Search Results for: Rock am Ring

The Smashing Pumpkins have christened their reunion album “Zeitgeist” and announced an unusual release date of July 7, a Saturday, for the project, which willl be issued by Reprise. The news was broken this morning to fans that had been added by the band as a “friend” on MySpace.com. However, a Reprise spokesperson tells Billboard.com the label has yet to settle on a specific release date for the album beyond “summer.” Frontman Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin are the lone original members in this new incarnation of the group. The pair has been working in the studio with producers… Read more »

It’s no secret – particularly to various employees at Gambleversity.com, MyBookie.org and/or BetOnAnythingThatMoves.net – that we here at MTV News enjoy the occasional foray into the exhilarating world of wagering. Of course, the key word here is occasional. But with Sunday’s Grammy Awards on the horizon, we convened the MTV News Bet-ological Braintrust – which is really nothing more than a couple of writers and “Hammerin’ ” Hank Goldberg on speakerphone – and determined just which of the Grammy’s 108 categories are most ripe for some sweet speculation. While there are plenty of intriguing possibilities – the battle between Eddie… Read more »

Phew! CBS got through the halftime show without a “wardrobe malfunction.” The Artist Formerly Known as a Munchkin of Wardrobe Dysfunction began by singing “Let’s Go Crazy,” but he didn’t. Prince, who became a Jehovah’s Witness in the mid-1990s, no longer wears yellow, butt-baring pants as he did at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards (prompting Howard Stern’s send-up at the ’92 VMAs). The closest thing to a fashion statement Sunday night was an odd kerchief on his head. So the NFL had no repeat of the 2004 Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake show, which happened the last time CBS broadcast the… Read more »

Rock duo Tegan & Sara are about a third of the way through work on its next album, which is being produced by Death Cab For Cutie guitarist Chris Walla and recorded at his new studio in Portland, Ore. The as-yet-untitled set is expected later this year via Sanctuary. “When they asked me to do this, it was last March or April,” Walla tells Billboard.com. “A long time ago now. I got the demos pretty shortly thereafter, and those were my favorite record of 2006. It’s kind of crazy revisiting all the songs after living with the demos for so… Read more »

Denny Doherty, one-quarter of the 1960s folk-rock group the Mamas and the Papas, known for their soaring harmony on hits like “California Dreamin’” and “Monday, Monday,” died today (Jan. 19) at 66. His sister Frances Arnold said the singer/songwriter died at his home in Mississauga, a city just west of Toronto, after a short illness. The group burst on the national scene in 1966 with the top 10 smash “California Dreamin’.” The Mamas and the Papas broke new ground by having women and men in one group at a time when most singing groups were unisex. John Phillips, the group’s… Read more »

HIM will be the star attraction at this spring’s Give It A Name rock festival, Sound Generator can reveal. Confirmed today, the Californian rockers will head one night, in London, for the hard rock event, which travels through London, Birmingham and Glasgow in late April. Joining HIM on the bill will be The Used, playing second headliner. High energy slots will also come from Alexisonfire, Juliette and the Licks, From First To Last, Mindless Self Indulgence and Cry For Silence. Both the other two shows in Birmingham and Glasgow will be headlined by Jimmy Eat World and Brand New. Dates… Read more »

Pearl Jam’s annual holiday single for members of its Ten Club fan organization will feature a pair of classic rock covers: the Who’s “Love Reign O’er Me” and Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.” The Who cover appears in the Adam Sandler/Don Cheadle film “Reign Over Me,” which opens March 9 in North American theaters. The Young track was recorded at the Make Poverty History concert in Melbourne, Australia, last November with U2’s Bono and the Edge guesting. According to a post on Pearl Jam’s Web site (http://www.pearljam.com), the fan club single will hit mailboxes “sometime in February.” Meanwhile,… Read more »

Bloc Party is hitting the road in support of its forthcoming Vice/Atlantic effort, “A Weekend in the City.” The British rock troupe will kick off the tour on March 11 at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle and will continue on through a March 30-31 New York stand. The Strokes’ Albert Hammond, Jr., Final Fantasy, Sebastian Grangier, the Like and Smoosh will rotate opening act duties.. A pre-sale for tickets is currently underway via Bloc Party’s fan club Web site , while the official sale begins Jan. 13. The group will be touring in Europe prior to returning to the United… Read more »

Rock bands Van Halen and R.E.M. have made the cut for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with punk poet Patti Smith, pioneering rappers Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and 1960s girl group the Ronettes, organizers said on Monday. They will be honored at a black-tie ceremony in New York on March 12, the main fund-raiser for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. Inductees are chosen by music industry insiders from a short-list of acts who become eligible for consideration 25 years after their first recording. Those who did not make the… Read more »

After winning over U.S. hipsters with its critically acclaimed 2005 debut “Silent Alarm,” U.K. rock act Bloc Party is now aiming for mainstream success. The group’s second outing, “A Weekend in the City,” comes out February 6 via Atlantic Records, preceded by two radio singles, “The Prayer” and “I Still Remember.” The group toned down the frenetic feel of its debut, which sold almost one million copies worldwide and drew comparisons to the jerky post-punk of Gang of Four and late-period Blur. “A Weekend in the City,” particularly on its back half, is dominated by slower, richly textured songs that… Read more »