Muse Believe They Have a lot More in Common with Classical Composers than their Rock Contemporaries

When Muse describes their music they claim to have more of an affinity to classical than rock. To them, rock musicians get too caught up in “cool.”

Frontman Matt Bellamy (above):

“London bands are more concerned with what is cool but it’s never been the important thing for us. … I think we have a lot in common with the classical composers of the 19th century, although I’m not claiming to have their intelligence. … They wanted to create a musical explosion, to blow the crowd away. Opera can be exceptionally moving, but can also be pompous.”

Well, remember, some of Muse’s more classical compositions have been called “pompous.”

New Deep Purple Book Released by Martin Popoff

Metal/Hard Rock historian, Martin Popoff, has finished his newest Deep Purple book, an ongoing series of the long and complicated history of the band, entitled A Castle Full Of Rascals: Deep Purple ‘83 – ‘09.

Martin Popoff states,”The book is 20% bigger than the first one, 290 pages, stuffed with photos of the band and other memorabilia shots but mostly, yeah, a lot of text, featuring tons of previously unused interview footage from my many chats with the guys, to the point where this is almost an oral history.”

The price is $35.00 and includes shipping at www.martinpopoff.com.

Just in time for a Purple Christmas.

Happy New Year!

Drive safe. And, do us all a favor: don’t get as drunk as Paul Weller (above). The Sun has the pics and the video of the Jam star falling down drunk. Click here.

VIDEO WATCH — The Verve’s “Rather Be”

The Verve vocalist Richard Ashcroft directed the band’s new video “Rather Be,” giving it the same brooding visual feel of the “Bittersweet Symphony” video but with even more intimacy. “Rather Be” can now be watched on The Sun’s site when clicking on the Verve widget (as shown, right).

I love the fact Ashcroft uses a synergy in his creativity. It’s exciting to see a vocalist of a high-profile band going beyond singing and not limiting his creativity at all.

Radiohead’s Pay-What-You-Want Downloand Considered a Success By Band

According to NME, reports from Radiohead show that:

“…most fans chose to pay nothing to download the album (“In Rainbows”). However, it still generated more money before it was physically released (on December 31) than the total money generated by sales of the band’s previous album, 2003′s ‘Hail To The Thief.’

Whether Radiohead made money or not, the fact that most downloaders — mistakenly labeled as ‘fans’ above —  decided to pay nothing is kind of f*cked up. Here is a band offering their album for minimal amount, and you can’t even give a dollar?!! Cheap bastards!

I wouldn’t necessarily consider the “In Rainbows” pay-what-you-want experiment a success because most didn’t ‘pay.’ That said, I hope the band attempts this same service for their next release. There might be progress in money given next time.

Oasis’ Noel Gallagher Talks More Trash About Keane

Noel Gallagher talking trash — what a surprise.

He has called the trio Keane (right) “twats” and “posh lightweights” before. But recently he took it to another level, commenting about Keane’s singer, Tom Chaplin, and their newest album, Perfect Symmetry:

“(Chaplin) He’s going on and on about being taken out of his comfort zone when making his new album. What the fuck does that mean? Why would you want to be uncomfortable when making an album? No matter what direction Keane take, it doesn’t matter – they’ll still be shit.”

Gallagher tried to even things out by talking up U2′s Bono:

“People will not accept that Bono is sincere – in this cynical age, they think he’s really just a cunt. But he’s not.”

This sounds close to what I said about Bono in a post days ago.

You have to be a pretty good guy, I guess, to get props from Noel.

Dirty Pretty Things Break Up

What crappy news. One of the best bands in England in the last few years has been Dirty Pretty Things, the brainchild of ex-Libertines guitarist Carl Barat. Their debut disc, Waterloo to Anywhere, was amazing — high-powered rock with the right attitude and texture of punk. It was simply a fantastic sound — much better than ex-Libertine bandmate Pete Doherty’s Babyshambles. And DPT just put out a good follow-up album, Romance at Short Notice.

Here’s the statement from Carl Barat on NME this morning:

“It is with some sadness we announce the farewell of the Dirty Pretty Things. It’s been a glorious three years which we all would gladly live out again, but it is time for us to try new things (not The Libertines).

“We are reluctant to give up touring but will give the last waltz everything. We have and are determined to go out as we came in, after which we all have other ventures to be getting on with and splendid future plans.

“Heartfelt thanks to all who made it what it was, much love and we’ll see you on the road.”

I’m real pissed that I never got to see the band come to America. I am hoping that Carl Barat starts a new project soon with the same sound he captured so well with Dirty Pretty Things. And notice how Barat strongly emphasizes that there will be no Libertines reunion because of the DPT split. Interesting.

The great irony: Pete Doherty is still able to keep his Babyshambles project alive after all the shit he’s been thorugh. Life sometimes has a sick sense of humor.

Deep Purple To Play Special Intimate Gigs From Now On?

According to Deep Purple fan site, The Deep Purple Appreciation Society (How Pychonian!), the band want to play very intimate gigs in England next year (in the U.S, too?).

Supposedly, singer, Ian Gillan, bitched to a reporter backstage after a recent arena show in London:

“After the show Gillan griped to ‘Classic Rock’ about the heavy security out front and the consequent lack of connection with the audience. As a result, the singer revealed, Purple’s British tour next year will be in intimate theatres rather than impersonal arenas.”

That’s all well and good but I have only one thing to say: you must bring back Ritchie Blackmore then.

I mean, really, only he should be playing the song that London Tech Music School voted having the greatest riff of all time: Smoke on the Water.

Things To Do in Denver When You’re Dead

The living dead.

Here ‘s a photo of The Kills Vocalist, Alison Mosshart, sporting vampire teeth in Denver, Colorado recently.

I think Alison’s been watching too much of HBO’s new series True Blood.

Is Razorlight’s Frontman A Raging Egomaniac?

Everyone in England appears to think so. It’s almost a phenomenon.

Let’s face it, every bandleader goes on and on about their creative accomplishments and the promise of what is yet to come entertainment-wise. Sometimes ad nauseum. But Razorlight frontman, Johnny Borrell (right) seems to take it to the upteenth degree — at least according to the British press and Johnny’s peers.

Other bands seem to think him a wanker and a poser. And across the pond it appears that way sometimes. He recently talked about the new Razorlight album, Slipway Fires and its tour like he was Chaucer preparing for his pilgrimage.

The Sun quotes Borrell as saying:

“It (Slipway Fires) might be better because it has 3,789 words and the last one only had 3008. It’s gonna be harder to play live as I’ve got to get all of those words in the right order.”

781 more words does not make Razorlight better. In fact, I don’t know what can make Razorlight better. The band is good, but not that good. For instance, I bought Up All Night, the debut album, liked it here and there, but I felt bored most of the time as if being led through a by-the-numbers production. Most of it was a BORE-rell.

Perhaps I will feel differently about the newest release.