Here’s another Vintage Video clip for your viewing pleasure on this wet, cold, gray, and otherwise miserable weekend. This clip features Cheap Trick at their peak, performing their classic single “Surrender” on NBC-TV’s The Midnight Special in either 1978 or 1979. Great stuff, quite possibly the best power-pop song ever. It’s certainly Cheap Trick’s finest, and it sounds as fresh today as it did when it was released three decades ago. Check it out:
The live clip below of the song “School” from Nirvana’s debut album, Bleach, is taken from the forthcoming DVD, Nirvana – Live At Reading. It was filmed at the 1992 Reading Festival in Reading, England. The DVD will include a live CD of the concert. There is more about the DVD release in an article from XFM London.
To watch Nirvana perform “School” at the 1992 Reading Festival, click below:
What a great clip!
Rolling Stone magazine is taking submitted questions from Paramore fans via RS’ twitter and facebook accounts.
Rolling Stone trying to stay relevant — using a young band to generate traffic through their social networking sites. Paramore using the most well-known rock magazine there is to excite their fans. A marriage made in heaven? I guess it depends what the traffic is. And what the questions are.
I just love the sound of that phrase “Sex Pistols’ lawyers.” Classic.
According to NME and Guardian UK, The Sex Pistols are suing an ice-cream shop for using the above God Save the Cream image in ads on their website and in a local department store.
Icecreamists is a London-based boutique ice-cream maker who uses iconic wordplay and imagery to have a bit of fun, calling themselves “More Sid & Nancy than Ben & Jerry. ” They also have an ice-cream “cocktail” called the Sex Pistol, which comes with a shot of absinthe.
I think it’s all funny, and cute, but evidentally The Sex Pistols have a huge stick up their collective ass on this one. It’s innocuous, really. Harmless. After all, it’s a small f*ckin’ ice cream shop trying to be hip and relevant! I could see if Nike were using it for their global ad campaign, but, please …
The Guardian reports that the band has a “demand for damages for allegedly ‘passing off and copyright infringement’ based on the fees the band is able to get for licensing its imagery.”
Talk about corporate maneuvering. Pretty vacant. If you already didn’t know it, The Sex Pistols have become a corporate brand. We’re not in England circa 1975 anymore.
And, who knows, to top it off maybe Johnny doesn’t like ice cream.
As the Icecreamists put it:
“We are a bit dumbfounded that a group that made its reputation for being banned is trying to ban one of our ice creams.”
Mercury Music Prize nominees Florence and the Machine recently performed a fantastic live session at London’s Abbey Road Studios to mark the first birthday of nationwide UK radio station Absolute Radio. (The station was known as Virgin Radio under its previous ownership.) To watch the video of the session, click here.
The session will be available on the Absolute Radio Web site until November 5th.
The songs performed at the session were:
Between Two Lungs
My Boy Builds Coffins
Kiss With A Fist
Hurricane Drunk
Cosmic Love
Oh! Darling (cover of song by The Beatles)
Dog Days Are Over
Drumming Song
You Got The Love
Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
To watch an interview that Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine did with Absolute Radio at Abbey Road Studios just prior to the live session, click below:
For further information on Florence and the Machine, go to:
http://florenceandthemachine.net/
http://www.myspace.com/florenceandthemachine
Here’s an excerpt from a Blackie Lawless interview with Bulgaria’s Tangra Mega Rock:
“People believed that Obama was going to be this wonderful president and they are beginning to understand now this man is a Marxist. And you know, I’m not making this up. I mean, you can find all this very easily what I’m talking about. Just go on the Internet — you’ll see it.”
Ah, yes, the Internet. The ultimate tree of knowledge.
But, seriously, it is ironic that hearsay and conjecture with the same furor befell Blackie in the 80s, when it was said that he was a Satanist, his band W.A.S.P. was an acronym for “We Are Satan’s People” or “We Are Satan’s Preachers,” and his music was harmful to the youth of America. In reality, Blackie was merely a successful rock musician and entertainer. There was nothing more sinister about him or his band or his music. And it was the same negative hype and hoopla that helped W.A.S.P. unfairly become one of the main targets of a political witchhunt started by the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center). It’s astonishing that Blackie can’t see the connection.
And, oh yeah, recently, Blackie also compared Obama to Hitler.
Anyway, to help Blackie through the mass confusion that is political theory , here is an Obama flashcard.
Btw, is it me or is Blackie starting to look a lot like Chrissie Hynde’s older sister.
Check out the latest interview with Rob Halford, vocalist of Judas Priest, on the creation of his new Metal God Apparel, his new Christmas CD, and his acting experience with Mickey Rourke.
Go to www.powerlinead.com.
The Cribs recently appeared on BBC-TV’s Later with Jools Holland, performing three tracks from their new Ignore The Ignorant album. You can watch the performance of each track by clicking in the appropriate places below:
“We Were Aborted”:
“We Share The Same Skies”:
“Cheat On Me”:
Ryan Jarman and Johnny Marr of The Cribs were interviewed last month on Sky Sports’ Soccer a.m. You can watch the interview below:
The Cribs were already one of the most talented bands in Britain before the addition of Johnny Marr. Now that Marr has joined the band on a permanent basis, I’d say that The Cribs are the best band in the UK at the moment. They’ve got great tunes and perform with fire. Excellent stuff!
For more on The Cribs, see:
http://www.thecribs.com
http://www.myspace.com/thecribs
NME.com reports that the follow-up to Amy Winehouse’s Grammy Award-winning album Back To Black is supposed to be released next year. Island Records co-president Darcus Beese was very impressed with some demos for that album that he heard. He told BBC News:
“I’ve heard a couple of song demos that absolutely floored me. Hopefully we’ll have her album next year.”
In other Amy Winehouse news, the debut album by her 13-year-old godddaughter Dionne Bromfield, which is titled Introducing Dionne Bromfield, was released on Monday in the UK on Winehouse’s Lioness Records label.
This past Saturday night, October 10th, Winehouse appeared on BBC-TV’s Strictly Come Dancing with Bromfield to promote Bromfield’s album. Bromfield sang “Mama Said” with Winehouse providing backing vocals. You can watch a video of the performance below:
Bromfield’s got a good voice. Best of luck to her.
The Times of London ran an article last week (October 6th) about the Strictly Come Dancing appearance.
I hope that Winehouse’s work with Bromfield and the upcoming third album of her own will get her focused back on music. She has made the news far too often over the past two years for reasons other than her considerable musical talent. If Winehouse can get the third album completed and it turns out to be a great album, she will have pulled off one hell of a comeback story. This is one writer who is rooting for that to happen. I look forward to hearing the album.
When I saw the reformed Alice In Chains (pictured above) play live in New York City in 2006, I suppose that my biggest concern before the show was how they would sound without Layne Staley on vocals. Staley, who died in 2002, was, without question, one of the most distinctive vocalists in rock. I certainly did not envy the new vocalist, William DuVall. He had quite a pair of shoes to fill. But DuVall won the crowd over very early on. His vocal style has echoes of Staley’s but is not a complete carbon copy. DuVall did a brilliant job on the classic Alice In Chains songs, and it was a great concert to witness.
Alice In Chains’ first album without Staley, Black Gives Way To Blue, was recently released. The album’s second single, “Check My Brain,” is a particular standout. The song rocks, and it sounds as good as anything in Alice In Chains’ back catalog. To watch to video for “Check My Brain,” click below:
Alice In Chains discuss how DuVall came to join the band as well as the new Black Gives Way To Blue album in the video below:
Alice In Chains are such a fantastic band. I’m really happy that they’re back.
For more on Alice In Chains, go to:
http://www.aliceinchains.com
http://www.myspace.com/aliceinchains
