Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 at 3:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
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.
Thursday, October 28th, 2010 at 1:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
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?
Monday, September 13th, 2010 at 10:14am by Axl Rosenberg
Listen, I don’t think this is gonna come as a galloping shock to anyone given all the talk there’s already been about A Perfect Circle returning from their hiatus/break-up/whatever, but we just got a press release making it official. The band is apparently gonna get this party started with a five-city tour in the fall:
Shows in Phoenix (Marquee Theatre), Los Angeles (Avalon), Seattle (Showbox at The Market) and San Francisco (The Fillmore) will be three-night stops with each night featuring one of A Perfect Circle’s three albums in its entirety (Mer de Noms, Thirteenth Step and eMOTIVe). Las Vegas (The Pearl) will be a two-night outing (Mer de Noms and Thirteenth Step).
The band will also play Jimmy Kimmel on October 27.
So Maynard James Keenan has said that Tool are working on their next album, and that “If it comes together” they may even play some new shit live this summer. I’m always totally down for some new Tool, so I won’t even say what we’re all thinking, which is “It might be nice to a get a new Tool album in under five years for a change.” I mean, we’d heard that Tool were in writing mode back in 2008, but whatever. It’s Tool. If they need that time to make the best possible record that they can, I’ll go along with it.
But a new Tool album was always a foregone conclusion; the band may very well break our hearts and throw in the towel one day, but we are (very luckily) not there yet.
So more interesting, in a way, is the news that writing has begun on a new album for A Perfect Circle. Not “more interesting” in a APC > Tool way, ’cause, come ON, that would just be a ridiculous argument to try and make. Interesting in the “Oh, cool, A Perfect Circle really aren’t done” kinda way.
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.”
Thursday, April 29th, 2010 at 9:59am by Axl Rosenberg
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:
Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 12:00pm by Gary Suarez
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.
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 2:16pm by Axl Rosenberg
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.
Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with Billy Corgan? 
