Kiss, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and LL Cool J lead this year’s roster of first-time nominees for Jann Wenner’s shrine to his concept of “rock and roll,” the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. This year’s nominations total 12, with returnees like the Stooges, ABBA, and Donna Summer competing with the aforementioned newbies. Which nominees are the most likely to pass muster with the shadowy group who decides these sorts of things? Our odds after the jump. More »
Phil Collins has told the UK paper The Mirror that his drumming stance has ruined his chance of ever picking up the sticks again—basically his back become aligned in such a way that his vertebrae have slowly started crushing his spinal cord, and now sitting in drumming stance causes him great pain. But there sure was a weird bit of locution in the seemingly sympathetic Mirror piece that broke his plight! More »
It’s funny that music videos continue to thrive now, when they don’t have many television networks interested in broadcasting them. In fact, with the advent of outlets like YouTube and Pitchfork.TV, I watch more videos now than I have in years—and in my days as a publicist, I found them to be an invaluable publicity tool. They were always a good excuse for another press release! With digital cameras getting cheaper and better, and everybody and their brother fashioning themselves the next Wes Anderson, it’s easier than ever to make a video for not much money. Enter $99 Music Videos, which like Danish woman-haters Dogme 95 wants to impose monetary constraints on bands and filmmakers making music videos:
1. It must be made for $99 (or less).
2. It must be shot in one day (24 hours).
3. It must be edited in one day (this doesn’t include rendering, digitizing, or exporting – just the creative part of editing).
4. It must be a collaboration between the band and the filmmaker.Also, keep track of the video’s expenses. We want to know how the big bucks were spent.
We know what you’re thinking: “This is crazy! Only one day?? How is it possible to make something awesome for only $99?!”
I went to PS 112 in Astoria to vote this morning, and while the school’s lobby was bake-sale-free, casting my ballot and walking to the subway put me in a good mood. The sun was shining, the air was crisp, and the promise of not being bombarded with election-related speculation was close on the horizon, at least until some idiot commentator utters the word “2012” while scrambling to fill space on whatever cable-news channel has given him airtime. Which is probably why I had Andrew WK’s “Party Hard” in my head: Sure, it was barely after nine in the morning and I was on my way back to work, instead of heading out for the evening, but my heart felt right–like it was enjoying some wine, canapes, and total fucking raging. And isn’t that what matters? A counterpoint party song, and a rundown of some notable stories that got lost in the Election Day shuffle, after the jump.
Hey, everyone who broke into a chorus of “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead” when you heard that Phil Collins was retiring from music–you do realize that he only said he’d be retiring from recording it or playing live, right? Because he has some sort of music-graphomania that is going to make him keep writing until he finally gives up the ghost, fingers clutching a pencil that’s just finished plotting out another big “DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH” fake-drum break? I mean, sure, the fact that he’s going to stop Mac Tonighting his way through atrocious covers of Motown hits is a reason to be sorta happy. But I wouldn’t say that the world is free from the possibility of a sequel to “Illegal Alien” being written yet–shit, dude is probably taking meetings on how to turn that song into a musical (featuring a video cameo by Lou Dobbs!) right now.
Weiland, the estranged singer of Velvet Revolver, has teamed up with members of Army Of Anyone and Bomb Shelter Studios owner Eric Kretz for a tour that will hit more than 50 amphitheaters this summer and fall. And this isn’t the only unexpected supergroup that’s formed from music’s bigger names over the years–other groups have also embarked on tours, while a few have even released albums. Other examples after the jump.
In 1992, Nintendo released a program for its Super Nintendo system entitled Mario Paint, a cartridge bundled with a PC-style mouse that was probably ground zero for my interest in, um, digital art. But in addition to letting those without home computers sketch 16-bit masterpieces, Mario Paint also included a simple MIDI program that allowed players bleep and blorp your way through tunelets like this Mario-ified version of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” And because the Internet refuses to let anything recede into pop cultural history, there are not only multiple programs that recreate the Mario Paint sequencer for the ProTools age, there’s a thriving YouTube underground dedicated to reviving the sounds of musical mushrooms and fire flowers. Now, after spending a few hours trawling through multiple shakily captured takes on “In Da Club” and “Chocolate Rain,” we present five of our favorite Mario Paint musical moments, pop recreated through meowing kitties and bouncing Mario heads.
Phil Collins is the spitting image of his former Top 40 self today at a press conference, where he helped announce North American dates of the Genesis reunion tour. Collins’ from-the-nose singing style is necessary to replicate the nasally high-pitched voice employed in “Illegal Alien.” More »
– More acts have been announced for Al Gore’s “Live Earth,” including Genesis, the Police, and Kanye West. More »
We know you were all up at 7 a.m. this morning to live-blog the Genesis reunion-tour announcement, but for those of you who missed out: The good news (maybe) is that the band is touring next year with Phil Collins, and that their entire catalog will be remastered; the bad news… More »