Idolator

Even though I can’t recall a world without them, I’ve never liked Journey. As a kid, I found them vaguely annoying, and as I grew into a rock fan, I was more than happy to go along with the critical line that fingered them as all that sucked in rock. That’s eroded over time—Journey simply isn't worth getting worked up over, and besides, when Chuck Eddy said back in the early '90s that Journey were far more effective than any critic of the time wanted to admit, I knew exactly what he meant. I look back at the music of my childhood with more fondness than it sometimes warrants, but the recent “revival” of “Don’t Stop Believin’”—from The Sopranos to its inclusion in The Pitchfork 500—still puzzles me some, if a little bit less now that I’ve seen the infomercial for Time Life’s The Ultimate Rock Ballads Collection. More »

2:30 PM on Wed Nov 12 2008
By Michaelangelo Matos
424 views, 12 comments

Latest by mediajunk: Stockhausen's really cool if you like to argue about the structure of the drums & space section of Dead shows. Or if you think Neil Peart is insufficiently committed to high art. So... Can is better than Stockhausen. The Fall is better than more »

Rags-to-sorta-riches Journey singer Arnel Pineda had a private audience with Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, president of the Philippines, today. Pineda sang the Journey hit "Open Arms" a cappella to the President, who was apparently moved by the performance. (Sadly, the press was not invited.) But Pineda mentioned the earliest the entire band would make it to his home country would be April 2009. It's just like the Marcos era for the Philippines—except this time, the president is keeping the nation's proudest musical export to herself. No "Separate Ways," no peace! [Inquirer.net]

3:30 PM on Fri Nov 7 2008
By Dan Gibson
399 views, 1 comment

Latest by breedavies: I can't imagine being in Arnel Pineda's shoes. But Journey sucks, as evidenced by their shitty fans. After they played in Colorado this summer, the backlash to a review of their show made me hate this band forever. [blogs.denverpost.com] The writer made some more »

Journey's apparently timeless anthem "Don't Stop Believin'" is now the first "catalog" track to reach the two million legal digital download mark. First off, it's pretty crazy that it took this long for the ubiquitous "Believin'" to sell two million copies, even though it's been blared in every venue imaginable, from The Sopranos to the Chicago White Sox locker room. Obviously, "catalog" tracks are not the sellers that newer tracks are. With its lyrics of wine, cheap perfume, and South Detroit, it's become something of an anthem for many non-urban dwellers who spend time singing along to songs in their cars. What's really sad about this is I bet Journey only made a few hundred thousand dollars about it after iTunes, the record label, and other various personages got their cuts. More »

1:45 PM on Thu Nov 6 2008
By Lucas Jensen
663 views, 14 comments

Latest by chaircrusher: Glad some real Detroit people spoke up. Maybe it's stating the obvious but Journey songs are not the New Yorker -- there is no fact checking department. While calling it poetic license is a stretch, it just points out more »

Yahoo! Music chart watcher Paul Grein has run down SoundScan's list of the most-downloaded tracks and found out which pre-Napster-era songs are still inspiring people to pay 99 cents for a copy. Anyone who's ever seen the number of Google hits the words "Steve Perry" and/or "Arnel Pineda" and/or "song at the end of The Sopranos" can accrue will be completely unsurprised that Journey's unkillable "Don't Stop Believin'" is No. 1 on the list, with 1.8 million downloads. However, I was a bit amazed to find that Israel "Iz" Kamakawiwo'ole's sweet, ukulele-tinged version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" beat out Survivor's Rocky-inspired "Eye Of The Tiger," if only because that and the Journey track are forever twinned in my mind. Top 10 after the jump. More »

5:00 PM on Mon Aug 11 2008
By Maura Johnston
566 views, 3 comments

Latest by Monkeyrash: Whew, I've only purchased one of those songs (and I think I was sober). It was a little scary clicking through. more »

The ZVUE company may be running out of cash, but they can still turn out one awesome MP3 player. More »

2:00 PM on Fri Jul 25 2008
By Dan Gibson
1,033 views, 4 comments

HITS Daily Double's chart predictions for the coming week are slightly good news for the music industry, with five albums selling in the six-digit range, and bad news for humanity, what with Disturbed taking the top spot with around a quarter of a million copies sold of their latest album, Indestructible. The last Disturbed disc had a similar first-week sales tally (239,000), so either Warner Brothers' strategy of keeping the band from playing new material live is paying off or the band's fans haven't made a lot of progress in figuring out the Internet. Likely filling out the top five are Weezer (150,000-160,000), the 28th volume of the unsinkable Now series (145,000-155,000), Usher's Here I Stand (140,000-150,000), and the Wal-Mart-only Journey disc (100,000-110,000). Ashanti seems to have been hit the hardest by time, with her nearly 250,000-copy first-week sales total for 2004's Concrete Rose dipping to a meager 75,000-85,000 for The Declaration. She should really consider recording a country record. [HITS Daily Double]

2:00 PM on Fri Jun 6 2008
By Dan Gibson
374 views, 8 comments

Latest by Lax Danja House: The Disturbed album ain't too bad actually. It's kind of strange that the major publications have shunned the album since it's a major ratings-winner online. more »

From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Under consideration in this installment is Journey's new full-length and first album featuring Arnel Pineda, Revelation, which hits Wal-Marts across the country today. Unfortunately, critical appraisals of the album are somewhat sparse, so we're featuring comments from various posters on the MelodicRock.com Journey forum: More »

1:00 PM on Tue Jun 3 2008
By Dan Gibson
5,455 views, 12 comments

Theoretically, Alex Pappademas' GQ piece on Journey is about the new lead singer, Arnel Pineda, and his rise to stardom, but hands down, the best parts are courtesy Mr. Neal Schon. More »

12:00 PM on Tue May 20 2008
By Dan Gibson
6,058 views, 23 comments

More »

ARTIST: Journey
TITLE: "Never Walk Away"
DEBUT: April 24, 2008 More »

Second Life shills Journey haven't had the easiest time hanging onto lead singers over the last two decades of their nearly 40-year career, but they're hoping to make it through at least two nostalgia tours with the latest, Filipino rocker Arnel Pineda. The Pineda-fronted Journey played its first show in Chile last night, and while the band's performance on karaoke-standard/advertiser go-to/pop cultural treasure "Don't Stop Believin'" is a little leaden, an eager and energetic Pineda gives it his all, probably because he hasn't been playing this song every night for the last 900 years. And if Pineda's not quite a match for Steve Perry's schlubby charisma, his voice is uncannily Perry-esque in places. After the jump, a fuzzy, fan-captured version of the band's sensitive standard "Faithfully," where you can still sometimes manage to hear Pineda over the delighted screams of Chilean classic rock fans. More »

4:40 PM on Fri Feb 22 2008
By Jess Harvell
1,976 views, 4 comments

Latest by drjimmy11: Apparently in Chile, audience members' facial reactions have no obvious connection to what's happening on stage? It kind of looks like they were edited it from an entirely different event. more »

If you're not doing anything next Friday night, Journey is throwing a little shindig: "On February 1, multi-Platinum rockers Journey will release their new Virtual Island in Second Life. A grand opening party is planned inside Second Life at the 'Journey Rock Band' sim and will feature a meet and greet with band members. Live DJs will be spinning many of Journey's classic hits, recorded studio and live performances, as well as lots of other great music for fans to party to!" Does this at least mean we'll finally get to see what "South Detroit" looks like? [Journey/Second Life; HT: Michael Byrne]

3:15 PM on Fri Jan 25 2008
By Jess Harvell
302 views, Comment

Journey has had something of a hard time keeping its frontpeople since Steve Perry broke our hearts lo those many years ago, and the band's last few choices have not exactly been Dangerfield-approved. But perhaps that will all change if the the band loses the Y chromosome factor by choosing Perry's most recently rumored replacement? More »

3:30 PM on Wed Nov 28 2007
By jharv
2,792 views, 9 comments

Straight from melodicrock.com—Maura: "A.K.A. 'where I go to find out about the DANGER DANGER REUNION'"—we learn that "the man in the middle [of this photo] is Philippine vocalist Arnel Pineda (of Asian rock band The Zoo). If you believe the word out there, the deal is done and an announcement will follow in due course." The "deal" being that Pineda has supposedly been tapped to replace forgettable yarler/warm body Jeff Scott Soto as the lead singer of Journey. How snugly does Pineda fit into Perry's mullet and jean jacket? Decide for yourself after the jump: More »

3:30 PM on Wed Oct 3 2007
By jharv
28,114 views, 33 comments

Latest by idolator69: That's right bandydad...Pineda is no Perry. Perry has more of a smoother voice while Pineda has a more powerful voice. The resurgence of J is because of Pineda's powerful soaring countertenor voice. If he sounded just like Perry (ie Hunsicker more »

One more chart note for you, from way down at the bottom of the Billboard Biz round-up: More »

3:00 PM on Wed Jun 20 2007
By Brian Raftery
2,203 views, 5 comments

Late yesterday, Journey announced that lead singer Jeff Scott Soto was leaving the band, after serving barely a year as the replacement for the last Journey singer, Steve Augeri. The press release states that the group plans to take the rest of 2007 off, but we can't help but wonder whether this might finally lead to a full-on reunion with Steve Perry. Not only would a "classic line-up" tour be lucrative, but there's plenty of numerology to support this theory: After the band's Sopranos cameo, both "Don't Stop Believin'" and Greatest Hits are at No. 21 on their respective iTunes charts. Add up 2 + 1 and you get 3, which happens to be the number of Journey frontmen since 1977. And if you subtract 1977 from 1949—Perry's year of birth—you get 28, which is the exact number of times that Perry says "Oh Sherrie" in the song of the same name. Coincidence? More »

9:48 AM on Wed Jun 13 2007
By Brian Raftery
4,817 views, 36 comments

Latest by MissKate: Although it's all agreed it would pull major bank, Mr. Perry made an annoucement on the 21st on his former fan site, Fan Asylum, regarding the rumors that are rampant over the web. (I'm still holding out for a more »

Thanks to its pre-closing-credits appearance on The Sopranos, Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" is racing up the charts: The song is currently No. 30 on the iTunes' "Top Songs" list, right between Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony and T.I.; and the band's Greatest Hits album is No. 54 on Amazon.com (make sure you buy the remastered version, so you can hear all the crisp snare on "Only The Young"!). Meanwhile, keyboardist Jonathan Cain tells the AP the band had no idea how the song was going to be employed: More »

2:20 PM on Tue Jun 12 2007
By Brian Raftery
1,953 views, 6 comments

Latest by zibby: Thank heavens I had the CD before Sunday so I won't need to deal with the worldwide shortages that'll no doubt happen now. more »

Idolator

Happy "Chinese Democracy" Release Day: A Look Back At How We Got Here

Posts Tagged “Journey”

Time-Life Music Rocks Your Heart

Arnel Pineda: Pride Of The Philippines

Journey Confuses Two Million More People About Detroit's Geography

Journey Still Inspiring People To Plunk Down Change In Their Honor

Wal-Mart Brings Us The Most Beautiful Media Player Of All Time

Tough Break, Nerds: The Jocks Win Again

Journey Welcomes Back Record Buyers With Open Arms

The Things We Learned About Neal Schon And Steve Perry

Journey Not Taking Any Chances With "Revelation"

Will Journey's New Song Make The People Who Miss Steve Perry Start Believing Again?

Journey's Newest Lead Singer Eschews Contractually Obligated Mullet For Equally Regrettable Goatee, Decent Pipes

Journey To Finally Upgrade From 4-Bit Software After 25 Years

Will Journey's New Frontman Actually Be A Frontchick?

Compare And Contrast: Steve Perry Vs. The Latest Guy To (We Think) Front Journey

There's No Escape From Journey's Comeback Trail

He's Tanned, He's Rested, And He's Possibly Ready: Steve Perry In '08!

Steve Perry Very Possibly Lovin', Touchin' Squeezin' Himself Right Now