Search Results for: Rock am Ring

“I want people to know that we’re still a notch above a garage band,” John Mellencamp says about his summer tour in support of his forthcoming release Cuttin’ Heads, which is due this summer. “No cars dropping down from the ceiling, none of that shit. No, everything’s gonna be black – the whole stage is gonna be black.” Mellencamp’s no frills show will hit twenty-seven cities through the late summer with another straight up rock & roll band, the Wallflowers, opening. Nearly 200 songs and eighteen, going on nineteen, albums later, the challenge for him comes in choosing what to… Read more »

When the members of U2 walked off the stage on their 1997-1998 “PopMart” tour, the final image was a heart framed by the outsized “golden” arch – a juxtaposition that perfectly encapsulated that tour’s muddy concept, as the group had strained to find a balance between earnest emotion and smirking irony. On their current “Elevation” tour, the band wears their hearts on their sleeves or, to be more precise, on the heart-shaped runway that surrounds them and a portion of crowd, reaching halfway into the arena. Allowing much of the audience close contact with the band, the stage, along with… Read more »

With the passing of Joey Ramone on Sunday, music fans lost a genius who changed the world, according to the many artists – from Blink-182 to the Go-Go’s – who were influenced by the lanky, leather jacket-clad godfather of punk rock. “I wish I could have met him and told him what a huge influence he had on my life, and what an inspiration his music was, and what a genius he really was,” Blink-182 singer/bassist Mark Hoppus said. “The Ramones came out at a time when music wasn’t being done like that, and they came out with three-chord pop-punk… Read more »

Joey Ramone, lead singer of legendary punk band the Ramones, passed away at 2:40 p.m. Sunday at the age of 49. The towering front man, born Jeffrey Hyman, did not respond to treatment for lymphatic cancer, a disease that attacks the body’s ability to fight infection. Along with his cohorts Johnny, Tommy and Dee Dee – all of whom adopted Ramone as a surname – Joey was credited with helping found the modern punk movement. In mixing the griminess of the New York streets with a love of bubblegum pop, ’60s girl groups and the Stooges, the Ramones inspired everyone… Read more »

Oh, what a week it was for music news. My head hurts just thinking about it. No, wait – that’s just my hangover. Twelve-time Brit Award winner and international chart topper Robbie Williams disclosed plans to release a version of “We Are the Champions,” recorded with the remaining members of Queen. Poor Freddie Mercury is pirouetting in his grave. Williams also told a British chat show he’s been wrestling with alcoholism off-and-on for the past four years. Let’s hope he sobers up for good before somebody convinces him to tackle “Radio Ga Ga.” Mariah Carey’s new deal with Virgin Records… Read more »

One day Australia’s hottest new rock exports are opening for heavy metal heroes AC/DC, the next day they are sharing the bill with race horses. Bands that want to make it big sometimes have to swallow their pride. During the 1960s, rock acts appearing on Ed Sullivan’s prestigious TV variety show were squeezed in between chimpanzees and circus clowns. In 2001, Australian punk-rock trio the Living End recently played for several thousand fans at a Los Angeles racetrack. But their afternoon set was punctuated by a 10-minute break so the horses would not panic as they galloped past the makeshift… Read more »

Stone Temple Pilots will let fans watch them make their fifth album – but don’t expect a personal invitation to their rented Malibu home. STP filmed a behind-the-scenes documentary as they recorded the LP in their beach villa-turned-recording studio. “It set out to be like a modern-day ‘Let It Be,’” Chapman Baehler, the film’s director, said Thursday (April 5), referring to Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 Beatles documentary. The film follows singer Scott Weiland, guitarist Dean DeLeo, bassist Robert DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz through the record-making process, from hammering out songs in preproduction to putting the tunes down on tape. “It’s… Read more »

Journey guitarist Neal Schon wanted Arrival, the group’s first album in five years and its first since 1978 without frontman Steve Perry, to rock harder and shed some of the San Francisco band’s reputation for ballads. It does, Schon says, thanks to Napster. Apparently the first finished version of Arrival was leaked in its entirety to the controversial file-sharing service; Schon says it was traced back to copies a Sony executive in Europe made for some friends. “That was kind of freaky,” says the guitarist, who co-founded the band during 1973 after a short tenure in Santana. “Here we were,… Read more »

Most major rock bands are good for one or two live albums during their careers. As of this week, Pearl Jam have 73 live albums to their credit. The Seattle rockers, now in their 11th year together, took the unprecedented step of releasing a budget-priced “official bootleg” CD from almost every show on their 2000 tour in order to combat pirates and to give fans a good deal. The roll-out occurred in three stages, ending Tuesday with the retail release of 24 CDs from the second half of the U.S. tour. Already in stores were 25 CDs from Europe and… Read more »

Napster is encouraging users to come out by the hundreds next week to show support for the embattled file-sharing service during a U.S. Senate hearing on the future of online music. “Online Entertainment and Copyright Law: Coming Soon to a Digital Device Near You,” a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing scheduled for April 3, will include testimony from Napster CEO Hank Barry, among others, according to the company. But Napster is offering free T-shirts and concert tickets to try to get its users to show up as well. “If the Napster community shows up in force for this hearing, it will… Read more »