Ex-Evanescence Members, "Idol" Carly Smithson Form The Fallen

Adam Lambert reportedly turned down Queen and Chris Daughtry rejected overtures from Fuel, but American Idol's Season Seven tattooed siren Carly Smithson couldn't ignore the call of Evanescence: The former members of the "Bring Me To Life" band, having parted ways with singer Amy Lee, have recruited Smithson to front a new group called the Fallen, USA Today reports.

The band's name is an obvious allusion to Evanescence's first album Fallen, which featured now-Fallen guitarists Ben Moody and John LeCompt and drummer Rocky Gray. Bassist Marty O'Brien rounds out the group. Moody, who co-wrote every song on Fallen, left the band after its successful debut. While mulling a solo career, Smithson was introduced to Moody through her friend and his housemate. While Moody and Smithson shared similar thoughts about what music they wanted to make, it wasn't until Moody saw clips of Smithson singing on YouTube that he recruited her for his new band. He told USA Today, "Carly is a rock star," adding, "She was one of us." Smithson previously performed "Bring Me to Life" during the 2008 Idols Live Tour.

The Fallen's official Website, Wearethefallen.com, will officially launch Monday, June 22nd, with a press conference and a live performance in Hollywood, California. After that, the band will post their first song "Bury Me Dead" as a free download on the site. The band hopes to begin touring this September and promise to release new songs every couple of months.

Amy Lee and Evanescence, meanwhile, have been on a hiatus since the band's 2007 album The Open Door, which featured Fallen's Gray and LeCompt.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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