Aerosmith to Switch from Playing “Toys in the Attic” to “Rocks” Album in its Entirety on Tour

Aerosmith will be switching — in a few weeks — from playing  Toys in the Attic in its entirety on tour, to Rocks.

Playing Rocks in its entirety has nothing but an upside for me. This might make me buy a ticket. Toys in the Attic may be more of a classic developed from airplay on FM radio, but Rocks is a favorite Aerosmith album of many. It seems like the lesser-known tracks like “Rats in the Cellar” and “Last Child” and others never got the exposure they deserved.

And, it makes you think: Joe Perry told Reuters that Tyler did have trouble singing the Toys song “You See Me Crying” on this tour. Sounds like it could be part of the reason for the switch to me. But, more likely, I think the guys in the band are just excited about giving the most loyal fans what they really want: the classic material from the 70s.

And this is becoming a beautiful trend: bands emphasizing their classic albums on tour. According to Reuters, the band is considering other LPs, too:

The centerpiece of each show on the new tour is the performance of an early album in its entirety, front to back. For at least the next two weeks, that album is the 1975 smash “Toys in the Attic,” which features the hits “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion.” (The album closer “You See Me Crying” is currently absent from the set list because it is “one of the toughest songs probably in our catalog,” Perry said, and vocalist Steven Tyler needs two more shows to get his throat into shape).

The band’s first two albums, its 1973 self-titled debut and 1974’s “Get Your Wings” are also candidates for a revival.

But what Perry really wants to do is exhume is the unloved 1979 album “Night in the Ruts,” recorded during the band’s lengthy, drug-fueled nadir. Perry plays on only some of the tracks because he left the band before the album was released.

“I think there are probably two songs on there that we could play pretty much right off the bat,” he said. “The rest of them we’d have to sit down and really take them apart, relearn all the guitar parts. There are some rockin’ songs on there and it would be fun to play them live.”

So far on the tour Perry takes to the microphone for the “Rocks” cut “Combination,” and he envisages adding other solo outings such as “Bright Light Fight” (from 1979’s “Draw the Line”) and “Walk on Down” (from 1993’s “Get a Grip”).

Perry is also getting to release a solo album soon called Freedom. All good stuff to look forward to!

Blur Start Reunion Tour In Tiny Venue

Britpop superstars Blur (pictured above in a Pennie Smith photo for the NME) kicked off their reunion tour last night in the venue where they played their first-ever gig in 1988. The concert was held in the goods shed at the East Anglian Railway Museum and was attended by a crowd of 150.

BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq was at the gig and said:

“They wanted to do something back in their old stomping ground and it was a great venue to do it because you never get to see a band in a venue like this.

“The whole concept of Blur coming out of retirement to play essentially a greatest hits set, which I guess is what I had in my mind, I thought, was a bit too cabaret for a band who were so cutting edge throughout their career.

“But the set is very good and actually seeing the band back together, they look so like they used to. They have slipped back into character so well and they look more like the early Blur I remember, just after they changed their name from Seymour. And they all looked so happy.”

The set list for last night’s show was as follows:

She’s So High
Girls And Boys
Tracy Jacks
There’s No Other Way
Jubilee
Bad Head
Beetlebum
Trimm Trabb
Coffee And TV
Tender
Country House
Charmless Man
Colin Zeal
Oily Water
Chemical World
Sunday Sunday
Parklife
End Of A Century
To The End
This Is A Low
Popscene
Advert
Song 2
Out Of Time
Battery In Your Leg
Essex Dogs
For Tomorrow
The Universal

Last night’s concert was Blur’s first since guitarist Graham Coxon left the band. Coxon is back for the reunion tour.

Blur will now go on a UK tour, which includes headline spots at the Glastonbury Festival, London’s Hyde Park, and Scotland’s T in the Park.

For further information on this story, see the articles from BBC 6 Music and NME.com.

Powerline A.D.’s Review Of PJ Harvey And John Parish Live In New York City Is Now Online

Powerline A.D.’s review of the stellar performance by PJ Harvey and John Parish at New York City’s Beacon Theatre on Tuesday, June 9th is now online on the main Powerline A.D. site. You can read the review by clicking here.

At the show, Harvey and Parish performed material from both of their collaborative albums–1996′s Dance Hall At Louse Point and this year’s A Woman A Man Walked By.

Harvey and Parish performed a killer version of “Black Hearted Love” on CBS-TV’s The Late Show with David Letterman on Friday night. You can watch that performance by clicking below:

Powerline A.D. Website Interviews Glenn Tipton of Judas Priest

Judas Priest are keeping themselves busy — especially with a new tour that will have them play the album British Steel in its entirety. And guitarist Glenn Tipton explains it all at www.powerlinead.com

Enjoy!

Arctic Monkeys Reveal Title And Tracklist For New Album

The new album by Arctic Monkeys (pictured above), which will be released on August 24th in the UK, will be titled Humbug. The 10-track album was produced by James Ford and Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme. Humbug will be Arctic Monkeys’ third studio album.

The tracklist of the album is as follows:

My Propeller
Crying Lightning
Dangerous Animals
Secret Door
Potion Approaching
Fire And The Thud
Cornerstone
Dance Little Liar
Pretty Visitors
The Jeweller’s Hands

For more information on this story, see the article from NME.com.

For more on Arctic Monkeys, go to:
http://www.arcticmonkeys.com/
http://www.myspace.com/arcticmonkeys

PJ Harvey And John Parish On Letterman On Friday Night

 

PJ Harvey and John Parish will be performing on the Friday, June 12th edition of CBS-TV’s The Late Show with David Letterman. The starts at 11:30 p.m. Eastern. Check your local listings for channel. Since the musical guests usually perform in the final segment of the show, Harvey and Parish will likely be on the show sometime after 12:20 a.m. Eastern.

MGMT Scare The Heck Out Of Little Boy In “Kids” Video

I’m not sure what to make of the video for the single “Kids” by Brooklyn’s MGMT. The little boy in the video seems to be genuinely frightened by the “monsters” that he encounters. I hope that the kid wasn’t traumatized by his participation in the video. The song is great, but the video is pretty disturbing. Maybe that was MGMT’s intent. I don’t know. But I think it’s going to piss off a lot of parents with young children who watch it. If MGMT wanted to create a controversy over the video, which was directed by Ray Tintori, it worked.

To watch the video for “Kids” by MGMT, click here. (Embedding of the video was disabled by request.)

MGMT wrote about the “Kids” video on their MySpace page:

Ladies and Gentlemens -

*†ƒ√ MGMT is pleased to announce (finally), from an undisclosed tropical paradise, the bona fide release of the O-fficial video for the authoritative song known succinctly as: “Kids.” This is the first song we ever wrote, on a cold day in February way back in 2003. Yes, “Kids” is an Aquarius, but shows many traits of an Aries. The idea for the video was born about a year ago, at a mock-Italian cafe on Ninth Avenue in bustling Manhattan. We are both animated and stoked to reveal at this time that we once again worked with director Ray Tintori, someone who’s known this song since it’s inception. “Kids” has proven to be some kind of monster with a life of its own, both an albatross and a plate of mac and cheese with fake bacon (Annie’s), and the process of creating this video was nearly as convoluted and veiny as the general style of this here letter of introduction. As Jerry Garcia once rudely remarked about the eventual and unavoidable filling in (with sand) of the historic United States Grand Canyon, “What a long strange rip it’s been.” Without further ado, we give you:
“KIDS”
- MGMT

* Thanks to Thesaurus.com for words of alikeness and interchangeability.
† yes, we are aware that Mark Twain was a satirist
ƒ yes, that is Joanna Newsom
√ no children were harmed in the making of this video

For additional information on MGMT, go to:
http://www.whoismgmt.com/
http://www.myspace.com/mgmt

Bret Michaels Originally Thought to be OK, But Now Cancels Shows and Has Further Medical Tests

After having a run-in with a TONYs Broadway prop (view video below) and coming out the clear loser (see photo above), Poison’s lead singer is having further medical tests done, according to his blog:

“… further tests are being conducted on his head and spine.”

Therefore any shows in the immediate future have been KOed.

But at least Michaels was initially having a little fun with the nationally televised embarrassment.

He advertises “Tony Awards Incident Photos!” on his MySpace page and has sent out blog email updates like this one:

Photos of the injuries sustained from the incident at The Tony Awards have been added to the profile page, as well as the photo albums!  Please stop by & check them out!

Let’s hope the guy’s alright in the end. We all know he still hasn’t found his true Rock of Love yet.

(No Rogaine jokes please.)

Michael Anthony Dissed Again, Left Off Van Halen Video Game

Who is that guy, far left, in the photo above? It’s like he never existed. When I was a kid listening to Van Halen for the first time I used to mistakenly think of him as the third Van Halen brother. And some kids will play the new Guitar Hero: Van Halen and be turned onto Van Halen’s great catalog of music for the first time; however, they will never know bassist Michael Anthony’s role in the band unless they look it up online. Michael Anthony, and his buddy Sammy Hagar, will be left off the Guitar Hero game when it is released.

I can see kicking Hagar to the curb. David Lee Roth should be the band’s representation as the Van Halen singer, IMHO. He was tantamount to Van Halen’s huge popularity quotient. But leaving off Michael Anthony???!!!  Hey, I know Wolfgang is the Son of the great Eddie, but c’mon!! When you think Van Halen bassist, you think chubby short guy with the scruffy beard: Michael Anthony. It’s that simple. His exclusion is really like rewriting the past, or omitting an important part of that past.

Who knows, maybe it has been the war of words between the Chickenhead Chickenfoot camp, and Eddie Inc. But it was not too long ago when David Lee was in the doghouse, outside looking in.

It’s just not the right thing for Van Halen Inc. to do.

Broadway Drops on Bret Michaels

Literally.

It’s been a long time since Bret has played the big stage and last night he missed his cue to get out of the way! At the Tonys, during a nice promotional plug with Rock of Ages, Bret performed with Poison and got hit with the (slowly) descending “Broadway” stage prop.

No one wants to see Bret squashed like a bug (ok, maybe some do) but this was pretty funny … and nothing but a good time to watch.