Search Results for: The Maine

Of the many fans and musicians devastated by Layne Staley’s death, his former Alice in Chains bandmate Jerry Cantrell was perhaps most affected upon receiving the news. The pair formed the backbone of the seminal Seattle grunge band in 1987, and it was their dichotomy – the tension of Cantrell’s hardened riffs that plodded along as Staley’s sinister vocals crept behind at a skulking pace – that gave the band its appeal to metalheads and grunge punks alike. Cantrell and Staley remained the group’s creative force until their swan song, 1995’s Alice in Chains. In the wake of Staley’s death,… Read more »

Twelve hours, four stages and more than 40 bands marked the end of the three-day Skate and Surf Festival on Sunday. Held at the Asbury Park Convention Hall, the second installment of the now annual event featured performances from Bouncing Souls, Face to Face and the Descendents, among many others. While the Warped Tour travels from town to town with many of skateboarding and BMX culture’s best-known athletes and favorite artists, the stationary Skate and Surf tends to be more down-home, offering quarter-pipes and rails to anybody bold enough to show up with a bike or a board and a… Read more »

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake love each other very much and have not broken up. At least that’s still the “official” stance a spokesperson for the couple takes when asked of the status of their relationship. And if you believe that, some might think you were born yesterday. The official media statement is in direct opposition to a month’s worth of unconfirmed reports and anonymous eyewitness accounts that say the king and queen of the teen-pop prom have ended their reign. While public opinion favors the notion that the romance is kaput – gossip columnists citing Britney shakin’ it with… Read more »

Canadian rock outfit Cowboy Junkies has lined up a 26-date spring tour and finalized details for its first DVD, a companion to last year’s Zoe Records release “Open.” The tour kicks off May 9 in Detroit and wraps Aug. 7 in Peterborough, Ontario. A couple of low-key dates at California wineries are sprinkled throughout, as well as a number of festival appearances. The DVD, entitled “Open Road,” is culled from the first leg of the band’s 2001 tour. The three-hour long video will feature an eight-song live performance filmed for a Canadian television special at the Quebec City Summer Festival,… Read more »

The Backstreet Boys are planning to shock fans with their next album. Though a spokesperson for the group says a title and release date have not been set, the members are making a concerted effort to transcend the their trademark pop boy-band sound, according to member A.J. McLean. McLean discussed the record Sunday (April 14), when arriving at the taping of MTVIcon: Aerosmith. “It’s not anything like it was before,” he revealed. “It’s a whole new direction. We’re going to be doing rock, we’re going to be doing R&B, we’re going to be doing pop, probably going to be working… Read more »

With its drums of vehemence and old-school claps, there is no “bling” in the Neptunes’ sound on their latest beat offering, the Clipse’s “Grindin.’ ” “We just wanted to strip it down,” Chad Hugo said last month of the beat he and his Neptunes partner Pharrell Williams created. “Just a break[beat] and a rapper. That’s how hip-hop was born. We just wanted to bring that element back to the music scene.” Signed to the Tunes’ new label venture with Arista, Star Trak Entertainment, the Clipse, composed of brothers Malice and Pusha T, have been grinding on the music scene for… Read more »

The history of Rock has a new chapter. Pimp of the nation Kid Rock proposed to his girlfriend, Pamela Anderson, in the Las Vegas desert on Thursday night. Anderson flew out for Kid Rock’s performance on April 6 at Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel, and the couple remained in the city for the week. They were alone under the desert stars when Rock proposed and slid a rock onto the actress’ finger, said Anderson’s publicist Marleah Leslie, who added that the couple is “extremely happy.” No wedding date has been set. Rock, 31, and Anderson, 34, have been dating since April… Read more »

Nearly 40 years after he wrote the lyric “He not busy being born is busy dying,” Bob Dylan clearly still believes that estimation is right on the mark. Looking snazzy in a black cowboy hat and old-school Western suit, the 60-year-old folk-rock icon was tireless, fearless and masterful throughout his 140-minute show Thursday at the Arena. Within shouting range of Treptow Park, where he played in 1987 when the area was still communist East Germany, the Arena is a onetime bus depot and hangar that now serves as one of the city’s largest music venues. The 7,500-capacity, standing-room-only space served… Read more »

The first rule when you’re about to drop $75 to $150 on a concert ticket should be “Do your research.” Anyone who expected a straightforward greatest-hits retrospective from Prince at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall Tuesday night will have to write their pricey ticket off as a fine for laziness. After all, any artist who is as unpredictable as Prince has historically been should warrant no less than a quick Google search for set lists. Therein, the scientific fan would find that “Little Red Corvette” and “When Doves Cry” aren’t bloody likely. Rather, much of the One Nite Alone Tour… Read more »

A former keyboard player with the Backstreet Boys has filed a copyright suit claiming co-ownership of two songs on the group’s Jive album “Black & Blue,” Billboard Bulletin reports. The suit – filed Friday by Tommy Smith in U.S District Court for the Central District in Los Angeles -names group members Nick Carter, Brian Littrell, A.J. McLean, Howard Dorough, and Kevin Richardson. Also named is Zomba Enterprises, the publishing arm of the Zomba Group, which has an undisclosed stake in the songs. Smith claims he co-wrote the songs “The Answer to Our Life” and “Time” with Carter, Littrell, and another… Read more »