Search Results for: hard rock

New York – The year began with the Super Bowl halftime show fiasco and ended with aftershocks from Howard Stern flipping his detractors the bird and taunting the Federal Communications Commission with a just-try-and-get-me-now move to satellite radio. Between those two seismic events, the FCC levied a record number of indecency fines, responding to an avalanche of complaints carefully orchestrated by conservative zealots and election year political pressure. The results from the government crackdown were widespread. Top-rated personalities were fired. Zero-tolerance edicts were issued. On-air delays and indecency tutorials became commonplace. Warhorses like Pink Floyd’s “Money,” Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer”… Read more »

New York – The Rolling Stones recently concluded recording sessions for a new album in Paris with producer Don Was, who worked with them on their two previous studio releases. The band will reconvene in the New Year for additional sessions for an album tentatively due in summer 2005, Was told Billboard.com. Was described the Stones’ new music as considerably different from their recent releases, such as 1997’s “Bridges to Babylon” and 1994’s “Voodoo Lounge.” “Mick (Jagger) and Keith (Richards) are writing songs together in a collaborative fashion that probably hasn’t been seen since the late ’60s,” he said. “I… Read more »

When Agnostic Front vocalist Roger Miret calls modern “hardcore” bands up on the carpet for degrading and bastardizing the genre, you don’t look at him as a grumpy old scenester. You snap to attention. Accredit it to over two decades of proud loyalty to the scene he and Agnostic Front helped create. After all, if there were no AF, you surely wouldn’t be rockin’ out to Hatebreed and their throngs of clones today. That frustration is the focal point of the band’s forthcoming full-length Another Voice. With tracks such as “Hardcore! (The Definition)” and “Pride, Faith, Respect,” Miret heralds the… Read more »

Before Avril Lavigne could cover the theme to “SpongeBob SquarePants” for the pineapple-dweller’s upcoming movie soundtrack, some changes had to be made. After all, a girl known for wearing combat boots, spiked jewelry and clothing emblazoned with skulls and crossbones couldn’t sing lyrics as silly as “absorbent and yellow and porous is he” with the same sing-songy bounce as the original. “I made the song a little more edgy,” Lavigne said. “It’s kind of like the rock version of [the original]. There are a lot of loud guitars, and we picked the tempo up a little and sang it with… Read more »

New York, Ny – Punk superstars Simple Plan saw plenty of action as their new album Still Not Getting Any…soared to the top of the charts. The band’s sophomore album entered the Billboard Top 200 at #3 (trailing closely behind hard core rappers Jay Z/R. Kelly and Trick Daddy.) The album, with sales of 139,928, marks the band’s highest chart position to date and the highest rock debut this week. In addition to their monstrous success stateside, Still Not Getting Any…topped the chart in their native Canada at #2 and was the #3 top selling album in Japan. “Simple Plan… Read more »

Green Day will toast the release of American Idiot on Tuesday, but perhaps an even bigger cause for celebration these days is the 10-year anniversary of their breakthrough LP, Dookie. The modern-day classic not only launched the Bay Area punk trio into the mainstream, it opened the door to a mid-’90s wave of popped-up punk and provided a launching pad for the current crop of melodic pop-punkers. “[Dookie] changed my life,” confessed Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden. “It made me want to start Good Charlotte…. Right after that record came out, we were like, ‘We have to start a band in… Read more »

Guitarist Robert Quine, one of punk rock’s most daring soloists, was found dead Saturday in his New York apartment. He was 61. According to close friend and guitar maker Rick Kelly, who discovered Quine’s body, the musician died of a heroin overdose Memorial Day weekend. He had been despondent over the recent death of his wife. Born in Akron, Ohio, Quine was heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground, whose music he recorded obsessively while living in San Francisco. He moved to New York in 1971 and became the lead guitarist for bassist Richard Hell’s important group the Voidoids, with whom… Read more »

Sometimes, Washington is as hot as Bangkok. OK, I stole that line, but it was baking hot at RFK Stadium Saturday for the HFStival, the annual, all-day, relentlessly eclectic rock extravaganza put on by local radio station WHFS-FM (99.1). An estimated crowd of 60,000 blazed under a pre-summer sun, moseying in and out of the stadium from parking-lot attractions that included a forest of beer trucks, giant inflatable corporate logos, two more bandstands – one for national acts, the other for local acts such as Washington Social Club and Jimmie’s Chicken Shack – and, for the truly adventurous, a Ferris… Read more »

When Prince, ZZ Top and Jackson Browne are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, they won’t have to look far to see contemporary stars their music influenced. Outkast, Kid Rock, Alicia Keys and Dave Matthews are among those who’ll pay tribute to their musical mentors by inducting this year’s class, organizers announced Thursday (February 19). The 2004 inductees also include the late Beatles guitarist George Harrison, the Dells, Bob Seger and Traffic. Other presenters include Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Bruce Springsteen and Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony… Read more »

You say you want a revolution? Well, you know – we all want to change the world. Except for Chris Colus. He’s the drummer for a reggae-roots-rock band, freshly signed to a major record label, and he’s trying to explain that band’s name, which is O.A.R. – Of A Revolution. “There’s no political motive,” the 25-year-old Rockville, MD native insists. “This is the music we’ve wanted to play, the music we wanted to hear – that’s a revolution for ourselves and our fans.” The “Of A Revolution” name actually comes from “The Wanderer,” a short story singer-guitarist Marc Roberge wrote… Read more »