Aside from holidays where major news events happen, thus disrupting one’s chance to actually get away from her laptop and have a life, April Fool’s Day is probably the most annoying 24-hour stretch on the professional blogger’s calendar, thanks to everyone on the Internet thinking they’re funny. Despite that not really being true! After the jump, a running tally of pranks from various music-related entities; it’ll be updated throughout the day, because Lord knows I need to do something with all the “comedy” clogging up my RSS reader right now.
Limp Bizkit—the nu-metal poster children who, with the help of a George Michael song and a red baseball cap, captured the rage of a particular subset of baseball-cap-and-baggy-pant-wearing young men in the late ’90s—are going to record an album and head out on tour this spring, the first time the original lineup has been together in eight years. Did you know that the band’s first three albums have sold more than 20 million copies? I suspect the fourth one will not boost that total by a substantial amount, but I may be wrong, because there are a lot of angry people out there. (Although a lot of that general frustration does come from people having no money to buy frivolous things like Limp Bizkit albums. Hmm. Social experiment!)
Many people find it hard to tell the great from the godawful when it comes to 21st-century mainstream rock. To help figure out which is which, here’s “Corporate Rock Still Sells,” where Al “GovernmentNames” Shipley examines what’s good, bad, and ugly in the world of rock and roll. This time around, he celebrates the 20th anniversary of Billboard‘s Modern Rock chart by cherry-picking some of its most oddly notable chart-toppers:
From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Today, we’re going to switch things up a bit and look at the notices given to the Fred Durst-directed The Longshots, which features Ice Cube as the doting uncle of a female football prodigy and which comes out today.
Marilyn Manson announced last night that he’d hired a new guitar player for his band, and that man is Wes Borland, late of Limp Bizkit and Black Light Burns. And from the way Manson referred to Borland’s previous musical exploits in the announcement, I wouldn’t expect Fred Durst to be invited backstage to any upcoming shows: “He used to be in a really terrible band that he left because he felt that it was a destructive force in art, and he has his own band, Black Light Burns, but now he is in Marilyn Manson,” Manson told a press assemblage in Seoul. “We don’t know how permanent that is, but starting tomorrow will be the first step. So this will be the most indestructible Marilyn Manson.” It can’t even be stopped by a horde of red-baseball-cap-wearing angry dudes, or even by people who think that Manson’s schtick is pretty tired by this point! Clip of Manson’s press conference after the jump.
Ah, Wes Borland. When you’re playing with Limp Bizkit, everyone talks about how you’re actually a good guitar player who listens to Portishead and Ween. But when you start your own band, nobody ever gives a shit. Ironically, the upcoming covers album from your Black Light Burns–which promises tributes to Fiona Apple, your old band Big Dumb Face, Swans, Lard, PJ Harvey, and Jesus Lizard-will probably bring you more attention than anything you’ve done before, especially once people hear the tracks. Judging by the covers of “So Alive” and “Lucretia My Reflection” on your MySpace page, it might actually be kind of cool. And thanks to your innovative pricing tiers, people may be more apt to check it out! The MP3s? Only five bucks. And if you only want his instrumentals? Free, homeslice.
I know for some people this will just be another example of Chris Martin making Coldplay fans feel like idiots, but for me? Love. Sheer, unabashed love. The love I can only feel for a sensitive, interview-wary multiplatinum artist that goes off on a tangent about how unappreciated Limp Bizkit are in Entertainment Weekly. How was I to know that the man behind “God Put A Smile On Your Face” was a huge fan of “Rollin’,” which, yes, is indeed the best Limp Bizkit song of all time? “It might be unfashionable to say it at the moment, but Limp Bizkit had a lot of life in them when they were at their best. I’m proud to say it right here, live and on the record.” And I’m proud of you, Chris. You played Limp Bizkit for Brian Eno! I doubt anyone’s ever thought to do that before.
Here’s the trailer for The Longshots (formerly Comeback), the film that Fred Durst and Ice Cube’s careers have been building toward for a long time. Who better than the authors of “Nookie” and “Givin’ Up The Nappy Dug Out” to tell the story of the first female quarterback in a Pop Warner football tournament. Snoop Dogg’s Pop Warner movie is still in development, so maybe he’ll shout “I believe in you, bitch!” from the stands in a cameo.
Like the way John Otto takes you to the Matthews Bridge there? “Limp Bizkit’s groove master” has started Ottomatic Sounds, where he will teach you “nu and old school” drum techniques for only $150-200 a session! Let’s check it out together!
