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And the Band Played On...

GiggleSugar — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:00:00 -0700

While I don't condone the way the dude chose to deal with this annoying kid, I do think someone had to step in and stop the little punk from ruining the show. The tuba player stepped up and when the damage was done, he calmly stepped back into formation - with no lapse in performance. Meanwhile, the kid was unharmed and continued to run amok. Where oh where were his tortured parents hiding?

Band Boy Prepares For Fame. . .

GiggleSugar — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:02:00 -0800

. . .But his five seconds on the big screen caught this.

Thanks, College Humor!

Time For Another Musical Interlude!

GiggleSugar — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 04:00:00 -0700

We at GiggleSugar do not discriminate when it comes to talent. We appreciate it all, even when the talent is undeniably dumbass in nature. But this is something else. This is beyond talent. This is musical and rhythmic...genius.

Drummer Boy Turns Into Sideshow Bob

GiggleSugar — Tue, 22 May 2007 12:00:00 -0700

Keep your eye on the little drummer boy on the right. He plays a round of pa, rum, pum, pum, pum on his drum, and then...Bam! Ouch! Something tells me there won't be an encore this evening.

Band Interview: Cold War Kids

BuzzSugar — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 05:31:51 -0800

No band in 2006 benefited from the power of the Internet like Cold War Kids. On Downtown Records, the same label that brought us breakout hit Gnarls Barkley, the band got so much praiseworthy press early on that it was playing Lollapalooza before its first album even hit stores.

Remarkably, the album, Robbers & Cowards, totally lives up to the hype, with a collection of storytelling songs that blend rock and roll with noise collages. The guys-including frontman and piano man Nathan Willett, drummer Matt Aveiro, bassist Matt Maust, and guitarist Jonnie Russell-recently stopped by the Sugar Publishing offices on their way back home to Long Beach, Calif., for an interview.

I talked to the band about everything from the music they're digging now - including the new Tom Waits album and Cat Power - to the authors they love (David Foster Wallace is a group fave). To see what the Cold War Kids had to say about their newfound fame and what comes next, read more

First, how did you guys come up with the band name?

Maust: I was traveling through eastern Europe with my bro, and when I was outside Budapest, they had taken out all these statues and just dumped them outside of cities. You could visit them and climb on them and kick ‘em, and my brother and I had like a picnic on Stalin’s foot. I thought, we couldn’t have done this in the '70s.

How did you get hooked up with Downtown Records?

Maust: They took us to a really nice breakfast and wooed us with omelets.

Willett: They had the right balance of small and new enough, but they also had the gusto enough to do the things we wanted to do.

Tell me a bit about how the album caught fire online.

Willett: About eight months ago, our friend Matt O’Brien, who is a big blog guy, was talking to us about bloggers, and he showed us how we had a review on a blog of our EP. When we put out the second and third EPs, we decided to send them out to some blogs, like Stereogum and My Old Kentucky Blog.

Maust: At first, I was a little scared getting all this press; I was like, we gotta get an album out, guys.

Willett: The more you don’t have music that’s available to buy and people are talking about it, the more that you’re really living up to expectations. You’d rather let the music speak for your band than the hype.

How do you come up with ideas for songs?

Nathan: We just write music together. We’ll all be together in a room, and someone comes up with an idea they like and everyone else just grabs onto it.

Maust: Matt (Aveiro) might come with more of a hip-hop beat, and I come to the table from more of a punk-rock standpoint, and when those things mesh, you get a song like “Saint John.”

Aveiro: Sometimes we don’t have the biggest space that we play in, so we’ll have things laying around that we can pick up and bang on.

Most: Wine bottles, fishing reels, chairs being scooted around ...

Now that you're done with touring for a while, what's up next for you guys?

Nathan: We did some recording at the BBC a few weeks ago, including a John Lennon/Yoko Ono song called “Well Well Well.” It was in Peel Studios, a 4-hour session, and they set up lots of pianos and keys in big room, and you just get to play a bit.

Aveiro: It’s pretty much the modern equivalent of the Peel Sessions.

I can't wait to hear the band's new songs, but for now, I'll just sustain myself on Robbers & Cowards. Tune in later today to hear one of my favorite Cold War Kids tracks.

Our Review of Beatles Rock Band, Clooney Has a Naked Man Fan, and Using Facebook Instead of 911?!

Molly — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:17:19 -0700

Beatlemania returns today as The Beatles: Rock Band hits stores, and we're here with GeekSugar's review of the hotly anticipated new game! Plus, watch cute clips of George Clooney's indecent proposal and David Beckham with his family on Ellen. All that plus two Australian girls who got lost and instead of calling the police, they updated their Facebook statuses to get rescued. Check out PopSugar Rush now!

Sgt. Pepper Headed to the Rock Band Music Store Tomorrow

GeekSugar — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:50:21 -0800

September was a big month for The Beatles in the gaming world when The Beatles Rock Band hit the market. I went crazy over it during a sneak peek at E3, and was not disappointed when I got my own copy. Although The Beatles have not always been so chummy with tech, times are a-changing as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band makes its way to The Beatles: Rock Band music store tomorrow for your Xbox 360 and Wii systems, and will be available on your PS3 on Nov. 19!

Although I'd love to, I can't really throw down for their special edition digital collection, so I'm stoked at least to get to play along on one of my favorite games. To see how much each track from the album will set you back, just read more.

Individual singles from the record like "When I'm Sixty-Four" and "Lovely Rita" can be purchased for $1.99 each (or 160 Microsoft Points on your Xbox), while the entire album can be downloaded for $13.50 (1080 Microsoft Points). Wii owners can rock out with The Beatles tomorrow as well, but you'll be paying $2 a pop or 200 Wii Points for the tracks.

No Doubt Suing Activision For Splitting Up the Band

GeekSugar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:20:40 -0800

Although Band Hero was just released with a star-studded lineup yesterday, and there's already word of legal trouble. No Doubt has filed suit against Activision, the maker of Band Hero, for using their likeness for songs they didn't record, as well as splitting up the band in different scenes which weren't approved. No Doubt's band manager Jim Guerinot explains:

The band [members] are bitterly disappointed that their name and likeness was taken and used without their permission. They agreed to play three No Doubt songs as a band. Activision then went and put them in 62 other songs and broke the band up [and] never even asked.

I don't know about you, but I'm a little surprised that a band as popular as No Doubt would be complaining about being "split-up" virtually and having their characters performing other tunes. It sounds a little like the other lawsuit Activision was involved in earlier this year over Kurt Cobain's avatar. What's your take on this news?

What Would Your Heavy Metal Band Name Be?

GiggleSugar — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 03:25:26 -0700

Wouldn't Pestilential Bunny be an awesome heavy metal band name? Or how about Weeping Hearse? I must say, one of my favorite things about real or fake quizzes is coming up with the fake answers - particularly in the case of heavy metal band names.

If you need a little help, have no fear: there is a handy heavy metal band name generator online to help you brainstorm. . . Come to think of it, Braynstorm would be a pretty awesome name too. So tell us: What would your heavy metal band name be?

Taylor Swift, Travis Barker, and Pete Wentz Talk Band Hero

GeekSugar — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:40:05 -0800

Available in stores today, Band Hero is Activision's latest game, which lets friends and family members rock out with their Guitar Hero instruments to favorites like "ABC" by the Jackson 5 and "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls. You can even sing along with other famous singers including country superstar Taylor Swift who performs some of her most popular hits like "Love Story," "You Belong With Me," and "Picture to Burn."

Here's some footage from the making of the Band Hero commercial, which includes mini-interviews with Taylor and her musical heroes including Travis Barker, and Pete Wentz.

Band Hero for the Wii costs $60.