AC/DC - Page 2

It Is Time To Usher In A New Era Of Jock Jams

noah | May 28, 2009 11:00 am
noah | May 28, 2009 11:00 am

jock-jams-album-cover1Now that the Carolina Hurricanes have been eliminated from the NHL playoffs, Merge Records impresario Mac McCaughan has moved on from chronicling the ‘Canes’ efforts to talking about the music that arenas employ to get fans in prime freak-out mode. In 2006, he brought some albums put out by his label down to the Hurricane home base, RBC Center, in hopes of breaking through what he called its “particularly stultifying mix of Top 40 / Classic rock / Emo (? i don’t know what to call some of the songs on there) / Sports Disco,” and it worked, at least a bit; “Punch Me Harder” got played during the 2006 NHL Finals, which–coincidence?–the Hurricanes won. Anyway, McCaughan has provided his own suggested playlist for hockey arenas to the local paper, and man, is it so much better than the nu-metal and snipped bits of Eurodance that I’m used to at my sporting events. A few selections: More »


The PMRC’s “Filthy Fifteen” Sure Looks Cute In 2009

noah | May 27, 2009 12:00 pm
noah | May 27, 2009 12:00 pm

shebopTwisted Sister’s Stay Hungry is being reissued, the latest example of getting every piece of pop music every made back out there before the recorded-music industry goes tits-up, and the press release about the new version touts the fact that “We’re Not Gonna Take It” was a member of the Filthy Fifteen. That was a list of songs put together in 1985 by the Parents’ Music Resource Council, the group of moms who were pretty much the driving force behind the now-ubiquitous “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics” stickers on albums deemed too hot for young ears; they put together a playlist of songs that in their mind glorified sex, drugs, and violence in such a way that one had to conclude that The Pop Music Was Killing Our Kids. Given that “We’re Not Gonna Take It” seems positively benign right now, I decided to remind myself of the list’s other contents. The artists whose songs were cited fall into two categories for the most part: Heavy metal bands and people who worked with Prince, including the man himself. All 15–complete with some filthy-in-85, safe-for-work now clips–after the jump! More »


noah | May 19, 2009 3:30 pm
noah | May 19, 2009 3:30 pm

acdcFriday night’s AC/DC show in Munich resulted in more than 100 noise complaints being processed to local police, with some coming from people as far as 12 miles away. You know what would have been great? If just for that night, the hotline for that particular complaint line would have been switched from the old boring menu to “press one for the walls shaking,” “press two for the earth quaking,” “press three if your mind’s aching.” Although I guess things would get a little too phone-sexy if you wanted to pick the “making it” option… [thelocal.de; HT NME] More »



The Next Crop Of 33 1/3 Books Will Not Be As Classic Rock-Leaning As You Might Have Feared

noah | May 9, 2009 10:30 am
noah | May 9, 2009 10:30 am

thirtythreeeeeThe 33 1/3 book series, in which one album is given a book-length treatment by a writer, has finally narrowed its latest shortlist down to 11 titles. The list of approved albums–and the authors who will be taking the albums on–for the 2010-2011 roster of books after the jump: More »


How To Spot A Fake Scalped Ticket: Commas, Fonts, And Bad URLs

noah | February 11, 2009 5:15 am
noah | February 11, 2009 5:15 am

Back in November, designer and blogger Andrew Hearst wanted to see AC/DC at Madison Square Garden. The only problem? The show was sold out. So he and a friend took a flier on a pair of $60 seats from a possibly disreputable gentleman standing outside the arena, and in exchange for their money, they were given two tickets in the style of the one above this paragraph. Study the ticket closely, and then see if you can guess what happened next:

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Billy Joel Lets His Long Island Roots Shine Through

noah | January 19, 2009 2:00 am
noah | January 19, 2009 2:00 am

It probably shouldn’t be too surprising that Billy Joel took some time out of a recent show to pay tribute to AC/DC—after all, the two artists have been sharing playlist space on the Long Island rock-radio bastion WBAB for some time—but, well, I was shocked by the headline “Billy Joel covers AC/DC” when I scrolled past it earlier this afternoon. After the jump, video of this semi-momentous event. (I should note here that Joel’s roadie took the vocal duties while he played rhythm guitar, and according to Blabbermouth this is actually the second time this happened in his long live-music career—the first time, in 2002, the Piano Man was joined by Brian Johnson and Cliff Williams.) Is this cover the result of some synergistic impulses between members of the Sony Music family, or is this little air-kiss to hard rock an oblique sign that a reissue of the Attila album is coming soon?

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Will AC/DC Play In Peoria? (No, Really)

noah | January 12, 2009 3:30 am
noah | January 12, 2009 3:30 am

A radio station in Peoria, Ill., staged a rally… More »


AC/DC Making Itself Comfortable On Any Airplay Chart That Will Have It

noah | November 20, 2008 9:30 am
noah | November 20, 2008 9:30 am

We’ve shaken our heads over the fact that AC/DC… More »


Teenage Vampire Freaks Take A Bite Out Of AC/DC

noah | November 13, 2008 10:30 am
noah | November 13, 2008 10:30 am

This week’s No. 1 album: The soundtrack to the forthcoming vampire movie that I am apparently too unfeeling to understand Twilight, which sold 165,000 copies in its debut week on store shelves. The soundtrack, which features a couple of new songs by Paramore as well as tracks by Muse, Linkin Park, and Iron & Wine, was $3.99 at Amazon’s MP3 store for one day last week, which no doubt contributed to the 48,000 digital sales it racked up. In other fire-sale news, Maroon 5’s Songs About Jane–which was priced under $5 at the iTunes Store last week–moved 14,000 digital copies last week, placing it at No. 3 for the week on the online-only chart, just behind Hinder’s Take It To The Limit. See? Variable pricing can move records! Sort of. This week’s full top 20 (and digital-albums top 10) after the jump.

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Wal-Mart: Soon Its Music Section Will Be Smaller Than An Economy-Size Bag Of Cat Litter

noah | November 4, 2008 1:30 am
noah | November 4, 2008 1:30 am

Arkansas-based retail behemoth Wal-Mart is reportedly planning on cutting floor space for its stores’ CD sections again, this time in favor of devoting more real estate to Blu-Ray discs and consumer electronics. The chain is citing a 23% drop in CD sales during the first four weeks of this quarter as part of the reason for the shift, although it’s also more than happy to sew up exclusive deals with artists and blow out floor space for records and merch–like, for example, AC/DC, whose Black Ice sold 784,000 copies in its first week on shelves even though it was only available at Wal-Mart.

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