You might want to be careful if you see John Lydon out and about. Maybe you should steer clear of talking about any kind of reunions. Just don’t ask. Apparently those words of advice were not heeded by Kele Okereke, the frontman of Bloc Party, who walked up to John (Johnny Rotten) Lydon and asked about the reunion.

Apparently that was enough to provoke him and start the fight. A lot of talk has been devoted to the rest of the fight. Were their racist accusations made? Okereke says that there were, and that Lydon started the fight.

What were the details, really? Accounts differ, but there was no question that the fight happened and seemed to get out of control very quickly, with Okereke ending up injured.

Okereke had a good question, really. Will there be a reunion? There certainly should be. PiL had a lot to offer. Eight albums and a fourteen-year run means that there’s a lot to rehash and a lot to play live. So many song choices and options for the band and for their fans. Unfortunately, no one else will probably be brave enough to ask Lydon about a reunion at this point. They don’t want to get beaten up.

Canadian singer Feist will be coming to Sesame Street. She’ll make her debut on the August 11th season premiere and change the lyrics to one of her most famous tracks – The Reminder – to a song about counting that four-year-olds can relate to.

She was born Leslie Feist in Calgary, Canada and moved to Toronto, Canada as an adult after spending time in Paris, Berlin, and other areas. For a time, she performed with a sock puppet and called herself Bitch Lap-Lap.

Now that she’s grown up her music has changed a lot and so has her fan base and the way that the world sees her. Sesame Street will be happy to welcome her to sing about the number four and count with chickens and friendly monsters.

While the artists who appear on it might be more contemporary nowadays, Sesame Street itself and its hopeful, joyful, happy message of learning has not changed much. With Feist’s recreation of herself, she’s just right for the children who watch the show and the parents who pay attention to what their children are watching.

Amy Winehouse has been in the news a lot lately with her drug problems and recent hospitalization. Her husband isn’t often as news-worthy, but Blake Fielder-Civil will spend some more time in prison, and that was enough to make the news.

Fielder-Civil was originally arrested in November of 2007 after he assaulted a bar owner in London. That would not have gotten him that much jail time, but then he turned around and tried to “pervert the course of justice” by offering the bar owner $400,000 to just shut up about the whole thing and let it go. He ended up in trouble for the assault and for the bribery, as well. Winehouse had only married him a few months before this assault took place and Fielder-Civil has been in jail since his November arrest nine months ago.

On July 21st he was sentenced to 27 months in prison, but part of that will be time that he’s already served. There is also the chance for time off for good behavior and other issues, which means in another nine months he might be eligible to get out.

Winehouse wasn’t in the court room when Fielder-Civil was sentenced. Supposedly Fielder-Civil had used drugs while incarcerated, and that likely led to a stiffer sentence than he otherwise would have received.

Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys was both psychologically tormented and musically gifted. He was a complicated person with complicated problems and a lot to say that he couldn’t seem to express. His brother, drummer Dennis Wilson, was largely overlooked. (more…)

Karen O, the front-woman for the band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, is known for her wild and sometimes impolite antics onstage, but there’s another side to her that many people haven’t noticed, and it’s a softer and much more peaceful side than would have been expected.

For several years she’s also been recording lo-fi love songs that bring a smile to the face and tug at the heartstrings of people who hear them. She calls it Native Korean Rock, and she’s even joined some friends at Brooklyn’s Union Pool to sing some ballads with only a few guitar strums and plucks as background.

It’s a drastic departure for O, who’s usually more associated with ripped stockings, spewing beer, and generally acting like a whirlwind on stage. With her silent-film-star makeup, bright lipstick, and sailor suit Brooklyn had a hard time ignoring her through her 30-minute set, which most people seemed to think didn’t last nearly long enough.

Her band was in a ‘boat’ with a Korean flag flying against a backdrop of blue sky, and seagulls and waves played in the background, mixing with the few plucked strings and occasional strum of a guitar.

Source

Not everyone who started out in the music business stayed in it. Some left because there were a lot of layoffs and problems, but others left because they decided that it was time to do something different.

There are a lot of success stories like Millman and Baeyertz out there, including Darryl Franklin, who used to be the vice president of business affairs over at Interscope records. Now he manages a skate boarder and runs a company overseeing the ramp at the X-Games. Going back to the ‘biz’ isn’t an option for any of these men – they’ve found just what they wanted to do.

source

Seriously. EBay has an auction for Vinnie Paul’s oven, with no reserve. If you win it he’ll personalize it and autograph it for you, but you have to pick it up. It’s in Arlington, Texas and there’s no shipping available. Vinnie – the Big Vin – loves to cook, and his dad got him a better oven for Christmas so this one has to go.

You can own an oven that has had the pleasure and privilege of serving up a lot of meals for rock stars, and over the next few days they’ll be more stuff to buy, as well. Vinnie is going through his storage space and getting rid of a lot of the things that he’s stuffed in there over the years – who knows what he’ll find?

In order to move the merchandise, Big Vin Records is setting up shop on eBay. Some of the items offered will be things that Vinnie owned personally, but that won’t be all of it.

There will also be a lot of HellYeah, Pantera, and DamagePlan merchandise, too, so fans should keep their eyes open and check the site often to see what else they might want to bid on. They could end up owning a rarity that not just anyone can have, and what would be better than that for a true fan?

Usually it’s three cheers, but in this case it’s all about four. Beck’s new album, “Modern Guilt” has made the US charts, debuting at number four and selling nearly 85,000 copies in its first week.

This is the eighth studio album that Beck has done, and it has gotten more critical acclaim than most of his earlier work, not all of which was well-received. Leading magazines that have reviewed it have said it was dazzling, and that it was among the strongest work that Beck has done. While he works for the fans and not for the critics, having an album touted as significant and high-quality can help earn new fans, as well.

Fans of Beck can see him on his US tour, but until then they’ll have to be content with the new album. If they’re patient they can buy the vinyl edition on July 22. It has download codes on it for MP3s. These MP3s are unique in that they are designed to sound like they are playing back on vinyl. Beck has essentially invented a “mobile turntable” with the MP3s providing vinyl sound.

Tour dates for Beck start on August 21 in Reno, Nevada and go through October 3 in Chicago, Illinois.

Trey Anastasio, frontman and lead guitarist for Phish, has teamed up with Orchestra Nashville for a project called Time Turns Elastic. When the orchestra starts its 2008-2009 season at the Ryman Auditorium Anastasio will be there, too.

The work is touted as groundbreaking for vocals, orchestra, and electric guitar. Given the work Anastasio has done with Phish and some of his more ambitious solo products, the Time Turns Elastic project promises to be creative and interesting beyond measure. The first team up for Orchestra Nashville and Anastasio was back in 2004 and 80,000 fans were treated to “new classical” music. The collaboration was such a hit that the work continued.

Anastasio has been working on this newest collaboration for 18 months now, as he’s been off the road. A lot of emotion went into the work, and all who have worked on it seem to believe that a lot of emotion will come out of it, as well. It’s like nothing else out there, with long passages of orchestral music intertwined with vocals and unparalleled electric guitar work.

Some think it odd that the Ryman – a traditionally country music venue – would be the choice for this music, but it’s actually not so strange when you consider that Orchestra Nashville has a serious reputation for music that goes beyond the boundaries.

Hailing from Oklahoma, the quartet hasn’t really hit the big time yet but they’ve played shows with Bon Jovi, and that’s pretty big to them. Also big to them is their third album, which is still untitled and not quite finished just yet. They have 10 tracks recorded and have taken their time, spending the last three years writing and reflecting.

The album is expected to be out in November and will be a culmination of all that has happened to them in that time period and how they feel about it. They don’t want to just stuff a bunch of music onto an album and throw it out there for everyone – they want their music to mean something, both to them and to their fans.

Once their album is done there are already other ideas in the works, including collaboration with other artists – something that could also appear on the last few remaining tracks of the November album. Barefoot Studios in Hollywood was the home base for recording the album, and the band worked 12-hour days with producer Eric Valentine. Band guitarist Nick Wheeler joked that it was such a rock-star thing…without any rock stars. Being humble is one of the things that the band does well.