Search Results for: pop punk

Los Angeles – California pop-punk trio Blink-182, famed for its practical jokes and disdain for clothing, has gone on “indefinite hiatus,” with no plans to work together again, its Geffen Records label said Tuesday. Singer-guitarist Tom DeLonge, singer-bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker want to “spend some time enjoying the fruits of their labors with loved ones” after a decade of working together nonstop, the statement added. “While there is no set plan for the band to begin working together again, no one knows what tomorrow may bring,” it said. San Diego-based Blink-182, cast in the same mold as… Read more »

Los Angeles – A few days ago, a colleague asked if it would be possible to get a Green Day poster for his 12-year-old daughter. “She’s always listened to nothing but rap and hip-hop,” the editor said, “but lately she’s been obsessed with the Green Day album ‘American Idiot.”‘ Warner Bros. Records chairman/CEO Tom Whalley relates a similar story. He says a couple of his teenage daughter’s friends who stopped by the house were evidently unaware that the red-hot punk trio is the prize act of the moment on Whalley’s label. But they knew the band was cool. “They said,… Read more »

Having his solo debut tank might have been the best thing for Butch Walker’s career. Not too many people bought 2002’s Left of Self-Centered – the album sold barely 20,000 copies, according to SoundScan – but many of those who did adored the smart riff-rock from the guy who used to front the late-’90s power trio Marvelous 3. Not only did Walker sing and play all the instruments except drums, he also produced, mixed and engineered the LP. Such versatile qualities appealed to a lot of people, not least of whom was Avril Lavigne. “Obviously, it was a very unpopular… 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 »

“It’s our most ambitious album to date,” says Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day’s forthcoming American Idiot, a concept record the trio has dubbed a “punk rock opera.” The sprawling thirteen-song album, due in September, tells the tales of such characters as “Saint Jimmy” and an unnamed female protagonist “Whatzhername” living in a heated political climate. “I wanted to try to find some human relationship throughout it,” Armstrong says. “A lot of it is coming from trying to have a relationship between different people and yourself, but being surrounded by total chaos… I didn’t want to make people feel like… Read more »

As Johnny Rotten once snarled, “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” To the dismay of aging punk fans, a British television company announced Monday that the former Sex Pistols singer and angry punk icon – now known by his real name, John Lydonhas agreed to appear in the reality show “I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!” “I’m gobsmacked,” said Tony Wilson, a British journalist and music entrepreneur who knows Lydon. “I’m shocked, but I have faith… I’m sure he’s doing it for the right reasons.” Other punk fans were appalled. “The announcement made me feel instantly old….… Read more »

Irish punk rock legend Feargal Sharkey will head a survey to examine the state of live music in Britain, which was announced by the government on Tuesday. The number of live bands and appropriate venues has declined over the past few decades, according to the Musicians Union and other critics. Complex licensing laws have also made it hard for small venues to support grassroots live acts. Partially as a result, studio-manufactured pop bands have swamped the music charts, they say. Arts Minister Estelle Morris said the survey will kick-start the Live Music Forum, a new body which will examine new… Read more »

Madonna put some luster back into her lust by smooching Britney. Santana gained a fresh perspective with Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas. Now the bratty, lovable punks of Sum 41 could put Pop on pop radio. Rock legend Iggy Pop recruited Sum 41 for “Little Know It All,” the melodic, rambunctious first single from Skull Ring, due November 4 Iggy took a shine to Sum frontman Deryck Whibley right away when the two parties met at the recommendation of Pop’s A&R man. In addition to admiring Whibley’s talent, Iggy got a kick out of the Canadian rocker’s youthful zeal. “He’s a… Read more »

As Yellowcard’s 2003 Warped Tour commitment winds down (its East Coast-only stint ends Sunday (Aug. 10) in Asbury Park, N.J.), singer/guitarist Ryan Key tells Billboard.com the hardest adjustment for the band has been the repetition of travel. “It’s like ‘Groundhog Day,’ where you just kind of wake up and go outside and you are in another parking lot but next to the same bus you were yesterday,” says Key. “It is kind of like a dream that you never seem to wake up from. It’s cool.” With its Capitol Records debut, “Ocean Avenue,” having debuted this week at No. 99… Read more »

A Florida man has been arrested and charged with murder after DNA linked him to the death of rising punk-rock star Mia Zapata in 1993, police said Saturday. Seattle police said Jesus C. Mezquia, 48, was arrested late Friday in the Miami area. His DNA profile matched a sample taken from the crime scene more than nine years ago, police said. Zapata, the 27-year-old lead singer of The Gits, was last seen alive July 7, 1993, in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Her beaten body was left on a street curb more than a mile away. She had been strangled with… Read more »