"In Our Bedroom After the War" by Stars

Canadian band Stars doesn't try to hide their love of The Smiths—their debut full-length, Night Songs, treated listeners to a splendidly low-key version of "This Charming Man." Several albums and side projects later, the Canucks are still digging on the Moz. Stars' newest album, In Our Bedroom After the War, boasts one of the band's best Smiths homages yet. On "Take Me To the Riot" lead singer Torquil Campbell croons like a young Morrissey circa "Bigmouth Strikes Again." "Riot" pumps out well-calibrated synth-pop riffs alongside harmonic lyrics about cells, pills, cash and neon lights—proof that the band is well-versed in the same subtle darkness that makes teenagers want to don "Meat Is Murder" shirts. While Bedroom gives Stars the opportunity to perfect their Smithsian sound, the album also finds the band exploring new ground as well. On the ballad "My Favourite Book" vocalist Amy Millan murmurs sweet nothings against a background

Published: 2007-09-28 Provider: Artist Direct

Morrissey Turned Down Mega-Bucks Smiths Reunion Offer Over Johnny Marr

Morrissey has once again broken the hearts of millions of already-damaged Smiths fans by refusing to reunite the band. The Mozzer’s publicist has confirmed that the crooner declined a $75 million offer to tour as the Smiths in 2008 and/or 2009 even though the only requirement was that Johnny Marr also be a part of the reunion. What does this new information tell us? That the theory surmising that Morrissey’s legal battles with former Smith Mike Joyce were behind his resistance to reuniting the band is flawed. Apparently Morrissey isn’t up for any kind of Smiths reunion … yet. In the meantime, Marr is still an integral part of Modest Mouse, and Joyce is counting the Smiths back pay and royalties he collected in 1996 and releasing an album with his latest band, Vinny Peculiar, in October.

Published: 2007-08-24 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Appreciation: Mike Smith made the Dave Clark Five a rock force

Twelve days before his band, the Dave Clark Five, was to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Mike Smith the band's ...

Published: 2008-02-29 Provider: USA Today

MOTHER OF INVENTION

IN his acceptance speech after winning a Grammy for Best Rock Album a couple of Sundays back, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith urged: "A bunch of kids should get out there and start a rock band, we need more rock bands!" Young Brooklyn...

Published: 2007-02-24 Provider: New York Post Keywords: Muffin, Toxic, band, Ari, Brooklyn, Tino, rock, mom, AudraRox, brothers, play, Astrograss, Smith, Tsanos, back, music

The Cure Singer Prepares Anniversary Documentary

THE CURE frontman ROBERT SMITH is already working on a DVD documentary to celebrate the band's 30th anniversary - even though the landmark doesn't tak

Published: 2007-07-21 Provider: Contact Music

"An End Has a Start (Deluxe Edition)" by Editors

Considering the British boys in Editors spent a large part of their debut's promotion time hell-bent on convincing listeners that they're not merely a Xerox copy of Interpol, it's curious that they're releasing their sophomore effort, An End Has a Start, a week after the New York band's Our Love to Admire. But while Interpol is now focused on cool detachment and fleeting threesomes, Editors newest is the embodiment of earnestness. Singer Tom Smith mopes his way through lyrics that wouldn't read out of place on a Hallmark card: "In the end all you can hope for is the love you felt to equal the pain you've gone through," the frontman emotes in "Bones," while "Push Your Head Towards the Air" sees Smith professing, "Now don't drown in your tears, babe, I will always be there." As for the music, despite the band's insistence that Joy Division is not an influence, their sound still plays like a not-wholly-unique variety of gloomy post-punk. Ultimately, the

Published: 2007-07-16 Provider: Artist Direct

Fricke's Picks: David Fricke on the box-set from MC5 guitarist Fred Smith's Seventies group

Published: 2006-10-20 Provider: Rolling Stone

Panic at the Disco Debut Stripped-Down Set, Sound on Honda Civic Tour

There were some jarring product placements at the opening night of Panic at the Disco’s North American outing — even for something called the Honda Civic Tour. Motion City Soundtrack, the Hush Sound and Phantom Planet opened, and between sets automobile commercials alternated with videos from acts on the record label that distributes PATD’s music. (Click here for photos from last night’s show.) The Las Vegas quartet finally took the stage more than two and a half hours after the show began, opening with the salutary “We’re So Starving” and the current hit “Nine in the Afternoon.” The band alternated considerably less aggressive versions of tracks from A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out with stripped-down selections from its elaborate new album Pretty. Odd. Whether it was first-night jitters, a lack of sufficient rehearsal time, or the simple fact that their music is dependent on dozens of overdubs both from themselves and a myriad of outside players, Panic’s live presence was decidedly tentative. Drummer Spencer Smith proved himself the most confident musician: While other members cautiously approached what was essentially an entire set comprised of new and daunting arrangements, he supplied a momentum otherwise lacking from older album tracks like “Camisado” and intricate new cuts like “She’s a Handsome Woman.” Singer Brendon Urie furrowed and arched his brow to signify emotions he couldn’t fully articulate with hands occupied with guitars, while guitarist Ryan Ross looked uncomfortable and affable bassist Jon Walker acted as spokesman. Despite the fact that Panic had traded its burlesque dancers, frilly costumes and androgynous makeup for muted beige outfits and facial hair, the largely teenage and female audience screamed as if attending a boy-band spectacle. And to some degree, they were: Walker chided Urie for taking a sip from a beer, as the frontman was two days shy of his twenty-first birthday; an event Smith won’t celebrate for several m

Published: 2008-04-11 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Live Shows

Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, Steven Van Zandt On Hilly Kristal and the Significance of CBGB

As Rock Daily reported earlier today, CBGB founder Hilly Kristal died in Manhattan yesterday after a battle with lung cancer. He was seventy-five years old. Though Kristal originally opened his Bowery bar in 1973 to showcase country, bluegrass and blues music, the gritty East Village club developed into the hub of 1970s punk rock and then gradually evolved into a spot for emerging bands to showcase their talents in the later Nineties. In the past few years, Kristal engaged in a very public struggle to keep his beloved club open, but he and his landlord ultimately failed to reach an agreement (read Rock Daily’s coverage of the club’s last days here). After Patti Smith stepped off the stage for the last time on October 15, 2006, Kristal carefully dismantled the bar, shipping its most precious pieces of memorabilia to Las Vegas, where he aimed to reopen the venue (notoriously nasty bathroom and all). A few months prior, Rolling Stone spoke with Kristal about the club’s history. “I never did this as a point of making a lot of money,” he said. “I found it, or it found me, or we found each other, this new music. And I got to love these people and what some of them were doing, and of course, hate what some of the others were doing. You get very involved in getting these people who are trying to do something, especially this creative music, a chance.” Here are some memories from artists who benefitted from getting a chance at Kristal’s club over the years, including Debbie Harry, Patti Smith, Steven Van Zandt, Talking Heads’ Chris Frantz and the B-52’s Fred Schneider (and click here for a photo gallery of bands performing at CBGB): Debbie Harry: “I am very sorry that Hilly is gone. He was a big help to Blondie and to the New York music scene for many years. His club CBGBs has become a part of New York lore and rock & roll history.” Patti Smith: “Hilly dying made a flood of things come back to me. On that last night

Published: 2007-08-30 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, CBGB

Critic’s Picks: David Fricke’s Favorite Albums That Didn’t Make the RS Top 50

1. Patti Smith Twelve (Columbia) A consummate covers artist from the beginning, Patti Smith emotionally and musically reexamines classic songs by fellow electric poets — including Jimi Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced?” George Harrison’s “Within You Without You” and Kurt Cobain’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” — with sublime, inspirational results. 2. The Len Price 3 Rentacrowd (Wicked Cool) The second album by this British trio — none of the guys are named Len or Price — packs the hooks, twang and pow of Kink Kontroversy and The Who Sings My Generation into a volley of quick, fast and mod — as in truly modern — bullets. The title song is especially sweet, raging revenge against U.K. hype-of-the-month bands who have the looks and hair — just like the LP3 — but none of the power-chord and incandescent-chorus goods you get here. 3. Wooden Shjips Wooden Shjips (Holy Mountain) The debut album by the best new psychedelic band in America — it’s from San Francisco, of course — combines and updates the transportive force of the Velvet Underground’s no-blues drone, Can’s unrelenting pulse and the holy garage-rock fire of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators into a compact, wrapped-in- reverb trip of vintage transcendence and forward thrust. 4. Tinariwen Aman Iman (Water Is Life) (World Village) This is an album of true rebel songs by the Rolling Stones of the Sahara desert, an extraordinary band of Tuareg tribesmen from northern Mali whose nomad stories and spidery, electric riffing are plugged into the blues’ original crossroads. 5. Kaiser Chiefs Yours Truly, Angry Mob (Universal Motown) Their 2005 debut, Employment, had one killer song, “I Predict a Riot,” and big potential. This overlooked follow-up was the riot: street-fighting British pop with smart, sardonic writing and chorales — like the title chant in “Ruby” and the punch line in “I Can Do It Without You” (”

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

Radiohead Break Out Covers of Smiths, New Order During Webcast

Even though Radiohead slam-dunked their version of Björk’s “Unravel” during last night’s Webcast, it’s become apparent that the band has not got covers completely out of their system. We’re one hour into tonight’s live telecast, and have already enjoyed two covers: The Smiths’ “The Headmaster Ritual” and, for your viewing pleasure above, New Order’s “Ceremony.” The band also mixed in live versions of their own “Reckoner” (the debut performance of its current incarnation) and “Faust Arp,” which was previously recorded and performed in a field with singer Thom Yorke and guitarist Jonny Greenwood. Between performances, the bandmembers have taken turns DJing (who knew drummer Phil Selway loved him some Iron & Wine?) and broadcasting Stanley Donwood animation as well as hilarious skits, like the Se7en-themed music video for “15 Step.” To join in, head over to www.radiohead.tv.

Published: 2007-11-10 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Videos, Radiohead's "In Rainbows"

Pink Floyd to Challenge Led Zeppelin to “More Significant Reunion” Battle?

The battle of the rock reunions might be on. While Led Zeppelin figures out what their next move is following their triumphant performance at London’s O2 Arena, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has opened the door to future Floyd shows. Literally. Mason told XFM that 2005’s Live 8 event “showed that the door can be opened” for future Floyd reunions. It took an event as large as Live 8 (and Hell freezing over) for Pink Floyd to reunite for the first time in twenty-one years back in 2005, and it’ll likely take an event of equal or greater magnitude to get the band together a second time. “If there was a suitable reason or things change a bit in the next year or two and everybody suddenly thinks, ‘Well, actually, I really would like to do that’ then I think it’ll happen,” Mason explained, but “the only thing that would generate it would be something the equivalent of Live 8.” As for the band’s aborted reunion at last year’s Syd Barrett tribute, Mason, who moonlights as a rock fantasy-camp counselor, blames bad timing, and not ill will, for that failed get-together. “Roger [Waters] was on at Earls Court the next day and so he’d arranged to go on early [at the tribute gig] and Dave [Gilmour] couldn’t get there ’til late … so everything conspired against us but it wasn’t a case of ‘We’re not going to play together,’” Mason explained. So will a reunited Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin exist in the same universe? When pigs fly, maybe. Related Stories: Pink Floyd Reunites (Almost) Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Smiths: The Vegas Odds on the Next Big Reunion Video: The Simpsons Bring Pink Floyd to Life [Photo: Getty]

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