Month: December 2007 (Page 6 of 7)

Road Warriors 43

December 7, 2007 / Mike Farley

Well, we know there won’t be a wardrobe malfunction during the halftime performance for Super Bowl 42. Well, at least we hope not. Legendary American rock band Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers will be playing the event, which takes place February 3 in Phoenix.

While we’re on the subject of big events, Plain White T’s have been announced as a performer at Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve show on December 31. The band will also be performing in Boston on January 14 before heading to the UK for some tour dates.

Florida rock band Yellowcard had to cancel some tour dates in Europe due to band member Longineu W. Parson’s grandmother’s illness. Parsons is very close to his ailing grandma, who raised him. Tickets are fully refundable but the shows are expected to be rescheduled.

Rockers Three Days Grace are hitting the road for a US tour beginning February 15 in Lowell, Massachusetts. Joining them on the tour will be Breaking Benjamin and Seether, and more info is available at www.threedaysgrace.com

Another New Year’s Eve show just announced is Velvet Revolver, who will be performing at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom. The band is also headlining the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles on December 12 with Alice in Chains, and in February will head to Australia for more shows. Here are all of the confirmed Continue reading »

Alternative, Concerts, Hip Hop, Pop, Rock

DMed’s Video of the Week: Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova, “When Your Mind’s Made Up”

December 7, 2007 / David Medsker

I’ve had the soundtrack to “Once” sitting on my desk since about May, but I refused to listen to it before I saw the movie. It’s not your typical soundtrack, and in fact some people (wrongly) consider it a musical. In truth, it’s somewhere in between a soundtrack and a musical. It’s really a movie about music. A couple scenes are shot in musical style, but that’s about it.

This, for those who don’t care if I totally spoil the movie’s finest moment, is the movie’s finest moment. Guy (not his name: the two leads don’t have names, they’re just Guy and Girl) finally gets into a studio with Girl and some fellow Thin Lizzy-loving buskers, and proceed to bang out a song that just builds and builds and builds until it explodes. How can someone with Glen Hansard’s talent go so long without anyone knowing his name? Dunno, but in an interesting side note, he was a guitar player in the Commitments as well. Gotta go and watch that again.

External Music, Pop, Rock, Seen Your Video, Songs, Videos

Kanye, Winehouse vie for Grammys

December 6, 2007 / Captain Capm

Does anyone even watch these things or even care about them anymore, for that matter? Who knows? At any rate, Kanye West and Amy Winehouse are leading the pack of Grammy nominees this year. Who will win? If Kanye doesn’t sweep everything he’s nominated in, will he once again throw his worn out race card? Will Winehouse show up drunk and disorderly? Again, does anyone care? I remember when I was a kid, the Grammy Awards were always sort of fun to watch. But it’s been a long time for me since it’s been that. For years, it’s just felt like nothing more than an opportunity for the industry to pat itself on the back than anything else. And with the state that the music industry is in nowadays, it feels even more desperate. That, and no one I personally give a shit for is going to win anything undoubtedly. Hooray.

Artists, News

Frankie will stamp you silly

December 5, 2007 / Captain Capm

Frank Sinatra, favorite crooner of all the gals at the hippest sock hops, will be commemorated on his own postage stamp next spring.

The stamp image will be unveiled next Wednesday — Sinatra’s birthday — at a ceremony in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Artists, News

Man-About-MySpace: Cover Me Badd

December 5, 2007 / Dr. Flucke

While MySpace hosts plenty of original artists doing original music, there’s room for a lot more than that. Yeah, we’re talking about cover bands. Or “tribute bands,” as these tireless warriors of dollar beer weeknight gigs at every damned dive across America fancy themselves.

And who’s to argue with these groups? Their work ethos, their dedication, their initiative to set up MySpaces, for gosh sakes, is not to be denigrated. Not here. Really, if you’re that into Depeche Mode so much that you’d devote your leisure time to covering their music, we’re not going to dump on that.

It’s really pretty easy to find cover bands on MySpace that you can make fun of yourself. Or, if you’re into the oeuvre, seek out a nearby show because you wanna be rocked. Here’s the process, using AC/DC as an example: First Google “MySpace AC/DC cover band.” If that gets you nowhere, just hit a fan MySpace. Then look at their friends. The cover bands will be there. In the case of AC/DC, you get groups like New Jersey’s Dog Eat Dog, or Kansas City’s finest–KC/DC, naturally.

Happy hunting. Really, get into this. Listening to the music is a fascinating study in musical anthropology, addictive stuff. Once you get your fill, jump over to YouTube and not just hear the stuff, but watch things like dueling Journey cover bands interspersed with actual Journey videos and the latest incarnation of Journey with the original members and the myriad lead singers they’ve found to replace Steve Perry, some of them found on–you guessed it–YouTube, as Schon confessed here. As Perry once put it, it goes on and on and on and on-n-n.

Man about MySpace