less Than Jake – will be included on Vans Warped Tour ’03, a DVD due on June 22nd. Shot over forty-five dates last summer, Vans Warped Tour ’03 includes twenty-three songs in 5.1 surround sound, an hour of interviews, backstage footage and a photo gallery. As for this summer’s Vans Warped tour, it is scheduled… Read more »

An antique piano formerly used by Elton John and pictured on an album cover, was auctioned off over the weekend for $164,500, well below the minimum estimate of $300,000, organizers said on Sunday. The other big seller at Heritage Galleries’ auction in Dallas on Saturday was a guitar used by late Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain. It sold for $117,500, down from a minimum estimate of $250,000. (All sale prices include a 17.5 percent buyer’s fee.) The instrument with the highest estimate, the upright bass used by late Motown session musician James Jamerson on such early ’60s tunes as “My Guy”… Read more »

Kurt Cobain and his band, Nirvana, spent only three years in the public eye, and they released only three studio albums. But what he accomplished before committing suicide 10 years ago Monday at age 27 – deciding it was “better to burn out than fade away,” as he quoted Neil Young in his suicide note – was remarkable. Beneath this bridge above the muddy banks of the Wishkah River, a troubled young Cobain would come to escape his unhappy home and the persistent gray drizzle of the Washington coast. Among the cracking concrete supports, he would smoke pot and drink… Read more »

“At the end of every show we’d grab handfuls of these stickers we made at Kinko’s with our name and website,” says Steriogram frontman Brad Carter. “We’d toss ’em to our fans from the stage, 300 or 400 stickers every night.” Carter laughs at the band’s ultra-humble approach to building fan loyalty. But it’s working. Steriogram’s homemade stickers, website and music videos, together with its enthusiastic courting of street teams and high school kids, helped launch the rock-hiphop group from obscurity in Auckland, NZ, to a major deal with Capitol Records. “Our goal was to play in America because our… Read more »