Today’s “Yahoo Serious Film Festival” headline: “Dave Matthews Blu-Ray To Feature Dolby TrueHD.” I feel old. (Or maybe just too broke for new technology.) By the way, Dave Matthews still managed to go to No. 3 with yet another live album last week–the one that said “Blu-Ray” (lol) is taken from–despite the fact that he hasn’t had a studio album or a hit single or a public gaffe in a million billion years. (Okay, two or three years.) He is officially unkillable, so long as there is an audience willing to buy new versions of Busted Stuff album tracks. But that’s not the only technological treat arriving just in time for the school year:
Verizon is now selling the first Bob Marley ringtones just in time for a 30th anniversary Exodus reissue. (Lee Perry ringtones still to come.) “Customers can now buy master ringtones of such classics as ‘Buffalo Soldier,’ ‘Redemption Song,’ and ‘One Love,’ among more than two dozen others,” Billboard reports. Being a ringtone addict and a reggae fan who’s always been cool on Marley, I’m all for Saint Bob finally entering the digital age. (Could ringtones really debase the Marley estate any more than the bootlegers and merchandisers already have?) What says “freedom” like a tinny “Concrete Jungle” coming out of a few hundred RAZR’s at once during “Rocks for Jocks”?
Dave Matthews Blu-Ray To Feature Dolby TrueHD [Billboard]
Verizon Nabs Marley Exclusive [Billboard]
We were talking in the office the other day about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (not that it’s some sacrosanct end-all/be-all or anything) and how–thus far–most of us can agree on the most of the choices. But we were cringing to think about the future. Dave Matthews Band? They’re in. Red Hot Chili Peppers? Oh, yeah. Sheryl Crow? On the bubble. Matchbox 20? Hootie? They have more hits than Grandmaster Flash if not the influence. Alice in Chains? Hell, they influence more of the continuous stream of crappy grunge bands (still!) than Nirvana or Pearl Jam did. The mind boggles. Like I said, not that the RnR Hall of Fame is the Baseball Hall of Fame or anything…
cooperstown is no cleveland.
I’d vote for Alice In Chains. It’s not their fault the Godsmack and that ilk did such awful impressions of them. Plus, Would? and I Stay Away are fucking awesome.
What about the Hair Metal years? Are they going to induct Warrant and Poison? Maybe that era, like the late ’90s, will be a chance to induct acts that keep getting passed over.
And speaking of halls of fame, what about hip hop? What about….rave? Micro tech house?
@PengIn: Both those songs are among my Alice in Chains favorites.
@nonce: The hair metal years = Guns N’ Roses, maybe Motley Crue for their influence on the “rock and roll lifestyle” (seriously, the part with the ant-snorting in The Dirt should win them automatic election). Anyone who wore as much makeup as Poison did would, I think, be looked down upon by the establishment.
Nirvana and Alice in Chains should go in at the same time. How many terrible grunge bands did nirvana influence? Listen to both unplugged albums and tell me they aren’t masterpieces that could’ve elevated that series to a masterworks collection level instead of the sad gimmick it is now. Korn unplugged? cmon.
@maura: But Poison had more hits than just about anybody save GNR. I mean, they were HUGE! And what about Journey and such?
@Lucas Jensen: Huge doesn’t mean respected.
@Lucas Jensen: Haven’t you been following the whole Monkees thing?