I’ve given Ryan Adams some shit in the past, but he seems to have a knack for doing good covers of metal songs. His version of Alice of Chains’ “Down in a Hole” is pretty good(although nothing beats the original, save for maybe AIC’s own Unplugged version of the song), and yesterday he performed an acoustic cover of Iron Maiden’s “Wasted Years” on BBC Radio 2, which is also not too shabby.

My first thought was that “Wasted Years” is probably one of the only Maiden song which kinda lends itself to an acoustic rendition, but then I remembered that Billy Corgan’s generally-unlistenable Zwan (calling themselves Djali Zwan for some reason) did an acoustic version of “Number of the Beast” for the generally-unwatchable movie Crank, and that was pretty tolerable, too. So maybe Maiden songs are just that good.

-AR

[Adams' recording via Metal Insider]

The interwebs are all aflutter today because Dave Grohl has announced that his former Nirvana bandmate, Krist Novoselic, is going to make a guest appearance on the new Foo Fighters album — which is also being produced by Garbage’s Butch Vig, a.k.a. “The Dude Who Produced Nevermind.” This will mark the first time Grohl and Novoselic have recorded with one another since Kurt Cobain injected himself with enough heroin to kill an elephant, and then stuck a shotgun in his mouth, just to make sure that medical science didn’t get any bright ideas.

Look: I know Nirvana were cool, and I know that Cobain’s premature passing means they get to stay cool forever and ever and ever because the dude didn’t get to grow up to be lame like Billy Corgan and Chris Cornell, but I really don’t see any reason to get excited about this. Novoselic was never a songwriter; he was never even a particularly distinctive bass player. Cobain was Cobain and Grohl certainly beat the ever-lovin’ shit outta his drums, but Nirvana pretty much could have swapped out Novoselic for another bassist at any point and not missed a beat. This song isn’t gonna sound like Nirvana — you’d need to re-animate Cobain to make that happen — it’s just gonna sound like Foo Fighters. I’d wager that the bass lines won’t even be that special, since, like I said, Novoselic’s playing never had much discernible personality. So you’re not even gonna get the “What might that sound like?” curiosity factor that you might get from, say, Dave Lombardo filling in for Lars Ulrich at a Metallica show, or Duff McKagan joining Jane’s Addiction. Creatively speaking, this reunion doesn’t amount to much more than a gimmick.

All of that being said… I’ll take any excuse to post the below video of Novoselic hitting himself in the head with his bass at the 1992 MTV VMAs while Grohl taunts Axl Rose from the stage. This has to be one of the five proudest moments in MTV’s history, right?

-AR

Of course members of glorified solo bands comes and go, but we’ve given Winds of Plague a lot of shit over the past seven months or so because of their insistence that their keyboard player slot be filled by a cute chick at all times. It’s the very definition of “gimmick” – it doesn’t matter who the best person for the job is. That job must be held by a woman at all times, lest adolescent boys’ interest in the music wane with their diminishing hard-on.

But then today I saw that The Smashing Pumpkins have a new bass player, Nicole Fiorentino (pictured above). And it hit me: “Holy crap, The Smashing Pumpkins are the Winds of Plague of their day.”

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Billy Corgan’s contribution to the Dimebag Darrell Art Tribute “Six-String Masterpieces”

Well, well, well. As it turns out, when Billy Corgan isn’t engaged in a royal rumble of douchiness, he actually has pretty good taste in metal.

At least, that’s what his list of the “10 greatest heavy metal albums of all time” he compiled for Musicradar.com would lead me to believe.

Sure, The Stooges’ Funhouse really isn’t a metal album at all (which isn’t to say it’s not great, it’s just to say, y’know, c’mon), and, yes, I imagine a lot of people will scream bloody murder when they see which Slayer album he chose. (Hint: Billy says that “I thought Slayer could never top Reign In Blood. I was wrong. Dead wrong.”) But what is the internet for, if not insulting one another’s taste and needlessly criticizing celebrities we don’t know.

Read Corgan’s entire list here, then come back and argue about it in our comments section.

-AR

[via Noisecreep]

I wasn’t gonna say anything about this because it seemed like there really wasn’t that much to say, but fuck it – the whole situation is starting to get out of control, which is to say, it amuses me.

So Hole released a new album this week, entitled Nobody’s Daughter - which is either a hilarious reference to the fact that Courtney Love (who apparently now wants to be known as “Courtney Michelle,” because changing monikers after twenty years worked out so well for Prince) lost custody of her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, last year, or is supposed to be profound in some way I don’t give a shit about. I haven’t heard the album and really don’t care to; if Gary Suarez had never written about it, I don’t think I’d even be aware of its existence.

ANYWAY, Billy Corgan, who was once friends with Love/Michelle and may or may not have helped her write some songs which may or may not actually be on Nobody’s Daughter, responded to the record release with a Twitter tirade telling us a lot of shit we already knew – namely, that Love can’t write music on her own, that nobody would ever have given a shit about her if she hadn’t somehow tricked Kurt Cobain into squirting his baby-making juice into her, and that she’s a terrible mother. From Classic Rock:

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I became a fan of The Smashing Pumpkins the minute I heard “Drown” (or was it, “Cherub Rock?”), and as such I have followed the work of Billy Corgan throughout the lifespan of that band, not to mention his endeavors both with Zwan and on his own. Though I scoffed at the irrational backlash that accompanied the 2005 reunion sans James Iha and D’arcy Wretzky, I still have to concede that 2007′s Zeitgeist was the weakest Pumpkins release ever, and perhaps the worst album of Corgan’s career to date. The commercial failure of that record and the recent departure of longtime drummer Jimmy Chamberlin raised questions regarding the band’s future, though Corgan seems to have pulled a Page Hamilton (or perhaps an Axl Rose), carrying on with hired guns and invited guests. For you see, he now intends to release 44 new Smashing Pumpkins songs online for free. In the words of my beloved Internets: DO NOT WANT.

Click to read more…

When I first heard that Courtney Love was going to release her long-delayed solo record under the Hole name, I considered it “a huge fuck you to co-founder Eric Erlandson.” Though the argument has been made that the influence and involvement of Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan may have had more to do with the band’s successes than the work of its official membership, I wondered how it was even permissible for her to utilize the name. Surely there had to be legal hurdles to be dealt with that couldn’t be dismissed without consent from former members. (I mean, Axl Rose effectively destroyed Guns N’ Roses by compelling his bandmates to relinquish all rights to the name.) So I’ve been waiting for Erlandson or someone from Hole’s management to comment on Love’s unilateral decision to shamelessly cash-in on the Hole brand. Well, at last, he has:

Furthermore, guitarist Erlandson insists a contract Love signed with him in 2002 bans her from using the name Hole for any future ventures, unless he’s involved. He tells Spin magazine, “We have a contract. She signed a contract with me when we decided to break up the band, which was like 2002 or something, so I really don’t have comment on it except that I know my part in that band. The way I look at it, there is no Hole without me. To put it blunt. Just on a business level… Somebody told me (about Love’s plans) and it just sounds like something… it just sounds like the usual. I love her a lot and I wish her the best, and I’m open to discussions regarding the real Hole, and if she has a solo album together, I think that’s great. I think she should finish it and put it out and do that.”

Of course, Love has responded to this seemingly sound logic with her usual grace, tact, and impeccable grammar… via Twitter.
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Paleozoic UK-based periodical NME reported today that Courtney Love will release her long-delayed second solo record as a Hole album. Apparently, none of the band’s other members will actually perform on the record, save for a possible appearance on backing vocals by Hole’s last bassist Melissa auf der Maur. With a brazen move that would make Burton and Dino blush, the Gratest Bloggre On Earht has effectively delivered a huge fuck you to co-founder Eric Erlandson by co-opting the name in an attempt to save her perpetually disintegrating career.

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Scars on Broadway didn’t work out. I’m still not entirely sure why. There seems to be some consesus that their album sucked, but I didn’t think so at all (and neither did my colleague Sammy O’Hagar, who reviewed the record). In any case, it’s a moot point, because at the end of the day, all any of us really want is for System of a Down to get back together already.

And I suspect no one wants that more than drummer John Dolmayan, who apparently auditioned to be the new drummer for Smashing Pumpkins. Because there’s really only two possible reasons he might have done this:

1. He’s bored.
2. He’s broke.

For the sake of humor, let’s assume Dolmayan is broke.

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What’s better than music? FREE MUSIC! Here’s some shit people are currently giving away for the price of air.

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Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with Billy Corgan? The Associated Press reports that the bald rock god, a mere shadow of his former self, is suing his record label of 17 years, Virgin Records, because said label’s “use of the band in a ‘Pepsi Stuff’ promotion with Amazon.com and Pepsi Co. threatens their reputation for ‘artistic integrity.’”

ARTISTIC FUCKING INTEGRITY?! Is this shithead completely fucking bonkers or what? You wanna talk about damaging your artistic integrity, let’s talk about how you’re doing Smashing Pumpkins “reunion” without 50% of the Smashing Pumpkins. Let’s talk about your decision to include photos of Paris Hilton in your album’s liner notes. Or let’s just talk about the fact that you made a really, really shitty album. Ya think any of that shit might’ve damaged your so-called “artistic integrity,” Billy? Fuck, Trent Reznor even called you “corporate.” And what’s the photo above this article, Billy? Oh, yeah. It’s a picture of you. With Courtney Love. At the fucking premiere for the movie Freedom Writers. Your artistic integrity is about as intact as Edsel Dope’s career, so let’s cut the shit. If you’re pissed that the label fucked you out of royalties for using your image and/or music in a soda ad, that’s one thing, but don’t bitch and moan about artistic integrity.

There’s only one bald Billy making relevant alt rock right now, and that’s Billy Howerdel. While we’re waiting for his new album to get released next month, someone please beat Corgan to death with a sock full of quarters.

-AR