Search Results for: rise records

With members of Yellowcard spending the last few months scattered across the country – in New York, California and Florida – what better place to reconvene than sunny Orlando, Florida? After all, it is the nation’s favorite vacation destination. “Yeah, we didn’t really come down here for vacation,” guitarist Ben Harper laughed. “We’re playing a couple of shows at [Disney World’s] Grad Nite, and we figured here was as good a place as any to finish up the saga [of] writing our new album.” Since January, frontman Ryan Key and bassist Pete Mosely have been living in New York, writing… Read more »

New York, NY – The rowdy “ghetto rock” of Virgin Records band El Pus is spreading into the mainstream quickly from its strong and enthusiastic foothold in the early-adopting college market. In June, July and August, the band will take its electric, uncontainable blend of raw punk and hip-hop noise on the road coast-to-coast with the massive ten-stage 2005 edition of Van’s Warped Tour. In a recent New York Times Arts and Leisure “Playlist” feature, El Pus was credited with the rehabilitation of rock/hip-hop fusion in their Virgin debut album, “Hoodlum Rock: Vol. 1.” The Times notice praised El Pus… 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 »

At Juno 2005, the theme was pretty obvious – out with the old, in with the new. Gone from the winner’s circle were artists such as Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, Barenaked Ladies and K.D. Lang. Instead, Avril Lavigne was queen bee and K-OS was crown prince at this weekend’s Juno Awards in Winnipeg. Both artists walked home with three trophies, tops for the event. Lavigne, who was in Singapore touring and did not attend the show, won Artist Of The Year, Pop Album and Juno Fan Choice, which she accepted via satellite. Toronto rapper K-OS took home Single Of The… Read more »

Anyone who thought that Epitaph Records passed their heyday when Rancid and NOFX split for new pastures would have been wide-eyed surprised on this evening. Kudos to the keepers of the punk rock flag for progressing with the times and developing – yet again – into a leader of the pack. They used to lead the way in the likes of skate-punk and crust, but as the plethora of pre-teens proved, punk rock still hasn’t kicked the bucket. It’s just changed boots. Kicking off the show, new label additions Scatter The Ashes dealt a relatively heavy blow with their brand… Read more »

New York – It’s been a stunning year for Brian Wilson. The former Beach Boy released his rerecording of the group’s “SMiLE” album to critical acclaim, and staged a worldwide tour chock-full of standing ovations. The original “SMiLE,” recorded more than 37 years ago, was never released officially. The Nonesuch Records release bowed at No. 13 on The Billboard 200. The set, whose full title is “Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE,” has sold more than 300,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and has been nominated for three awards at the Grammys on Feb. 13. Two nights before that, he will be… Read more »

With the recent trend of films based upon successful Marvel comics, the use of today’s most popular modern rock acts for the comic-flick soundtrack has become almost cliche. The use of catchy yet mildly dramatic rock hits to accompany the depressing emotions often felt by the superheroes has already been played out with both Spiderman soundtracks as well as in movies like The Punisher and Daredevil. As Jennifer Garner returns to the big screen as the heroic Elektra, director Rob Bowman (Reign Of Fire and The X-Files) opted to stick to the original template. Elektra The Album, which is set… Read more »

New York, Ny – The 47th Annual GRAMMY Awards nominations were recently announced and hard rock quintet Skillet were among the nominees for Best Rock Gospel Album in conjunction with their best-selling, current album Collide. Upon hearing the news of their nomination, lead singer John Cooper said, “First off we were really surprised since this was our first GRAMMY nomination. I think it is super cool and an honor to be in such great company with the other nominees.” “We are ecstatic about Skillet’s nomination,” remarked Andy Karp, Senior Vice President of Lava Records. “The band’s sound musicianship and broad… Read more »

Wrap your head around this – you’re in a rock band that has been relatively ignored for about three years, despite having a couple of albums and a ton of singles under your belt. And then suddenly, out of the blue, people start hearing about you – but only because no one knows about you. Weird? Yeah. But that’s basically how things transpired for Scottish rockers Idlewild just a few years ago, flipping their world topsy-turvy in a sadistic twist of ironic fate. Idlewild: “I guess it started with SPIN Magazine naming 100 Broken Windows (the band’s 2000 release, it’s… Read more »

It seems only fitting that after six months, 7,000 bands and more than 100,000 votes, the winner of the Takeover Records “Sign My Band” contest would be determined by mere percentage points. And so on Christmas Eve, when the Internet polls closed and Pennsylvania’s Strike Fire Fall defeated the New York band Silhouette by the slimmest of margins – 52 percent to 48 percent – no one was really surprised. “People don’t realize how many bands there are out there, how many kids there are in garages out there. And we’d like to think that this contest communicated to those… Read more »