The Future Of Music Reviewing
"Instead, over their two-hour set Wednesday night at a sold-out Cruzan Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Pearl Jam chose to offer a semi-obscure selection of songs that excluded many massive hits. Fans cheered predictably throughout the night, but many ended up grumbling afterward, frustrated that favorites such as Jeremy, Black, Daughter, Elderly Woman Behind the Counter In a Small Town, I Got Id and Release were passed over for songs some struggled to identify." You'd think this was an offering from Yelp, wouldn't you? No, it's by a "professional" music critic employed by the Miami Herald, Michael Hamersly, and there's so much more where that came from. Like the way he calls Eddie Vedder's outfit "appropriately grungy" and the way that "Yellow Ledbetter" has a guiding riff that's "Red Hot Chili Peppers-like." I mean, I know that every writer has a day when they have to hack out a piece on deadline—and the headline "Pearl Jam picks puzzling song selection" doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the editorial team over there—but at least be creative, y'know? [Miami Herald]
How The Mighty Have Fallen, Part XXVII
Former Soundgarden frontman/renegade "Billie Jean" reworker Chris Cornell has been reduced to making cameos in videos by OneFreakin'Republic. [MTV]
Bad Band Names, Part LXVI In A Never-Ending Series
Natalie Portman's Shaved Head. I can't wait for them to tour with Witty Pop Cultural Reference To Something Else That Happened In 2005! Better get those ironic covers of "Don't Phunk With My Heart" ready, guys. [MySpace]
One would think that RS' head honchos would have held the $25k-a-throw hooker story for pairing with the inevitable Ashley Alexandra Dupre cover, but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures.
Amy Incarcerated (For Now, At Least)
Amy Winehouse has been arrested by London's Metropolitan Police on suspicion of assault after stopping by the police station to be interrogated about a pair of incidents: "The 24-year-old has reportedly been accused of headbutting a man who tried to help by hailing her a taxi outside a bar. She was also alleged to have punched a second man in the face in the early hours of Wednesday." [Sky / Photo: AP]
Yay, Journalism!
What better way to show that DIY music videos uploaded to YouTube are the new way that bands are promoting themselves than by conducting an interview with your own brother, who just happens to be in a band that posted a clip of its own on Sunday? And here I thought trolling for sources within Facebook friend listings was a lazy tactic for trend-story-generation! [Listening Post]
In addition to revealing that Justin Timberlake would present her to the public at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Madonna let slip the title of her forthcoming album, which comes out on April 29: It's going to be called Hard Candy, just like that nail polish line and that old Ellen Page movie, and it'll also have a track called "Candy Store." Why? Well, according to Madonna's long-suffering publicist Liz Rosenberg, Madge "loves candy ... [The title is] about the juxtaposition of tough and sweetness, or as Madonna so eloquently expressed 'I'm gonna kick your ass, but it's going to make you feel good.'" That's the type of personal-trainer-derived talk that almost makes you pine for the days of Licorice! Maybe Madonna figures that she's being transgressive in this lollipop-girl era by admitting that she actually eats junk food in her new album's title? Sigh. Let's just go back to the Material Girl's better days with the video for one of my top-five songs of hers ever, "Deeper And Deeper." (Hey, it features women eating actual food!)
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I pose this question to myself a lot, but readers, today I open the floor to you: What the fuck is wrong with people? Here is why I am asking (right now, at least): Today the Overdub Tampering Committee—those guys who claimed to have added instrumentation to leaked albums and re-leaked the altered versions for the purpose of messing with listeners' heads—posted anew to their blog about the reactions garnered by their announcement earlier this week. They're remaining mum on what records they did this to and even whether or not this thing is just a big ol' culturejamming hoax, but they did take the time to let us know that some people were really upset by their antics. Like, murderously so!
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If nothing else, it makes for a better excuse than "my hard drive got magnetized": Death Cab For Cutie guitarist Chris Walla's long-in-the-works solo album is probably going to be delayed even more thanks to the hard drive containing all its master tracks being seized by the Department of Homeland Security at the U.S.-Canada border. The album has the working title Field Manual, and according to Walla, it's "very political," with songs about Hurricane Katrina and morning-after pills and artwork that is based on Army training manuals from the '30s and '40s.
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Former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler sat down for a chat with the Latin American online radio station Rockum Radio recently, and during his long, slurry monologue he talked about how American people are pretty much bitter jerks (OK, I get that), his upcoming judging gig for the Cannabis Cup, how Matt Sorum pretty much took over his life (guess Americans are bitter!), and how he still holds the belief that the original Appetite-era lineup of Guns N' Roses will, someday, get together. Perhaps when Chinese Democracy comes out.
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Either someone's very jealous of the Led Zeppelin 
Idolator
