Queen pictures with tag: rock news

Queen and Paul Rodgers Announce New Album Release Date

Queen and Paul Rodgers revealed that their new album The Cosmos Rocks, their first studio album with Rodgers on vocals, will be released October 14th. For the band, it’s their first studio album since 1995’s Made In Heaven, which collected the last remaining songs by Freddie Mercury. Among the songs expected to be included on Cosmos are “Say It’s Not True” (initially available as a free World Aids Day download) and “C-lebrity.” The album will also feature a cover song (perhaps Del Shannon’s “Runaway”) for the first time in Queen’s recording history. More Queen: • In the Studio: Queen [Photo: Getty]

Published: 2008-07-31 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Arctic Monkeys Side Project The Last Shadow Puppets Arrive in NYC

Though no one could quite remember the name of the band, a few dozen New Yorkers showed up at Brooklyn’s Sound Fix Lounge last night for a “surprise” acoustic gig by the Last Shadow Puppets: a collaboration between Arctic Monkeys singer Alex Turner and his mate Miles Kane from U.K. group the Rascals. The pair worked through unplugged renditions of eight songs from their forthcoming album to a crowd that included Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig and Rostam Batmanglij. (VW fans will be pleased to know that drummer Chris Thompson is doing just fine after being hit by a taxi in London last week. “He didn’t even need stitches,” Batmanglij says.) The Puppets’ set was decidedly low-key, coming on more like noir-ish Sixties soundtrack music than the loose-limbed Brit-punk of the Arctic Monkeys. Or, as one astute fan noted: “If the Arctic Monkeys are Blur, this is the Good, The Bad and The Queen.” The duo’s debut album, The Age Of Understatement, is due out April 21st, if that sounds like your cup of tea. For our part, we were impressed. [Photo: Bao Nguyen]

Published: 2008-03-05 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Live Shows

Smiths Fans Ride Bikes To Save Manchester Landmark

Manchester’s loyal Smiths fans are coming to the rescue of the Salford Lad’s Club, which is featured on the cover of the Smith’s 1986 opus The Queen is Dead. The club is currently undergoing an expensive renovation, which has been threatened by a band of (neither sweet nor tender) hooligans who made off with expensive roofing materials. When word spread that the renovation might not proceed as a result, local fans decided to organize a bike tour of iconic Smiths-related Manchester area spots in order to raise awareness of the club’s plight and inspire people to contribute money for replacement materials. The bike ride is scheduled for September 30, pending police approval.

Published: 2007-08-07 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Exclusive: Queen’s Brian May Addresses Adam Lambert Rumors

Photo: Mickshaw/FOX After Adam Lambert’s killer performance with Queen on Wednesday night’s season finale of American Idol, rumors flew that he had already been offered a job singing with the band. That’s slightly premature, according to the band’s guitarist, Brian May. “Amongst all that furor, there wasn’t really a quiet moment to talk,” May tells Rolling Stone in an e-mail interview. “But [drummer Roger Taylor] and I are definitely hoping to have a meaningful conversation with him at some poi

Published: 2009-05-22 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, American Idol

Cobra Starship Grab “Gossip Girl,” “Idol” Stars for “Hot Mess”

For “Good Girls Go Bad,” the first single from Cobra Starship’s forthcoming third album (click to listen), the band did something familiar: immersed themselves in pop culture. The group known for turning “Snakes on a Plane” from a punchline into a radio hit landed guest vocals from the ultimate good girl with a bad streak — Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester, who plays Blair Waldorf, the show’s bitchy queen bee with a loyal heart — recruited newbie American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi (who co-wrote Ke

Published: 2009-05-14 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

On the Smoking Section: Ben Harper and the Relentless7 Set

Photo: Kambouris/Getty To mark Tuesday’s release of Ben Harper and the Relentless7’s debut album White Lies for Dark Times, the Smoking Section has posted four songs from a private set the band rocked at New York’s legendary Electric Lady Studios at a WFUV-sponsored event. Click over to check out “Shimmer & Shine,” “Number With No Name,” “Lay There & Hate Me” and an awesome cover of Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure”: • Ben Harper & Relentless7 Enter the S.S. Related Stories: • Watch Ben H

Published: 2009-05-07 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Bad Company Book Reunion Tour

Photo: Michael Ochs Archive/Getty After a successful one-night-only reunion concert last year, the members of ’70s supergroup Bad Company will once again come together, this time for a run of summer 2009 shows. According to a press release, the band’s founding members — singer Paul Rodgers, guitarist Mick Ralphs and drummer Simon Kirke — are all on board for the 10 shows that kick off June 17th in Hollywood, Florida and conclude July 4th in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Doobie Brothers will join Bad Company on the tour. In August 2008, the three remaining members of Bad Company (bassist Boz Burrell passed away in 2006) reunited for the first time in nearly a decade to perform at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. A DVD of that sold-out show, Bad Company – Hard Rock Live, will be released on August 8th. “It’s great to be back with Paul and Simon,” Ralphs said in a statement. “We made great music together and had the time of our lives doing it. I’m really looking forward to getting back out there this summer.” As of right now, the jaunt doesn’t take the band west of Michigan. Prior commitments may prevent this from becoming a full-scale reunion tour, however. As Rock Daily previously reported, Mick Ralphs is set to reunite with glam band Mott the Hoople in October, and Rodgers still has some touring obligations to Queen following the release of The Cosmos Rocks last year. Check the tour dates as they stand now below: Bad Company June 17 - Hollywood, FL @ Hard Rock Live June 19 - Atlanta, GA  @ Chastain Park Amphitheatre June 20 - Charlotte, NC @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre June 23 - Raleigh, NC @ Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek June 24 - Virginia Beach, FL @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre June 27 - Bethel, NY @ Bethel Woods Center for the Arts June 28 - Wantagh, NY @ Nikon at Jones Beach Theatre July 1 - Independence Township, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre July 2 - Canandaigua, NY @ CMAC July 4 - Atlantic City, NJ @ Resorts Atlantic City Related Stories: •

Published: 2009-03-31 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Watch Ben Harper and Relentless7 Talk New Album “White Lies For Dark Times”

Ben Harper and his new band the Relentless7 drop their blues-rock bomb White Lies for Dark Days on May 5th, so Rock Daily caught up the band when they hit New York’s famed Electric Lady Studios for a WFUV performance (read more about the LP in our Spring Album Preview). Harper tells RS that it was chance — and the H.O.R.D.E. tour — that guided him to his new band — and led to his heaviest album yet. When a runner for the 1998 H.O.R.D.E. tour asked Harper if he would listen to his band’s demo, the “Steal My Kisses” singer was amazed by what he heard. He kept in touch with that band’s guitarist Jason Mozersky and, after employing R7 for some tracks on 2006’s Both Sides of the Gun, the deal was sealed. “It’s a sound I’ve been looking for and reaching for in my mind,” Harper recently told Rolling Stone when we visited him and Relentless7 in the recording studio. “We’ve taken turns kicking each others’ asses in the most gracious fashion, pushing this into new places.” Check out the band’s video for White Lies‘ first single “Shimmer and Shine” for a taste of the new places. “It’s absolute, unapologetic rock music,” Harper told the Smoking Section. “It’s rock music from the places that you want rock to be from. There’s some Queen in there, and some Floyd-isms, and there’s a good dose of blues and soul.” In fact, the influence of James Brown and Otis Redding can be heard over the loud guitars on White Lies for Dark Times, bassist Jesse Ingalls said. For much more on the new album, and many more of the biggest LPs dropping in the coming months, be sure to check out our Spring Music Preview below: • Spring Music Preview: Inside 45 of the Year’s Biggest Albums

Published: 2009-03-26 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Videos

Ben Harper and Relentless7 Release New Video for “Shimmer and Shine”

Ben Harper and his new band Relentless7 have unveiled the video for their new single “Shimmer and Shine,” off their upcoming album White Lies For Dark Times. We will say this of the track: Never has a shampoo slogan rocked so hard. The video announces the arrival of and serves as an introduction to the Relentess7, or R7, an Austin, Texas-based backing band credited with pushing Harper into a rockier direction. In addition to montage shots of Harper on the road, the video offers a sneak peek at you can expect to see at one of the band’s energetic concerts, like the one Rock Daily witnessed at Los Angeles’ Spaceland in December 2008. “It’s absolute, unapologetic rock music,” Harper told the Smoking Section of the music he and R7 wrote for the new album. “It’s rock music from the places that you want rock to be from. There’s some Queen in there, and some Floyd-isms, and there’s a good dose of Blues and Soul.” As Rolling Stone reported in their album preview, White Lies finds Harper turning the amp up to 11 with a mix of hard rock and delta blues. “It”s a sound I’ve been looking for and reaching for in my mind,” Harper said. As for Harper’s old band the Innocent Criminals, Harper plans on reuniting with them soon. “Dude, I’ve been with the Innocent Criminals a long time, and I’ll always be with the Innocent Criminals,” Harper said, “And everything I do now helps further what I do with them. But for the moment, its just time to do something else.” White Lies For Dark Times is out May 2009. Related Stories: • Ben Harper Gets Heavy With Relentless7 on “White Lies for Dark Times” • • Ben Harper Introduces New Blues-Rock Band Relentless7 On the Smoking Section: Ben Harper Debuts New Band Relentless7

Published: 2009-03-11 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Videos

Oops: “Guitar Hero: Metallica” Cover Art Misspells Lynyrd Skynyrd

The cover has been unveiled for the anxiously awaited Guitar Hero: Metallica, and the artwork pumps up the contributions of all the bands not named Metallica featured in the game, like Judas Priest, Alice in Chains, Queen, and Lynyrd… Skynrd (check the left-center). Sadly, it seems the Southern rock heroes have lost a Y in their band name — haven’t they lost enough already? Even the (properly) misspelled Mercyful Fate get their name handled correctly, and the oft-mangled Mastodon pass the fact-checking test. It doesn’t mean that Skynyrd’s bluesy kiss-off “Tuesday’s Gone” will be any less fun to play, though. It’s also been announced that Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister will make an appearance as an animated character in the game, so players can gargle along with “Ace of Spades” without having to see a spiky-haired punk rock caricature singing it onscreen. There are also multiple songs featuring the facepaint-loving King Diamond, so there’s even money on him making an appearance, as well. Metallica’s biggest songs are represented in the track list (”Enter Sandman,” “Sad But True,” “One”), but there are also a few old gems thrown in for the diehards, including “Dyers Eve,” “The Shortest Straw” and “Hit the Lights,” the first song the band ever wrote and released. The XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game — which will be sold stand-alone, so players will already need the rest of the Guitar Hero gear — will be released on March 29. For Rolling Stone’s hands-on preview of the game, check out our Sneak Peek: Guitar Hero: Metallica. Related Stories: • Metallica Reveal Guitar Hero Track List • Have Guitar Hero and Rock Band Peaked?

Published: 2009-02-17 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Ben Harper Gets Heavy With Relentless7 on “White Lies for Dark Times”

Photo: Foley/FilmMagic Ben Harper has plugged his guitar back in and cranked up the amp for his new album White Lies For Dark Times, an 11-song set soaked with hard rock and the deep Delta blues. “It’s a sound I’ve been looking for and reaching for in my mind,” Harper tells Rolling Stone (a full in the studio report can be found in our current issue). “We’ve taken turns kicking each others’ asses in the most gracious fashion, pushing this into new places.” Which means the album is more Cream than Jack Johnson, more “Faded” than “Steal My Kisses.” Why the louder sound? Harper’s ninth studio album will be his first with his new backing band Relentless7, three Austin-based musicians who initially worked with Harper on 2006’s Both Sides of the Gun. It also marks the first time Harper has recorded an album without his Innocent Criminals since 2003’s Diamonds on the Inside. Even though he’s fully committed to Relentless7, and will bring the band along for his slot at Bonnaroo, Harper still plans to keep the Innocent Criminals together, much like how Neil Young and Crazy Horse often took different paths but somehow always found their way back together. Rolling Stone caught Harper and Relentless7 at Los Angeles’ Spaceland in December 2008, where the band played White Lies tracks like the tough, howling “Number With No Name” and the brooding 12-string acoustic ballad “Skin Thin,” plus a cover of the Queen/David Bowie collaboration “Under Pressure.” The Smoking Section also talked with Harper about the R7 in the days following the group’s slot on the Rock the Vote! Tour. Related Stories: • Ben Harper Introduces New Blues-Rock Band Relentless7 • Smoking Section Exclusive: Ben Harper’s New Band • Ben Harper Turns Guitar Troubles Into Triumph at All Points West

Published: 2009-02-12 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Unveil Eye-Popping Cover for “It’s Blitz!” Single “Zero”

There it is: the eye-catching (apologies) cover of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ first single from It’s Blitz!, “Zero.” Does it make you feel squeamish? Kind of dirty? Yeah, that’s about right in the band’s wheelhouse. You can read all about the New York trio’s adventures on a Texas pecan orchard where they recorded most of the April 14th disc in the current issue of Rolling Stone, but we can tell you this: “Zero” is a synth-charged dance-floor album that Karen O says will definitely inspire spontaneous dancing. As the frontwoman told RS, It’s Blitz! is about “Less angst and more positivity, man!” It’s Blitz!, the follow-up to 2006’s Show Your Bones, was produced by Nick Launay (who you’ll recall from the band’s 2007 EP Is Is) and TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek. A few other TVOTR folks cameo on the album, too: Tunde Adebimpe sings, Kyp Malone contributes tambourine (it must be some pretty bangin’ tambourine) and Stuart Bogie adds saxophone to “Dragon Queen.” Other guests include cellist Jane Scarpantoni, famous for her work with 10,000 Maniacs, R.E.M., and a little-known guy from New Jersey named Bruce Springsteen. Track list, thanks to Spin is below. And get a load of the album’s egg-smashing cover art over at Pitchfork. 1. “Zero” (4:25/ Eric Biondo - trumpet, Stuart Bogie - saxophone) 2. “Heads Will Roll” (3:41) 3. “Soft Shock” (3:53) 4. “Skeletons” (5:02) 5. “Dull Life” (4:08) 6. “Shame and Fortune” (3:31) 7. “Runaway” (5:13 / Jane Scarpantoni - cello, Greg Kurstin - piano) 8. “Dragon Queen” (4:02 / Tunde Adebimpe - vocals, Stuart Bogie - saxophone, Kyp Malone - tambourine) 9. “Hysteric” (3:50 / Eric Biondo - trumpet, Stuart Bogie - saxophone) 10. “Little Shadow” (3:57/ Imaad Wasif - guitar)

Published: 2009-02-12 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Metallica Reveal “Guitar Hero” Track List

Metallica have revealed the track list for their upcoming Guitar Hero game, out on March 29th. The 28-song list combines the band’s greatest hits like “Enter Sandman” and “One” with fan favorites like “Battery” and “Dyers Eve.” Additionally, gamers can play the band’s new Death Magnetic in the full-game mode if they downloaded that album. Plus, GH: Metallica will also feature songs by artists like Bob Seger, Alice in Chains, Foo Fighters and new metal all-stars like Mastodon and the Sword. As reported in Rolling Stone’s preview of Guitar Hero: Metallica, the game features a storyline concocted by James Hetfield, with players starting the game as the band’s opening act before eventually becoming Metallica. The game also contains artwork from the band’s longtime collaborator Pushead and bonus features like live performances and behind-the-scenes footage. To see the entire Guitar Hero: Metallica track list, keep reading. Metallica songs: “All Nightmare Long” “Battery” “Creeping Death” “Disposable Heroes” “Dyers Eve” “Enter Sandman” “Fade To Black” “Fight Fire With Fire” “For Whom The Bell Tolls” “Frantic” “Fuel” “Hit The Lights” “King Nothing” “Master of Puppets” “Mercyful Fate (Medley)” “No Leaf Clover” “Nothing Else Matters” “One” “Orion” “Sad But True” “Seek And Destroy” “The Memory Remains” “The Shortest Straw” “The Thing That Should Not Be” “The Unforgiven” “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” “Wherever I May Roam” “Whiplash” Other artists: Alice In Chains – “No Excuses” Bob Seger – “Turn The Page” Corrosion of Conformity – “Albatross” Diamond Head – “Am I Evil?” Foo Fighters – “Stacked Actors” Judas Priest – “Hell Bent For Leather” Kyuss – “Demon Cleaner” Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Tuesdays Gone” Machine Head – “Beautiful Mourning” Mastodon – “Blood And Thunder” Mercyful Fate – “Evil” Michael Schenker Group – “Armed and Ready” Motorhead – “Ace of Spades” Queen – “Stone Cold Crazy” Samhain – “Mother of Mercy” Slayer – “War Ensemble” Social Distortion – “Mommy’s Little Monster” Sui

Published: 2009-01-26 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Bat for Lashes Return With Scott Walker, Multiple Personalities on April’s “Two Suns”

Photo: Forrest/WireImage Last year English songstress Natasha Khan grabbed our attention with her incredible Donnie Darko-esque one-take video for her band Bat for Lashes’ “What’s a Girl To Do.” The album it came from, the well-received 2006 debut Fur and Gold, led to a prestigious European tour support slot with Radiohead: “Thom Yorke told me I should do what I want and fuck everyone else,” she recalls. And so she has — Bat for Lashes will return April 6th with Two Suns, an album heavy on musical method acting. Khan tells Rolling Stone that the record was inspired by intensely personal experiences that followed ’06’s hauntingly ethereal Fur and Gold. But instead of writing first-person confessionals, her new lyrics are channeled through two main personas, one of which is Pearl, an egotistical (and blond!) femme fatale. “When I was recording and struggling with relationships and being away from home, I would sometimes go out to a bar and get drunk and then dress up and some of the characters on the album,” she says. “It was like an escapist fantasy — a way for me to help make sense of what I was feeling. It sounds a bit mental but then again, I was feeling a bit mental at the time.” Brooklyn experimentalists Yeasayer contribute to the album and Khan has even managed to lure the famously reclusive Scott Walker into providing vocals on the album’s finale “The Big Sleep.” “That song was meant to be drag queen’s dying song and I wanted it to be very theatrical. I was trying to sing the low part like a man but when I did, I just heard Scott Walker’s voice in my head,” she says. “It was all done by e-mail and we didn’t even meet. I sent him the song with some notes and he sent it back saying he really tried to get into character and that he hoped he had done it justice — which he definitely has! He also said it was the quietest he’d sung in years.” Related Stories: • Breaking: Bat for Lashes • Single Minded: Bat for Lashes Cover the Cure

Published: 2009-01-22 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

McCartney Says Beatles Going Digital in ‘08, New Alice in Chains Album, Queens of the Stone Age Booted From Rehab Clinic

According to Paul McCartney, in 2008, the Beatles catalog may finally be available in digital-music stores. McCartney tells Billboard “it’s all happening soon,” and “there’s just maybe one little sticking point left, and I think it’s being cleared up as we speak.” McCartney makes no mention of a possible remastering of the Beatles tracks, however, and instead says that delay is due to “contractual” issues. Alice in Chains, with William DuVall assuming Layne Staley’s vocal duties, are hoping to release an album of new music in the latter half of 2008, even though no complete songs have been written. The band’s last album of new material was 1995’s Alice In Chains. Queens of the Stone Age were forced offstage during a concert at a California drug-rehab center after only one song. The band opted to open their set with “Feel Good Hit of the Summer,” which contains the lyrics “Nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol/C-c-c-c-cocaine.” Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis was honored by the Queen of England, who took the opportunity to ask about the fest’s infamous mud. Next week, George W. Bush is expected to honor Perry Farrell for all his hard work on Lollapalooza by throwing a kegger. The geniuses at Gibson have created a limited-edition stock of self-tuning, robotic guitars. The guitars would help roadies at concerts who are responsible for tuning numerous guitars, as well as amateurs who have no idea how to find an E.

Published: 2007-11-15 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Afternoon News Roundup, Digital Music

Maynard James Keenan’s Puscifer: Tool Leader Speaks on Enigmatic Side Project

When you say the name of Maynard James Keenan’s new recording project, Puscifer, it is “Pus as in Puss’n'Boots,” says the Tool singer on a recent afternoon at Electric Lady Studios in New York. “Not as in a boil,” he adds with a dry chuckle. Keenan, working on the record on a rare day away from Tool’s current world tour, explains that Puscifer “is my attempt to make music to inspire people. Heavy rock is sinking, the industry is dying. This is definitely not thinking man’s music” — elliptically referring to Tool’s dense, serpentine metal — “but groove-oriented music that makes you feel good.” The music Keenan previews at Electric Lady is suitably provocative, with a good-time roll. “Queen B” features a bee’s nest of overlapping, processed vocals — including Keenan’s own deep country baritone — over noir-ish hip-hop drumming, like Keenan’s previous side outing, A Perfect Circle, in Tennessee-midnight-radio dub. “Dojo” is marching percussion and sinister electronics with what sounds like the death gulp of a Duane Eddy-treble guitar. “World Up My Ass” is Keenan’s version of the 1980 Circle Jerks song — total psychic collapse as straight-up backwoods fun. “Country Boner” is delightfully offensive and something of an antique — a cover of a song by the Illinois garage band Electric Sheep, which featured pre-Tool guitarist Adam Jones and his high school buddy, Tom Morello, later in Rage Against The Machine. Keenan describes Puscifer as “more of a collaboration” than a group. Contributors include Primus drummer Tim Alexander, guitarist-soundscaper Jonny Polonsky and, on vocals, Lisa Germano and actress Milla Jovovich. And Keenan says the music could end up as more than just an album, which he expects to issue in October. “I’d like to release it in different ways — maybe two songs at a time, every three

Published: 2007-07-19 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News