Search Results for: CANADA

While they’re not known for stepping up on soapboxes, Nickelback will include incisive commentary about domestic abuse alongside concert footage of the band in their next video, “Never Again.” Nickelback hope to augment the impact of hard-hitting lyrics – including “He’s drunk again, it’s time to fight/ She must have done something wrong tonight/ The living room becomes a boxing ring” – by filling the screen with captions delivering U.S. domestic violence statistics and slogans about spousal abuse. Nigel Dick (Britney Spears, Staind), who also lensed the band’s “Too Bad,” will direct the video. In addition to the commentary about… Read more »

While Default currently has no shortage of hit singles with both “Wasting My Time” and “Deny” grabbing precious airplay, the group is already planning the third track to be featured from its debut album, The Fallout. The band will likely release the ballad, “Live A Lie,” next-that is, if it performs well back home in Canada first. Default frontman Dallas Smith said-so far, so good. “We just released ‘Live A Lie’ in Canada so we’re gonna see how that one does. Right now it’s getting a great reaction just in Vancouver, because we were home last week and we were… Read more »

Rush drummer-lyricist Neil Peart hasn’t been giving interviews to promote the Canadian trio’s new album, Vapor Trails, because he doesn’t want to talk about the deaths of his wife and daughter, which sent the band into a five-year hiatus. However, he has issued a three-page statement via Universal Records Canada in which he talks about the record. Of the title, Peart writes: “A unifying theme sometimes appears in the collected songs and suggests an overall title, like Counterparts or Power Windows; other times a particular song seems emblematic, like Test For Echo or Roll The Bones. Neither approach seemed right… Read more »

The Australian rock trio Silverchair has canceled all their upcoming concerts because lead singer and guitarist Daniel Johns is suffering from a severe case of reactive arthritis. “I am truly sorry that I am not able to do the touring we had planned for so long,” the 23-year-old said in a statement released Friday. “I apologize for the inconvenience these cancellations will cause. I am doing everything humanly possible to try and get well, but lately things have just kept getting worse.” Johns contracted the disease late last year, and has had trouble recently fighting the virus that triggers this… Read more »

Sean “P. Diddy” Combs is enjoying his biggest hit in five years with “I Need A Girl (Part One)” featuring Usher and Loon, which is currently Number Two on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The song is the lead single from the mogul’s latest collection, P. Diddy & Bad Boy Records Present…We Invented The Remix, which was released on Tuesday (May 14). Recently LAUNCH spoke with Combs, who explained that he seems to have success when speaking from the heart. “‘I Need A Girl’ was just me speaking from my heart. It was a remix off my original album… Read more »

Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Bo Diddley was honored last week, alongside Chuck Berry and Little Richard, with BMI’s Icon Award for his “unique and indelible influence on generations of music.” Diddley also received an honor earlier this year when former Clash frontman Joe Strummer cited the legendary guitarist as his hero in Mojo magazine’s 100th issue. In the Mojo article Strummer recalled riding in a bus with Diddley, who was sitting up late at night in a chair. “So I said, ‘You know you’ve got a bunk, don’t you, Bo?’ He said, ‘Come and look at this.’ He pulled back… Read more »

The pieces of Jimmy Eat World’s summer headlining tour are starting to come together, if very slowly, with eight new shows being scheduled over the next three months. Dates take the Arizona group to Canada, the Midwest, and Northeast, the earliest of these being June 19 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, according to the group’s website (jimmyeatworld.com). Opening acts will include the Promise Ring, Recover, and Desaparecidos. Jimmy Eat World is touring in support of its breakthough album, Bleed American, which features the hit single “The Middle.” The tour’s kick-off will follow visits to Europe for Jimmy Eat World, but is… Read more »

Nearly 40 years into their never-ending career, the Rolling Stones still know how to stage a gangbusters press conference. On Tuesday (May 7), the band announced its upcoming tour by descending into Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York, on a blimp adorned with their infamous lips logo. In 1997, the Stones plugged their tour for Bridges to Babylon by driving a red Cadillac convertible across the Brooklyn Bridge, for the Voodoo Lounge tour in 1994 they sailed into a New York pier on John F. Kennedy’s presidential yacht the Honeyfitz and in 1989 they boarded a train to… Read more »

The members of Default have suddenly found themselves with downtime due to the cancellation of their tour with headliners Creed after a car accident injured Creed frontman Scott Stapp last week. “The band is getting some time off, which is a good thing,” says a spokesperson for Default. They are back home in Canada to “spend a few days with their families.” However, the break looks to be a short one. LAUNCH has learned that Default will likely head out on the road again in support of its TVT Records debut album, The Fallout, in the coming days; either to… Read more »

John Ondrasik and his band Five For Fighting will be touring with the Goo Goo Dolls beginning June 7 in Atlantic City. The Goo Goo Dolls dates come on the heels of Five For Fighting’s headline tour which culminated May 1 with a sold-out show at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. John Ondrasik has been winning kudos from critics for his live performances. Dan Aquilante, writing in the New York Post (March 14, 2002) praised Five For Fighting’s “… low-fi, high-energy show at Irving Plaza… this guy has a songbook full of tunes, many of which are as… Read more »