The Cult Pictures

Rob Sheffield Remembers Ultimate Indie Cult Hero Alex Chilton

Photo: Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Classic Alex Chilton live moment: 1987, long after midnight, a sleazy rock bar in Roanoke, Virginia. When the man strikes up his best-loved song, the Big Star classic “September Gurls,” some drunk idiot celebrates by throwing a bottle that hits the guitar. Chilton cuts the song dead right at the syllable “Sep—” and snarls, “If I catch the motherfucker who threw that bottle, I’m gonna kill him.” Then, to the band: “OK, on D. One. Two.” They pick it up without m

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

Breaking: Girls

Who: San Francisco’s Girls are led by Christopher Owens, who was raised in more than a dozen countries as a member of the Children of God cult before escaping at age 16, moving back to the States and taking a job as a supermarket stocker in Texas. He hitchhiked to New York and eventually decided to become a painter in California, where he met Holy Shit’s Matt Fishbeck and Ariel Pink, fell in love with their sound and joined the band. He had learned to play guitar as a teen in Denmark — he busked

Published: 2009-09-09 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Videos, Pop Life, Breaking

Only the name is Slightly Stoopid

Music & nightlifeSlightly Stoopid — the good reggae/punk band with the silly name — plays Marymoor Park with Pepper and Sly & Robbie Aug. 7.

Published: 2008-08-01 Provider: Seattle Times

HAUNTED CHANTS

IT'S hard to believe that a band best known for its sunny and romantic hit tune "California" - of "The O.C." theme-song fame - would draw inspiration from something as dark as 20th-century cults. But that's exactly what inspired Phantom Planet lead...

Published: 2008-04-22 Provider: New York Post Keywords: Greenwald, cult, album, band, happened, music

Breaking Artist: Cloud Cult

Cloud Cult leader Craig Minowa has held thirty-six jobs (including kids’ party entertainer), but his most fruitful has been songwriter for Cloud Cult, a band that blends the Arcade Fire’s instrumental arsenal with the gentle throb of the Postal Service. Find out more about the Minnesota collective, and view the exclusive premiere their video for the explosive “Everybody Here Is a Cloud” at the Breaking blog.

Published: 2008-04-16 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight

Artist: Rilo Kiley Review: Because Rilo Kiley's More Adventurous was a triumph of the well-made narrative song, its markedly terser and beatier follow-up, which is also the band's true major-label debut, will be accused of sellout. Instead, it's yet more adventurous, a prosperous band's challenge to its comfortable cult. Always too cute for serious indie cred, Jenny Lewis slips four songs about dangerous sex in which she herself might be indulging -- right now, in her pretty prosperity -- into music that's defined... Rating: 4 Stars

Published: 2007-08-10 Provider: Rolling Stone

Readers’ Rock List: Color Bands

Photo: Mazur/WireImage Despite one street team’s attempt to ballot-stuff this weekend’s Rock List, echoing the Great “Killers-gate” of 2008, San Francisco punks and inspirers of musicals Green Day were voted the Best Color Band by the Rock Daily readers, edging out other colorful artists like the White Stripes, Pink Floyd and Black Flag. Our Top 20 reads like a rainbow, even if it is missing Agent Orange, the Silver Apples and the Indigo Girls, so check out the entire Rock List: Color Bands below: 1. Green Day 2. The White Stripes 3. Black Sabbath 4. Red Hot Chili Peppers 5. Pink Floyd 6. Deep Purple 7. Black Flag 8. Black Keys 9. James Brown 10. Black Lips 11. Al Green 12. Blue Oyster Cult 13. White Zombie 14. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club 15. Black Kids 16. Frank Black 17. Godspeed You! Black Emperor 18. Yellowcard 19. Silversun Pickups 20.  The Red Krayola

Published: 2009-03-30 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock Lists

Velvet Revolver’s Duff McKagan Claims Potential Led Zeppelin Opening Slot

Velvet Revolver is the frontrunner to open up for Led Zeppelin if the band were to go on a full reunion tour, says VR’s Duff McKagan. “I understand that we have it, although I imagine there will be plenty of bands prepared to kick and punch us out of the way for the privilege!” said McKagan. One of those bands who will likely fight it out is the Cult, as lead singer Ian Astbury told a Cincinnati crowd last November that his band would be opening for the Zep reunion tour. Another potential wrench in the works would be Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland’s tour with a reunited Stone Temple Pilots. No Zeppelin reunion tour has been announced, as Robert Plant has scheduling commitments to his joint tour with Alison Krauss until September. [Photo: Getty]

Published: 2008-03-18 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Led Zeppelin Reunion

Eighteen Grateful Dead Tracks Coming to “Rock Band”

“Truckin’,” “Uncle John’s Band,” “Touch of Grey,” “Sugar Magnolia,” “Casey Jones” and thirteen more original Grateful Dead recordings are coming to Rock Band when the four-player game is released this winter. The Who’s Who’s Next will still be the first full album of downloadable content available, and users will be able to nab individual tracks from Mountain, Black Sabbath, David Bowie, Rush, Blue Öyster Cult, the Hives, Queens of the Stone Age, the Ramones, Metallica, Bon Jovi, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Weezer, Foo Fighters and the Strokes. For more on Rock Band, check out Rock Daily’s first hands-on experience with the game here. [Photo: Baker/Redferns/Retna]

Published: 2007-09-06 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Mick Jagger Releases Rarities, Miles Davis Box Set on the Way, Bruce Springsteen Guests on Patti Scialfa’s LP

After finally exhausting every possible permutation of greatest hits packages for The Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger will unfurl The Very Best of Mick Jagger, a collection of his best solo work, on October 2. The set will feature three unreleased songs, among them “Too Many Cooks,” which was produced by John Lennon, and two covers including his duet with David Bowie on “Dancing in the Street.” Portishead has tapped into the instigating powers of MySpace to attack Mark Ronson, accusing the producer of turning “decent songs into funky supermarket muzak.” They might have a point. Listen to The Cult’s new single “Dirty Little Rock Star” from their forthcoming album Born Into This, the band’s first album since 2001. The complete sessions from Miles Davis’ On the Corner album will be released in a six-disc box set. Bruce Springsteen and various other E Streeters will guest on the Boss’s wife Patti Scialfa’s upcoming third solo album. Photo: Greenway/Getty

Published: 2007-08-10 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Afternoon News Roundup

Korn Won’t Cover Up Admiration For Prince, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam Any Longer

When Korn taped their MTV Unplugged earlier this year, the band stocked their set with unlikely covers like Radiohead’s “Creep” and a mashup of their own “Make Me Bad” with The Cure’s “In Between Days.” Apparently, this was a sign of things to come, as the band has started working on a full-on covers album. Though they’re releasing a new album of original material July 31, Korn have already banked a bunch of covers. “We’ve already done, like, ‘Love My Way’ from Psychedelic Furs,” said frontman Jonathan Davis. “We’ve done ‘We Care a Lot’ from Faith No More [and Nine Inch Nails’] ‘Head Like a Hole.’ Those are already recorded. We just gotta get in and do some more.” Up next: Prince’s “Erotic City,” Ozzy Osbourne’s “Diary of a Madman” and Debbie Deb’s “Lookout Weekend” as done by Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam. Photo: Winter/Getty

Published: 2007-07-21 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

The Album Is Dead! Long Live the Album!

As record sales continue to tank by the week, artists and fans are getting crazy nostalgic for the halcyon days of the disc. But maybe the death of the full-length LP has been greatly exaggerated: Could the album actually be waging a comeback? The new video game Rock Band will feature entire albums as templates for aspiring rockers. First up is the Who’s Who’s Next. Metallica, who’ve long resisted putting their music online, will include “Enter Sandman,” with more tracks available in the future. Last weekend at the Pitchfork Music Festival, three headliners performed albums in their entirety: drone-rockers Slint revisted their 1991 cult classic Spiderland, Sonic Youth tore through their 1988 noise-rock masterpiece Daydream Nation and Wu-Tang rapper GZA unleashed his 1995 album Liquid Swords. Reissues are coming out at ridiculous rates. Some are records we thought we bought just yesterday, like Foo Fighters’ repackaging of their 1997 disc The Colour and the Shape. iTunes has been offering up full albums for sale at bargain-bin rates (well, $5.99 and $6.99), focusing on Next Big Thing artists like LCD Soundsystem.

Published: 2007-07-18 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News