Madonna Is Back In America And We're Backstage To Prove It

I can't figure out if this whole Madonna on World Tour reminds me of the Sex Pistols arriving in the States in 1978 or the post 2011 Japanese earthquake. There's a lot of junk in the trunk headed this way and it's nearly impossible to determine if it's Diva luggage or typical Material Girl trash. Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious were held up at the Boarderline due to not being True Blue. Their bad criminal records put them Into the Groove of getting totally popped out of gear by Vogue lawyers with Papa Don't Preach attitudes. Once allowed to Cherish, I can understand why the Sex Pistols didn't Thank Their Lucky Stars; the Punk Rockers were sent to the deep south of America. And I'm not talking about La Isla Bonita. Like a Prayer Rotten and Vicious were able to Live to Tell. Which proved to be a Holiday for Disco haters. They'd been waiting to Dress You Up in something other than spandex and platform shoes. For the love of God that paragraph alone features more trash than the Japanese stash of tires, wooden doors and everything else egg roll dining and dancing in the Pacific O. Madonna's been making slinging headlines since the moment rumors of a tour began to fly. She's verbally abused Lady Gaga, Elton John and the Russian Government for sending members of a punk band behind the curtain to prison for doing something she's gotten away with since being invented in the 80's. Is there anybody expecting anything less? The girl might be a mess but damn if she doesn't have the balls to impress. Once you step away from the masterminding socially networked headlines hounds punching text messages into the rumor factor there's no doubt in clouds that Madonna's blind ambition is full sight packed with a fight. Her shows don't suddenly come from out of nowhere. No matter how many times you've played truth or dare the wisdom of music's most brilliant master of reinvention has every intention of hiring the right people for the right job and by God her performance is gonna "F-ing" rock. So...as Madonna re-enters the States for a tour that's everything but fake. I share with you a hookup to a video that fully exposes the roses of hype scented with what happens when greatness is achieved while over succeeding. Rollingstone Magazine's Colleen Nika writes: Madonna's enormously successful MDNA tour, slated to hit Yankee Stadium in New York twice next week, arguably features her most ambitious stage costumes to date. The dramatic gender-bending looks for the singer and her cadre of dancers push design conventions to their limits, with the cantilevering, crystalline, patent-leather footwear alone worth a hundred editorials. In this backstage tour video by Swarovski, whose glimmering gems adorn Madge's costumes an astounding 315,000 times, you can appreciate the exhaustive breadth of the MDNA design aesthetic. In the behind-the-scenes footage, wardrobe supervisor Lana Czajka explains that preparation for each evening's show begins at 9 a.m., when 30 racks of clothes are steamed, pressed and retouched. "Most of our sparkle happens during 'Vogue,'" she notes, pointing to a noirish collection of Venetian masks, top hats and riding crops. An extremely impressive, armored chainmail look containing thousands of micro-crystals provides a true spotlight moment, as does the jeweled MDNA tee featured in the "Celebration" finale. Such meticulous detailing befits a pop queen like Madonna. "She is involved with everything," head dresser Tony Villanueva emphasizes. "She has final say." Are you ready for the video?

The Night Mick Jagger And The Stones Came To My Party

Hey just because I can't watch movies and TV shows in repeat mode doesn't mean the same rules apply when it comes to music being played live. The greatest Rock concert stories come from passion dripping fans that have spent more bucks then common sense on connections born while standing in long lines to use the bathroom, hoisting ice cold beer to a set of lips burned by an unforgiving outdoor festival sun or from singing the lyrics with so much presentation the person in the seat next to you is convinced that you're the reincarnation of the people on stage. Being "Live" isn't an honor that only belongs to microphone munching. guitar riffing, video monitor monsters of music's finest. It's you're show too baby! I'll never forget the night Steven Tyler of Aerosmith was so disappointed with the crowd's reaction that he began to impersonate the peeps in the seats. Arms crossed, blank emotions or barely spark in their eye. Once ticketholders caught on to the front man's stand against being "life-less" at his "Live" performance...the night ignited like a beer fart carrying the scent of vinegar flavored North Carolina BBQ. What? People remember that stuff! They laugh about it for years. Dang! Thought Johnny was in need of some serious EMT! If he had...wouldn't we all be in jail for hangin with a known weapon of gas destruction? So word has it that Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones are coming back home to the stage. I'm still lit with laughter on how we entered Ericson Stadium in Charlotte, NC. Featured was one extremely exclusive luxury box ticket; the rest were somewhere out there in a nest of fans from every corner of the planet. As a joke we poked fun of the idea of holding the tickets in a special way that said, "This is us...you've gotta let us in." Through the first set of gates we flew no questions asked. Keep in mind this was well before these new digitized laser guns became the stun game. So human dependability was based on reliability. Up the ramp we raced like rats on a chase. To make it through the second gate our chosen fate. Security knew my face. Into the private space we did play. We were having so much fun in that luxury box the Mayor and other well known's plus restaurant owners dropped in to steal a sneak peak from the seats that somehow someway became the hood to hang! By the final song I couldn't sing. Those private suites feature plenty too much to drink. Whoa Daddy! I'm still convinced that we didn't go see The Rolling Stones. They were the house band at our once in a lifetime Rock party. True story!!!! I'm sure this is nothing compared to the 50 years of satisfying that's been accomplished. And just when you thought it was done...word in Rollingstone Magazine is the journey is coming. It's shaping up to be a major fall for the Rolling Stones. In addition to recording new music in Paris last week, the band will play its first shows since 2007 later this year to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Rolling Stone has learned the band is planning two shows at Brooklyn's Barclays Center to happen before the end of the year. "This was accomplished in a Navy SEAL-like operation," a source familiar with the deal tells Rolling Stone. "No one I knew whispered a word of this before yesterday." Billboard reported yesterday about the Brooklyn shows and added the band will also play two shows at London's O2 Arena in November with Virgin founder Richard Branson and Australian promoter Paul Dainty promoting the gigs. A spokesperson for the Stones declined to say the London and New York shows were confirmed. The band gathered to record two new songs for an upcoming box set last week at Guillaume Tell Studios near Paris, where they also recorded new tracks for 2002's 40 Licks set a decade ago. "Had fun in the Paris studio this week!" Mick Jagger tweeted with a photo surrounded by Telecasters, Stratocasters and harmonicas. "I'd love to get some tracks down and see what songs we've got," Keith Richards told Rolling Stone before the recording sessions. "And that goes along with part of getting the band back together and getting things moving. So I'd love to cut some tracks, yeah." Asked if he saw himself writing one-on-one with Jagger again, Richards said, "I have no doubt." The Stones also rehearsed songs from their entire catalog in the New York area in April. "That was a great time," Richards said. "I thought I'd be quite rusty, after all we hadn't done it for a while, in five years or something. And amazing to hear it sounded as fresh as you could hope for. It was a great week." The final day of those rehearsals were filmed for Crossfire Hurricane, a film spanning the band's entire career to premiere November 15th, directed by Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture). "Nobody has put the story together as a narrative," Morgen told Rolling Stone earlier this year. "We've been looking under every rock going through their archives. It will be music never heard before, and I've conducted 50-plus hours of interviews so far. By the time we're done, they will be the most extensive group interviews they've ever done." At the time, Richards told Rolling Stone, "He told me 80 percent of the footage has never been seen before, which amazes me. I didn't know there was that much around."

Soiled Undies Owned By Elvis Up For Auction

A major part of America culture is collecting Rock band memorabilia. Album covers, posters, T-shirts, dolls, plastic cups and the ever popular ticket stub. I still have Leif Garrett's autograph on a dollar bill. Part of a huge Jethro Tull balloon that floated across screaming out of control fans at the Metra in Billings, Montana. A guitar pick from Ace Frehley; remember England Dan and John Ford Coley. They signed a Bible for me at a Bahia Faith gathering. This ain't s**t compared to most. I've met many a fool who not only own a chunk of Rock, hand signed or grabbed after the lights come up but believe it carries more value than your own kids. Pawn shops, Ebay and Craigs List are baked with the heat fans of music crank into the scene seconds after a big name or up and coming Artist twists their commitment to Rock n Roll all night and party every day. Talk about hording! I'm shocked VH1 Classics hasn't developed a Reality TV show stuck on the glue connected to our sticky fingers. In the past two weeks I've written about the current rise in musicians igniting the eyes and soul of those who love to Rock n Roll with opportunities to own the 70's van that Kurt Cobain graffitied while being a Roadie for a group of guitar monsters in the Pacific Northwest and Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley unveiling a 4 foot tall book of pictorial KISS-tory. The ultimate, most odd, completely insane sliver of Rock stock and barrel to falls into the hands of the fans could very well be only a few weeks away from reality. Rollingstone Magazine reports a pair of Elvis Presley's underwear, complete with stains, being sold at an auction in Manchester, England, next month, the BBC reports. Presley wore the undies at a 1977 show before the auction house acquired them from Presley's father Vernon. The dirty drawers could fetch up to £10,000, or around $15,800. Also up for auction are Presley's personal Bible, which was given to him in 1957 and contains handwritten notes, and 16mm home movie footage taken by Priscilla Presley. The Bible is expected to go for £25,000, or around $39,500. Omega Auctions will stream the auction live on September 8th.

Bruce Springsteen 1973 Concert Video Opening For Dr Hook

1999! Bruce Springsteen was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. Look at me! Trying to funk up your trunk! Mess up your internet ride with a line that resembles something that would pop out of the gums of VH1 Classic's That Metal Shows Eddie Trunk. You do realize if he tried to get in today he'd be blasted off the map by Hip Hop, Pop Rock and Bongo Rock first made famous on $2.99 K-Tel collections. What's interesting about the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame is their lack of shellac. Once in there's no need for spit shining. I mean! There's nothing going on...except another list of names linked to fame and somehow, someway just because they played it's always just enough to push them beyond the voices and writers that influenced not just them but their parents. But then again would you really want to be there? Hall of Fames lack pride settling more on price. Not the price musicians pay fighting to stay alive another day but nice is the price asked for slips of paper called tickets. Nobody's interested because everything you've got inside we get on line. Double click then sit and watch the video, check out the album sleeves, read a bio or pick up on a groupie story about life behind the wall of fame. The Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville doesn't even like to have fun! At least the folks at Hard Rock tried to generate some interest when building a theme park in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It featured rollercoaster's that blasted Rock through well hidden speakers in the front of each car. Zeppelin and The Eagles screamed with coaster terror while The Moody Blues went the way of being 3D mellow as a mushroom. A little mind melting but fans of the bands got it. It was an easy concept to digest. At midnight the lake blew up with fireworks while Bohemian Rhapsody from Queen shook the earth moving below your feet. But like "Great" Rock...the scene died pretty quickly. Mark my words Train, Moron 5, Lady Gaga and Usher will be featured members in the Hall of Fame way ahead of Boston, Skynard, Def Leopard and REO Speedwagon. All this talk about Rock makes me look like an old fart stuffed into a jar waitin to get out, "In my day harmony wasn't a computer program. Damn big fights broke out on long bus rides cuz someone thinking they were smarter went all out Mariah Carey and bent their notes twelve times before quieting down." The thought of high school graduates from 2013 not soaking up the suds of what it was like to scan boxes and crates overflowing with album covers and 45's should disconnect their generation of superstars from the pages of marketing weight. Downloading musical vibes isn't a Rock n Roll fantasy. The first time I popped Bob Seger into an 8-Track tape player in the car we were partying with the cattle in an open field in Montana. We got so drunk half the people there were left behind because the lyrics of Hot Blooded from Foreigner weren't in focus so we'd fight over the assumption of what Mic Jones might have written. We were busted in downtown Billings the night Van Halen fell into my lap. We called it the Point. Cars cruising without worrying about gas being wasted. Rob was a great kid, always trying to be funny picked up a BB Gun from the floor and the cops instantly started doing the math: Saturday night plus loud Van Halen plus object that looked like a gun equals...blue lights. Every time I hear Jamie's Crying I can still feel how much I had to pee while the men in blue looked through everything. Ok...so here's the reason why this trip through Alice's Wonderland was brought up. A fricken Bruce Springsteen video from 1973. On stage opening for Dr. Hook. All I want you to see...is how the way it used to be. Poet's with pens. Master's of a musical universe. Their only mission was to commission their art. To go with the video... a little poetry from Rock's best magazine: The Rollingstone

Paul McCartney Wants You To Remix His Music

I feel like a modern day Meriwether Lewis or William Clark. A couple of explorers hired by Thomas Jefferson to expose the wild west to a nation getting set to fire up the engines of the future so it can be brought back to the present. Every week I travel outside these four walls to a territory called Radio's Untouched Purchase. It's a bitterly cold and lonely trail made of university campuses, schools of broadcasting and or high schools that couldn't convince the Mayor to visit on Career Day. Stuffed into a duffle bag wrapped around my heart is a four hour lecture that non believers of the message say resembles a Southern Baptist Preacher spreading a disc jockey's off the air gospel. "I don't care if you land the position of answering phones for the hottest most listened to morning radio show in town! If you aren't practicing "Great" studio mixing habits. You're going to the bottom of the ratings. If you're sending out vibrations that doing commercial production isn't your thing because you're better than leading brother and sister listeners to a better way of living... Amen! I'm here to tell ya: You're going to straight to Taco Bell to take orders at the window! At Midnight!" Sitting in a radio station studio pumping up the jams is boring compared to physically participating with huge control boards brightly lit by itty bitty dots of light, mix downs that thrive on your imagination while finalized elements sink between the beats subliminally teaching listeners how to soak up a great way to live. Now put me in a "Real" recording studio and see how I do with music. "F" as in flunk! Two completely different adventures using methods of madness addicted to grasping empty space from the future then swiftly bringing it back to be filled with guitar leads, kick drums and a tambourine. Yeah ok... I mixed my first song under the Space Needle in Seattle. The EMP is a music museum that features a second floor attraction straight from the dreams of nearly every little boy planted on this planet to make music. You are the producer. The songs are tunes you already know. The goal at EMP isn't to score a victory and or injure ambition but to encourage you to slip on a pair of shoes headed straight for the future. To hear each track, study their paths, embrace a dry vocal while mastering the concept of unplugging right from wrong. Because in music there's no such rule . What's right doesn't always become a hit leaving an entire summer full of wrongs on a stage that would be empty if being weird didn't perform. Guess who's taking Social Media toward this very place without having to hop on a plane to Seahawks country? Rollingstone Magazine reports Paul McCartney has outfitted his website with a digital mixing board, allowing users to act as producers on some of the former Beatle's biggest solo hits, Ultimate Classic Rock notes. The program is dubbed the Rude Studio, which was the name McCartney and his wife Linda gave to the recording space they set up in the barn of their Scotland home in 1971 after the Beatles broke up. McCartney's experiments there led to some of his first solo work. In the digital Rude Studio, fans have the chance to rework some of McCartney's biggest hits, including "Maybe I'm Amazed," "Band on the Run," "Let Me Roll" and "Monkberry Moon Delight." You can adjust the levels of the keyboards, guitars, vocals, drums and bass, while also tinkering with effects like flange and echo. When you're finished with your remix, you can save it, and send it in for review (it's not clear who's doing the reviewing), with favorites being posted on the website. Don't miss this book excerpt from Andrew Grant Jackson's Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of the Beatles' Solo Careers about McCartney's transition from the Beatles to solo artist. Good luck! I wish you the best. Just know one truth while traveling the realms of what is and what's about to become... Never let someone silence your music. The opinion of others may sting like a cats claw scraping your bare leg but somewhere out there is a pair of ears that's waited an entire lifetime to hear what first fell from your writing instrument and through you air was moved the moment you decided to make music. arroe@arroe.net

The Van Made Famous By Kurt Cobain Is Back On Ebay

Some think the differnce between radio people and Rock Stars is the choice of stages to which we play. Ok maybe...the good news is radio jocks don't have to hire managers to locate a different nightly performance. In reality it's the cars parked outside bars. Radio people connected to incredible endorsement deals get the hook up better than rap artists while beginner jocks just starting are caught slamming cases of oil into engines that should've been dead before they were purchased. Famous bands with famous cars. REO Speedwagon hauled amps and trap sets in the back of a Brady Bunch style station wagon while Fleetwood Mac's inside sleeve of Rumors hoisted their coolness into the forefront of a national van epidemic. Elvis' pink Cadillac which features an onboard 1950's car phone mesmerizes Country Music fans at the Hall Of Fame in Nashville. ZZ Tops 1933 Ford Hot Rod named The Eliminator added thunder to MTV videos while John Travolta's Grease Lightning only added sparks when Hollywood finally decided to release Grease on home video. The Monkeemobile dominated Saturday mornings decades before Pimp My Ride and Cribs. Dylan and The Beatles had swanky limos while Tupac took a famous final ride in a BMW 750il Fans of Nirvana know of a famous Melvan. For some, it's the one piece of band memorabilia that would complete the perfect collection. Greg Prato from Rollingstone Magazine says its back on the block for someone who really likes to rock. In case you've been kicking yourself for not bidding on the "Melvan" the first time around, you're in luck – you now have a second chance to bid on this historical grunge artifact through eBay. Back in March of this year, the vehicle (a beat-up 1972 Dodge Sportsman Royal Van, featuring artwork by Kurt Cobain) reached a bid of $99,999.99 on eBay. However, its reserve wasn't met, and some also questioned the authenticity of Cobain's artwork. This time the van's owner, Ben Berg, who plays bass in the group Weird Beast, has all the bases covered. "The Melvan is going back up on eBay for a 10-day, no reserve auction," Berg told Rolling Stone. "Highest bidder gets it. I finally acquired written statements from Matt Lukin and Steve Shillinger authenticating the artwork. That was sort of a big issue the first go-round with serious collectors." While Lukin's name should be familiar to grunge scholars (he was the Melvins' original bassist and, later, Mudhoney's original bassist), Berg filled us in on this Steve Shillinger gentleman. "Kurt used to live on Steve's parents' couch off and on when Kurt still lived on the harbor. Steve was very close with the Melvins, too. I believe he has been either mentioned and/or interviewed in several books concerning the early days of Nirvana. He still has a bunch of old home movies that he and Kurt made together when they were in their late teens, early 20s." It's the doodle by onetime Melvins roadie Cobain – a replication of the front cover of Kiss' classic 1974 debut – that makes this jalopy truly unique. The Melvan currently calls Montesano, Washington, its home; it is available for local pick-up for the winning bidder. Bidding for the Melvan's second listing will end this Sunday, shortly after 3 p.m. PDT.

The Ultimate KISS That's Keeping Grown Men Stuffed In Teenage Boy Rock n Roll Fantasy

Very rare isn't KISS Fanfare. Hit EBay, Amazon or Google each member's page and never without doubt are you left out of an offer to own something worn, torn, busted, crusted, spit, tossed, mass marketed or simply set free through means of painting with acrylic that isn't or hasn't been touched, signed or sacrificed in the name of KISS. The KISS story has influenced, inspired and or completely melted the minds of ad agencies and management companies who've studied the creative rights of the Knights of theatrical rock and turned their lonesome outlets into avenues of achievable ability. I can't tell you how much KISS merchandise I own because the moment it arrives the products inside never see light. Instantly wrapped in bubble plastic then shoved into bigger thicker boxes of protection. Barely a step can be made before something invisibly KISS can be given a name. Who knows I might actually own the casket carrying the likes of their image. Being a Rock Radio jock I've cheated my way multiple times into backstage KISS escapes; the first meeting without makeup was in December of 85; where we did nothing but stand around for 30 minutes talking about The Phantom of The Park. A KISS freaks greatest feat? No... How about sharing brush stroke techniques at an art gallery with Paul Stanley? Nope... Exchanging creative ideas and interesting concepts by way of short and to the point emails with the editors chosen to catapult Gene's Tongue Magazine into a success story? Not a vibe to describe. My biggest, best-est, greatest more superior, much larger than the 8th wonder of the world chunk of KISS junk still owned but no longer operated is a sliver of black vinyl called a 45. I had fallen deeply in love with a song called Beth. My country ass Montana roots tried to fight off the need to put speed in the tires of the Stingray bike throwing me down the road to the nearest record store, "How dare you cheat on Charlie Pride, Stonewall Jackson and Bobby Bare!" Beth wasn't the Destroyer. I still own that 45 because of the evil bastard on the other side: Detroit Rock City. One slip into those guitar licks and from every magazine I began to rip; pictures, posters, comics everything KISS. I'm not shocked that KISS still loves to rock. The partying thing all night might be so much of a happening but Heavens still on fire and by the grace of the God of Thunder the Elders of today cannot walk away without knowing Christine is still 16 in my heart. No doctor of love can put the S back in sex even if you've mastered the art of licking it up. Shout it out loud as much as you want. It's always going to be Cold Gin Time because I've yet to meet the Firehouse willing and able to cool off. God gave us Rock n Roll. My love gun is I Heart Radio who without a doubt gives me more KISS s**t then any radio station that's blessed this Psycho Circus. Then Rollingstone Magazines Steve Appleford pulls off the skirt hiding what's underneath. Kiss is a band that appreciates dramatics – but even for them, things can get out of hand. Minutes before unveiling their massive new 45-pound photography book, Monster, onstage yesterday at the Viper Room in West Hollywood, California, the band gave Rolling Stone a preview backstage. As bassist Gene Simmons and drummer Eric Singer cracked open a copy and slowly began turning the pages, the easel holding it up started to creak. Singer shouted "Whoa!" as the duo struggled to keep the book from falling to the floor. Watching nearby with a grin, singer Paul Stanley joked, "And for comedy relief, ladies and gentlemen: Singer and Simmons!" As Monster was rested safely on a nearby couch, Simmons composed himself and straightened his shades. He explained proudly, "It's five feet wide, weighs close to 50 pounds. It's spectacular." At well over $4,000, the book is also a pricey, limited edition item, much closer in luxury to the infamous Kiss Kasket than the band's other book retrospective from the Nineties, the two-volume KISStory. It is a prority for the band; their press appearance at the Viper Room came midway into their 40-date North American tour with Mötley Crüe. Stanley told Rolling Stone that a more affordable "Mini-Monster" may become available at some later date but, for now, he maintained that the deluxe version was necessary. "[Not releasing it] wouldn’t be fair to the people who can afford it and will appreciate it... If we didn’t make it high-end, it would be compromised," he said. "Part of what makes it special is the quality and the size. There was no way to do that without excluding some people. We’re putting something out that celebrates 40 years of victories. This is a celebration and a victory lap. It means a lot to us.” A project spearheaded by guitarist Tommy Thayer, the book collects live photographs of Kiss performing in makeup and body armor amid their onstage pyrotechnics, going back through their four-decade career. Each volume of Monster is autographed by all the band's current members and is limited to 1,000 copies in each of 10 countires. It was partially inspired by the original 1999 edition of SUMO, the massive career retrospective of photographer Helmut Newton that came with its own metal display table. (Simmons owns a copy.) The book shares its title with Kiss' upcoming album, which is set for release on October 18th and is their first since 2009's Sonic Boom. While the last album was released in an exclusive deal with Walmart, Kiss is now back with Universal Records, which owns the band's catalog back to its first round of stardom on Casablanca Records in the Seventies. "They made it very clear they wanted us to be back in the fold and made their intentions known," said Stanley, "not only with goodwill but good money, and the two go hand-in-hand. We're very happy to be back there. We will be shooting from all cylinders." Added Thayer, "It's a real band album, too. No outside writers, no agenda with power ballads or radio songs. Just rock & roll, pure and simple, from start to finish." Hours after their Viper Room appearance, Simmons and Stanley stopped by Universal in Santa Monica to share four songs in a private meeting with the label's movie and TV music supervisors. In a downstairs lounge, the rock icons sat on a small stage and introduced each of the songs, beginning with the driving Sixties-style grind of "Long Way Down" and continuing into "Wall of Sound," which rocked with a grinding boogie rhythm. Still wearing what he called his "asshole glasses," Simmons joked with Stanley between tracks and offered to personally close the deal with any filmmaker considering use of a new Kiss song. Both also complained about the room's sound system, which gave the songs a muddier sound than intended; Stanley joked about buying the label a new one. Tellingly, the new cut "Freak" banged with classic-rock riffs and a searing Thayer guitar lead. "It doesn't matter how rich you are, how successful; we proudly wave that flag," Stanley told his audience of the song. "We are freaks, remain freaks, and hopefully you do, too."

The Wombs That Helped Shape Music Continue To Fall Out Of Tune

History plays out separate chords of harmony on the cluttered pages I keep. Being one that stands without balance high atop a weather stained soapbox barking at purposes exposed as to why others become addicted to living in their past; I instantly stop at the first sight of sound...where history gave birth to music. Tree lined parks and guitars. Downtown streets and their beats mixed by digital devices linked to battery powered speakers and the African American man of maybe 52 belts out the blues with a voice so incredibly raspy the purity of attainment is not necessary. Just sing...please set yourself free! A confused little corner overshadowed by a big city wanting to be worldly keeps to itself the history belonging to one Elvis Presley. In September 2005 Meg Freeman Whalen of Charlotte Magazine sketched out the already forgotten tales of a onetime small town inner city theater capable of capturing Southeastern tours that featured Mother Maybelle Carter and folks from the Grand Ole Opry. The Caroline Theater opened her doors to Elvis who played four shows beginning at 2:30 p.m. Tickets were eighty-five cents for adults and fifty cents for kids. The Charlotte News estimated that some 6,000 people heard the twenty-one-year-old cover tunes like “Maybelline,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” and “Rock Around the Clock.” For the nine o’clock show, the lines stretched around the block from Tryon Street in both directions, down Fifth and Sixth streets, all the way to College Street. More than a thousand were turned away. Those who got in were mostly teenage girls, with gum in their mouths and bobby socks on their feet. “The Brando-like singer took a rubber-leg stance and sent ’em with his new musical style,” reported the Charlotte Observer. Girls leapt up onto their seats and waved their arms. One girl cut a flip right in front of the stage. When you stand outside the cold shell of the theater in 2012 barely a breath from a passerby is shared by way of offering what keeps rooted music warm. The remnants sit silent while ants, dust bugs and other tiny creations whisper of one day bringing light back to the misplaced stage. I performed there once. The electricity had to be shipped in by manmade machines set up next to outhouses nearly two floors from how I'd take the musical journey. Blinded by fate, deafened by honor...the experience became nothing more than a page slipped into a book that would take weeks if not months to locate. Old buildings...reverberations lost in refurbishing Generation X's current love game. But do they know what should be known; you know, this is the house where music was carried in crates and sweat stained guitar cases while South Carolina peach pits were spit into cups spilled sometime during the night falling between cracks in the stage. Rollingstone Magazine reports today that a London recording studio where Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and the Eurythmics have worked could become apartments. David Gray, who's also a musician, has applied to local authorities to convert Church Studios in North London into five apartments and office space, despite objections from some neighbors. Eurythmics partners Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart turned the former chapel into a studio in 1984, and the oak-paneled main room, one of the largest recording spaces remaining in London, has hosted sessions by Dylan, Costello, Radiohead and Depeche Mode. Gray bought Church Studios in 2003. He's best known for his platinum-selling 1998 album White Ladder. Gray's architect says the recording facilities "are now obsolete and do not offer a viable future for the building," though local residents say that losing the space would have "a significant effect on the vitality of the local arts scene" and the local musicians who use the space. Stewart once lived with Lennox in an apartment adjoining the studio, where they recorded songs including "Sweet Dreams." The songwriter and producer said recently on Facebook that he sympathizes with Gray. "It has so many memories for me," Stewart wrote. "Not just recording sessions. I would host evening soirees with poets, philosophers, musicians, etc. . . . Dylan would turn up with his band and hold court, or Joni Mitchell would play drums! Things have changed now. Music Scene is not the same, I understand him [David Gray] having to sell. I wasn't bothered about the cost of running it (always at a loss)." No date is set to consider Gray's application to convert the space, but the planning committee of the local council holds monthly meetings.

Richie Sambora Shakes Free Of Bon Jovi

Ok, it's pretty much known that loving the Beatles like a second coming has never been part of my Rock Radio resume. I knew of them! I just wasn't blown away... They weren't my generation. Optimist Park/Billings, Montana 1972-81 was on the receiving end of a different dose of Paul, John, Ringo and George; the solo singles on black vinyl. I swear to God I went to bed every night latching onto the scent of album sleeves whose neatly dressed copartners begged to be itched by diamond tipped needles connected to a tower of speakers shoved into hardwood cabinets. With that kind of sound instantly available, nobody wasted time living in the past. The mission was to shatter the sound barrier. To locate new music inside every shape hoping each well paced out rhythm carried enough thump to drown a city slickin neighbor's addiction to both Country and Western. I didn't know what being part of a band then getting cut off was all about until Gene Simmons granted Ace Frehley and Peter Criss their creative wish, "I support your efforts to go do solo work...but let's do it together. We'll step into the studio and give KISS fans four more incredible reasons why they can love us more through separate experiences." Once the 80's popped out of the womb everybody had set fire to or was bolting from the roots that gave them Rock n Roll. If Robert Plant wasn't soloing he was Honey dripping. Donald Fagen was Steely Dan-less. Michael McDonald set aside the Doobies and the members of ASIA came from all corners of the world. Not all solos are welcomed roses. I was pissed off at the Joe Perry Project! Lou Graham no longer part of Foreigner? It's never been Van Halen but always Sammy Hagar's got a new studio band. Fleetwood and The Eagles might have formulated the makings of some pretty hot sing-a-long artists but who rightfully knocked the balls off the core of the soul? Even Phil Collins chasing solo aspirations away from Genesis and Ray Parker Jr. ousting Radio was a sellout. So how are we supposed to react when news hits the forefront of speaker releasing about Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora has cut his mother's apron strings? Although he's done solo flashes in a past that can't be changed...real life experiences seem to be filling the creative vein. Rollingstone Magazines Benji Eisen recently caught up with Jersey's fastest fingers blessed with music's best smile. As the founding guitar-slinger in Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora has done everything he can to live up to his job description. He's shredded solos in stadiums across the planet, married and divorced a famous actress (Heather Locklear), been to rehab and experienced all the excesses, pitfalls and perks of international superstardom. As the song goes, he's seen a million faces and he's rocked them all. However, Sambora is sometimes portrayed as the Robin to Jon Bon Jovi's Batman, the Watson to Jon's Sherlock. Now that Bon Jovi has some downtime between album and tour cycles, Sambora is stepping into his own well-deserved spotlight with his third solo album, Aftermath of the Lowdown, out September 18th. For the first time in his 30-year career, Sambora signed with an independent label, Dangerbird, instead of sticking with the majors (Bon Jovi has stayed with Universal Music Group, home of Sambora's previous solo albums). Sambora chatted with Rolling Stone about his master plan for his new album and asserting his independence while staying fully aligned with his legendary main band. Aftermath is a totally different animal than your previous solo albums. I'm very, very happy with this record. When you're making a record, you try to achieve stylistically what fits on you. Like a good old coat, you know what I mean? With this record, I've achieved that. I feel really very good. The reason I called it Aftermath of the Lowdown is because when you give somebody the lowdown, that's the truth. And when you tell somebody the truth, there's an aftermath to it. So the songs are the aftermath of my particular story, of my life experience over the past decade. Bon Jovi recently came back from an incredible, extremely successful world tour. You were selling out stadiums around the globe. At what point did you start getting material together that was specifically for a solo album? I really didn't start writing until the tour was over. We did a mammoth 18-and-a-half month tour, 52 countries. The first 12 months was named the biggest tour on the planet; that was pretty amazing. Actually, you know, I got home, I took a 10-day vacation with my daughter, and I came back to my house and I was extremely energized and I knew that was going to be my window. So right then and there, I started. I didn't know what was going to happen. I just said, "You know what, I'm going to start writing some songs and see what happens." Once I started writing, I really liked the material and it was authentic, passionate and honest. And that's what makes a really good record. So there was a bit of magic happening right off the bat. Building the foundation of this record, obviously, was the writing process. The lyrics are very heartfelt. You have, "Every heartache's a blessing/ Every knockdown was a start." I know you touched upon this with the album title, but did you intentionally set out to make a record that was so intensely personal? What I found, interestingly enough, through the ups and downs of my life over the past decade since I made my other solo record, and all the stuff that I've gone through in my life over the past decade – this record is basically about my stuff. And what I really found out is that my stuff is pretty universal. The stuff that I've gone through isn't that alien. The stuff that I've gone through, anybody can go through in their lives and they probably will. Ups and downs and things like that. So I really felt like everybody can relate to these lyrics and make them their own. At the end of it, when I looked back on it, that's really what I've found. You're exactly right except, perhaps, for "Seven Years Gone" because of the specific number of years. That one's about your ex-wife? About seven years ago, life for me started to take kind of a little bit of a dip. I was getting divorced, my father was dying of cancer at that point in time, so things were definitely at a transformative period in my life. And then all of the sudden, I looked up, when I started writing this record, and I said, "Wow! Seven years gone!" It really went by very quickly. I started to think about the transference of time. My God, it's like, all of the sudden, I've been in this business for 30 years now and all the amazing stuff that's happened to me. So I guess it was kind of a reflection on all that kind of stuff, and I think anybody can relate to that. You know what else I found during the making of the record? Pain and struggle are necessary, and challenging situations like that are necessary, for you to actually find your freedom and move on. The essential message of this record is freedom. A song like "Taking a Chance on the Wind" – about "Raising my flag/ And taking my chance on the wind" – it's all about risk. But, it's like, people ask me, "Why'd you make this record, Richie? Wasn't it a risk to make such a record?" And I say, "It would've been a risk not to make this record." I had to get this stuff out. It was a cathartic thing for me to do this album. And also, just to express my individuality away from the band. I think that's probably why I went with an independent record company. That's why I went with Dangerbird. All this about "raising my flag" – independence. That's what I wanted, you know? I wanted independence from stuff that I knew before. When I first heard some of these songs, they sounded like they came out of jams. There's this freshness and immediacy to it that feels like a bunch of guys in the studio playing from their hearts. Thank you. That's what it was. At the end of the day, I was trying to capture my independence through this music. I love being in Bon Jovi and I'm going to obviously continue with that band and it's going to be fun. But when you can actually break free as an individual and have the great opportunity to go in and make a record like this, where, like you said, a guy like me... I don't really care about the press. I don't mean to sound like an asshole but I don't care about the press. What I do care about is having an artistic opportunity like this. It's a classic rock album in a sense. There's metal, there's rock, there's blues – the elements. It's a timeless kind of music. But I know you have a teenage daughter. Does she keep you updated with new music and new styles like, for instance, electronic stuff? Ah, bro, check it out. This new record also definitely sounds modern. The guys that I play with are younger than me; I made sure of that. So we added very much of a younger flavor and my voice actually sounds younger than I am. My daughter is an essential part of my listening process; she turns me onto stuff all the time. We went to Coachella this year together. I stayed for the whole three days and saw everybody. It was a blast. And to be honest with you, I had never really experienced this electronica stuff before. I really took a shining to this kid Madeon who's a DJ but he adds music and he really plays to the crowd. I thought he was really brilliant. I got a chance to talk to him afterwards. But I'm the kind of guy [where] I buy two or three new records per week. I spend a lot of time on the treadmill staying in shape these days, so I like to listen to new records when I'm on the treadmill. And also I got a lot of friends that send me their Spotify playlists. The other musicians in my band and my producer, who did a stunning job on this record, is always giving me stuff to listen to. Always inspires me. Anything that's out new I like to pick up and listen to and then I've got my classic diet of old blues that I bring out of the closet too, you know? This is a solo project, not a side project. You get to assume the role of dictator. In Bon Jovi, does Jon assume the dictator role or is it a democratic process that you all get to participate in? At the end of the day, Jon has to be out there; he has to be the mouthpiece. So I mean, even from a writing standpoint, essentially, I'm really writing for Jon to actually sing those lyrics. But luckily, we grew up five miles away from each other, a couple years apart, in the same place, the same kind of blue-collar work ethic of New Jersey and stuff like that. We have a lot of common ground, so it's quite easy. But obviously when I'm making a record like this, like you said, the words for me are uncensored because I get a chance to tell my story here. And also I think what was important to me as I'm growing up – because I always think I'm growing up and I still think of myself as a kid – [is that] I hope I'm going to be able to change people's perspective as to who I am. As a lead vocalist, as an artist in his own right, away from the band. Because I think that my music also has merit and I think that it has a lot to offer people. I've had a very, very interesting view of the planet over the last 30 years, touring as excessively as I have. And music is the most evocative, transformative, connective force in humanity, man. I've seen it firsthand. I've seen it all over the world, how it connects people. I'm hoping that my music can be a part of that whole energy. One last question, something I just have to ask: Alec John Such left Bon Jovi in 1994. Hugh McDonald has handled bass duties since then, but he's rarely in any of the official photos nor is he listed as an official member. Eighteen years into it, is he finally part of the brotherhood? He's exactly where he is right now. It's exactly where he came in, but he's obviously a treasured piece of what the band is. I think that Jon just wants to keep the integrity of the five guys that started this unit and that's what it is.

If You Aren't Bleeding Aritst Blood Get Off The Stage!

Nothing charges me up more than lifting the skirt of success over the waistline of a let's pretend Artist. Writers, producers, painters, bankers, gardeners, radio disc jockeys; creative imaginations with amazingly high expectations to collect a lot cha-ching without sweating, lifting, losing sleep or feeling a burning unexplained need to feed what's constantly hungry. Enduring a path of continued dues being paid silences the best of the best. Fads come and go but love stained Artists fade....slowly It's a painful escape! Their creative place of peace has been invaded by someone renting fame. You've met them! They feel no need to invest in respecting the first three letters of what it's like to be an "Artist." Doing art for the "Art" of it is a soul driven collaboration between me, myself and I not who's next in line. Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has always been an emotional truth driven artist. If your part in the music parade is to play a green lizard and sharp curves in a corner designed by your efforts end up taking away rather than contributing...he's gonna crank that voice. Billy's not holding back when calling out 90's Grunge band Soundgarden for cashing in with their reunion tours. Essentially they've come back only to make money – playing their old albums, and maybe somewhere in the back of their minds they’re thinking there might be a future," the outspoken Corgan said at a press conference before a recent show in the Philippines. He recently told Rollinstone Magazine: "I am not in that business, obviously. I condemn anybody who’s in that business but doesn’t admit [he’s] in that business. When Soundgarden came back and they just played their old songs, great. I was a fan of Soundgarden, but call it for what it is. They’re just out there to have one more round at the till; same with Pavement and these other bands." Corgan noted that it's younger fans who keep Smashing Pumpkins going. "Without the young fans there is no future for Smashing Pumpkins. We can’t run an oldies business. Not only is it boring, it’s actually not a very good business." The singer also spoke about the changing landscape of music, describing it as one where people prefer fame to the music itself: "They have no respect for the people that came before them," he said. "They have no respect for the tradition of music, they have no respect for the blood and tears that have been spilled by great musicians all over the world – many of whom will never even know their name." The Pumpkins are currently on tour behind Oceania, the latest installment in their ongoing 44-song cycle Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which started in 2009. "The songs on a ground level are completely different than old Smashing Pumpkins songs," said Corgan in a recent chat with Rolling Stone. "There's almost no comparison. But the effect of listening seems to be registering as familiar, even if it's not constructed the same, which is kind of interesting cause I would not have anticipated that myself."

Pearl Jam Chooses To Wait While Eddie V Does It Solo

When you spot a bunch of long hauling "Radio" jocks huddled up at an all you can eat bar, professional football game or shaking hands and kissing babies at grand opening celebrations; the one thing listener's miss is the raw jock talk about where everything's going. If you aren't Howard Stern, Bob and Sheri or Elvis Duran, 75% of what's pumping energy through your stale smelling car is an on-air performance repeating the 6:00 AM hour or hashed out prewritten liner cards dictated by a ratings craving Program Director convinced that he's the next speaker thumping Messiah. Once outside those 6 by 20 foot tilted studio glass windows and twelve inch sound proofed padding...Jocks find no fear in being the path maker's of "Realties" bite. Visionaries! Vocal Poet's that non-radio family members and friends draw swords against late into the night like Catholic Priests chasing Exorcisms. The Hip Hop sing-a-long crunch that's been punching the inside of desk top speakers this decade hasn't been designed by unexplained circumstances but rather Music Directors addicted to listener's likes, dislikes, panting behaviors and push aways. In July I hooked up with 1065 The End PD Jack Daniel whose grip on hot, hip and flipping awesome has been methodized by a well polished passion to paint the future before it arrives. When asked about how lazy Rihanna, Black Eyed Peas, Flo-Rida and Bieber were becoming to station chasing fans of music; I was introduced to the seeds of Industrial meeting New Rock. Not Metal, Grunge or Nickelback driven lyrics that stick to the roof of your ears faster than an addiction to power drinks and 5 Hour shots. But...Industrial locates a guitar amp. Seriously, when was the last time New Rock got to talk? Massive appeal! Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains? The 90's! Which might explain why Rollingstone Magazine's stalking studios hiding tomorrow's vibes worth riding. What they've found is a missing chunk of the New Music crown: Pearl Jam. RS reports that despite rumors about Pearl Jam working on the followup to their 2010 album Backspacer, guitarist Mike McCready says the band is currently in a "holding pattern," according to Spin. The band has paused while singer Eddie Vedder readies a solo tour and drummer Matt Cameron returns to Soundgarden. "We're just kind of sitting around, writing songs. We have about seven ideas so far that we did last year and we're just kind of sitting on those right now," said McCready. McCready is also working with former Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan – a high school classmate – and Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin in a new band. "It's all in its infantile stages right now, but we hope to have somebody sing over it some day," McCready says of the music, which he compares to Led Zeppelin. The unnamed group has already written nine songs. McCready recently scored Matthew Lillard's directorial debut, Fat Kid Rules The World. Pearl Jam is set to play the Jay-Z curated "Made In America" festival in Philadelphia on September 1st and 2nd.

Green Day's New Video Kill The DJ

Being introduced or constantly connected to "New music" is why I continue to lap up radio and VH's1 Weekly Video Countdown like a dog discovering ice cubes. The stats are flat on my age group. Research shows I'm supposed to be diving into fish tanks overrun with The Cure, Nirvana, Foreigner, Journey, The Clash, Mellencamp, Madonna and everything Bee Gee's. If not the case the foot race should be toward the twagin and bangin caused by Country Music rather than Flo-Rida, The Black Keys, Katy Perry, Linkin Park, Foo Fighters, Foster the People, David Guetta and Nicki Minaj. I don't go anywhere without I Heart Radio. KISS in Los Angeles features a new cut and within seconds I'm tapping titles into the face of a Smartphone. Feeding an addiction to what I call "Constant Fresh" can easily be LINKed back 80 billion years to my teenage bedroom where the scent of black vinyl sent vibrations through a Montana kids need to meet chicks choosing instead to find new music. A desire that tore up cheap Kmart speakers while devouring every cent made mowing lawns, keeping score at bowling alleys or begging the Mother figure for bucks even she couldn't afford but somehow poured into the pockets of a rocket headed for Jockin on the radio. Why should life be any different thirty three years into a book of broadcast ratings long gone and forgotten? I pant like the dog I am at reaching this point of my every day. To not only Jock talk about music and its maker's but fire up the engines of the video devices in your computer showcasing the latest in pen scratchings and vocal shavings. Without further ado... I give to you! The Green Day titled: Kill the DJ A sliver, a toe dip, something incredibly small yet part of an extremely large approach to giving it their all. Rollingstone Magazine did their thing but updating fans of the band to last week's unveiling of Green Day's upcoming of albums¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré!, during a surprise gig at Los Angeles' Echoplex. Now you can check out the studio version of one of those tracks, the Clash-recalling dance-punk shuffler "Kill the DJ." Frontman (and new guest mentor on The Voice) Billie Joe Armstrong recently spoke to Rolling Stone about the entire trilogy and had this to say about the origins of "Kill the DJ": "[Bassist] Mike [Dirnt] asked me to write a song with a four-on-the-floor rhythm. I'd never done it before. It's kind of like Sandinista!, Ian Dury's 'Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll' and the Tom Tom Club song 'Genius of Love.' We were trying to figure out how to make dance music without turning into a dance band." What are you still doing on this page? Go check out the video! Find your true inner peace staying connected to "Constant Fresh..."

Neil Diamond Gets To The Greek Without Russell Brand Style Antics

Quick! Name four Neil Diamond songs that instantly toss you into front seat of the car Rock Concert mode! Screw being perfectly in tune! Who cares if you don't know the right lyrics! Does anybody truly know everything being blasted through windshields when Neil's pouring out Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show? What about Desiree? Forever in Blue Jeans? Sweet Caroline, I'm a Believer and Red Red Wine? Anytime Neil hits the radio vibes it's 15 minutes of front seat fame! It's all about cranking up the radio and blasting the 8am and 5pm rush hours with the best damn sing-a-long writer and artist of our time. Stop making ugly bent out of shape faces at your computer screen! Let your fear of going all out Diamond go! I was in Los Angeles when a Neil cover called Diamond tore up the House of Blue far better than the main attraction. No song went unturned, halfway through the show the tips of the vocal box were fried beyond cold beer repair. Where was I when Y2K froze the new millennium in place at the stroke of midnight December 31,1999? Checking out Mr. Diamond live in Denver, Colorado! Superman has returned... Rollingstone Magazine's Steve Appleford updates four decades of fans with news Neil's long awaited return to the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. The very place Russell Brand's Get Him The Greek flick lit up in theaters. This past Saturday Neil began another series of sold-out concerts. "It's hard to believe that it's been 40 years since we first played this place," Diamond told the crowd, marking the album's anniversary. "It still feels like home to me." It's essentially where superstardom began for the singer-songwriter, who returns to the Greek on August 16th, 18th, 23rd and 25th as part of his ongoing U.S. tour. "It made my day, made my year, it made my professional life," he said of the 1972 double album, recorded on the opening night of a 10-date engagement at the venue. The album – with its cover capturing Diamond in beaded denim, flowing hair and an inexplicable expression of lust – was just reissued in an expanded anniversary edition. There was no opening act on Saturday, as the open-air concert began with temperatures well above 80 degrees. The Greek's red curtains parted to reveal a smoky scene of flashing lights, his 12-man band, the tribal pounding of percussionist King Errisson and a trio of backup singers cooing an excited "Soolaimon." Diamond stood center stage in elegant black, singing with a honey-coated baritone still strong and velvety at 71. "We're going to make some beautiful noises tonight," Diamond promised, carrying a black acoustic guitar, and he soon began unfurling radio hits and fan favorites. The night was entirely about looking back, as he performed nothing from the two acclaimed albums recently produced by Rick Rubin, including 2008's Home Before Dark, his only No. 1-charting album in the U.S. The set list stretched back to his days as a Brill Building pop songsmith (with two versions of "I'm A Believer") and up through his later years as a breathless, unapologetic romantic (a seething "Love on the Rocks"), with the singer adding dramatic flourishes with sweeping hand gestures and the tilt of his brow. Cutting deepest were the earliest songs: the delicate acoustic guitar on "Play Me," the classic Sixties pop of "Cherry Cherry," as Diamond strummed bright, catchy riffs, plus the dreamy folk-pop hooks of "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon." "I used to sing that song to 15-year-olds," Diamond joked of the last one, a Top 10 hit in 1967. "I think most of them have grown up by now. I told you you'd be a woman soon. Now deal with it." He sat down to perform an achingly romantic "I'm a Believer," which the Monkees recorded in 1966, becoming the first Diamond composition to hit Number 1. He dedicated the song to his new wife (and co-manager), Katie McNeil. "I'd like very much to tell Katie that I wrote the song for her," he said, "but the truth is, when I wrote the song she wasn't born yet." The night's performance of "Red, Red Wine" was not Diamond's original folk-rock version but something closer to the 1984 reggae-flavored cover by UB40. Representing his schmaltziest years, 1978's "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" was performed with backup singer Linda Press (ably stepping in for the original's Barbra Streisand) and a huge string section, and you could feel the crowd swoon. At the end of two hours came Diamond's biggest signature songs, including a stretched-out "Sweet Caroline," which brought the crowd to its feet. "I Am I Said," his most eccentric and distinctive hit, had fans singing along and sometimes a step ahead, anxiously anticipating the next lyric. He put a hand over his heart for the lines "I am lost and I can't even say why/ Leaving me lonely still . . ." He was hardly alone at the Greek, sharing the old amphitheater and its surrounding forest of tall trees with nearly 6,000 fans. There were gray heads and much younger faces among them. And when Diamond finally waved goodbye with a victory lap around the stage (and a final blast of "Sweet Caroline" from the brass section), many in the cheering crowd didn't look quite ready to leave him there.

Beastie Boys Set To Battle Monster Energy Drink In Court! Who's Buzzing Now?

Just two days ago I sat laughing and carrying on in a radio station production studio all charged up about how Monster Energy Drink has shaved off the competition by being modernized masters of guerilla promotions. Oops... Something's not smelling all too fresh in the legal buzz department. Before passing away Beastie Boy Adam Yauch announced his unflavored support for the band's music to be featured in advertising, Rollingstone Magazine reports Monster makers might wanna stay up late late at night and figure out how they're gonna get out a copyright infringement case. I love to hang stories up like this in my studio. Those brain dead production sessions when advertising clients whip out what they think is a brilliant idea, "Let's use Lady Gaga or Britney Spears in the background!" Not even an Atom bomb could split the very second just set on fire within the tips of my lips, "I can't produce it. Not just today but never. I don't care if you fly me to an old fashioned secret Russian protecting bunker in Butte, Montana or we've survived the rebirth of Jesus Christ; It's not happening without someone latching onto a written permission slip from the high school principals of music." "Oh really? Why?" Seriously? Can we talk about this? I can still hear Eric Clapton and Phil Collins ringing in my head! Attaching their songs to a late 80's Michelob commercial forcing me to change the radio dial some 20 rock chapters down the Highway to Hell. The Beatles Revolution lost its faceless impact the moment NIKE ignited their campaign. I totally lost it when KULR in Billings, Montana adopted the song Still The One from Orleans as a theme in the 70's. Only to see WBTV in the 90's go all out EMF with Unbelievable. Now that both songs are qualified to be played on 1029 The Lake on I Heart Radio as a variety hit. I do hit! The dial! I know! It's what the client wants! Like a Rock from Bob Seger made the Detroit Kid a ton of cash. Born in The USA from Springsteen made the Boss very mad. The client wants success! What they're doing is shoving listeners into an oddly shaped of process of thoughts: 1. I hate this radio station for talking over my favorite song! 2. If I hear Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling one more time I'm gonna rip the feeling out of their throats! Then again, wasn't it Barry Manilow that said, "Jingles are nothing more than shorter versions of very memorable songs." Rollingstone explains: In a suit filed yesterday in New York federal court by Mike Diamond, Adam Horovitz and Denchen Yauch, Yauch's widow and the executor of his estate, the Beastie Boys claim that Monster included parts of "Sabotage," "So Whatcha Want," Make Some Noise" and "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun" in a promotional video posted on Monster's website, along with a 23-minute medley of Beastie Boys songs made available for download as an mp3. The songs were taken from footage of a live set by DJ Z-Trip at the Monster-sponsored Canadian festival Ruckus in the Rockies, held a few days after Yauch died in May. Because of Monster's unauthorized use of the Beastie Boys' music, the complaint says, "the public was confused into believing that plaintiffs sponsored, endorsed and are associated with defendant Monster in promoting defendant Monster's productions and promotional events." The band claims that Monster's use of its music will cause "irreparable damage" and seeks the removal of the video and mp3 from Monster's website and unspecified monetary damages.

50's Music is Dead In Vegas

The waves are crashing! But this isn't the type of crash beachcombers and surfers balance their boards on. Nor are we talking about digital downloading wav's. Is anybody shocked that 50's Rock is taking a nosedive in Vegas? Just because The Beach Boys are 50 doesn't mean Sin City visitors carry the good vibrations the state of California's been branding on eardrums worldwide since the birth of JC. By the looks of things even the seashells burped up during last night's surf and turf fail to carry the gentle whisper of Rock n Roll whoosh. Beach Music of the West Coast kind is no longer part of the times. Where's all this coming from? Rollingstone Magazine reports that despite a big-name director and an impressive soundtrack featuring the Beach Boys, Surf:The Musical is closing in Las Vegas after a disappointing six-week run, reports Las Vegas Weekly. Planet Hollywood pulled the plug on the show, which had a preview opening June 29th and a formal debut July 17th. The musical will close August 15th. Surf: The Musical had star power behind it, with Rock Of Ages director Kristin Hanggi steering a production set entirely to the music of the Beach Boys, who never officially endorsed the show. The storyline follows a failed young musician who returns to his beachside hometown only to discover his ex-girlfriend is now with a real rocker. The production reportedly never sold more than 200 tickets to any show, with at least one show selling fewer than 50 tickets in a 1,500-seat theater. In 2005, Good Vibrations, another musical heavily featuring the Beach Boys' music, left Broadway after 94 performances. Vegas needs to hold onto their bold attitude of what happens here stays here... Hosting the I Heart Music Festival a second year is a brilliant move! Two hot Rockin, Country Fried, Hip Hop anything goes days blasted into the history books by Radio's desire to passionately give back to their fans over and over at the MGM Grand. Surf? Hardly... Vegas is about being hung over with a Johnny Depp attitude of melting the paint off the walls of hotel rooms and the bridesmaids willing to risk everything for a night of fun without blasting into a bottle of guilt back home in Nebraska.

The Monkees Including Mike Are BACK!

Rarely is a Broadcasting lecture shared on the campuses of trade schools and universities that I'm not asked, "Why did you choose radio?" From the outside looking in, the six foot aged but not like a fine wine frame decorated in radio disc jockey hair, attitude and clothes might hop off the normal beaten path but damn if he doesn't dull the blades of music's cutting edge while having to explain, "The Monkees brought me here." Davy, Mike, Peter and Mickey were my Beatles. I've met them, totally believe I got fired from a radio station because of one of them and mourn the loss of Davy more than what one expects. Taking trips to Ranchester, Wyoming to visit real cowboy cousins branded me into a corner of let's pretend. While mom's cast of idiot kids ripped through the skyscraping hills riding horses or chasing chickens, my secret passion was breaking into cousin Linda's record collection. Steppin Stone, Day Dream Believer and I'm A Believer pushed me into a character: A radio disc jockey named Kurt Anthony on KOOK in Billings, Montana. I wanted to be him and learning how to properly introduce a Monkees song was the ticket. Over and over I practiced, "Music 97 KOOK here are the Monkees!" Pretty damn boring... But not for the one whose passion to play music dipped in black vinyl. I played those Monkees so much the Radio Gods of Master Blasting Power Pushing Boss Jocking Stack of Wax Melting Greatness finally turned on a twin spin of turntables. Andy Greene from Rollingstone Magazine recently spent some time with Mike Nesmith of the Monkees. When Davy Jones tragically passed away in February, many Monkees fans presumed it was the end of the group. Even members of the band thought it was probably over. "There is a faint chance we'll continue," Peter Tork told Rolling Stone. "I don't know whether we could structure something without Davy. I had a couple of thoughts, but I don't know if they're workable." What he didn't count on at the time was former Monkee Michael Nesmith returning to the fold. With the exception of a short European run of dates in 1997, Nesmith hasn't participated in any of the Monkees many reunion tours since their split in 1971. As Rolling Stone announced this morning, he's had a change of heart and the three surviving members of the band will hit the road in November. We spoke with Nesmith via e-mail about the reunion tour and his other future plans. When I spoke with Peter and Micky shortly after Davy died, they said they hadn't really spoken to you since the 1997 European tour. Where and when did you guys first begin communicating? We reconnected at a private memorial for David the three of us arranged that was held at a private home. What made you want to return to the band after all these years? Is this something you'd been contemplating for a while? I never really left. It is a part of my youth that is always active in my thought and part of my overall work as an artist. It stays in a special place, but like things in the past it fades in and out in relevance to activities that are current. Getting together with old friends and acquaintances can be very stimulating and fun and even inspiring to me. We did some good work together and I am always interested in the right time and the right place to reconnect and play. Any regrets about not joining them on their tour last year? Were you ever tempted to guest for a song or two last year? No. It was, as usual, a question of schedules and timing and the focus of our individual work. Had there been an opportunity to join them I would have – but we were out of sync schedule wise. How will the show address Davy's absence? Will songs he originally sang be included? David's presence and his past will be throughout the show. He will be missed in his absence, but very much on our minds and in our heart. We will include some of the songs he sang, and do our best. What sort of setlist can fans expect? Are there certain rarities you're hoping to bring back? Has the band been assembled yet? We are focusing around Headquarters – our first real sojourn as a band – but the setlist will include all the Monkees fans expect. There are songs of mine and Peter's that have not been performed that we will play. The three of us will play the Headquarters material as we did in the studio – but the shows backing band for the other material will be the same as the last tours – with the exception of the inclusion of my son Christian on guitar. Is there any talk of recording new material? No. Are you interested in continuing with the group after this string of dates ends in December? Continuing is a big word. If you mean receptive to more concert dates, as I say I am always interested – but much will depend on the logic of events. I've heard you might go on a solo tour and perform material from your RCA albums. Is that the case? If so, when might that happen? Yes. But more than the RCA albums. There is a lot of material around later work in video that is fun to play as well. I am doing a short four-concert tour in October in the U.K. And I am looking at a longer solo tour in the States in the spring of '13. I also heard you want to write a book. What are the plans for that? I am in that process. This will be my third book – the first two are novels and this will be a type of nonfiction. I use "type" as an equivocator since there is some fiction in it. It is more amarcord than autobiography, more a study of events past in my life and times and how they fit together than a recollection. Vidal made the distinction in his book Palimpsest between the memoir and the autobiography – and that's a good definition for this new book – a kind of memoir – and Tropic of Cancer is another good way to look at the mixture of true stories and fictionally enhanced but real events. (Not to presume to compare myself with Miller or Vidal.) No publisher yet. Fans haven't heard much from you in a very long time. Now there's all these projects seemingly at once. What's the impetus for all this? I feel this is the start of the ending for me here – or more precisely, as Churchill had it – the end of the beginning. Now is the time.

R.E.M Rips The Knob Off Radio Rules

Something pretty spectacular unfolded during the birth of the final fifteen dedicated to the Twentieth Century. Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry froze their section of Rock History inside a time tube called R.E.M. Although their agreement to create as a single unit officially began before Ronald declared them the Reagan years... R.E.M. held true to the sport of being unique during a time when British new wave Punkster's were thrashing and Duran Duran re-mastered the heart strings of girls panting over the boys in the band. Thanks to College Radio the 90's might not have been so receptive to an alternative edge for Poets with pens and the guitars they carried with them. An unmasked R.E.M. stood before common radio folk programmers and consultants with a commercial sound that listeners discovered they could sing. Phil Collins, Rod Stewart and Michael Bolton were no longer needed to press the flesh of advertisers hunting down potential clients. A new shape of art had risen with the sun and Adult Contemporary was about to forfeit its face for a Georgia based band with only three letters to its name. Rollingstone Magazine reports today that R.E.M. has announced plans to re-master a 25th anniversary edition of the 1987 LP Document, featuring a previously unreleased live recording of a concert during their Work tour on September 14th, 1987 in Utrecht, Holland. The release includes new liner notes and is packaged in a lift-top box that contains four postcards. R.E.M. will also issue a re-mastered 180-gram vinyl edition of the release. Document was R.E.M.'s first platinum record, featuring the Top 10 hit "The One I Love" and one of the band's most enduring songs, "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)." Reviewing the album , Rolling Stone's David Fricke praised the record, calling it their "finest album to date" and writing, "Document is the sound of R.E.M. on the move, the roar of a band that prides itself on the measure of achievement and the element of surprise." The band wasn't sure what to expect when the album came out. "There are a few things on this album that could do well at Top 40 radio," guitarist Peter Buck told Rolling Stone in 1987. "But then I can't imagine it happening, knowing us. So I don't know if I have any commercial expectations for this one at all. I assume it will sell some, somebody's got to buy it." Document was certified platinum, with sales of more than 1 million copies, less than six months later – the first in a string of platinum-selling albums that included the band's next five releases: Green, Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster and New Adventures in Hi-Fi. Last September, R.E.M. announced they were splitting up after three decades. The re-mastered 25th anniversary edition of Document is set for a September 25th release. Check out audio of Buck's introduction to the album below, recorded in 1987 for attendees of the New Music Seminar.

When Rock Bands Forget Fans: Rocks Biggest Bite

Music is about birth and rebirth and the tours that go with them. Nowhere is it written that singers are supposed to love songwriters and producers win "All Access Passes" to a lifetime of free limelight. The rise of the compact disc disconnected future fans from storylines that once drew purpose from bent cardboard corners. Inside sleeves fed the backfields of impression while irrigating temptation to the point of impersonating before finding your own star. Today the MP3 or ITunes digital download freakishly resembles a faceless beast. You know the music but find no reason to know the singer, songwriter and or producer still wondering why his "All Access Pass" doesn't get him past the front door of a Krispy Kreme. Even if you did grasp the grass that makes up the banks of a creative river the artists honestly don't care about you either. Case in point: J Geils versus The J Geils Band Rollingstone Magazine reports the founder has filed a lawsuit against the other members currently on the road playing under the name J Geils Band. Let me modernize it... Let's say Dave Matthews whips from the strip and says, "I quit." but the others find no shame and continue playing under the same name. Would you cough up the bucks to try your luck on what might sound like but never truly evolves into the vibration that tickled your fancy? But wait! There's a twist on the list. Peter Wolf is the famous voice or the man behind the microphone not J Geils and Peter is part of the lineup headed to court. The others include Richard Salwitz, Danny Klein and Seth Justman. According to the lawsuit filed in Boston Superior Court, it claims the J Geil-less Band, "planned and conspired" to exclude J from a tour and are unlawfully using the group's trademarked name. Why didn't this happen to Journey when Steve Perry opted to never come back? What about Dennis Deyoung in Styx? Both stories are totally worth the Google search. I promise no test at the end! Back to the lawsuit! Rollingstone continues to explain that "Together they're the J. Geils Band, but separately they're Mr. Wolf, Mr. Salwitz , Mr. Klein and Mr. Justman," said Geils' lawyer, Charles Grimes. "They do not have the right to take his name and use it, and try to deny him the right to use his own name." "We will address the claims in the lawsuit including our own claims against John Geils and Francesca Records at the appropriate time," said James Weinberger, who is representing the band's other members. The J. Geils Band had scheduled an 11-show tour without Geils, kicking off in Syracuse, New York on August 25th. Geils is seeking full rights to the trademarked name and prohibition of the defendants' use of the band name, plus damages.

Save A Prayer Beer Or Toke For Jerry Garcia

I've often wondered if the maker's of 18th Century Music and Art sat around in dusty dark pubs smoking hand rolled cigarettes while sluggishly pouring alcohol into their veins pondering, "If Mozart had lived to be 70 would he have found purpose in rhyming and timing? Might his influence over the masses be that of locating no reason to disconnect from fashion and followers?" Or did they say, "WTF life moves on!" Basically meaning...did the people of yesteryear and the day before support the "Great" through methods of becoming extra weight? This isn't negative! In an age of Google calendars and reasons to friend the world on Face Book do famous birthday's and celebrations mean anything? If Elvis suddenly appeared he'd probably take a look at Graceland and say, "You gotta be kidding me. For the love of God didn't you see the real picture? The Colonel whored me out!" This isn't just any weekend! If Jerry Garcia had been elected President of the United States Back to School No Tax Sales would be dubbed It's Grateful to be Alive events featuring 30! 40! Even 60% off extravaganzas! Are we doing a disservice to the legends of what helped shaped our paths by entering a another weekend totally ignoring the 70th anniversary of Jerry Garcia's birth? There's a big chance that a couple sets of eyes viewing this blog are confessing their Rock n Roll sins, "Oh Lord of all music makers and pied pipers. I have entered a moment in my life where I do not know of the man this Rock Jock is talking of." Ok... let me rip a page out of the Rollinstone Magazine and see if we can't get you caught up. Benji Eisen reports Jerry Garcia would’ve turned 70 on August 1st, and his fellow guitarist in the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir, is throwing a musical bash of sorts. Called "Move Me Brightly," the event brings together an all-star group of musicians from varied backgrounds who, under Weir's stewardship, will perform a couple hours' worth of Garcia material tonight for a free webcast. The songs will range from Grateful Dead classics to cuts Garcia performed with his solo band. While nobody in the large ensemble of musicians – a rotating cast (including members of Phish, the Hold Steady, Vampire Weekend and more) that will number near 20 by the night's end – will attempt to replicate Garcia's solos or fill his space, Weir says that Garcia's voice will be represented by the music itself. "You find Jerry in the songs," Weir told Rolling Stone during a break in rehearsals on Thursday. "And he's amply there." Since Garcia was known never to play a song the exact same way twice, Weir says that any new interpretation is just as valid as the original: "The beauty of it is how Jerry manifests himself, how he reveals himself, to the individuals." For "Move Me Brightly," in addition to Grateful Dead members Weir and Donna Jean Godchaux, those individuals will include Phish's Mike Gordon, Furthur's Joe Russo and Jeff Chimenti, the Hold Steady's Craig Finn and Tad Kubler, Vampire Weekend's Chris Tomson, the Yellowbirds' Sam Cohen and Josh Kaufman, Ryan Adams & the Cardinals' Neal Casal and Jon Graboff and the Black Crowes' Adam MacDougall, as well as singer-songwriters Jim Lauderdale, Jonathan Wilson, Cass McCombs and Harper Simon. During rehearsals, actor Luke Wilson was on hand interviewing members of Garcia's family for a documentary directed by Justin Kreutzmann, son of Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann. The footage will air during a break in the live performance tonight. "I've been a fan since I was a kid and I got to see them a couple of times and just loved the music, first and foremost," Wilson told Rolling Stone about the Dead. "And they also just sounded like a cool organization, not just a rock band. I always kind of liked the idea of them." Vampire Weekend's Chris Tomson was psyched because he got to meet and jam with one of his living heroes, Phish's Mike Gordon. "I was 11 when Jerry died, so I wasn't really able to see them as 'the Grateful Dead,'" Tomson told Rolling Stone. Instead, his love for Phish led him to trace the history backwards and discover the Dead's legacy. As for Gordon himself – probably the second biggest star in the ensemble, behind Weir – he is acutely aware of the comparisons Phish have gotten to the Grateful Dead throughout their nearly 30-year career. He says the band is finally at a place where they're mostly comfortable with it, although, as he points out, the music itself rarely sounds similar. "They were so influential to us in so many ways," Gordon said. "Especially in this way of mixing improvisation with other elements that are far from that. We all talk about it. It's more like a 'being a band' model, almost more than the actual fabric of the music." He paused. "For me personally, even that aspect is very inspiring." As for the impact that Jerry Garcia specifically made on him, Gordon made the analogy of first learning how to drive a car versus running errands in one years later: Before you can drive, you fantasize about it. Then you get your license, and even just cruising around the neighborhood is thrilling. "And the first time you just go, by yourself, with no one else in the car, you feel the huge weight of the car, the girth of the engine going down the road, and it's this massive, powerful feeling," he says. But then the novelty rubs off and, before you know it, you're stuck at a red light, wishing you were at your destination already. "So, for me, what Jerry and the Grateful Dead brought is that childlike sense of wonder where you first learn to drive, where you appreciate every note and every chord going by with happiness and wonder," says Gordon. "And then to take that and refine it with years of mixing traditions and innovations galore, for decades of refining, into a much more 'adult' sort of package. But always keeping that excitement. . . as you get older. I think that's what they did. And I think that's the most inspiring aspect of it all." "Move Me Brightly: Celebrating Jerry Garcia's 70th Birthday" will be webcast in high definition from TRI Studios, Weir's webcast studio and general "playpen" in San Rafael, just a few miles down the road from where the Grateful Dead used to rehearse. It will air live tonight, August 3rd, beginning at 9:30 p.m. EST (6:30 p.m. PST) via TRIStudios.com and Yahoo! Music.

Mastering The Mind Of Bob Dylan Should Be Mandated By All Nations

High school creative writing and chorus should come with a mandated requirement: everyone must study the methods of written passage shared not through one but all decades of Bob Dylan. The value of his writing imagination is getting lost inside the circumference of digital downloads. It reminds me of a conversation once shared with a Barnes and Noble's employee that pointedly explained, "The elders of the Native American Nations are passing and nobody today feels they need the extra weight to carry the messages forward." When was the last time you studied the lyrics Bob Dylan has set free? Photographs attached to colorful posters and thick magazine covers that have filtered through flea markets, art auctions and cardboard boxes stashed in crawl spaces assumed forever safe prove Bob wasn't built for the 60's alone. To be in his mind, to be present in a car swiftly taking him through the streets of "Anywhere" USA or "Backstreet" world or to crack open a bagel on a newly lit Sunday might in fact be the closest anyone could be to God on earth. Rollingstone Magazine's Mikal Gilmore heats up his latest sketches by describing Tempest, his 35th studio album as a record where "anything goes and you just gotta believe it will make sense." But it isn't the record he set out to make. "I wanted to make something more religious," he says. "I just didn't have enough [religious songs]. Intentionally, specifically religious songs is what I wanted to do. That takes a lot more concentration to pull that off 10 times with the same thread – than it does with a record like I ended up with." The "anything goes" album he ended up with is full of big stories, big endings and transfixing effect. The disc was recorded in Jackson Browne's studio in L.A. with Dylan's touring band – bassist Tony Garnier, drummer George G. Receli, steel guitarist Donnie Herron, and guitarists Charlie Sexton and Stu Kimball – as well as David Hidalgo on guitar, violin and accordion. "Tin Angel" is a devastating tale of a man in search of his lost love; the doleful "Soon After Midnight" seems to be about love (but maybe it's revenge); the vengeful "Pay in Blood" has Dylan darkly repeating, "I pay in blood, but not my own." Tenderness finally seals Tempest, in "Roll On, John," Dylan's heartfelt tribute to his friend John Lennon. The title track is a nearly 14-minute depiction of the Titanic disaster. Numerous folk and gospel songs gave accounts of the event, including the Carter Family's "The Titanic," which Dylan drew from. "I was just fooling with that one night," he says. "I liked that melody – I liked it a lot. 'Maybe I'm gonna appropriate this melody.' But where would I go with it?" Elements of Dylan's vision of the Titanic are familiar – historical figures, the inescapable finality. But it's not all grounded in fact: The ship's decks are places of madness ("Brother rose up against brother. They fought and slaughtered each other"), and even Leonardo DiCaprio appears. ("Yeah, Leo," says Dylan. "I don't think the song would be the same without him. Or the movie.") "People are going to say, 'Well, it's not very truthful,' " says Dylan. "But a songwriter doesn't care about what's truthful. What he cares about is what should've happened, what could've happened. That's its own kind of truth. It's like people who read Shakespeare plays, but they never see a Shakespeare play. I think they just use his name." Dylan's mention of Shakespeare raises a question. The playwright's final work was called The Tempest, and some have already asked: Is Dylan's Tempest intended as a last work by the now 71-year-old artist? Dylan is dismissive of the suggestion. "Shakespeare's last play was called The Tempest. It wasn't called just plain Tempest. The name of my record is just plain Tempest. It's two different titles." This story is from the August 16th, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.