Fools' Day For Metallica

On April 1 (All Fools’ Day) the American radio station KMKF 101.5 FM K-Rock is going to play only Metallica’s songs, said Blabbermouth. Surely it’s tremendously cool to hear an exclusive collection of this band on the radio, but come on, why it should be on the Fool’s day? This radio event will be dedicated to the release of a digital catalogue “The Complete Metallica”, which contains 163 songs that were recorded in various years of their long music career. Practically, it contains everything and all of it will be heard on K-Rock tomorrow. “Metallica fans are some of the most loyal in the world, and with the digital box set release, it’s a great time to celebrate the band’s catalogue. The fact that we’re doing this on commercial radio is unbelievable!,” said one of the K-Rock’s DJs Shawn Rock. For those who are staying outside of the US all of it will be available online* at the their official website. K-Rock is one of the most popular and professional radio stations, which is specializing in rock/metal/alternative styles of music.

On April 4 Metallica whose first album “Kill’ Em All” was released in 1983 is going to be introduced into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

It Takes Longer

British DJ Fatboy Slim had cancelled his live performance at the Snowbombing festival in Austria due to some important doctor’s advice, said Gigwise. In the beginning of March this infamous dj went to a rehab clinic in order to help his problem with alcohol. As it turned out right now his managers are saying that the treatment course will take a little longer than Slim had expected. Surely this guy has some serious problem with his alcohol habit, so as they say you play, you pay and hopefully he is going to be allright at the end of it. In the announcement given to his fans Fatboy Slim showed certain regrets about this cancellation. “I truly hope that I will be invited to this festival again next year”, noted the guy, but definitely it all sounds pretty bad, who knows if they will invite him for the next time. Festival organizers have replaced Fatboy Slim with 2manydjs, another hot electronic group, but it would be much better if they performed together.

This is going to be Snowbombing’s tenth anniversary, which is taking place in Austrian Mayrhofen from March 29 to April 4. The best part about this festival is that it unites winter sports with live performances.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

Jason Newsted Is Also Represented

Metallica’s ex bass guitarist Jason Newsted will reunite with his old bandmates during the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame ceremonial performance on April 4 in Cleveland, said Blabbermouth. Just absolutely stunning news for those who still cannot imagine this group without Jason, someone who stayed with them since 1986 to 2001. “Jason Newsted will participate during the ceremony and also shall parform together with us”, noted the band’s lead guitarist Kirk Hammett. Following his words, currently Metallica is discussing the list of songs, which they’re going to perform. A lot of people could not imagine Newsted to join them again, even for such a short period of time. Robert Trujillo who has replaced Jason in Metallica’s lineup after his leaving in 2001 had also been invited to the ceremony. Metallica will be represented by Red Hot Chili Peppers bass guitarist Flea.

Besides Metallica the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame will also include Run DMC represented by Eminem, Jeff Beck represented by Jimmy Page, Little Anthony & The Imperials taken there by Smokie Robinson and Bobby Womack corresponded by Ron Wood.

Originally, Jason Newsted left Metallica over a conflict between him and the band’s frontman James Hetfield who thought that Jason’s affiliation with the side project Echobrain distorts Metallica’s music career.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

Red + Halen

Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chud Smith had created a supergroup called Chickenfoot, which besides him will include Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony from Van Halen, plus legendary Joe Satriani, said NME. Another heavy project that should unite some absolutely great musicians from different types of rock. The debut album shall be available in April 2009 and it’s already known what particular songs may be included - "Avenida Revolution", "Soap On A Rope", "Sexy Little Thing", "Oh Yeah", "Runnin’ Out", "Get It Up", "Down the Drain", "My Kinda Girl", "Learning To Fall", "Turnin’ Left", "Future In The Past". Among this quite nice list there will be the name of the album which is not available yet, but there are some equally nice possibilities, “Friction Ignition” and “Chickenfoot”. Currently, “Soap On A Rope” and “Down the Drain” are available on Chickenfoot page at MySpace. After the release this supergroup will kickstart the European tour – the first concert is set for June 23. They’ll visit the Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Danmark.

The first Chickenfoot performance had already taken place in February 2008 in Las Vegas. The whole idea of creativity behind this group belongs to Chud Smith who practically invited the rest of musicians. Hagar thinks that Chickenfoot can be only compared to Led Zeppelin.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

U2 Ticket Sales

Infamous Irish rockers U2 have established a European record on concert ticket sales. “360 Degree Tour” which is about to get going is dedicated to the release of their last album “No Line on the Horizon”, said Gigwise. This band was always something bigger than just a good music due to their unforgettable stage performances with an incredible twist to them. This time their fans took only sixty seconds to purchase almost seven thousand tickets to the Wembley stadium show in London. Wembley is one of the biggest and the most popular stage due to it’s location, history, sound and of course spaciousness. Besides this great London venue, all of 160 thousand tickets to their Dublin shows were sold out in only forty minutes. Such cases of ticket sales are practically unmatched in the music business these days. The same music news resourse is also adding that nearly similar sales took place in Sweden, Netherlands and Italy. “360 Degree Tour” is starting on June 30 in Barcelona.

Gigwise is noticing that specifically for “360 Degree Tour” there is a unique project of rebuilding the arena – musicians will perform on absolutely round shaped stage. As the band thinks, this design will allow them to get a better contact with the crowd.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

NIN/JA

American industrial band Nine Inch Nails had opened a website dedicated to the upcoming joint tour with Jane’s Adiction and Street Sweeper. Practically, this web site is enabling anyone to download NIN/JA 2009 Tour Sampler mini album with previously unreleased tracks produced by NIN, Jane’s Addiction and Street Sweeper. In other words this is quite interesting to see and hear what these three pretty good bands are going to bring into the world of music. Nine Inch Nails is represented by “Not So Pretty Now” and “Non-Entity”, songs that were played only during the concerts. Jane’s Addiction had recorded new versions of “Chip Away” and “Whores” (produced with the help of Trent Reznor and Alan Moulder). Street Sweeper (new project made by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello) goes with “Clap For The Killers” and “The Oath”. Sounds like a powerful cocktail that everyone is going to download, see at the tour or just feel the vibe which is coming from these three absolutely cool music projects. Anyone who wishes to receive a disk will have to leave an email address and all the new stuff will be sent back in the form of a download link. Music files are available in mp3, m4a, FLAC and WAVE formats. The last three files are extremely big, so they’re available in the form of a torrent-file.

http://www.ninja2009.com 

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

"I Have No Desire..."

Ex-The Stone Roses lead guitar player John Squire finally had made a personal reply to all these strange rumours about the reunion of his former band. He has placed a photograph on his web site under the name - “I have no desire”. This artistic installation literally puts a cross on all such rumours that try to take out The Stone Roses from their past, cool idea, but no approval from the guy. “I have no desire whatsoever to desecrate the grave of seminal Manchester pop group The Stone Roses”, so those who are still thinking about their comeback better go and see what John thinks about it. Practically, sometimes it’s even better if the band never really comes from it’s past by staying only in those glory days because some things just cannot be reinvented again. In many cases it can be awesome, but when musicians don’t feel like doing it, then most likely they’re doing the right thing. He also made a statement on BBC, “There are fans but there is also a market there to expolit and I suspect this [reunion story] is being driven by people within the industry that have a vested interest.”

After the fall of The Stone Roses due to a major conflict between Squire and Ian Brown (vocalist) in 1996, Squire  had established a new band called The Seahorses, which produced the studio album “Do it Yourself” (1997). In 1999 he recorded so far unreleased “Minus Blue”.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

Timberlake Is On Tequila

American pop singer Justin Timberlake is about to start producing his own brand of tequila, said New Musical Express. This alcoholic beverage seems to be very special to him so it’s another way to escape the world of music by facing something cool, but not equally serious. Tequila will be made under Timberlake’s personal brand called “901” and should hit the liquor stores in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and St Louis in May this year. Everyone hopes that this particular beverage is going to be as good as his art, but unfortunately not everyone is certain about it. His representatives say that the name “901” is quite symbolic in this case. This number chosen by an artist means one minute past nine PM. “901 is that time of night when your evening is ending, but your night is just beginning,” they’ve noted. Some rumours are also adding that “901” is going to be a very strong drink, but again it’s not about the strength, it’s about quality.

Besides “901” Timberlake is owning a “William Rast” company which is producing clothing, and also is considered to be the founder of “Tennman” record label. At the same time Gigwise is noting that a singer is not forgettng about his music career. Currently, he is working with his third solo album.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

Gallagher Moves Into Clothing

Vocalist of the legendary British band Oasis Liam Gallagher is planning to begin his own clothing line, said New Musical Express. He is in the process of making it all happen because there is already the name for his new creation – “Pretty Green”. This is a song title taken from a friendly group called The Jam. Gallagher explains his decision to become a clothing designer very simply, he just truly loves clothing and cannot stay without it. Liam had particularly underlined, -“The reason I’m doing it is I like clothes. We’re going to do clothes I like, if people like it cool if they don’t they don’t!”. Everything what is somehow related to Gallagher’s plan can be found at his site “Pretty Green”. Again and again various superstars are trying themselves in all sorts of things. Acting and the establishment of clothing lines are probably two the most popular careers that may be put against their original pathways. Definitely stuff like that should be welcomed because as many people know if a person is talented in one thing than he is talented in many things.

“Pretty Green” is going to produce outer clothing and shoes. Besides that, Gallagher’s stylish clothing line will later add on jeans, t-shirts and hats.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

The Stone Roses Did Not Plan That

Representatives of an ex-Stone Roses vocalist Ian Brown have denied any information regarding some strange rumours about this band’s reunion, said New Musical Express. On March 17 The Daily Mirror tabloid had noted that sometime during the upcoming summer The Stone Roses will come out with twenty one concert in Britain and with a separate tour in around the U.S. This super touring activity had to be dedicated to the 20th anniversary of their debut album. Of course like it often happens such vigorous rumours are not always solid, so this time they most likely will not turn into reality. However, the same representatives have underlined that Ian did not give any proves of the fact that he is going to participate in any kind of reunion with his former bandmates. Currently musician is working with his sixth studio album which should be released in August this year. Definitely it would be very cool to see The Stone Roses back again, but for now just let’s hope that Brown’s new album will be very good.

The Stone Roses is considered to be one of the founders of so called “madchester” style. They’ve lasted until 1996 and have recorded only two full blown studio albums, but the band is still not forgotten and keeps on appearing on various music charts.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

Modest Mouse Reinvents Heith Ledger

American rock band Modest Mouse is planning to release a video in which now legendary Heith Ledger took some important part! Heath was very talented guy whose name is everywhere today, actucally did participate in various artistic projects that everyone is just beginning to understand. This video was made by him for a Modest Mouse song “King Rat” from the 2007 album “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank”, said SPIN.com. Right now those who admire Ledger and love Modest Mouse are just waiting for it to come out and see what else this incredible actor had to offer. Heath began to work on this video due to a friendly relationship with the band. He met with  Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock and they’ve discussed all kinds of issues that my be important, so Ledger had agreed to do this thing. It is unknown on what stage of development was this work when he died.

Currently, the most interesting and curious part about it is Ledger himself. All sorts of question are being raised from how good he could be in making videos to what he actually did during such a great co-operation with Modest Mouse. “King Rat” video was made in the cartoon style.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

Amazing Buckley

Sony BMG record label is currently preparing to release the collection of rare Jeff Buckley’s videos, said Billboard. This is going to be the best rarity compilation ever made for this artists. It will include two DVDs and one CD under the name “Grace Around The World”. The release is designed for June 2 by Sony’s subordinate label Columbia/Legacy and is practically dedicated to the anniversary of Buckley’s debut album “Grace”, the only album which he did not release. This new video compilation is produced by his mother and incorporates previously unreleased Buckley’s live performances during 1994–1995 period. Particularly it includes live BBC/MTV London concerts, and parts of Chicago, Frankfurt, New Orelans and Belford performances as well. Audio recordings of these shows should be available on CD. All of these quite famous and maybe the best performances ever made by Buckley for some strange reason did not get out until right now, so all of his fans just impatiently wait for them to reach the world of music again.

The second DVD includes a documentary “Amazing Grace: Jeff Buckley” filmed with the help of Jeff Buckley fan club. This movie which received awards in Seattle and San Francisco, also contains a lot of rare material including an interview with a singer.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

The Dead Weather Rocks On

The White Stripes and The Raconteurs leader Jack White had created a supergroup, said Stereogum. Besides frontman of these two bands, this major music project, which was named The Dead Weather also includes The Kills vocalist Alison Mosshart, Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Dean Fertita and The Greenhornes – The Raconteurs bassist Jack Lawrence. Within The Dead Weather Jack White is responsible for drums and vocals. On Wednesday, March 10, the new White’s band had performed on a closed-up event, which incorporated 150 guests. Sometimes there is absolutely nothing better than these private rock n’ roll parties, there is nothing more funny, happy and glamorous, but the only problem with them is that not everyone can get in there. Among The Dead Weather’s guests were Sheryl Crow, Martina McBride, and of course The White Stripe’s drummer and Jack’s partner Meg White, notes Associated Press. During the concert Jack White said that in the nearest time The Dead Weather will begin working with their debut album. He told everyone that according to the original idea this supergroup had to release only one vinyl single, but later changed it’s artistic course. “The idea was to do a 7–inch single and be done with it, but we started writing songs and something happened,” White added.

“Hang You Up From The Heavens” vinyl version will be officially released soon, and right now anyone can find it in Google Videos. Also, The Dead Weather had recorded a cover version of Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric?”, which is currently available on their web site.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

Downloading May Get Dangerous

South Carolina resident Shahanda Moelle Moursy brought a legal action against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), two companies that worked for her Safenet, MediaSentry and a few major record labels, said p2pnet. A little earlier RIAA had refused to co-work with MediaSentry because of many customer complaints. Right now Shahanda wants to get financial compensation that is going to be ordered by the court. Her lawyers believe that defendants are making out a lawless business, particularly by organising illegal investigations. In other words, mentioned above companies cannot completely prove the IP-addresses of those who are later convicted of illegal music downloading process. Moreover, Shahandas claim says that often these companies are using such cruel methods to get more information about users (by pressuring local Internet providers). In their opinion the result of such investigations ends up in the closing of cases against ‘illegal downloaders’ in order to settle things peacefully by paying ‘fines’ without taking it to court. They also think that usually RIAA’s “victims” belong to those who don’t really know how to use a computer, cannot fully understand what is the downloading process and how it works.

Definitely all kinds and sorts of record companies are trying to stop the “downloading process”, hence its their major enemy out there. It started with Napster back in 2000 and keeps on continuing with millions of other computer programs and firms that enable people to download.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

Shirley Manson Quits Music

Garbage vocalist Shirley Manson made it known that she is about to leave the world of music and will concentrate on acting career, said AFP. “I’m 42. I have been in bands since I was 15. There gets to a point where you are stepping out in front of 100,000 people and your blood pressure doesn’t change,” she noted. Manson also added that it’s very doubtful that she will ever come back to music again. This is quite popular for music stars to turn away from what they’ve been doing for years and suddenly begin something new. Of course it would be very sad if she will never return to stage, but after all, artistic people cannot become hostages of their own art. Since 2008 Shirley Manson is acting in “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”, which is shown on Fox channel. She is playing a role of Catherine Weaver – terminator T-1001 who is leading a Tech company and fights against rebels. So far there is no news on her bandmate’s reaction, but it’s very possible that they know her better than anyone else, and they will not get too upset.

Popularity came to Manson right after the release of Garbage’s debut album in 1995. Three songs “Only Happy When It Rains”, “Stupid Girl” and “Queer” were topping the British and American music charts. In 1999 Garbage wrote the main theme song for James Bond “The World Is Not Enough”, and their latest album “Bleed Like Me” came out in 2005.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

Hosting May Be Limited

Another interesting news from YouTube that may be a little bit unpleasant for those who admire British performers. YouTube’s administration had decided to block all videos made by British musicians and artists, said Reuters. First British videos were blocked on March 9 and in the following days they’re planning to delete thousands of such videos. The reason for this strange blockade is of course financial argument between Google and PRS which is representing interests of the British performers. The last one was insisting on bigger money shares from YouTube, but Google kept on denying all of it. The worst part about this issue is that regular users who have nothing to do with these legal and financial battles will not be able to see their favourite artists. However, there are so many services similar to YouTube that some unpopular move on their side will not be noticed. PRS representatives say that Google’s decision on blocking British videos on YouTube turned to be absolutely unexpected. Google is showing its pity on this situation and says that they were forced to do it.

At the end of 2008 Google failed to find a common language with Warner Music over the same thing, Warner had simply refused to give out music for free. Due to that refusal YouTube had to remove all of Warner’s content, eventually showing out the fact that their video hosting looks slightly unreliable.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

Interpol Arrives Again

Members of the New York band Interpol have begun working with the new album, notes their official website. Rolling Stone magazine assumes that Interpol’s fourth studio record will be released by the end of 2009, and like usually there is no clear information on what is going to be it’s name. The official web site says that musicians have finally organised their personal issues and now feel free to start rehearsing the new songs. “We find ourselves marveling at the tremendous focus that has defined our early rehearsals for this, our fourth effort”, musicians said in their joint letter. Every artistic group goes through all sorts of troubles, but if they’re able to overcome all of them then it’s very possible that everything what they can create afterwards may be absolutely awesome. “Once again, we have no concept to this batch of song-writing. There is rarely any intention to this process. We just make the music”, speaks the same message.

The last Interpol album “Our Love to Admire” came out in July 2007 with the help of Capitol Records. After it’s release they were vigorously supporting it with extensive touring activity. Practically that album was welcomed by music critics and went to number two on the British charts. On the other hand American charts put “Our Love to Admire” to the fourth place. Also, just a few days ago it became known that a short-length move “My Friends Told Me About You” which is going to be released in April was produced by Interpol bassist Carlos Dengler.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

YouTube Shall Enhance Itself

Video host YouTube and Universal Music Group are talking about creating the joint Internet portal for music video publications called Vevo, said The Wall Street Journal. A lot of You Tube fans hope that eventually their quality will improve because it’s current state wishes to be better. Right now there are millions of similar web sites and many of them are way more enhanced than YouTube, even though they were the first to start all this online video agenda. There is an assumption that YouTube will present some kind of a new technology with the platform to provide all sorts of commercials. Also such platform should enable Universal Music to advertise YouTube’s content on other web sites (primarily media sites). Business talks on Vevo keep on going since last year and so far there is no certain information about financial details of this pretty cool deal. If it’s going to be opened then it will certainly maintain better quality content and therefore more expensive advetisement, so let’s hope it remains free.

Until recent times there was no information about YouTube’s plans to sign similar deals with other record labels. New scheme of making money came out after both sides could not get as much financial profit as they did before by representing their videos on YouTube itself. Due to these losses Warner Muisic had removed it’s videos from YouTube without any hope to come back in the nearest future.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

Lars Is Learning

Another cool news about Metallica’s drummer Lars Ulrich just sounds funny. This guy is famous for his anti mp3 sharing things, but not so long ago he decided to download his band’s latest album “Death Magnetic” in order to see how such ‘things’ work, noted Blabbermouth. Ulrich is probably the biggest fighter against all kinds of illegal music sharing, but maybe this time he may learn something. As he told VH1 Classic, only few days after “Death Magnetic” came out (September 12, 2008) he could not resist the temptation of downloading his own music from the Internet. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is how it works.’ I figured if there is anybody that has a right to download ‘Death Magnetic’ for free, it’s me. I sat there one night at my house with about six of my friends and a bottle of wine. An what was it called?!”, recalls Lars. Definitely he did not remember how that service was called because since his greatest enemy Napster came out there are millions of them. 

“We found it – this was like two or three days after ‘Death Magnetic’ leaked.” Of course it did because these days it cannot be in any other way. “So we sat there, and thirty minutes later, I had ‘Death Magnetic’ in my computer. It was kind of bizarre.” Surely Lars is the most funny guy in the band.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

No Doubt Almost For Free

No Doubt is about to restart it’s creative career once again after many years of total silence by giving their albums for free. However, only those who are going to visit their concerts will be granted with this honourable gift. Anyone who comes to their live performance will get a coupon with a special number which is going to enable free mp3 downloads of No Doubt music, said The Rolling Stone. Also,  No Doubt concert tickets will be given out together with the band’s debut album “No Doubt” (1992), “The Beacon Street Collection” (1993), and “Tragic Kingdom” – the album which brought them the world fame in 1995. Downloading ability will permit their fans to get “Return of Saturn” (2000), “Rock Steady” (2001), collection of singles and the most recent song “Stand And Deliver”. Another good example of how bands and their record companies are trying to get around in the changing world of technology. Instead of stopping mp3’s, avi’s and ogg’s they’re searching for new ways to transform methods of selling their products. This gift from No Doubt will practically go only for the price of concert ticket ($42,5) proving many critic’s and expert’s view that a lot of bands out there will rely more on live performances instead of album sales.

Members of No Doubt have commented this move by saying that it will simply popularise the band and just remind the rest of the world that they still exist. They believe that it shall prepare their old and new fans for another comeback.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

Oasis May Not Go To...

Legendary British band Oasis has cancelled it’s shows in Beijing and Shanghai (April 3–4), which were planned as part of their world tour, said Associated Press. The most interesting part about it is that neither Oasis side nor Chinese did not say anothing about the reason for making this cancellation. As the above press agency noted, concert tickets were not sold since February 28, and also there was no information on how they’re going to be returned. Oasis official web site is currently under some kind of reconstruction, and their MySpace blog lacks any information about this news. Oasis did not make any political statements on China, so this common reason for cancelling shows in that country may not be the case this time, but who actually knows what could actually take place. Beijing and Shangai concert venues were set up during the last month, and had to become this band’s first visit to China. So far there is another venue designed for Hong Kong, but Associated Press stayed quite about it, possibly it’s still not cancelled.

Recently, a lot of western musicians and bands have visited China among which are Elton John and Rolling Stones. However, after Bjork’s incident when she began to exclaim “Tibet, Tibet!” during one of her performances, Chinese authorities began to tighten their control over every other musician who visits their country.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com

Faith No More Returns

Guitarist Jim Martin is not going to participate in the reunion of Faith No More, the band which is about to come back sometimes during this summer. As their official web site says the band’s new line up for 2009 will include vocalist Mike Patton, guitarist Jon Hudson, bassist Billy Gould, keyboards Roddy Bottum, and drummer Mike Bordin. Pretty cool group, but for some hardcore fans the absence of Martin looks a little bit dissapointing. Jim was the member of Faith No More from 1983 to 1993 and in many ways he was the symbol of their huge success. He had participated in the recording of four albums: “We Care A Lot” (1985), “Introduce Yourself” (1987), “The Real Thing” (1989) and “Angel Dust” (1992). Internet news agency Blabbermouth notices that Martin was showing some interest in co-working with his ex band mates, but they’ve decided to recruit John Hudson. The last time when he performed together with Faith No More was in 1997–1998, right before the band’s falling apart. On the other hand Hudson took some part in the recording of their last album - “Album Of The Year” (1997), so he is not totally new person.

Their reunion is planned for this summer with the help of the huge European tour (it will include a few festival performances). So far there is no certain information about what exactly may happen during this summer, but it’s almost certain that they’re getting back. Also, there is no information about any new releases, but it’s all possible and let’s hope for it.

A Source: ThatsJustMusic.com