Category — Bands

My Bloody Valentine closed out its 7 date U.S. reunion tour last night in Santa Monica, CA, which generated more than $1 million dollars in gross.

Billboard has an excellent piece on the band, detailing the specifics of the tour and showing how much of an ordeal it really is to plan and execute a successful tour. The tour was in the works for a long time and the band were heavily rumored to be reuniting for last year’s Coachella Festival, but they weren’t ready just yet.

“Tollett came in with an enormous offer for the band to play the 2008 festival, which would have made it financially feasible for Shields to re-form and properly equip MBV. But the band wasn’t ready to take the stage by late April, so Shields opted instead to team with All Tomorrow’s Parties co-founder Barry Hogan for an opening salvo of U.K. dates starting in June, followed by some international festival appearances. MBV also agreed to headline the New York ATP show and then build a short North American tour around it.”

“Playing for a guarantee sources say was six figures not counting sizable merch sales, MBV laid waste to audiences with crushingly loud 90-minute sets, each of which ended with the wall-rattling feedback barrage “You Made Me Realise.”

It’s great to see that the band has set the stage for another tour and that they will most likely continue on with new album plans. A lot of people are going to be happy about this.

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In 1977 who would’ve thought one of the most recognizable figures in Punk Rock would be advertising butter in the future? I’m sure no one did, but then again most people probably assumed John Lydon might not have lived past 1980.

Anyway, the headline is not a lie, John Lydon is the official spokesperson for Country Life Butter, one of Britain’s most popular brands. He has appeared in his first ever television commercial for the product, explaining why he decided to do the ad, he stated…

“People know I only do things that I want to or that I believe in and I have to do it my way,”

“I’ve never done anything like this before and never thought I would, but this Country Life ad was made for me and I couldn’t resist the opportunity.”

The ad mainly capitalizes on Lydon’s status as a rebellious British icon and is viewable at UK publication The Guardian’s website. Butter = Punk?

A while ago we posted about a song Jack White wrote for the new James Bond movie “Quantum of Solace.” This wasn’t a big deal to people, the fact that Coca-Cola (a sponsor of the movie) began using the song in ads, really pissed people off though.

Now, as well as doing an instrumental score for the film, Jack White and Alicia Keys have appeared in a video together for “Another Way To Die” a promotional song for the movie. Stereogum has the video up at their site, for your viewing pleasure. You’d be hard pressed to find something in the video that isn’t CG, but whatever, its for a James Bond movie. As for the song, well it’s kind of blah.

This is dangerous territory though, I remember back when Chris Cornell did a song for a James Bond movie. That didn’t really turn out too good, and now the former bad-ass frontman of Soundgarden is doing R&B tracks with Timbaland and coaching American Idol contestants. Makes you wonder how long before Jack White goes down this route, maybe he already is. At least he’s rocking a guitar in the video…

Lately, the internet has been abuzz with rumors of a Led Zeppelin reunion tour and possibly an album. The rumors seemed to suggest that the reunion lineup would include vocalist Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham (John Bonham’s son).

Now, Robert Plant (via his website) has spoken out about the rumors, stating that he “has no intention whatsoever of touring with anyone for at least the next two years.”

Since Led Zeppelin reunited for a show at London’s 02 Arena there have been rumors that they would do a tour, with or without Robert Plant, if they found that he didn’t want to participate. This appears to be untrue, although it is worth noting that he mentions he has no intention of “touring with anyone for at least the next two years.” So does this mean there is a possibility in two years? We know he has been very busy with Alison Krauss, and has gotten critical acclaim for their recent release. Only time will tell I guess.

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I guess now that they’ve finished recording their new album Death Magnetic, Metallica has a little bit of extra time on their hands. Which could only mean one thing…time for a lawsuit! Turns out Metallica has filed suit against Fernandes Guitars over the use of Robert Trujillo’s likeness in their advertisements. But here’s the best part…Trujillo actually signed a deal that gave them permission! However now that he is part of Metallicorp, the deal cause a conflict of interest due to Metallica’s own deal with ESP guitars.

According to this blog, the band sent a cease and desist letter to Fernandes Guitars to stop using Trujillo’s likeness. This whole thing seems pretty ridiculous and I’d be pretty surprised if this went anywhere. But then again, this is Metallica. They are pretty big cry babies if you ask me. I wonder what kind of strain this is putting between Robert and the band.

So you’ve probably heard the rumors/news swarming the net about Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy. Supposedly, the long-awaited album will be released exclusively through Best Buy on November 25th. And supposedly their song “IF The World” will be featured in the end credits of Body of Lies, the new Ridley Scott movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, which comes out next month. Yup, that’s about it.

You might be thinking to yourself, “Really? That’s all you’re gonna give me? I just want to know the truth!” And I would have to reply that I agree. Perhaps all of these “rumors” being spread is just part of a huge marketing plan for an album that may not even be released in our lifetime and (I hate to say it) will probably not live up to all of the hype. (And therefore makes me feel as though simply by posting this blog, I might be just one of the wheels turning in the machine of Axl’s master plot to rule the world). But seriously, with hair like that, it’s not like you have to try hard to get people begging at your feet, right?

So let’s recap here. You begin reading the article to find out news about the Chinese Democracy’s release. And you end the article feeling a strange onset of widespread paranoia that has in turn led you to a wild frenzied search of youtube videos and 911 conspiracy theories. My job here is done.

Yesterday (Sept 24th), Aerosmith front-man Steven Tyler sued bloggers for impersonating him on the web. Among other things the bloggers wrote intimate details about his life, including the death of his mother.

“In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, Tyler, 60, said he didn’t know the real names of those who have impersonated him and girlfriend Erin Brady on the Web, but he believes the same group was responsible for similar postings in 2007.

At that time, Tyler asked Google to remove the blogs, and the Internet company complied. “The impersonated statements relating to (Tyler’s) mother are perhaps most hurtful given that she recently passed away,” the lawsuit stated.”

This is really not cool. I know people in the blog community already don’t appreciate sock puppets, but to impersonate someone famous and write details about the passing of their loved ones is pretty ridiculous. I don’t really see what the authors or the readers of the blog would gain from it. Maybe they thought it was funny? Probably not anymore though.

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In an exclusive interview for “Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash” a documentary about the 90’s thrash metal movement, Kirk Hammett discusses Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.

Spin Magazine has the exclusive clip, that is not featured in the documentary available for viewing on their website.

In the brief clip, Hammett mentions that Kurt Cobain was a Metallica fan and loved their “Ride The Lightning” album and the track “Whiplash” from Metallica’s first album “Kill Em’ All.”

In other Metallica news, the band remains No.1 for the 2nd week in a row on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart, having sold 867,000 records in a week and a half.

Dwell Records has released a tribute to Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett entitled “Like Black Holes In The Sky.” While the singer founded Pink Floyd, he was only in the band for a few albums, but his influence has lasted much longer.

This tribute features a great lineup of prominent bands covering some of his most famous songs, as well as lesser known material. It features…Kylesa, Intronaut, Stinking Lizaveta, Jarboe, Pentagram, Jesu and Dredg among others. Unlike most tributes this is a pretty solid album. I particularly enjoy Stinking Lizaveta’s relentlessly heavy take on “Matilda Mother.” It begins with an ethereal phased out and delayed guitar which slowly begins to morph into a heavy drone, that not only does justice to the original song, but adds something fresh.

This is a release any fan of stoner or psychadelic rock will want to check out, if you haven’t already. The album is available in its entirety on MySpace (in streaming form), on CD and it is also available for download through iTunes.

This past weekend My Bloody Valentine took the stage in New York as the headliner of the All Tomorrow’s Parties music festival, their first show in the US in 16 years. Other artists performing included Shellac, OM, Dinosaur Jr, The Meat Puppets, Thurston Moore, Les Savy Fav, Built To Spill, Tortoise, Yo La Tengo, Mogwai and many others.

I wish I could’ve gone, but I couldn’t make it, so once again Stereogum saves the day with great coverage. Their coverage is worth checking out as they have amazing photos and video. Judging by the photo’s, MBV had their usual array of Fender guitars, including Jazzmasters and Mustangs. They also had a lot of Marshall stacks so I’m sure the show was deafeningly loud.

Regarding Stereogum’s review, its nice to see a music site that has honest writers (ahem…pitchfork). It’s not that I think pitchfork writers aren’t honest but it seems that their level of fan-boy excitement tends to leave out certain details. From Stereogum’s piece on the set…

“The Stardust Ballroom sound, which sounded flawless for Shellac and others, crapped out here/there: MBV’s vocals were occasionally too low, the bass fuzzed out, and it was a bummer that so many of the riffs and accents were pre-sampled (Kevin and Belinda often strummed power chords). But! It was undeniably great to hear “Only Shallow,” “Sue Is Fine,” and “When You Wake” at massive volumes.”

It is kind of a bummer that the band is using pre-sampled stuff, but I’m sure any MBV show would be a good time if you’re a fan. Maybe I’ll catch ATP NY next year.

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