Category — Bands

Weezer sure has had a busy, interactive year. After spending the last few months asking their fans to come out and play, they are now asking for video clips of anything “artistic, abstract, and/or weird” for their upcoming tour, which is currently being referred to as “The Weezer 2008 North American Troublemaker Tour.” So if you have some cool footage get over to the Weezer Tour Imagery Group on YouTube and upload it for your chance to be a part of their next kick-ass show. If not, grab your camera and go film something cool. Don’t worry about using your brain too much since they specifically say they do not want anything with a story or meaning. So it would be pretty hard to fail. At least not as bad as this guy. So what are you waiting for? Go get your Tarantino on and maybe you could see the fruits of your labor on the big screen at one of Weezer’s upcoming shows:

09-09 Nagoya, Japan - Aichiken Kinrou-Kaikan
09-10 Fukuoka, Japan - Zepp Fukuoka
09-12 Tokyo, Japan - Zepp Tokyo
09-13 Osaka, Japan - Intex Hall
09-15 Tokyo, Japan - Yoyogi Arena
09-23 Boston, MA - Tsongas Arena *
09-24 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden *
09-26 Atlantic City, NJ - Borgata Casino *
09-27 Camden, NJ - Susquehanna Bank Center *
09-29 Detroit, MI - The Palace of Auburn Hills *
09-30 Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Center *
10-02 Rosemont, IL - All State Arena *
10-03 St. Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center *
10-05 Denver, CO - Broomfield Event Center *
10-07 Salt Lake City, UT - E Center *
10-09 Portland OR - Memorial Coliseum *
10-10 Vancouver, British Columbia - GM Place *
10-11 Seattle, WA - Key Arena *
10-13 San Jose, CA - Events Center *
10-14 Los Angeles, CA - Great Western Forum *
10-17 San Diego, CA - Cox Arena *
10-18 Phoenix, AZ - Arizona State Fair *
10-20 Austin, TX - Frank Erwin Center *
10-21 Dallas, TX - Nokia Theater *
10-23 Houston, TX - Reliant Arena *
10-25 Atlanta, GA - Gwinnett Arena *

* with Tokyo Police Club, Angels & Airwaves (opening band FAIL)

And who can blame them after their 2007 album, Zeitgeist, bombed? (I didn’t even buy it) It is not news that the record industry is struggling and CD sales are plummeting worse than ever. However, bands never fail to amaze me with their strategies to get people to purchase their music. Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead offering up free tracks. Beck even included a sheet of stickers so you can create your own cover for his album The Information (not gonna lie - that’s pretty cool). It’s things like this that keep music interesting to the so-easily distracted youth who can’t afford to buy anything, much less would want to buy anything if they can easily steal it.

Anyway, I think it’s kind of cool that they are making their song available in the game so that fans can play along to their songs - sorta like karaoke for guitarists, if you will. Billy Corgan will also appear as a character in the game, so you can further immerse yourself in the fantasy that you are as cool as him. Check out some cool footage of Corgan doing motion-capture and talking about his involvement with Guitar Hero:

“I think it’s cool that beyond the musical sense, it’s just the communal sense of people just getting together and having fun. And again, connecting to music, I just think it’s the best thing.”

According to the Smashing Pumpkins official site, “This marks the first time a band has recorded a new song exclusively for the franchise.” Neversoft, the company that developed the new Guitar Hero game, has mentioned the availability of an in-game music store which will make songs, including G.L.O.W, available for download shortly after release of the game on 10/27/08. While this is probably really exciting news for those of us who plan to purchase the game, it is excluding a large demographic - Smashing Pumpkins fans who don’t play Guitar Hero. But then again, the kind of people who will spend hundreds on a video game just might be willing to spend 99 cents to download the song, therefore achieving their goal of actually selling their music this time around. As for the rest of us, we can just stick to the torrents.

You can find a list of songs included with Guitar Hero: World Tour here.

And in case you haven’t heard it yet, listen to the Smashing Pumpkins’ bass-tastic new single, G.L.O.W. on youtube.

Pitchforkmedia has a new interview with Beck up where he discusses several interesting things. A few of them are the fact that his first massive hit single “Loser” was created as part of a side project and that he’s working on recording an album directly to vinyl. Well worth checking out.

Also, Beck will be taking the stage at the Hollywood Bowl on September 20th with Spoon and MGMT as openers. It will also mark the first time ever that Beck will be joined by his father David Campbell. Campbell is a string arranger and composer and has played on some classic albums himself. In this instance, he will conduct the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Strings along to his son’s music. This should be a unique show on Beck’s current tour. The rest of those dates below…

09-19 San Diego, CA - Street Scene Festival
09-20 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl
09-22 Phoenix, AZ - Dodge Theater
09-23 Albuquerque, NM - Kiva Auditorium
09-25 El Paso, TX - Abraham Chavez Theatre
09-27 Austin, TX - Zilker Park (Austin City Limits Festival)
09-29 Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theater
09-30 Minneapolis, MN - Wilkins Auditorium
10-02 Chicago, IL - Aragon Ballroom
10-03 Chicago, IL - Aragon Ballroom
10-05 Toronto, Ontario - Sound Academy
10-06 Montreal, Quebec - St. Denis Theatre
10-09 New York, NY - United Palace
10-10 New York, NY - United Palace

There are many actors who moonlight as wanna-be rockstars. And many who probably shouldn’t. This list includes Billy Bob Thornton, Keanu Reeves, The Bacon Brothers. Yes, you heard me right, The Bacon Brothers. Though he did play guitar in a band called The Kids, Johnny Depp has always been cool (or lucky?) enough to stay under the radar for most “Top 10 Worst” lists. Possibily because he joined the band in high school, before moving to Los Angeles to become an oscar-winning actor.

On Friday, Depp loaned his celebrity to his former band to play a show in honor of their later manager and to raise money for children with special needs. He played a Fender Telecaster and sang backup vocals at the show, which took place at Club Cinema in Pompano Beach, Florida, and benefited the Dan Marino Foundation. Check out a video of the performance here.

As you sit here reading this, the 2008 Democratic convention is well underway in Denver. To some, Denver may seem out of reach. But fortunately for Obama, the indie rockers are on his side. After all, what better way to infiltrate the youthful minds of America than through music? On Wednesday, bands like Silversun Pickups, Cold War Kids and Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah joined forces with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to bring you Unconventional ’08 and, of course, show support for Obama.

Videos of these performances are beginning to pop up on YouTube. You can check out some of them here:

Cold War Kids – St. John
Nada Surf – Blankest Year

Later in the evening, when all the guitar amps and distortion pedals were put away, indie artists such as Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, Zooey Deschanel of She & Him and Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley gathered at the Manifest Hope Gallery for some acoustic jams. Drawing out hipsters in record-setting numbers (which I can only imagine resembled an endless mirage of flannel shirts, unwashed hair and super-tight pants), this is the event that has been receiving the majority of attention in music blogs. See for yourself here.

And if you aren’t jealous enough yet that you missed this once-in-a-lifetime chance to shotgun PBR with the guy who plays Jin on Lost, then why not rub it in a little bit more and check out the awesome artwork that was on display in the gallery.

My Bloody Valentine’s headlining set at the Fuji Rock Festival was captured on professional video, and video is available online for the song “To Here Knows When”.

The footage is great of the band and stage setup, the band really does sound good live. I noticed that of course Kevin Sheild’s is playing a Fender Jaguar and 2nd guitarist/vocalist Belinda Butcher is playing a Fender Mustang.

“To Here Knows When” live at the Fuji Rock Festival.

Metallica just played two of England’s biggest rock festivals, Reading and Leeds. A live soundboard version of their new single “The Day That Never Comes” from Leeds is available online via YouTube. The band’s “MetClub” series lets fans download soundboard versions of live shows for a fee, this one apparently leaked to youtube.

The sound of the song is a little muddier than the studio version, but overall it’s decent. From what I’ve seen it appears James Hetfield has been playing a lot of Gibson Explorers and also Les Pauls recently. I personally like the way these sound a lot more than the ESP’s he plays a lot. The structure of the song is kind of dangerously close to the band’s classic track “One” but its probably better than most of the tracks currently on Modern Rock radio.

The “new” Guns N’ Roses single “Shackler’s Revenge” leaked just recently. It is to be included in Rock Band 2 and will mark the bands first official release of a song since 1999 (when “Oh My God” was released on a soundtrack that I can’t remember).

The song was posted as a YouTube video of bloopers, which was down but is now back up. The song, (I’m not sure why the title is related to pirates…), in my honest opinion is laughably bad. As some others have noted, it does indeed sound like Axl Rose just discovered Gravity Kills, or some other horrible Nine Inch Nails rip-off band from 1995 and replicated their sound on this track.

It is pretty apparent that Axl Rose is a psycho and this whole “Chinese Democracy” debacle has gone way too far. I’m still just waiting for someone to say it’s all a big joke, so far that hasn’t happened yet.

A new documentary called “It Might Get Loud” will feature Jimmy Page, Jack White and The Edge discussing their electric guitar techniques and how they approach the instrument.

According to a press release, “The movie revolves around a singular day when Jimmy Page, the Edge, and Jack White first met and sat down together to share their stories, teach, and play.” The doc “captures the guitarists as each explains and demonstrates how he changed the sound of the electric guitar to suit his own distinctive musical style.”

It Might Get Loud will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this September.

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Billboard.com has reported that the Jared Leto-fronted modern rock band 30 Seconds To Mars is being sued for $30 million dollars by Virgin Records.

“Virgin is suing the band for alleged breach of contract and damages “in excess of $30,000,000″, according to paperwork filed Friday (Aug. 15) in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Virgin accuses Jared and Shannon Leto of not delivering three of the five albums under the band’s contract, which it entered into in 1999 with Immortal Records. Virgin took over the contract in 2004, according to the suit, which adds that the Letos “repudiated” the 1999 contract “and claimed that they were excused from such performance from and after July 4, 2008, pursuant to California Labor Code Sec. 2855(a). The law governs the ability of entertainers to terminate their contracts after seven years.”

The band has responded via internet postings by Leto. It looks as if they intend to fight the lawsuit.

“So, as you may have heard we are being sued by our former record company for the ridiculously oversized, totally unrealistic and pretty silly (but slightly clever) sum of $30,000,000. Insane? Yea that’s what we said too.” Leto makes various claims in his posting, stating that the band were unhappy that they had sold two million albums yet were “still $1.4 million in debt” and that the “next record we make will be used to pay off that old supposed debt.”

It is interesting to see how this will play out, it seems to be the old major label swindle. Though, it is very possible for the band to walk away unharmed as I have heard about other artists safely ending their contract after 7 years in the state of California. For more info…

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