It seems that lately we've written a lot of band reunion stories -- here's another good one: Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers will reunite to play as The Police at this year's Grammy awards. Check out the story here.
If you've seen Sting perform with Josh Freese on drums on his last solo tour, you know he can still rock those old Police songs, so I'm looking forward to this show...
Aussie rockers Jet recently released their second album, which suffers a bit from the dreaded sophomore slump. It has none of the biting rebelliousness of Cold Hard Bitch or Are You Gonna Be My Girl. Have they gone soft? We found out recently from drummer Chris Cester.
CC: We have written a lot of ballads, but that's because we live on a bus, man. It's not like you can set up the drums and the amps in the tour bus and get a rock'n'roll album happening.
The album hasn’t been selling as well as their first, Get Born, but then again it hasn’t benefited from the immense publicity Are You Gonna Be My Girl received at the time in iTunes commercials. Cester explains:
CC: That was a huge thing for the band. It's got nothing to do with money, it's about getting a chance to make another record. The bands who don't like to do that sort of thing, good on them, man, it's a good fight to fight. But we're in the fight for the long haul, we want to make lots of records and unfortunately the way it works now on a major label is if you don't sell enough on your first one they throw you off.
They were well on their way to getting dropped before the commercial rescued them. Nobody knew who they were, let alone buy their record, and they were playing in near-empty clubs. Luckily, they had drugs to rely on. (Note to kids: drugs are bad.)
So how did they come up with the idea to put together a second coming of AC/DC, in Australia no less?CC: It was hard. We dealt with it by nearly drinking ourselves to death and taking large amounts of speed and cocaine and whatever else we could get our hands on. It nearly broke the band up, too. We were trying to live up some kind of cliché, we wore ourselves out really quickly.
CC: When our band started, we had a simple plan: just to bring it back to basics. We’d had enough of bands like Creed and Nickelback, as well as mindless and mind-numbing techno music, which was taking over everything at the time. We're not a garage rock band, we're a rock'n'roll band. What is a garage rock band? We don't even have a garage.
At this point, Stereo Warning decided to ask the really important questions: what’s up with the hip haircuts and cool denim jackets?
CC: You just look in the mirror and you put a shirt on and you make sure you look good when you go outside, it's not very deliberate. It's just the way we like to look. It's inspired a lot from the bands in the 70's, because to be honest I don't think there's been a better decade in music.
Come what may, Chris says he’s in it for the long haul in the U.S.. With the cash from Jet’s first record he bought himself a condo in California and does not shy away from professing his love for his adoptive country.
CC: I’m gonna live here, I got an apartment in West Hollywood. I prefer America because it's such a big country. It's so much more comfortable here. The buses are huge, the roads are big, and it’s easy to get around. They like everything big here. My breakfast nearly killed me yesterday.
(c) Stereo Warning 2007. All Rights Reserved. Be nice and don't reproduce this content without prior written approval. Thanks.
R&B singer Brandy could be charged with misdemeanor manslaughter if the DA follows the police recommendation. A woman died after Brandy hit her car from behind when traffic slowed down on the highway. The charge carries a max sentence of $1,000 fine and a year in jail. Read about it here.
UPDATE: The dead woman's parents have filed a $50-million wrongful death suit against Brandy, accusing her of causing the accident by driving recklessly. Read about it here.
Ok, this sounds weird -- I'm defending Kevin Federline here, one of the least talented "musicians" there ever was. I shouldn't even be calling him a musician. But what's this whole uproar about his SuperBowl ad insulting the fast food industry? Please! If you thought the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction wasn't worth the controversy, wait till you see this ad. All it does is poke fun at K-Fed, as he himself tells Reuters here.
I hope to live to see the day when the media will chill a little and not look for some sensationalist stuff where there ain't none.
So, as I promised, I'm posting a short conversation I had with Billy a few years ago when he was promoting his solo album TheFutureEmbrace in which he shows a lot of irritation toward D'Arcy and James. As we sit here now still wondering how exactly is in this new and reformed Smashing Pumpkins, it may be worth to revisit his words.
Funnily enough, you'll see at the time he told me he wouldn't reform the Pumpkins except "for his own reasons." Of course, about a month later, he took a one-page out in the Chicago Tribune and announced just that -- that he would reform the band. So enjoy this excerpt as we wait with bated breath the revealing of the band's lineup.
Stereo Warning: How's your relationship with Jimmy now? Billy Corgan: Great, we talk all the time, I love him to death.
SW: Do you ever hear from D’Arcy or James? BC: No.
SW: I see James a lot at parties and shows in New York... BC: Parties first, shows second.
SW: Would you ever envision a reunion of the Smashing Pumpkins? BC: I’m not interested in reforming Smashing Pumpkins for anybody else’s reasons. I only want to do it for my own reasons. I'm not telling you which are those. They're not the usual reasons.
(c) Stereo Warning 2006-2007. All Rights Reserved. Be nice and don't reproduce this content without prior written approval. Thanks.
The Smashing Pumpkins have announced their first lives shows in 7 years. According to their myspace page, they band will play two festivals in Germany, Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, in June. The question is, of course, who exactly is in the band nowadays? We know Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlain are in, but they were also in that waste of time called Zwan. Here's wishing for D'Arcy's and James Iha's return.... or at the very least Melissa Auf der Maur!
BTW, I'll post soon an older but never-before-published interview in which Billy has a few choice words for James. Doesn't bode well for the reunion.... It's all good, I don't care who Billy hires as long as they rock out in true Gish style and don't play any Zwan songs!
David Lee Roth is very close to rejoining Van Halen for a summer tour, accoding to Billboard. You can read the story here.
But the question is, how will he get along with Eddie's kid on bass?
Rage Against the Machine will reunite for a one-off show headlining the last day of the Coachella festival on Sunday, April 29. The band is vocalist Zack de la Rocha, guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk -- they haven't played together in seven years. Since then, Morello, Commerford and Wilk formed Audioslave with former Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, who is now trying to resurrect his solo career.
Coachella will be a three-day festival this year. The other headliners are Bjork and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Also appearing: The Roots, Manu Chao, Interpol, Peeping Tom, the Arcade Fire, Willie Nelson, Placebo and a whole bunch of other bands. Stereo Warning will be there to give you exclusive coverage & pics. Tix go on sale Saturday, Jan. 27, cost $250 for the three days.
They broke up over 30 years ago after only two records, but the influential New York Dolls spawned countless punk and hair metal bands. Over the years, drugs and illness claimed the lives of drummers Billy Murcia and Jerry Nolan, guitarist Johnny Thunders and bassist Arthur Kane. But remaining original members Sylvain Sylvain (guitar) and David Johansen (vocals) have reunited and coopted some friends (including Sami Jaffa, formerly of Hanoi Rocks) to release "One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This" on Roadrunner Records in the summer of 2006. This record is fun, boisterous, clever, ass-kickin' and, of course, punk rock. Stereo Warning was lucky enough to chat with Syl and David, so... here you go:
Stereo Warning: How were the parties in the 70s compared to now?
Sylvain Sylvain: When we went to England in 1972, we became such huge stars. People were sending us Rolls Royces to come to their parties. There was this big lord who was gay but was married. Liberace was there and all the Who guys and Rod Stewart. We were just out of 14th Street, we would piss in the bidet because we didn't know -- well I knew, but I wasn't about to tell anybody. Now the parties are few and far between. But I still go out.
SW: Before the reunion, how were you doing financially? Could you live off the old records?
Syl: I never got shit. We were like an open business where nobody attended the store. Everybody could just walk in and grab t-shirts, records, whatever. So I hope this time I get paid so I can pay my rent. I played with Johnny Thunders in 1984 and it became a bootleg in Sweden that sold 10,000 copies...
SW: Again, no money for you...
Syl: Yeah, the bastards... And then finally after we make a deal, it sells like 2,000 copies. Which shows you the people like the stolen stuff better, it's hot.
SW: Do you miss Billy, Johnny, Jerry, Arthur?
Syl: All the time. They're always in my heart. Jerry and I had a band together just before he died in the late 80s. I saw Johnny before he died; he was homeless and living out of a garbage bag. I couldn't even say hello to him and he couldn't remember anything. Arthur couldn't play with many people, but he always played with me. I think it's because of love. When you surround yourself with people that love you, you play your ass off.
SW: How did you go about writing this record?
Syl: In a typical day, I'd come in, show David a song and he'd say 'man, that sucks.' And I'd say 'okay, you play me your song' and I'd say 'that sucks even bigger.' And he'd say 'okay, we'll do yours 'cause it's sexier.' It was stupid like that.
SW: What's your favorite current band?
Syl: Babyshambles. (sings) 'We'll fuck forever, baby fuck forever.' I think that's the most romantic thing I heard a guy say to a girl.
As Syl leaves, a jovial David Johansen walks in, takes Syl's seat and lights a cigarette.
SW: What's the stupidest question you got asked today?
DJ: 'What do you think of Kiss.' (laughs) You know when they ask you that you think 'man this is gonna be a long interview...' I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself but I kept my mouth shut and answered the question. 
SW: Where do you get your inspiration?
DJ: Syl usually comes up with a riff and I go 'oh that's fuckin great' and I write some words for it. We start playing it and we've got a song.
SW: Syl says you say it sucks...
DJ: Well I'm not talking about the ones that fell by the wayside. Some are unique and great and some I've heard before. Out of 25 songs, we put out 13, so only 12 of them were shit. Only half of them. (laughs)
SW: Looking back, what were some of your most treasured memories?
DJ: Besides meeting the Ronettes? (laughs) I haven't really sat down and thought about that... What was Syl's most treasured?
SW: I don't know, I didn't ask him...
DJ: I hope it was the day he met me!
SW: What are you guys doing on a metal label?
DJ: (Laughs and points to gold and platinum records on the wall in Roadrunner's NY office) I don't even know who these bands are, to tell you the truth. I know they sing songs like "I wanna stick a ballpoint pen in your eye" or something. I heard of Slipknot, I heard of Nickelback. But I came in to meet Roadrunner and they said they'd really like to have some rock'n'roll music so it seemed like they had a lot of enthusiasm. So far, so good.
SW: Anything else you'd like to talk about?
DJ: What, like Cheney or something? (laughs) I have this radio show on Sirius and every week since he shot that guy I do a bit, like 'I was watching C-SPAN the other day and Dick Cheney came in with a box of the cutest little kittens you ever seen and he was shooting then with a large caliber handgun.' So we're talking about doing a cartoon for the video for our song Dance like a Monkey and I want to have Cheney shooting monkeys in a barrel.
SW: Do you think the label will go along with it?
DJ: (Laughs) Yeah, we'll see how metal they really are! Maybe they're false metal!
(David got his wish and the video features an animated Dick Cheney shooting monkeys in a barrel. It looked awesome.)
(c) Stereo Warning 2006-2007. All Rights Reserved. Be nice and don't reproduce this content without prior written approval. Thanks.
Tags: new york dolls
