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Kanye West Angers Soundgarden (And His Own Fans) At Australia’s Big Day Out

Becky Bain — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:07:06 +0000

Wherever Kanye West goes, controversy follows — even Down Under. Yeezy managed to incurr the wrath of two parties while performing at Big Day Out festival on Australia’s Gold Coast — that of his own fans, and that of Soundgarden, who had the misfortune of attempting to play during Kanye’s extremely loud soundcheck.

The first sign of trouble began when Kanye’s louder-than-expected soundcheck drowned out Soundgarden’s set, which was happening one stage over. “Sounds like there’s children playing music there, retarded children, retarded as in held back,” singer Chris Cornell reportedly said. “There’s no other word for it.”

West then began to anger his own fans when his set began 45 minutes late, causing the crowd to yell “BULLSHIT!” as they waited for Yeezy’s set, which, with ballerinas and explosions, sounded not too far off from his Coachella performance. The fest’s founder Ken West (no relation!) blamed the delay on rain, though others arrived at the possibility that Kanye didn’t want to compete performing while Tony Hawk was still in the middle of his skateboarding exhibition.

But hey, the man knows how to put on a hell of a show, even if he doesn’t know how to start it on time. Check out Kanye treating all of the Aussies to “All Of The Lights”:

[Via Spinner]

Madonna ‘W.E.’ Track “Masterpiece” Snubbed By Oscar For Best Song

Robbie Daw — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:16:12 +0000

A long list of contenders up for nomination for the Best Song category at the upcoming Academy Awards in 2012 is doing the rounds, and while some of the tunes that have already been nominated for Golden Globes are present — “Hello Hello” by Elton John and Lady Gaga, “The Living Proof” by Mary J. Blige, “The Keeper” by Chris Cornell, etc. — it appears as if there was no love for Madonna’s “Masterpiece”, from her directorial effort W.E.

According to Digital Spy, Oscar rules dictate that Madge’s track was ineligible because it was placed too far into the movie’s end credits to qualify, since contenders for the award must be the lead song in the credits.

Another Elton John tune from Gnomeo & Juliet, “Love Builds A Garden”, is also on the long list, as are songs from The Muppets (”Life’s A Happy Song”, “Man Or Muppet” and “Pictures In My Head”) and Zac Brown’s “Where The River Goes” from the Footloose remake.

The voting process for Oscar categories begins on January 5 by Academy members, after which the final nominees will all be announced live on January 24 at 5:30 a.m. PST.

Peek at all 39 tracks on the list for potential Oscar Best Song nominations here.

Golden Globe Nominations: Madonna, Elton John & Mary J. Blige Songs Receive Nods

Robbie Daw — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:40:56 +0000

The 2012 Golden Globe nominations are out, and Madonna’s upcoming directorial effort W.E. (hitting US theaters on February 3) got some Foreign Press Association love in two categories — Best Original Song (for Madge’s ballad “Masterpiece”, which she co-wrote with Julie Frost and Jimmy Harry) and Best Original Score (Abel Korzeniowski). Other song nominees include Mary J. Blige’s The Help contribution “The Living Proof” and Elton John’s “Hello Hello” from the animated film Gnomeo & Juliet.

Interestingly, new Interscope labelmates Madonna and Lady Gaga will be competing against each other for Best Original Song…sort of. Gaga serves as duet partner with Elton on the version of “Hello Hello” that appears in the Gnomeo & Juliet movie. However, she was stripped off the song as it appears on the actual soundtrack, apparently due to legal reasons.

Either way, it’s Elton John and longtime writing partner Bernie Taupin who receive the writing credit, and thus the nomination for “Hello Hello”.

Meanwhile, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor follows up his success with the score for The Social Network by landing a nod for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and Glee is up for Best Television Series — Comedy Or Musical.

Golden Globe Music Nominees

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE, MOTION PICTURE
Ludovic Bource, The Artist
Abel Korzeniowski, W.E.
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Howard Shore, Hugo
John Williams, War Horse

BEST ORIGINAL SONG, MOTION PICTURE
“Hello Hello”, Gnomeo & Juliet
Music by: Elton John
Lyrics by: Bernie Taupin

“The Keeper”, Machine Gun Preacher
Music & Lyrics by: Chris Cornell

“Lay Your Head Down”, Albert Nobbs
Music by: Brian Byrne
Lyrics by: Glenn Close

“The Living Proof”, The Help
Music by: Mary J. Blige, Thomas Newman, Harvey Mason, Jr.
Lyrics by: Mary J. Blige, Harvey Mason, Jr., Damon Thomas

“Masterpiece”, W.E.
Music & Lyrics by: Madonna, Julie Frost, Jimmy Harry

Catch the full list of 2012 Golden Globe nominees here.

Chris Cornell Gets Back Together With His Old Band (No, The Other One)

Maura — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:00:33 +0000

Last night in Los Angeles, Chris Cornell appeared with Pearl Jam at the Gibson Amphitheater in Los Angeles, where they all ran through “Hunger Strike” from the Cornell-plus-Pearl Jam-minus-Vedder Andrew Wood tribute project Temple Of The Dog. It sounded pretty decent (especially given that those big notes at the end are hard to sing), and before you go and snipe “man, if only they’d done ‘Reach Down’ ” may I give you some news about who was in the crowd? Here is a hint: They know Chris pretty well!

Via RS:

Rolling Stone has learned that the other members of Soundgarden — guitarist Kim Thayil and bassist Ben Shepherd — came to the show with Cornell to check out their drummer Matt Cameron pounding the skins with his new band. The pow-wow represents the first time the full band has been seen publicly together in more than a decade. RS recently spoke with Thayil about the potential of a Soundgarden reunion and the possibility of fans getting their hands on scores of unreleased tracks.

You guys, what if the Shinedown guy was right? Wow.

26 – Hunger Strike – Pearl Jam & special guest Chris Cornell live at Gibson Amp L.A. 10-06-2009 [YouTube via The Tripwire]
Temple of the Dog Reunite at Pearl Jam’s Los Angeles Concert [RS]
Reach down – Temple of the dog (live 1992) [YouTube]
Related: Here Are Those Videos Of The Tadgarden Show

Chris Cornell Is Going To Prove His Worth To You In 63 Tracks

Maura — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:30:25 +0000

Continuing his efforts to prove to fans that the club and the rock show can, indeed, coexist, Chris Cornell has released a mixtape in conjunction with DJ Skee based on his new solo album Scream. In addition to the Fray’s American Idol-enshrined cover of “Heartless” and a version of “Outshined” credited to Audioslave, the 63 tracks include a selection from that Jay-Z/Linkin Park album, a mashup of the “Lollipops” wielded by Lil Wayne and Framing Hanley, “Kids” so as to fulfill the required-in-2009 MGMT quotient, songs from a few bands that played Bamboozle, and a remix of Nirvana’s “Love Buzz” cover. There is also something called “Trent Reznor Speaks,” which I am going to guess is some sort of meta-Twitter dis. (The zipped version is 219 megabytes, so it’s taking a while to leech from the Internet.) Full track listing after the jump.

1. DJ Skee Intro
2. Trent Reznor Speaks
3. Scream – Chris Cornell (Dean Coleman Remix)
4. Rock Box – Run DMC
5. Walk This Way – Aerosmith
6. Encore – Jay-Z & Linkin Park
7. Electric Feel Remix – MGMT & JD (Justice Remix)
8. Get Rock – Lil’ John, Ying Yang Twinz & Busta Rhymes (DJ Scene Remix)
9. Like A Stone Mash – Audioslave
10. Girl With A Loaded Gun – Terra Incognita
11. Lapdance – N.E.R.D.
12. Rock Star – Jay-z & Pharrell
13. Lark On My Go Cart – Asher Roth
14. Heartless (Cover) – The Fray
15. Outshined – Audioslave
16. California Wonderwall – 2pac & Oasis (Rock-it! Scientists Remix)
17. Lollipop – Lil’ Wayne & Framing Hanley
18. Pony – Far
19. Fight For Your Right – Beastie Boys
20. Everyone’s Beggin – Madcon & N.E.R.D. (DJ Storm Remix)
21. Miscommunication – Timbaland, Keri Hilson & Sebastian (The Bloody Beetroots Remix)
22. Rise Up & Stay Fly – Three 6 Mafia & Yves Larock (Mikiwar Mix)
23. Part Of Me – Chris Cornell (LMFAO & LA Riots Remix)
24. Hot Revolver – Lil’ Wayne
25. U2 Let It Rock – Kevin Rudolph (DJ Cachi Remix)
26. Otherside Drums – Red Hot Chili Peppers (Starski Mix)
27. Kids – MGMT
28. Don’t Trust Me – 3OH!3
29. DJ Is A Demon – Prophet
30. Rock Around The World – Daft Punk (Victor Menegaux Mix)
31. Magnificent – U2 & Prophet
32. Sweet Revenge – Chris Cornell & Prophet
33. Welcome To The World Remix – Kid Cudi & Kevin Rudolph
34. Ordinary Girl – Chris Cornell
35. She Wants To Move Remix – Common & N.E.R.D.
36. Enemy Remix – Chris Cornell, Timbaland, Prophet & Forrest
37. I Don’t Need It – Jamie Foxx & Timbaland
38. The Seed 2.0 – The Roots
39. Scream – Game Intro New
40. Fight Song – Game & Good Charlotte
41. SLU – Kanye West
42. I’m The Ish Remix – DJ Class & Kanye West
43. Love Buzz Remix – Prophet & Nirvana
44. Everyone Nose – Lupe Fiasco, N.E.R.D. & Kanye West
45. Rock ‘n Roll – Daft Punk
46. Panic Switch – Silversun Pickups & Prophet
47. Climbing Up The Walls – Chris Cornell & Timbaland
48. Bounce – Timbaland, Dr. Dre, Justin Timberlake & Missy Elliot
49. Do Me Wrong – Chris Cornell
50. Freestyle – Prophet
51. Rock Star Girl – Charles Hamilton & The Offspring
52. Nothing To Worry About – Prophet, Peter Bjorn & John
53. Why Do You Follow Me – Chris Cornell
54. Jumpin’ Out The Window Remix – Ron Browz & Forever The Sickest Kids
55. Rising Down Remix – The Roots & Mos Def
56. Ghetto Rock – Mos Def
57. Speaker Busting – David Banner, Akon, Snoop Dogg & Lil’ Wayne
58. Rock Song – Young Jeezy
59. Salute Your Solution – The Raconteurs
60. Throw Some Rock – Rich Boy & Lenny Kravitz
61. Lost Remix – Coldplay & Jay-Z
62. Lost Cause – Chris Cornell
63. Broken Wings – Terra Incognita

Hiding Lenny Kravitz until the end: A smart move. Also, in case you were curious, that last track wouldn’t seem to be a Mr. Mister cover:

Too bad. (?)

“SCREAM” MIXTAPE [Teruo Artistry via Notes From A Different Kitchen]

Chris Cornell Watches The Seasons Roll On By

Maura — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:00:20 +0000

Chris Cornell is apparently releasing a more traditionally “rock” version of “Long Gone” as the third single from his Timbaland-assisted solo album, Scream; the new version of the track is the bed for the above video. In its initial incarnation, “Long Gone” was a five-plus-minute OneRepublicy ballad about lost love; the new mix speeds up the proceedings a bit and turns down the Timbaland beats and loops in favor of a smoothly gliding bass line and lots of riffs. It’s a smoother version of the track, to be sure, but the proceedings are a bit more lively, and anything that can allow a song to sidestep comparisons to OneFreakin’Republic should be seen as at least a modest improvement.

The producer of the radio-friendly unit-shifter version is Howard Benson, a rock-radio lifer who produced a couple of tracks on Kelly Clarkson’s All I Ever Wanted (including the crunchy Katy Perry composition “Long Shot”), as well as Daughtry’s self-titled album, My Chemical Romance’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, and a bunch of other alt-rock staples (Hoobastank, Flyleaf, Seether). Of note to some is the fact that he also produced the album that spawned the following track:

Chris Cornell – Long Gone [YouTube; HT Music Is The Heart Of Our Soul]
PRETTY BOY FLOYD [YouTube]

Maura — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:45:00 +0000

I think you can guess the topic of this quote from Chris Cornell: “I thought it was cool that they’d actually get together and rehearse some songs. I was kind of surprised by it, to be honest. [Laughs.] And I love Tad. We toured with Tad; I’ve always felt he was a really amazing person and a really talented guy. So I just really thought it was a cool thing for them to do. They were just getting up there and doing it for fun, and I think that’s great. The only thing I didn’t like is that I wasn’t there to see it. If I was there, I probably would’ve gotten up on stage.” [Post Rock]

Maura — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:45:00 +0000