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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