Politics have always been close to Tom Morello’s heart. Last Saturday, however, marked the first time the Rage Against The Machine guitarist actually endorsed a political candidate when he performed a benefit concert in San Francisco under his folkie alter-ego The Nightwatchman for anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan. “It is an honor to perform at Cindy Sheehan’s fundraising event because I strongly believe she is the kind of uncompromising righteous voice for justice that this country so desperately needs,” Morello said. “Her unwavering commitment to peace and human rights as well as her intelligence and fortitude are inspiring and stand in dramatic contrast to the lame parade of mealy-mouthed sell-outs and red state war-mongers we are normally forced to choose between.”
Sheehan, who is best known for camping outside President George W. Bush’s Texas ranch after her son Casey was killed during his service in the Iraq War, is challenging Congressional House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California’s 8th district, which covers most of San Francisco. Sheehan announced her candidacy in protest of the inaction she perceived on the part of Democrats, particularly Pelosi, in standing up to Bush on the war and other issues. For more info: www.cindyforcongress.org.
Though Tyra Banks first asked the question on her talk show several months ago, it is from the glowing (what else) interview of Barack Obama in the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone that we finally see what’s on his iPod.
Dylan. The Stones. Stevie Wonder. Sheryl Crow. Yo-Yo Ma (quick: name another famous cellist. Can’t do it, can you?). Basically everything you’d expect from a tail-end Baby Boomer born in 1961. Somehow, Obama’s impossible-to-judge selections seem too safe and just believable–not as hip as his supporters might want, but totally acceptable to just about everyone.
Obama reveals himself to be a regular, faintly obsessive fan of the music of his time with decent, if safe and mainstream, taste. He said to Rolling Stone, “If I had one musical hero, it would have to be Stevie Wonder. When I was at that point where you start getting involved in music, Stevie had that run with Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Fulfillingness’ First Finale and Innervisions, and then Songs in the Key of Life. Those are as brilliant a set of five albums as we’ve ever seen.”
Note he says “albums.” One wonders what else was in his record collection that he won’t tell Jann Wenner. While we bet Obama is way into MC5 and the Stooges, maybe even a secret Albini fan (hello, he’s from Chicago), we do know he’s into Jay-Z, seeing as he made the “brush ya shoulders off” gesture publicly.
The news that Obama deleted his Netflix queue either proves that it is music that unites us or that Obama’s taste in film was becoming the topic of smears by conservative pundits. As reported in WiseNews, Obama’s move from Netflix came after conservative commentator Michelle Malkin wrote a column referencing accusations by conservative bloggers that Obama has had access to middle eastern DVDs depicting scenes of kaffiyehs, the checkered arab scarf. “There is no proof he hasn’t rented movies showing kaffiyehs. Lawrence of Arabia is right there on his Facebook page under Favorite Movies,” wrote Malkin. We’re not sure how she felt about Stevie Wonder.
17 year-old Jamie-Lynn Spears, little sister to Britney and star of Nickelodeon’s Zooey 101, gave birth to her first child, daughter Maddie Briann, on June 19, 2008, at Mississippi Southwest Regional Medical Center. The father is longtime boyfriend/fiancé Casey Aldridge,
Maddie Briann joins her cousins Sean Preston and Jayden James as the littlest members of the Spears clan. One hopes these sisters don’t stop producing offspring until the two have enough kids to populate a baseball team. Or a baby pop supergroup.
Jamie-Lynn has stated that the father of her unborn child was Aldridge, 19. Because Spears was under the legal age of consent in California, questions came up regarding their age difference, and whether Aldridge would or could be charged with statutory rape. However, The Department of Motor Vehicles of Mississippi confirmed that Aldridge was born on April 29, 1989, making him slightly less than two years older than Spears. In California, it is illegal for an adult to have intercourse with a person under the age of 18, but it is only a misdemeanor if the child is less than three years younger than the adult. It still isn’t known where Aldridge had sexual intercourse with Spears. Depending on the location, this may or may not have been illegal. Neither California nor Mississippi have pursued charges against Aldridge so far.
Another Spears family offering set to “drop” at some point in the near future is a book written by their mother, Lynne Spears. It’s a memoir of parenting, or something. Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World will be released on September 16, according to book publisher Thomas Nelson, which publishes inspirational books and Bibles. The book is not intended to give advice to parents.
Critics have questioned the validity of such a book penned by Brit-Brit and Jamie-Lynn’s mom. According to the tabloids (which aren’t always incorrect, just exceedingly cruel) her daughters have tenuous relationships with their mother, and clearly make questionable, non-traditional choices in their own lives (see Britney shaving her head and attacking a car, or driving down the Pacific Coastal Highway with her baby on her lap). We will consider the book to be great entertainment, though you can’t dance to it.
Rock Band, the game that lets four pals become rock stars regardless of musical ability, has promised to release classic, critics’-best-populating albums since its debut in 2007. To date, only three have made it: The Cars’ self-titled debut, Judas Priest’s Screaming for Vengeance, and now, The Pixies’ 1989 masterpiece, Doolittle. Gamers can use Rock Band music store’s full album section on June 24, according to IGN. The downloaded album features all master tracks for authentic audio pleasure. IGN also reports that the album is fun to play along to, with the biggest challenge being vocals: the player must be able to match Frank Black’s upper register to do well. No word on whether wearing a neck cone has an impact.
The Pixies’ Doolittle costs 1520 Microsoft points, or $19. Songs are also sold individually for 160 Microsoft Points, or $2. The album will be available on Tuesday, June 24th on Xbox 360 and will be released on PlayStation 3 two days later.
Track Listing:
* “Crackity Jones”
* “Dead”
* “Debaser”
* “Gouge Away”
* “Here Comes Your Man”
* “Hey”
* “I Bleed”
* “La la Love You”
* “Monkey Gone To Heaven”
* “Mr Grieves”
* “No 13 Baby”
* “Silver”
* “Tame”
* “There Goes My Gun”
Tempers (well, one temper) flared at the Norwegian Wood music festival in Oslo, Norway last Friday as Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme unleashed a torrid diatribe toward a young fan whom Homme had suspected threw something at him during the Queens performance. Homme tried to stir the ire of the thousands-strong crowd toward the boy. He also threatened to force non-consensual sodomy upon the lad unless he removed himself from the environs.
After complaining of a high fever and two days of intense gastro-intestinal revolt, Homme lambasted the young lad at great length, referring to him as a “twelve-year-old dickless turd.” He then beckoned security personnel to bring the tyke to the front and “lift him up so I can kick him in the fucking face.”
Finally, Homme can be seen, in a video clip that captures the outburst, heaving a bottle toward the face of the restrained child from what appears to be very close range.
No word yet as to who will represent the little fellow in the civil suit.
The video:
Not since Roman Polanski fled to Paris or Michael Jackson danced on the roof of his car outside court have alleged pedophiles felt more empowered: R&B megastar R. Kelly has been acquitted. Shockingly, stunningly, amazingly acquitted.
The initial vote after the case went to the jury was 10-2 in favor of acquittal.
A white female juror told the Chicago Tribune “…at some point we said there was a lack of evidence,” the woman said. “There was nothing concrete enough to say it was him or her on that tape.”
The jury also found Kelly not guilty of providing alcohol to a minor.
MTV.com was inside the courtroom and meticulously captured defense attorney Sam Adams Jr.’s opening and closing arguments. The defense appealed to the jury by claiming the man featured on the infamous video was not Kelly and that the tape was doctored, and ultimately, the girl featured on the tape did not testify on her behalf.
“In order to find R. Kelly guilty [of the 14 counts against him],” defense attorney Sam Adam Jr. said, “you’re going to have to call this girl a whore 14 times. Before the whole world, you’re going to have to say that [the prosecutors] proved it to you: that this girl is a whore.”
The prosecution made sure to say they considered the girl on the tape a victim of child pornography, not a prostitute, and that charges have to be leveled on child pornography charges brought before them.
Kelly’s attorneys also suggested the 27-minute tape had been doctored, going so far as to say someone could have edited the singer’s head onto another man’s body. A prosecution expert testified such editing trickery would take 44 years and still be obvious to viewers.
But it was not enough to convince the jury.
Raven Gengler is one of four close friends who grew up with the alleged victim in the west suburbs in the late 1990s, and identified her and Kelly on the tape in court. Gengler told the Chicago Sun-Times that she was coming to terms with the verdict.
Though she and 14 other witnesses said the alleged victim was the “13 or 14 year-old” girl on the notorious 27-minute sex tape at the center of the case, the jurors in the end said they couldn’t be sure.
The alleged victim refused to testify, and told a grand jury she was not the girl on the tape, putting friends and family members who believed it was her in a difficult position.
“I still love her, and even though she said it wasn’t her, I came forward out of love,” Gengler said, adding that she was still “sure” it was her friend and Kelly on the tape.
If the remix of “Ignition” isn’t enough R. Kelly vocal smoothness to un-ruffle any feathers that may have been knocked out of place at what may seem like a miscarriage of justice (Kelly’s lawyer Adams calls it “a triumph of the Cook County jury system”), check out his new song and video, “Real Talk,” now up on YouTube.
The song is another well thought out R. Kelly classic: Kelly calls his girlfriend who has accused him of cheating on her. He makes the argument that her friends saw him at a club with another girl, and with a group of guys. He then discredits her friends as “no-man having bitches” who “don’t eat with us, they don’t sleep with us, and besides, what they eat don’t make us shit.” Good advice for those feeling sickened by the verdict of the trial.
image via Reuters/John Gress
Prince Rogers Nelson quietly celebrated his 50th birthday over the weekend by having a cocktail with friends, going for a casual stroll down Hollywood Blvd., and meeting up with some lady friends at a Los Angeles hot spot. In contrast, we blasted all of the Minneapolis funk icon’s albums from beginning to end, had a movie marathon that started fabulously with Purple Rain and ended with the not-so-hot Graffiti Bridge, and wore lots of purple and lace–all so we could come up with this definitive list of 50 things we love and hate about him.
The 5 Classic Albums
Purple Rain (1984)
Sign O’ The Times (1987)
1999 (1982)
Dirty Mind (1980)
Parade (1986)
. . . and The 10 To Avoid
N.E.W.S. (2002)
Come (1994)
The Rainbow Children (2001)
Chaos and Disorder (1996)
New Power Soul (1998)
Crystal Ball (1997)
Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic (1999)
The Gold Experience (1995)
Musicology (2004)
Diamonds and Pearls (1991)
The 10 Essential Downloads
“When Doves Cry”
“Let’s Go Crazy”
“Purple Rain”
“1999″
“Little Red Corvette”
“I Would Die 4 U”
“Erotic City”
“Sexy M.F.”
“Kiss”
“U Got The Look”
. . . And 5 To Skip
“Cream”
“Gett Off”
“Adore”
“Uptown”
“Do Me, Baby”
The 10 Best Prince Sidekicks, Associates and Men in Surgical Masks
The Time
Sheila E.
Wendy and Lisa
Apollonia
Vanity 6
The Family
Mazarati
Maceo Parker
Chaka Khan
Doctor Fink
The 5 Best Prince Covers
“Nothing Compares 2 U by “Sinead O’Connor
“Manic Monday” by The Bangles
“Darling Nikki” by Foo Fighters
“Kiss” by Tom Jones with Art of Noise
“I Feel For You” by Chaka Khan
His 5 Best Career Comeback Moments
- Topping the pop charts with the 3-million-selling 1999 album after getting pelted off the stage while opening for the Rolling Stones
- Winning over the critics with the double-album Sign O’ The Times following Under The Cherry Moon’s box office bomb
- Getting admitted into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, after a decade of putting out unlistenable muzak albums
- Winning over a new generation of fans with his Super Bowl halftime spectacular shortly after giving away his most recent album, Planet Earth, in a British newspaper
- Playing a 21-night residency at London’s O2 Arena with Amy Winehouse and Elton John
Video of British “soul” singer Amy Winehouse, under the influence and singing some juvenile ditty replete with racial epithets, surfaced over the weekend on the world wide web, courtesy of News Of the World. The video, recorded by her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, shows Winehouse and a female friend in an apparent advanced state of inebriation starting to sing a song that begins with the word “Blacks.” The duo halt their saucy rendition and implore the husband-cameraman to assure them that he is not actually taping the scene. After they are satisfied that they are enjoying utter privacy, they go on to sing a verse and a half of some jingle that is consists mainly of a string of familiar racial slurs. Winehouse accompanies the shocking display with at least one hand gesture that involves her stretching the corner of one her eyes back while singing a word that is often construed as derisive toward Asians.
The troubled star Winehouse has since claimed that there was nothing racist about her or her behavior saying, “I’m the least racist person going.” Photos of Winehouse among an array of drug paraphernalia are also available with the NOTW story.
There are reports of a perilously close call involving Detroit music fans and their hometown darlings, The White Stripes. According to similar stories on both New Music Express and Pitchfork, the crowd attending the Raconteurs show at the Fillmore in Detroit Sunday night chanted “more, more,” trying to coax the band back up onstage for an encore. What they got instead was Meg and Jack White taking up their familiar positions in what at first appeared to be a shocking reunion of the two-piece band who have not played out since Ms. White recused herself from their fall 2007 tour in order to seek treatment for acute anxiety.
With Jack on guitar and Meg seated at the drum kit the crowd trembled in fixated anticipation as Meg lifted her sticks to hit the drums that could have set off a Beatles-level fan frenzy circa-Shea Stadium. But, alas, ‘twas but a cruel tease, as the coquettish skin pounder was apparently taking it a step at a time on her road to recovery and this was but one tiny segment in what might be a long journey back to full blown world-domination touring. Ms. White apparently only “tapped” at a couple of drum heads and then moved aside as the Raconteurs re-took the stage to perform encores.
No word yet as to whether she will be available for extended drum solos on selected Ozzfest dates later this summer.
The Replacements famously threw all the masters from their first four Twin/Tone albums into the Mississippi River. But apparently someone kept a hidden stash of backup tapes out of the band’s reach because we’re getting treated to another round of reissues (courtesy of Rhino Records), this time with deluxe packaging (and pricing to match). That doesn’t mean these releases represent the most comprehensive collection you could possibly have from the era, but they are padded with several appropriately shoddy outtakes, demos, live tracks and liner notes that are, well, frequently more wayward than one of the Mats’ classic drunken live sets. In other words, each is a fitting tribute to the band’s legendary losing streak.
Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash (1981)Playing catch-up with their Twin Cities peers Husker Du, the Replacements figured speed and volume would compensate for ferocity on their debut. It didn’t quite work–they mostly sound like a bar band that has imbibed too much before hitting the stage (which, come to think of it, was probably the case). Sorry Ma is sloppy and scattered, with only a few of the thrashers signaling Paul Westerberg’s future songwriting prowess. Even with adolescent anthems like “I Hate Music” and “Johnny’s Gonna Die” serving as the album’s high points, you could tell the band was onto something big. The bonus material includes the four-song demo that got the band signed and the acoustic “If Only You Were Lonely.”
Rating: 7/10
Stink (1982)Containing only eight tracks and clocking in at under 15-minutes, The Replacements’ second proper release shows them refining their hardcore punk sound. Westerberg and company even manage to conjure actual coming-of-age anger and defiance in “Fuck School” and “God Damn Job.” The original album features one of the band’s first flat out classics in “Kids Don’t Follow”–the song advertised on the cover–while the scant bonus material offers up the great lost ballad, “You’re Getting Married.”
Rating: 8/10
Hootenanny (1983)The standout track “Within Your Reach” was unlike anything the band had ever done, driven by a primitive loop and featuring one of those incredibly vulnerable melodies that would ultimately define Westerberg as everyone’s favorite lovable loser. The rest of the album, however, falters. The Replacements take the piss out of genres like country, blues and rockabilly, but don’t offer much in exchange for the heavy irony. You do have to love the bonus track “Lookin’ For You,” which was recorded for a local compilation sponsored by Miller beer and features Westerberg giving a shout-out to Budweiser.
Rating: 6/10
Let It Be (1984)The Replacements finally get it right, perfecting the balance between beer-stained punk gems (”Gary’s Got a Boner,” “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out”) and Westerberg’s clutch of heart-on-flannel-sleeve ruminations (”Unsatisfed,” “Answering Machine”). It’s no wonder people look back on this as the album that not only defined the band but also a certain corner of the Eighties. “Everything you dream of is right in front of you,” Westerberg sings at one point. Right when you think he’s letting a ray of sun through the storm clouds, he drops the kicker, “Liberty is a lie.” The bonus material is highlighted by boozy covers of T. Rex’s “20th Century Boy” and The Grass Roots’ “Temptation Eyes.”
Rating: 9/10
