Category: External Music (Page 21 of 50)

Chinese medicine?

It’s taken Axl Rose so long to get off his arse and release Guns ‘N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy that it was only a matter of time that someone sought medical help.

Enter…Dr. Pepper.

According to the New York Post, if Axl ships the album in 2008, everyone in America – except estranged guitarists Slash and Buckethead – will receive a free can of Dr. Pepper.

“It took a little patience for us to perfect Dr Pepper’s special mix of 23 ingredients, so we completely understand and empathize with Axl’s question for the perfect album,” said a company spokesperson.

UPDATE: According to Rolling Stone, Axl has responded to Dr. Pepper’s offer. In a press release, Rose says, “We are surprised and very happy to have the support of Dr. Pepper with our album Chinese Democracy, as for us, this came totally out of the blue. If there is any involvement with this promotion by our record company or others, we are unaware of such at this time. And as some of Buckethead’s performances are on our album, I’ll share my Dr. Pepper with him.”

Seen Your Video: Midnight Juggernauts, “Road to Recovery”

This is what Duran Duran’s Red Carpet Massacre should have sounded like.

For those who don’t know the back story, Duran Duran solicited the help of hip hop overlord Timbaland and his protégé Nate “Danja” Hills to oversee their last album. This idea was sixteen different flavors of bad, because Tim and Nate demand that they be the stars of their work, not the bands singing and playing the songs in question. Duran Duran were reduced to co-stars on their own album. Tragic.

The Midnight Juggernauts right every wrong that Duran made. The drum tracks are positively huge, second only to Daft Punk. The bass lines are fluid and rubbery – nothing on Red Carpet Massacre comes close to the bass line on “Shadows” – and the keyboards are layered without smothering everything around them. And here’s the best part: they’re a trio. That’s right, there are only three guys making all this sound, which I guess makes them the equal and opposite reaction to Wolfmother, and the dance doppelganger of Muse.

Their album Dystopia doesn’t land on US shores until May 27, but it already has a spot on my Best of ’08 list. I haven’t been this excited about a band since, well, Muse. Make sure and check out the clips for “Tombstone,” “Shadows” and “Into the Galaxy” as well.

Seen Your Video: Saving Abel, “Addicted”

It’s the oldest trick in the book: label is looking at releasing bone-headed debut single from new artist, worried that no one will take notice. So the label does the one thing that will guarantee some press coverage: they fill the video with naked girls. Call it the Buckcherry Effect, who did the same thing with their “Crazy Bitch” video and now have a platinum album hanging on their walls.

The press release calls Saving Abel southern rockers, though we’re willing to bet that Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers might have something to say about that. More accurately, they’re a rock band from the south (Corinth, MS, to be precise), but this ain’t southern rock. Rather, it’s by-the-numbers, Nickelback-ish slug-rock, with one of the most unintentionally hilarious choruses in recent memory:

I’m so addicted to, all the things you do
When you’re going down on me, in between the sheets
All the sounds you make, with every breath you take
It’s not like anything, when you’re loving me

Lest you think “Addicted” is just an overly suggestive love song, fear not; it turns out the singer kinda hates the girl he’s addicted to, and he apparently suppresses that anger because she gives good head. Two questions spring to mind: what does the girl get out of this relationship – other than the satisfaction of blowing said singer – and isn’t the lead singer worried that singing lyrics like this will cost him in the groupie department? Any girl he bangs has to be thinking, “Is his next song going to be about me?”

On second thought, I can see women getting off on that, being immortalized in song, however denigrating. But that’s a whole different topic.

And then there’s the controversial video (banned from MTV! Save the children!), which features a guy shooting video of two topless women getting friendly. Now, we are the last people to raise a fuss over naked women, but surely there is some angle, any angle, they could have taken besides the played out ‘straight girls pretend to be gay to turn a guy on’ bit. Even the girls on the pole/slutty groupie aspect of “Crazy Bitch” made more sense in context.

Oh, and if you have not yet seen enough clichés from this band, check out the album cover.

Yes, nothing says “stupid whore”—or “Valtrex” – quite like a back tat of a band’s logo. Ladies, if you’re considering doing this, for the love of God, stop. No man will ever touch you again.

Embedding for the video is disabled (it’s a Playboy.com exclusive), so to see the video, click here. All Saving Abel bashing aside, the clip is worth a look, preferably with the sound down. The video will run through March 18, at which point you will probably never hear from the likes of Saving Abel again. And yes, we understand the irony of promoting the clip in order to make an example of it, so don’t bother pointing that out.

Seen Your Video: Silversun Pickups, “Little Lover’s So Polite”

All actors should make their directorial debut with a music video. It’s a good place to get your feet wet and learn good timing, among other things. And besides, if it’s good enough for Michael Bay and McG, it’s good enough for anyone else. Actually, McG probably should have stuck with making music videos, but that’s a subject for another column.

“Little Lover’s So Polite,” the latest single from the unstoppable Silversun Pickups, has one Joaquin Phoenix behind the camera, and while the video is cute, I have no doubt that the label would have scrapped it had it not been directed by an Oscar nominee. The band plays the song from the back of a pickup truck (bad dum bum) while driving through downtown Los Angeles at night, with a parallel story of a young boy meeting up with a young girl, and running until they fly. The problem is that Phoenix has drummer Christopher Guanlao wildly overacting, pounding his drums to a rather gentle drum track. It is also clear that the band is getting a police escort to shoot the video – when the police aren’t visible in the shot, their flashing lights are – which ruins the illusion. Yes, we know that you need to get permits to shoot videos on public streets. We just don’t like seeing reminders of it in the video itself. Unless, of course, that’s the point of the video, like U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.”

Not that any of this will stop the song from being a hit. It’s the fourth single from a 2006 album. That’s old school promotion, right there. God, isn’t it sweet.

Embedding is disabled, but you can watch the video here.

Steal This Song: Black Crowes, “Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution”

Those Black Crowes are a quirky bunch. They refuse to send review copies of the new album Warpaint to the press to prevent the album from leaking (though that didn’t stop Maxim from running an “educated guess preview” review of the album anyway), yet they have an open door policy when it comes to taping shows. Now, with the album safely in stores, the band has granted the use of their latest single, “Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution,” for free download on blogs. They went from “No one can hear it” to “Everyone can have it for free” in 4.8 seconds flat. Huh.

I will be the first to admit that I am not the foremost spokesperson for the Black Crowes on staff, so I don’t really know how this fits in with the material from their previous album, Lions. I can tell you this, though: this is as good a Faces impression as you’re likely to find. Pretty damn good, if you ask me. So what if it “didn’t leave the band much room for growth,” as Maxim hilariously presumed. It’s only rock and roll, but I like it. Yes, I do.

Black Crowes – Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution.mp3

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