Monday, December 30, 2002
SoundSpike Blog: Phish’s New Year, Diana Ross
Also: Eminem’s sales, R.E.M’s gift to fans, Joe Strummer’s funeral, Sugar Ray’s new album, and The Vines’ “emergency rest.”
Also: Eminem’s sales, R.E.M’s gift to fans, Joe Strummer’s funeral, Sugar Ray’s new album, and The Vines’ “emergency rest.”
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Scalpers are peddling tickets to Phish‘s New Year’s Eve show at Madison Square Garden for between $2,000 and $4,000, band manager John Paluska told the Boston Globe.
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Diana Ross was arrested on suspicion of “extreme DUI” on Monday, the Arizona Daily Star reports. A breath test reportedly found her blood alcohol content to be .20, more than twice the legal limit in Arizona. Being a washed-up star has its benefits, however: rather than spending the night in jail, she was cited and released.
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Eminem‘s “The Eminem Show” and the soundtrack to the rapper’s film debut “8 Mile” earned honors as the best-selling album and soundtrack of 2002, respectively according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
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Billboard.com reports on R.E.M.‘s annual holiday fan club package.
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Rolling Stone.com’s Colin Devenish talks to Sugar Ray‘s Mark McGrath about the band’s forthcoming album, which reportedly will be titled “Our Best Years Are Behind Us.”
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Great Britain’s Sky News reports on Joe Strummer‘s funeral.
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The Vines have been “ordered" home to Australia for “emergency rest,” NME reports, forever adding the term “emergency rest” to the list of rockstar excuses. Take note, Axl!
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Editor’s picks: Favorite albums of 2002
Publishing a short list of albums and claiming that they are the “best” of any given year is a common practice, but a pompous one at that, as music is, by its very nature, subjective. Instead, we present you with one editor’s list of the albums that spent the most time in his CD player, and why.
Publishing a short list of albums and claiming that they are the “best” of any given year is a common practice, but a pompous one at that, as music is, by its very nature, subjective. Instead, we present you with one editor’s list of the albums that spent the most time in his CD player, and why.
Audioslave - “Audioslave” (Epic/Interscope)
The debut from ex-Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell and former Rage Against the Machine members Tom Morello (guitar), Tim Commerford (bass) and Brad Wilk (drums) lives up to the nearly two-years-worth of hype and anticipation that preceded its release. With a group comprising one of the greatest voices in rock music and the power trio behind Rage Against the Machine, the chances of a bomb were slim at best. The album’s first single alone--"Cochise"--was worth the wait.
Click here to read our review of “Audioslave.”
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Korn - “Untouchables” (Epic/Immortal)
Korn’s fifth full-length is its best album to date, hands down. The quartet’s uniquely twisted metal delivery is as brutal as ever, with frontman Jonathan Davis’ demonic vocals sounding their best yet. The album rises above its predecessors thanks to the band’s more-evolved songwriting style, which marries catchy hooks and melodies to the group’s well-honed metal chops.
Click here to read our review of “Untouchables.”
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Nine Inch Nails - “and all that could have been” (nothing)
On his group’s first official live album, Trent Reznor continues to demonstrate his incomparable creativity and perfectionistic approach to everything that he does. As if the exceptional-sounding live CD--recorded during NIN’s 2000 Fragility tour--isn’t enough, the real gem is the limited-edition’s bonus disc, which features Reznor performing acoustic versions of several of his previous works, as well as several previously unreleased tracks.
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Jerry Cantrell - “Degradation Trip” (Roadrunner)
Nothing can lessen the blow that the rock world suffered earlier this year when Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley died of a drug overdose, but some solace can be found in this sophomore solo release from fellow Alice founder Cantrell. The guitarist-singer fired off everything in his arsenal, which resulted in an album that sounds like the second coming of AIC.
Click here to read our review of “Degradation Trip.”
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Foo Fighters - “One By One” (RCA)
It is hard to imagine that, had Kurt Cobain lived on, Dave Grohl could have gone down in the annals of rock history merely as “the drummer from Nirvana.” With a set of pipes like his, and the ability to write so many hit songs that he makes it look easy, Grohl clearly belongs front and center. He continues to show off his uncanny rock sensibility on his group’s fourth album, as evidenced by the blistering first single “All My Life.”
Click here to read our review of “One By One.”
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John Mayer - “Inside Wants Out” (Mayer Music/Columbia)
John Mayer hit the big time with his 2001 major-label debut, “Room for Squares,” but his work on this acoustic EP buries the comparatively too-polished sound of its predecessor. Nowhere is this disparity more pronounced than on “No Such Thing,” one of several tracks featured in electric form on “Room for Squares” that comes across as infinitely more powerful and substantive as a stripped-down acoustic cut on “Inside Wants Out.”
Click here to read our review of “Inside Wants Out.”
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Jeff “Tain” Watts - “Bar Talk” (Columbia)
What I know about jazz could fit in a thimble, but only a deaf man would have trouble recognizing the talent and musicianship found on drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts’ latest, which features a cast of musicians that includes saxophonists Ravi Coltrane (son of jazz luminary John Coltrane) and Branford Marsalis. One listen will sour you on just about everything that mainstream radio plays these days.
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Tribe of Judah - “Exit Elvis” (Spitfire)
Singer Gary Cherone rises from the ashes of Extreme and Van Halen with this debut from his rock quintet, which features former Extreme bandmates Pat Badger (bass) and Mike Mangini (drums). The production is stellar, the industrial-tinged rock is refreshingly un-’80s/’90s and Cherone’s voice has never sounded better. If it wasn’t for the stigma that hangs over most ‘80s- and ‘90s-era artists, you’d have heard this on the radio regularly.
Click here to read our review of “Exit Elvis.”
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Branford Marsalis Quartet - “Footsteps of Our Fathers” (Marsalis Music/Rounder)
Slightly less accessible and more cerebral than Jeff “Tain” Watts’ “Bar Talk” (see above), “Footsteps of Our Fathers” features Branford Marsalis and company--including Watts--reinterpreting classic jazz compositions by John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, John Lewis and Sonny Rollins. Like “Bar Talk,” the musicianship displayed on this set will make you scoff at the comparative lack of talent that most mainstream pop and rock artists get by with.
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Filter - “The Amalgamut”
Richard Patrick, who cut his teeth as a member of Nine Inch Nails during the latter act’s first tour, continues to make huge-sounding, amazingly well-produced industrial rock. His work bears the same type of perfectionistic flair that Nine Inch Nails founder Trent Reznor is known for, but is less eclectic and more radio-friendly than that found on Reznor’s albums. Music to get a speeding ticket to.
Click here to read our review of “The Amalgamut.”
Sunday, December 29, 2002
Judge stops Slick Rick’s deportation
A federal judge on Friday (12/27) blocked the deportation of Slick Rick, who has been in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Bradenton, Fla., since June.
A federal judge on Friday (12/27) blocked the deportation of Slick Rick, who has been in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Bradenton, Fla., since June.
The ruling by Judge Kimba Wood means that the musician--whose real name is Ricky Walters--can continue his fight to remain in the United States. He will, however, remain in INS custody.
Walters, a native of Great Britain who has lived in the U.S. since he was 11 years old, is facing deportation because of a 1990 incident in which he was convicted for shooting a cousin, the cousin’s pregnant girlfriend and a bystander. He spent five years in a New York prison after pleading guilty of the charges.
Walters’ lawyer told the Associated Press that the judge stopped the deportation, which had been planned for Saturday (12/28), after finding that there was a substantial possibility that Walters could prove that he should not be deported.
INS agents arrested Walters aboard a cruise ship after the U.S. began enforcing a law that requires deportation of foreigners convicted of violent felonies.
SoundSpike Blog: Eminem, Master P, Pete Townshend
Also: Bruce Springsteen, “Suge” Knight, Sonic Youth, Ani DiFranco, Bob Dylan, Bonnaroo 2003.
Also: Bruce Springsteen, “Suge” Knight, Sonic Youth, Ani DiFranco, Bob Dylan, Bonnaroo 2003.
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Eminem, in an interview with Brian McCollum for a Detroit Free Press feature, said that his fame is “almost to the point where I truly believe I may be getting too big for my own good. And I never really asked for that.” The story also confirms that the rapper and his ex-wife Kim are again living together.
And lest we forget, Chuck Eddy talked with Eminem’s grandma for a Village Voice feature.
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Speaking of grandmas, a judge has ordered rap mogul Master P to pay his grandma $105,000 in damages. According to published reports, Grandma claimed she was embarrassed and suffered anxiety after hearing her voice--which had been secretly recorded--on a “crude gangsta rap CD.”
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Pete Townshend, in a recent posting on his official website, resolved to get to work on a new Who album. “Expect some new music to arrive in about a year, maybe later,” he wrote.
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The New Jersey Star-Ledger’s Lisa Rose reports on Bruce Springsteen‘s annual appearance at the Light of Day benefit concert. The show took place on Saturday (12/28) at the Tradewinds nightclub in Sea Bright.
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In a jailhouse interview, Marion “Suge" Knight told the Los Angeles Times that “his arrest for parole violations two days before Christmas is a misguided effort by authorities to force him to talk about homicides he knows nothing about.”
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A deluxe edition of Sonic Youth‘s 1992 album “Dirty” will be issued on March 4. The album includes “numerous B-sides,” 11 previously unreleased rehearsal recordings and a 28-page booklet, according to the band’s official website.
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Ani DiFranco will support Bob Dylan on several upcoming dates in Australia and New Zealand, according to Bill Pagel‘s incomparable Bob Dates website.
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Organizers have announced that the 2003 Bonnaroo Festival will take place June 13-15 in Manchester, Tenn.
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Monday, December 23, 2002
SoundSpike Blog: Britney Spears, Suge Knight, Phish
Also: Slick Rick, Shania Twain, Kenny Chesney, Bob Dylan, Interpol, Sharon Osbourne, Sheryl Crow, Dave Navarro, Michelle Branch.
Also: Slick Rick, Shania Twain, Kenny Chesney, Bob Dylan, Interpol, Sharon Osbourne, Sheryl Crow, Dave Navarro, Michelle Branch.
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Britney Spears filed suit against shoemaker Skechers on Monday (12/23), alleging she didn’t get enough money to properly market her line of roller skates and accessories, according to the AP.
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Rap mogul Suge Knight is back in the pokey for alleged parole violations, the Los Angeles Times reports. Unnamed law enforcement sources told the newspaper that Knight allegedly associated with reputed gang members.
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Phish will offer free downloads of unedited soundboard recordings from all four of the band’s upcoming http://www.soundspike.com/story/659>New Year’s Eve shows.
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The AP’s Alex Veiga has a jail conversation with Slick Rick. Rick says there’s a 95% chance he’ll be deported to England, where he hasn’t lived since he was 11.
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Shania Twain and Kenny Chesney are the first performers announced for the CMT Flameworthy 2003 Video Music Awards. The ceremony takes place on April 7 at Nashville’s Gaylord Entertainment Center.
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Bob Dylan is atop Blender magazine’s list of the top 50 rock geniuses of all time, Reuters reports.
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Interpol‘s “Turn on the Bright Lights” tops Pitchfork‘s top 50 albums of 2002. Pitchfork is cooler than you are.
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Sharon Osbourne “will comment on her ‘rollercoaster’ year in a Christmas Day speech” that will be broadcast on Great Britain’s Channel 4 at the same time the Queen delivers her traditional address on the BBC, according to British press reports.
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MTV reports that Sheryl Crow and Dave Navarro have recorded songs with Michelle Branch that are expected to turn up on Branch’s forthcoming album, which is expected in April.
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Sunday, December 22, 2002
Clash founder Joe Strummer dead at 50
Joe Strummer, founding member of punk icons The Clash, died at his home in England on Sunday.
Joe Strummer, founding member of punk icons The Clash, died at his home in England on Sunday.
An official cause of death was not immediately available, but the BBC reported that he apparently suffered a heart attack. A message on Strummer’s official website on Monday morning (11/23) said, “Joe Strummer died yesterday. Our condolences to Luce and the kids, family and friends.”
Strummer, 50, completed a string of tour dates with his current band, the Mescaleros, in late November. Hein van der Rey, managing director of Epitaph Records, told the Associated Press that Strummer had been working on a third album with the band.
Strummer’s primary claim to fame was as a founding member of the Clash, who with the Sex Pistols sparked the British punk movement of the mid-70s. The band formed in 1977 and released its first album, “The Clash,” in England that year. The timing of that release made the group eligible for induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, and they were recently confirmed to join Elvis Costello, The Police and AC/DC as inductees at the formal ceremony in March of 2003.
The acrimonious ending of the band--Strummer fired frequent co-writer and joint frontman Mick Jones in 1983 following the tour supporting “Combat Rock” and broke up the band two years later--prompted speculation as to whether the Hall of Fame ceremony would see the former members perform together on stage again.
That speculation gained momentum when at one of the final shows of the Mescaleros tour in November, Jones joined Strummer for an encore of early Clash songs “Bankrobber,” “White Riot” and “London’s Burning.”
In recent days, it was reported that Strummer collaborated with Bono and Dave Stewart to write a song they intended to perform together at a Feb. 2 tribute concert for Nelson Mandela. The song, reportedly written around Strummer’s lyrics, is called “48864” after the prison number Mandela wore while incarcerated.
SoundSpike Blog: Paul McCartney, Joe Strummer
Also: Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, CD sales, The Strokes, unessential albums, Clear Channel, Wesley Willis, Steve Earle vs. Charlie Daniels.
Also: Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, CD sales, The Strokes, unessential albums, Clear Channel, Wesley Willis, Steve Earle vs. Charlie Daniels.
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Brave knight Paul McCartney has been granted a unique coat of arms by the College of Arms, according to British press reports. It reportedly features a Liver Bird--a nod to his Liverpool, England, birthplace--holding a guitar in its claw.
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In remembrance of the late, great Joe Strummer, RollingStone.com republishes a 1979 Mikal Gilmore feature on The Clash.
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Metallica is booked to play Britain’s Reading and Leeds festivals, NME reports.
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The Denver Post’s G. Brown runs down some of the major tours in the works for 2003. Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac and Metallica lead the list.
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Holiday season CD sales are down 12.9 percent compared to the same period in 2001, reports the New York Times. The recording industry, as usual, blames illegal Internet file swapping. I blame smart consumers, who are resisting ridiculously high CD prices.
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The Strokes are Spin magazine’s band of the year.
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The Onion A.V. Club has posted its ”Least Essential Albums of 2002” list.
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This one almost fell through the cracks: Concert promotions giant Clear Channel Communications acquired Metropolitan Entertainment Group, its major competitor in the New York City area. “How many times has Clear Channel touched you today?” goes their slogan. Unspoken: Will it never release you from its death grip?
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Schizophrenic singer Wesley Willis is suffering from a treatable form of leukemia, according to Alternative Tenticles Records.
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The L.A. Weekly’s Michael Simmons catches up with country maverick Steve Earle.
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Earle’s polar opposite, Charlie Daniels, has released a book titled “Soapbox Collection Volume One,” which comprises 100 scary right-wing rants that were first posted on his website. A sample from Charlie’s current, uplifting Christmas posting: “I believe [the ACLU] will be cringing in horror when they see the one they have fought against for so long coming with the armies of heaven. And if you don’t believe that is going to happen you are in for a rude awakening. It makes no difference what man does or says, it will all come to pass just like the Holy Bible says it will.”
Oh. And the book (apparently only sold via Daniels’ website) comes with a CD single of the Charlie Daniels Band track “This Ain’t No Rag It’s A Flag.” Take that, Osama.
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Rolling Stones announce free Los Angeles concert
The Rolling Stones will play a free concert in Los Angeles on Feb. 6 to raise awareness of global warming, the band announced on Monday (12/23).
The Rolling Stones will play a free concert in Los Angeles on Feb. 6 to raise awareness of global warming, the band announced on Monday (12/23).
The show, organized by The Rolling Stones with the environmental lobby group Natural Resources Defense Council, comes near the end of the North American leg of the Stones’ current North American tour.
Fans can sign up for a chance win one of 6,000 pairs of free tickets to the show by visiting www.nrdcstonesconcert.org and filling out an entry form, or by mailing an entry, by Jan. 6. Winners will be selected at random and announced during the week of Jan. 13, according to publicity firm Rogers & Cowan. Full details are available at the event’s website.
According to Reuters, producer Steve Bing is paying all expenses related to the show.
The Rolling Stones haven’t played a free public concert since 1969’s famous and ill-fated Altamont show, near San Francisco, which was documented in the film “Gimme Shelter.” The band hired local Hells Angels to provide security for the show, and the event ended in chaos. One fan was stabbed to death near the stage.
Thursday, December 19, 2002
George Strait’s first live album due in February
George Strait, who has long been one of country music’s most popular live acts, releases his first concert album on Feb. 26.
George Strait, who has long been one of country music’s most popular live acts, releases his first concert album on Feb. 26.
The 16-song CD, titled “For the Last Time--Live from the Astrodome,” was recorded on the closing night of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on March 3, at which Strait performed for more than 68,000 fans, including President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.
Strait co-produced the album--his 30th--with longtime collaborator Tony Brown.
The Astrodome was home to the Livestock Show and Rodeo for 37 years, but the event will move to Houston’s new Reliant Stadium in 2003. Strait is scheduled to appear at the event’s opening ceremonies on Feb. 25.
Strait is scheduled to open a http://www.soundspike.com/story/668>new round of tour dates in January.
SoundSpike Blog: Guns N’ Roses, Bono, Bruce Springsteen
Also: Christgau’s list, Lollapalooza, the RIAA’s spin, Santana, Toni Braxton, SXSW, The Beatles, Tower’s Pulse.
Also: Christgau’s list, Lollapalooza, the RIAA’s spin, Santana, Toni Braxton, SXSW, The Beatles, Tower’s Pulse.
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Contrary to recent rumors, bassist Tommy Stinson and guitarist Robin Finck haven’t departed Guns N’ Roses, Launch reports--citing an unnamed “spokesperson for the band.”
But, stretching credibility, the spokesperson reportedly goes on to say that Axl and crew will “put the finishing touches” on their (imaginary?) “Chinese Democracy” album in January.
By the way, some photos of the aftermath of the Guns N’ Roses-inspired riot in Philadelphia are online at Roadie.net.
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Bono, Dave Stewart and Joe Strummer--in a tribute to former South African President Nelson Mandela--have written a song titled “48864,” according to the Associated Press. Mandela wore the number in prison.
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Bruce Springsteen will appear on Warren Zevon‘s forthcoming album, tentatively titled “My Dirty Life and Times,” RollingStone.com reports. Zevon was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer this fall.
There have been rumblings of new Springsteen concert dates in Jacksonville, Fla., and Atlantic City, N.J., but the excellent fan site Backstreets.com says the dates aren’t confirmed.
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Dean Robert Christgau serves up his favorite anthology-type sets of 2002 in the Village Voice.
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Are the folks at Lollapalooza gearing up their annual will-it-happen/won’t-it-happen tease?
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The New York Times reports that the White House wants ISPs to help develop a system to monitor Internet use. How long before the recording industry lobbies to use such a system to monitor peer-to-peer trading?
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The RIAA congratulates itself on the “explosion” of “legitimate” online music offerings in 2002. RIAA president Hillary Rosen is obviously a “glass is half full” person.
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From an Arista Records press release:
The top two songs of the rock era are on Arista Records, according to the brand-new third edition of Billboard’s Hottest Hot 100 Hits by Chart Beat columnist Fred Bronson. The book, published this month, proclaims “Smooth” by Santana featuring Rob Thomas as the No. 1 song of the rock era. Toni Braxton‘s “Un-Break My Heart” is No. 2. Bronson came up with his own mathematical formula and ranked every song that has charted on the Billboard pop singles chart since the rock era began in 1955.
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The keynote speech at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Music and Media Conference--which takes place in Austin from March 12-16--will be delivered by Daniel Lanois. Lots of information about this year’s event is posted at the website.
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Slate’s David Samuels asks: why were The Beatles ”so great together and so spectacularly mediocre apart”?
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The Sacramento News & Review’s Jackson Griffith writes on the death of Tower Records’ Pulse magazine.
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