Kings of Leon

Can someone PLEASE explain to me the appeal of the Kings of Leon? I blinked one day and all of a sudden they were being shoved down my throat. They sound like an old 80s throw-back band, but in a bad way. You know how bad music got in the 80s! It seems as if everyone is praising them and blowing smoke up their asses, but I have yet to be impressed. Please, someone enlighten me.

Up yours Wal-Mart!!!

In an awesome stand of artistic integrity and musical freedom, Green Day has given the proverbial finger to Wal-Mart in defense of their music. The massive retailer has a long standing policy of only carrying records with so-called "clean content", meaning no obscene words or objectionable content. When faced with the choice of changing their music and selling more records or leaving it and possibly not selling as many records, they chose to keep their album as is.


"They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there," lead singer Billy Joe Armstrong said. "We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something."

And, despite being released on Friday instead of Tuesday like most records are, and not being carried at the biggest CD retailer, "21st Century Breakdown" sold 215,000 copies over the weekend. Take that ready-made, cookie-cutter, watch-for-falling-prices America!!!

* pulled some info from yahoo news and billboard.com*

Music goings on

Plenty of artists have dropped their latest records or announced tours, so i will recap:

- As promised in a previous blog Coldplay has released their latest album, Leftrightleftrightleft, on the band's website. Go get it, it's live and damn good.

- Blink 182 has announced a summer tour, despite once having SWORN to never tour again. I don't care about them so much, I saw them live and they seemed sloppy and distracted. But with supporting acts such as PANIC! at the Disco, Taking Back Sunday and Weezer, I may go to see them and leave early.

-Eminem is giving a shout out to his fellow Motor City folk and giving a free concert. Well he gave one Tuesday that is. One tiny little record store handled all the ticket sales. DJ Jazzy Jeff also performed. 2,000 people showed up for the outdoor afair. Eminem actually twittered a few days before where fans could pick up tickets in secret locations.

-Don't forget, No Doubt/Paramore, and Tori Amos have all kicked off U.S. tours.

- Creed has promised fans a new album by August, supposedly titled "Full Circle". Does this mean their music has come full circle and will actually be good again?

- Mariah Carey Twiitered to her 400,000 twitter followers the name of her new album. In her words :"Bcuz I Love U, I want u to be the first to know the title of my new album "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" Its very personal & dedicated to u" Ok I know Twitter has a 140 character limit, but JESUS I hate when people do not spell out words. It makes them look 10 years old.

- Linkin Park says they are hard at work on a new album, tentively due out in 2010. It is reported to have a sound distinct from "Minutes to midnight" and "Hybrid Theory " (no mention of Meteora). Mike Shinoda, whose side project Fort Minor is an AWESOME band, check them out, says he is bringing more of a rap aspect to the project. I am still listening to Minutes to Midnight and discovering new meanings to each of the songs, so this news surprised me. However, I guess it was over 2 years ago, so I welcome yet another Linkin Park materpiece.

*sources referenced: yahoo news, billboard.com, and twitter.com*

Band names

What's in a band name? Once you and a group of your friends get together and decide to start playing music, how do you go about coming up with a name? You can't just have any old crappy name. What if you make it big, then you are stuck. Then what? Actually, many bands out there on the airwaves have some bizarre names, intentionally or otherwise. The first one that always comes to my mind when thinking of weird band names is the Goo Goo Dolls. Such a soulful group of guys; such an out-of-character name. I remember hearing in an interview with lead singer John Rzeznik that he was flipping through a magazine and it landed on a page that advertised a doll that said "goo goo" so for shits and giggles he named his band that, thinking they could change it later. Well, in usher the multi-platinum album "Dizzy Up The Girl" and the name stuck. You don't want to be like that.

Now, many seemingly crazy band names actually come from books or movies. Savage Garden got their name from the author Anne Rice, who referred to the dark place vampires roam as a "savage garden". They Might Be Giants took their name from a 1971 George C. Scott film about a paranoid psychotic Sherlock Holmes and a female Dr. Watson. Even the infamous Doors took their name from an Aldous Huxley book titled "The Doors of Perception".

Some band names just come from someone's nicknames. Hootie and the Blowfish refers to two of lead singer's Darius Rucker's friends in college. One had big glasses that made him look like an owl (hootie) and the other had chubby cheeks (blowfish). I know, not nearly as exciting as what we all giggled and thought every time we heard their name on the radio! Some are just real obvious about it. 3LW literally stands for 3 little women. Creative guys!

Now some band names are just flat out weird and I can't find out where they came from. Alien Ant Farm conjours up images of multicolored ants coming at me in a flying saucer. Death Cab for Cutie sounds like someone's last ride in this world. What a stark contrast to their mellow laid back sound. Modest Mouse and Blind Melon sound like characters in a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale. Panic! at the Disco has always confused me. That random exclamation point in the middle of the name forces me to put a little too much effort in saying their name. Go ahead, try it.... Yeah, too much for a band name. Oh, and what is an Oingo Boingo? Try saying that and not laughing! And which came first, the crazy Flock of Seagulls lopsided beehive hair, or the actual band? And I am not even going to touch you Me First and the Gimme Gimme's!

What do you think? Any more weird band names? Do you disagree with any? Post it!

*referenced www.weirdbandnames.jottit.com and www.imdb.com*

Guitar Hero reality show?

Activision Blizzard, the owners of the smash game Guitar Hero, announced plans to turn Guitar Hero into a reality series and concert tour. The company is looking to turn many of it's games into movies or concerts. Also up for negotiations are "Call of Duty" and "World of Warcraft" video games. World of Warcraft was optioned to be made a movie 3 years ago, but nothing has been done with it. This is a good move for the company, since it posted it's first quarter revenue as $981 million. I think this shows that, since the economy is faltering, Americans are willing to spend $15 a month for an MMORPG or $75 for a game the whole family can play. Might as well capitolize on that.

*sales figures courtesy of www.billboard.com*

Stimulating concert series

Musical rockers Staind, Shinedown, Chevelle and Halestorm have unveiled their genius plan to help boost the economy: many of the tickets for their 40-venue concert will be priced $40 or less.

"Wall Street got its bailout; now it's time for rock fans to get theirs," Staind frontman Aaron Lewis said in a statement. "This summer, we want to give our fans one night where they can forget about everything else and experience a great rock show."

Along with cheap ticket prices, fans can enjoy other incentives. Concert goers can use their tickets stubs for food and drinks at concession stands at the concert venue. Also, they can be used to purchase merchandise off the bands' websites. Atlantic Records is also giving away five pairs of tickets per stop for those that enter a contest. And, probably the coolest perk yet, some lucky concert goers will be invited backstage to chat and jam with the bands. They will play covers of other songs, and even each others songs. Lots of musical creativity flowing!

And who says you can't have a little fun this summer?

*photo courtesy of yahoo images*

Green Day tickets on sale now

That's right, you read that title correctly. Green Day has put their presale tickets for sale on their website. Of course you have to be a fan club member to get the presale tickets. Fot the rest of us, tickets go on sale this Friday May 8 at 10am. I myself will be waiting until Friday even though I am an Idiot Club member, since they have a 2 ticket per order limit :/

In the meantime, check out their new video for the first song off of 21st Century Breakdown called "Know Your Enemy":

Green Day - New Music - More Music Videos

Coldplay gives back

For those lucky enough to be attending one of Coldplay's upcoming tour stops, you will be pleased to hear that they will be giving fans an extra bonus for attending: a free live CD. The Cd, titled "Leftrightleftrightleft" is a collection of 9 songs recorded from the band's European Viva la Vida" tour, and is also available for download on May 15 at the Coldplay's website.

In Chris Martin's words "Playing live is what we love," said Coldplay in a statement. "This album is a thank you to our fans - the people who give us a reason to do it and make it happen."

Enjoy you lucky bastards ;)

*referenced billboard.com*