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]

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.

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.

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

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 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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Aside from holidays where major news events happen, thus disrupting one’s chance to actually get away from her laptop and have a life, April Fool’s Day is probably the most annoying 24-hour stretch on the professional blogger’s calendar, thanks to everyone on the Internet thinking they’re funny. Despite that not really being true! After the jump, a running tally of pranks from various music-related entities; it’ll be updated throughout the day, because Lord knows I need to do something with all the “comedy” clogging up my RSS reader right now.

Bjork joins Led Zeppelin. Points for the sorta-convincing Photoshop of Lady B with Page, Bonham, and Jones. Extra points for claiming that she inserted an “only songs from I and IV” clause in her contract. And bonus extra points for being something I would actually want to hear. This wins the Internet for today, I think. [Bjork.com]

Nine Inch Nails‘ new album. “To download NIN’s new full-length album Strobe Light, PRODUCED BY TIMBALAND, enter a valid email address in the fields below. A download link will be sent to you immediately. Your credit card will be charged $18.98 plus a $10 digital delivery convenience fee. Your files will arrive as windows media files playable on quite a few players with your name embedded all over them just in case you lose them. You will also receive an exclusive photo and a free email account with our partner Google’s Gmail service.” Chris Cornell’s Twitter unavailable for comment. [nin.com, although be warned: I think the <blink> tag usage is going to give me a seizure.]

Comerica Park is being renamed Kid Rock Field. Not going to lie: If a friend of mine hadn’t sent me this in a “hey, did you see this April Fool’s joke?” context, I would have believed it, what with the home of the Detroit Tigers currently being named in honor of a bank and all. (If only an enterprising Mets fan had thought of this first…) [KidRock.com; HT Pat]

Peter Bjorn And John Shreds. 5.5? [YouTube]

Marty Friedman joins Limp Bizkit. Had me going there for a second, thanks to the excellent mimicry of Fred Durst‘s Twitter “style.” [MetalSucks]

“Warner Bros. Acquires The Pirate Bay.” “when i first read this it scared the shit outa me but then i looked at my calender and was sooooooooooo relived when i saw that it was april 1st. i almost had a heart attack you guys! come on not cool!!!! lol oh yeah, and 13 billion dollars??? in this economy??? yeah right WB’s aint doing shit lol” See what happens when you indulge geeks? Do you see? [The Pirate Bay]

“Deicide Frontman Converts To Christianity.” Not all that original in the grand scheme of Crazy Confessions; claim that the conversion was announced “on the band’s Web site” would have probably been a little funnier if the actual Deicide site wasn’t currently redirecting to a domain squatter. [Metal Underground]

Ethan Hawke profiles Kris Kristofferson for Rolling Stone. Oh, wait, that isn’t a joke? Huh. [RS]

So as you may recall, the three non-Chris Cornell members of Soundgarden played behind Tad Doyle last week at a benefit thrown by Tom Morello. Well, the frontman-in-exile opened his U.S. tour over the weekend in Dallas, and the Spin reviewer charged with covering the show noted that his set not only included “Spoonman” and “Jesus Christ Pose,” it incorporated “Gun,” one of the more menacing tracks from the band’s 1989 major-label debut Louder Than Love. And no, to answer the question Mike posed when I informed him of this development, the song’s scary-monster riffs were not interspersed with baby noises and tablas. A clip of him performing the song last week—in Chile, not Dallas—after the jump. Compare and contrast!

He also whipped out “Immigrant Song,” no doubt as a way of letting Jimmy Page know that he’s still available.

Chris Cornell Revisits Soundgarden Songs at Tour Kickoff [Spin]
Chris Cornell – Gun 2009 Pepsi Fest Chile [YouTube]

The video for Chris Cornell‘s “Part Of Me” made its way to the Internet a month ago, but I just happened across it today; it’s a Timbaland-produced track that sounds like a wan take on Nelly Furtado’s way superior “Say It Right,” and its lyrics tell the tale of a man who’s had many a regrettable impulse. Those lyrics, by the way, employ the phrase “that bitch ain’t a part of me” approximately 22 times. The video shows hard-luck scenarios in clubs that specialize in hot Dirty Dancing Havana Nights-style hotness (in San Juan), line-dancing (in El Paso), and good old-fashioned New York bootyshaking (in Queens!), I guess for the purpose of universalizing the song’s lyrics. (Or just to answer the “who’s going to buy this record?” query one of our commenters posed in an earlier discussion of the album.) Clip after the jump.

Chris Cornell – Part Of Me (Produced By Timbaland) [Dailymotion]

According to a banner ad that’s been popping up on Blabbermouth, Chris Cornell’s Timbaland-assisted solo effort Scream has been pushed back again—this time from March 3 to March 10. Will one more week make people realize that the album actually didn’t come out during its big ABC-assisted promo blitz last fall? (You’d think that whoever’s making release-date decisions would want any album to come out sooner rather than later, what with retail outlets dropping like flies…) [Previously]

The new issue of Billboard has a rundown of albums that are coming out in the coming months, and nestled among the usual suspects—Franz Ferdinand, 50 Cent (haha), Kelly Clarkson—is one album that I thought had come and gone from the consciousness long ago: Chris Cornell’s Scream, his much-maligned collaboration with Timbaland that somehow hasn’t been released yet despite cell phone company-sponsored minitours and New Yorker writeups and watery OneRepublic-ish balladeering.

Chris Cornell

“Scream” (Mosley Music/Interscope, March 3)

In one of the more unlikely pop music pairings of late, Chris Cornell drafted hip-hop maestro Timbaland to produce his third solo album. As to be expected with Timbaland behind the boards, songs like “Long Gone” and “Watch Out” move Cornell in a much more R&B-oriented direction, with busy drum machine beats, buffed-up chorus vocals and string samples filling the nooks and crannies. “I don’t care what anyone says,” Cornell says. “What we did together is different than anything that has been done before.”

After the first two disappointing leaks from the album, I was actually sort of intrigued by “Ground Zero,” which opened the season premiere of Life On Mars (it’s back next week!) and which, at the very least, had a bit of a pulse, as opposed to the other two tracks:

Still, it seems kind of odd to me that the label’s waited so long for this album to come out, resulting in a delay that’s near-Scherzingerian. And what with all the publicity it received last autumn making me think that the record had already come out and tanked, what on earth is the label going to do as far as a rekindled press campaign? A Sweding of Singles? More Life On Mars tie-ins? A week-long stint on that new Jay Leno show?

Life On Mars – Chris Cornell Ground Zero Music Video [YouTube]

Last month, the former Soundgarden wailer Chris Cornell was making noise about maybe being invited to tour with the sorta-reformed Led Zeppelin, but judging by this quote, he apparently just wanted to be invited for the sole purpose of turning Page, Jones, and Bonham down: “It just doesn’t make any sense to me at all. I would not want to go see me performing Led Zeppelin songs with the two other guys that used to be in a band called Led Zeppelin while Robert Plant is out somewhere touring. That’s not a ticket I would buy. God bless ‘em, but that’s not Led Zeppelin. I find it completely depressing. I’d never do anything like that. I mean just out of respect to the legacy of the band.” Unfortunately, the interviewer didn’t follow up with a question on whether or not Cornell was OK with filling in for Plant when he stops touring with Alison Krauss. [Edmonton Sun; HT Reed Fischer]

“I have not been approached so far to fill in for Robert Plant on the upcoming Zeppelin tour, but that isn’t to say I won’t be,” the former Soundgarden singer told MTV News. “I’ve heard that from about 200 people now, and it might be one of those situations where it’s just an online rumor or it might be true. But if you see anyone from Led Zeppelin around, let me know. I think I should actually fill in for Jimmy Page on the Robert Plant/ Alison Krauss tour.” Well, we should all be thankful he’s not angling for Scott Stapp’s spot on the inevitable Creed reunion… yet. [MTV]

I’ve so far enjoyed ABC’s adaptation of the BBC “detective sent back to the ’70s for the dual purposes of solving crimes and wearing awesome outfits” show Life On Mars, in part because I am a sucker for a well-done, well-cast cop show. (Hey, it’s nice that someone figured out a good way to use Michael Imperioli. Here’s hoping this keeps him away from Law & Order for good.) And it’s also in part because the show’s use of music has been pretty great. The pilot scored a chase scene with the Sweet’s “Little Willy,” while last week’s episode started and ended with Mott The Hoople’s “All The Way From Memphis”–a use that was effective enough that I bought the song from iTunes about five minutes after the episode ended, and thought to myself, “This show is so going to fill the ‘as heard on TV’ slot that’s been vacant on Idolator since Veronica Mars got canceled.”

Somehow I didn’t piece together the fact that part of the first episode was scored with a song from Chris Cornell’s Scream, mainly because “Ground Zero” didn’t sound all that bad in its shredded-for-TV form. Anyway, the full video, with Cornell walking around what I guess is supposed to be “’70s New York” but what I’m pretty sure is “present-day Astoria” thanks to all the parking notices taped up around the neighborhood, is below.

If only there was a show where a detective got sent back to 1987 Seattle, right?

And what the heck, here’s that Mott The Hoople song, so we’re caught up for tomorrow’s inevitable post on “Stuck In The Middle With You!”

It’s almost criminal that my first exposure to this song was via a hard-rock not-really-all-that-supergroup, eh?

All the Way from Memphis Mott The Hoople [YouTube]
Life On Mars Chris Cornell Ground Zero Music Video [YouTube]

Great news, residents of the West Coast: You have the opportunity to hear Chris Cornell emote his way through his collaboration with Timbaland live! East coast residents–including you, S/FJ–are doubly out of luck, since the duo will be hitting up local Verizon Wireless stores for autograph sessions as well.

It turns out we all thought Cornell’s Scream is lousy because we haven’t heard it in the form it was intended.

“This album, I think, needs to be performed from beginning to end, because on the record, once the music starts, it never stops,” he explained. “So it’s literally a situation where you start playing the record from the first song, and it’s just an hour’s worth of music that keeps going until it’s done, and it’s something that’s difficult to present in this day and age. Everything is sound bites and one song at a time, and people sort of downloading one song at a time, and more than any album I’ve ever made, this is an album that’s really designed to be listened to from beginning to end, in one sitting.

“I think the smartest thing for me to do is go out and perform it that way, so people get it, because people haven’t really understood that yet.”

Sure, that’s the problem. No word, as of yet, on how the Timbaland-assisted autograph sessions fit into the overall “have people understand my weird career turn” plan, but I imagine that’ll be made apparent soon enough.

Of course, as this tour hits my local venue (and Verizon Wireless store), I’ll be on my first vacation in a decade or so. Fates, why do you torture me?

Chris Cornell, Timbaland Announce Dates For West Coast Tour [MTV]