Search Results for: hard rock

In the weeks leading up to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the recession was the tense undercurrent beneath the excitement over its 40th anniversary. The lineup was announced early this year to extend the ticket-buying season, and other festivals canceled or scaled down. Corporate sponsors Borders, AIG and Southern Comfort withdrew their support. But any concerns about Jazz Fest’s economic well-being evaporated Saturday when Bon Jovi delivered the second-largest audience in festival history. The hard rock band was this festival’s cause célèbre, evidence for festival veterans that Jazz Fest is losing its way, trading New Orleans music for… Read more »

Fabled Michigan rock band Pop Evil has signed with Universal Republic Records and released  Lipstick On A Mirror  today. The album has been re-mixed and re-mastered, with a brand new song, “Rolling Stone,” and a riveting acoustic rendition of their signature song “100 In A 55,” which is already gaining traction online, even before its official release to multiple radio formats. In support of the release, Pop Evil will sweep the nation on a two month long tour supporting Judas Priest and Whitesnake beginning July 5th in Wallingford, Conn. Led by larger-than-life frontman Leigh Kakaty, the band is already the… Read more »

Alice in Chains has signed with Virgin Records and will release its first album with new singer William DuVall, the Los Angeles Times reports. “I can tell you that some amazing songs were written and recorded. From the heaviest riff-dripping gut puncher to the most sadly beautiful song I think this band has ever recorded, I honestly believe that this album will return Alice in Chains to the top of the hard rock heap,” a post on the band’s official Web site reads. Earlier this month Alice in Chains revealed they had completed recording the new album. “Hopefully these new… Read more »

One night in the late 1990s, Conan O’Brien was hanging out in a Detroit bowling alley after shooting a remote segment with Ted Nugent (”I rode around in the woods with him, we had a guitar duel and then fired guns,” he recalls). “I have this vague memory of these really cool kids coming over and hanging out with us,” he says. “I knew nothing about them or what they did.” A few years later, O’Brien learned he had met Jack and Meg White that day when he popped into a Saturday Night Live rehearsal to check out the White… Read more »

List of winners at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards Album of the Year: ” Raising Sand” Robert Plant and Alison Krauss ; T Bone Burnett producer; Mike Piersante, engineer/mixer; Gavin Lurssen, mastering engineer (Rounder) Rap Album: ” Tha Carter III” Lil Wayne (Cash Money/Universal Motown) Male Pop Vocal Performance : “Say,” John Mayer ; track from “Continuum” (Columbia) Record of the Year: “Please Read The Letter,” Robert Plant and Alison Krauss; T Bone Burnett, producer; Mike Piersante, engineer/mixer; track from “Raising Sand” (Rounder) New Artist: Adele Rock Album: “Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends,” Coldplay (Capitol) Pop… Read more »

He had one of the biggest opening sales weeks of 2008, and now, Lil Wayne is the year’s most-nominated Grammy contender. Wayne and his latest LP, “Tha Carter III,” lead the pack with a total of eight nominations, while one of the year’s other biggest sellers, Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends,” garnered seven nods. Jay-Z, Ne-Yo and Kanye West each earned six nods, while Alison Krauss, John Mayer, Robert Plant, Radiohead and Jazmine Sullivan received five each. Adele is up for four – including Best New Artist – as are Lupe Fiasco and T.I. The… Read more »

Canuck Avril Lavigne seems to know a thing or two about Southern hospitality. During a concert stop in Biloxi, Miss., Monday, Lavigne teamed up with the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and the Make-A-Wish Foundation to give a young fan a taste of the rock-star life. Not only did Kaylin Giroir, a 14-year-old from Louisiana who has muscular dystrophy, get to make an appearance on the red carpet before Lavigne’s concert, but she also got a Fender guitar signed by the musician. Kaylin spent private one-on-one time with Lavigne in her dressing room before she and some family members were… Read more »

Pop star Sting said on Friday that he and his two cohorts from The Police will bid a musical goodbye to Britain with a farewell concert in London’s Hyde Park on June 29. “England is where we began our career, in London. It has a special place in my heart. I’m English … We’ve done over 100 dates. But we’re still together, still friends,” the group’s frontman said. The band, consisting of Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland, burst on the scene in the late 1970s and early ’80s with a string of hits, including “Roxanne,” “Message in… Read more »

After Velvet Revolver wraps a spring tour in support of its second album, “Libertad,” frontman Scott Weiland will rejoin his former bandmates in Stone Temple Pilots for a handful of summer reunion shows, guitarist Slash told Billboard.com. STP broke up in late 2002; the band’s last album was the previous year’s “Shangri-La Dee Da.” No other details have yet been revealed about STP’s plans. In the meantime, Weiland and his Velvet Revolver bandmates are still plugging away in support of “Libertad” with dates that run through early April. There’s also the hope that recording for album No. 3 could begin… Read more »