The Darkness pictures from Rolling Stone

Hype Monitor: Celeste, Jean on Jean, La Roux

The Band: Celeste The Buzz: Grim, grinding French metal band releases latest album for free, giving unlimited darkness and doom to all. Listen If: You consider Dillinger Escape Plan “soft rock.” Key Track: “Que Des Yeux Vides et Seches,” a knot of razor-wire guitars and seared-larynx vocals, the sound of an elevator ride to the underworld. The Band: Jean on Jean The Buzz: The inverse of Celeste: sweet, soft, female-fronted pop that blend shoegaze vocals with starry-eyed strumming. Listen If: You’re excited about the return of lo-fi, but wish some of the melodies were a bit stronger and a lot warmer. Key Track: “Cold Horse,” which sounds like it was rescued from the dusty archives of forgotten dreampoppers Lush. The Band: La Roux The Buzz: Dance dance revolution! Big beats and bright synths make for perky, catchy electropop. Listen If: You’re DJing a dance night in Berlin and you’ve run out of MGMT remixes Key Track: “In for the Kill,” where breathy female vocals float over morse code synths like cotton balls over a bed of nails.

Published: 2009-02-26 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Breaking

What’s Next for Springsteen: “Darkness on the Edge of Town” Box Set, “Dream” Tour DVD

Photo: Mazur/WireImage This Sunday, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band will wrap up their two-year tour by performing their 1973 debut album Greetings From Asbury Park in its entirety (stick with Rolling Stone for a full report). After that, Springsteen’s next moves are unclear. His manager, Jon Landau, says the only plans for 2010 are the release of the long-delayed Darkness on the Edge of Town box set and a DVD of the Working on a Dream tour. “The Darkness box set is 93 percent done,” he t

Published: 2009-11-19 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Bruce Springsteen, Rock News

Bruce Springsteen Adds “Darkness On The Edge Of Town” Reissue To Stacked 2009

Photo: Levey/Wireimage As if Bruce Springsteen wasn’t busy enough, what with the five-star Working on a Dream out next Tuesday and a Super Bowl halftime performance set for February 1st, the man from E Street also revealed he’s in the planning stages of a deluxe reissue for his classic 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town. Like the 30th anniversary release of Born To Run, the reissued Darkness “would involve remastering that record, doing the kind of super-creative reconstruction and documentary of how it all came about and finding usable live footage from that point in time,” Springsteen’s manager told Billboard. Besides finding the footage, the only thing that could delay this reissue’s release is finding a six-week gap in Springsteen’s schedule “to sit down and finish it.” The promotional blitz for Working will kick off with the Super Bowl performance, followed by some European concerts and then a tour of the States this summer, so finding a spare six weeks to devote to Darkness may happen later than sooner, but we remain optimistic. Before Brucemania officially sweeps America, be sure to check out the new issue of Rolling Stone, as Springsteen invites writer David Fricke into the studio to talk about his new music, the first song he ever recorded and life with the E Street Band. Plus, we have more web-only Bruce features right here: • Inside Bruce Springsteen’s Rolling Stone Shoot • Bruce Springsteen: The Vintage Photographs • Bruce Springsteen: The RS Covers • Album Review: Bruce Springsteen’s Working on a Dream

Published: 2009-01-23 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Nine Inch Nails Bring Darkness and Light to Seattle for Tour Opener

After a headling slot at Pemberton on Friday night, Nine Inch Nails kicked off their North American tour with a 21st-century marriage of old-school showmanship and bleeding-edge technology on Saturday. With a crack four-piece band in tow — including NIN stage vets Robin Finck on guitar and Josh Freese on drums — an adrenalized, finely-coifed Trent Reznor tore through a two-hour set that leaned heavily on new material and included several choice classics. • Photos: Nine Inch Nails’ “Lights In the Sky” Tour Launches in Seattle As noted in the tour preview, at least half the show featured the band sandwiched between mesh LED curtains alternating evocative visuals, from falling rain to grainy static to an apocalyptic cityscape. The more obscured the band was by special effects, the more a detached, post-YouTube voyeurism haunted the performance. About an hour in, a solid backdrop descended at the front of the stage and the band — now a four-piece, minus keyboardist Alessandro Cortini — stepped in front of it. Standing at the lip of the stage, with Reznor on vibraphone and Justin Meldal-Johnsen on upright bass, they played a 20-minute, mostly acoustic interlude of songs from NIN’s recent Ghosts I-IV. It was a bold move, settling into a subdued, broken-down cabaret swing that was all atmosphere. Reznor swung the microphone like a weapon and ran the stage like an athlete. Twice during the set he pointed out the fact that this was the “first official night of the tour” — a tour, he said, that’s been ongoing for the last 15 years. He didn’t want it to stop, either: After closing with “Head Like a Hole,” the band returned for a half-hour encore. “Hurt” had the entire crowd singing and a few weeping; “In This Twilight,” from last year’s Year Zero ended the set in a downtrodden — but quintessential NIN — manner. Set List “999,999″ “1,000,000″ “Letting You” “Discipline” “March of the Pigs” “Head Down” “The Frail” “Closer” “Gave Up” “The Warning” “The Great Destroyer” “Ghosts

Published: 2008-07-28 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Live Shows, More News

My Chemical Romance Shine Some Darkness in Tempe for Tour Opener

For a complete gallery of photos from this show, click here. Normally a preppy college town baked in desert heat, Tempe, Arizona was bathed in darkness Friday night thanks to the black-clad denizens who descended upon Tempe Beach Park for My Chemical Romance’s tour kickoff. The band eschewed their black-and-white Black Parade uniforms for casual street clothing and tore through a ninety-minute set that focused primarily on 2006’s The Black Parade. However, the New Jersey-based band, playing as part of the two-day Circle K Tempe Music Festival, went back to their 2004 breathrough album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge for its opening and closing numbers: impassioned versions of breakout hits “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” and “Helena,” respectively. Frontman Gerard Way gains a little more confidence with each passing tour, and for this show he channeled the spirit of Mick Jagger: shimmying across the stage, stopping to wiggle his hips on a catwalk that projected into the mosh pit. During “This Is How I Disappear,” his bassist brother Mikey Way (wearing a fantastic T-shirt that announced, “Mikey Fuckin Way”) violently shook his head as Gerard encouraged the audience to raise their right hands. “Thanks for coming out to the fucking rock show,” Gerard said while introducing “Dead!” “Are you all ready to die?” Luckily, nobody bit the dust before the band closed the show in mid-tour form. The group that began in garages in New Jersey has graduated to one of the top arena acts in the country, and its members wear it awfully well. The kids, as they say, are all right. [Photo: Mark Peterman for RollingStone.com]

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

Hype Monitor: Reykjavik!, Mazes, Ivan & Alyosha

Every week, Hype Monitor wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet to find the ones you need to hear now. The Band: Reykjavik! The Buzz: Icelandic band decimates hardcore, turning out brutal, bratty songs that beg and kick. Listen If: You miss the days when …Trail of Dead was all sneer and volume Key Track: “The Blood,” all galloping drums and stomping feedback and gruesome Birthday Party riffs. The Band: Mazes The Buzz: Forget the new no-fi — Chicago band writes songs that are light and soothing as spring breezes. Listen If: You have an ear and a heart for melodies that lap like the ocean on the beach. Key Track: “I Have Laid in the Darkness,” a lonesome lullaby sure to soothe the heartbroken. The Band: Ivan & Alyosha The Buzz: Smooth, soaring guitar pop from Seattle duo that is plaintive and pristine. Listen If: You’d be curious to hear what happened if the Shins slowed it down a bit. Key Track: “Easy to Love,” the perfect late Valentine for the mutually smitten.

Published: 2009-03-12 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Breaking

News Ticker: John Lennon, The Darkness and Steven Adler

Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty A demo of John Lennon drunkenly covering Lloyd Price’s “Just Because” during a 1973 recording session sold for $30,000 at an auction this weekend. “It was six minutes, 16 seconds, and John singing very drunk and with John ad-libbing his own lyrics into the song — so it’s actually a fun song to listen to,” a spokesperson for the auction house said. The Darkness are reportedly considering a reunion after a “small fortune” was offered for Justin Hawkins and his spandex-clad clan to do a U.S. tour and new album. Despite the band still having “differences” that led to the break following two albums, an insider says, “The offer is tabled and being studied by everyone.” Former Guns n’ Roses drummer Steven Adler was sentenced to rehab after pleading guilty to felony drug possession charges. It’s unclear whether the sentence is related to Adler’s upcoming stint on Sober House, the sequel to his season of Celebrity Rehab, which premieres January 15th on VH1.

Published: 2008-12-22 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Morning News Roundup

Rewind: The Week in Rock Daily

Photo: HONDA/AFP/Getty Obamania culminated with Barack being elected the 44th President of the United States, thanks (maybe) to some last-minute stumping by Bruce Springsteen in clutch swing state Ohio. Pretty much everyone voted (except David Byrne), then the music world celebrated. Jack Bruce of Cream started a rock feud with Led Zeppelin about 35 years too late, calling the band “crap,” saying Jimmy Page “ain’t no Eric Clapton” and topping it all off by accusing Robert Plant of being “the wrong kind of fertilizer.” Pwned! Bruce Springsteen’s fansite revealed that New Jersey’s rock god is working on the follow-up to 2007’s Magic and that it should be released by January 2009. That’ll give Bruce some new material to play at the inevitable Obama inauguration all-star concert. We still had way too much time on our hands as we tested out the new Wii Music game, explored the 50 Best Rock & Roll Video Games of All Time and talked Guitar Hero: World Tour with the Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne. Our thumbs have never been more blistered.

Published: 2008-11-07 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

The Ozzman Playeth: Ozzy Osbourne Discovers “Guitar Hero: World Tour”

Two of the highlights of the new Guitar Hero: World Tour are care of Ozzy Osboure: the spooky “Mr. Crowley” and the amped-up “Crazy Train.” While the Lord of Darkness himself doesn’t play regularly, he enjoyed the process of putting his avatar in the game. “I had, like, a suit with all these balls on it,” he says. “It was like I was lip-syncing to one of my live albums.” Click below for more on Osbourne and Guitar Hero. • The Ozzman Playeth: Ozzy Osbourne Discovers Guitar Hero: World Tour Related Stories: • Fall Gaming 2008: How Real Can It Get? • Gadget Envy: Rock Band 2 • Gadget Envy: Wii Music

Published: 2008-11-06 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Bruce Springsteen Thrills Fans, Performs Two Full LPs at Rare Theater Show

It’s unclear exactly what motivated Bruce Springsteen to perform his Darkness on the Edge of Town and Born to Run albums in sequence last night at New Jersey’s Count Basie Theater. Maybe it was the fact that fans bid a minimum of $1,000 for tickets (the proceeds of which went towards refurbishing the theater) and he wanted to give them something special. Maybe it was because the last time he played a theater with the E Street Band in 1980 these songs were all relatively new. Maybe the recent death of founding E Street Band organist Danny Federici has made him reflect on the group’s early days. Maybe after a strenuous eight-month arena tour he was ready for something different. Regardless, the nearly three-hour marathon concert — entirely composed of songs from the 1970s — was the most powerful Springsteen show I’ve ever seen. With the exception of the Darkness track “Factory,” all the songs on those two seminal albums are in regular rotation on his set list — but you’d have to attend about 15 concerts to hear all of them. The two albums have been at the core of nearly every E Street Band concert ever since they were released, particularly since the group reformed nine years ago. Hearing them in sequence for the first time ever on a stage made them even more moving. The despair of “Racing in the Streets” was perfectly followed by the hope of “The Promised Land.” Born to Run was even more carefully sequenced at the time to give the feel of twenty-four hours in a swampy Jersey day. The title track always feels victorious when played at the end of a long arena show, with the house lights on and fans holding their beers high. When played in a small, dark theater right after “Backstreets,” the desperation and restlessness seeped through every word. Patti Scialfa — who helped organize the fundraiser — gave a speech before the show about the importance of saving h

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