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

Billie Joe Armstrong Revives Side Project Pinhead Gunpowder in L.A.

Billie Joe Armstrong can still DIY when he wants to. His side project Pinhead Gunpowder hadn’t played a gig since 2001, but the punk-pop quartet roared back to life this week in a quick tour of SoCal club dates. On Monday, the Green Day singer-guitarist was back to basics at the top of a three-band bill of melodic loudfastrules at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. Ticket price at the door: $7. With a beanie pulled over his bleached hair, Armstrong strolled onto the stage like one of the roadies, a Red Stripe in one hand and a guitar in the other. It was only the band’s 19th show in seventeen years, but the room was packed with fans who sang and crowd-surfed to “At Your Funeral,” the new “Westside Highway” and a cover of Diana Ross’ “Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To),” shifting the lilting Seventies ballad into punk-rock overdrive. Armstrong pulled fans up to watch from the stage, but also told them to put away the digital cameras. “YouTube can’t own everything,” he said. “There’s also something called memories.” [Photo: Kevin Estrada]

Published: 2008-02-05 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Single Minded: Radiohead, Reggae, Female MCs and More

Every Tuesday Single Minded highlights new tracks hitting stores (or the Web) this week. On Fridays, come back for rarities, remixes, mash-ups and more. Radiohead, Live at the BBC 2008 [Live] In a follow-up to their remix contest, Radiohead will be letting lucky fans run the soundboard for their upcoming tour. S-M is looking forward to treating New York City to two nights of all-bass Radiohead. Various Artists, 4-Volume Women of Rap Compilation [Mixtape] Eighty-five tracks, and not a reference to lip gloss among ‘em. You get Queen Latfiah pre-Oscar nom, Lauryn Hill pre-insanity and Lady of Rage pre-…whatever Lady of Rage did after this. Various Artists, Just the Versions [Reggae Mix] 12 consecutive reggae B-sides, which is more dub than you can shake a stick at. Though if you’re going to listen to 12 consecutive reggae B-Sides, shaking those sticks is probably not what you had in mind. Various Artists, The Funky Side of Rock & Roll [Mixtape] White rock bands take on funk and emerge more-or-less unscathed. Unlikely highlight: the Osmonds barreling through a song called “Crazy Horses,” which we’re fairly sure is about the apocalypse. One sign of the apocalypse? The Osmonds performing a funk song. Various Artists, Ethiopia’s Revolutionary ’60s [Guided Tour] A history of Ethiopian music in the ’60s fleshed out with embedded, full-length songs. Unlike retrospectives of American music from the ’60s, you don’t have to suffer through “Born to be Wild.”

Published: 2008-04-04 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Single Minded

Beck’s “Odelay” Goes Deluxe, Lily Allen and Jamie Lynn Spears Announce Pregnancies, The Band and Burt Bacharach Score Lifetime Achievement Grammys and More

On January 29th, Beck will release a double-disc deluxe version of his 1996 album Odelay that includes sixteen B-sides and compilation tracks that haven’t seen U.S. release before, as well as two never-before-released songs from the album’s original sessions produced by the Dust Brothers: “Inferno” and “Gold Chains.” The second disc also includes remixes by Aphex Twin, Mario Caldato Jr. and U.N.K.L.E., plus “Burro,” a Spanish-language rendition of “Jackass” recorded with a mariachi band. Lily Allen and her boyfriend, Chemical Brothers’ Ed Simons, have confirmed they are expecting their first child. Allen’s rep told Us Weekly, “As the pregnancy is at such an early stage, the couple will be making no further comment, but they are obviously thrilled by the news,” and added that Allen’s follow-up to this year’s Alright, Still, “will be released as planned next year.” ‘Tis the season for pregnancy announcements: Sixteen-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney’s little sis and star of Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101, is reportedly expecting her first child with boyfriend Casey Aldridge. In a statement, Nickelodeon said, “We respect Jamie Lynn’s decision to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation.” After the news became public, the Christian publisher planning to release a parenting-themed title penned by mom Lynne Spears next year said the book is “delayed indefinitely … delayed, not canceled.” But at least one person doesn’t think the baby news is true: Britney told paparazzi, “My sister’s not pregnant!” while out shopping last night. Metallica are adding more international festival dates to their early summer itinerary, fueling speculation that the follow-up to 2003’s St. Anger will be released around then. The band has scheduled dates in Poland and the Netherlands at th

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

Killers’ Joy Divison Cover Hits the Web, M.I.A. Helps Jailed Aussie Kids Rhyme, Jadakiss Free From Gun and Drug Charges

From the Ian Curtis biopic Control, check out the Killers’ take on Joy Division’s “Shadowplay.” The cover, which will also appear on the Killers’ upcoming B-sides collection Sawdust, finds the Las Vegas band putting a glossy sheen on the moody 1979 classic, like it was being filtered through a Depeche Mode machine. Who knew Joy Division could sound so sunny? Following the first trial showdown of the music industry vs. an illegal music downloader, the RIAA promises that many more of its kind will take place, regardless of whether or not Jammie Thomas, a woman in court for downloading 1,702 songs from Kazaa, is found guilty. “We’re in the long haul in terms of establishing that music has value,” said RIAA president Cary Sherman. M.I.A. has teamed up with an Australian all-girls juvenile detention center to record a new song. Through the Heaps Decent program, which helps indigenous and underprivileged youths break into the music industry, M.I.A. spent two days recording the track utilizing the center’s doors and other noises to establish the beat. The finished product will soon be previewed on the Heaps Decent MySpace page before the full track goes on iTunes, with all profits going back into the program. Prosecutors in Westchester County, New York, have dropped year-old weapon and drug charges against Jadakiss over a lack of DNA matches on a handgun found in a car Jadakiss was driving when he was pulled over and cops found the car reeked of marijuana in October 2006. Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Neilsen is planning on opening a hotel/restaurant in the band’s home base of Rockford, Illinois. “Rick’s,” as the building will be called, will also include a museum that will house Neilsen’s large guitar collection, which includes axes previously owned by Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley and Jack White.

Published: 2007-10-05 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Afternoon News Roundup

Radiohead Catalog Goes Digital For the First Time, But Not on iTunes

All Radiohead albums are now for sale as unrestricted MP3s at the U.K.’s biggest digital outlet, 7digital.com, marking the first time the band has agreed to sell its entire catalog on a major download site. The band continues to reject iTunes — the world’s largest digital outlet — and other services, refusing to make individual tracks available for sale in addition to full albums, something iTunes requires of most artists. At 7Digital.com, users from the U.S. and anywhere in the world can buy all six Radiohead studio albums and live album I Might Be Wrong for seven pounds — about $14 — each, and one of about twenty-two official single releases, bundled with B-sides, for 1.79 pounds, or about $3.60. Individual tracks are not available. The move was a widely expected next step for Radiohead, who previously made full albums available at 7Digital-powered site warchildmusic.com, with a portion of proceeds going to charity, and temporarily made two albums — OK Computer and The Bends — available on iTunes a couple years ago. Last July, Clark Benson, CEO of industry research frim the Almight Institute of Music Retail told Rolling Stone, “Radiohead, by their next release, will probably come to some terms with iTunes.”

Published: 2007-09-19 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Digital Music

Chester Bennington Talks New Band Dead by Sunrise, Next Linkin Park Album

Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington debuted his new band, Dead by Sunrise, during an anniversary party for his tattoo parlor chain, Club Tattoo, at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, Arizona, on Saturday. “I wouldn’t call it a side project,” Bennington said before the show. “We’re a full, ready-to-go band and so this is something we take very seriously.” The band, which includes Bennington and members of the group Julien-K (which contains several members of Orgy), is a traditional rock outfit that is more straight-ahead and melodic than Linkin Park. Speaking of his other band, Bennington revealed that Linkin Park has already begun writing the follow-up to Minutes to Midnight. He explained the band had “the itch” to start writing again and headed toward the studio. “We’re way ahead of the game,” Bennington said. “We’re not planning on releasing a record this year. We don’t know when it’s going to come out. But we just started working on stuff in the studio. I never want to get in the way of what Linkin Park is. That’s my baby. That’s my band. Those are my best friends. The last thing I want to do is compromise what we’re doing.” Bennington also said he hopes to have a Dead by Sunrise album out by 2009, barring other commitments to other bands. “I want to make sure the record gets the chance to do what it can do.” [Photo: Getty]

Published: 2008-05-12 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Clapton and Winwood Break Out Blind Faith, Hendrix at First Supergig

It wasn’t billed as a Blind Faith reunion, but Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton kicked off their three-night stand at New York’s Madison Square Garden Monday night with “Had To Cry Today.” And through the course of their twenty-song set they’d cover the entire A-side of 1969’s Blind Faith — the only album by the supergroup — hitting “Can’t Find My Way Home,” “Well … All Right” and “Presence of the Lord.” (Full set list after the jump.) When Clapton and Winwood converged in London last week for rehearsals — with an all-star backing band consisting of bassist Willie Weeks, keyboardist Chris Stainton and drummer Ian Thomas — they decided to choose songs from each other’s catalogs to jam on. “There’s some perspective material that’s quite intricate and tricky and has got a lot of stuff going on,” Winwood told Rolling Stone before the gig. “And in some ways it’s best to head for simpler territory and then let the performance take over. Otherwise you spend all your time trying to remember bits and remember parts. So we’ve kind of erred a little bit on the simpler side. There’s a shed-load of material and we don’t have time to do all. We’ve honed it down and kept things that are better and more enjoyable to play.” At MSG they touched on Winwood’s stints in Traffic, busting out “No Face, No Name, No Number,” “Pearly Queen” and “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” on which Winwood laid down a nasty guitar solo. Clapton sang the blues on “Forever Man,” “After Midnight” and “Crossroads.” They also played three tracks by their mutual friend Jimi Hendrix: The fourth song of the night was “Changes,” from Band of Gypsys, and later in the set they offered the one-two punch of “Little Wing” and “Voodoo Child,” with Clapton offering blistering solos. In the middle of the set, Clapton appeared alone, singing “Ramblin’ On My Mind,” which he first recorded with John Mayall’s Blues Breakers in 1966. Following that, Winwood took the stage by himself, pumping

Published: 2008-02-26 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Live Shows

Ray Davies Dials Up Showmanship, Kinks Tunes at San Fran Solo Gig

Former Kinks frontman Ray Davies took the stage of San Francisco’s soon-to-close Warfield Theatre Friday night with an aquamarine Fender guitar and launched into his self-descriptive “I’m Not Like Everybody Else.” This obscure 1966 B-side suggested that the first of his handful of rare solo shows would neither be focused solely on promoting the preeminent English songwriter’s new album Working Man’s Cafe nor dominated by the Kinks’ most familiar hits. Yet the crowd sang the chorus loudly without much prompting, a sure signal that this audience was comprised of serious Davies/Kinks fans, and that their hero knew just how to reach them. Nearly every Kinks tune from Davies’ two sets — popular or otherwise — was met with a sing-along response that the unrepentant ham onstage was eager to encourage. “Where Have All the Good Times Gone,” “A Well Respected Man” and “Days” were all treated to arrangements that would prematurely stop and then build back up again in order to give the crowd a chance to clearly hear itself and feel the power of its collective voice. Throughout the evening, Davies gesticulated with a vaudevillian broadness that underlines his aesthetic debt to British music hall traditions. During the intro to “The Tourist,” he left the stage to return in a Union Jack sport coat, and when the song finished, he pointedly turned the jacket inside out to reveal an American flag. His four-piece band remained well within its supporting role, leaving the spotlight where it should: on the showman and his keenly observed songs. Whereas the first set wove songs from Davies’ 2006 solo album Other People’s Lives between Kinks cult classics, the second featured a largely acoustic five-song serving from Working Man’s Cafe before climaxing with expected crowd-pleasers like “Sunny Afternoon,” “Lola” and “You Really Got Me.” Although Davie

Published: 2008-03-31 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Live Shows

Jimmy Page Stokes Zep Tour Rumors, EMI Tricks Radiohead Fans, Madonna Rumored to Be Working With Kanye

What’s a Tuesday without a Led Zeppelin reunion tour rumor? This week, it’s Jimmy Page once again adding fuel to the fan flames, telling Guitar World, “It’s a bit silly not to because there is such massive demand.” Regarding the band’s lone December 10th concert, “It’s a bit selfish to do just one show. If that’s it, we probably shouldn’t have taken the genie out of the bottle.” It’s no secret EMI is attempting to cash in on former label stars Radiohead, but now they may be going too far. Last week, EMI-sponsored ads on Google claimed that the record giant was selling box sets of Radiohead’s In Rainbows, even thought the album is now property of ATO. The link brought potential consumers to EMI’s own Radiohead Catalogue boxset, which doesn’t contain Rainbows. Radiohead’s camp dismissed the gaff as a “genuine error” on EMI’s part. Another possible culprit: Paul McCartney, who asked Thom Yorke to do a duet but was denied. Evan Dando is currently hard at work on the new Lemonheads album, hoping for an April 2008 release. To help cushion the wait, in March Dando also plans on reissuing the band’s 1992 epic It’s a Shame About Ray in a deluxe edition containing demos, B-sides and a DVD. A book detailing the final years of Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley is scheduled for release in late 2008. Itch, Love Stories About Heroin will document Staley’s addiction and struggles with the drug, as well as “reveal some secrets.” According to one fan site, a Kanye West/Madonna collaboration may appear on the Material Mom’s next album. While Madge and Pharrell Williams were putting finishing touches to her album at Record Plant in Los Angeles, West was next door working on the new Michael Jackson album. Pharrell introduced Madonna to Kanye, Kanye to Madonna, and the rest may be music history.

Published: 2007-11-14 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Afternoon News Roundup

Deryck Whibley Claims He Was Nearly Deported, Lily Allen Aims at Courtney Love, R. Kelly’s Lawyers Start Their Ignitions

Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley claims that an item in Rock Daily about the band’s anti-Bush track “March of the Dogs” nearly got the Canadian rocker deported (to clarify: Rolling Stone asked a Congressman for comment on the song, not for the government to remove Avril Lavigne’s hubby from the country). Lily Allen’s latest incendiary comment is directed at Courtney Love: “One night with [her] made me realize why Kurt Cobain killed himself.” R. Kelly’s sex trial is approaching a start date, as lawyers for both sides are preparing for jury selection. Husband and wife team Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony will embark on their first-ever joint tour this fall. Carlos Santana will release Ultimate Santana this fall, featuring the original version of “Game of Love” with Tina Turner on lead female vocals. Photo: Agostini/Getty

Published: 2007-07-25 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Morning News Roundup

Say Anything/Saves the Day Side Project to Debut Summer ‘08

Saves the Day frontman Chris Conley says Two Tongues, his side project with Saves the Day guitarist Dave Soloway and Say Anything’s Max Bemis and Coby Linder, is going to have its premiere this summer. “We’re going to try to get a record deal sometime soon,” he tells Rock Daily. “But we want to have the album at least streaming online this summer.” Conley also reveals the quartet is planning to tour this fall. The supergroup finds Conley and Bemis splitting vocal and guitar duties with Soloway on bass and Linder on drums, and reunites Bemis with one of his idols (check out his Saves the Day tattoo here) a year after the bands toured together in the States. “We’re great friends,” Conley says, adding his new collaboration won’t stop his original band from working on a new album. Instead, Saves the Day will also be working on its eighth studio LP this summer with a release scheduled for late 2008 or early 2009. “We’ll always be busy,” he says. [Photo: Getty]

Published: 2008-05-08 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Tour Preview: Disturbed Promise New Songs on Intimate Tour Before “Mayhem”

David Draiman and the rest of his Disturbed band mates are eager to play songs from their recently completed fourth album Indestructible to live audiences. Unfortunately, they can’t, as contractual obligations are preventing the band from playing the majority of their new material live before the album’s June 3rd release date. “Isn’t that horrible, how things have become,” Draiman tells Rock Daily from his home in Chicago, just hours before Disturbed piled into a tour bus for the long ride down to Little Rock, Arkansas, for the tour opening show. “It would really nice to see how a crowd reacts to the new songs early on, but there’s too much dependency on that first week sales number and you can’t sacrifice any of the impact of that.” Fortunately for fans, the band does have a few surprises planned, including two already-released Indestructible songs they’re allowed to play, “Perfect Insanity” and “Inside the Fire,” a never-before-played-live b-side titled “Hell” and the live debut of the their contribution to the Transformers soundtrack “This Moment.” Plus, the smaller venues and smaller markets the current tour touches upon invigorate the band. “It’s going to be very intimate. We’re going to try to make it special,” Draiman says. “It also enables us to get back to grassroots. This is who we are. We started as a small club band. It’s a different type of energy.” It won’t be until the launch of the Rock Star Mayhem tour that Disturbed can finally unleash Indestructible in all its live glory. Draiman has long professed that the band’s songs take on a second life in the live setting, and is looking forward to see the Indestructible material’s metamorphosis. The traveling festival also features Slipknot, Mastodon, Machinehead and more. “It’s a very, very talented bill, and being around that m

Published: 2008-04-28 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, On Tour

Inside Joseph Arthur’s Studio: A Tour of the Songwriter’s Artistic Haven

Rock Daily recently crashed Joseph Arthur’s Rolling Stone style shoot at the singer/songwriters Brooklyn, New York art gallery (what he has dubbed the the MOMAR — Museum of Modern Arthur). He gave us a tour of his creative haven, which includes a gallery, painting studio, performance stage and even a self-built recording studio. Arthur is an art producing machine — this year he will release 4 EPs and a full-length album with his band, and has piles of paintings in his joint. “I don’t really feel like I work particularly hard,” he says. “Making paintings or music is like child’s play to me, it’s rooted in inspiration, and I think the key for any artist is to keep your inspiration alive and ignore whatever forces try to kill it.” While Arthur’s songs range from dreamy acoustic ballads to punchy rock songs, his sound tends towards a soft and sweet aesthetic. Not so with his creepily edgy artwork, which borrows from Basquiat-style graffiti and Warhol-like repetitive screen prints, and shows off a darker, more mysterious side. Click above to check out the video to see how he paints while performing music live and the incredible results.

Published: 2008-04-23 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Videos

Wolfmother Hard at Work on “Cinematic, Epic” New Album

Good news for fans of asskicking Australian bands: Wolfmother is hard at work on a new album. According to singer Andrew Stockdale, the band is looking to release the as-yet-untitled album early next year. “It’s kind of cinematic, and it’s kind of epic,” Stockdale says of the new disc. “But there’s also this fully-aggressive side that’s undeniably explosive.” Wolfmother have yet to select a producer, but Stockdale says they have about ten songs ready to go, including a track called “Back Home,” which is one of Stockdale’s favorites. “Other bands are like, ‘Yeah, we wrote sixty songs and edited it down to this,’” says Stockdale, who’s been wrtiting both at his new house in Brisbane and while vacationing in Byron Bay. “We spend a lot of time on each song, crafting it, changing the key, changing the arrangement, and so on. We don’t like to write thousands of songs.”

Published: 2007-11-20 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Advance Music, In the Studio

Rewind: The Week in Rock Daily

Pearl Jam kicked off the weekend’s Lollapalooza festivities in Chicago with a super-intimate gig packed with rarities and covers. Ryan Adams admitted that people still can’t get over that whole Gap-ad thing. Maynard James Keenan gave his Puscifer side project’s debut album an anatomically correct name. In honor of Prince’s Planet Earth album, Rob Sheffield explored lesser-known gems buried in the Purple One’s vast catalog. Rock Daily brought Rolling Stone’s celebration of all things Guns N’ Roses to a conclusion with a video girl photo gallery, footage of early GN’R gigs, photos from the band’s formative years and a bunch of pics of awesome hair-metal guitars.

Published: 2007-08-04 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News