Category — Music News

The fact that Guitar Hero is one of the most popular video games to EVER hit the market should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone out there.  The moment it was launched, millions of kids and adults alike were able to live out their rock and roll fantasies all in the comfort of their own homes, and all without any actual musical ability whatsoever.

Now, all of us who are STILL living out those fantasies with each subsequent Guitar Hero release, get to live it out even more, in the form of a few new “Download Packs” that are coming out in early November.  All I need to say to get people extremely hyped up for these extra songs is two words:  Jimi.  Hendrix.  Enough said.  Word is, “The Jimi Hendrix Track Pack, arriving November 13, features “If 6 Was 9,” “Little Wing,” and a live version of “Fire.”” Count me IN.  The cool news is that at the very same time, they will be also throwing out a Raconteurs Track Pack a week later that gives you the ability to rock on songs like “Salute Your Solution,” “Hold Up,” and “Consoler of the Lonely.”

It looks like all of this will go for the price of about 440 Microsoft Points, which loosely translates into $5.49 on the PlayStation Network.  Not too shabby to Rock like Jimi.

On October 16th, the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City hosted “Change Rocks” a fundraiser for Obama, mainly featuring Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel.

Some tickets were priced at $25,000 for the event, which was Billy Joel’s first supporting Obama. The setlist featured collaborative versions of each other’s songs including “New York State Of Mind”, “Sprit In The Night” and “River of Dreams”.

Barack Obama himself appeared onstage towards the end of the event, according to MSNBC…

He called the event “a magical evening” and said he wouldn’t ruin it with a long speech. Then he delivered a speech comparing the struggling, everyday people in Joel’s and Springsteen’s songs to the people he’s met on the campaign trail.He warned supporters not to get overconfident because he leads in the polls.

“Don’t underestimate the capacity of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Don’t underestimate our ability to screw it up,” Obama said. “I want everybody running scared.”

Source.

I posted earlier about an Obama rally with The Breeders and The National in Cincinnati’s Fountain Square. Pitchfork has posted a bunch of awesome pictures from the event so be sure to check them out.

I already regretted not catching Coachella this year even though Breeders were headlining one of the nights. Now I’m regretting not living in Cincinatti because this event seems like it was a lot of fun. I better make sue I catch them when they play at the Wiltern November , 17th.

More Tour Dates:

The Breeders:
11-11 Seattle, WA - Neumos
11-12 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom
11-14 San Francisco, CA - Slim’s
11-15 San Francisco, CA - Slim’s
11-17 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern

The National:
10-24 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - TIM Festival
10-25 São Paulo, Brazil - TIM Festival
10-27 Vitória, Brazil - UFES Theatre
11-08 Austin, TX - Fun Fun Fun Fest

Some news has been circulating about Jimmy Page turning down a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. But according to his spokesperson, Page was simply refusing to endorse a campaign conceived by Zeppelin fan, Rocky Dickerson, to add the star.  Dickerson sent a formal letter to the band asking for their approval to begin the process of nominating Page for a spot on the famed sidewalk in Los Angeles.

Page’s accountant clarifies, “There are two letters relating to the [proposed LED ZEPPELIN star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame], addressed to Jimmy Page, which have been passed to me. I have now had the opportunity of discussing these with Jimmy. He has asked me to thank you for this interest but he does not feel that this is something that he can endorse.”

Dickerson explained that he wanted the campaign to be a small, fan-driven campaign and wanted nothing from the star, nor any corporate entity.  In his words, “I want this to be a small thing that we ,the fans, can give back to Led Zeppelin after 40 years of great music.”

Visit Dickerson’s Led Zeppelin website: http://www.ledzeppelinstar.com.

I’m not really sure why Page didn’t “feel that this is something he can endorse.”  As one commenter put it, maybe it’s because the walk of fame is, “most definitely at various times either soaked in urine, covered in vomit, slept on by a homeless hooker.”  Maybe it’s because he does not want to seem like he is helping to nominate himself.  Who knows.

While the newest installment in the Guitar Hero franchise will see a release just before Halloween on October 26th (Guitar Hero World Tour), another installment has just been announced.

“Guitar Hero: Metallica” will see a release sometime in 2009. This news comes via a teaser trailer included in Guitar Hero World Tour, which can be viewed online over at YouTube. The game will feature choice selections from Metallica’s entire discography.

There is no word yet on what kind of game controllers may be available with the game. Since the band are mainly endorsed by ESP Guitars, I wouldn’t be surprised if the controllers were made after their models. A few weeks ago we reported here that Metallica had sued Fernandes Guitars for putting a picture of bassist Robert Trujillo in an advertisement, because of conflicts with their ESP endorsement deal.

Since “Guitar Hero World Tour” will be released just before Halloween and features Metallica’s classic track “Master of Puppets” (among others)…a great idea for a Halloween party would be to pick up a copy and invite your friends over to play in their Halloween Costumes.

Source.

OK, so you might need to squint and look really carefully but the cover & tracklist for Guns N’ Roses, Best Buy exclusive “Chinese Democracy” is up at Best Buy.com.

11 of the 14 songs have either leaked or been played live before, leaving only 3 un-surfaced songs. According to Billboard…

“In typical dramatic fashion, the first noise one hears on the album is a blood-curdling Axl Rose scream, according to multiple sources who’ve heard it.”

There isn’t a full list of all the musicians who have played on the album yet. If there is a list included in the album’s liner notes it will no doubt be extensive. I wonder if the album will still have Buckethead’s custom Gibson guitar featured on it. I’m not buying this piece of trash album so someone will have to let me know.

“Chinese Democracy” Full Tracklist

01 “Chinese Democracy”
02 “Scraped”
03 “Shackler’s Revenge”
04 “Street Of Dreams”
05 “If The World”
06 “Better”
07 “This I Love”
08 “There Was A Time”
09 “Riad N’ The Bedovins”
10 “Sorry”
11 “I.R.S.”
12 “Catcher”
13 “Madagascar”
14 “Prostitute”

Image via Wikipedia

Much has been discussed concerning Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” album. The album’s pay-what-you-want model sparked lots of debate, discussion and intrigue in the record industry. The album was successful, but it’s pretty obvious that as far as a business model it wouldn’t work for a band not already very successful, famous and favored by the press.

In Rainbows ended up selling 3 million across all formats. It is worth noting that the band made more money on “In Rainbows” before its physical release than they did altogether on 2003’s “Hail To The Theif.”

“Radiohead’s publishing company, Warner Chapell recently revealed some information regarding the albums actual sales. According to Warner Chappell’s Jane Dyball, the band and its management tracked the amount fans were choosing to pay with the intention of canceling the download option if the price dropped too low. Warner also revealed that licensing the digital rights directly, and not through the standard collection agencies, was a key revenue generator.”

So, they still haven’t revealed the average download price, but it is interesting that they were tracking and monitoring the amount fans were paying.

Some more statistics regarding the “In Rainbows” release…
• After being made available for free for 3 months the album was no.1 in the UK and in the US
• 1st Radiohead album on iTunes – no.1 album selling 30,000 units in the US in the first week
• The physical CD has sold 1.75 million to date and is still top 200 UK & US
• They sold 100k boxsets via W.A.S.T.E.
• Nearing 17 million plays on last.fm
• 1.2 million fans will see the tour
• The digital income from the experiment made a material difference to WCM’s UK digital revenue this year

Source.