Boys Like Girls pictures with tag: rock news

Secrets of “The Runaways”: Joan Jett, Kristen Stewart and Co. on the Wild New Biopic

Photo: Wargo/WireImage What’s the only thing better than becoming the first acclaimed all-female rock band? Becoming the first all-female rock band to get your own biopic. At least that was the feeling during Wednesday night’s premiere of The Runaways, the true story of the five teenage girls who spent the Seventies kicking their way down the Sunset Strip and into the boys’ club. On the red carpet at New York’s Landmark Sunshine theater, the E Street Band’s Steven Van Zandt called the Runaways “

Published: 2010-03-18 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

The Hold Steady Ready Live Album, Documentary “A Positive Rage”

Photo: Finn/Getty The Hold Steady will release their first live album A Positive Rage on April 7th. In addition to a CD stocked full of tracks from the band’s earlier discography like 2004’s Almost Killed Me and 2006’s Boys & Girls In America, the package will also feature a DVD with a 53-minute documentary detailing the band’s voyage from their first-ever London concerts in 2006 to their return back to their native Minneapolis. The film will also feature backstage interviews, fan commentary and never-before-seen live footage. As for the live album itself, the songs were performed on Halloween 2007 at a sold-out show at Chicago’s Metro. The enhanced album will also feature five bonus studio tracks, including two unreleased songs “Spectres” and “40 Bucks.” Rounding out the whole package is the booklet, filled with personal photos and memories of the tour by band members including frontman Craig Finn. While very few cuts from the band’s most recent LP Stay Positive, Rolling Stone’s 36th best album of 2008, make it onto A Positive Rage, you can hear the newer tracks live when the Hold Steady tours in April, including a slot at this year’s Coachella Festival. Check the track list for A Positive Rage below: A Positive Rage 1. Intro 2. Stuck Between Stations 3. The Swish 4. Chips Ahoy! 5. Massive Nights 6. Ask Her For Adderall 7. Barfruit Blues 8. Same Kooks 9. You Gotta Dance (With Who You Came With) 10. Lord, I’m Discouraged 11. You Can Make Him Like You 12. Your Little Hoodrat Friend 13. Southtown Girls 14. Citrus 15. First Night 16. Girls Like Status 17. Killer Parities Related Stories: • Q&A: Craig Finn on Zeppelin, Lyrics and Springsteen • The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn on Depression and Obama • The Hold Steady Get Hip

Published: 2009-02-03 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

In the Studio: The Hold Steady

From October 2006 to November 2007, the Hold Steady played nearly 250 shows behind their third album, Boys and Girls in America. Along the way, the quintet saw their crowds mushroom in size, heard their music featured on a Super Bowl telecast and got to jam with Bruce Springsteen at a Carnegie Hall benefit concert. “Bruce said, ‘Does anyone know the lyrics to ‘Rosalita’?” frontman Craig Finn recalls. “I said, ‘I do!’ I sang the first verse, then finished with him. It was surreal.” The band celebrated its success by going right back to work. The Hold Steady have nearly finished their new album, tentatively titled Stay Positive, and it’s full of their trademark sweaty grooves, visceral riffs and slightly soused shout-along choruses. But there are a few changes. For one, Stay Positive is more tuneful than the previous three discs: “Ask Her for Some Adderall” is one of the catchiest things the Hold Steady have ever done, and the slow-burning “Discouraged” evokes the Stones. This increased tunefulness is thanks largely to Finn: The gruff-voiced vocalist recently started taking singing lessons. “It helped ensure my voice doesn’t run out of gas so quickly,” he says. “And they made me less afraid to try new things.” The album is also more expansive: The fivesome tossed in mandolin and talk-box solos, and spent more time layering guitar parts. On “Constructive Summer,” they built a rip-roaring groove around harpsichord lines. Whether or not Stay Positive pushes the Hold Steady to greater success, the guys seem happy to be where they are, especially since they’ve been able to cut down on part-time work while not on tour. “Right now, we’re able to live off the band — or get close,” says lead guitarist Tad Kubler. “But we have to work at it. In order to be good, you can’t half-ass it.” [Photograph by Lucy

Published: 2008-03-06 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, In the Studio

Pop Life: Special Live Earth Edition

How much of the ozone layer would you give up to never hear Billy Corgan sing again? Wouldn’t you sacrifice a polar icecap or two? It’s a tough question, but these are tough times, and Live Earth proved we need to combat global warming, because Enrique Iglesias would never lie about a thing like that. The whole day was full of TV mindfucks: Pauly Shore going onstage in Johannesberg to introduce Baaba Maal? Kanye West rapping, “Sting, you the only Police good in the hood”? Madonna teaming up with gypsy-punk madmen Gogol Bordello to do “La Isla Bonita”? Madonna’s new theme song “Hey You” was unfortunately not a rewritten Pink Floyd song (“hey you, drivin’ SUVs / Dumping toxins in the breeze, can you hear me?”) But Roger Waters did show up to sing “Another Brick in the Wall,” yet skipped the temptation to have his confused-looking children’s choir chant, “We don’t need no carbon emissions.” In terms of music, Live Earth was short on the two things that usually make superstar benefit concerts fun: strange duets and dead-band reunions. They could have used some more heavy hitters. The best duet, as everybody agreed, was Keith Urban and Alicia Keys doing “Gimme Shelter”; the best reunion was Japanese electro-prog pioneers Yellow Magic Orchestra, who inexplicably (yet excellently) got the final ten minutes of NBC’s highlight special to themselves, playing the Kyoto Temple. Some of the music bits were fun (Snoop, Lenny Kravitz, Beastie Boys), others weren’t (Melissa Etheridge). Duran Duran? They were GREAT. So where was Andy Taylor? No matter: I loved it when Simon Le Bon told the crowd, “Just coming here is not enough to get what’s got to be done, done…BUT…If we all sing…We might just make a stand, right here!” And the song he picked to save the planet with? “Girls On Film.” Simon, you have answered the call of awesome. Metallica wheezed amiably through “Enter Sandman,” with James Hetfield’s beard providing much-needed comic relief, as did his huff-and-puff ad libs at the

Published: 2007-07-10 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

The Hold Steady Enter “Aquarium” to Record New Album

Brooklyn-via-Minnesota rockers the Hold Steady announced on their Web site that they’ve finished preproduction work on the follow-up to Boys and Girls in America, which Rolling Stone deemed the one of the top ten albums of 2006. After enduring the longest stretch of time out of the recording studio in the band’s history, singer Craig Finn says, “I’ve never looked forward to being placed in a giant aquarium with headphones like I have been lately.” The group will take January and February to record the new album, during which time they’ll post “photos and updates for those interested,” which should mean everyone. There’s no target release date yet, but safe money says 2008 will bring a new Hold Steady record.

Published: 2007-12-19 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Brian Wilson Unveils Lush, Elaborate “Lucky Old Sun” Tour in Oakland

Photo: Getty “Other artists do a song or two off their new album,” ad-libbed Brian Wilson musical director Jeffrey Foskett when a technical problem brought the solo Beach Boy’s elaborate Oakland show to a sudden halt. “Brian Wilson does the entire album.” This was US concert premiere of Wilson’s brand new Southern California-themed symphonic pop suite That Lucky Old Sun, and the prerecorded narration wasn’t accompanying the projected whimsical animation like it should’ve. But soon Wilson, his masterful 11-member band and a local string section went back to the beginning of this intricate 38-minute composition and performed its heart-melting melodies without another glitch or pause. Even during his many familiar hits, Wilson brings an engaging unpredictability that rote veteran rockers foolishly smooth out of their repertoire. After four dance songs into the opening set, he asked fans at the swank Paramount Theatre to sing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” with the enthusiasm of a kindergarten teacher. Then he abruptly lunged into his lush “Surfer Girl.” He abandoned the security of his lyrics-scrolling computer screen only during an encore of Beach Boys oldies, but was noticeably relaxed throughout. “We fucked up,” he shrugged when “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” needed to be restarted. Pop’s most famously afflicted perfectionist has realized that flaws are simply part of music’s fun. Set List: “California Girls” “Then I Kissed Her” “Catch A Wave” “Dance, Dance, Dance” “Surfer Girl” “In My Room” “All Summer Long” “When I Grow Up” “Add Some Music to Your Day” “Do You Wanna Dance?” “Sloop John B” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” “God Only Knows” “Sail On Sailor” “Do It Again” “I Get Around” “Good Vibrations” (Intermission) “That Lucky Old Sun” “Morning Beat” “Room With a View” (narrative) “Good Kind of Love” “Forever She’ll Be My Surfer Girl” “Venice Beach” (narrative) “Live Let Live/That Lucky Old Sun Reprise” “Mexican Girl” “Cinco de Mayo” (narrative) “California Role/That Lucky Old Sun Repris

Published: 2008-09-08 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Osbourne Auction Nets $800,000 For Charity, Radiohead “Jigsaw” Video Airs on YouTube, “Guitar Hero” and “Warcraft” Makers Merge

Ozzy Osbourne’s infamous “bat coat,” which he donned on The Osbournes, sold for $3,300 at an auction this weekend that saw the family selling many of its most prized possessions for charity. A coffee mug Ozzy used on the TV show went for $1,625, while a sculpture by Edouard Douret sold for $10,500. Altogether, the Ozzchandise raised more than $800,000 for the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program. Radiohead’s “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” video, shown during the band’s Webcast, has officially been released to YouTube. Meanwhile, the discbox option of In Rainbows, featuring eight new songs, has begun hitting mailboxes worldwide. While the band’s merchandiser w.a.s.t.e. e-mailed customers yesterday saying that the box should reach U.S. customers in “five to eighteen days,” those lucky enough to live in Europe (they received theirs today) have leaked its contents on the Web. Check out Brian Wilson’s “Smart Girls,” a semi-sorta rap song the Beach Boys brainchild recorded in 1989 with his associate Dr. Eugene Landy playing the role of hype man. The song was released as a limited-edition cassingle (remember those?) as a personal gift to 250 of his friends and associates for the holidays back when the first George Bush was in power. While nearly every industry profited this past Black Friday, CD sales still slumped, with the number of albums sold coming in eighteen percent less than the same weekend last year. As a result of the endless beatdown on the record companies, Island/Def Jam and SonyBMG have begun cutting jobs. In a merger of truly epic proportions, video game companies Activision and Blizzard — a.k.a. the makers of Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft, respectively — have merged in a $18 billion deal.

Published: 2007-12-04 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Afternoon News Roundup, Radiohead's "In Rainbows"