Search Results for: Rock am Ring

In case you’re not convinced that Britney Spears really does love rock and roll, the pop princess, who covered the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” on her last album, has put another dime in the jukebox and come up with an even more telling rock classic for her next one. Spears has recorded Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ 1981 hit “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” with hitmaker Rodney Jerkins for a scene in her upcoming movie, “What Friends Are For,” as well as for her still-untitled third album, which a Jive Records spokesperson said is tentatively due November… Read more »

Orange County, California rockers Lit are nearing completion on their third full-length album, due out October 9th. Working in North Hollywood’s NRG Studios with producer Don Gilmore, who handled the band’s 1999 sophomore breakthrough A Place in the Sun as well as recent efforts from Sugar Ray and Eve 6, the group has tracked fifteen tunes and is presently knee-deep in mixing. Although the album is currently without an official title, Lit – singer A.Jay Popoff; his brother, guitarist Jeremy; drummer Allen Shellenberger and bassist Kevin Baldes – say a recent obsession with Seventies arena-rock may weigh heavily in the… Read more »

The once fertile scene of Lollapalooza, Lilith Fair, the HORDE and Furthur has dried up in recent years, leaving the U.S. summer tour circuit a less festive place for traveling rock music festivals. So pop auteur Moby, in the wake of the success of his latest album, “Play,” has decided to do something about that. “I’ve spent a long time playing European festivals and was impressed by how eclectic and open they were,” explains Moby, whose Area: One tour opened Wednesday in Atlanta. “There was a period in the States where we had a few really interesting festivals…. When those… Read more »

For the first time in almost four years, one of Australia’s most successful rock bands, INXS, is playing a few shows in North America. But the crowd at their recent Los Angeles stop consisted of about 70 Rhino Records employees and a few reporters, just two of the band’s six members were on stage, and the bespectacled singer looked nothing like Michael Hutchence, the group’s charismatic vocalist. Hutchence committed suicide in November 1997, and his bandmates are having a hard time deciding whether to carry on. In the meantime, they have released a two-CD anthology, “Shine Like It Does,” via… Read more »

With a new wife, new twin sons and even a new band, veteran pop troubadour James Taylor is spending most of the next few months touring the amphitheaters of North America, a summer ritual as dependable as sunscreen and inflated concession stand prices. “I’m kind of grooved in on that kind of evening and a sort of summer-night experience,” says Taylor, 53, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who in February this year married Boston Symphony Orchestra publicist Caroline Smedvig. The couple’s sons were born in early April, via in vitro fertilization of a surrogate mother. The veteran singer-songwriter… Read more »

A new album from the band named after a place the sun doesn’t shine will finally see the light of day next month, complete with a track co-written by an “American Bad Ass.” Experimental rockers the Butthole Surfers will release their first album in five years, Weird Revolution, on August 28, even though the family of Malcolm X forced the band back to the drawing board at the 11th hour. In the lyrics on the track “The Weird Revolution,” frontman Gibby Haynes copped a passage – save a few words – from one of the assassinated black activist’s most famous… Read more »

It’s not that you shouldn’t have believed that Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes was dropping a solo album. It’s just that TLC’s most outspoken member has been talking about her record for so many years without delivering, you had to start to wonder if it was going to happen while she was still young enough to perform selections from the LP without using a walker to get onstage. However, it looks like Left Eye is ready to stop selling wolf-tickets and show and prove. Supernova is scheduled to arrive on August 14, and the album’s first single, “The Block Party,” is… Read more »

Pudgy and shy, 13-year-old Matt Shafer had an outlet in rap but few to really share it with – until a chance day he saw Bob Ritchie work the deejay’s turntable. “Wickie-wickie-wickie,” was how the skinny, smug 16-year-old Ritchie scratched records during a deejay contest, his baseball cap’s visor flipped up and a rapper’s clock dangling from his neck. The showman did his thing backward, even upside down. “Everything about him was cool – the way he dressed, the way he talked. I admired him, looked up to him. He was kind of like an older brother to me,” Shafer… Read more »

Hot on the heels of new releases from such established superstars as Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey, Virgin Records America is releasing seven key albums from developing artists the label hopes will follow in those multi-platinum footsteps. Ranging an eclectic musical spectrum from Pop-R&B to Urban-Alternative Rock to World Music, these artists reflect Virgin’s commitment to unique yet accessible music for which the label has become known. Forming the all-star rookie line-up are: Nikka Costa – All ears piqued when Tommy Hilfiger’s slick commercial hit TV screens last year, featuring that funky, rhythmic bassline from Nikka’s debut single “Like A… Read more »

It’s the kind of small moment on which rock ‘n’ roll history turns. It was Fall, 1978. The Ramones had just completed their fourth album, “Road to Ruin,” and the band felt certain it had recorded a hit single: the impossibly catchy “I Wanna Be Sedated.” But the band was overruled; label executives opted for another track, “Don’t Come Close.” That single quickly disappeared, along with the Ramones’ hit-making aspirations. “We really wanted ‘I Wanna Be Sedated,”‘ recalls guitarist Johnny Ramone. “But the record company picked the singles.” So the No. 1 hit in November 1978 instead was the fluffy… Read more »