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Tennessee five piece Paramore are set to release the single ‘Playing God’ on November 15th. This will be the fifth release taken from their Number 1, platinum certified album brand new eyes. Brand New Eyes is their third album, released September 29, 2009 through Fueled by Ramen in the United States and Canada.
Critical response to Brand New Eyes was mostly positive. According to Metacritic, the album holds a score of 73 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Paramore also try and showcase their maturity by chucking a couple of slowies into the mix. ‘The Only Exception’ turns out to be a rather sappy, nondescript love song, which doesn’t quite warrant the abrupt change of pace. It feels like something Katy Perry would dismiss for being too lightweight, with its mechanical, campfire strumming and general uninspiring air.
Currently on a headline tour of Australia, Japan and New Zealand, and fresh from performing at this year’s VMA’s, Paramore will be back in the UK for a run of headline dates in November. The forthcoming UK tour follows their sold out arena tour at the end of 2009, as well as performances at this summer’s Reading & Leeds festival.
Having so far performed live in front of over 1 million people in 2010, Paramore are due to play their biggest headline shows to date in the UK, adding over a 100,000 people to that already impressive audience figure.
Take That are a five-piece pop group comprising Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams. Gary Barlow is the group's frontman and primary songwriter. Formed in Manchester in 1990, the band achieved major success, selling more than 25 million records between 1991–96 alone before disbanding.
In 2005 the group reformed without Williams and achieved new success as a four-piece scoring a string of chart hits whilst taking the number of records sold to over 40 million worldwide. In July 2010, Robbie Williams' return to the band was confirmed. In total the band have had 22 top forty singles in the UK alone, 11 of which have reached #1 as well as having five number 1 albums.
Williams having left the band in 1995, the rest of Take That split up in 1996. However, after a 2005 documentary and the release of a new greatest hits album, they officially announced a 2006 reunion tour around the United Kingdom, entitled The Ultimate Tour. On 9 May 2006, it was announced that Take That were set to record together as a band once again.
On 7 June 2010 the news broke of a single called "Shame" which had been written by Barlow and Williams and which would features the vocals of both artists. This was the first time the pair had worked together since 1995 and would appear on the second greatest hits collection of Williams. The single peaked at number 2 on the UK singles chart whilst also achieving success throughout Europe.
On 15 July 2010, Robbie Williams announced he was returning to Take That. A joint statement between Williams and the group said "The rumours are true... Take That: the original lineup, have written and recorded a new album for release later this year," read the band's statement. "Following months of speculation Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams confirmed they have been recording a new studio album as a five-piece, which they will release in November."
The lead single from Take That's forthcoming album Progress has been announced as "The Flood" and will be released 07 November, with the album released a week later on 15 November. Take That announced on 19 October that they had considered changing the name of the band to The English prior to the release of their sixth studio album. They decided against this after Williams' return to the band, choosing to maintain the name that made them famous.
Take That held a press conference in London today to announce Take That new tour dates. The band revealed that the Progress Live 2011 tour will include cities such as Manchester, Dublin, Glasgow and London, kicking off in Sunderland on May 30. It’s been a big couple of months for the reunited group and especially for Robbie, who married Ayda Field in August.
Slipknot percussionist Sean ‘Clown’ Crahan, who started the band with tragic bassist Paul Gray, says the outfit will come back stronger and leaner as a result of his death.
Gray’s body was found in a hotel room in May after falling victim to an accidental overdoes of subscription painkillers. The band have sent crossed signals about their future since then – but now Crahan has issued a threat on his colleagues’ behalf.
In an emotional heart-stirring speech he tells Sirius XM: “Starting the band with Paul, I have a heavy responsibility to think about what he would have liked for what we started together. It wasn’t just Paul and I in this band, let’s make that clear, but we started something together.
“He’s so big right now, so it’s time for the rest of us to get what we’ve always needed. The big bands need to get the fuck out of my face. The industry needs to get the fuck out of my face. Everybody needs to get out of our way because we’re going to spread the seed.
“It’s going to take time, but this is a threat. Today is a threat, a new beginning. And that’s how I want it to be.”
Crahan says coming to terms with the loss of Gray has helped him understand more about what Slipknot are as a group of artists. He believes the loss will act as the strongest motivation they’ve ever had.
“It’s horrible, but he speaks in volumes,” the percussionist explains. “As bad as this sounds, everything happens for a reason – and I’m going to miss him every day of my life. There’s not going to be a day I don’t mention Paul Gray.
“But every day I wake up is a blessing, and I want to remember that. I want everybody in the world to remember that. The world is on its way out and we’ll be the band that will play the music for its way out.
“We will never be the same. You will never be the same. Here’s to the future and our continuing evolution.”
In recent months various members of the now eight-strong band have voiced support for continuing its career, with the notable exception being frontman Corey Taylor, who’s refrained from committing himself, insisting it’s too early for him to understand how he feels.
Rockers Metallica will play the launch event in California for the new Activision video game "Call of Duty: Black Ops" before heading back out to finish their sold out tour of Australia.
The launch event is set to take place Thursday (11/4) at Santa Monica Airport's Hangar 8. In addition to the Metallica performance, the event will "honor the six branches of the Armed Forces," and raise $1 million for The Call of Duty Endowment, a non-profit founded by Activision to help soldiers with the transition to civilian life.
"We are honored to have Metallica partner with us to pay tribute to the brave servicemen and women who have risked their lives at war only to return home to find their biggest challenge is searching for a job," stated Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. "Today, the unemployment rate for veterans is 21% higher than the rate for all Americans, with veterans' unemployment topping 500,000. We believe that the business community can and should do more. Through The Call of Duty Endowment, we are committed to raising millions of dollars for job assistance and training programs for veterans and raising public awareness for this serious issue."
Formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield, Metallica have become one of the most influential and commercially successful rock bands in history, having sold more than 100 million albums worldwide and playing to tens of millions of fans the world over. They have scored several multi-platinum albums, including 1983's Kill 'Em All (3x), 1984's Ride the Lightning (5x), 1986's Master of Puppets (6x), 1988's ...And Justice For All (8x), 1991's Metallica (also known as "The Black Album" - 15x), 1996's Load (5x), 1997's ReLoad (3x), and 2003's St. Anger (2x). Their latest album, Death Magnetic, was certified platinum just six weeks after it debuted atop the Billboard Top 200 Album chart in October 2008. The band released a groundbreaking Guitar Hero® edition of Death Magnetic, which was the largest selling download album on the platform at the time. They also released Guitar Hero®: Metallica® in 2009 with Activision.
Metallica have also garnered numerous awards and accolades, including nine Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, and multiple MTV Video Music Awards, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum last year. According to Metallica's website, tickets will not be sold, but a limited number of passes will be awarded to members of the band's Met Club.
Good Charlotte's fifth album was released on November 2, 2010. Describing the sound to MTV news, Joel Madden said it would sound a lot like Blink-182. Joel Madden went on to say in the same MTV interview that "There's nothing dance-y on the record, though, at all, which is different from our last one," further implying a movement away from the sound of Good Morning Revival. On December 3, 2008 Kerrang! magazine announced that Good Charlotte would be releasing their fifth studio album, Cardiology in 2009. The title of which, according to Joel, comes from the lyrical content of the album, which he explained is "all connected to the heart". Madden also added that they had already written 20 songs for the new album, and are said to be heading back to their pop-punk roots.
The band frequently tweeted during the recording process, giving updates to fans. In late July 2009, Joel Madden mentioned that they were close to track listing the album. On August 9, 2009, Benji Madden mentioned on his twitter that they had yet to record the songs but they were written. On the August 25, 2009 Benji announced on the official Good Charlotte website that the band were in the final stages of tracking and recording the album. At the time, the album was being produced by Howard Benson, who is known for such albums as My Chemical Romance's Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, and The All-American Rejects' Move Along. However, the band didn't feel right about the sound of the album because Howard Benson focused on making it a commercial success. On January 24, 2010 Good Charlotte announced they had finished the album, but were going to completely scrap it and record with a different producer, Don Gilmore, who also produced their first and fourth records, the self-titled CD and Good Morning Revival.
Good Charlotte released their first single "Like It's Her Birthday" from the new album on August 24, 2010. The band posted the song online August 5, 2010, and wrote on their website that if the YouTube video of the song receives more than 100,000 views, they will post another song from the album. The video reached 100,000 views on August 15, 2010 and the band released "Counting the Days" as a video on their YouTube channel and announced that it will be the second single from the album. The music video for Like It's Her Birthday has camoes from The Maine's lead singer John O'Callaghan and guitarist Kennedy Brock and Boys Like Girls's lead singer Martin Johnson and guitarist Paul DiGiovanni.
Cardiology unfolds just as you’d expect it to, with a consistent batch of songs that border on blatantly formulaic, but provide enough catchy melodies to make you forget all of that as you sing along. Although the guitars are distorted and the percussion is driving, you’d be hard-pressed to call this a rock album, unless your entire music collection consists of Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift.
At times, Cardiology feels a bit forced (see “Introduction to Cardiology”) or overly gimmicky (“Counting The Days”), but there are some solid musical moments in between. Good Charlotte does attempt to expand its horizons on several tracks, but too often it backfires; “Like It’s Her Birthday” begins with a Franz Ferdinand-esque guitar line and Enrique Iglesias hooting before it returns to typical pop fare.
For a “rock” band, Good Charlotte doesn’t do quite enough rocking on Cardiology, and to compare this album’s “1979″ to the Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979″ shows just how wide music executives have stretched the rock genre to accommodate mainstream tastes and reach the teeny-bopper ears that dominate parents’ purses.
The final track on Cardiology is the titular track, and it’s another example of Good Charlotte trying too hard that comes off sounding awkward – is it a joke, or is the band trying to make a statement? Hard to say, but two things are certain –
Good Charlotte to stick to its proven formula, and, joke or not, Good Charlotte is laughing all the way to the bank.
