punk's not dead?

I recently read that Jim Lindberg, the singer of punk rock band Pennywise, has recently quit the band after being the original singer for 20 years. Even with losing a valuable part of Pennywise, the band has stated that they will continue to write new music and perform. I'm not sure how i feel about this considering Jim was the heart of the band. I grew up listening to this band and would always goto their concerts back in the day. The amount of energy and power that Jim brought feels irreplaceable for that band.

If any of you guys were fans of this band, what do you all think of this situation?

This was one of my favourite songs by them that got me into the band:


Here's an article about Jim Lindberg leaving the band:
http://www.epitaphblog.com/?p=2440

another supergroup

When you take members of 3 talented/respected/popular bands, you end up forming one supergroup. Josh Homme (Queens Of The Stone Age), John Paul Jones (Led Zepplin), and Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) have all joined forced to for the band Them Crooked Vultures. There's been a lot of buzz about them among the industry and music zines. Check out a fan filmed live video here:

Their debut album is expected to be out at the end of October and you can already tell that this is going to be a highy anticipated album!

Just to brighten the day some more, here's a pretty entertaining Belly Flop Remix clip:

Who doesn't enjoy seeing a belly flop? come on! lol =)

People still buying CDs

I normally never look at weekly Sound Scans for album sales but I was curious this week just to see how CDs are selling these days. I find it crazy how Michael Jackson's albums (yes multiples) are still dominating the charts and selling a ridiculous amount. His "Number Ones" best of album sold 80,774 copies this week. It's obvious that his death played the main part of all his albums selling but even after about 2 months from his death, he's still selling albums like crazy.

It's great to see how bands on indie labels are album to sell just as well as major label artists as well. Cobra Starship's new album, Hot Mess, had impressive first week numbers with 45,205 albums sold. That's a great number considering it's a non-major label artist and people tend to not really buy CDs these days.

Check out this link to see what other albums are selling and what not - http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/sales/salescht.cgi

newnewnew + some laughs

I was browsing around Youtube earlier today and found the new Paramore single finally released a music video for it. It looks like the band went into a darker and claustrophobic direction with this video. I applaud the band for trying something new and looking into different directons with their career. With any band, progression is important and really shows the amount of talent you have if you can pull it off well. I personally think this song and video is great!
Have a look:


Aside from the music, I also found a clip i've been laughing about for a while. Any of you guys fans of the TV show Kenny VS Spenny? If you've never heard of it, do yourselves a favour and make an effort to watch it! It's one of the funniest shows to come out of Canada. The basic concept of the show is 2 guys going head to head in each episode competing in ridiculous challenges that end up being hilarious. The loser ends up being humiliated in someway.
The video i'm laughing at is one of the main characters, Kenny Hotz, getting harrassed in public. If you know the type of person Kenny is on the show, then you'll likely know what to expect from him in any situation!
Check it out:

pimp my microphone

Remember that blog i wrote about Vince Neil? Well, I was looking at his stage equipment recently out of curiousity and one thing that caught my attention was the customized Sennheiser microphones he uses. These are probably the most fancy microphones I've ever seen! Have a look at these:




Pretty awesome huh?!

Speaking of Sennheiser, they're actually doing a tour across North America at the moment promoting their headphones. They'll likely have giveaways and what not too when they make it to your town. Check out all the info here - http://www.sennheisersoundtour.com/facebook

from reality to the gaming environment

The Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchise are a popular part of pop culture these days. The games are a huge outlet for promotion/advertisement and have helped gain popularity for many bands. People every where are developing massive hand cramps from button mashing the plastic guitar.
Many who are against the games have problems with people wasting their time thinking they're rockstars by mastering a fake guitar when they could be dedicating that effort towards a real guitar. With that being said, now both worlds can meet up in the middle and compromise. Someone has modded a real guitar to work on the Nintendo Wii version of Guitar Hero. The Guitar is connected with the Wiimote and is plugged into an amp.
Check out this video to see it in action:


Hardcore Guitar Hero and Rock Band gamers can only hope that one day their plastic guitars can be plugged into an amp and work in reality.

80s hair metal flashback

Remember an era of guys with crazy/huge/long hair, women's/gaudy clothing, and eyeliner? Sounds a lot like the trend going on these days but it's not quite what i'm talking about. The only other time period would be the 80's where "hair (glam) metal" dominated the scene. One of the biggest bands in that scene was Motley Crue, who were known for their crazy antics and hits songs like "Girls Girls Girls". It's a good time to reflect on this wild band that continues to tour, write music, and influence a new generation of bands. As well as having their songs continue to carry on to this time period's mainstream and towards future eras too.

I just found this video of Vince Neil on MTV's Cribs recently that I found to be interesting:

Motley Crue - Vince Neil's MTV Cribs

It's insane how much money there was in music back in the day which is nothing like it is these days. The term "broke musician" is the only reality that comes to mind with bands of today, even with bands who seem to be making it.

What do you all think of Motley Crue?

the cover song

From doing a bunch of browsing online recently, i've noticed that theres a ridiculous amount of cover albums and bands randomly releasing cover songs these days. Even covering newer songs of current artists / hits. I remember when bands would just cover a song from back in the day that really inspired them and made an impact on the band's career/life. These days i'm seeing rock covers of stuff like Soulja Boy and Pussycat Dolls just to gain quick attention. As i've said in my earlier blogs, it's pretty evident that the state of the music scene we're in right now is becoming a complete joke.

I think these 2 bands did an amazing job covering these lame songs though hahaha:





Hopefully those 2 bands will get more attention for their actual songs and not these covers though (i.e. Alien Ant Farm)

I'll end this on a funny note... A 53-year-old man has been arrested for the second time for stalking Miley Cyrus.
http://www.nme.com/news/nme/46543
Enjoy. lol

a nostalgic moment

With everyone complaining about how shitty music is these days, it makes for a good time to reflect on bands you listened to in the past. With that being said, it's good to see a lot of bands coming out of hiatus to help improve the state of the music industry. Over the past year we've had bands like No Doubt, Blink 182, Sunny Day Real Estate, and The Get Up Kids making a comeback. These were some of the bands that influenced the new generation of bands, but somehow these new bands got lost along the way and stumbled upon certain tricks to get by (i.e. vocal effects and using tracks to play their instruments for them). I actually found a pretty funny article where The Get Up Kids apologize for inadvertently creating the neon emo fad that's currently dominating the scene. have a look at it here - http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4137393-if-this-is-the-world-we-helped-create-then-i-apologise-the-get-up-kids-get-back

Back when i was growing up, i would listen to a lot of NOFX and 311. Those were bands with great songs and worked hard to get to where they are. If you haven't listened to these bands before, you should step into my nostalgic music 101 class =)
Check them out here:



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