Dave Grohl is admired by many. The Nirvana drummer, turned Foo Fighters lead singer, and most recently, Them Crooked Vultures drummer, has had quite the music career. Still, he has his idols too. And one of them is in his new band.
Playing with Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones in his new super-group Them Crooked Vultures is a dream come true for Grohl, reports rollingstone.com.
Grohl’s Led Zeppelin love goes all the way back to when he was just a teenager. He’s got three Led Zeppelin-inspired tattoos – the John Bonham three-circle Led Zeppelin IV logo in three places – the first of which he did himself when he was just a teen.
“I did the first one myself when I was 16,” said Grohl. “I tried to get different coloured ink to make it seem pro, but now it looks like someone put a cigarette out on my fucking arm.”
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Beck has responded to the comments made by The Fiery Furnaces’ Matt Friedberger by writing a song, according to nme.com.
In the original attack, Friedberger jabbed at alternative band Radiohead, calling them “bogus” for releasing a song about the last surviving British World War I veteran, Harry Patch.
It later became clear that Friedberger could have misinterpreted the song, confusing the war hero Harry Patch with the experimental music composer Harry Partch. But instead of letting the whole charade just blow over, Friedberger chose to continue the feud by then taking a stab at alternative singer Beck.
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Now that the long-time popular band Oasis are officially finished, lead singer Liam Gallagher is finally free to start a new band. And he’s doing so… with the members of Oasis who aren’t his brother Noel, reports rollingstone.com.
Bassist Andy Bell, drummer Chris Sharrock, and guitarist Gem Archer are currently working with Liam on new songs. In an interview with an Italian radio station, Liam promised fans that this new revamp of “Oasis,” which will perform under a different name, will return with music and performances soon.
“I’ll be back doing that, playing live, within a couple of months,” Liam said. “I’ve just done a tour, I always miss singing songs. I miss the people.”
Noel Gallagher left Oasis in late August, following a backstage fight with his brother before a performance at a French music festival. In the Italian interview, Liam revealed that the argument started when Noel poorly treated a guitar that was given to Liam as a present from his wife. In angry response, Liam took one of Noel’s guitars and smashed it.
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Thanks to illegal digital downloading, album sales are on a continuous decline. And as sales keep sliding, the music industry keeps looking for ways to make big events out of record releases. There have been partnerships with big retail companies (such as Walmart’s exclusive with AC/DC’s Black Ice), large-scale live shows (such as Jay-Z’s event before the release of The Blueprint III), and exciting fan contests (such as Pearl Jam’s artwork scavenger hunt for Backspacer). But as rollingstone.com reports, one sure way to guarantee an album’s success is Oprah Winfrey.
For example, Canadian singer Michael Buble’s new album Crazy Love went to the top of the charts after he appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which led Variety magazine to examine what they are calling the “Oprah Effect.”
“Oprah is the one thing everyone wants,” Diarmuid Quinn, president of Reprise Records, told Variety. “If you get that call back from her production people, my god, it’s the Holy Grail.”
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Paul McCartney will receive the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, reports CBC. The former Beatle, 67, is the third person to receive the honour for songwriting, administered by the U.S. Library of Congress.
“It is hard to think of another performer and composer who has had a more indelible and transformative effect on popular song and music of several different genres than Paul McCartney,” said James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress.
“As a great admirer of the Gershwins’ songs, I am highly honoured to be given the Gershwin Prize by such a great institution,” McCartney said.
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Gym Class Heroes rapper Travis McCoy will be releasing several different projects over the next year, according to Billboard.com.
With an upcoming solo project, McCoy is eager to escape the image of, “That dude who sings the song about his girlfriend,” in his group’s most popular song, Cupid’s Chokehold. “With this record, I feel like people are going to take me more seriously as a rapper and hopefully, as a singer as well.”
McCoy will also be releasing a documentary on MTV December 1st. “Travis McCoy’s Unbeaten Track,” will Chronicle the artist’s experiences while travelling with MTV’s Staying Alive foundation to South Africa, India and the Philippines. It will be accompanied by his charity single, One at a Time. “since it is a charity track, I wanted to keep the cheese factor to a bare minimum and make sure it’s sincere and from the heart,” said McCoy.
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Canadian rocker Hawksley Workman (Ryan Corrigan) has set his upcoming album, Meat, to be released January 19th. He will also release Meat’s follow up album, Milk, later in the year, according to Chartattack.com.
Corrigan will start a cross Canada tour that will kick off in B.C. on March 6th and conclude in Toronto on April 24th. Tickets will eventually be sold through Ticketmaster, with a presale starting today and ending Thursday through Six Shooter Records’ website.
Workman’s debut album, For Him and the Girls, was released on 1999, and will go on sale today in the U.S. for the first time.
The Museum of Contemporary Art holds a lot more than just priceless works. This weekend, the L.A. art gallery hosted a 30th anniversary gala attended by dozens of celebs, including Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba, Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, and Pierce Brosnan.
Undoubtedly the biggest splash of the event was Lady Gaga, as usual. Performing in Franceso Vezzoli’s Ballets Russes Italian Style (The Shortest Musical You Will Never See Again), Lady Gaga played a pink piano covered in blue butterflies designed by artist Damien Hirst for the performance art piece.
Vezzoli is known for merging celebrity and fine art. His latest exhibition is called Greed: A New Frangrance by Francesco Vezzoli and plays with the strategy of launching a commercial fragrance like so many celebrities try.
Lady Gaga was a welcome guest at the event, donning an elaborate Japanese Geisha-like couture costume.
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In yet another case of The Music vs. Acitivision, No Doubt are filing a lawsuit against the makers of Band Hero.
The suit contends the game “transformed No Doubt band members into a virtual karaoke circus act,” and the use of the band members’ avatars far exceeded anything agreed upon in the contract, according to the Los Angeles Times. One aspect of the game allows players to manipulate their characters into singing songs by other artists, for example having lead singer Gwen Stefani sing “Honky Tonk Woman” by the Rolling Stones.
“While No Doubt are avid fans of the Rolling Stones and even have performed in concerts with the Rolling Stones, the Character Manipulation Feature results in an unauthorized performance by the Gwen Stefani avatar in a male voice boasting about having sex with prostitutes,” the complaint reads.
The complaint also claims Activision withheld information on the Character Manipulation Feature, and allegedly told the band after they had requested to the have the function disabled that it would be too expensive to do so.
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Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill married singer Jessie Baylin Saturday at a ceremony in Brentwood, Tennessee, reports Perez Hilton. The pair had been dating for three years.
“I woke up with a married woman in my bed this morning,” Tweeted Followill on Sunday. “Luckily she was mine.”
