Search Results for: the wonder years

Bust-ups, divorce and family feuds have kept British rock band Oasis and the battling Gallagher brothers in the news as much as their music. But as Oasis nears its 10th anniversary, guitarist Noel Gallagher told Thursday’s Evening Standard newspaper that despite their well-publicized rows, his relationship with Liam was one of the few constants in his life. “Slowly but surely, my personal life started falling apart and all I had left was my brother and my band,” Gallagher told the paper. “And I thought, ‘well I’m not giving that up because that’s Our Kid and that’s my band. Why should… Read more »

Columbia Recording artist Maxwell’s eagerly-awaited third full-length album, Now, is debuting at the #1 slot on the Billboard Top 200 Album Sales chart with first week’s sales of more than 296,000 units, according to SoundScan. It’s Maxwell’s first #1 debut (his last full-length studio album, 1998’s Embrya debuted at #3) and best single week’s sales figures to-date. In celebration of the release of Now, Maxwell is following up his recent SRO New York 7 concerts-a precedent-setting series of seven sold-out performances in seven different venues across Manhattan (for a total of 20,000 tickets sold)-with his first major national tour in… Read more »

Punk as an aid for getting in touch with one’s feelings has superseded the other modes evident at this year’s Warped Tour. As in their ordinary lives, these fans had too many options. Thirty bands played on eight stages, and the event also included professional skateboarding and mountain- biking displays, a wrestling ring, a Playstation tent, numerous ways to spend money or learn about political causes and of course the chance to peruse one another’s concertgoing finery. So most fans locked into a perambulatory pattern, meandering around the festival’s circular layout as the fairground grew dusty, then muddy, from the… Read more »

“We’ve got Billy Corgan playing with us, we’re doing a lot of old stuff, new songs that nobody knows, and we’re reaching a lot of young people,” New Order bassist Peter Hook says. “It’s got all the recipe for complete disaster, to be honest.” It’s a week before he and reunited band mates Bernard Sumner (vocals) and Stephen Morris (drums), as well as keyboardist Gillian Gilbert and guest guitarist Corgan, join up with Moby’s Area: One tour for a few dates in the U.S. (beginning Tuesday, July 31st in Mountainview, California). And Hook – who says, “The excitement in Get… Read more »

It is a visual overload, this PopOdyssey tour starring the reigning champs of the pop music marketplace, ‘N Sync. There are films and explosions and dancers and mechanical bulls and more costumes than songs – it looks exhausting for performer and young viewer alike. It’s a feast of production values, a sign that every dime went into something the audience can see and, taken collectively, the show is a better marketing tool than a dozen videos. PopOdyssey is flat-out a vehicle to expose new songs to their hard-core audience and give a dynamic and visceral association to the bulk of… Read more »

Alicia Keys says her expectations for her debut album, “Songs in A Minor,” never had anything to do with how well it sold. “Being connected with people, that’s what I hope for,” the 20-year-old Manhattan native says. “Numbers I leave for everyone else to count and calculate.” Well, everyone else has had a lot of calculating to do. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart after its release June 26. “We were stunned by the sales,” said Clive Davis, the music-industry veteran who heads up Keys’ label, J records. “Stunned” pretty much sums up the music world’s… Read more »

The once fertile scene of Lollapalooza, Lilith Fair, the HORDE and Furthur has dried up in recent years, leaving the U.S. summer tour circuit a less festive place for traveling rock music festivals. So pop auteur Moby, in the wake of the success of his latest album, “Play,” has decided to do something about that. “I’ve spent a long time playing European festivals and was impressed by how eclectic and open they were,” explains Moby, whose Area: One tour opened Wednesday in Atlanta. “There was a period in the States where we had a few really interesting festivals…. When those… Read more »

Even as Chuck Leavell watches Mick Jagger for cues or listens to Keith Richards’ riffs, his mind sometimes drifts from rock ‘n’ roll to the trees and seedlings on his 2,200-acre farm in central Georgia. Being part of one of the world’s great rock bands is just one side of Leavell, who tours with the Rolling Stones but always returns to Charlane Plantation eager to get his hands dirty again. “Part of my job is to really keep a close eye on Mick. They look to me for changes, and to signal to let them know the verse or chorus.… Read more »

Melissa Etheridge may rank among the world’s most successful openly gay performers and a poster child for gay parenting, but until now the singer/songwriter has never directly referred to women in her songs. “Even though people know exactly what I’m singing about it, sometimes the gay community gets like: ‘When are you going to sing a song about a girl?”‘ Etheridge, 40, told Reuters in an interview at her favorite coffee house in Santa Monica, California. “And I think, haven’t I done enough already?” The musician from Kansas has sold more than 25 million records and has become an icon… Read more »

When the superstar pop vocal group ‘N Sync sat down to pick the songs for its upcoming album, the quintet found itself at odds with its record company. The Florida-based group, which has sold more than 25 million records worldwide since debuting in 1997, wanted to rock the boat with “Celebrity,” which is due in stores July 24. But Jive Records executives worried that too much change might make fans disinclined to buy, buy, buy like they have in the past. “They were like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t like that song. I don’t think you should go there. It’s… Read more »