In the midst of praising a sort of mediocre, but I guess well-framed paparazzi photo of Rihanna, Kanye West took some time out to offer up his thoughts on today’s biggest stars, and which current celebrities were serving as analogies of stars gone by, I guess because we live in the post-everything age. If you ever wondered which current somewhat-superstar Kanye West views as the new Jimi Hendrix and/or Roger Waters, the answers lie after the jump. More »
“I imagine we are all, like cassettes, thoughts wrapped up in awkward packaging. : ),” says Erika Iris Simmons of her art project Ghost In The Machine–in which portraits of musicians are crafted from the innards of cassettes–and you know, she might have a point. Simmons has crafted images of musicians like Ian Astbury and Tom Waits out of this pretty ingenious source material, but my favorite one has to be Robert Smith, because his hair looks absolutely perfect. [Flickr; HT Dan R.] More »
• A judge has ruled that Hendrix Electric… More »
The Punk/Rock auction at Christie’s yesterday… More »
Remember that Iggy Pop biopic starring Elijah Wood? That Marvin Gaye biopic starring the guy from Law & Order? Kirsten Dunst playing Debbie Harry? Zooey Deschanel (or was it Melissa Etheridge) as Janis Joplin? Andre 3000 as Jimi Hendrix? Lenny Kravitz as Hendrix? What about Laurence Fishburne as Hendrix? You probably remember none of those movies, because after tons of buzz, they all faded away into the veritable Bermuda Triangle that is music-biopic development. Why do so few music biopics actually make it through development, when they usually go onto success and acclaim, whether they’re put out by Hollywood (Ray, Walk The Line) or indies (24 Hour Party People)? Variety lays it out.
Puns used in headines about the first guitar Jimi Hendrix torched onstage going for some $493,000 at an auction in London yesterday: “fire sale,” “flaming bargain,” “purple blaze.” Somehow, no one thought to turn their story into a commentary on standing next to the aftermath of Hendrix’s fire. More »
It’s been more than 60 days since Vivid Entertainment first broke the news that they were in possession of a Jimi Hendrix sex tape, and since the company hasn’t receieved concrete word that the tape is bogus from Jimi’s posthumous license company Experience Music LLC, look for it on the shelves of a seedy store near you in the near future. When people look back on this era*, what conclusion do you think they’ll come to from the current era’s obsession with watching celebrities mate, even dead ones who can’t be the objects of any realistic fantasies because their bones were turned into dust long ago? I shudder when I think about it. Anyway, for those of you who would like a primer as to what, exactly, will be on this video, a New York Times recap of it from a few months ago is after the jump.
Every year, a mind-blowing and ever-increasing amount of guitarists shows up at the Thanks Jimi Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, to jam on “Hey Joe.” In 2006, they broke the world record by pulling together 1,581 budding six-stringers. Earlier this month, they got in shooting range of 2,000. Some clips of the 2008 event below.
The Jimi Hendrix estate has responded to allegations that their cash cow is in a sex tape that’ll be released by Vivid very soon, and it sounds sort of non-denial denialy to me: “On behalf of both the Jimi Hendrix Foundation and Brave New World, I want to address the despicable news in regards to… More »
