Search Results for: the voice

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 »

The help for tsunami victims keeps on coming from the music community. No Doubt, Linkin Park with Jay-Z, Blink-182, Jurassic 5, Story of the Year, Crystal Method and Ozzy Osbourne will perform at a benefit concert Feb. 18 in Anaheim, Calif. The organizer, Music for Relief, hopes to raise over $1 million from the show, with proceeds going to UNICEF and Habitat for Humanity programs in South Asia. R&B star Alicia Keys led an array of singers and other international celebrities who entertained thousands at a separate benefit event on Feb. 3. The MTV Asia Aid show in the Thai… Read more »

New York – Nobody, but nobody was worried when Paul McCartney stripped off his jacket midway through his halftime performance at the Super Bowl. All he revealed was a long-sleeved red shirt. Nothing malfunctioned. And if he wore any nipple jewelry, he mercifully kept it to himself. NFL officials wanted a safe halftime show after last year’s Janet Jackson fiasco, and McCartney delivered. It was sweet nostalgia for the people stunned by Jackson’s MTV-produced spectacle, if a bit off-putting for the kids: Each of his four songs was more than 30 years old. Surely you recall last year’s climax to… Read more »

Los Angeles – Out of the blue comes an e-mail from my brother, Miles: “All confirmed. Rehearsals are next Friday, and your show with Andy Summers and Incubus at the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas will be on Sunday.” Whaaaat? I dimly remember Miles mentioning something about this radio concert, months ago. At the time I said, “Wow, cool,” and then forgot about it. So I’m thinking about it now, a little panicked, and figure, what the heck? Of course, I had better dig out my drums and try to get some life into my wrists. I remember too vividly getting… Read more »

“Backstreet Men” doesn’t really have the same ring, but make no mistake, the Backstreet Boys are coming back more mature on their first album in five years. The group, which hasn’t released a collection of new music since 2000’s Black & Blue, just wrapped sessions for the as-yet-untitled album, which might surprise people expecting the same pop sound of old, according to member Howie Dorough. “We’ve been working on it for more than a year now, but it really started taking shape and changing over the past six months,” Dorough said. “It’s going in a more pop/rock direction, kind of… Read more »

Los Angeles – A bronze statue honoring late punk guitarist Johnny Ramone was unveiled before hundreds of celebrities and cheering fans at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Ramone, co-founder and guitarist of The Ramones, was 55 when he died of prostate cancer in September at his Los Angeles home. The $100,000 statue sits near the grave of bandmate Dee Dee Ramone, who died of a drug overdose in 2002. Grammy-winning producer Rick Rubin said at the Friday unveiling that The Ramones were as influential on the world of rock ‘n’ roll as the Beatles. “There was the music before them and… 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 »

It wasn’t a very good night for openers Killswitch Engage, as they announced right before their set that their singer had “blown his voice” and Unearth’s frontman (who already sang that night) would be filling in. Fortunately, no angry rioting ensued, not even when they cut their set short and promised to bring a better show through town next time. Their technical defeat was accepted gracefully by the pierced-and-tattooed hordes, who gave KE a roomful of raised metal horns as a salute. Without a doubt, the night belonged to Slipknot. With Number 8 (Corey Taylor) holding up a framed award… Read more »

Paris – Hip-hop rhymers, classical orchestras, church choirs, punk bands and creamy-voiced crooners from Paris to Hong Kong are taking up the fund-raising theme for victims of the Asian tsunami, holding money-raising concerts and singing special songs. Ever since the 1980s African famine relief hit “We Are the World” and its Band Aid predecessor “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” support from musicians has been part of charity fund-raising. But the response to the tsunami has been huge. In Norway alone, dozens of benefit concerts are planned. In its oil capital, Stavanger, groups scheduled a free show Thursday, with cash to… Read more »

Despite just being in the beginning stages of her career, Brit trip-pop singer Jem has many a story to tell. She’s on Dave Matthews ‘ label, used to do promotional work for Fatboy Slim, appeared as the wedding singer at the season-ending nuptials of teen soap The O.C. and got her first writing credit with a song that ended up as a Madonna single. It seems everybody in the business loves this girl – but why did it take so long for her to record an album? In November of ’99, Jemma Griffiths quit her job with a record label… Read more »