Search Results for: when we were young

The Sacramento-based Cake performs on a stage filled with jumbled images. Behind the band is a banal mountain landscape; cutouts of Christina Aguilera and David Boreanaz, small fir tress and fake candelabras flank the stage, while a disco ball hangs above them. The band’s music has a similar rag and bone shop quality. Singer John McCrea’s guitar sounds rusted and wheezy, his syncopated strums like an old car sputtering in the cold. Xan McCurdy’s leads can either rumble like a 16-wheeler or lope in a circular, Jerry Garcia fashion, while Vince Di Fiore’s trumpet floats above, lending the whole proceedings… Read more »

Nurse Abby Lockheart has just been dumped. She is in the middle of the rather painful process of moving her stuff out of her ex-boyfriend’s apartment. And to make matters worse, Cake’s “Short Skirt/Long Jacket,” a song about the things a man is looking for in a woman, is playing on the radio. On “ER,” popular music is becoming a bigger part of the story line with every episode. “It adds something to the show every time we use it,” “ER” supervising producer and writer Scott Gemmill said. “It’s amazing what music can bring to a scene.” There’s a new… Read more »

First album together in eight years finds band returning to its roots. For many years over the past two decades, New Order crafted cynical synth-pop that radiated with alternative dancefloor chic. But on Get Ready, the band’s first record together in eight years, New Order have done something they haven’t tried since their pre-Order days. They’ve rocked out. While the album still shimmers and shivers with electronic textures, it’s anchored by organic instrumentation and galvanic grooves. “60 Miles an Hour,” Get Ready’s second single, sounds like a beefier spinoff of the band’s hit “Blue Monday,” and “Rock the Shack” is… Read more »

“This tragic event has awakened a new interest in news and information for 12-25 year olds that had never existed before,” says Cromwell Broadcasting’s “Czar of Programming” Brian Krysz, referring to the terrorist acts of nearly a month ago. And would anyone argue with his statement? This generation has had its defining moment, just as the Great Depression and World War II were for our parents or grandparents, or the assassination of JFK and the Vietnam War so clearly defined the next generation. After the events of September 11th, 2001, everything in our world, including radio programming, has entered a… Read more »

Stevie Wonder was the surprise musical guest at the all-star Wave Of Peace smooth jazz fundraising show on Sunday (October 14) at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles. His appearance prompted an already highly charged audience to leap to its feet. Accompanying himself on piano during one of the last sets of the three-hour show, Wonder launched into some straight-ahead jazz variations on “Giant Steps” before playing compositions like “Overjoyed” and “Ribbon In The Sky.” Wonder was the only previously unannounced guest on a bill packed with smooth jazz greats. The event was organized by saxophonist Dave Koz and… Read more »

No Doubt began as a good-time ska-party band, full of California sunshine. But in the last few years, that’s been obscured by smog: bruised egos within the band, gloomy lyrics and weak record sales for last year’s Return of Saturn. The bad times are all gone on their upcoming album, Rock Steady, reports singer Gwen Stefani. “We’re not taking ourselves so seriously,” she says. “It’s like, get over it. We’re a fucking band and we’re really lucky to be doing what we do.” Rock Steady, out December 18th, is a sweet pop confection, made with arrays of keyboards, a dance-floor… Read more »

No Doubt might as well change their name to No Rules for their upcoming album. Rock Steady, due December 18, is a scattered collection of pop, rock, rap and reggae songs produced by everyone from Prince to Dr. Dre. Singer Gwen Stefani, all smiles talking about her band’s fifth album during the video shoot for the all-star “What’s Going On” remake, explained how her band of brothers returned from Saturn with an urge to do something different. “After 14 years of being a band, you build all these rules up,” Stefani said, adjusting her shiny No Doubt belt buckle. “That’s… Read more »

Featuring two of the day’s most popular heavy rock acts – the masked Midwest horror-meisters Slipknot and the politically-driven Southland quartet System Of A Down – the nationwide Pledge of Allegiance tour features a couple bands whose recordings and performances are marked by uncompromising intensity. However, their musical styles and their levels of talent, as seen at the near-full Forum, share few resemblances. After a typically explosive set by German fire-tamers Rammstein, as well as opening turns by young groups Mudvayne and No One, System played their first L.A. show in two years and the first since the release earlier… Read more »

This is a difficult transition for the entertainment community. There is a growing desire, if not need, to return to some form of business as usual, yet an uncertainty as to whether this is a viable option. Parties and premieres are being resurrected, but companies are doing so furtively, like children worried about parental admonition. Stars are returning to the business of hyping their movies, albeit sheepishly. The TV trade wants its Emmys, yet seems bent on making the ceremony at once non-competitive and non-ceremonial. Dealmakers who have been struggling with the rules of the “new civility” are starting to… Read more »

The legendary Doobie Brothers have just been added to the stellar lineup for the sold out Farm Aid 2001 concert. Music fans who weren’t able to buy a ticket to the benefit concert, scheduled for Sept. 29 at Verizon Wireless Music Center, in Noblesville, Ind. will still get a chance to see the show live on CMT: Country Music Television. CMT will telecast Farm Aid 2001 live on Saturday, Sept. 29 from 4 to 10 p.m. EDT. This is the fourth consecutive year that CMT has been the exclusive television network for the Farm Aid concert. In addition to the… Read more »