Cold War Kids Get Darker on “Loyalty to Loyalty”

With a stirring debut and a name inspired by Stalin, Cold War Kids quickly became a sharp-dressed band to watch. Now, on the eve of their second record, they talk about their dark sound, their humble days and the joys of an eBay guitar. Find out more about their Ayn Rand and Josiah Royce-influenced new album Loyalty to Loyalty below. • Cold New World [Photo: Ben Watts]

Published: 2008-08-18 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Lil Wayne, Death Cab For Cutie Highlight Full Voodoo Festival Lineup

New Orleans’ Voodoo Festival, set to hit the Big Easy October 24-26, has revealed its full performer line-up. In addition to the headliners R.E.M., Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots, Death Cab for Cutie, Panic at the Disco, Erykah Badu and N’Awlins prodigal son Lil Waynein will play in the more mainstream Le Ritual section of the festival. Much like the city itself, the Voodoo Festival is split into three distinct sections. The Le Flambeau area will feature music more in tune with the hometown sounds of New Orleans with sets by Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. The third section, Le Carnival, will feature a bunch of Big Easy indie bands, burlesque shows and circus acts. It’s like a three-day Mardi Gras over in that Le Carnival section. Hit the jump for the complete list of all the performers playing Voodoo. New Orleans Voodoo Festival 2008 R.E.M. Nine Inch Nails Stone Temple Pilots Lil Wayne Erykah Badu Dashboard Confessional Shudder to Think Death Cab For Cutie DeVotchKa The Gutter Twins Cold War Kids Wyclef Jean Panic At the Disco King Britt Tribute to Sister Gertrude Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings Reverend Horton Heat Lupe Fiasco Joss Stone Man Man Thievery Corporation Ghostland Observatory Manchester Orchestra Old 97’s Joseph Arthur Colour Revolt Tokyo Police Club Innerpartysystem The Vettes Big Blue Marble Sons of Willia Walter Wolfman Washington Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers Marc Broussard Ozomatli Reunited w/ Chali 2na Rebirth Brass Band Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk Blind Boys of Alabama Preservation Hall Jazz Band with Marva Wright New Orleans Jazz Orchestra Cowboy Mouth The Iguanas Bonerama Big Sam’s Funky Nation Deacon John’s Tribute to New Orleans R&B featuring Wardell Quezerque Marva Wright Soul Rebels Dirty Dozen Brass Band Treme Brass Band DJ Soul Sister John Boutte Rockie

Published: 2008-07-10 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Festivals

Robbie Left Out In The Cold

There's no room at the Take That inn for ex-band member Robbie Williams, it appears.Gary Barlow and Mark Owen appear to have ruled out the A

Published: 2007-12-15 Provider: Contact Music

Seether Frontman Won't Respond To Amy Lee's Attack: 'I Just Refuse To Lower Myself To That Level'

Seether frontman Shaun Morgan says he won't respond to ex-girlfriend Amy Lee's scathing musical attack on his band's new LP, Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces.

Published: 2007-07-18 Provider: VH1 Keywords: Seether, Artist, Album, Night, Cold, One, VH1, Interviews, Ringtones, September, Frontman, November, Nu-Rock!, African, Respond, Seattle, Attack, Broken, Movies, Myself, Refuse, Remedy, Videos, Level, Lower, Radio, South, 2004, Best, Ever, Just, Lees, News, Rock, Spot, That, Week, Wont, 100, Amy, A-Z, Top, 15, 26, of, on, To,

STRONG FINNISH

LET'S play a quick game of word association: Cat? Dog. Hot? Cold. Finland? Um ... The sparsely populated (5 million) sliver of land inconveniently situated between the former U.S.S.R. and Sweden, where it's dark all winter and light all summer, is...

Published: 2007-03-10 Provider: New York Post Keywords: Myspace, metal, rock, band, pop, play, Finnish, country, singer, sold, Bam, Callisto, Finland, Goth, Helsinki, music

Hot bands for cold weather: Chart-burners headed our way this week

Arts & EntertainmentSome of the hottest young bands in the country — offering everything from emo punk to hip-hop soul — are performing in the Seattle...

Published: 2006-11-30 Provider: Seattle Times

Weekend Rock List: Cold Songs

It figures that the week we put a band called Coldplay on our cover, temperatures on the Eastern seaboard touched a hundred degrees. In an attempt to at least try to keep cool in our heads, this week’s Rock List is dedicated to “cold” songs. Let us know what songs with frosty subject matter are your favorites and next week we’ll reveal the Readers’ List of Best Cold Songs. Before we go and commune with the peas in our freezer, check out our picks: GZA - “Cold World” Vanilla Ice - “Ice Ice Baby” Madonna - “Frozen” John Cale - “Antarctica Starts Here” Prince - “Sometimes It Snows in April” [Photo: Getty]

Published: 2008-06-14 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock Lists

"Buckle in the Bible Belt" by Ha Ha Tonka

Ha Ha Tonka aren't shy about flaunting their Southern influences on their debut album, Buckle in the Bible Belt. Based out of Missouri, the band blends rockabilly and folk with an indie-rock mentality, even throwing in some elements of gospel on the album's first single, "St. Nick on the Fourth in a Fervor." While Ha Ha Tonka are musically fairly traditional, living in the South has had a much darker effect on their lyrics. As the band chugs away, lead singer Brian Roberts sneaks in amidst all of the foot-stomping to sing about methamphetamines ("Gusto"), the death grip of religion ("Bully in the Pulpit") and the failures of American healthcare ("Cure for the Common Cold"), all of which directly impact the group's home region. Yet, even when Ha Ha Tonka are delving into serious subject matter, the energetic swagger of the music lifts the mood away from melancholy—and the band even manages to slip in a love song here and there ("Falling In", "You Lit Up the Night").

Published: 2007-09-18 Provider: Artist Direct

Smoking Section: Weezer, Kings of Leon, The Decemberists

The Donaldson Correctional Facility houses 1,500 of Alabama’s most vicious criminals. In 2002, fed up with their crappy rehab programs, administrators allowed 36 prisoners to take an intense Vipassana meditation course, involving 10 days of complete silence and soul-searching. The remarkable results are captured in the doc The Dhamma Brothers, financed in part by Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, whose life was changed by Vipassana. “What struck me was how similar my experience is in the meditation course to how it is for these criminals serving life sentences,” says Cuomo. “A few years ago, I might have felt a tremendous fear, and now I can walk into things feeling perfectly peaceful.” He relates to a statement in the movie by a convicted murderer named Grady Bankhead. “He said, ‘I’ve been on death row for eight years, and this 10-day course was harder,’” says Cuomo. “I can relate to that.” * * * * “I know I sound like a fucking cock right now,” says Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill, “but this is the first time I’ve really been proud of myself, track for track.” After a grueling 2007 tour, and Caleb’s recent surgery to repair his arm after a fistfight with his brother Nathan (”Nathan won”), the Kings planned to take a well-deserved break. But when we called them, they were at Nashville’s Blackbird Studio wrapping up their fourth disc, out in September. Three days after his surgery, Caleb says he removed his arm from a sling and began writing: “I don’t know if it was the pills or what, but the melodies were so much stronger than anything I’ve ever done — it’s just really beautiful songs.” In addition to the pills, the band members say they drank all day to fuel songs like “Cold Desert” and “Crawl.” (In the latter, Caleb touches on politics: “Let’s just say that Sean

Published: 2008-06-10 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Smoking Section

Tokio Hotel: Adored by Hair-Loving Fans, Inspired by Nena

It’s a cold, rainy Saturday in New Jersey, and hundreds of hoodie-clad teenyboppers are scrunched shoulder to shoulder in the Meadlowlands parking lot, screaming for Tokio Hotel. “Bill, I want to comb your hair!” shrieks a teen girl in the front row as the band — fronted by glammed-out singer Bill Kaulitz, 18, and his dreadlocked twin, guitarist Tom — kick into “Ready Set Go.” Bill doesn’t answer — after all, if he complied with every hair-combing request, his trademark porcupine spikes would be defunct. Instead, he swivels his skinny hips, pumps his fist skyward and sings. Since Tokio Hotel’s third album, Scream, was released in the U.S. on April 29th, the German emo rockers — who blend lashing riffs and forceful wails into dark, snarling anthems — have become superstars, snagging a spot on MTV’s TRL, sold-out shows in New York and LA and legions of admirers. “When we played [New York’s] Irving Plaza in February, the audience sang all the songs — even two German ones,” says Bill. “In Europe we play big concerts, but in America it’s so cool to see all the people — and all the girls.” A few years ago, Bill and Tom were performing for tiny crowds in their hometown, the small salt-mining town of Madgeburg, part of former East Germany. “Every weekend we played to, like, 15 people in the same club,” says Tom, who picked up his first guitar at age seven, around the same time that Bill decided he wanted to be a star. (”I saw a concert with Nena singing ‘99 Red Balloons’ on TV and I said, ‘I will also go onstage and sing,’” he recalls.) Tokio Hotel was born in 2001, when local teens Gustav Schafer (drums) and Georg Listing (bass) caught one of the duo’s gigs. “We said, ‘Oh my god, someone should help them!’” jokes Listing. Scream — which is culled from tracks on the

Published: 2008-06-03 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Coachella Interview: Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard Discusses New Album

“I am tempered for the Northwest, so I don’t do well in this kind of heat,” said Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard, hiding out in the icebox-cold back lounge of his tour bus several hours before his band took the stage at Coachella Saturday evening. The deep freeze paid off, and Death Cab played a stellar thirteen-song set packed with old favorites such as “The New Year” and “Sound of Settling,” alongside their new single, the eight-minute “I Will Possess Your Heart.” That tune is included on the band’s upcoming Narrow Stairs, their second album for Atlantic Records since leaving longtime indie home Barsuk in 2004 — a transition that, Gibbard says, was way more difficult than the band ever let on at the time. Narrow Stairs was recorded differently than your previous albums. Why the change in approach? We did so much of that record bit by bit, and it became more of a construction project than a record. I like writing on piano and a computer, and a lot of Plans came out of samples and vocal lines. We had a couple sessions for compilations that we recorded together live, which made us realize that that was the way we wanted to do the next record. Get out of the computer world and get back on tape. For Narrow Stairs, the majority of the songs I brought in were guitar songs — songs we could sit in a room and just play. I can honestly say I had more fun and felt more inspired on this record than anything that we had done in a long time. The period when we were transitioning from Barsuk to Atlantic was the most difficult thing that will ever happen to us. You guys never really acknowledged that at the time, though. We tried to tell ourselves it was business as usual. But there was an elephant in the room that nobody really wanted to acknowledge for fear it would pull us in a direction that was uncomfortable after seven years on an indie label, never having to answer to anybody else’s op

Published: 2008-04-29 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Coachella

Coachella Day Two: Mark Ronson, Cold War Kids, Hot Chip, Kate Nash and More

“Things could be much worse,” sang Cold War Kids frontman Nathan Willett as a sizable hometown California crowd assembled in front of the main stage in the height of the Saturday heat, and he meant it. The band finished up “We Used to Vacation” with guitarist Jonnie Russell slapping a cymbal with a yellow maraca, tested out some new material and performed their stellar cover of “Hang Me Up to Dry,” with Willett breaking away from the mike to pound away at his keyboard. Meanwhile at the Gobi tent, Bonde de Role was stirring up a Brazilian dance party, dropping rhymes over the music from Grease’s “Summer Nights” and filling in for any language gaps with “bah bah bah”s and “chi chi cha”s. An hour later and a tent away, Kate Nash and a tight four-piece band wowed a massive crowd that ranged from teenage girls to muscle-bound men. Perched a keyboard decorated with a drape of red fabric, Nash gently tipped out of her chair with excitement, crooning witty tracks like her single “Foundations” in her endearing British accent and ending nearly every song with mini rave-ups that transformed her neat little tunes into something refreshing and wild. An even bigger (and more aggressive) crowd was busy cramming itself into the Sahara tent for British electro outfit Hot Chip. Despite the 100-degree temperatures, singer Alexis Taylor emerged in a shirt, tie and light-colored jacket to the sounds of “Shake a Fist,” as the group gave the song a clubby overhaul, packing the track with loopy keyboards. Crazed fans climbing the sides of the tent gyrated madly as the band delivered nearly an hour of melodic, smart dance music. At the exact same time, just a day after singer Serj Tankian performed a solo Coachella set, his System of a Down bandmates Daron Malakian (singer-guitarist) and John Dolmayan (drums) debuted their new band, Scars on Broadway. Few outside the obsessive SOAD fan co

Published: 2008-04-27 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News