Archive for the 'Music' Category

• Velvet Revolver says goodbye to Scott Weiland. Weiland joins Stone Temple Pilots for a major reunion tour this summer.
• Juliana Hatfield has started a blog to discuss the meaning behind her songs.
• Watch the video for Eddie Vedder’s anti-war piece “No More“.
• The Breeders have a new album, Mountain Battles, arriving April 8th. You can listen to it here and see some behind-the-scenes footage of the release party. If that doesn’t satisfy your need for Breeders information you can read an interview with Kim Deal here.
• Weezer to release third self-titled album in June.
• AVClub has an interview with Stephen Malkmus.
• R.E.M. rocks the Plaza to promote their new album, “Accelerate“

I’m pretty sure Appetite for Destruction was the first tape I owned that had swearing on it. I remember stealing it from my older brother’s tape deck and listening to it in wide-eyed amazement. Guns N’ Roses instantly made the 80’s hair bands I was accustomed to seem completely insignificant and even embarrassingly silly.

Fast forward to my college years and the “Use Your Illusion” releases. I vaguely remember the rumblings of a new GNR album called Chinese Democracy. At that point GNR had pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur thanks to the likes of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I too had made the grunge transformation from Headbangers Ball to flannel and combat boots.

Well, it’s now 2008 and Chinese Democracy is still in the works and Axl Rose is the lone remaining original member of GNR. Mostly famous for its delays (recording for began in 1994), Chinese Democracy is slated to be the sixth studio album by GNR.

Naturally, this is where Dr Pepper enters the story. On March 26, 2008, Dr Pepper announced via press release it would give everyone a free can of their soft drink to everyone in America with the exception of estranged guitarists Slash and Buckethead, if Chinese Democracy was released in 2008. Axl has responded to their plea here.

This is a brilliant marketing ploy by Dr. Pepper for sure. Don’t be confused though, Dr. Pepper is not supporting the Tibetans. This is a publicity stunt supporting the epic 17-years-in-the-making “Chinese Democracy.”

In support of “Chinese Democracy” I am going to give Appetite for Destruction a listen on my iPod today. I may even grab a Dr Pepper from the break room.

[Billboard.com]

Elvis fans around the world will celebrate Elvis’s birthday on January 8.

In Memphis, fans were able to enjoy four days of celebrations with special birthday events, including an Elvis Birthday Pops Concert, Elvis Insiders Reception and Tour, the Elvis Birthday Proclamation on the front lawn of Graceland.

The Elvis Presley Fan Club will continue its tradition of meeting at the gates of the late Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion for his birthday celebration. His former wife, Priscilla Presley will participate in this ceremony for the first time this year.

At 7 p.m., the NBA Memphis Grizzlies will host the Elvis Birthday Grizzlies game against the Los Angeles Lakers. The game will include Elvis-themed music and performances with a half-time show featuring the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist of 2007, Shawn Klush.

The legendary singer was born January 8th, 1935, and would have been 73 years old this year. Elvis died at Graceland on August 16, 1977.

The year was 1987; Reagan was in office, Black Monday destroys the stock market, the Unabomber strikes in Salt Lake City, the Twins shock the baseball world by winning the World Series, and U2 releases The Joshua Tree.

1987 was a banner year for U2 as The Joshua Tree reached Number 1 around the world and won a Grammy for “Album of the Year”, while U2 won the Brit Award for Best International Act and Time Magazine put the band on its cover, proclaiming them “Rock’s Hottest Ticket”.

Now you can hopefully recapture some of the magic of that historic album. The deluxe 2007 remastering of The Joshua Tree is available in four different formats including a bonus audio CD of b-sides and rarities, a live concert DVD shot in Paris in 1987 and booklets featuring liner notes from the band and unseen photography from Anton Corbijn.

Perhaps best known for abusing his one time wife Tina Turner, Ike Turner has died at 76 on Wednesday at his home in suburban San Diego.

His career was overshadowed by the abuse, but he managed to clean up his image a bit in later years, touring around the globe with his band the Kings of Rhythm.

No comment from Tina Turner yet, but I find it ironic that he was overshadowed in life by the very woman that he supposedly beat.

[AOL]

I’ve wondered for years just how you screw a kid up and have him grow up to be Marilyn Manson. Well, now I know.

Apparently, one way to get a creepy rock star kid is to have a creepy mom who keeps her kid’s foreskin from the day of his circumcision in a small case.

According to Manson himself, mommy dearest was very proud of it. When she would visit, she would that case and wave it around. They might ask Sothebys to auction it off one day in the future.

I have to go wash my brain out after this article. Where I come from mom’s don’t go waving around a magic foreskin case.

[StupidCelebrities]

Seems that Posh Spice aka Victoria Beckham is unhappy with the fact that she has a total of 4 lines on the new Spice Girls track. I guess it never occurred to her that producers know how to sell albums.

A spokesman for the band had this to say. “The verses have all been shared out equally among the five members and they all sing together on the chorus.”

C’mon Vicky, at best you look like a walking mannequin these days, whose nipples proceed her. Carrying your trendy handbag is a full day for you. Be thankful for what you have.

I’m guessing that memorizing those 4 lines nearly made her head explode. And while we are on the subject of Posh, why exactly does she shape shift from sometimes store mannequin, to looking like a weird alien hybrid? I mean, half the time, her sunglasses seem too big for her body. She can’t be from this planet.

Yep. If you want to get through to Posh, you have to send signals through the SETI satellite dish, and if you get the WOW signal back, it’s because that thought doesn’t overwhelm her.

Smarten up Posh. Be real. Not real weird.

He made not be making much music of his own these days but any doubt that Sean “Diddy” Combs isn’t one of music’s shrewdest business people should now be long gone.

Diddy has just inked a sweet deal with the makers of Ciroc vodka that guarantees him a whopping 50% share in the profits of the alcoholic beverage. Combs isn’t agreeing to endorse the high-end vodka, he’s becoming intimately involved with the running, marketing and sales of the product right down to in which stores Ciroc will be sold to consumers. He wants to bring style, sophistication and sex to the brand name and believes that he deliver all that to Ciroc’s owners, Diageo PLC. “They’re looking for something that tastes like their lifestyle,” Puffy told of the kind of people he wants to bring to consume Ciroc, the assembled press at the unveiling of the deal. “It’s that trendsetter, that hipster, someone who’s looking for luxury and looking for something better.”

For a man that has crafted his music persona into a multi-million dollar apparel and perfume products we certainly think that Combs is the one to make drinking high-end vodka the next it thing amongst the club crowd. And if Ciroc’s public star begins to rise as everyone hopes for Diddy stands up to make $100 million dollars from his new deal. That’s a lot of bottles.

Ok. So, I figure by now that Kid Rock aka Robert Ritchie would get it into his head by now. You can’t fight everyone. Well, I guess you can. You are just gonna end up in jail a lot.

His latest arrest was in Atlanta after allegedly getting into a brawl at a Waffle House of all places. Now, I long ago labeled his particular brand of music “Redneck Rap” and I have to say the fact that it took place at a waffle house is no surprise. They seem to be magnets for rednecks on the rampage. Rock and 5 of his posse were taken into custody on a misdemeanor charge of battery.

Apparently it went down like this. Kid Rock stopped at the Waffle House at 5:15 AM on Sunday after performing earlier. A customer apparently recognized Rock’s female companion and they exchanged words. He was probably defending what little that was left of her honor. Pretty soon they were fighting in the parking lot as if God had engineered his very own cock fight pitting a scuzzy rocker against a nobody.

The customer was charged with a felony count of second degree criminal damage to property for smashing a window. Kid posted bond at about 5:00 PM and left the jail, signing autographs for fans on his way back to his tour bus.

Well, you have to give him credit. He tries to live up to his song, “American Badass”, but it plays out closer to The Saga of Joe Dirt.

I’m gonna call him waffles from now on. I’m hoping it will stick. Rock on Waffles…Rock on!

We know him as Prince. Oh yeah and also that weird-ass symbol. But to his momma and the law he will always be Prince Rogers Nelson. According to TMZ.com, Pop Star Prince decided to do a little early Trick-Or-Treating. The trick was that His Purple Majesty took 12 AVID hard drives and the treat for Prince was that he never paid for them.

A lawsuit was filed yesterday in Los Angeles Superior Court. In it, Ian Lewis claims that the Purple clown Prince of rock took 12 AVID IS SCSI Shuttle Drives that are worth $12,000. He also says that the pop star and his people never had any intention of returning or paying for them.

He’s also claiming that he loaned Prince a $25,000 computer, which got returned by his people broken. The man is seeking damages of $1,000,000.

Some of us more paranoid types have long suspected that “Prince” aka “weird symbol”, is really Batman’s arch nemesis, the Joker. I mean c’mon…Skinny and weird, bad fashion Purple Suits, very effeminate, and now, crime!

The Joker is the clown “Prince” of crime after all! It all makes sense now.