Search Results for: a day to remember

Sum 41 drummer Steve Jocz’s mind is racing. He’s just learned that his band will serve as an opening act on Mötley Crüe’s summer-long Carnival of Sin Tour, and as such, he’s trying really hard to think up ways he can match Crüe drummer Tommy Lee’s nearly patented drum-solo heroics (including, but not limited to, being raised in the air and pulling full 360s while bashing the kit). “Man, I don’t know,” he laughed. “I might get my drum tech to push my drum kit forward and then pull it back really fast. Or maybe we’ll put it on wheels… Read more »

New York – Rap star Lil’ Kim testified at her federal perjury trial on Thursday, telling jurors she was bullied by prosecutors when she allegedly lied to a grand jury about a 2001 shootout. “I was a victim (of the shooting),” said Lil’ Kim, a former sidekick of the late Notorious B.I.G. “I couldn’t believe I was being badgered the way I was.” Wearing a lacy peach dress beneath a white blazer, the 4-foot-11 Grammy winner frequently turned in the direction of jurors, flashed broad smiles and dropped names of famous artists she’s worked with. She was admonished by the… Read more »

New York – There are several good reasons why Motley Crue didn’t play the halftime show at this year’s Super Bowl, and most of them were on display as the reunited ’80s rockers assaulted Madison Square Garden for the first time in 21 years. Having reigned as the Bad Boys of Rock ‘n’ Roll for most of the decade, the California quartet saw their decadence crown snatched away in the late ’80s by Axl Rose and Guns ‘N’ Roses. Motley’s own fortunes ebbed, the victim of substance abuse, supermodel divorces (drummer Tommy Lee managed to lose both Pamela Anderson and… Read more »

Mudvayne frontman Chad Gray is sick. Sick with the flu. Sick of sitting on a cramped tour bus. And sick of his bandmates interrupting his interview. “Dude, can I get, like, one f–ing minute to myself?” he yelled in between bouts of hacking coughs. “I mean, Greg [Tribbett, Mudvayne’s guitarist] is back here on the bus. Ryan [Martinie, Mudvayne’s bassist] is back here on the bus. Matt [McDonough, Mudvayne’s drummer] is back here in the bunk area! Jesus! “Sorry, they’re like my brothers. Sometimes we get pissed off at each other. Sometimes we can’t stand each other,” he laughed. “But… Read more »

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 »

Classic-rock fan George Petersen doesn’t need another copy of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” or Cream’s “Disraeli Gears.” He has spent the past four decades buying and re-buying his favorite music in a succession of new formats: vinyl, 8-track, cassette, compact disc, Super Audio CD, DVD-Audio. Enough is enough. The basement is full. “We as consumers have been trained by the music industry to go out and buy a new piece of plastic every few years,” said the 51-year-old Petersen, editorial director of Mix, a San Francisco-based magazine that covers professional sound recording. “Why do we keep buying… Read more »

Los Angeles – Welcome to the best sales week of this still-young 2005. Contributing to this buoyant frame are historic chart accomplishments by Tina Turner, the fastest start for the 10-year-old “Grammy Nominees” line of releases and, nestled between those two albums, a not-too-motley week for Motley Crue. Album volume for the week stands at 11.4 million, and 6.9 million of those units sold were current titles. Both figures are high-water marks for the year. The volume of digital tracks, which slipped to less than 5 million last week for the first time since the week ending Dec. 19, is… Read more »

New York – It’s been a stunning year for Brian Wilson. The former Beach Boy released his rerecording of the group’s “SMiLE” album to critical acclaim, and staged a worldwide tour chock-full of standing ovations. The original “SMiLE,” recorded more than 37 years ago, was never released officially. The Nonesuch Records release bowed at No. 13 on The Billboard 200. The set, whose full title is “Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE,” has sold more than 300,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and has been nominated for three awards at the Grammys on Feb. 13. Two nights before that, he will be… Read more »

Los Angeles – Out of the blue comes an e-mail from my brother, Miles: “All confirmed. Rehearsals are next Friday, and your show with Andy Summers and Incubus at the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas will be on Sunday.” Whaaaat? I dimly remember Miles mentioning something about this radio concert, months ago. At the time I said, “Wow, cool,” and then forgot about it. So I’m thinking about it now, a little panicked, and figure, what the heck? Of course, I had better dig out my drums and try to get some life into my wrists. I remember too vividly getting… Read more »

New York – When Casey Stratton was a struggling singer-songwriter a few years ago, he had idealistic notions about artistic integrity. High on his list of what would jeopardize it: licensing his music to television. “When I was younger, I used to be really weird about stuff like that, like, ‘I will not cheapen my work by putting it on TELEVISION!’” he recalls with a chuckle. That was before the producers of the teen-oriented drama “Tarzan” called and asked to use the bittersweet ballad “Hollow,” from his debut album, on the WB show. Stratton gave the go-ahead, and while the… Read more »