Oasis brothers fight over drummer

Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher objected to the band's new drummer - because he used to perform with pop star Robbie Williams.

Published: 2008-07-09 Provider: Canoe

3 Doors Down by 3 Doors Down

The rock band releases its fifth album, which features a song used by the National Guard. [Rock, Alternative]

Published: 2008-05-23 Provider: Metacritic

Lies For The Liars by The Used

The Utah emo band's third disc is their first since the departure of drummer Branden Steineckert. [Alternative, Rock]

Published: 2007-05-29 Provider: Metacritic

The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn: “Dylan’s Superhuman”

Craig Finn, the singer, guitarist and lyricist for Brooklyn band the Hold Steady, heard plenty of legends about Bob Dylan while growing up in Minnesota. “When you deal with Dylan, there’s a lot of legend, very much by his own design. When people meet celebrities they say, ‘Oh, he’s just a normal guy.’ Dylan’s not a normal guy. He’s superhuman.” Click below for more from Finn’s interview from the current issue, including which Replacement he used to dress like, how he embraced Led Zeppelin late and some of the secrets of the lyrics on Stay Positive. • Q&A: Craig Finn of the Hold Steady [Photo: Lucy Hamblin]

Published: 2008-07-30 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Serj Tankian: “We Haven’t Decided If the Future Contains System or Not”

Ten months after releasing Elect the Dead, his solo debut, System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian isn’t taking time to look back. After settling into the role of sole songwriter and the name on the marquee (”I guess people have to get used to my funny name”), Tankian is finding he can’t stop. After a set on Ozzfest’s main stage last weekend and staring a slate of impending European festivals in the face, he’s looking to wind down the Elect the Dead cycle and push on not only with another solo record, but a handful of other projects. “I have five hundred recorded songs that are unreleased,” he said. “I’ve been composing for a play with Steven Sater, who did Spring Awakening. I just did a track with Mike Patton for a film called Body of Lies, and there are other films that I’m composing or co-composing.” With that mischievous smile on his face that makes it hard to tell if he’s on the level, Tankian elaborated on his plans for his second album. “I’m structuring the next record kind of like a jazz orchestral,” he said. “I’ve got a full orchestra interested, so I want this giant electric guitar in the air to be played by a full orchestra. I want the orchestra to be the electric guitar. I want to make an orchestra do what it’s never done before, like a GG Allin type orchestra. Think of that.” As far as the future of System of a Down, Tankian isn’t thinking too hard about what is next for his platinum-selling, arena-filling other band. Two of his cohorts — guitarist Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan — released their debut as Scars on Broadway last month (Serj has the record, but hasn’t listened to the whole thing yet), and Tankian says the timing just made sense to take an indefinite breather. “You shouldn’t have to wait until people are not buying your records or your tickets for you to stop, I think that’s ridiculous,” he said. “So I think you should do it when it’s the right time, when it makes sense artistically and personally. It’s a hiatus, we’re all friends

Published: 2008-08-14 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Jim James, Cat Power Get Spiritual at the Newport Folk Festival

Jim James was everywhere at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island over the weekend. My Morning Jacket’s bearded leader caught Brian Wilson’s headlining set Friday (James said later he was disappointed Wilson didn’t play “Merry Christmas Satan”); strolled along the Newport harbor Saturday morning virtually unnoticed with a white lei around his neck; and sat in during She & Him’s set Saturday afternoon for a duet with Zooey Deschanel before performing a set of his own that conjured up the spirits of Folk Festivals past — Bob Dylan’s groundbreaking 1965 electric set not entirely out of mind. James switched between acoustic guitar and a duct-taped synth, which he used to create a demented drum machine loop for his last song, then packed up and abruptly left the stage as if he had to catch a train. (Unlike Dylan, the crowd did not boo him for it.) Earlier, the skies opened up over the main stage during Trey Anastasio’s solo set — part of the Phish leader’s post-drug bust 12-step program to rock rehabilitation (Step 2: Play gushing acoustic lullabies to a blindly adoring audience; drink Aquafina) — leading throngs of soaking-wet folk fans over to the covered side stage tent, where for four hours James, She & Him and Cat Power played the part of indie rock royalty perfectly. The rain was coming in sideways during She & Him’s set, prompting Deschanel to adorn a polka-dotted poncho (”for solidarity” with those who couldn’t squeeze into the tent, she said) and guitarist M. Ward to lean in a little closer to the mike. Ward then sat in for a couple songs with James, adding an element of twang to James’ reverb-soaked Southern sermons. James and Ward hung out near the back of the stage during Cat Power’s soulful spirituals, where the notoriously loopy singer Chan Marshall, looking healthier than ever, had it together. Marshall, backed by a band that looked like they took the day off from Guitar Center but played like the Stones, offered a mix of bluesy originals (the venue-a

Published: 2008-08-04 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Live Shows

Devo Sue McDonald’s Over Happy Meal Toy

Devo are suing McDonald’s after the hamburger giant used the band’s likeness in a Happy Meal toy without permission. Last April, McDonald’s released a bunch of American Idol-themed toys that had little plastic figures dressed up to represent different musical genres. There was Disco Dave, Rockin’ Riley and, the basis of Devo’s lawsuit, New Wave Nigel. Anyone who’s seen Devo’s “Whip It” video will automatically recognize those odd red caps, dubbed “energy domes” by the band, as the same hat that adorns New Wave Nigel’s head. Little did McDonald’s know, however, that the “energy dome” is “copyrighted and trademarked,” according to Devo bassist and creator of the “energy dome” Gerald Casale. According to Casale, “We’re in the midst of suing them… they didn’t ask us anything. Plus, we don’t like McDonald’s, and we don’t like American Idol, so we’re doubly offended.” Making matter worse, New Wave Nigel also dons an orange jumpsuit and sunglasses strikingly similar to the band’s wardrobe at the time, and the plastic figure even has a song that the band claims sounds Devo-esque. [Photo: Getty]

Published: 2008-06-26 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Tour Preview: Nine Inch Nails Power Up the “Lights”

The Forum used to be the home arena of the Los Angeles Lakers, but last Saturday, it hosted a very different type of drama: 500 invited guests in a largely empty building got to see the dress rehearsal for Nine Inch Nails’ “Lights in the Sky” tour debuting tonight at the Pemberton Festival in British Columbia, and having its full opening show tomorrow in Seattle at the Key Arena. (Rock Daily will be live at both shows, so stay tuned for coverage). Before the show, Trent Reznor came out in a gray hooded sweatshirt and addressed the crowd, explaining that they were trying out various material, so some parts of the show might not ultimately make it on tour, and that there might be some technical glitches: “Lots of things are going to happen that aren’t, let’s say, intentional.” He concluded, “I’m going to go backstage and throw up, and then I’ll see you guys.” The two-hour show was astonishing, covering a wide range of Nine Inch Nails’ material, from “Head Like a Hole” through new songs from The Slip and instrumental pieces from Ghosts, which Reznor had never planned to play live. About a third of the way through the concert, Reznor deployed some video screens, but not to enlarge his face for the cheap seats: sometimes the band played in front of a desert backdrop, sometimes the screens responded to the music with colored bubbles (like Guitar Hero in reverse), sometimes the musicians vanished behind a wall of static. “On stage, it’s very easy to tell when you lose people’s attention,” Reznor told RS later. “Generally at a rock show, the sound is not that great, and the guy next to me is an asshole and I have to pee and okay, that’s what these guys look like and that’s what’s going to happen for the next couple of hours. The world has gotten pretty lazy. It’s easy to go out and do a safe show that is all about guys just rocking. I say, ‘Fuck all that.’” Check out the set list from the July 19 rehearsal below, which will probably change. As Reznor put it, “I think too m

Published: 2008-07-25 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Nine Inch Nails, More News

In the Studio: B.B. King Cuts Fifties-Style Set

When producer T Bone Burnett first met with B.B. King, he presented the blues legend with a simple mission statement: “I’d like for you to go back to the Fifties and do some of the stuff as you did it then.” At 82, King wondered whether he could really re-create what he calls “the B.B. King that was” on a new album. “My voice is nothing like it was, and maybe my playing isn’t like it was,” he says. “But I believed that we could do something different than what I’ve been doing recently and not worry about sounding contemporary. Times have changed so much, music has changed so much, but those old records still sound pretty good.” As it turns out, One Kind Favor recaptures much of the spirit and sound of King’s early recordings, complete with rich horn-section blasts, vintage-style tube distortion on the vocals and boogie-woogie piano courtesy of Dr. John. As on King’s Fifties records, he played live in the studio with the band, which included Eric Clapton sideman Nathan East on stand-up bass and session vet Jim Keltner on drums. Despite the all-star backing, King’s lion’s-roar vocals and stinging lead guitar are way up front — Burnett’s main direction to King was “play a little more.” Burnett is as much a music curator as he is a producer, picking songs for films and albums alike, from O Brother, Where Art Thou? to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand. For King’s album, Burnett found blues oldies ranging from the Mississippi Sheiks’ “Sitting on Top of the World” to Howlin’ Wolf’s “How Many More Years.” He went through nearly 200 possibilities, digging deep into King’s influences, such as Forties guitarist T-Bone Walker and jazz-blues virtuoso Lonnie Johnson. “We went back to the early part of the last century to find songs that he used to do in the Fifties,” says Burnett. R

Published: 2008-07-03 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, In the Studio

Kristin Davis - Davis Blasts Marriage Rumours

Actress KRISTIN DAVIS has laughed off reports she is in a secret relationship, insisting she only wears a wedding band because she is used to playing married women. The ...

Published: 2008-05-22 Provider: Contact Music

Richie Sambora Thanks Fans For Support

Bon Jovi rocker Richie Sambora used the band's gig in Colorado on Monday night to thank his fans for their continued support throughout his personal troubles. The "Living On A Prayer" hitmaker's appearance at the Denver gig was his first public outing since he was arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) in California last Tuesday.[...] Read more!

Published: 2008-04-01 Provider: StarPulse

Magazine Lists Music Used To Interrogate Iraqi Prisoners

Death metal band Deicide have topped a new list of bands whose music is played to military prisoners in Iraq. The Florida group finished ahead of AC/DC, Eminem and Metallica on the list, compiled by magazine Mother Jones, from reports, interrogation logs and personal accounts.[...] Read more!

Published: 2008-03-03 Provider: StarPulse