Search Results for: Rock am Ring

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 »

Despite their hackneyed interchangeability, there’s a difference between a rock concert and rock show. Anyone thinking of challenging this should check out a stop on Blink-182 and No Doubt’s monthlong co-headlining trek. Even though they recorded a song called “The Rock Show,” Blink’s set Thursday night at the PNC Bank Arts Center definitely fell on the concert side of the spectrum. Bassist Mark Hoppus and guitarist Tom DeLonge stood dwarfed by the vast, mostly barren stage, save for five trapezoidal video screens positioned behind them. Were it not for a shirtless, mohawked Travis Barker peering down from a massive drum… Read more »

Sometimes, Washington is as hot as Bangkok. OK, I stole that line, but it was baking hot at RFK Stadium Saturday for the HFStival, the annual, all-day, relentlessly eclectic rock extravaganza put on by local radio station WHFS-FM (99.1). An estimated crowd of 60,000 blazed under a pre-summer sun, moseying in and out of the stadium from parking-lot attractions that included a forest of beer trucks, giant inflatable corporate logos, two more bandstands – one for national acts, the other for local acts such as Washington Social Club and Jimmie’s Chicken Shack – and, for the truly adventurous, a Ferris… Read more »

Sony Chief Executive Nobuyuki Idei said Wednesday the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant was seriously considering the acquisition of U.S. film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer but declined to say when a decision was expected. “We will not go into an unprofitable business,” he told reporters, adding that Sony has been thinking about movie deals since the 1990s. “We are confident we will make the right decision.” Earlier this month, MGM and Sony agreed to enter talks about a possible acquisition to weigh a $5 billion bid for the legendary studio, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. But Idei and… Read more »

Green Day’s first studio album in four years will be titled “American Idiot,” a spokesperson told Billboard.com. The set is tentatively due Sept. 14 via Reprise. It’s the follow-up to 2000’s “Warning,” which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and has sold 998,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Along with No Doubt, Foo Fighters, Bad Religion and others, Green Day is expected to lend a track to “Rock Against Bush Vol. 2,” the second in a series of politically minded compilations due this August. Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong will also contribute two songs to… Read more »