rock bless you

Sunday, November 18, 2012

new album The Rolling Stones - GRRR!

As a 50th-anniversary souvenir, the Stones have assembled a three-disc, 50-track compilation that is the best and most comprehensive collection of the band's high points available. "Doom and Gloom," one of two new songs here, is the Stones at their best – nasty, funny, sexy and rocking hard. As for the rest, it's impossible to overstate the importance of these songs. The Stones' obsession with American blues and R&B ("Time Is on My Side," "Little Red Rooster") transforms into a sexually charged class critique ("19th Nervous Breakdown"). Finally, the indelible guitar statements, from "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" to "Start Me Up," are inextricable from the very idea of rock & roll. The third disc skims great moments like "Mixed Emotions" from the top of the band's underrated post-1989 material. Is GRRR!perfect? No. But as the band once said: You get what you need.

Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix Estates Working on Holograms

Elvis, Marilyn Monroe also receiving 3D treatment

The estates of Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix may stage future holographic live performances, Billboard reports.

"We're trying to get to a point where 3-D characters will walk around," Jeff Jampol, who manages both artists' estates, told Billboard. "Hopefully, 'Jim Morrison' will be able to walk right up to you, look you in the eye, sing right at you and then turn around and walk away."

Jampol–who also handles the estates of Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Peter Tosh and Rick James–suggested that a 3D hologram would only be part of this proposed new multimedia concert experience. The show could also include walls pixelated like giant TV screens, along with the use of lasers, lights, high-quality audio and synchronized sound vibrations.

Similarly, Janie Hendrix, the sister of the late guitar god and President/CEO of Experience Hendrix, revealed that she has been working for a year with the London-based Musion Systems to develop a virtual Jimi Hendrix. "For us, of course, it's about keeping Jimi authentically correct," she said. "There are no absolutes at this point."
Some rock holograms are already in motion. Last week, Core Media Group announced that they'd struck an exclusive deal with Digital Domain Media Group–the company that kickstarted everything with the Tupac hologram at this year's Coachella–to develop an Elvis hologram.
"This is not repurposing old footage that the world has already seen," Digital Domain chief creative officer Ed Ulbrich told Billboard of the King of Rock's hologram, which is in the early stages of development and expected to cost millions. "We're making totally original and exclusive performances so that fans can have new experiences."
Holograms are extending to silver screen icons, too. Plans are reportedly underway for a virtual Marilyn Monroe concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of her death; however, the group responsible, Digicon Media, told the Hollywood Reporter that they are not working with the Monroe estate. As they explained, Digicon already owns certain copyrights to Monroe's image, including her computer-generated persona. The Monroe estate, as Billboard.biz points out, is threatening legal action.

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new album Green Day - ¡Dos!

The second installment in Green Day's ambitious trilogy of albums opens with "See You Tonight," a bare, ragged benediction where Everly Brothers harmonies mask stalker-y undercurrents, and puppy love might turn nasty if you don't text back soon. Like ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! is full of these moments, where the band follows lineal threads from Dookie-era punk into all manner of overheated angst – nervy-Jam mod soul on "Stray Heart," Who-mad maximum R&B on "Wow! That's Loud," even mascara-streaked soul balladry on the album-closing "Amy," where Billie Joe Armstrong makes like the skate-park Sam Cooke.

Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool harness the sound of immolating, teenage-wasteland lust for an album with a distinct sense of life coming off the rails: "I can't stand for fallin' down/I'm too sick to throw up," Armstrong sings against a Wipers-like downstroke riff on "Lazy Bones." He went to rehab in September. Yet while you can read all the pathos you want into "Ashley," a plea for a meth-addicted friend that comes on like a runaway ambulance, the angst here is as archetypal as it is personal. At times, it's just as election year urgent as American Idiot, despite being packaged as a batch of shit-hot punk purges with titles like "Fuck Time" rather than a grand rock opera. "I'll trade you blood for dirty cash," Armstrong promises on "Stop When the Red Lights Flash." In any guise, dude channels the voice of America.

www.rollingstone.com

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Mick Jagger: One Direction Remind Me of the Rolling Stones

'I remember feeling that same uncomfortable feeling'

If One Direction ever feel a bit worn out by their hoards of young screaming fans, Mick Jagger can relate. In an interview with CNN on Tuesday before the premiere of the film Crossfire Hurricane, the rock veteran said that the boy-band reminds him of the Rolling Stones in their early days.

"I watched a concert of One Direction on the TV the other night, you know just to check [it] out," Jagger said. "It reminded me very much of our early concerts, when we were pushed around among the audience and we would kind of float. [T]hey were like, floating above the audience, and they looked like, really distinctly uncomfortable.

"I remember feeling that same uncomfortable feeling of being pushed around in this very weird place about 50 years ago," he said. "It was a very funny moment, because it was very similar to the things we’ve been through."

Ronnie Wood also spoke of his friendship with Harry Styles and company, who are about to star in their own 3-D concert movie:

"I remember them before they made it and I said, 'come on stick with it boys, you can do it,'" Wood said. "They still want me to come and jam with them I said, 'yeah, I’ll come and play with you anytime.'"

Crossfire Hurricane, the retrospective documentary that aired on HBO last week, offers a look back at the Rolling Stones in those early days, as the band embarks on their 50th anniversary tour.

www.rollingstone.com

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Friday, May 25, 2012

Ice Choir

Kurt Feldman is one talented dude. You may know him as the drummer of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, but he was also the mastermind behind the exceptional and gone-too-soon 8-bit-dream-gaze band, Depreciation Guild. And now, his latest (one man) band to conquer pop is called Ice Choir. Man, I love Ice Choir. They're just going '80s light station FM pop all the way with no regrets and no turning back. This is Tears for Fears "Everybody Wants to Rule The World" meets Spandau Ballet's "True" meets George Michael's "Careless Whisper" meets The Cars "Drive" all the way.

And those are four amazing songs. Ok, the "Careless Whisper" saxophone solos fall into what I call "a grey area," but otherwise they're all pretty much pop perfection.

Start with Ice Choir's song "Teletrips" and tell me you aren't hearing what I'm hearing. And what are we both hearing again? Oh, that's right: the soft pop perfection of 1983-1985. Get the Ice Choir's full-length debut on Underwater Peoples (one of our very favorite labels).

http://www.ohmyrockness.com/bandbio.cfm?bandid=38110 Selengkapnya...

Linkin Park Debut New Song, “Lies Greed Misery”

Linkin Park have just unveiled the second single for their upcoming fifth studio album, Living Things. Listen to “Lies Greed Misery” below.
In a recent interview, frontman Mike Shinoda state that Living Things would be a far more personal album than other recent efforts. “On the last few records we’ve had an interest in global issues and social issues and those things are still around,” he said, “there are certainly traces of them, but this record is far more personal.”
Living Things is due out June 26.

http://www.revolvermag.com/news/linkin-park-streaming-new-song-lies-greed-misery.html Selengkapnya...

Electric Youth

Toronto retro '80s synth-pop duo Electric Youth is singer Bronwyn Griffin and producer Austin Garrick. They take their name from a Debbie Gibson album (!) and their most famous song is "A Real Hero." That was the perfect pop collaboration with College that ultimately made it onto the "Drive" soundtrack (the final scene, no less! you know, that super crucial part when Gosling is getting all weak and he shuts his eyes and... well, never mind since I forgot to start this with "spoiler alert").

Anyway, "A Real Hero" is one of the best pop songs of the last five years. That's not hyperbole; that's truth. And yes, Electric Youth have a lot of other super solid jams besides that one. You could spend hours and hours on their SoundCloud page listening to all the good stuff they've done. I know because I've done it and I suggest you do it too... if you like good retro '80s synth-pop. But you do. What kind of a monster doesn't like good synth-pop?!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm about to recreate that final scene in "Drive" in this parking lot down the street. BTW, does anyone know if ketchup can pass for blood? How about Hawaiian Punch? In my refrigerator I have ketchup and I have Hawaiian punch. Hopefully one of them will make the grade.

http://www.ohmyrockness.com/bandbio.cfm?bandid=42789 Selengkapnya...

Infinity Shred shred

Is that not the coolest band name in the world, or what? And it's new, too. These two guys used to be known as Starscream, but they had to change their name due to something dumb like "the law."

But no matter what they're calling themselves these days, this Brooklyn band has been pretty damn awesome for a while now. Along with their pals Anamanaguchi, Infinity Shred is one of the leading 8-bit bands cruising around in magical 8-bit land. (8-bit: it's more than just "video game music," kids.)

Infinity Shred's drawn-out, space-y songs take their sweet time getting into their groove; but once they get there... look out because you've just been hooked. Did you ever like those early Trans Am albums from way back when? I did. Infinity Shred kind of reminds me of those couple classics... meets Com Truise... meets Fang Island... meets I almost made it through without mentioning Nintendo.

Basically, Infinity Shred makes jams that'll take you to Mars, man.

http://www.ohmyrockness.com/features.cfm?articleid=2297 Selengkapnya...

Report: Bridge from Chili Peppers' 'Under the Bridge' Identified in L.A.

Tunnel in MacArthur Park may have inspired the band's biggest hit

The bridge that inspired Red Hot Chili Peppers' classic hit "Under the Bridge" is located in Los Angeles' MacArthur Park, Vulture reports.
Writer Mark Haskell Smith used clues provided by Anthony Kiedis in interviews and his memoir, Scar Tissue, to determine the bridge in question. In 1992 Kiedis told Rolling Stone that the bridge was in downtown Los Angeles, but he insisted that "it's unimportant. I don't want people looking for it." In his book, Kiedis wrote about the rock-bottom period that inspired the song, and noted that he would often walk to Sixth and Union Street in downtown L.A. from his friend Kim Jones' house.
Smith ruled out several bridges in this area before determining that it is most likely that the singer was referring to a small pedestrian tunnel underneath Wilshire Boulevard cutting through MacArthur Park, which was a major drug spot in the late Eighties. Smith shared a photo of the bridge as it is today in broad daylight. It doesn't look particularly seedy, but it's not too hard to picture it in a more grim period of the park's history.

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Lady Gaga Won't Tone Down Show, Says Manager

Troy Carter rebuffs protesters after canceled concert in Indonesia

Lady Gaga's manager Troy Carter said the pop star will not tone down her act, even if that prevents her from performing in certain cities during her Asian tour, the Associated Press reports.

Indonesian newspaper The Straits Times reported today that Carter said that Gaga is not "provocative for the sake of being provocative," and that she "plays the show as it is."

Carter's statements come a week after Gaga was denied a permit and forced to cancel a sold-out concert in Jakarta, Indonesia, following protests from Islamic leaders and conservative politicians who feared Gaga's performance would corrupt the youth. With threats of physical violence coming in, police said they were usure they'd be able to guarantee safety and recommended that the permit for Gaga's show be denied.

Indonesia isn't the only country where Gaga has faced pushback as she embarks on her Born This Way Ball tour. At an April show in Seoul, South Korea, similar protests from Christian groups forced authorities to make the concert adults-only. And last Sunday, the singer arrived in Manila to protesting members of of a group called Biblemode Youth Philippines.

Protest leader Ruben Abante told the AP, "She declared a distorted view toward Jesus Christ and for us Biblical Christians it is offensive . . . Her music and everything about her is different from what our values are."

Gaga has addressed the protests on Twitter, though her tone hints that she's taking the backlash in stride. On Tuesday she Tweeted that if the Jakarta show does go on as planned, she will perform alone. Later she wrote, "And don't worry, if I get thrown in jail in Manila, Beyoncé will just bail me out. Sold out night 2 in the Philippines. I love it here!"

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lady-gaga-wont-tone-down-show-says-manager-20120525

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