Ash

For The Record: Quick News On Bono, Queens Of The Stone Age, Hank Garland, Ash, Britney Spears & More

29 Dec 2004 03:36:00 EST

Bono now an editor, Elvis guitarist dies, Chris Goss ill.
By MTV News staff report

U2's Bono (file)
Photo: BlackBook

Musician, activist, iPod pitchman — Bono's résumé is already pretty full. But now he's taken on another title: editor. On Tuesday, the U2 frontman served as "guest editor" for British radio station BBC Four's "Today" news program. His responsibilities included assigning beats to writers and lining up guests for the show. Bono chose topics like the relationship between Irish and North African music, combating poverty around the world, and Britain's foreign policy. Guests who contributed pre-recorded commentaries included former President Bill Clinton and a German nun named Sister Benedicta. ...

Guitarist Walter "Hank" Garland, who played with the likes of Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison, died on Monday in Orange Park, Florida, of a staph infection, according to The Associated Press. Garland, 74, performed on Elvis singles including "Little Sister" and "Big Hunk O' Love," and had his first million-selling hit at the age of 19 with the country song "Sugar Foot Rag." Garland had been battling illness since 1961 when a car crash put him in a coma for several months. ... Queens of the Stone Age associate Chris Goss, who has produced and played with Queens mastermind Josh Homme's former band Kyuss and various side projects, was rushed to a hospital in Rancho Mirage, California, over the holidays. According to posts on QOTSA.com and MastersOfReality.com (the band Goss fronts), he was suffering from a "severe internal infection" and was listed in critical condition at Eisenhower Medical Center. Over the weekend, though, he recovered and is now "resting comfortably." ...

Ash are going to release a U.S. version of their album Meltdown, already certified gold in the U.K., to coincide with a new "Star Wars" video game called "Republic Commando" that features their song "Clones" as the theme song. Meltdown, due out March 8, was produced by Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, System of a Down) to give it more of an "American" sound. "I always think American records sound better sonically," frontman Tim Wheeler said in a statement. "They always seem to have better engineering, better studios, so we wanted to check it out firsthand." The U.S. version will also feature bonus tracks and DVD footage not available on the European full-length. ... Boy George is slated to DJ at WinterFest, an annual gay and lesbian ski week held in Lake Tahoe. The former Culture Club frontman's gig will take place toward the end of the seven-day long WinterFest, on March 12 at the Horizon Casino Resort. ...

12.28.2004

Music ruled on Yahoo! this year. "American Idol" was the most popular online search term in 2004, followed by "Paris Hilton," "Jessica Simpson" and "Britney Spears," according to the year-end numbers from the search engine. "Usher" came in at #7 on the list, two spots under "Harry Potter." ...

The oft-underappreciated "urban Western" genre will soon get a boost from Wyclef Jean and Kurupt when they star alongside "Kill Bill" star David Carradine and "Coach Carter" actor Antwon Tanner in the upcoming film "Click." Helmed by independent filmmaker Jean Claude LaMarre, the flick is set at the end of the Civil War and concerns a group of outlaws who band together to rob the town bank. Some filming will take place in Los Angeles and select pieces in the wardrobe will be provided by trucker-hat masters Von Dutch. The soundtrack to the film will include original tracks by Kurupt and Wyclef. ... While fellow Black Sabbath member Ozzy Osbourne has long been known as the guy who once bit off the head of a live dove, drummer Bill Ward is getting press for being the bird-friendly musician in the group. Ward posted a photograph of "Abraham," a turkey he recently adopted, on his Web site on Monday. ...

Along with some percussion work from the Velvet Underground's Maureen Tucker, the new, as-yet-untitled second Raveonettes album features contributions by Martin Rev of early '80s New York band Suicide and Ronnie Spector of 1960s girl group the Ronettes. The follow-up to 2003's Chain Gang of Love is expected to drop early next year. ... For Michael Jackson's child-molestation trial, expected to begin January 31, California's Santa Barbara County will introduce a new jury-selection system. The "one-step" system eliminates the preliminary mailer generally sent to potential jurors, according to The Associated Press. If jurors did not fill out the mailer, their names would have been removed from the jury lists. Under the new system, 4,000 people will receive jury summons letters for the trial, which will instruct them to appear for jury selection. If the jurors do not respond or appear, they could face a potential fine of $1,500. ...

When you're a multiplatinum singer/songwriter, sometimes you don't need a reason to tour. That seems to be the logic behind Sarah McLachlan's 2005 schedule, which all of a sudden is loaded with tour dates. The Canadian chanteuse will hit the road starting on April 12 in Victoria, British Columbia, and has dates scheduled all the way through June 1 in Halifax, Nova Scotia (she's playing plenty of Stateside gigs in between). McLachlan's last studio album, Afterglow, was released in November of 2003. ...

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Ash Discusses How Country Life Led To "Nu-Clear Sounds"

1 Oct 1999 02:45:00 EDT

Ash

After adding a new member and switching American labels, Northern Ireland's Ash finally released its third album, "Nu-Clear Sounds," this week, almost a year after the record was initially released in the U.K. and Europe.

The band became one of the toasts of the U.K. rock scene after cutting its second LP, "1977," in 1996, and seemed poised to reach American audiences via such alternative hits as "Girl From Mars" and "Kung Fu."

But business issues plagued Ash in the States shortly after the release of "1977," and after expanding to a four-piece in 1997 by bringing rhythm guitarist Charlotte Hatherly into the fold, the group returned to the studio with producers Owen Morris and Chris Kimsey for the follow-up.

MTV News recently sat down with Ash and talked with the band about how the addition of Hatherly affected the way in which "Nu-Clear Sounds" was recorded.

explained frontman Tim Wheeler, "where we went out to this farmhouse in the country, and that's when we wrote all the new songs and developed the new sound, really. So we went into the record ready for that."
"We did a lot of live work on ['Nu-Clear Sounds'] as well," added bassist Mark Hamilton. "I think every track, apart from one, was cut live in the studio, which was the first time we've done that, really. Previously we'd just get the drums and bass and just layer it up."
"But doing it live as a band sort of worked a lot better," he continued,
Ash played a special acoustic gig at last month's CMJ Music Fest in New York City and is currently mapping out plans for an extended U.S. tour later this year.

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Ash

Ash Distances Music From Business, Politics For New Album

23 Aug 1999 06:00:00 EDT

Ash

In 1996 the teenagers in Ash were some of Ireland's hottest musical exports, thanks to the distorted pop ditties of the group's second album, "1977," and its pair of alt-rock singles, "Kung Fu" and "Girl from Mars."
Ash ran into some trouble with its American label, Warner Bros., after completing work on its subsequent record, "Nu-Clear Sounds," a situation which delayed the Stateside release of the album until almost a year after it was issued in the U.K. and Europe.
Shortly before the U.K. release of "Nu-Clear Sounds," Ash joined U2 to play at concert urging support for passage of the "Good Friday" referendum, a joint peace accord designed to bring an end to the violence in Northern Ireland waged between Catholics and Protestants (see "U2 And Ash To Rock For Peace In Northern Ireland").
In a recent interview with MTV News, Ash discussed how it manages to carefully mix the dicey politics of Northern Ireland within a musical setting.
"We pretty much stay out of the whole political thing. That's not what we're really about," commented bassist Mark Hamilton.
"Music isn't gonna be a vehicle for spreading any message about how to sort Northern Ireland out," added drummer Rick McMurray. "We're doing the music almost as an escape, I guess. Being brought up as Northern Irelanders in small little towns -- very boring. Nothing to do, and music was more of an escape for us, really." [RealAudio]
That sort of perspective also seems to have kept Ash from getting sidetracked by the label shuffling that resulted with the band landing on DreamWorks Records, who plan to (finally) issue "Nu-Clear Sounds" on September 28.
explained frontman Tim Wheeler. "Which meant that we couldn't put it out in the U.S. until we got a new deal sorted out." [RealAudio]
"It's kind of bizarre, y'know," McMurray said, "because the album has been out for almost a year, and we're starting to think about the next record and what we want to do for that. But we're back over here to promote ['Nu-Clear Sounds']. But I guess we've been playing the songs live for the last few months, so we're as tight as we can be with them."
Ash has completed a video for the first American single, "Jesus Says," [RealAudio] and the band is planning to tour the U.S. in the fall to support the new album.

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Ash

Ash Discusses Butch Vig's "Nu-Clear" Detonation

18 Jun 1999 04:00:00 EDT

Ash

Irish rock group Ash recently secured a new, multi-album deal with Dreamworks Records, insuring that its newest LP, "Nu-Clear Sounds," would finally reach record stores in America almost a year after being issued in Europe and the U.K.
Ash and its new label decided to give "Nu-Clear Sounds" a bit of cosmetic surgery for its Stateside release and enlisted the help of uber-producer and Garbage drummer Butch Vig to resequence the record and remix several tracks, including the first U.S. single, "Jesus Says" (see "Ash Ready To Drop 'Nu-Clear' Album; Taps Butch Vig For Remixes").
MTV News caught up with Ash while the group was in New York to play a pair of showcase gigs, and frontman Tim Wheeler discussed how Ash hooked up with Vig for the refurbished "Sounds."
"Well, we were talking to a few people about doing remixes," Wheeler said, "but it was quite funny, 'cause Butch actually came to us, 'cause he and Garbage had been really into the [new] album. He used to play it before they went onstage every night on tour, and he really got into it."
"So he kind of came to us," Wheeler continued, "and said, 'I'd love to do some mixes because I'd love to hear this on American radio.' And he didn't really alter the arrangements too much, he just made it sound better. It was amazing.... There's kinda talk about working with Butch [on the next album], which we'd love, 'cause it'd be perfect. We'll see how it goes, 'cause he's a very busy man." [RealAudio]
"Nu-Clear Sounds" is due out on August 24, and Ash hopes to follow up the record's release with an extended U.S. tour in September.

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Ash

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Ash Ready To Drop "Nu-Clear" Album; Taps Butch Vig For Remixes

3 Jun 1999 12:00:00 EDT

Ash's Tim Wheeler

Northern Ireland's Ash has finally set a U.S. release date for its sophomore album, "Nu-Clear Sounds." Producer Butch Vig has remixed and resequenced the record for America, and it's due in stores on August 24.
The album came out in the U.K. and Europe last fall, but Ash was without a U.S. record deal until the group signed with DreamWorks Records earlier this year. (Reprise had issued Ash's 1996 debut, "1977," but band and label parted ways shortly after the album's release.)
Aside from tweaking the running order of the tracks on "Nu-Clear Sounds," Vig has lent his deft mixing skills to three songs featured on the album, including the first two British singles, "Jesus Says" and "Wild Surf." In the U.K., Ash has already released a third single, "Numbskull," which includes B-side covers of Nirvana's "Blew" and Mudhoney's "Who You Drivin' Now?"
Ash will head over to the States in the next few weeks to perform showcase gigs at the Roxy in Los Angeles on June 15 and at New York City's Bowery Ballroom on June 17 and 18.
Those concerts will feature a slightly different version of the group from what fans will remember from its last American sojourn, as Ash has expanded its lineup to include guitarist Charlotte Hatherly and turntablist DJ Dick Kurtaine.
In related news, Hatherly recently posed for "Elle" as part of its planned "Women in Rock" issue, due out in August. Other female musicians being photographed for the magazine include Jewel, Chrissie Hynde, and Garbage's Shirley Manson.

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Ash

Abba Revisited By Evan Dando, Ash, Bananarama, Others

1 Mar 1999 02:00:00 EST

Ash's Tim Wheeler

Abba, the dance-pop group that wouldn't die, will get the tribute treatment courtesy of Evan Dando, Ash, Bananarama, and a host of others next month.
"ABBA - A Tribute, The 25th Anniversary Celebration" (so named because it marks the release of the band's first hit, "Waterloo") will also feature the Beach Boys' Mike Love, Peter Cetera & Ronna Reeves, Go West, Hazell Dean, Army Of Lovers, Information Society, and others. The collection will also carry a track from the Real Group, which features Abba vocalist Frida Synni-Lyngstad-Fredriksson-Andersson.
Among the album's familiar cuts (like Erasure's previously released remake of "Take A Chance On Me"), are 12 tracks that have never been officially released in the U.S.
If you're keeping score at home, Abba sold more than 300 million records worldwide with hits like "Dancing Queen," "Money Money Money," and "Fernando."

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Ash

Bananarama

Evan Dando

The Lemonheads

U2 And Ash To Rock For Peace In Northern Ireland

19 May 1998 12:00:00 EDT

Bono

Irish megastars U2, who brought the conflict in Northern Ireland to American audiences with the single "Sunday Bloody Sunday," and Ash, the Irish alterna-trio which has scored widespread success in Europe, will join forces today to make a peaceful political statement today when they play a free concert in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The concert, which is being held to raise support for the Good Friday referendum, will be simulcast on BBC's website from 3:30 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. EST, and is expected to draw close to 3,000 people to Waterfront Hall. The two men integral in helping forge the Northern Ireland peace accord, David Trimble and John Hume, will also speak in favor of the proposal, which is being voted on this Friday, during the event.

In related news, Ash is using the concert to take a break from its recording schedule, as the band was in the studio last week mixing their new single, which is due out in June. According to a publicist for Ash, the band has tentatively set September 8 as the release date for the follow-up to its 1996 album, "1977."

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Ash

U2

Photos | Ash Photos

22 May 2002 06:42:02 EDT

Ash Photos
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Ash