WESTLAND, Mich. – Since forming less than two years ago, working to solidify a stable lineup, releasing a debut EP on I Surrender records, gracing the pages of Alternative Press magazine and most recently, losing a singer, Detroit-based pop-punk outfit Take Notice has gone through a lot. Despite it all, the band maintains a positive outlook on the future.
Motion City Soundtrack is at it again with its fourth studio full-length album, My Dinosaur Life, the first released under its contract with Columbia Records. The band is set to embark on tour in support of the album with Set Your Goals, This Providence and The Swellers.
Vic Chesnutt, the folk-rocker whose sometimes dark reflections on life were influenced in part by a car wreck that left him paralyzed, has died. He was 45.
Berkeley, Calif. pop-punk trio Green Day has grabbed Rolling Stone’s number-one spot for best single, best album and top artist of the decade.
Few new artists in recent years have made an impact on the pop music scene as quickly as Lady Gaga, who won the Best New Artist Video Music Award this September. But her catchy number-one hits and unpredictable performances are not enough to make her eligible for the new artist category at next year’s Grammy awards.
Moments before the opening curtain of “American Idiot,” the musical theater debut of the punk band Green Day, a t-shirted house manager took the stage at Berkeley Repertory Theater for the tradition of reminding audience members to turn off their cellphones and unwrap their candies. This being a musical by Green Day, though, it wasn’t your typical curtain speech. “Are you ready to rock tonight?” shouted the house manager, John Gay. And sure enough, the crowd roared back, “Yeah!” Such is the rowdy mood surrounding “American Idiot,” a rock opera drawn largely from Green Day’s multiplatinum 2004 album of the… Read more »
Hayley Williams owns a car, though she prefers to ride her bike. If you live in Franklin, Tennessee, you probably know this by now, because she pilots the thing – a beige, kid-size rattletrap with a basket on the front – all around her hometown, chatting up the locals and stopping in at places like Puckett’s Grocery and the Ivey Cake bakery. She paid $60 for it at a nearby thrift store. It’s probably worth $30. Williams also owns a house in town, and though it’s certainly worth more than her bike, it’s not much flashier: a modest stone number… Read more »
The history of rock is full of “Eureka!” flashes of brilliance. Chuck Berry had the idea to fuse country with the blues. Bob Dylan took folk music electric. Nikki Sixx realized that the line “I’d say we’ve kicked some ass” could rhyme with “I’d say we’re still kickin’ ass.” For the Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner, the big light bulb idea came in 2005: Get huge by thinking small. Write scrappy little Brit-punk tunes about the humdrum town you’re stuck in, the pissy little pubs you can’t get into, the local girls who aren’t desperate enough to dance with you. Give… Read more »
Alberta rockers Nickelback may have picked up a leading three trophies at the MuchMusic Video Awards last night, giving music critics across the country another reason to groan, but in the end it was all about Lady Gaga’s “flaming boobies.” The critically unpopular group, who picked up three Juno Awards back in March, went into the televised street-oriented awards show – which saw thousands of fans take over the blocks surrounding MuchMusic’s Toronto Queen and John Sts. headquarters – with a leading five MMVA nods, tied with R&B Toronto newcomer Danny Fernandes. Nickelback’s trio of trophies were for best video… Read more »
The Ready Set, brainchild of Fort Wayne, Ind.’s Jordan Witzigreuter is a one-man alternative pop band influenced by life, love and music. At 19, Witzigreuter, a recent high school graduate, is a jack of all trades; drummer, singer and keyboardist ready to lay his claim in the music world. Using the moniker The Ready Set, young Witzigreuter writes and records all his own music. Picking up his first drum sticks while in the fifth grade, by the time Witzigreuter was 14 he was a member of multiple bands, but it didn’t take long before he realized that what he really… Read more »
