Search Results for: hard rock

After more than five years as host of Nickelodeon’s “Blue’s Clues,” Steve Burns is passing the leash to his successor and passing the mic to himself. Burns, who along with animated canine Blue has solved nearly 100 puzzles since the children’s show premiered in December 1996, is now facing a quandary that has baffled just about anyone who ever wanted to form a career around picking up a guitar: how to get signed. The 28-year-old Brooklyn, New York, resident has recorded 11 tunes, some of which are posted on www.steveswebpage.com, for an LP titled Songs for Dustmites. That was the… Read more »

Twelve hours, four stages and more than 40 bands marked the end of the three-day Skate and Surf Festival on Sunday. Held at the Asbury Park Convention Hall, the second installment of the now annual event featured performances from Bouncing Souls, Face to Face and the Descendents, among many others. While the Warped Tour travels from town to town with many of skateboarding and BMX culture’s best-known athletes and favorite artists, the stationary Skate and Surf tends to be more down-home, offering quarter-pipes and rails to anybody bold enough to show up with a bike or a board and a… Read more »

Cowboys have to deal with the hazards of subduing charging bulls, getting their spurs caught in their lassos and keeping cold bottles of beer from exploding during especially rigorous horse rides. Some, like Kid Rock, also have to contend with copyright infringement lawsuits. Relatively unknown songwriters Brian Chatton, Nico Ramsden, Nick Richards and Jeff Seopardi, who recorded under the name Boys Don’t Cry, are suing the maverick rocker over his 1998 song “Cowboy,” contending that it plagiarizes their 1986 synth-pop track “I Wanna Be a Cowboy,” which reached #12 on the Billboard singles chart. On April 17, Microhits Music Corp.,… Read more »

A near-capacity crowd at Key Arena greeted headliners Incubus Friday night with open arms and open eyes – and deafening, wall-vibrating screams. Thousands of hollering fans – many encased in freshly purchased T-shirts from the merch tables – couldn’t be wrong: After more than a decade in the business, and years of touring far smaller venues with middling success, the band from sleepy Calabasas, California, has most definitely arrived. But before they took to the stage, their So-Cal neighbors, Hoobastank, warmed up the Key with a thunderous half-hour set. The foursome had no problem filling up the arena with their… Read more »

The history of Rock has a new chapter. Pimp of the nation Kid Rock proposed to his girlfriend, Pamela Anderson, in the Las Vegas desert on Thursday night. Anderson flew out for Kid Rock’s performance on April 6 at Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel, and the couple remained in the city for the week. They were alone under the desert stars when Rock proposed and slid a rock onto the actress’ finger, said Anderson’s publicist Marleah Leslie, who added that the couple is “extremely happy.” No wedding date has been set. Rock, 31, and Anderson, 34, have been dating since April… Read more »

Who the hell is Andrew W.K.? He’s a classically trained pianist from small-town Michigan turned death metalhead who discovered confectionery pop and hair metal and decided to throw together a bunch of songs that combined all of his musical interests into one single, energetic project. Oh, and he likes to party – a lot. Just about every song on his debut album, I Get Wet, features the word “party,” including “It’s Time to Party,” “Party ‘Til You Puke” and the first single, “Party Hard.” The latter explosively sums up the simple Spinal Tap edict as eloquently uttered by keyboardist Vivian… Read more »

No disses, no DJs and no drama – just rock. The Los Angeles band Puddle of Mudd, whose current single “Blurry” is a #1 modern rock hit, tore through an hour-long headlining set of blue-collar rock Thursday night at a sold-out Electric Factory. Puddle of Mudd – Wes Scantlin (vocals and guitar), Paul Phillips (guitar), Doug Ardito (bass) and Greg Upchurchperformed on a stage devoid of props or ornate backdrop. Frontman Scantlin wore everyguy clothes: jeans, T-shirt, windbreaker jacket and a reverse baseball cap. But what the band lacked in show-business dazzle they made up for in verve and intensity.… Read more »

If Republicans, “Dukes of Hazzard” reruns and an abundance of heavy metal weren’t enough to convince you, No Doubt’s Rock Steady road show leaves little doubt that the 1980s are back. On the tour’s opening night, the Orange County ska-popsters mined flavors from across the retro-’80s spectrum, mixing driving hardcore and rasta riddims with slap-bass funk, new wave synth and pop queen balladry. With a punked-out rhythm section, two dread-stylie horn players, a guitarist straight out of a Duran Duran video and bare-bellied, necktie-wearing Gwen-just-wanna-have-fun-Stefani up front, they even looked the part. The drum set glowed under the Memorial Auditorium’s… Read more »

More than four years after the suicide of their elegant frontman, Michael Hutchence, the five members of Australian rock band INXS will return to the U.S. concert circuit in May with a substitute vocalist. The group, famed for such hits as “Need You Tonight” and “Devil Inside,” will kick off a 40-city club tour in Anaheim, Calif., on May 30 with Jon Stevens at the helm, the group’s publicist said in a statement on Friday. Stevens, who has performed with INXS on short tours of Australia and Europe, is the former singer with Australian rock band Noiseworks, and a longtime… Read more »

After hearing thousands of unknown hopefuls in a series of minute-long auditions, hard rock band Limp Bizkit may ask a few potential bandmates back to see if any strike the right chord, the group’s manager said on Tuesday. The band, fronted by Fred Durst and best known for its raging blend of punk, heavy metal and hip-hop, may sign a new guitarist through the open-call “Put Your Money Where Your Guitar Is” tryouts, which began in January. But the group has never guaranteed it would fill the spot left vacant when Wes Borland quit last fall. Of the nearly 5,000… Read more »