My Chemical Romance leader Gerard Way is not your average rocker. Sure, the fuchsia-haired frontman has just one-upped the group’s theatrical 2006 breakthrough, “The Black Parade,” with an even more outrageous set, the genre-jumping “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys,” which he’s complemented with a post-apocalyptic video serial, a mythical band from this futuristic scenario (The Mad Gear and Missile Kid) and a graphic novel he’s currently scripting.
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How did a 16-year-old aspiring R&B singer from Jackson, Tenn., wind up residing in London, composing her debut “Wasted in Jackson” with Ed Harcourt, Mumford & Sons and songwriter-producer Francis ‘Eg’ White? It’s a long story, says Lauren Pritchard. “Looking back on it now, I can’t help thinking, ‘What the hell? I must have the most amazingly understanding parents in the world,’” she says.
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Holy shades of early black-and-white TV, Batman! In a rock-video first, Ben Gibbard’s Death Cab for Cutie will be filming the clip for “You Are A Tourist” — the single from its upcoming “Codes And Keys” album, out May 31 — live next Tuesday, April 5, at 4 p.m. California time, in collaboration with Bing, RedLaser and their label Atlantic Records. It had to happen eventually, right?
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Good news and bad news time. On the up side, legendary metal juggernaut Deep Purple will be touring with a full symphony orchestra this summer, under the apt banner of “The Songs That Built Rock.”
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You know you’ve made some sort of music-scene impact when your own state’s government steps up to celebrate your group’s 25th anniversary. Such was the case with jumping jam band Widespread Panic from Athens, Ga., this February. The state’s Senate and House of Representatives passed formal resolutions, honoring their 2½ decades of music, service, charity and longevity. And once the members were officially recognized by the General Assembly, they promptly launched into an acoustic performance for all concerned.
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Sheryl Crow fan alert! The brainy activist-folk rocker will actually be appearing in San Francisco this Thursday night at 6 p.m.No joke!
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Yes, believe it or not, it’s that time again. Time for the spring ticket presale of the annual punk/emo/metal-fest the Vans Warped Tour, which will steamroll into Shoreline at Mountain View on Saturday, July 2.
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Calling all Paul Simon boosters! Attention! So you’re sitting around the Bay Area, totally bummed because you couldn’t snag a ticket to his two now-sold-out shows in April? Get ready to cheer.
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Children, gather ’round, and listen to a tale from years gone by. There was once a time when — we kid you not — the meanest, loudest, most confrontational band on the planet was an unassuming little combo from Germany called Atari Teenage Riot. Which makes sense, since Berlin-based Alec Empire started the “digital hardcore” band (his decidedly apt terminology for their music) in part as a response to the wave of neo-Nazism that was rife throughout his country in the early ’90s.
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Sometimes it really pays off to study a concert calendar more closely. Say, for instance, the typically crowded April schedule of San Francisco’s hip Hotel Utah Saloon, where the night of the 15th lists two $20 shows from a certain Patrick Stump, one at 8 p.m., one at 10:30 p.m.
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There’s no denying it.
Dolly Parton is still one of the reigning queens of country music.
The seven-time Grammy winner makes no bones about her rural, rootsy leanings — she dubbed her last studio set from 2008 “Backwoods Barbie,” if anyone had any doubts.
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Ever since she first visited Japan on tour with her band, No Doubt diva Gwen Stefani has been in love with the country and its colorful culture. And the fashionable Harajuku District, in particular, which inspired her solo song “Harajuku Girls” as well as her popular clothing line, Harajuku Lovers.
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In 1996, OMD main man Andy McCluskey looked at what he created — a slice of synth-pop perfection called “Walking on the Milky Way,” from a frothy album called “Universal” — and knew it was his ultimate achievement. Then he promptly broke up the band. “I didn’t think I could write a better song than that,” says the Liverpool-based artist, who launched OMD with keyboardist partner Paul Humphreys back in 1978. “I just thought that was — as we say over here — the ‘dog’s bollocks.’”
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As Irish guitarist Leo Moran recalls, it all started with a Joe Jackson concert he caught in Galway. “He was going through the second phase of his career, so he did ‘Is She Really Going Out With Him,’ but a cappella, and I thought it was fabulous,” says the Saw Doctors founder. So he added a vocal-only version of the band’s early hit “Red Cortina” to their recent tour, then decided to record it. “So we put it out as a single, and it worked really well — it was a real joy and people liked listening to it,” he says of their surprise chart hit.
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When hard-partying Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden took a long, hard look at his life recently, he shuddered at what he saw.“I wasn’t really happy and I was in kind of a bad place — I’d been in a bad relationship and I’d been making some unhealthy decisions,” says the tattooed 32-year-old, who — along with his twin brother and band vocalist Joel, the husband of Nicole Richie — had become a popular paparazzi target.
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