Search Results for: alt-rock

They used to be irreverent punks out for cheap thrills and even cheaper laughs, but now Blink-182 are a changed band. Their untitled new record is more experimental and multidimensional than 2001’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, adding a variety of styles (electronic rock; jangly, melancholy pop; reflective alt-rock) to their foundation of bouncy beats and kinetic guitars. It’s also more lyrically developed, trading tales of adolescent relationships for more serious dilemmas of adulthood. As singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge sang in the band’s 1997 breakthrough hit “Dammit,” “I guess this is growing up.” Growing up has a lot to do… Read more »

Splinter, the eagerly-awaited new album from The Offspring, will be released by Columbia Records on Tuesday, December 9. The first single from Splinter, “Hit That,” is the #1 most added track at modern rock and rock formats this week. Splinter is The Offspring’s 7th album and is produced by Brendan O’Brien – who worked with The Offspring on Conspiracy Of One and has helmed projects by Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Rage Against The Machine, Korn, and many others – and features legendary drummer Josh Freese (the Vandals, A Perfect Circle) on each of the album’s 12 tracks. “After seven albums, it… Read more »

Arista recording artist P!nk is in the final stages of completing her hotly expected third album, entitled TRY THIS – in stores November 11th, it was announced today by Antonio “L.A.” Reid, president and CEO, Arista Records. The first single (and opening track) on TRY THIS will be “Trouble,” co-written by P!nk with Tim Armstrong (of alt-rock heroes Rancid), who also produced the track. Impact date at radio is set for September 29th. The ‘wild west’ concept video for “Trouble” was recently shot on location in Los Angeles. It was directed by Sophie Muller, known for previous clips with P!nk… Read more »

“You may know this song,” Evanescence singer Amy Lee uttered demurely nine songs into the group’s headlining set Tuesday night at the Congress Theatre. “It’s the song that got us here.” Understatement of the year. Without “Bring Me to Life,” the ubiquitous rap-rock confection featured on Fallen, the Little Rock, Arkansas, troupe would be far more concerned finding people who can pronounce “Evanescence” than finding wall space for their double-platinum album. Now, only five months after the release of Fallen, Evanescence are headlining the Nintendo Fusion Tour, a 20-date excursion that has the band performing after Cold, the group that’s… Read more »

The White Stripes rocker, banged up in a car crash last month, makes this perfectly clear on the band’s Website (www.whitestripes.com), posting actual footage from a surgery that inserted three screws into his broken left index finger. Really, a note from the doctor would have sufficed… But, no, White says he wanted fans who bought tickets to shows either canceled or postponed by the dinged digit to “better understand the complexity of the situation.” “A bone in the index finger of my fretting hand was shattered…making it absolutely impossible to play guitar,” White writes on the Website. “I’ve been instructed… Read more »

Chad Kroeger sings about “a world full of killing and blood spilling” in the hit song “Hero,” and in that kind of world Nickelback’s melodic relationship songs don’t seem to have quite as much impact as they once did. Perhaps that’s why Kroeger boosted the musical heft and lyrical import for the band’s third record, The Long Road, due September 23. Sure, there are still enough love songs and light, lighter-raising moments to make the gals swoon. But even on the slower tunes, the guitars shudder with raw intensity, conveying Kroeger’s aim to shed the mainstream pop image he cultivated… Read more »

Ticket sales are down, and big tours are scaling back to smaller venues. It looks to be a long, hot summer for the touring industry. On the cusp of the industry’s peak period, a number of high-profile tours and festivals have already hit snags, among them highly touted outings from Mariah Carey, the Field Day Music Festival, Lollapalooza, and Beck and Dashboard Confessional. Faced with a crowded tour market combined with high ticket prices, permit hassles, a sluggish economy and poor buzz, these tours and a handful of others have either had to scale back the size of the venues… Read more »

The going rate for downloading songs from online music services like Apple’s iTunes Music Store, MusicNet, Pressplay, and Rhapsody is about $1 a pop. Yet the economics of recorded music sales haven’t changed much since the vinyl era – despite the fact that digital files cost very little to produce and distribute. So how much of your buck makes its way back to the artists? Not much, though it’s clearly a better deal than they get from piracy. The Site’s Cut – 40% The biggest chunk of your dollar goes to the online music provider. This explains why sites like… Read more »

Dashboard Confessional and Jack Johnson played acoustic, and Beck and Coldplay celebrated Christmas, but otherwise KROQ-FM’s annual Almost Acoustic Christmas was a two-day, 20-act festival all about rocking. And the sold-out event was certainly crammed with rock and roll moments, particularly the announced live debut of Audioslave (they played a secret club show the night before), and an amusing rendition of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” orchestrated by Beck and the Flaming Lips and featuring Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba, Johnson and a horribly off-key Juliette Lewis. (Click here for photos from the show.) Audioslave were the talk… Read more »

Nineties alt-rock lives as a new tour launches this weekend. The New World Disorder Tour features co-headliners The Gin Blossoms and Spin Doctors, with Seven Mary Three and Sponge. Expect to hear all the classic Gin Blossoms hits like “Hey Jealousy” and “Till I Hear It From You,” and watch out for four releases from the band this year, Dusted, (their first pre-A&M Records release that had only been available on cassette until now), New Miserable Experience Collectors Series (an expanded 2-CD version with bonus tracks, demos and outtakes), plus a couple of solo ventures, The Poppin’ Wheelies from singer… Read more »