Search Results for: summer school

Toronto, Ontario – Oh, Sum 41, how far you’ve come. Despite this show making up for a previously cancelled one, Ajax’s favourite sons were greeted by a full house of hardcore kids, girls in tiny tube tops, drunken frat boys and little pop-punkers firmly protected by a designated parent. One had to wonder whether those parents were routinely covering their poor child’s ears, given all the less-than-all-ages language that was being tossed around. “Sorry Mom, sorry Dad, your kids are going to be learning some new words tonight!” An appropriate warning coming from frontman Deryck Whibley, who would proceed to… Read more »

Hilary Duff might be taking classes at Harvard, but that doesn’t mean her fellow students have to like it. In an editorial published last week in The Crimson, Harvard’s school newspaper, the staff lambastes Duff, calling her a “loser and a chicken” because she didn’t go through Harvard’s notoriously difficult undergraduate-admissions process and won’t be participating in campus activities. Duff is not a student at Harvard proper, but is auditing courses through the Harvard Extension School, a continuing-education program that allows the singer to take a few classes online, including environmental science, government, and sociology. While Duff has noted on… Read more »

New York – OK, let’s see: The former Guns N’ Roses bandmates have exchanged one loose cannon, Axl Rose, for another who seems even more volatile, Scott Weiland. And rock critics are placing bets on whether Weiland can get through a worldwide tour without winding up in either rehab, jail or a body bag. But after three Grammy nominations and one hit album, the supergroup known as Velvet Revolver is just getting started. The band consists of heavyweights from two of the biggest – and most troubled – rock bands of the past 15 years: Former Stone Temple Pilots frontman… Read more »

In Britain, Busted are headlining stadiums. In America, the pop-punk trio are playing parking lots outside stadiums. So which do they prefer? Prepare to be surprised. “It’s awesome at gigs here, because you kind of have to win the crowd over,” bassist Matt Jay said recently. “Like in England, it’s awesome and stuff, but we could just go ‘Bugger!’ and they would go ‘Yeah!’ Which is awesome, but here, you really have to work hard.” “It’s nice to kind of see the first-time reaction of the crowds again,” guitarist James Bourne added. “It’s like it’s a little déjà vu of… Read more »

“We’re getting old,” insists Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley, 24. It’s a theme the Canadian punk band comes back to repeatedly on their fourth album, due in late September. The band previewed new material during a brief layover in New York, where they rehearsed for upcoming summer festival concerts in Europe. Although the new songs have a serious bent, Whibley says they’re not necessarily out of character with the group’s early hits like “Fat Lip” and “In Too Deep.” “We’ve always written from our life experiences,” he says. “In the beginning all we did was go to school and party,… Read more »

Given the huge success of 2002’s Sticks and Stones, the members of New Found Glory aren’t expecting to top their previous high mark with Catalyst, which drops Tuesday. At the same time, they’re not letting its first single, “All Downhill From Here” dictate their future, either. “I try not to think ahead because I don’t want to jinx anything,” singer Jordan Pundik said. “I just want to let it ride out and see what happens.” Sticks and Stones, NFG’s third and most successful album so far, sold more than 91,000 copies in its first week and entered the Billboard albums… Read more »

O.A.R. will hit the road with Dave Matthews Band June 17 in Maryland Heights, MO, followed by festivals and headline amphitheatre tour dates. If ever there were two bands meant to tour together, O.A.R. and DMB surely fit that bill. Much like DMB, O.A.R. tours constantly and has created a network of incredibly loyal supporters. The band was just named #39 on Pollstar’s Top Tours for First Quarter 2004. O.A.R. follows only two spots behind Dave Matthews and Friends, who came in at #37. As well, O.A.R. landed on the chart above heavy hitters Evanescence, Ludacris, and the proverbial road… Read more »

While being well-prepared is almost always advised for a young band in the studio, spontaneous strokes of creativity are usually the moments the musicians remember best. Of the 13 songs that comprise Yellowcard’s latest album, Ocean Avenue, the band had a dozen of them hashed out beforehand. But while knee-deep in recording, the group stumbled across the riff that became the foundation for “Only One,” which is slated to be the album’s third single. “We discovered a riff for it by accident,” singer Ryan Key said. “We were testing something else out and just tracked it right away. We then… Read more »

Kurt Cobain and his band, Nirvana, spent only three years in the public eye, and they released only three studio albums. But what he accomplished before committing suicide 10 years ago Monday at age 27 – deciding it was “better to burn out than fade away,” as he quoted Neil Young in his suicide note – was remarkable. Beneath this bridge above the muddy banks of the Wishkah River, a troubled young Cobain would come to escape his unhappy home and the persistent gray drizzle of the Washington coast. Among the cracking concrete supports, he would smoke pot and drink… Read more »

You say you want a revolution? Well, you know – we all want to change the world. Except for Chris Colus. He’s the drummer for a reggae-roots-rock band, freshly signed to a major record label, and he’s trying to explain that band’s name, which is O.A.R. – Of A Revolution. “There’s no political motive,” the 25-year-old Rockville, MD native insists. “This is the music we’ve wanted to play, the music we wanted to hear – that’s a revolution for ourselves and our fans.” The “Of A Revolution” name actually comes from “The Wanderer,” a short story singer-guitarist Marc Roberge wrote… Read more »