Search Results for: When We Were Young Fest

“At the end of every show we’d grab handfuls of these stickers we made at Kinko’s with our name and website,” says Steriogram frontman Brad Carter. “We’d toss ’em to our fans from the stage, 300 or 400 stickers every night.” Carter laughs at the band’s ultra-humble approach to building fan loyalty. But it’s working. Steriogram’s homemade stickers, website and music videos, together with its enthusiastic courting of street teams and high school kids, helped launch the rock-hiphop group from obscurity in Auckland, NZ, to a major deal with Capitol Records. “Our goal was to play in America because our… Read more »

On Jan. 6, San Francisco’s Moscone convention center pulses with all the energy of a rock concert. A crowd sprinkled with hip-hop teenagers, digerati, and aging hippies streams in to hear the annual state-of-the-Mac keynote from Apple Computer Inc. Chief Executive Steven P. Jobs. Every facet of the event bears the fingerprints of the obsessive Jobs – right down to the music that fills the air. This year, it’s the King himself, Elvis Presley. Later, Jobs rolls the tape of Apple’s famous “1984” ad that ran on Super Bowl Sunday that year – and hasn’t been broadcast since. Only this… Read more »

The Rolling Stones’ performance at the “SARSfest” extravaganza in Toronto last July will be released on DVD next spring. The Stones’ tour manager, Michael Cohl, told the Toronto Sun that all 13 performers at the July 30 Downsview Park concert were recorded and should be included in the DVD, but it’s not known if the entire concert will be released. “We’re hoping by April or May to have it out,” Cohl said. The daylong concert, which was designed to boost Toronto’s sagging economy in the wake of the deaths caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), attracted some 450,000 people… Read more »

Ozzy Osbourne has been many things throughout his multi-platinum career: lead singer of Black Sabbath, successful solo star and a veteran touring artist. But as Ozzy marks the 35th anniversary of his career, there is no doubt that his starring part in MTV reality series “The Osbournes” ushered in a most unlikely role for him: that of mainstream pop-culture icon. Much has already been said about Ozzy and his family in the saturation media coverage that followed the success of “The Osbournes,” which documents the lives of Ozzy; his wife/manager, Sharon; and two of their children, Kelly and Jack (the… Read more »

These days Good Charlotte are on top of the world, but there was a time when Benji Madden felt like taking his own life. “I’ll be the first person to say I have the most amazing life of anyone I’ve ever met, but I did come to certain points of my life where I thought that [suicide] was an option,” Benji admitted recently, sitting next to his brother Joel inside the Sunset Marquis Hotel. His voice trailing off, he quietly acknowledged the role that music played in ultimately steering him away from such a tragic and horrible act. The Madden… Read more »

What everyone always wants to know is: who’s the worst? Meaning: which really famous person out there is a berk whose lack of personality is in inverse proportion to their abundance of fame? And the answer is, of course, all of them. No, it’s not. It’s Jon Bon Jovi. The next question – who’s the best, of course – is more difficult. The interviewees I like are the ones that turn out to be more than you expected, whether that’s more intelligent, or honest, or bonkers, or fun, whatever. And there are plenty of those. Madonna (sharper), Björk (wilder), James… Read more »

Johnny Cash, “The Man in Black” who became a towering figure in American music with such hits as “Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Walk the Line,” and “A Boy Named Sue,” died Friday. He was 71. “Johnny died due to complications from diabetes, which resulted in respiratory failure,” Cash’s manager, Lou Robin, said in a statement issued by Baptist Hospital in Nashville. He said Cash died at the hospital at 1 a.m. EDT. “I hope that friends and fans of Johnny will pray for the Cash family to find comfort during this very difficult time,” Robin said. Cash had been released… Read more »

The backstage area of this year’s Vans Warped Tour often resembled a punk-rock frat party, according to Thrice frontman Dustin Kensrue. There was plenty of partying and more than a few juvenile practical jokes perpetrated by the bands and their crews. Such situations can be flat-out dangerous, and sometimes injuries ensue. A few weeks ago, Thrice drummer Riley Breckenridge damaged his back while reaching under the band’s bus. Was he looking for water balloons filled with sour milk to throw at the members of Pennywise? Nope. He was trying to remove his suitcase from the storage compartment, and in the… Read more »

Still steaming over what he considers a false arrest, Fabolous plans to sue the city of New York for $5 million, according to a notice filed by his lawyer. The rapper, whose real name is John Jackson, was arrested March 24 on criminal weapons possession charges following a performance at Webster Hall. After the show, police stopped the van the rapper was traveling in and found a loaded 9 mm handgun. Fabolous and four other people in the van were arrested on weapons charges, including bodyguard Rodger Renrick of Brooklyn. Renrick claimed the gun was his own and provided proof… Read more »

It was as if the tattooed hand of a punk rock god reached down and anointed Andrew W.K. The hard partying rocker was enthusiastically playing his anthem “I Get Wet” as the skies opened up and a torrential downpour put an early end to the eighth stop on this year’s Vans Warped Tour. He always sports a maniacal smirk and a dirty T-shirt, but even W.K., surrounded on the stage by a dozen head-banging fans, couldn’t help but laugh. Just one week into a grueling cross-country summer trek, the ninth edition of the punk and extreme-sports tour experienced both kinds… Read more »