The Andrew WK-hosted Destroy Build Destroy debuts a week from tomorrow on the Cartoon Network, and in case you were wondering just what the title meant, here’s the show’s official description: “With host, Andrew W.K., two teams take turns destroying each other’s materials, then putting them back together, then destroying them again. Oh, and things blow up.” And the above trailer would seem to bear that out! Although I kept getting distracted by the stuff being destroyed by the commercial’s background music, which sounded like a certain song about desire-born Catholic guilt that appeared on one of my favorite albums of high school: More »
Back in my school days, Valentine’s Day was a time for exchanging cheap perforated Valentines cards and inedible Necco hearts, and punishing the unpopular kids by “forgetting” to give them anything. (I was perhaps one of those unpopular kids.) If you were really lucky you got a mixtape from a girl, and I did get a few in my day, even if they were from girl-space-friends and not girlfriends. What was disturbing was the presence of “Every Breath You Take” on said mixtapes, given it’s the kind of love song that John Wayne Gacy might write. Even Sting himself says it’s a paean to controlling someone:
Fans of Queen who can’t stomach Freddie Mercury replacement Paul Rodgers owe it to themselves to check out “Star,” a song from Extreme’s upcoming Saudades Du Rock that has tight harmonies, searing riffs, and sneering vocals about “profit” and “fame” that sound more “Tie Your Mother Down” than… More »
Coldplay’s forthcoming Viva la Vida, or Death and All His Friends has the Guardian moaning about the curse of the bad album title, raising the spectre of the Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Fiona Apple’s When The Pawn…, and Public Enemy’s Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age to make the case that Vida‘s awkward title will probably sink the album, sales-wise. (Well, at least EMI will have something else to blame for the inevitably disappointing numbers besides “softening market conditions.”) But surely we’ve all bought unfortunately titled albums in an effort to look past awkward syntax and bad puns by musicians whose output we trust? I know I have, so after the jump, I run down five owned-by-me full-lengths that I generally only refer to as “that album by those guys, you know which one I mean.” (For what it’s worth, the best-titled in my collection is Ill Ease’s All Systems A-Go-Go!, but that particular honor can change at any moment.)
Looks like Who cover bands aren’t the only thing Gary Cherone has going on after all. Extreme is putting the finishing touches on a new album, with Nuno Bettencourt at the mixing board possibly even as I type! It will be the band’s first album since 1995’s Waiting For The Punchline, so I’m hoping they’ll name the album The Punchline if they don’t decide to go back to the whole roman numeral thing (V Alive, maybe?).
When Idolator last posted the word “Cherone,” there were rumors that singer Gary and Extreme compatriot Nuno Bettencourt were writing together. Six months on and Nuno’s doing indie movie soundtracks while Gary… well, Gary’s playing shows in Massachusetts with the band Slip Kid, which “is not just another WHO tribute/cover band, nor does it try to impersonate them. Rather It is a truly inspired celebration of the music and live performance of THE WHO, that captures the raw emotional energy of the band.” It could be argued that Cherone was part of a “a truly inspired celebration of the music and live performance of VAN HALEN” ten years ago, but this still feels a little sad.
A bunch of blogs are trying to give away copies of the soundtrack to the indie film Smart People starring Juno‘s Ellen Page, Sideways‘ Thomas Haden Church, Sex And The City‘s Sarah Jessica Parker and Enemymine‘s Dennis Quaid. Sounds like a quirky sleeper, but what’s that on the soundtrack? Why, Nuno Bettencourt! Lots and lots of Nuno Bettencourt!
The easiest go-to joke after yesterday’s long-delayed Van Halen reunion announcement involved the fate of Gary Cherone, who the brothers VH contracted for lead-singer duty on the floptastic Van Halen III. But according to Collider.com, Cherone has, in fact, been writing songs with none other than his ex-bandmate Nuno Bettencourt, who recently escaped the clutches of Perry Farrell’s Satellite Party:
