Search Results for: hard rock

Even though she’s a good few years away from taking stubby pencil to paper herself, Dave Grohl’s baby daughter Violet gets full credit for influencing her daddy’s writing style. For the Foo Fighters’ founder and frontman, the 2006 birth of his first child added a personal, often confessional tone to his lyrics. “Having a child made me feel like a superman in a way because I had to be,” says Grohl, who turns 39 this month. “Just as I can’t be afraid to ride the Spiderman roller coaster at Magic Mountain when it’s time, I can’t be scared of writing… Read more »

Atreyu’s Lead Sails Paper Anchor rocketed onto Billboard’s Top 200 this week at No. 8, and Billboard’s Rock and Hard Rock Album charts at No. 1, making it the highest-charting album of the band’s career. The debut is also significant in that Atreyu distinguish themselves as one among a very short list of hard rock acts to have debuted in the Top 10 this year. News of the album’s explosive arrival follows a flurry of headline-making moves for Atreyu, who were recently named as a headliner on one of the biggest tours of the new year: “Rockstar Taste of Chaos… Read more »

And then there was one. With the recent departure of drummer Rocky Gray and guitarist John LeCompt, Amy Lee is now the only member of Evanescence left who has been in the band since the release of its smash 2003 breakout album, Fallen. LeCompt was either fired by the band or decided to move on – depending which account you believe – while Gray left of his own accord recently, making them the latest members of the group to fall by the wayside. Original guitarist/ co-founder Ben Moody left in 2003 , and bassist William Boyd quit last June after… Read more »

The untimely death in 1996 of 33-year-old pop/jazz singer Eva Cassidy struck a deep chord with Chuck Brown. Washington, D.C.’s godfather of go-go had teamed with Cassidy on the 1995 release “The Other Side.” “After we lost her, I didn’t want to do anymore studio work,” Brown said. But cajoling from songwriter/producer Chucky Thompson and business manager Tom Goldfogle changed Brown’s tune. “We’re About the Business” (due April 24 from Raw Venture) is the musician’s first set of primarily original material since Cassidy’s death. That’s not all. Rapper Eve samples his No. 31 1974 R&B hit “Blow Your Whistle” on… Read more »

Fittingly for a larger-than-life media figure whose life was a series of dramatic twists, turns and tragedies, the death of Anna Nicole Smith on Thursday at the age of 39 has turned into yet another media circus as the cause of her death remains undetermined. The autopsy performed on the troubled reality-TV star/ former model on Friday (February 9) was inconclusive, according to Broward County Chief Medical Examiner Joshua Perper . During a press conference Friday afternoon, Perper said a nearly six-hour autopsy excluded any physical injury as a cause of death and also revealed no evidence of a large… Read more »

Anna Nicole Smith was pronounced dead Thursday (February 8) in a Florida hospital. She was 39. The former model and reality-TV star was rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital after an operator at the Seminole Hard Rock Cafe Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida – where Smith was discovered unconscious – called 911 at 1:38 p.m. ET. According to Seminole County authorities, Smith’s personal nurse found her and called the hotel operator. Smith’s bodyguard administered CPR. Smith was pronounced dead at 2:49 p.m. The cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner at Memorial Regional. Her death came just… Read more »

No big surprise, but apparently Marilyn Manson is more of a Halloween guy. At least, that’s the holiday he cited as the date on which he and estranged wife Dita Von Teese went their separate ways, disputing her claim that the glam-Goth twosome uncoupled on Christmas Eve. Manson counter-filed for divorce last Friday in an attempt to block Von Teese from being awarded spousal support, although the burlesque performer did not request it when she filed her own divorce petition Dec. 29. Her heavily made-up hubby has also stated that he wants Von Teese to pay her own attorney fees,… Read more »

It’s been awhile (pardon the pun) since New England nü-metalers Staind have been around, but the band is all set to make its triumphant return to the rock forefront this summer – and in a big way. Staind’s new album, Chapter V, will be hitting stores on August 9. The band will also be joining forces with Southern rock purveyors 3 Doors Down and hard rockers Breaking Benjamin in late June kicking off a 44-date North American road trip. But before Staind take to the blacktop, frontman Aaron Lewis and guitarist Mike Mushok will be giving their fans a little… Read more »

Yes, Bright Eyes just finished a tour in support of their acoustic-based I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning LP last month. But indefatigable frontman Conor Oberst is hitting the road again next month with friends/Saddle Creek labelmates the Faint; this tour will focus on Bright Eyes’ other new LP, the more experimental, electronic Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. The Faint will be pulling double duty throughout the entire tour, playing their own set and serving as Oberst’s backing band, along with cellist Gretta Cohn from Cursive, guitarist Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and others. The 30-date trek begins… Read more »