Search Results for: christmas

‘Tis the season for holiday radio shows. As much a tradition as eggnog, mistletoe and broken resolutions, December always brings a bumper crop of all-star shows in which bands give back to their fans (and the radio stations that play their music) by jetting around the country and serving up short hit-heavy sets. The month of December will be especially star-packed for those living near Indianapolis, San Diego or Philadelphia. If you love Good Charlotte, Coldplay, Destiny’s Child and Queens of the Stone Age, you might want to cash in some frequent flyer miles, because those bands are among a… Read more »

When Sum 41 wrote last year’s All Killer No Filler, the bandmembers were all still in high school. Toilet-dunking bullies, drinking buddies, unrequited puppy love, impish practical jokes and weekend parties were what their lives consisted of, so that’s what the sang about. But now they’ve toured the world, experienced some real-life trauma and tapped into current events (at least a little bit), so the boys in the band – singer/guitarist Deryck Whibley, guitarist Dave Baksh, bassist Cone and drummer Steve Jocz – are in a slightly different place, and as a result they’re penning some harder, more sobering songs.… Read more »

As one of the forefathers of rap, with a history of social activism, Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay was an unlikely target for the kind of violence that killed rappers Tupac Shakur or the Notorious B.I.G. He was married with three kids, and a fixture in the Queens neighborhood where he grew up. Yet authorities were searching Thursday for the gunman who killed the 37-year-old disc jockey with a gunshot to the head inside his recording studio. “Jam Master Jay was a longtime family man and one of the founders of the group that knocked down all the doors for hip-hop,… Read more »

Florida punk rockers New Found Glory are gearing up to release their first DVD, The Story So Far, next month. Due October 15th on MCA, the DVD features live footage showing the quintet’s rise from playing backyard shindigs to European tours. Also included are interviews and a number of videos including “Hit or Miss,” “Friends Over You,” and new single “Head Over You,” which features a cameo from Vandals bassist Joe Escalante. “There’s this company called Troma and they do like B-horror movies, but cheesy, almost like silly, so we got them to do the special effects on our video,”… Read more »

Kurt Cobain fans are closer to Nirvana than they have been in years. A studio version of the unreleased Nirvana track “You Know You’re Right” has surfaced online in its entirety. The song, which was reportedly recorded in January 1994, less than three months before frontman Cobain took his own life with a shotgun in his Seattle home, is expected to a appear on the long-awaited Nirvana greatest-hits album, which, according to Courtney Love, is due by Christmas. A Universal Music Group spokesperson, however, said that while the LP would come out, there was no specific release date. By Monday… Read more »

Forty-six years after Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps helped define the rockabilly sound with their signature hit “Be Bop a Lula,” Vincent’s first two records, 1956’s Bluejean Bop! and 1957’s Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps, will be re-released with bonus tracks on September 17th. Vincent himself died in 1971 at the age of thirty-six from a ruptured stomach ulcer, but bassist Jack Neal – one of two surviving members of the group, along with drummer Dickie Harrell – still remembers the early recording sessions vividly. “It was great to go ahead and cut a record where all the… Read more »

Vertical Horizon re-entered the studio for two days recently to record a version of “I Believe In Father Christmas,” originally recorded by prog-rock heroes Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The song will appear on a holiday release being readied by BMG. The track was produced by John Shanks, who is also overseeing the band’s next album, Go, due early next year from RCA. The recording marks the first time that Vertical Horizon has recorded another artist’s tune. “It was a wonderful experience,” the band writes on its official website ( verticalhorizon.com). “We spend a great deal of time creating our own… Read more »

Avril Lavigne looked at home onstage during her Opening Act performance before Thursday’s MTV Video Music Awards, but she need not get too comfortable. The Best New Artist in a Video winner will not actually tour until next year. “My album just came out, so it’s been promotions, going to other countries,” Lavigne explained backstage at the ceremony. “I won’t be on a tour bus until after Christmas. I’m like, ‘Come on, hurry up!’ I know I’m going to love it. I’ll get to sleep in the same bed every night. And it will just be fun being with my… Read more »

Roughly one month after the tragic death of his close friend and former bandmate Layne Staley, Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell returned to the town that made them both famous, and despite the feeling that a big hole existed where his former partner once stood, it was a rocking, if bittersweet, trip back in time. With plenty of classic AIC material in tow, Cantrell took a sparse but enthusiastic audience at Key Arena on Friday back to the halcyon days of the early ’90s – a time of lank hair, big angst and bigger guitars, before the Bizkit and its… Read more »

Universal Music is in talks with its best-selling rap artist Eminem to deploy copy protection technology on all upcoming CD releases of “The Eminem Show,” marking the biggest move yet to protect its top acts from music piracy, a label official told Reuters Wednesday. Discussions are under way between Universal, a division of French media conglomerate Vivendi Universal, Eminem and his Universal-owned label Interscope Records to make the anticipated top-selling release copy proof, thwarting the industry’s biggest concern – piracy. Universal and Eminem would need to strike an agreement on whether or not to release the security-enhanced CDs in the… Read more »