Search Results for: pop

When Avril Lavigne released album No. 2 in 2004, the spunky teen pop star announced to the world that she was growing up. Gone were the baggy pants and skater-chick image that first earned Lavigne the media-christened nickname of “the anti-Britney.” On that year’s “Under My Skin,” punky anthems like “Sk8er Boi” were replaced largely with grammatically correct, midtempo teen-angst rockers. The album was released a few months shy of Lavigne’s 20th birthday, and the black-and-white Goth imagery made it clear that Lavigne was dealing with some intense late-teen issues. Today, Lavigne is done with all that. On April 17,… Read more »

Good Charlotte know they aren’t the world’s most critically acclaimed band. So instead of trying to appeal to an audience bent on hating them, they’ve fully embraced their pop leanings on their new album, Good Morning Revival. The record finds the band in a much more comfortable place than 2004’s The Chronicles Of Life And Death, and they even seem to accept why so many people hate them. “I remember one of the first reviews I ever read about our band when we first came out, they were like, ‘They’re a manufactured band and they’ll be gone tomorrow,’” guitarist Benji… Read more »

Gwen Stefani is the latest celebrity to pitch up in Britney Spears corner in a week when her life has become increasingly the focus of media attention. 25-year-old Spears is reportedly close to an emotional breakdown in her private life, bringing up her first child and a dealing with pending divorce on top of her continued appearance on the L.A nightlife scene. Despite the urges of close family, Spears spent little more than a day in a second rehab clinic this week [read: In-out, in-out: Britney’s rehab woes] . However, Gwen Stefani feels Britney should simply get on and enjoy… Read more »

Cartel are not the sort of guys you’d expect to catch on an episode of MTV’s “Cribs.” For one, they all live under the same ancient roof: a home guitarist Nic Hudson inherited from his grandmother last year. They don’t rock the bling, nor do they drive fancy automobiles. In fact, up until the show’s taping, the band had just a ramshackle touring van and drummer Kevin Sanders’ Volkswagen Golf to get them from point A to point B. But that didn’t stop Cartel from opening their doors to the “Cribs” cameras; the band will be featured on an upcoming… Read more »

Can Mike Read beat Ken? TV personality and radio DJ Mike Read has been revealed in the Conservative Party’s ‘X-Factor’ shortlist as they try to search for a candidate to battle Ken Livingstone, Sound Generator can report. The former Top Of The Pops host, who fronted the Radio 1 Breakfast Show in the 1990’s before moving to TV, has been named alongside a number of MP’s and current affairs personalities to run in an X-Factor style voting contest, which would see Conservative party members, and possibly even the general public, chose who will represent the Conservative Party in the race… Read more »

As far as explanatory statements from musicians go, this one by Relient K frontman Matt Thiessen about his band’s new album, Five Score and Seven Years Ago, sort of takes the cake for general awesomeness: “We had already come up with the title of the album, so I decided to write some lyrics about John Wilkes Booth. I hope people don’t think it’s a concept record about Abraham Lincoln or anything like that.” Gee, why would anyone think that? After all, there are tons of albums out there that nick their title from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (“Four score and seven… Read more »

Los Angeles – Don’t tell Hot Hot Heat keyboardist/vocalist Steve Bays that press coverage doesn’t matter: The reviews for “Make Up the Breakdown,” the band’s 2003 effort for Seattle-based Sub Pop Records, had a direct influence on the act’s major-label debut. “People said we sounded like Dexys Midnight Runners, so I went out and bought a Dexys Midnight Runners album,” Bays says. What he heard resulted in the current single “Goodnight Goodnight.” The song, which Bays describes as a cross between OutKast’s Andre 3000 and early Beatles, takes a keyboard-laced dancehall groove into a chorus that downshifts the song. The… Read more »