earsucker

Faith No More are rocking right out of the nineties and into the new millenium. Sweet!

Mike Patton and Co. made their mark on the world of 90′s music with “The Real Thing”. They were most known for their song “Epic”, mostly because of how it combined a little bit of rapping with guitars. They were pioneering the crossover, back in the day.

Check out “Epic”:

The group are reforming for a European tour later on this year, according to sources. Their publicist says that the band will play summer festival dates this year.

The reunion is not going to include guitarist Jim Martin, who reportedly left FNM back in ’93. I’m surprised that I still know all of the words to every song on “The Real Thing”. Love that album.

Image Credit: Amazon

Per The Hollywood Reporter, The Police have declared their intentions for a tour starting May 28, 2007:

An old recording was played before the Police took the stage Monday at the Whisky a Go-Go in West Hollywood to announce their world tour. An interviewer on the tape asked whether Sting could conceive of an instance when the hugely popular trio would reunite. The singer replied that if that ever happened, he would be found “certifiably insane.”

Well, call out the whitecoats because singer-bassist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland have reunited after two decades for a global jaunt that begins May 28 in Vancouver. The first 14 dates — including two at Madison Square Garden in New York and a headlining show at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival outside Nashville — were confirmed during the event, which doubled as a rehearsal, with the band playing a handful of Police tunes.

I am sure that fans will eat this up. I can already hear “Roxanne” in my head, live.

In New York on January 12, 2007, Van Halen, R.E.M., Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, The Ronettes, and Patty Smith are set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Van Halen’s most noted tunes included that of “Hot For Teacher”, “Jump”, and “When It’s Love”. Van Halen is one of seven rock groups that have had two albums sell more than ten million copies in the United States. Other artists that have accomplished this feat include Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Pink Floyd, Def Leppard, and The Beatles.

R.E.M. is most noted for the tunes, “Stand”, “Orange Crush”, and “Losing My Religion”. When Rolling Stone named R.E.M. “America’s Best Band” in November 1987, drummer Bill Berry said, “We’re not the best rock ‘n’ roll band in America.” Pylon, he said, was the best.

Via Yahoo, R.E.M.’s lead singer, Michael Stipe had this to say:

“R.E.M. and myself in particular are really terrible at looking backward, we kind of as a band continually look forward so it’s really fantastic that someone, especially the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, are looking backward to recognize the work that we’ve done.”

Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five gave us the basis of what hip hop music is today. Their biggest hit, “The Message” brought us a new sound, in a time where hip hop music was a pioneering musical form. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five pioneered emceeing, freestyle battles, and invented some of the staple phrases in emceeing. They performed at Disco Fever in the Bronx beginning in 1978.

The Ronettes, of course, bring no memories to mind. That is, of course, because they were a girl group of the sixties. Their claims to fame include: “Be My Baby”, “Baby I Love You”, and “Walking In The Rain”.

Another artist of which nothing comes to mind would be Patty Smith. Not to be confused with Patty Smyth of Scandal fame, Patty Smith’s singles included, “Because The Night”, “Frederick”, and “Dancing Barefoot”.

To be eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, artists must have issued a first single or album at least 25 years before nomination. Congrats to the inductees.

Woot! Not only was this project a lot of fun, but I won one of the prizes. I never win anything…I dunno what to say… I really don’t ever win this kinda stuff.

Waking up to a nice “You won” email from Darren Rowse was pretty cool. Not only that, but the project was a lot of fun and I got to read a lot of good blogs out there, in the process.

Courtesy of Rob Schaumer, I won a $100 giftcard from giftcertificates.com. Thank you to Rob and a big thank you to Darren for having such a nifty contest.

Problogger is having a group writing contest!
I love this kinda stuff, so I thought I take a whack at it. You can, too.

Why We’ll Fork Over $15.00 to Hear Britney’s New CD in 2007

Within the past year, Ms. Spears has separated from her husband, Kevin Federline, and has been seen prancing about the town with hotel heiress, Paris Hilton. Not to mention, showing her pieces-parts on no less than four occasions.

When I think of Britney, I still got that young “Oops, I did it again” idea in my head. My seven-year old, Justin, can’t get enough of her. He got sucked into her whole persona and it doesn’t help that he thinks she’s cute. I can’t bring myself to shattering that thought by revealing that she’s a party-hard mother of two, who looks like she’s always drunk, and shows her goodies to the world, regularly.

We all got involved in the Britney/K-Fed drama when she married Kevin. I read about him leaving Shar Jackson, who was pregnant at the time, to be with Britney, and thought, “Who does that?” Britney is a home-wrecker, and therein lies the beginning of the drama. The hatred for Kevin grew bigger than our dislike for Britney’s misgivings. Kevin tried to play the “I’m a big superstar because I’m married to one” meal-ticket idea and rode Britney’s coattails, while she remained silent and supportive. She promoted his album by doing giveaways and he’s in the foreground rapping about how much one earring costs more than your salary for the year.

Britney generated sympathy from her fan base by this abuse of her goodwill and supportiveness. We were left thinking how much we despise Kevin, how much of a leech he is, and how she should part ways with him. When Britney finally did leave Kevin, we thought, “Finally, his fifteen minutes are up”, and we were happy for her.

Fast forward to now, Britney has recently been seen toying about town with Paris Hilton, in Lindsay Lohan-like apparel, smoking like a freight-train, and showing off her nether-regions to anyone with internet access. Her fans are left with a bad taste in their mouths, not liking the idea that Ms. Hilton is taking “our” Britney and turning her into a carbon-copy of herself. After all, we’ve watched Britney grow from a school-girl to a woman.

Apparently, someone “in the know” has told Britney that in order to make another successful CD, she has to stay away from Paris. She puts up an apology on her website and mum is the word until her CD drops. What we want to know now is if K-Fed influenced the vibe on the CD. Will she write about heartbreak, heartache, or feeling free now that she’s away from him? Will it be about vindication? Or, none of the above? The truth is, we don’t know and we’ll be drawn like moths to a flame when her CD comes out, just to find out.

Per Life Style Extra:

Madonna has become the world’s highest paid female singer.

The ‘Material Girl’ singer earned an astonishing £26.6 million in 2004 which landed her a place in the new Guinness Book of Records, published today (29.09.06).

I remember first listening to Madonna and thinking that Cyndi Lauper was better. Of course, I was probably ten or twelve at the time. It’s not that she has amazing talent or anything, she was just provocative and unleashed. She broke precedents when it came to her presentation. While her vocal ability has always been mediocre at best and there are other more talented singers out there that get little or no attention, Madonna has kept herself in the spotlight for quite some time now.

Madonna at her best:

Verdict: Anyone that knocks Britney out of the limelight is alright with me.

Per an article at Yahoo News,

MTV announced Wednesday that the rap group will star in a new reality comedy series called “Adventures in Hollyhood.”

The series, which will begin in 2007, will follow the group’s main members, Juicy J and DJ Paul, and their entourage as they make their way from Memphis to Los Angeles.

And now for a collar poppin’ vid clip:

Via Yahoo, I read that Amy Grant was honored with a star on the Walk of Fame.

Grant was a teenage floor sweeper at a music studio when an executive overheard a tape of her songs. She recorded her first album in 1977.

A vid clip of the ceremony:

Hat tip to this fan for being there to take pics and the video for the event.

Lukas Rossi performed Radiohead’s “Creep” better than the original singer. Destined to become Tommy Lee’s (insert band name here) lead singer, Lukas won that role on the show Rockstar. Supernova was a band name already in use when Tommy Lee attempted to dub his band with that name. The original Supernova, a punk band, sought an injunction to protect the name and won. Tommy Lee & Co. are searching for another name as we speak. Anyone want to speculate as to what they’ll name it?

Open comments :)

A video for your viewing pleasure:

Woohoo for Michael Stipe and Co. with this wonderful honor. Listening to R.E.M. reminds me of the times I lived at home with my parents and when MTV still played music.

This news is good enough for a vid:

Congratulations!

Actually, the entire interview with Iron Maiden’s frontman, Bruce Dickinson, can be found here. Here is a snippet:

“What we do is we are a heavy metal band and what we care about is our fans. That’s it. So our strength comes from that simplicity. You know, what do I care if I never appear on reality TV? ‘Fucking great, thank you! Can I have it in writing?’ But in her world, that’s really important. In her world, it’s really important what you look like. In her world, facelifts are really important. In my world, I don’t give a fuck. I get old and I get wrinkly. Who gives a shit?”

A musician that speaks up against Ozzfest and Sharon Osbourne?!? Bruce Dickinson and Iron Maiden are legends in the heavy metal arena and they wanna know, “Where are the kids?!??”. Not bowing to corporate hoopla and continuing to show fans everywhere, who’s the reigning boss of the heavy metal scene, it’s definitely Iron Maiden.

And now, for a video, “Wicker Man”: