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Rolling Stone: Features (50 unread)

• 

  Annie Lennox by Rob Thomas

  Posted: November 12th, 2008, 2:30pm EST

  Annie Lennox by Rob Thomas Anybody my age turning on MTV and seeing Annie Lennox sing "Sweet Dreams," that was enough right there. And then when she started doing songs like "Walking on Broken Glass" or "Missionary Man," there's just something that's so soulful in those — and it's not like a put-on, blue-eyed soul kind of thing: It's just pure power, this gigantic voice. The Eurythmics was her fantastic voice mixed in with Dave Stewart and his otherworldly, ahead of its time...

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  James Taylor by David Crosby

  Posted: November 12th, 2008, 2:11pm EST

  James Taylor by David Crosby James Taylor has a tremendously rich and beautiful voice, and he controls it so well. It's easy to get fooled by his understatement: As beautiful as James' voice is, there's nothing mellow about a performance like "Fire & Rain" — it's a song of great depth sung by a man who's experienced the highs and lows of life, and has the ability to convey them directly and honestly. It also doesn't hurt that he's up there as a songwriter alongside Lennon & McCartney,...

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  Janis Joplin by Stevie Nicks

  Posted: November 12th, 2008, 1:51pm EST

  Janis Joplin by Stevie Nicks You could say that being yelled at by Janis Joplin was one of the great honors of my life. Early in my career, Lindsay Buckingham and I were in a band called Fritz. There were two gigs we played in San Francisco that changed everything for me: One was opening up for Jimi Hendrix, who was completely magical. The other was the time that we opened up for Janis at the San Jose Fairgrounds, around 1970. It was a hot summer day, and things didn't start off well...

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  Zeppelin Members Seek New Singer

  Posted: November 12th, 2008, 4:04am EST

  Remaining three plan possible album and tour without Robert Plant Last year's Led Zeppelin reunion concert wasn't the end for Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham — but it looks like it was for Robert Plant. The three musicians have been holding rehearsals with singers including Aerosmith's Steven Tyler (it didn't go well, one source has heard) and possibly Myles Kennedy, lead singer of Alter Bridge (who has covered Zep songs onstage and has a formidable vocal range). But Page wants to make one thing clear about the new project. "Whatever this...

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  What Makes a Great Singer?

  Posted: November 11th, 2008, 4:36am EST

  By Jonathan Lethem There's something about a voice that's personal, not unlike the particular odor or shape of a given human body. Summoned through belly, hammered into form by the throat, given propulsion by bellows of lungs, teased into final form by tongue and lips, a vocal is a kind of audible kiss, a blurted confession, a soul-burp you really can't keep from issuing as you make your way through the material world. How helplessly candid! How appalling! Contrary to anything you've heard, the ability to...

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  The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time

  Posted: November 8th, 2008, 3:43pm EST

  Our blue-ribbon panel of 179 experts ranks music's finest vocalists 1 | Aretha Franklin by Mary J. Blige Photo: Goodwin/Redferns/Retna Born March 25th, 1942 Key Tracks "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," "Respect," "I...

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  The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time

  Posted: November 8th, 2008, 3:43pm EST

  Our blue-ribbon panel of 179 experts ranks music's finest vocalists 1 | Aretha Franklin by Mary J. Blige Photo: Goodwin/Redferns/Retna Born March 25th, 1942 Key Tracks "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," "Respect," "I...

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  AC/DC: The Essential Album-by-Album Guide

  Posted: October 31st, 2008, 11:08am EDT

  From their humble beginnings through the blockbuster "Black Ice" • AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll HIGH VOLTAGE (1976) Key Tracks: "T.N.T.," "She's Got Balls" Quick Take: Perhaps AC/DC's most crucial innovation is the way their lyrics make plain the boys' locker room conception of sexuality that had previously bubbled just under the surface of most heavy-duty rock. Shamelessly sexist panderers or refreshingly frank entertainers? AC/DC fits both descriptions, but none of it would matter if guitarist Angus Young wasn't such a gargantuan...

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  AC/DC Score Hit With Wal-Mart

  Posted: October 30th, 2008, 3:55pm EDT

  G n' R to sell through Best Buy; are big-box stores the future? At 12:01 A.M. on October 20th, Wal-Mart opened a temporary 3,000-square-foot store on Hollywood Boulevard devoted entirely to AC/DC's new album, Black Ice. Like the Eagles successfully did a year ago, AC/DC are selling their record exclusively through Wal-Mart's 3,500 stores, tapping into the chain's marketing might and 200 million annual customers at a time when CD sales dropped 36 percent between 2000 and 2007, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan. The deal is paying off for AC/DC in...

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  The War Next Door

  Posted: October 30th, 2008, 3:00pm EDT

  As drug cartels battle the government, Mexico descends into chaos • VIDEO: Guy Lawson on the bloody war next door, plus a guide to Mexico's drug lords The dead policeman is found propped against a tree off a dirt road on the outskirts of the city. He is dressed like a cartoon version of a Mexican cowboy, wearing a sombrero and wrapped in a heavy woolen blanket. The murder and symbolic mutilation of policía has become almost routine in Culiacán, capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa: Pablo Aispuro Ramírez is one of 90 cops to be killed...

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  Fleet Foxes' Perfect Harmony

  Posted: October 30th, 2008, 1:32pm EDT

  Just a few years out of high school geekdom, the Seattle indie buzz band is still awesomely weird When Fleet Foxes singer Robin Pecknold was in high school in Seattle, he was overweight, bad at sports and way too into The Lord of the Rings. "It was a pretty isolating time," he says. "I was never invited to anyone's party. I felt invisible." If that wasn't bad enough, he suffered allergies so debilitating he was often unable to go to school. "Once, I sneezed 23 times in a row," he says. "I could barely leave my house. My face would turn red and I'd, like, die." But he did have a...

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  Queen Reign Supreme Once Again

  Posted: October 30th, 2008, 12:37pm EDT

  Inside the reunited band's new album and massive stadium tour Thirteen years after their last album, and 17 years after the death of incomparable frontman Freddie Mercury, Queen are looking, once again, like champions of the world. With a new singer — Paul Rodgers, formerly of Bad Company and Free — a new album and a monumental tour covering 20 countries in 11 weeks, the band with the bestselling album in the history of the U.K. is making a dramatic return to the spotlight. Guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and Rodgers kicked off the...

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  Q&A: Liam Gallagher on Discovering the Beatles and the Death of the Rock Star

  Posted: October 30th, 2008, 12:28pm EDT

  "Why would you want everyone to like you?" With their new album Dig Out Your Soul out and an international tour underway, Rolling Stone caught up with Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher to chat about the first record that blew his mind, how he measures success and God's musical prowess. I was listening to Dig Out Your Soul on My Space and reading through the comments. Did you check out any of those? No, I don't do any of that nonsense, MySpace rubbish. I don't listen to comments. I just make the record and hope people like it; if they...

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  Still Truckin': The Dead Reunite in Pennsylvania

  Posted: October 30th, 2008, 12:16pm EDT

  Their tensions behind them, the Dead play their first show in four years The first call came into Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center in mid- summer: A concert promoter asked venue officials to hold some dates at the school's indoor arena in the fall. The promoter wouldn't identify the band — and didn't until he called back to ask if October 13th would be available for a Barack Obama benefit with Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann. "We went, 'Wow,' " says Bernie Punt, director of sales at the venue. "We knew right then this was going to be...

• 

  Rise Against's Punk-Rock Explosion

  Posted: October 30th, 2008, 4:52am EDT

  Hardcore hitmakers storm the East Coast with scooters, new album Three hours before hitting the stage at New York's Roseland Ballroom, Tim McIlrath and Joe Principe of the Chicago punk crew Rise Against get some good news: Their fifth record, Appeal to Reason, will debut the next day at Number Three, selling 65,000 copies — their biggest week ever. Bassist Principe is stoked: "That's amazing!" he says. But McIlrath, the group's quiet frontman, seems less surprised. "That a band like us can crack the Top 10 speaks volumes about how frustrated people are...

• 

  Q&A: James Hetfield

  Posted: October 30th, 2008, 4:44am EDT

  Metallica's frontman on headbanging injuries, his favorite album and field-dressing a moose How did Metallica celebrate when their ninth studio album, Death Magnetic, debuted at Number One? "We bought a bunch of drugs and cars," jokes frontman James Hetfield. "No, we just looked at each other, our jaws dropped and we said, 'Man!'" The moment was especially sweet for Hetfield: "A couple of years ago, we were yelling at each other, breaking up the band — and now look!" he says. "It's surreal. And for me, being here very clean [and sober], it seems extra meaningful." Hetfield, 45,...

• 

  Forty Years Later, Van Morrison Returns to 'Astral Weeks' in L.A.

  Posted: October 30th, 2008, 4:22am EDT

  For the first time, the rock legend performs his most acclaimed album When Van Morrison's second solo album, Astral Weeks, hit shelves in 1968, it was a commercial failure. But in the following decades, the mystical-themed album has become one of Morrison's most beloved, influencing everyone from Bruce Springsteen to U2. ("Astral Weeks was like a religion to us," E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt has said.) "The songs are timeless," says Morrison. "They remain unchanged and are as fresh today as they ever were." On November 7th and 8th, Morrison will...

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  TV on the Radio: The Hardest-Working Art Rockers in America

  Posted: October 30th, 2008, 4:07am EDT

  Backstage with the Brooklyn band on its biggest tour yet On a recent Monday, Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone — the dual frontmen of TV on the Radio — are lounging backstage at Boston's Wilbur Theatre, chowing down on crab cakes and clam chowder for lunch. Topics of conversation include the election, Jay-Z and a phenomenon both guys find a little strange: getting approached on the street by random fans. "Whenever a stranger calls me by name," Malone says, "I wonder, 'Did I meet this person when I was drunk?'" Malone and Adebimpe better...

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  The Unlikeliest Comeback: Gavin Rossdale Returns to Rock Radio

  Posted: October 30th, 2008, 4:05am EDT

  Back in the post-grunge era in the '90s, nobody — not Scott Weiland, not the dudes from Candlebox — was more maligned than Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale. Labeled as a wannabe from the start, his band still made four albums and sold millions of records on the back of huge singles like "Machinehead" and "Swallowed." When Bush broke up, Rossdale formed a Helmet-channeling band called Institute and was known more as Gwen Stefani's husband than as a musician. Now, he's back with is first o...

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  The Ozzman Playeth

  Posted: October 30th, 2008, 4:05am EDT

  Osbourne discovers Guitar Hero: World Tour Sitting underneath a chandelier with its light bulbs screwed into metal bats, Ozzy Osbourne — the self-proclaimed "Prince of Fuckin' Darkness" — explains how he became a character in Guitar Hero: World Tour. "They wanted somebody people could relate to," says the man who once snorted a line of ants just to see what would happen. To say that Osbourne is an unlikely video-game star would be an understatement. He admits he doesn't play at all, although he fondly remembers Pong,...

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  Fall Gaming: How Real Can It Get?

  Posted: October 29th, 2008, 4:23am EDT

  The hottest battlegrounds, from WWII to WWE Fable II Xbox 360 PREMISE: The sequel to the epic medieval role-playing game takes place during the Enlightenment, with castles and catacombs waiting to be explored. SECRET WEAPON: Depending on whether you...

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  AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock & Roll

  Posted: October 28th, 2008, 2:07pm EDT

  Thirty-four years after he first put on the schoolboy uniform, Angus Young and his blue-collar bandmates return with their best album since "Back in Black" • Video: Go Behind the Scenes at AC/DC's Rolling Stone Cover Shoot • Photo Gallery: AC/DC Through the Years • Photo Gallery: Behind the Scenes at AC/DC's Rolling Stone Cover Shoot • Video: Watch behind-the-scenes footage of AC/DC at the video shoot for "Rock N Roll Train" •

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  The Lost Years & Last Days of David Foster Wallace

  Posted: October 16th, 2008, 3:32pm EDT

  He was the greatest writer of his generation - and also its most tormented. In the wake of his tragic suicide, his friends and family reveal the lifelong struggle of a beautiful mind He was six-feet-two, and on a good day he weighed 200 pounds. He wore granny glasses with a head scarf, points knotted at the back, a look that was both pirate-like and housewife-ish. He always wore his hair long. He had dark eyes, soft voice, caveman chin, a lovely, peak-lipped mouth that was his best feature. He walked with an ex-athlete's saunter, a roll from the heels, as if anything physical was a pleasure. David Foster Wallace worked surprising turns on nearly everything: novels,...

• 

  Getting to Know David Foster Wallace

  Posted: October 16th, 2008, 6:26am EDT

  An interview with Rolling Stone contributing editor David Lipsky In 1996, Rolling Stone contributing editor David Lipsky spent a week with David Foster Wallace, conducting a series of interviews with the author of Infinite Jest. Lipsky gradually won the celebrated author's trust, gaining access to a world few but Wallace's closest intimates knew. As is often the case in the magazine business, a series of events took place — a rock star's untimely death, a heated political season — and the profile never saw publication. So Lipsky sat on a massive...

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  Kings of Leon Take Manhattan

  Posted: October 15th, 2008, 3:05pm EDT

  Facing Letterman with a hangover and canoodling with Drew Barrymore "Today is going to be a long, shitty day," says Kings of Leon singer Caleb Followill, hanging out in the band's cramped dressing room at the Ed Sullivan Theater. The Kings — Caleb, his brothers Jared (bass) and Nathan (drums), and cousin Matthew (guitar) — are celebrating the release of their fourth album, Only by the Night, with a Late Show performance — and later a gig at the downtown club Webster Hall. But the band is running on fumes as it winds down an intense four-day...

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  David Cook Crafts Heaviest "American Idol" Album Yet

  Posted: October 15th, 2008, 2:58pm EDT

  The reality-TV champ taps Green Day producer for disc of rock anthems "During the show, I enjoyed messing with people's expectations," says David Cook. "The show," of course, is American Idol; in May, Cook was the winner of its seventh season. "I'm not trying to surprise people now: I'm putting out a rock record. I just want the songs to kick you in the teeth or make you want to cry — or do something drastic, like jump off a building. I want somebody to be exhausted when they're done listening." Making an album like that is a tall order under any...

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  New Book Reveals the Private Life of Kurt Cobain

  Posted: October 15th, 2008, 2:49pm EDT

  To research the rare photos, artwork and journal entries that make up the new book Cobain Unseen (Little, Brown), journalist Charles R. Cross was granted unprecedented access to Kurt Cobain's archives. "It was like a James Bond movie," Cross says of the high-tech Seattle bunker. "But once you got past security, all his possessions were just in boxes." With these artifacts, put into storage following Cobain's 1994 suicide, Cross pieced together a remarkably revealing visual history of Cobain's...

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  Hootie and the Blowfish Singer Leads Country Crossover Pack

  Posted: October 15th, 2008, 1:13pm EDT

  How Darius Rucker, Bon Jovi, Jewel and others scored country hits During a recent interview with a DJ in Tampa, Florida, Darius Rucker got some shocking news: His solo single "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" had hit Number One on the country charts five months after its release. "I started crying," says Rucker, whose album Learn to Live has sold 112,995 copies in three weeks. "I felt like such a dork, but it was really emotional. I'm in Hootie and the Blowfish, man. A lot of people don't get second chances." Rucker isn't the only star to reignite a pop...

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  Smashing Pumpkins Prep New Album, 20th Anniversary Tour

  Posted: October 15th, 2008, 1:00pm EDT

  Reunited band breaks out classic tunes for tour; concept disc to follow Billy Corgan is the first to admit that the Smashing Pumpkins' return hasn't always gone the way he'd hoped. In 2006, he and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin re-formed the band after a six-year layoff, recorded a new album, Zeitgeist, and hit the road. The Pumpkins' upcoming DVD, If All Goes Wrong (out November 11th), chronicles what followed: fans puzzled by the absence of founding members James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky, and tense moments onstage and off. "You're standing onstage and hearing people...

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  Springsteen, Jay-Z Lead Obama Swing State Drive

  Posted: October 15th, 2008, 9:55am EDT

  As the election heats up, artists from the Beasties to the Dead take action From Bruce Springsteen leading 50,000-strong crowds in chants of "Yes we can!" to the Beastie Boys headlining a last-minute voter-awareness arena tour to Jay-Z putting a political twist on his full-band stage show, musicians are coming out in force for Barack Obama as the November 4th election approaches. It's a burst of enthusiasm that recalls 2004's Vote for Change Tour: Some events, including a Dead/Allman Brothers show on October 13th in State College, Pennsylvania, and a Springsteen/Billy...

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  How Lucinda Got Her Joy Back

  Posted: October 15th, 2008, 5:28am EDT

  Done with "bad boys," Lucinda Williams found a good man ? and crafted her most upbeat album ever In order for Lucinda Williams to write a song, the conditions have to be perfect. "Nobody can be around," she says. "I like to be totally alone. I get out my guitar, and I spread all of my notes across the kitchen table." In early 2005, being alone wasn't a problem. Her love life was in a shambles after a long-term relationship she describes as "really destructive and really difficult" came to an end. "Then I had this brief, uneventful rock & roll fling — just oil for the motor," she...

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  Obama's Moment

  Posted: October 14th, 2008, 6:00am EDT

  The Democratic nominee for president talks about how George W. Bush screwed up, why John McCain turned ugly and what he's learned from Bill Clinton. It's the morning after the vice presidential debate, and Barack Obama strides onto the football field at Abington Senior High School in suburban Philadelphia as Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" rings out over the loudspeakers. The bleachers on both sides of the field are packed with cheering students and their parents, and the crowd has spread out onto the lawns beyond the goal posts. Abington is one of the swing districts where the presidential race will be decided on November 4th. It's...

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  The Easygoing Patriot

  Posted: October 3rd, 2008, 2:51pm EDT

  Jackson Browne on Obama's chances, what he learned from Dylan and living off the grid Making music is one of the greatest pleasures I've ever experienced — and I'm one who sought pleasure," Jackson Browne says with a quiet laugh on an early-autumn afternoon in a New York hotel room. But, he adds, "the heart of my activism is the belief that these pleasures are for everybody. If we continue what we're doing as a country . . . " He pauses. "We're all in the same boat. That's always been the subject of my songs. We only have a little time. It's a mess, so you do everything you...

• 

  The Surreal Life

  Posted: October 3rd, 2008, 1:53pm EDT

  Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes is obsessed with Prince, suicide, and borrowing his wife's tights. Meet rock's newest damaged genius. • Download music from Skeletal Lamping and watch Of Montreal perform live There are many things that Kevin Barnes' wife might prefer he not talk about. For instance, when she became pregnant a few years ago, the idea of becoming a father so terrified Barnes that he considered committing suicide. Or that after his daughter was born, his misbehavior on the road nearly destroyed their marriage. Or that he suffers from chronic depression, which he treats with the powerful antidepressant...

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  Q&A: Chrissie Hynde

  Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 3:17pm EDT

  The Pretenders singer on moving back to Ohio, opening a vegan restaurant and her rootsy new record • Video: Behind the Scenes of the "Boots of Chinese Plastic" music video After her 2007 tour with the Pretenders, frontwoman Chrissie Hynde vowed not to return to the stage until she wrote some new material. "Frankly, it was just embarrassing that I hadn't had a record out in so long," she says. Now, after recently resettling in her childhood home of Akron, Ohio — she has lived primarily in London for the past 35 years — Hynde can hit the road and draw from a brand-new batch...

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  Carlos' Cosmic Bummer

  Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 2:21pm EDT

  Santana prepares for a tour and struggles with the pain of his divorce • Santana: The Essential Album-By-Album Guide • Video: Ask a Rock Star — Santana On a recent sunny morning, Carlos Santana steps out of a shiny black Mercedes at his headquarters in an industrial part of San Rafael, California. He looks pretty much like he's always looked, sort of gnarly, sort of groovy and not all that far removed from the soulful snaggletoothed 22-year-old Mexican man-boy who tore it up at Woodstock before he'd released a single album. He's timeless...

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  MySpace Music Takes on iTunes

  Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 1:50pm EDT

  Social-networking giant's new service streams millions of songs for free From Lily Allen to My Chemical Romance, MySpace has made its name as a career booster for rising acts. But can the social-networking site now do the same for the beleaguered music business? On September 25th, the company launched MySpace Music, which will allow fans to stream millions of hits and classics for free — as well as buy downloads of songs or albums. Other sites, legal and otherwise, have offered free streaming in the past, but MySpace's goal is much more ambitious: to create,...

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  Fans Complain Metallica Disc Is Too Loud

  Posted: October 1st, 2008, 2:02pm EDT

  Band faces criticism over Death Magnetic's sound quality For the first time ever, Metallica fans are asking the band to turn the volume down. In online forums and at least one petition, some buyers of Metallica's new album are arguing that the group cranked the sound levels on its new album, Death Magnetic, to a point where the music is distorted and compromised. Even the album's mastering engineer, Ted Jensen, criticized the album's sonics in an e-mail to a fan. "In this case the mixes were already [pushed to the max] before they arrived at my...

• 

  Make-Believe Maverick

  Posted: September 30th, 2008, 10:23am EDT

  A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty • VIDEO: Five Myths About John McCain • The Double-Talk Express • Mad Dog Palin: The Full Story • Karl Rove's A-Team At Fort McNair, an army base located along the Potomac River in the nation's capital, a chance reunion takes place one day between two former POWs. It's the spring of 1974, and Navy commander John Sidney McCain III has returned home from the...

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  Q&A: Metallica's Robert Trujillo

  Posted: September 16th, 2008, 9:38am EDT

  "It's like you're caught inside a massive set of waves" Louder, Faster, Stronger: How Metallica Conquered Bad Habits, Group Therapy and Ego Clashes to Make Their Heaviest Record Ever Photo Gallery: Three Decades of Metallica You joined Metallica in February, 2003. How much did you know about the dynamics within the band at the time? They were in the middle of a bunch of transitional things. They were recording the album [St. Anger], still doing tracking and mixing, and also trying to find a new bass player. I received a phone...

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  Q&A: Metallica's Kirk Hammett

  Posted: September 16th, 2008, 9:34am EDT

  "I was ready to start working on a solo album" Louder, Faster, Stronger: How Metallica Conquered Bad Habits, Group Therapy and Ego Clashes to Make Their Heaviest Record Ever Photo Gallery: Three Decades of Metallica What do you remember about Metallica's first European tour in 1984? We played with a band called Venom — masters of black metal! [Smiles] We were super-psyched. I thought I was worldly, because I'd stayed in New York for a few months. But to go to Europe, for James, Cliff and I, the culture shock hit us pretty...

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  Q&A: Metallica's Lars Ulrich

  Posted: September 16th, 2008, 9:23am EDT

  "If we don't get along, everything else is irrelevant" Louder, Faster, Stronger: How Metallica Conquered Bad Habits, Group Therapy and Ego Clashes to Make Their Heaviest Record Ever Photo Gallery: Three Decades of Metallica Which is better — traveling to Metallica shows with your family or the way you used to do it with the band? Four on the bus, like a fist. The four fists on the bus, one fist and four beers on the bus [laughs] — that was a lot of fun. But if you're going to do this in the prime years of your...

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  Louder Faster Stronger

  Posted: September 16th, 2008, 7:06am EDT

  How Metallica conquered bad habits, group therapy and ego clashes to make their heaviest record ever. An excerpt from the cover story. Photo Gallery: Three Decades of Metallica Video: Behind the Cover Shoot James Hetfield: "There's More Dedication From the Four of Us Than Ever Before" Lars Ulrich: "If We Don't Get Along, Everything Else Is Irrelevant" Kirk Hammett: "I Was Ready To Start Working On a...

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  Q&A: Metallica's James Hetfield

  Posted: September 16th, 2008, 6:07am EDT

  "There's more dedication from the four of us than ever before" Louder, Faster, Stronger: How Metallica Conquered Bad Habits, Group Therapy and Ego Clashes to Make Their Heaviest Record Ever Photo Gallery: Three Decades of Metallica You have been in Metallica for your entire adult life. Have you ever felt restricted? I made myself feel restricted: "I'm tired of arguing. I'm not gonna argue for another five hours about something little and stupid. You win. This is Lars' band. When I'm able to be me, it'll be the side project, the solo thing." Which is...

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  Jack White and Alicia Keys: Bond's New Duo

  Posted: September 15th, 2008, 5:39am EDT

  Inside the recording of the theme song to "Quantum of Solace" In the van between early White Stripes gigs, Jack White liked to play composer John Barry's James Bond soundtracks — the theme from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, with its dramatic horns and strings, was a particular favorite. So White, a lifelong Bond fan, didn't hesitate when producers of the latest 007 film, Quantum of Solace (out November 14th), approached him to write and produce a theme song for Alicia Keys to sing. "You're definitely taking on a responsibility — there's a...

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  Cabin Man

  Posted: September 5th, 2008, 1:51pm EDT

  Chris Elliott went from NBC gofer to semi-fame as a juvenile oddball on "Letterman," but never tasted true Hollywood glory. Why the former "Get a Life" star may be his generation's most underappreciated comic genius. Late in 1980, Chris Elliott was working the admission booth at Rockefeller Center's observation deck when David Letterman walked up with his mother, Dorothy, and asked to buy two tickets. Earlier that summer, Letterman had been the host of his own daring and funny NBC morning show that had proven popular with television critics but not with viewers. And though the network, based in Rockefeller Center, had canceled the show after only a few months on the air, it had kept Letterman under...

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  Beck Debuts Stripped-Down Tour in Reno

  Posted: September 5th, 2008, 6:01am EDT

  On the first night of his seven-week North American tour, at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nevada, Beck was standing on an acre-size stage (the largest indoor stage in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records). "I thought, 'Shit, this goes on forever!' " he says. "If I had known, I would have really done something special." Opening with the tense groove of "Devils Haircut," Beck and his four-piece band played a 23-song set that ranged from the gutbucket slide...

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  Five Comics to Watch

  Posted: September 5th, 2008, 4:56am EDT

  Comedy can be a very tough business ? but here are five funny folks you might see on a bigger stage soon Bo Burnham Age: 18 Hometown: Hamilton, MA Style: Hyper teen performing songs in bedroom Background: Taught himself guitar and keyboard and began churning out YouTube videos — "I'm just a giddy teenager who would like to break into show business anyway I can," Burnham says. Signature bit: Rhapsodic ode to Helen Keller ("I could walk around the house naked/She wouldn't even know") Reminiscent of: Adam Sandler Tough gig: Followed Judd Apatow onstage at...

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  Let There Be Rock: AC/DC Plan Big Comeback

  Posted: September 4th, 2008, 5:57am EDT

  New disc "Black Ice" hits Wal-Mart in October, massive tour to follow This past spring, eight years after AC/DC released their last album, the five band members entered a recording studio with producer Brendan O'Brien — and banged out 15 new songs in just two months. "We just wanted something like, 'Hey, this is gonna be rock & roll,' " says guitarist and bandleader Angus Young — who emphasized the point by using the word "rock" in the titles of four different tracks. The resulting disc, Black Ice, is set to be released exclusively in Wal-Mart stores...

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  Dave at Peace: The Rolling Stone Interview

  Posted: September 2nd, 2008, 10:25am EDT

  He was once late night's crankiest man. But is the war within David Letterman finally over? Oh, my God — fantastic! They're calling from the Museum of the Moving Image. We have couriers on motorcycles on the way!" It's an early evening in late August, and David Letterman is giving a predictably sarcastic post-mortem on tonight's taping of Late Show, which ended just a few minutes ago. He's sitting in the sparsely decorated midtown Manhattan office of his business manager, Fred Nigro, and he's exchanged his tailored on-air suit for a logoless navy-blue T-shirt and a baggy pair of...