Search Results for: Rock am Ring

The Same And The Other (NFI ) With a name that’s partly culled from an old Charlie Parker-Miles Davis tune, it’s only fitting that this instrumental group specialize in improvisational jazz-rock jams. The Same And The Other is a blistering half-hour exploration of bass, drums and guitar, with tracks like “Good Question” kicking off with random bits of instrumental chatter before locking into insistent grooves. What’s compelling about the album is that even in the absence of lyrics, the songs feel like stories. Unpredictable and energetic, The Same And The Other is a treat for those who don’t cling to… Read more »

Saturday marks the second anniversary of the death of Jam Master Jay. As his family members have pressed on, they continue to keep their loved one’s name alive. A small gathering is planned in the Hollis neighborhood of Queens, New York, on Saturday (October 30), and in January they want to put on a benefit concert to celebrate what would have been the Run-DMC DJ’s 40th birthday. “Basically, we are doing fine,” Jay’s mother, Connie Mizell, said on Monday in New York. “We thank God we are doing as well as we are. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say… Read more »

Johnny Ramone, guitarist and co-founder of the seminal punk band “The Ramones” that influenced a generation of rockers, has died. He was 55. Ramone, who had been fighting a five-year battle with prostate cancer, died in his sleep Wednesday afternoon at his Los Angeles home surrounded by friends and family, said the band’s longtime artistic director Arturo Vega. “He was the guy with a strategy. He was the guy who not only looked after the band’s interest but he also was their defender,” Vega said in a telephone interview from New York. Ramone, whose birth name is John Cummings, had… Read more »

Green Day will toast the release of American Idiot on Tuesday, but perhaps an even bigger cause for celebration these days is the 10-year anniversary of their breakthrough LP, Dookie. The modern-day classic not only launched the Bay Area punk trio into the mainstream, it opened the door to a mid-’90s wave of popped-up punk and provided a launching pad for the current crop of melodic pop-punkers. “[Dookie] changed my life,” confessed Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden. “It made me want to start Good Charlotte…. Right after that record came out, we were like, ‘We have to start a band in… Read more »

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Up until that point, my interview with two-fifths of Temecula, California’s Finch was going rather smoothly. That is, of course, until I mentioned the “E” word. Suddenly, I struck a nerve. “We’re not ‘emo’,” says guitarist Randy Strohmeyer wearily. “People can call us whatever they want to help them identify with the music because when it comes down to it, it’s just the music anyway.” He pauses for a moment, before adding: “But if you ask us, we don’t really care. We don’t call ourselves anything besides a rock band because our… Read more »

Rick James passed away this morning at 9:20 AM in his sleep of natural causes at his Los Angeles home, per his spokesperson. He was 56 years old. He is survived by his 3 children (Ty, Rick Jr., Tazman) and 2 grandchildren (Jasmine and Charisma). Last month, he performed his hit “Fire & Desire” with Teena Marie at the BET Awards. He had finished an album and was preparing for its release next year. He was also in discussion with various studios for a movie based on his life. Born in Buffalo, NY, known as the King of Punk Funk,… Read more »

Last winter, Vans Warped tour founder Kevin Lyman attended the Consumer Electronics Show to learn more about setting up backstage wireless Internet connections. The connections he made, however, were of a different type. Technology companies, eager to tap into the Warped tour’s young, tech-savvy fan base, have jumped on board as tour partners or sponsors. The 10th annual roadshow kicked off June 25 in Houston with a lineup including such bands as Bad Religion, Good Charlotte, NOFX, Thursday, New Found Glory, Simple Plan, The Vandals and Taking Back Sunday. The tour’s extensive sponsor list includes Memorex, Samsung, Cingular Wireless, Apple… Read more »

The Rolling Stones and Radiohead got theirs from song titles, U2 and the B-52’s from military aircrafts and Lynyrd Skynyrd from their old gym teacher. And the stories behind new millennium band names are no less random: Yellowcard According to these So-Cal pop-punkers, “yellowcard” is a take on the ever-popular Frat house idiom, “party foul,” proving drunks can be simultaneously obnoxious and witty. Perhaps Ewan McKegger was already in use. Coldplay Chris Martin and his mates, originally called Starfish, were friends with a band called Coldplay. When that band gave up the name, Starfish asked if they could use it.… Read more »

The unclassifiable rock band Coheed and Cambria has signed with Columbia Records, who, in conjunction with Equal Vision Records, will re-issue the group’s watershed album, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, on Tuesday, June 29. One of the biggest indie band breakout stories of the year, Coheed and Cambria, already legendary for delivering incandescent live performances, will be among the headliners on this year’s Vans Warped Tour. Coheed and Cambria is: Claudio Sanchez (lead vocals, guitar), Michael Todd (bass, backing vocals), Travis Stever (lead guitar, backing vocals), Josh Eppard (drums, backing vocals). Officially christened Coheed and Cambria in 2001,… Read more »

Guitarist Robert Quine, one of punk rock’s most daring soloists, was found dead Saturday in his New York apartment. He was 61. According to close friend and guitar maker Rick Kelly, who discovered Quine’s body, the musician died of a heroin overdose Memorial Day weekend. He had been despondent over the recent death of his wife. Born in Akron, Ohio, Quine was heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground, whose music he recorded obsessively while living in San Francisco. He moved to New York in 1971 and became the lead guitarist for bassist Richard Hell’s important group the Voidoids, with whom… Read more »