Search Results for: punk goes

Will U2 find what it’s looking for on Wednesday, when it competes for eight Grammy Awards at the music industry’s biggest bash of the year? Or will the Irish rock quartet be rattled by folk musicians, soulful R&B divas and tireless troubadour Bob Dylan? Nothing is ever certain about the Grammys, whose industry voters frequently stun music fans with oddball choices, including last year’s album of the year prize to semi-retired jazz-rock recluses Steely Dan. In the past few years the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, which organizes the event, has tried to improve the awards’ image by… Read more »

Musicians often view lyrics as vehicles to express their innermost thoughts or frustrations. Orange County, California, combo Fu Manchu prefer to use them to talk about cool stuff, and the impetus for their scorching vocals often comes from their favorite films, toys or pastimes. “We’ve all grown up surfing, skateboarding and being around cars, so a lot of those things have been used in the band since we started,” singer/guitarist Scott Hill said. While Fu Manchu might not have a lot to say lyrically or in interviews, their simplistic sentiments complement their crunchy, chugging guitar rhythms, insistent beats and powerful… Read more »

Mark Mothersbaugh says the score he wrote for The Royal Tenenbaums is a logical progression from the work he did on director Wes Anderson’s two previous films, Bottle Rocket and Rushmore. “Bottle Rocket was a jazz quintet, a little bit quirky,” says the former Devo singer. “Rushmore was a little more Vivaldi influenced, a lot more sixteenth notes. This movie, although the sounds are related to the last two movies, kind of branched out further. I’d never used any horns before. The core of it is a cello and piano. There’s a lot of harp in this movie, a lot… Read more »

Gorillaz, the cartoon indie-beat band formed by Damon Albarn of the rock band Blur, picked up six nominations, including best group, in the eighth annual MTV Europe Music Awards noms, announced here Tuesday. Gorillaz will compete with Destiny’s Child, Limp Bizkit, R.E.M. and U2 for the best group prize in a ceremony to be aired live Nov. 8 on MTV’s worldwide channels from Frankfurt, Germany. Additionally, Gorillaz’ international hit single “Clint Eastwood” is up for best song. Nominees in the female act category include Dido, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna and Mariah Carey, while Robbie Williams, Eminem, Ricky Martin, Shaggy… Read more »

After playing their final U.S. show of the year last week, Green Day are really getting down to work. They’re rehearsing new material for their best-of collection International Superhits, which comes out in the fall. At the same time, they’re fine-tuning a new batch of songs for their next studio album. Meanwhile, when he gets a free moment, bassist Mike Dirnt is finishing up the second record by his side-project, the Frustrators. Who said these guys were just a bunch of snotty, irresponsible punks? “We have a super-serious work ethic,” Dirnt said, an hour before heading to the first of… Read more »

In the years since August 1, 1981, when MTV first went on air by broadcasting a song presciently called “Video Killed the Radio Star,” the cable channel has helped to turn musicians as different as Duran Duran, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Tupac Shakur, Marilyn Manson, and Britney Spears into cultural touchstones. MTV helped to mainstream rap music and to pioneer the trend toward reality television with shows like The Real World. And the channel has been at the center of any number of pop culture brouhahas, whether involving cartoon bad boys Beavis and Butt-head, sexually provocative and spiritually outrageous videos by… Read more »

They are known as the Alkaline Trio, but the way the red-hot Chicago punk band goes through drummers, they could be called the Next in Line Trio. Since founding member Glenn Porter left the group a little more than a year ago, the trio have had three different drummers, and they’ll have a fourth by fall. Porter was replaced by former Smoking Popes drummer Mike Felumlee, who left a year later to spend time with his family. Face to Face’s Rob Kurth filled in temporarily for Alkaline Trio’s breakthrough slot on Blink-182’s spring club tour. The group is now rehearsing… Read more »

Try as they might to display a more mature side as songwriters and lyricists, the members of Green Day – a third, fourth or maybe even fifth-generation punk band – are still working the same schtick that powered them to rock supremacy in the mid-1990s. It’s snotty and obnoxious, a blur of three- and four-chord rockers strung together in a manner that puts exclamation points after every barre chord and chorus. But when it’s working, Green Day is far and away the head of the class. Green Day delivered an involving, career-spanning show that included five tunes from the new… Read more »

It’s the kind of small moment on which rock ‘n’ roll history turns. It was Fall, 1978. The Ramones had just completed their fourth album, “Road to Ruin,” and the band felt certain it had recorded a hit single: the impossibly catchy “I Wanna Be Sedated.” But the band was overruled; label executives opted for another track, “Don’t Come Close.” That single quickly disappeared, along with the Ramones’ hit-making aspirations. “We really wanted ‘I Wanna Be Sedated,”‘ recalls guitarist Johnny Ramone. “But the record company picked the singles.” So the No. 1 hit in November 1978 instead was the fluffy… Read more »

Rancid, 311, and Pennywise will help kick off the 2001 model of the Vans Warped Tour Friday (June 22) in Phoenix. Other acts featured on the seventh edition of the venerable punk tour include Alien Ant Farm, Fenix TX, Me First & the Gimme Gimmes, New Found Glory, radical country act Hank 3 & Assjack, and rapper Kool Keith. The tour will cover 45 dates through mid-August and feature more than 30 bands per day. Other acts joining at a later date include the Living End, the Rollins Band, the Dub Pistols, D12, and, for one night (July 14) in… Read more »