Search Results for: pop

Despite being a major label band since the get-go (not unlike The Ramones or The Sex Pistols ), Southern California ska freaks Goldfinger really do understand punk rock. Singer/guitarist John Feldmann, drummer Darrin Pfeiffer, bassist Kelly Lemieux and guitarist Brian Arthur have been around the block. And even though their latest album Disconnection Notice takes a decidedly poppier turn this time, they’re sick of being alienated from their colleagues. In fact, that’s part of the reason for the album title. They don’t want to be “disconnected” anymore, hoping that fans will find solace in the band’s understanding of feeling disenfranchised… Read more »

Alexisonfire inherited the screamo crown of Canada this year, knocking it right off the emotionally hardcore heads of their peers. Their sophomore disc, Watch Out!, which the band describes as sounding like “two Catholic high-school girls in mid-knife-fight,” went gold in under three months, even though the band received little radio play. We caught up with lead screamer George Pettit to talk about the finer points of fronting the band and how his success is finally allowing him the chance to move out of his parents’ house. ChartAttack: You guys have had a crazy-good year. Has the success been any… Read more »

Alexisonfire inherited the screamo crown of Canada this year, knocking it right off the emotionally hardcore heads of their peers. Their sophomore disc, Watch Out!, which the band describes as sounding like “two Catholic high-school girls in mid-knife-fight,” went gold in under three months, even though the band received little radio play. We caught up with lead screamer George Pettit to talk about the finer points of fronting the band and how his success is finally allowing him the chance to move out of his parents’ house. You guys have had a crazy-good year. Has the success been any different… Read more »

Not only does Usher win, like, every single award at every single awards show, he’s also sold almost eight million(!) copies of his disc Confessions – easily sliding him into first place among the year’s top sellers. While the top slot on the Brit list was only won by about 500 sales, Usher dwarfed his competition, with #2 going to Norah Jones, who sold just under half as many copies of her latest effort, Feels Like Home. Eminem’s Encore made an impressive entrance at #3, not bad considering it only hit the streets in November, while Usher and Norah have… Read more »

Los Angles – You only need one word to sum up the year in pop 2004: Usher. Clearly, it was his house. The rest of us were just overnight visitors. It began innocently enough, right at the beginning of the calendar year. On the Billboard Hot 100 dated Jan. 10, 2004 (coincidentally, the 55th anniversary of the introduction of the 45 rpm record), the highest new entry was “Yeah!” by Usher Featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris. Six weeks later, “Yeah!” had assumed pole position, and remained there for 12 weeks, tying it as the longest-running No. 1 (with “Lose Yourself”… Read more »

BURBANK, Calif. – Walt Disney Records honors one of the most celebrated and successful soundtracks of all time with the 40th anniversary release of the Mary Poppins 2-Disc Special Edition Soundtrack on November 16, 2004. The Mary Poppins collection features over 2 1/2 hours of content, including 13 never-before-released tracks, bonus interviews and commentary, a collectible 40-page booklet and a link to a sneak peek into the making of the new Mary Poppins stage musical. This must-have CD set compliments the fully restored and remastered Mary Poppins 40th Anniversary Edition DVD, available just in time for the holiday season on… Read more »

This past weekend brought fans of the four boys from Dublin to Toronto for InTO The Heart, a U2 Fan Fest. The conference brought U2 expert B.P. Fallon to town to share his insight on Bono and the gang. Fallon has a rich rock history – he’s been on tour with Led Zeppelin, his Death Disco club nights attract the brightest of stars, he was U2’s DJ on the ZooTV tour and he’s perhaps the world’s ultimate authority on the world’s self-proclaimed biggest band. And although an international fan conference is something that few bands can boast, Fallon says this… Read more »

New York – The upcoming Nirvana box set, “With the Lights Out,” features 18 previously unreleased audio tracks and four video clips from the archives of venerable indie label Sub Pop, to which the Kurt Cobain-led band was signed early in its career. Included are three Leadbelly covers recorded in August 1989 at Seattle’s Reciprocal Studios, with assistance from Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan and then-Trees drummer Mark Pickerel. Cobain had designs on forming a group around these players, to be named Jury or Lithium, but it never materialized. “When Lanegan was in the studio recording… Read more »

ock trio Sleater-Kinney has signed with venerable Seattle label Sub Pop Records after releasing its past four albums for fellow indie Kill Rock Stars. The group will begin recording its Sub Pop debut Thursday with producer Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev) in upstate New York, with an eye on a May release. “We instigated it because we wanted to do something different,” vocalist/guitarist Corin Tucker told Billboard.com. “We really like the team that’s at Sub Pop now. There are people there who are really enthusiastic and putting out really good music. We’ve done a lot of records with Kill… Read more »