Manchester Orchestra main man Andy Hull is a pretty hirsute dude. So when he starts talking about recording a new album and he mentions that his main goal is to make the listeners’ hair stand straight up, you know he means business.
Call him the “dark horse,” the “Come-From-Behind Kid,” the humble crooner. Call him whatever you like. But from now on you also need to call Kris Allen your “American Idol.” After a historic tally of nearly 100 million votes, the shy 23-year-old singer from Conway, Arkansas, pulled off one of the most surprising wins in the show’s nearly decade-long history by taking the crown from the theatrical season-long frontrunner, Adam Lambert. After nearly two hours of anticipation, when the time came for host Ryan Seacrest to announce the results, Allen and Lambert stood arm-in-arm, their friendship looking much more like… Read more »
Fall Out Boy got political at their Mesa, Arizona “Believers Never Die, Part Deux” tour opener Friday night, taking the stage in dress suits and black eyes – and in frontman Patrick Stump’s case, a grey Donald Trump-like wig – as a commentary on the current state of corporate America. Video screens framing Andy Hurley’s elevated drum kit aired footage of riot police and the conservatively dressed bandmembers walking through a backstage area. Hurley appeared onstage first, fervently pounding away on his kit as two men dressed in police riot gear banged on drums for opener “Disloyal Order of Water… Read more »
List of winners at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards Album of the Year: ” Raising Sand” Robert Plant and Alison Krauss ; T Bone Burnett producer; Mike Piersante, engineer/mixer; Gavin Lurssen, mastering engineer (Rounder) Rap Album: ” Tha Carter III” Lil Wayne (Cash Money/Universal Motown) Male Pop Vocal Performance : “Say,” John Mayer ; track from “Continuum” (Columbia) Record of the Year: “Please Read The Letter,” Robert Plant and Alison Krauss; T Bone Burnett, producer; Mike Piersante, engineer/mixer; track from “Raising Sand” (Rounder) New Artist: Adele Rock Album: “Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends,” Coldplay (Capitol) Pop… Read more »
Hours after performing for thousands of South Carolina college students, former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and celebrity DJ AM were critically injured in a fiery Learjet crash that killed four people, authorities said Saturday. Officials said the plane carrying six people was departing shortly before midnight Friday when air traffic controllers reporting seeing sparks. The plane hurtled off the end of a runway and crashed through antennas and a fence. It came to rest on an embankment across a five-lane highway and was engulfed in flames, said Debbie Hersman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. Barker and DJ… Read more »
The son of hip-hop legend KRS-One was found dead in his apartment in an apparent suicide, authorities said Tuesday. Randy Hubbard Parker, 23, died of a gunshot wound to the head and the death was classified as a suicide, said Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office investigator Mark Guilbeau. Parker had suffered a long battle with depression, his mother, Simone G. Parker, said in a statement on Tuesday. He was found on Friday. Parker was a graphic designer and fashion entrepreneur seeking employment in Atlanta. His family said a private memorial service will be held on July 18, which would have… Read more »
In October, the hard-partying, grill-sporting dudes in Avenged Sevenfold will release the self-titled follow-up to 2005’s City of Evil, the band’s breakout LP that’s sold close to 810,000 copies in the U.S. alone. The album is the California metalcore act’s first attempt at self-producing, but according to frontman M. Shadows, that wasn’t always the plan.”We were going to do it with Rob Cavallo,” said Shadows, referring to the producer behind Green Day’s 2004 LP American Idiot and My Chemical Romance’s 2006 effort The Black Parade. “It was such a great match – he loved the songs we’d been working on.… Read more »
Some of the world’s biggest names in music were all about Saving Our Selves this weekend. SOS, of course, referring to the campaign being touted Saturday across the globe at the seven-continent, 24-hour Live Earth concert extravaganza, a worldwide shout-out to individuals, political leaders, corporations and every other entity capable of helping put a stop to the environmental scourge that is global warming. In a partnership with Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection and other U.S.-based and international organizations, Live 8 executive producer Kevin Wall put together a bill that included the Police, Madonna, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica,… Read more »
Bon Jovi topped the U.S. album charts for the first time since 1988 on Wednesday, while rock duo the White Stripes scored a personal best with a No. 2 debut for their latest release. Bon Jovi’s “Lost Highway” sold 292,000 copies in the week ended June 24, the rock troupe’s biggest one-week sum since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991. The Island/Mercury Nashville set is Bon Jovi’s third No. 1 album, joining 1988’s “New Jersey” and 1987’s “Slippery When Wet.” Sales were fueled in part by the group’s new country fanbase, wrangled in with the Grammy-winning 2006 hit… Read more »
Imagine a “dream machine” on wheels. It’s easy if you try. But the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus is no dream. A state-of-the-art multimedia studio packed in a bus, it’s a vehicle for opening the minds of aspiring young musicians. “Swing open the door, step inside, take three short steps into the main cabin and look around,” writes Mark Garvey in “Come Together: The Official John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Guide to Music and Video,” a recently published history of the bus by Garvey and Yoko Ono Lennon. “You’ve entered a different world. And whether you’re young or old, if… Read more »
