Search Results for: The Cure

You can’t get the question right. You’re fumbling for the right words but all you can hear are the lyrics to “Age of Consent” over and over and over again in your brain… It’s almost too easy to toss the word “influential” in front of a band to hype up its place in the pop-music pantheon. Few acts deserve it, and the word is so damn relative. But the culture mill spits out thousands of new bands each year and inevitably even the most wanly creative gets the “influential” stamp if it can hang in there long enough. So, then… Read more »

It’s a good day for pop-punk as Avril Lavigne, Simple Plan and Billy Talent are all up for a handful of Juno awards. This year’s Juno nominees were just announced and leading the charge is Lavigne, one of Canada’s biggest international exports. She’s up for five awards including Artist Of The Year. Toronto rapper K-OS, West Coast jazz star Diana Krall and 2003’s Juno host, Shania Twain, join Simple Plan and Billy Talent with three noms each. Single Of The Year: River Below, Billy Talent; One Thing, Finger Eleven; Crabbuckit, k-os; Not Ready To Go, The Trews; Party For Two,… Read more »

Having his solo debut tank might have been the best thing for Butch Walker’s career. Not too many people bought 2002’s Left of Self-Centered – the album sold barely 20,000 copies, according to SoundScan – but many of those who did adored the smart riff-rock from the guy who used to front the late-’90s power trio Marvelous 3. Not only did Walker sing and play all the instruments except drums, he also produced, mixed and engineered the LP. Such versatile qualities appealed to a lot of people, not least of whom was Avril Lavigne. “Obviously, it was a very unpopular… Read more »

It’s fitting that the title of the new Blink-182 single connotes permanence. The release of “Always” has given the band’s year-old untitled album unprecedented longevity. “It’s the first time we’ve ever had four singles,” singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge explained. “[This album] is like ‘The Little Engine That Could.’ We even talked about a fifth single. We’ve never done this before. It is kind of weird that we’re still around.” Since the band’s sixth album dropped last November, it’s yielded the singles “Feeling This,” “I Miss You,” “Down” and “Always,” which is expected to surface at radio next week. Should there be… Read more »

To hear No Doubt frontwoman Gwen Stefani tell it, she’s just a girl from Orange County following a dream. “I’m just like you, except I write songs,” Stefani says. “I feel like I’m doing something right. And right now, I feel like I’m in a good place in my life.” Indeed. Stefani – rock star, pop culture icon, fashion entrepreneur (clothing line L.A.M.B.), actress (Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator,” due in December), wife of Bush vocalist/guitarist Gavin Rossdale – is gearing up for the next chapter in a prolific career. Her solo debut album – or as she prefers to call… 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 »

The weekend’s biggest party was off the hizzy at 4 p.m. Saturday. More than 50,000 teenagers were crowd-surfing and moshing with their pushy, sweaty peers – and loving it. The HFStival rocked RFK Stadium with performances by the Offspring, Violent Femmes, Jay-Z, P.O.D. and the Cure, to name a few. The rock star anger, angst and edge vanished as soon as the musicians left the stage and entered the backstage Elephant Room. In the blue-clad VIP oasis they ate mac-and-cheese and chicken kebabs, drank as much free beer as they could, and partied with celebs including Redskins linebacker LaVar Arrington… 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 »

The Lostprophets titled their second album Start Something for two reasons. One was to motivate people out of complacency. “We spent the last three years touring and meeting loads of people who were like, ‘I’d love to do this and that,’ but they never had the drive to get up off their asses and do it,” explained singer Ian Watkins. “Start something. Start anything.” The title’s other meaning reflects the band’s feeling that Start Something is their first musical step, despite releasing their debut album three years ago. They’re neither trying to ignore 2001’s The Fake Sound of Progress nor… Read more »

The big question as we enter 2004 is simply “Do you want some?” The answer will come when Liam Gallagher and elder brother Noel return to the fray with the new Oasis album later this year. Although to some the Mancunian brothers’ group may be too tied up with the hangover of ’90s Britpop to ever be a potent force again, they are still undoubtedly one of the biggest rock groups in the country. They do like to tread water, however, and a much-needed change in direction may finally come with the introduction of Death In Vegas man Richard Fearless… Read more »