Indie-Verse

Producer Steve Lillywhite On Axl Rose’s Voice: ‘Like Fingers On A Chalkboard’

mreal197 — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:48:28 +0000

Producer Steve Lillywhite has one of the best resumes in rock and roll: he has worked on records by Morrissey, Peter Gabriel, the Dave Matthews Band, Phish, The Rolling Stones and, most famously, U2. One band that isn’t on that list: Guns N’ Roses. He came rather close, though, to getting the Axl Rose experience, but as he told KROQ‘s Kevin & Bean Show, he pulled the plug on that.

Apparently, Lillywhite was one of many producers considered for GNR’s loooooong-delayed Chinese Democracy album (finally released in 2008), and he actually took a meeting with Axl Rose to discuss it.

“I was summoned to Los Angeles to meet with Axl Rose, we went for sushi, and then we went to the studio to listen to some tracks and he played me some instrumentals,” Lillywhite said. “I thought, ‘I can understand why he’d want me to work on this.’ And then I said, ‘Do you have anything with vocals on it?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’ve got one song.’”

It was at that point that Lillywhite remembered why working with GNR would be unpleasant (besides Axl’s famously volatile personality).

“I was listening to it and I thought ‘Oh my God, I’d forgotten how much I hate his voice.’ I’m sorry! To some people, Axl Rose is royalty. To me, it’s like fingers on a chalkboard. Now, He was a very nice guy. We finished the evening – he paid – the next morning, the manager called and said, ‘Steve, you’re in. He thinks your fantastic. ‘ I said “I’m sorry, I don’t think I’m the right man for this job.” And that was it and I left it at that.”

It’s likely that Rose was upset by this, and the next development in the story reads like a bit of payback. “I wouldn’t be telling this story,” Lillywhite says, “except, the next issue of Rolling Stone came out and it said ‘Axl Rose Turns Down Steve Lillywhite!’ I would have said nothing if he said nothing!”

Lillywhite most recently produced Thirty Seconds To Mars‘ new album, Love Lust Faith + Dreams, which was released earlier this week (May 21).

Metallica Unveil ‘Through The Never’ Trailer, Claim Enough New Material For A Record

mreal197 — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:31:01 +0000

Heavy metal legends Metallica have released the first trailer for their upcoming movie, Through the Never. It features an epic car crash and scenes from a police riot interspersed between live clips of the band performing the title track to their 1986 full-length, Master of Puppets.

The concert film is blended with a surreal narrative story, which features actor Dane DeHaan as a Metallica roadie who gets caught up in a life-changing mission while attempting to deliver a mysterious item to the band for the show.

Metallica’s concert footage was shot over three separate concerts last year in Vancouver, Canada. Through the Never is scheduled for release on every North American IMAX screen on September 27, expanding to additional theaters the following week on October 4.

While the band is currently preparing for their second annual Orion Music + More Festival, set this year for Detroit’s Belle Isle on June 8-9, Metallica members recently revealed that the band has already amassed enough new material for a studio album.

“I want it done yesterday,” singer James Hetfield told Billboard about what will be the band’s first studio album since Death Magnetic in 2008 (they released the collaborative effort Lulu with Lou Reed in 2011). “(Orion) and this movie is keeping us pretty busy at this point and it’s taking a lot of our time and effort. We’ve been touring some obscure places; I guess basically what we’re trying to do is pay for this movie, so the touring is keeping us from getting in there and finishing the record. Right now the focus is on the movie.”

“I can tell you this; the grooves and the riffs that are already on the radar are really, really awesome,” added bassist Robert Trujillo. “We’ve still got more riffs to go through and jam out and throw into the process, but we’re getting there, and we’ll have something great, hopefully, in the next year.”

Morrissey Says No To Goose Liver

mreal197 — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:07:10 +0000

British pop singer and notorious vegetarian Morrissey used his 54^th birthday (May 22) to write a scathing open letter regarding the sale and consumption of controversial dish foie gras, which is made from the livers of force-fed ducks or geese.

In the letter entitled “It isn’t nice and you shouldn’t do it” posted to Morrissey fan site True To You, Moz targets UK department store Fortnum & Mason for selling foie gras on store shelves, even though the item is considered illegal in Britain. He also takes the occasion to laud Prince Charles for banning the dish (which is rare, given the singer’s legendary distaste for the Royal Family), although the Prince’s daughter-in-law, Kate Middleton, is not so fortunate:

Congratulations to Prince Charles for banning foie gras from all his functions.

However, unsurprisingly, this most savage and cruel commodity continues to be the favorite “dish” of smiling mother-to-be Kate Muddleton (from whom, in fact, we expect no less.)

Foie gras production is illegal in the UK, yet the ever-so-correct Fortnum and Mason have found suppliers in France who will keep their shelves stocked – possibly with the hope that smiling Kate will wobble in and place an order for her unborn child.

Since Fortnum and Mason are now the only department store in London who are associated with the pitiless atrocity of foie gras, would you please write to them/contact them and exert pressure on them to stop selling such a savage beyond belief “product”.

Fortnum and Mason
181 Piccadilly
London W1A 1ER, England

Twitter: @FortnumandMason

fortnumandmason.com

thank you!

Morrissey
22 May 2013

It’s been a tumultuous year for the former Smiths singer, including Morrissey pulling out of a scheduled appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to protest fellow guests from reality show Duck Dynasty and being forced to cancel a slew of U.S. tour dates due to illness.

KISS, The Monoculture & Daft Punk’s Quest For Classic Album Status With ‘Random Access Memories’

mreal197 — Thu, 23 May 2013 20:34:32 +0000

The seeds of Daft Punk’s hype-redefining fourth album, Random Access Memories, were effectively planted on the band’s 1997 full-length debut, Homework. Featuring hits “Da Funk” and “Around the World,” the album’s gatefold sleeve features an image that appears to be a teenager’s desk. Among the transistor radio, Playboy, audiophile magazines and Iron Man comic book lurks a copy of “Stage Fright,” the 1981 single by disco pioneers, Chic.

It was Chic guitarist and producer Nile Rodgers’ January blog announcement of his Daft Punk collaboration that kicked off a public frenzy that made Random Access Memories the most talked-about album of 2013.

That Homework gatefold image also features a poster for a 1976 KISS concert at New Jersey’s Roosevelt Stadium. This nod, though small, serves as a clue to what Daft Punk could become – a precursor to their evolution from fresh-faced Frenchmen spinning records in a Wisconsin field in 1996 to the mysterious, helmeted robots who are likely to own the year in terms of musical conversation. It’s about being everywhere without being seen.

Daft Punk have quite successfully captured the imagination of not just the music world but the pop culture public at large, and done so in a way that would’ve surely impressed the late Bill Aucoin, legendary manager of KISS during their ‘70s heyday, who’s credited with elevating the band’s commercial status with inventive and relentless marketing moves. Where KISS utilized a bombastic stage show and their larger-than-life characters to launch everything from made-for-TV movies to comic books (which boasted band members’ blood in the ink), Daft Punk have carved their own similar but still unique path to cultural ubiquity.

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Francis Bean Cobain Calls Kardashian Clan’s Kendall Jenner “Self Absorbed Idiot”

mreal197 — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:21:48 +0000

Francis Bean Cobain, daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, is tired of celebrities complaining about their lives for the world to see. When model and reality television star Kendall Jenner Tweeted that she, “Just wish things could be easier sometimes mann,” Cobain responded vitriolically, calling Jenner a “self absorbed idiot.”

@KendallJenner oh shh. There are kids on earth abandoned&homeless who forcibly drink contaminated water because clean water isn't accessible
—
Frances Bean Cobain (@alka_seltzer666) May 22, 2013

She then added, “Oh ya, not to mention, CANCER, famine, poverty, draught, disease, natural disasters, Death. F***, Humans are so self involved.”

But she didn’t stop there and added some more insults to Jenner.

I'd like to thank my parents for providing me with a high IQ & I'd like to thank my grams for encouraging me not to be a self absorbed idiot
—
Frances Bean Cobain (@alka_seltzer666) May 22, 2013

Jenner has since taken down her Tweet. She recently spoke with MTV about happier news, her sister Kim’s impending motherhood and her future as an aunt.

“I mean we’re all pretty excited. It still hasn’t hit me yet, so I don’t know,” she said.

The Kardashians will be celebrating their new family and cast member on June 2 for Kim Kardashian’s baby shower. According to MTV News, the invites have been sent and include a music box which played “a lullaby version of boyfriend Kanye West‘s 2005 Late Registration cut, ‘Hey Mama.’” A-list singers Beyoncé and Fergie have been invited.

The new season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians also premieres later that night on E!

Charli XCX Covers Backstreet Boys’ ‘I Want It That Way’

mreal197 — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:17:53 +0000

As much as we want to hate on someone covering a Backstreet Boys song, it’s tough when the singer is Charli XCX. The British goth-pop singer’s not embarrassed to admit she’s obsessed with the biggest of all boy bands. In fact, she loves them so much she even tackled their 1999 monster hit, “I Want It That Way,” for the first time at a show in Chicago yesterday (May 21).

With help from a keyboard and a drum machine, Charli made the song all her own giving it the same synth-pop feel of her recently released full-length debut, True Romance. She slowed things down and took a darker approach to the love song, making lines like “But we are two worlds apart/Can’t reach to your heart” sound much more desperate and heartbroken than BSB ever did.

But the writer of Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” who described herself to Radio.com as “Wednesday Addams meets Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice meets Baby Spice,” kept things fun. She whispered lines of the chorus, handled the five-part harmony all on her own, and even threw in a little giggle before launching into Nick Carter’s epic solo. She then ended her rendition with a very sincere shout-out, “Big up to the Backstreet Boys.”

She did warn us in “I Love It” that she’s a “’90s b****.” Check out Charli’s version of “I Want It That Way” below.

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On The Charts: Vampire Weekend’s Second No. 1 Album

mreal197 — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:36:00 +0000

Indie rock reigns this week as Vampire Weekend debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, selling 134,000 copies of third album, Modern Vampires of the City, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan.

Vampire Weekend’s latest is their second No. 1, following 2010′s Contra. The album’s sales numbers are the band’s career best, slightly topping Contra‘s 124,000 in January 2010.

According to Billboard, the album is the 19th independently-distributed record to reach No. 1 on the chart since SoundScan data was first recorded in 1991, and the first such album in 2013. The album was released on XL Recordings and distributed by Warner Music’s Alternative Distribution Alliance. The last indie to top the charts was Jason Aldean’s Night Train last fall.

The band’s success follows an acclaimed appearance on Saturday Night Live, on which the four-piece performed “Unbelievers” and “Diane Young,” the album’s lead single, which has peaked so far at No. 17 on the Alternative Songs chart, the band’s best-ever chart showing. They’ve been on a promo tear as of late, particularly in the commercial radio world, where the band is slowly making in-roads (they played KROQ’s Weenie Roast last weekend, for one thing).

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Producer Steve Lillywhite Attributes U2 Connection To Ian Curtis Death

mreal197 — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:19:07 +0000

Big-name British producer Steve Lillywhite has worked with a plethora of famous artists including Talking Heads, Morrissey, The Rolling Stones, and most recently, Thirty Seconds To Mars.

Arguably, Lillywhite is best known for his work with U2, spanning from their albums Boy, October, War and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, to songs on the infamous Joshua Tree and more.

Lillywhite worked with what he describes as “the bad mullet band” U2 when they were on the verge of blowing up and swiftly rose to success in a time when music made unfathomable amounts of money.

How did Lillywhite manage to work with such a pivotal band at an early point in his career? Though he’s been working in the “vacuum” of the studio since age 17, the producer joked with KROQ’s Kevin & Bean in an interview Tuesday (May 21) that he has to “thank Ian Curtis [of Joy Division] for dying.”

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System Of A Down’s Shavo Odadjian Blames Serj Tankian For Seven-Year Album Gap

mreal197 — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:41:03 +0000

In a series of surprising updates on his Facebook fan page, System of a Down bass player Shavo Odadjian lashed out at the band’s frontman, Serj Tankian, blaming the singer for the lengthy gap since the release of their last album, Hypnotize, in late 2005.

The emotional rant, which has since been deleted, even went so far as to ask fans if SOAD should consider making an album with a different singer. The following is Odadjian’s unedited message in its entirety (via Loudwire):

“ok….. Ill come clean.. Its not us (meaning Daron,John Or Shavo!! Its Sej, who doesn’ want to do a new album!!!! so please stop harassing us about it!!! We are just waiting for SERJ! Now He might hate me for exposing the truth but i Had too.. Sorry folks!!! we’re trying to get a new album out, its just not passing Serj’s RULES! . Kinda funny, since we started the band and now he’s holding us back!! I think we should should release another album again??? As for me.. I’m ready to release one with someone who wants to be the singer of SYSTEM. not soeome we have to beg to be a part of SYSTEM!! So with that in mind, what do you guys w should do? Just remember, Hes been holding us back for 7 years so far.. wanna wait another $-5 years? or shall we release a record without Serj? u tell us?????

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From Donna Summer To Daft Punk, Giorgio Moroder Transcends Generations At First DJ Set

mreal197 — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:27:44 +0000

A giddy old man is onstage, smiling from ear to ear. He’s spent the last few minutes retelling the soon-to-be familiar tale of how he became a musician — a truncated version of the three-hour interview he recorded for Daft Punk’s new album, Random Access Memories, which dropped yesterday (May 21).

From the booth at Williamsburg, Brooklyn, nightclub Output, the 73-year-old spins a tale of recording “Love to Love You Baby” with Donna Summer, kicking everyone out of the studio and dimming the lights so she would feel inspired enough to moan just right.

And soon enough, he says the words that so many on the floor came to hear: “My name is Giovanni Giorgio, but you can call me Giorgio” (just slightly different than how he phrases it on the record). With that, the beat for Daft Punk’s “Giorgio by Moroder” drops, and the staggeringly brutal sound system at Output carries Giorgio Moroder into the future.

On the eve of Random Access Memories’ release, it seemed odd to be celebrating an Italian producer whose connection to the record was at most tangential, if influential. But his influence on disco and funk (and subsequently, Daft Punk) is undeniable, evidenced by the rousing cheers for his spin of the aforementioned Donna Summer classic.

The party that hosted Giorgio is called Deep Space, a Monday night jam hosted by Paradise Garage and Studio 54 veteran Francois K that’s become a fixture in Manhattan’s West Village. This particular event was put on by the Red Bull Music Academy, and the crowd skewed young — a room filled with twenty- and thirtysomethings gawking at a senior citizen who made the records their parents got wild to in the discotheques. The music had transcended generations.

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