Search Results for: billy corgan

New York – In 2001, Martin Amis, Rick Moody and other authors and artists gathered in New York to honor a peer they regarded as a giant of the times. They compared him to Walt Whitman, Mark Twain and Arthur Rimbaud. They called him a bard, a shaman and a master of “art as revenge.” That man was Bob Dylan. Had he lived in England, he’d be Sir Bob Dylan, maybe even Lord. Scholarly books have compared him to Dante and Keats; admirers lobby for him to get the Nobel Prize. At a 1997 Kennedy Center ceremony, where fellow honorees… Read more »

Anyone who even slightly follows ChartAttack’s music coverage should know by know that A Perfect Circle is probably one of the most impressive “super bands” this side of Blind Faith. Heh heh… Blind Faith being “super.” Now there’s a gag! So, with the introduction of ex-Smashing Pumpkin James Iha to the fold hot on the heels of Jeordie “Twiggy Ramirez” White taking up bass duties (as former APC bassist Paz Lenchantin moved to Billy Corgan’s Zwan… inbreeding?) how does APC brainchild Billy Howerdel feel the shift went? “I couldn’t have asked for a smoother transition,” he says. “And without trying… Read more »

When former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha got an email a month ago from A Perfect Circle’s Billy Howerdel asking if he’d like to audition for the group, the last thing on Iha’s mind was joining another band. “I really didn’t see myself joining another band too soon after the Pumpkins broke up,” said Iha, who has kept a low profile since the Pumpkins’ December 2000 split. “I was recently saying to someone that it would have to be a pretty good band to bring me back – this is the band.” Iha was also reluctant to hit the road… Read more »

Maynard James Keenan will keep Tool in the shed for at least another few months, as the oddball frontman’s other band A Perfect Circle releases Thirteenth Step on September 16th. Since the release of its debut album, Mer de Noms, three years ago, A Perfect Circle has had a few chairs vacated and filled. Out are guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and bassist Paz Lenchantin (who joined Billy Corgan’s new band, Zwan). And joining Keenan, guitarist Billy Howerdel and drummer Josh Freese is Jeordie White, who formerly recorded as “Twiggy Ramirez” for Marilyn Manson. A Perfect Circle have lined up a… Read more »

Zwan has canceled its entire world tour, due to what the band termed “family reasons” on its official website, zwan.com. The canceled tour was to start in Imola, Italy on June 15, and end at the famed Fuji Festival in Japan on January 25. Glastonbury, T In The Park, and the Witnness Festival were among the European festivals Zwan will miss. The band is touring in support of its debut album, Mary Star Of The Sea, and it features former Smashing Pumpkins members Billy Corgan on guitar and vocals and Jimmy Chamberlin on drums. Also in the band are ex-Tortoise… 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 »

Rockers want to act, actors want to rock. What are you gonna do? For musicians who lack thespian aspirations, though, scoring a movie seems to suffice. Following in the footsteps of everyone from Bob Dylan and Jon Bon Jovi to Björk and Peter Gabriel, bandleaders Jonathan Davis, Billy Corgan and Jeff Tweedy and solo act Badly Drawn Boy are scoring some points with the Hollywood crowd this summer. Korn singer Davis teamed up with film scoring veteran and ex-Oingo Boingo keyboardist Richard Gibbs for the soundtrack to “Queen of the Damned,” released earlier this year. The pair co-wrote and performed… Read more »

With the passing of Layne Staley, those who knew him best remember him as deeply troubled yet immensely talented. Described as a caring person, he made great strides to elevate an underground genre to the mainstream. In the early ’90s, Alice in Chains, along with Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, were directly behind Nirvana on the grunge wave that began in Seattle and cascaded throughout the country. The singer’s Alice in Chains bandmates – guitarist Jerry Cantrell, bassist Mike Inez, drummer Sean Kinney and former bassist Mike Starr – their manager and Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell gathered Saturday, a day after police… Read more »

“One-man band”: when you hear that phrase you probably picture a dude on a street corner with a pair of cymbals between his knees, a drum on his back, some kazoos in his mouth and a guitar case full of quarters. Think again. While naming a band after yourself is fine and good for guys like Dave Matthews and Jon Spencer, some band names are actually just cryptic pseudonyms for a single, mad studio genius. The past year has seen an explosion of do-it-yourself-ers, including ex-Eels bassist Tommy Walter with his band Abandoned Pools, stone alone emo-ter Chris Carrabba of… Read more »

As showbiz celebrities and hired models watched in awe, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger let it loose during a rare solo concert at a tiny Los Angeles club Thursday. Jagger’s new album hits stores next week, and he chose the 770-capacity El Rey Theatre near Hollywood as the venue for his only concert performance to promote the release. “This is the world tour for this album, ‘Goddess in the Doorway,”‘ Jagger, 58, told the invite-only crowd. “You can say you were at every gig, OK?” Wearing a sleeveless red T-shirt emblazoned with the Statue of Liberty over the slogan “Liberte,”… Read more »