Say Anything Pictures

Say Anything on Pranks, Smashing Pumpkins Covers and “Daddy”

When Say Anything swung through New York for a sold-out show at the Nokia Theater in Times Square last weekend, RollingStone.com caught up with the sextet to talk about April Fool’s jokes and life on the road. For the complete interview, click here, and for photos of the band’s tattoos and most prized possessions (and one of their more famous fans, Ashley Olsen), click here. [Photo: Jason Bergman for RollingStone.com]

Published: 2008-04-01 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Say Anything - In Defense Of The Genre

Artist: Say Anything Review: Emo dudes vary the heartbreak guitars with string ballads and a faux show tune for years, say anything leader Max Bemis has had to deal with bipolar disorder, but judging by his band's third album, he's got something else to gripe about -- namely, bad, bad love. Loosely based on one of Bemis' own relationships, the album mostly sticks to serrated emo but ranges from big, string-laden ballads ("Plea") to a faux show tune ("That Is Why"). When Bemis is on --shuffling between a touching Latinate me... Rating: 3 Stars

Published: 2007-10-17 Provider: Rolling Stone

TIME FOR CLUTCH TO GET A BREAK

COMMERCIAL radio is doing its best to kill off rock 'n' roll, replacing it with self-indulgent alt-rock, candy pop and generic rap. But rock ain't dead yet - not if Clutch has anything to say about it. A cult band popular among in-the-know college...

Published: 2007-03-27 Provider: New York Post Keywords: rock, band, Fallon, music, Clutch, always, metal, music

Annotations Of An Autopsy part ways with bassist

Annotations Of An Autopsy have parted company with bassist Ross Davey. "There is no bad blood or anything," say the band in a statement. "We didn't kick him out. It was down to a number of reasons which would have prevented him from touring full-time with us. It's sad to see him go. He's been with us for years and we'll still remain friends." Interested parties should contact the band at annotationsofanautopsy@hotmail.co.uk. The band – who have recently inked a worldwide deal with Nuclear Blast Records – will enter the studio in April to record their follow-up to 2008's Before The Throne Of Infection.

Published: 2009-03-25 Provider: Kerrang!

Jimmy Chamberlin Explains Smashing Pumpkins Split, Says He Can’t “Cash The Check”

Photo: LaVeris/FilmMagic Days after Rock Daily reported that Jimmy Chamberlin was exiting the Smashing Pumpkins, the drummer took to his official blog to explain his side of the story. “By now you have heard the news of my departure from the Smashing Pumpkins. I will say, without going into any unnecessary details that this represents a positive move forward for me,” Chamberlin writes. “I can no longer commit all of my energy into something that I don’t fully possess. I won’t pretend I’m into something I’m not. I won’t do it to myself, you the fan, or my former partner. I can’t just, ‘Cash the check’ so to speak.” The “cash the check” line is especially striking, considering the Smashing Pumpkins have really “sold out” as the kids say in recent years, popping up in plenty of commercials. There’s the Morgan Freeman-narrated Visa commercial featuring “Today,” the Hyundai ad featuring new track “F.O.L.” that aired during the Super Bowl, “That’s the Way (My Love Is)” in a Ford commercial, the Guitar Hero: World Tour exclusive track “G.L.O.W.” Add it all up and the Pumpkins have pretty much become the Yellow Pages. Plus, perhaps Chamberlin further soured on sticking with the band after Corgan testified in Washington, D.C. in favor of the fan-maligned Live Nation Ticketmaster merger. As for Corgan going all Axl Rose and continuing on as the Smashing Pumpkins, Chamberlin — the Pumpkin who stuck with Billy the longest, even playing in Zwan — says, “My best goes out to Billy and I’m glad he has chosen to continue under the name. It is his right.” Chamberlin adds, “Music is my life. It is sacred. It deserves the highest commitment at every level and the Pumpkins are certainly no different. I’m sorry but it really IS that simple. There is no drama, bad blood, or anything else but a full commitment to music.” Chamberlin writes that he’ll continue to make music with his Jimmy Chamberlin Complex and other musical interests. Related Stories: • Jimmy Chamberlin Leaves Smashing Pump

Published: 2009-03-24 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Breaking: The Low Anthem

Who: The Low Anthem, a trio of neo-hippie rockers who, after scoring a slot at Bonnaroo and a gig opening for Ray LaMontagne, have become one of the hottest unsigned bands on the East Coast. With A&R reps flocking to their sold out shows, frontman Ben Knox Miller says, “We can make a living now. Not a luxurious living, but a living.” Sounds Like: Backed by Miller’s Springsteen-esque rasp and multi-instrumentalists Jocie Adams and Jeff Prystowsky, the Low Anthem craft homemade, warm-hearted Americana populated by train workers and road trippers on their second album, Oh My God, Charles Darwin. Recorded on Block Island, Rhode Island, the group adds flourishes of instruments like pump organ, zither and Tibetan singing bowls. Vital Stats: • The trio met at Brown University; Miller and Prystowsky played intramural baseball together and then DJ’d the graveyard shift at a radio station before starting the Low Anthem as a duo. The band’s biggest fan was Adams, who was recruited to join after Miller learned she could play anything from trumpet to viola. • Adams is a classical music-loving nerd who once worked as a researcher at NASA (she studied photochemistry). “I guess you could say I undiscovered [the hydrocarbon] allene in Titan’s atmosphere,” Adams says. Miller jokes, “Can you imagine what it’s like getting her to rock & roll?” • “Everything we listen to is really old: Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Gustav Mahler,” Miller says of the band’s influences. “We’re not into the next big thing.” Hear It Now: Oh My God, Charles Darwin is available now in stores and digital music services. In our Breaking video above, watch Low Anthem perform their song “To the Ghosts That Write History Books.”

Published: 2009-02-25 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Breaking

Two Tongues by Two Tongues

The debut album for the band featuring Say Anything's Max Bemis and Coby Linder as well as Saves the Day's Chris Conley and David Soloway. [Rock]

Published: 2009-02-14 Provider: Metacritic

Velvet Revolver Settle Plagiarism Case, Pay Another Band’s Bassist Lead Singer-Worthy Money

We don’t know who the next singer of Velvet Revolver will be, but he or she may want to avoid putting the Contraband song “Dirty Little Thing” on future set lists. The band has reportedly settled a plagiarism case with U.K. rocker Tony Newton, bassist of the band Voodoo Six, that alleged VR stole the riff and melody of “Dirty Little Thing” from Newton’s own “Cyber Babe,” which he wrote for his previous band Dirty Deeds. “A couple of years back, a mate of mine in L.A. called me to say he’d heard what he thought was my song on the radio, and that he had been a bit shocked when he realized it was Velvet Revolver,” says Newton. “When I checked it out myself, I genuinely couldn’t believe it, because it wasn’t as if it was close… it was basically the same riff. Anyway, I called my publishers to check whether they knew anything — which, of course, they didn’t — and then basically left it with them. I never really expected to hear any more about it and was as surprised as anyone when I heard that Universal had settled with Velvet Revolver.” And what a settlement it was: Newton will receive 20 percent of all royalties from Contraband and the single dating back to 2004, plus all future royalties on the song from commercial uses, live performances, digital sales, etc. He’s essentially being paid like he’s a member of the band, even though he never picked up an instrument for them. Related Stories • Exclusive: Lenny Kravitz Tells RS “No Truth to the Story” About Joining Velvet Revolver • Velvet Revolver’s McKagan Denies Band Hired Langdon as Frontman • Velvet Revolver Reject Reality Show Plans, Prepare Announcement [Photo: Getty]

Published: 2008-08-20 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: 2008-04-28 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Coachella

Devo Smack Down Korn, Talk First New Album In Nearly Two Decades

“Humans are continuing to evolve as a species,” says a man wearing a ridiculous white wig and moustache. “But instead of evolving forward we are evolving backward.” This is all part of Korn’s fake trailer for a film called Devolution: Nature’s U-Turn, which argues that chaos on the planet is proof mankind is slowly devolving back into apes. Sound familiar? It sure did to Jerry Casale, whose band Devo has been making movies and songs about De-evolution since their formation in 1972. Casale, who learned of the project when a rattled Devo fan sent him the link, responded by posting a brief message on the official Devo Web site: “Korn Runs Rampant w/ Devolution — No Nod to DEVO,” he wrote. “We denounce this as imposters playing with fire.” The reaction from the Korn audience was swift and severe. “Their fanbase, being pretty cretinous, took it like a serious smackdown,” Casale says. “They started writing vicious hate-filled e-mails saying, ‘You guys don’t own the word “devolution” What makes you think you can come out of retirement and say stuff about the great Korn?’ We went, ‘Wow, this is insane. This is a perfect example of devolution. You’re a case in point, pal. Gee, I’m sorry we thought all this up thirty years ago and have been putting it out there and preaching it ever since.’” Casale would like a tip-of-the-hat to Devo somewhere on the Korn site, but he won’t hold his breath. “I wouldn’t hope for anything from people today, are you kidding?” he says. “We live in a subhuman mean-ass society where everyone has learned to be totally disgusting and spiritless. It starts at the top and trickles down. When you have an administration like we have, everybody learns that ‘fuck you’ is the rule of the day. Every time the president speaks it’s a painful example that de-evolution is real.&#

Published: 2007-07-26 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

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

Hear Rolling Stone’s Favorite New Tracks Including Hurricane Chris, Robert Plant and Say Anything

Hurricane Chris, “The Hang Clap” Silly-fun club jam around the sleek bouncy sound that Louisianians call “ratchet” — and almost as catchy as “A Bay Bay.” [Listen]-[Review] Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, “Fortune Teller” Plant and Krauss transform the 1960s R&B standard into a sweet midtempo harmonic gem. [Listen]-[Review] Dave Gahan , “Use You” This Iggy Pop-inspired track proves that the Depeche Mode frontman can craft a song outside his band. [Listen]-[Review] Say Anything, “Retarded in Love” Cathartic, hook-filled emo — and now’s your chance to hear frontman Max Bemis fall apart yet one more time. [Listen]-[Review] Neil Young, “Ordinary People” The longest song in Young’s catalog (eighteen verses, endless horns) could also be his most bizarre. But it works. [Listen]-[Review]

Published: 2007-10-30 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News