Jim Carrey Now the Father-in-Law of Death Metal Singer

During the filming of Ace Ventura, it was rumored that comedian/actor Jim Carrey loved death metal, especially the band Cannibal Corpse who had a cameo in that same film. But his new son-in-law, Alex Santana, singer of death metal band Blood Money (not to be confused with the U.K. metal band of the same name), says that Jim actually “hates” death metal.

But Jim does love his new son-in-law. He gives all his blessings on twitter:

My Jane is a married women. days ago her and my new son in law alex got hitched. the day was perfect. lots of love there :)}

Jane is the singer in The Jane Carrey Band. Above is a photo of the happy couple courtesy of Santana’s MySpace page.

Blood Money describe their music as such:

We are a group of four guys from L.A. who love to play metal. A group that writes songs together, sharing riffs and rhythms. And when all is said and done, BLOOD MONEY writes epic songs. Songs to begin an album and songs to end an album. This fact was proven with the 2008 release of ‘One Nation Under Hate’. A relentless force of a record, that beckons for the throne of progressive death metal. But more importantly, BLOOD MONEY was born to play live, delivering arguably the most compelling, brutal, and infamous shows in the Los Angeles underground. We play to abolish the norm… We play to cultivate the doubtful… We play to incite riots. We play as one machine.”

Seems like there’s a lot of love and hate going on for everyone.

Related Links: www.myspace.com/bloodmoneykills

www.reverbnation.com/janecarreyband

Members of Aerosmith Think Steven Tyler May Have a Substance Abuse Problem

The rest of Aerosmith thinks their singer may have substance abuse problem going on. And they should know. There was a day when they were about as hardcore as they come.

Drummer Joey Kramer speaks:

“Steven, he isolates more and more all the time — that’s what gives it away to me that there’s something going on. I don’t know what that is. I know he’s made some not so great choices and he’s got some negative influences around him now. I love the guy. I just want to see him get some help. … I have called him and left voice mails and texted him to no avail. I get no reply. One of his biggest things is that, ‘Well, nobody calls me.’ Well, that’s bullshit, ’cause I have. I’ve always been there for him and I probably always will be. I can only hope and pray that Steven will put the focus on Steven and get healthy.”

Guitarist Brad Whitford notices Tyler’s behavior getting “more erratic and unreasonable,” and:

” … this guy has a tremendous history of drug abuse, and you have to be suspicious that this is something that’s probably going on with him. I have a feeling we might be looking at someone who’s just really struggling very badly.”

It’s got to be hard for someone to have a substance abuse problem at Tyler’s age (71?). But weren’t the other members of Aerosmith suspicious of substance abuse sooner? Remember when Tyler was MIA, supposedly recuperating from that stage fall, and then he was spotted in line by fans at a smalltown MASS. liquor store?

On thing’s for sure, Aerosmith is not Aerosmith without Tyler. The rest of the band wants to go on no matter what but … deal with the substance abuse problem, first, if that turns out to be the reason for Steven’s odd behavior. Get Tyler back in the saddle again. Or else, form under another name.

Related Links

A Minor Guns N’ Roses Reunion: Slash and Steven Adler Back Together Again

Even if it will be only a brief period of time … like, um, maybe one song … Adler and Slash will jam on stage for the Slash & Friends benefit concert in L.A.  The Slash & Friends concert is a fundraiser (dubbed LAYN ROCKS) for the Los Angeles Youth Network (LAYN),  a non-profit organization providing services to homeless and runaway youth.

To Adler, this is the progress of his dream of being closer to Slash, and continue playing with Slash (Yes, he can’t let go). Other guests at the show will be Andrew Stockdale, Perry Farrell, Billy Idol, Ozzy, Travis Barker, Tom Morello, Dave Navarro, Franky Perez, to name a few. This will be the first Slash & Friends gig in L.A., too.

Adler also plays on the upcoming Slash & Friends album (Slash solo project) with all the other members of GNR except Axl Rose, of course. (Note: On wikipedia someone was nice enough to add: “because he is a dickhead” to explain Axl’s absence).

The real news is LAYN, a great organization. Below is a video about them. Check it out. Good cause.

Here is Slash in a previous endoresement of LAYN:

Related Links:

powerlinead.wordpress.com/2009/01/10/steven-adler-to-finally-go-on-tour-with-his-band-adlers-appetite/

powerlinead.wordpress.com/?s=Adler

The Jim Gillette Transformation

For those of you who remember the extreme high-notes and highfalutin image of heavy metal  vocalist, Jim Gillette, and his Nitro side-show with shred guitarist Michael Angelo Batio, you may be more shocked by his transformation over the years. Witness in the photos here as the slinky anorexic glamster with the highest hair-sprayed ‘do imaginable changed to a bunch of muscles and might, and shaved head and biker goatee.

I guess, it happens.

But for me, the transformation is so extreme, seeing it for the first time was like a freight train coming, for sure.

Wonder if Gillette can still hit those “high-notes.” His wife, the more successful rock star Lita Ford, might be the only one who truly knows.

The two of them will be on Blog Talk Radio’s “Long Live Rock” tonight and will open the phone lines for fans.

Btw, Batio hasn’t really changed. He just looks older. And that hair-sprayed look doesn’t age well.

The Strokes “Is This It” Voted Album of the Decade in New Issue of NME

The NME issue coming out tomorrow will reveal the albums listed as the rock albums of the decade. The Strokes 2001 “Is This It” will be called out as number one.

But Is It? Great album, for sure. It should be in the top ten. But number one? And The Strokes weren’t nearly as successful with their releases after that. At least a band like Arctic Monkeys (also listed) somewhat kept up the pace after 2006’s “Whatever People Say I am, That’s What I’m Not.”

Here’s just the top 50, voted in by “a panel of musicians, producers, writers and record label bosses.” (Remember the British Press influence here!)

This is it:

1. The Strokes – ‘Is This It’
2. The Libertines – ‘Up The Bracket’
3. Primal Scream – ‘XTRMNTR’
4. Arctic Monkeys – ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – ‘Fever To Tell’
6. PJ Harvey – ‘Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea’
7. Arcade Fire – ‘Funeral’
8. Interpol – ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’
9. The Streets – ‘Original Pirate Material’
10. Radiohead – ‘In Rainbows’
11. At The Drive In – ‘Relationship Of Command’
12. LCD Soundsystem – ‘Sound Of Silver’
13. The Shins – ‘Wincing The Night Away’
14. Radiohead – ‘Kid A’
15. Queens Of The Stone Age – ‘Songs For The Deaf’
16. The Streets – ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’
17. Sufjan Stevens – ‘Illinois’
18. The White Stripes – ‘Elephant’
19. The White Stripes – ‘White Blood Cells’
20. Blur – ‘Think Tank’
21. The Coral – ‘The Coral’
22. Jay-Z – ‘The Blueprint’
23. Klaxons – ‘Myths Of The Near Future’
24. The Libertines – ‘The Libertines’
25. The Rapture – ‘Echoes’
26. Dizzee Rascal – ‘Boy in Da Corner’
27. Amy Winehouse – ‘Back To Black’
28. Johnny Cash – ‘The Man Comes Around’
29. Super Furry Animals – ‘Rings Around The World’
30. Elbow – ‘Asleep In The Back’
31. Bright Eyes – ‘I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning’
32. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – ‘Show Your Bones’
33. Arcade Fire – ‘Neon Bible’
34. Grandaddy – ‘The Sophtware Slump’
35. Babyshambles – ‘Down In Albion’
36. Spirtualized – ‘Let it Come Down’
37. The Knife – ‘Silent Shout’
38. Bloc Party – ‘Silent Alarm’
39. Crystal Castles – ‘Crystal Castles’
40. Ryan Adams – ‘Gold’
41. Wild Beasts – ‘Two Dancers’
42. Vampire Weekend – ‘Vampire Weekend’
43. Wilco – ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’
44. Outkast – ‘Speakerboxxx/The Love Below’
45. Avalanches – ‘Since I Left You’
46. The Delgados – ‘The Great Eastern’
47. Brendan Benson – ‘Lapalco’
48. The Walkmen – ‘Bows and Arrows’
49. Muse – ‘Absolution’
50. MIA – ‘Arular’

Hey, what about The Flaming Lips’ 2002 “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots”??? Surely, that’s better than “Think Tank”!

Kerry King: “metal fans aren’t fickle like fans of other types of music”

Slayer’s guitarist Kerry King told SPIN this recently:

” … I think the reason we’re still popular is that metal fans aren’t fickle like fans of other types of music. Metal is like a brotherhood. It’s not a flavor-of-the-month kind of thing. The dude who bought Reign in Blood gave it to his little brother. Then they were both into Christ Illusion — and they both bought that album because they actually care about the musicians who make the music they love.”

I agree with Kerry to some extent. There are a lot of commercial bands and pop stuff that is surely the flavor of the month, as he puts it. And there was a period of time when I listened to nothing but metal and lived metal 24/7. And part of the appeal was the close-knit scene the he refers to, as if you joined a special club of sorts that no one else understood (I stop short of calling it a “Brotherhood” because there have always been a lot of women into metal as much as men). But that ideal sort of fractured in the late 80s when pop hair bands were being called metal. Since then Metal has been loosely defined. And Kerry’s explanation of metal fans is the same for fans of other types of rock music, too, whether it be indie rock, hard rock, or the omnipresent classic rock.

But the most interesting thing of this whole interview was the part where King was asked about his stage gear, especially when he wore the infamous nail wristbands (above). King thought it a very metal thing to wear, whereas Dave Mustaine of Megadeth once defined King as a “porcupine” and “poser” for wearing such stuff. Mustaine once told Powerline:

“… he (Kerry) wears all that space garbage on his arms and shit. That fuckin’ porcupine came up to me and scratched my arm once. I kicked him right in the ass!”

Slayer fan or not, you have to admit that’s pretty damn funny.

Dave Grohl: Nirvana “Wasn’t All Misery and Doom”

In yesterday’s New York Times, Dave Grohl commented on the preconception of the band Nirvana:

“For obvious reasons it’s hard for people to understand that we actually enjoyed making music. It’s easy to imagine that we were followed by a black cloud. But it wasn’t all misery and doom. People know the biography, they’ve seen the ‘Behind the Music,’ but it’s a little more complicated than that.”

It’s true. Many of the films, documentaries, and biographies are focused on only one side of the coin. Sad in itself.

Ronnie James Dio Sees Future for Both Heaven & Hell and Dio

Ronnie James Dio told ultimate-guitar.com that he sees more to come from both Heaven & Hell and Dio, and:

” … once I apply myself to Heaven & Hell, that’s the only thing I’ll focus on. As you suggested earlier though, in the back of my mind there’s always that thought about the Dio band, because again, it’s been such a big part of my life.”

The man is a machine, and .. Is it me or does Ronnie James seem like he hasn’t aged that much in 20 years? Maybe he is some sort of supernatural being?!

Mumford & Sons Fly The Flag For British Folk Rock With “Winter Winds”

I’ve loved the song “Winter Winds” by the London-based folk-rock band Mumford & Sons since I first heard it about two weeks ago on XFM London. It’s just a beautiful piece of music, a song that really gets under the skin. It brings to mind the best work of The Pogues and The Waterboys.

Mumford & Sons get their name from lead vocalist Marcus Mumford. “Winter Winds” is one of the tracks on the band’s debut album, Sign No More.

To watch the video for “Winter Winds by Mumford & Sons, which was one of a series of videos that they shot in a bookshop, click below:

For more on Mumford & Sons, see:
http://www.mumfordandsons.com
http://www.myspace.com/mumfordandsons
http://www.youtube.com/user/MumfordandSons

Frank Turner Strikes A Chord With “Poetry Of The Deed”

London-based singer-songwriter Frank Turner (pictured above in a Greg Nolan photo) has had a sizable indie rock hit across the pond with “Poetry Of The Deed,” which is the title track to his latest album. The song has received a considerable amount of airplay on UK music radio stations like XFM London and BBC 6 Music. It sounds like a brilliant combination of The Clash, The Alarm, and Billy Bragg. It’s a great song, one of those tunes that you never get tired of hearing.

To watch the video for “Poetry Of The Deed” by Frank Turner, click below:

Poetry Of The Deed is Turner’s third solo album in three years. He used to be the vocalist with the band Million Dead, which split up in 2005.

For additional information on Frank Turner, see:
http://www.frank-turner.com
http://www.myspace.com/frankturner
http://www.youtube.com/user/frankturner