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The All-American Rejects’ second album is truly a work in progress. There are still so many nails exposed and the paint is still so wet that if this album were an episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” Ty Pennington would be bellowing stuff like “Come on, guys! Let’s take it up a couple of notches!” into his megaphone. He would also probably be shirtless. The point is, for a record that’s been in the works for eight months, there’s a whole lot that needs to be done. Like, for example, choosing a proper title. When Interscope Records mailed out promo… Read more »
With members of Yellowcard spending the last few months scattered across the country – in New York, California and Florida – what better place to reconvene than sunny Orlando, Florida? After all, it is the nation’s favorite vacation destination. “Yeah, we didn’t really come down here for vacation,” guitarist Ben Harper laughed. “We’re playing a couple of shows at [Disney World’s] Grad Nite, and we figured here was as good a place as any to finish up the saga [of] writing our new album.” Since January, frontman Ryan Key and bassist Pete Mosely have been living in New York, writing… Read more »
Just as Green Day’s American Idiot has a theme running through it, so too do the band’s videos from the album – they all share the vision of director Samuel Bayer. After working with Bayer for “American Idiot,” “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Holiday,” the band hooked up with him again for “Wake Me When September Ends” after the guys returned from a sold-out Asian tour at the end of March. The shoot took place in Los Angeles, and according to a spokesperson at Warner Bros., the video reflects the song’s serious tone – it’s about frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s… Read more »
New York – Rock quartet Fiction Plane is wrapping work on an EP that will constitute its first new music since the 2003 release of its MCA debut, “Everything Will Never Be OK.” Dubbed “Bitter Forces and Lame Race Horses,” the upcoming set is led by the track “American Standard,” which was mixed by Mark “Spike” Stent (U2, Oasis, Bjork). The EP, which will also feature the cuts “Tolerate,” “Patience” and “The Author Lies,” will be released in the United Kingdom by Everybody’s Records, an imprint of Island. A North American release has yet to be nailed down. Drummer Pete… Read more »
The acronym No One Ever Really Dies will be tested for pop group N.E.R.D., whose lead singer, Pharrell Williams, has announced that the band are no more. “N.E.R.D. is dead. I don’t agree with the management at Virgin Records so we’re done,” Williams recently told BBC Radio 1. As for The Neptunes production duo of Williams and Chad Hugo, they’re not going anywhere. The uber-popular producers are definitely still together – they just won’t be doing much singing anymore. “Me and Chad still do what we do in the studio, Shay is still our best friend, you know, perhaps we’ll… Read more »
Anyone who thought that Epitaph Records passed their heyday when Rancid and NOFX split for new pastures would have been wide-eyed surprised on this evening. Kudos to the keepers of the punk rock flag for progressing with the times and developing – yet again – into a leader of the pack. They used to lead the way in the likes of skate-punk and crust, but as the plethora of pre-teens proved, punk rock still hasn’t kicked the bucket. It’s just changed boots. Kicking off the show, new label additions Scatter The Ashes dealt a relatively heavy blow with their brand… Read more »
For an album about a mute, the latest Mars Volta opus sure has a lot to say. It’s a concept album of sorts, but since nothing with the Mars Volta is ever simple, Frances the Mute isn’t a concept easily explained. Not that the band won’t try. Instead of looking at the upcoming album as an idea, they see it as a character, a resurrected body based on the thoughts of a stranger seeking to find his adopted parents, written in a diary found by former bandmember Jeremy Ward (who later died in 2003) while working as a repo man.… Read more »
U2 may have disappointed Canadians when they only announced one stop here for their Vertigo tour, but the band love our country enough to set up camp here a month before the tour begins. The Canadian Press reports U2 are taking over Vancouver’s GM Place for the next month to rehearse for the tour. There’s been no official announcement from ClearChannel Entertainment – the tour’s promoter – if the band will be in Vancouver. There’s been reports of trucks lining up in the GM Place parking lot, however, so suspicions are high. This isn’t the first band to stay in… Read more »
Some videos dazzle, some are dramatic, some are sexy, and some just make you go, “Huh?” Interpol’s “Evil” might leave you feeling all of the above – but you may never get a good night’s sleep again. “Oh, I hope it’s creepy,” said first-time video director Charlie White. “I intended for it to be two things: spooky and not too hip.” If your ideas of those two things agree with a clip that shows the aftermath of a horrible car crash and its effects on a strangely lifelike, shell-shocked puppet who busts some moves on a gurney, “Evil” is for… Read more »
