Search Results for: hard rock

The upcoming closure of New York’s famed punk-rock club CBGB is lamented by locals as the loss of a legendary venue; for others it symbolizes another Manhattan neighborhood becoming corporate and bland. Standing underneath the club’s red awning on Thursday evening, several young musicians smoked cigarettes and bemoaned the loss of the dank, grimy club that began in 1973 and will have its last show on Sunday, featuring Patti Smith. The venue — its full name is CBGB & OMFUG, or Country Bluegrass Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers — spawned the Ramones, Talking Heads and Blondie, whose lead… Read more »

Growing up as a Christian, Relient K lead singer Matthew Thiessen says that it’s hard for him to ignore his faith when writing lyrics. It tends to leak through, which has helped the band join their idols MXPX in the Christian pop punk genre. Although Thiessen isn’t ashamed of his religion, he doesn’t like it that Relient K are being pegged in a genre due to a few references to God. “We don’t like the Christian rock label in general,” he says. “Music shouldn’t be pegged in any genre lyrically. But we’re pretty laid back, so we don’t really care… Read more »

In their previous videos, My Chemical Romance have worn boarding school uniforms and natty black suits. But in the upcoming clip for “The Ghost of You,” the Goth punkers are ditching all things refined and donning drab Army fatigues. While details on the video had been pretty scarce, frontman Gerard Way spilled some of the beans last week, and then continued to give up info when MTV News caught up with him at the KROQ Weenie Roast in Los Angeles. “The video is set in World War II, and it’s really about… loss and the fear of losing people, so… Read more »

For many college seniors, extracurricular activities are limited to mailing out résumés, organizing rallies in the campus quad and hitting up the occasional nickel-beer night. But for 20-year-old Emerson College senior Pearl Wible, her after-school schedule included directing a music video for bombastic Texas rockers… And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, which, as fate would have it, just happened to fall during exam week. “It was pretty much the week from intense hell,” Wible laughed. “I’m also an RA on campus, so in addition to exams and shooting the video, I also had to help a… Read more »

In what can only be seen as an effort to bring punk rock back to the dingy clubs and sweaty halls, Fat Wreck Chords has been releasing a string of live albums amusingly entitled Live In A Dive. The latest band to receive this honour, pop-punk heroes Lagwagon, who beam proudly as theirs – quite possibly the strongest so far aside from Sick Of It All ‘s – garners rave reviews. “I like the Swingin’ Utters ‘ Live In A Dive,” counters guitarist Chris Rest. “I think theirs – well, live albums in general – are cool because you can… Read more »

Baltimore – If you find yourself surrounded by 40,000 fans, 40 bands, three stages and 85 degrees, you’ve apparently waded chest-deep into the summer concert season. For years, folks east of the Mississippi have welcomed the start of that season at the HFStival, now staged in Baltimore after thriving for 15 years as a Washington, D.C., staple. Quite a bit’s changed since WHFS-FM started ushering in the arrival of summer – most notably the station itself, which disappeared from the dial earlier this year. It has since resurfaced as an online entity and also takes over Baltimore’s Live 105.7 on… Read more »

When writing the lyrics for “From Under the Cork Tree,” Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, far right, shifted his focus from a romance gone horribly wrong to a more introspective vew of the world. After writing an album’s worth of lyrics about a girl who shattered his heart, Pete Wentz realized that the world is a bigger place than a cold-hearted woman and he needed to pen tunes that reflected that – a world where tsunamis could devastate parts of Asia, a war in Iraq could affect people on a global scale and the Molly Ringwald vs. Samantha Fox debate… Read more »

Hawthorne Heights frontman JT Woodruff can scream like nobody’s business, but when he’s speaking to you one-on-one, it’s in soft, hushed tones, like his voice has been wrapped in a woolen scarf. And his voice gets even softer when he’s asked about his band’s recent successes: the record that’s climbing the charts, the headlining slot on this summer’s Warped Tour and the video that’s just been added to MTV’s rotation. It’s one thing to be uncomfortable in the spotlight, but Woodruff’s aversion to sudden fame is downright Rivers Cuomo-esque. “Uh, well, it means more kids are coming to our shows.… Read more »

Some of the greatest hard-rock bands in history have thoroughly awesome – and thoroughly undead – mascots. Iron Maiden have toothy demon Eddie. Megadeth have a similarly toothy yet blind demon named Vic Rattlehead. And Motörhead unleash yet another toothy, snarling hellion: a bulldog/gorilla named Snaggletooth. So you can’t blame My Chemical Romance for wanting to get in on the act. By now, you’ve probably seen the video for “Helena,” in which MCR play pallbearers at a funeral for a young girl who just happens to rise from her casket about halfway through the clip to bust into a ballerina… Read more »

Bucking trends has always been the main ethic of punk rock. Way back in the ‘70s when bands were releasing bloated, self-indulgent albums, punk music came swooshing in like a bandit and cut through the cheese like a razorblade. Aggressive, short and punchy, punk rock proved just how lame rock was getting. To that effect, New York old school hardcore heroes The Casualties are on the same page. These days, many ethical singers of dubious ability are honkifying themselves in order to get more purchase in the North American music market. Not The Casualties, though. They’re stepping back into their… Read more »