Apr/100
Courtney Love prepares yet another travesty
Courtney Love prepares yet another travesty
Why...
In between posting semi-coherent rants on her MySpace blog, drug-addled musician Courtney Love has apparently been working on something major. Reports are that Love has been handed a key role in prepping a biopic based off of her late ex-husband Kurt Cobain. And if you think that this project has the potential to be an epic train-wreck just based upon that one sentence, then check out her casting choices.
Love has apparently chosen Twilight star Robert Pattinson to play the former Nirvana front-man, a decision so mind-boggling that we have to wonder what she was on while handling casting. I mean, they don’t even really look alike. Stranger still, she has also picked Scarlett Johansson to play herself – a decision that’s odd primarily because Love must sincerely believe that she was at one time even half as attractive as the Lost in Translation star.
I really don’t know what Courtney thinks that she’ll bring to the table with this project that hasn’t already been done better by more competent filmmakers, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Apr/100
Bootlegger accidentally creates earliest known Led Zeppelin recording
Bootlegger accidentally creates earliest known Led Zeppelin recordingThe final few days of the year 1968 had just about passed in the town of Spokane, Washington. Just a week earlier, the crew of Apollo 8 had become the first people to ever orbit the moon, and the next month would see Richard Nixon succeed Lyndon B. Johnson to become the 37th President of the United States. But in Spokane, a different kind of historical event was about to take place.
A smallish advertisement found in two local newspapers in the preceding days proclaimed, “Concerts West presents, in concert, THE VANILLA FUDGE with Len Zefflin. Monday, 8 P.M. Kennedy Pavilion.” That Monday, December 30, 1968, an anonymous student showed up at the concert with a tape recorder. What he recorded turned out to be a song from “Len’s” upcoming debut album, to be released in the United States in February of the coming new year.
The name “Len Zefflin,” of course, turned out to be a corruption of British rockers Led Zeppelin – likely the mistake of a lazy ad editor. And the song, which you can listen to above, was an improv-heavy version of the classic blues-rock jam “Dazed and Confused.” This recording, just discovered by the folks over at The Metal Den, marks the earliest known recording of the seminal proto-heavy-metal group. And we can hear it now all because some college kid decided to record an illegal bootleg of the concert.
Kind of puts certain things into perspective, doesn’t it?
Apr/100
China walls off Bob Dylan
China walls off Bob Dylan
人步行必须下來，在您称多少條路他一個人之前?
The People’s Republic of China’s Draconian censorship policies have recently drawn much ire from the Western world, causing Google – among others – to pull out of the country completely. Now, as of yesterday, these policies have alienated one more soul: legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan.
After tentatively scheduling concert dates in Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong for the spring, Dylan was subsequently denied access to the country by China’s propaganda-peddling Ministry of Culture. The denial comes isn’t all that surprising, however, as Dylan is known for his politically-charged protest songs and strong Western-liberal opinions. Surely he and his ilk can’t be very well liked among the Party oligarchy that runs the country.
Too bad, too, since there’s undoubtedly a huge number of people there who could use exposure to something other than Party-approved culture. Would it be too much to ask for Chinese democracy in Dylan’s lifetime?
Apr/100
Slash wants you to make hate to the camera
Slash wants you to make hate to the cameraIf you live in the Los Angeles area, have two days to kill, and are still looking for your 15 minutes of fame, you might want to drop Slash a line. The former Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver ax man is shooting a video for his single, “By The Sword,” this week, and he’s looking for a few good moshers. 75 male and female punk rockish extras are needed, ranging in age from 18 to 22. 12 to 14 hour shooting days will occur on Thursday, April 8 through Friday, April 9. It’s a pro bono gig, but lunch and beverages will be provided.
If you’re interested, send your name, age, photo, and phone number to slashmusicvideo@gmail.com. A little light crowd surfing will be required, so please send at least three mosh pit references in with your resume.
Mar/100
Cypress Hill & Tom Morello: High Contrast Rock
Cypress Hill & Tom Morello: High Contrast RockCypress Hill recently released a beautifully grungy video for “Rise Up,” the first single and title track off their upcoming album, due to drop on April 20. It features modern rock deity Tom Morello (RATM, Street Sweeper Social Club, The Nightwatchman), Sin City-esque duotoned mayhem, and a creepy little girl in a gas mask. Rap rock chaos at its best.
The boys from South Gate will also be hitting the road in April to promote the new album. Dates are below:
4/10 – North Star Bar, Philadelphia, PA
4/12 – The Mod Club, Toronto, ON
4/15 – SOB’s, New York, NY
4/19 – “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Los Angeles, CA
4/20 – The Warfield, San Fransisco, CA
4/22 – Martini Rand, Scottsdale, AZ
Mar/100
Diddy Takes On Rival Vodka Distillers
Diddy Takes On Rival Vodka Distillers
A man who knows his urine.
“If you’re not drinking Ciroc vodka, then you’re drinking pee pee.”
These were the fightin’ words of rapper and business mogul Diddy at a party he hosted last month in New York’s upscale Greenhouse nightclub. Soon after the press got wind of this comment, however, the paid spokesperson for (and 50% owner of) the Diageo-owned super-premium spirit drew some very focused ire from other vodka distillers. Their response, apparently, will be to pour a liter of Ciroc into “a large toilet bowl” and have it delivered to Diddy’s Times Square office.
It’s a nice little revenge story, if a bit childish, but it still doesn’t say much about Ciroc’s actual quality. To find out for sure, I deferred to my favorite source for vodka reviews on the ‘net, VodkaBuzz.com:
“…almost like licking a 9 volt battery, except the flavor is strikingly bitter and alarmingly unpleasant. [...] Oddly neutral-bitter. The aftertaste is by far the worst part, which is unfortunate since that is the part that lingers the longest.“
Yup. I think I know who I’m siding with.
Mar/100
James Brown: Dead and MIA
James Brown: Dead and MIA
Still gettin' on up from beyond the grave?
Dead men like to stay in one place, right? Well, maybe not late musical legend James Brown, whose body – according to reports from love child LaRhonda Pettit – has gone missing from his final resting place.
According to Pettit, Brown’s body has “disappeared” from its temporary internment place in the possession of daughter Deanna Brown. There are no reports from Deanna – or anyone else – cited in the article, but seeing as grave-robbing is a serious offense, we should hopefully know something soon. That is, if this isn’t all just a bunch of hooey.
Pettit also remains unconvinced that the Godfather of Soul actually died from natural causes. “I’m convinced his death was suspicious,” she stated in a recent interview. “And I want the people responsible brought to justice.” Frankly, I don’t see what’s so suspicious about a 73-year-old man passing away from congestive heart failure, but then I’m not a doctor immediate family member present at his death illegitimate love-child of his, so what do I know?
So did Brown, a man known in life as much for his funky dance moves as his impressive catalog of catchy funk and soul music, decide to cut a rug out of his grave? Or was his body just stolen? Or is Pettit just tossing out false claims in hopes of garnering a bit of media attention? (Hint: Probably the last one, and if so, game-set-match.)
Mar/102
Pink Floyd kick off new digital distribution lawsuit
Pink Floyd kick off new digital distribution lawsuit
By the way, which one's Pink?
Though they didn’t invent the concept, prog-rock alumni Pink Floyd have released some of the most loved concept albums ever. Starting with 1973’s classic Dark Side of the Moon and its exploration of mental illness, the band released a stellar string of such albums: Wish You Were Here’s lament for Syd Barrett; Animals‘ division of people into dogs, pigs, and sheep; The Wall’s tale of a rock star driven to madness and isolation by his less-than-charmed life. Because of that, it should come as no surprise that the band would prefer that listeners experience these albums as a whole, rather than as a series of disjointed songs.
However, sometimes a band’s desire to protect its art can go a bit too far. Such seems to be the case with Pink Floyd’s recent lawsuit against record label EMI. In it, the band has asked the court to rule on whether or not the label can sell tracks unbundled from the rest of the album. While EMI has made individual Floyd tracks available online, the band claims that it has a contract with the label stating that they cannot sell those tracks divorced from the album as a whole. EMI, however, claims that this contract only applies to physical copies, and not to digital distributors such as iTunes.
While a representative for the band claims that the problem is merely a royalty issue, I remain unconvinced. Instead, this seems to me to be classic Roger Waters drama-mongering, especially since the original contract seems to have no point other than to prevent the band’s art from being separated into component pieces and parted out by the label. And frankly, anything that further restricts online music buyers’ options is a Very Bad Thing in my book. So what do you think? Is the band justified in wanting to prevent online retailers from selling individual tracks?