Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi has directed a fantastically twisted video for Tenacious D’s “Classico” (nsfw) from The Pick of Destiny. More John K stuff here.
Via bb.
Category Archives: Shorties
Blame Pete
According to the NME, our man Pete Townshend still smarts over the kiddie porn charges from a few years ago and marched out of a scheduled interview with Howard Stern after another member of the show took a stab at the old boy. According to the story, Stern later apologized and Pete responded on his website by inviting Howard to lunch.
In other Pete bashing news of another surname, Oasis leadman Liam Gallagher mocked Pete Doherty’s drug problems by calling him (and Keane lead singerTom Chaplin, who recently completed his own rehab stint) “posh lightweights” who can’t take drugs. Gallagher told the Sun that Doherty is “cabbaged,” which is a great put-down even if I don’t know what it means.
The Gallagher brothers, themselves well known for having a taste for the drink and the drug, have yet to see the inside of the famed Priory rehab clinic.
“None of us have been in the Priory, ” said Gallagher. “Not like these little idiots today. They have one little line, they have one burn and they’re all in rehab.”
Cabbaged, ideed!
Snoop Nabbed on Drug and Weapons Charges
Awwwwwww shit, Snoop Dog was arrested at 3:45 p.m. Thursday at Bob Hope Airport, police said. The D to the O the double G posted $35,000 bail and was scheduled to appear in court Dec. 12.
It appears he was arrested after cops searched his vehicle. Snoop seems to have violated a lane restriction at the airport, which prompted the 5-0 to rummage his gear and find his stash. My question is, why did Snoop allow them to search the vehicle??? C’mon, yo!
“There was no basis for this arrest,” the rapper’s attorney, Donald Etra, said in a statement. “We believe that once this is cleared up, all charges will be dismissed.”
FREE SNOOP DOGG!
Beck’s favorite album covers
MTV has an interview with Beck wherein he describes his favorite album covers.
See them all (including sleeves by the Beatles, Bowie, Beefhart, and more!) after the jump.
Two Gallants Speak Out: Fuck the Police
An update to the story of the band who got beat up by cops, the Fork gets the band members’ side of the story: “They were arresting anybody who asked a question,” Vogel said. “All these young kids who were at the show and just wanted to know what was going on, they got arrested.”
Remember kids, you have the right to remain silent. That’s pretty much it. I wish the Fork had asked what the charges were. My guess is “hindering and opposing a police officer.” I was charged with that once for simply asking a cop who invited him into a party I was attending. I spent several hours in jail until my posse rounded up the $500 bond to bail me out. I eventually spent $1,000 on a lawyer and the charges were dropped contingent on me waiving my right to sue for false arrest.
There’s a lesson there, somewhere. But all I got out of it was learning that cops can cost you a lot of money for no good reason at all. Sure, I could’ve taken it to trial, but my lawyer advised me not to; it would have taken a lot of time, and there was very little chance of me being awarded any damages since it really didn’t cost me anything (no missed work, no obvious pain and suffering, etc.).
But I’ll always remember officer Scott Ramburger, GRPD badge #367. And so will karma.
Update: The Houston Chronicle has some more details: “Vogel and Johnson were each charged with interfering with the duties of a public servant, while Kerwin and Kohler were each charged with resisting arrest or search, records show. All of the alleged offenses are misdemeanors.”
Also noteworthy: “No formal public complaints [against the officer] had been lodged as of Tuesday afternoon, according to HPD Capt. Dwayne Ready.” I never filed an official complaint against officer Ramburger, and I’ve regretted it ever since. It would’ve been a pain—you had to go to the police station, and I just never bothered. But I should have. These kids in Houston definitely should.
The Killers vs. Green Day
Brandon Flowers is a fucking moron. NME has excerpts from The Word‘s cover feature on the Killers, and it’s almost painful to read this dipshit’s sophomoric ideas about Green Day, Bruce Springsteen, and an artist’s role as foreign ambassador.
Some examples of his idiocy:
“You have Green Day and ‘American Idiot‘. Where do they film their DVD? In England. A bunch of kids screaming ‘I don’t want to be an American idiot’ I saw it as a very negative thing towards Americans. It really lit a fire in me.”
Why’s that, Brandon? Because you’d prefer everybody to be as idiotic as you? Did you ever consider that the message of Green Day’s album might have been to encourage American kids to not be idiots. Is the true intention of lyrics such as “Don’t wanna be an American idiot / One nation controlled by the media” a little too obscure for you to figure out? Hint: Green Day is advising people to think critically about what they see on television…
“You have the right to say what you want to say and what you want to write about, and I’m sure they meant it in the same way that Bruce Springsteen meant ‘Born In The USA’ and it was taken wrongly, but I was really offended when I saw them do that.”
Ahem. This mental midget really shouldn’t be allowed to ever mention Springsteen again. Seriously. The song “Born In The USA” is even more critical of the United States than anything Green Day has ever released. Bruce is actually one-upping Kanye West and saying that not only does the American government not care about black people, they don’t care about anybody!
“People need to see that, really, there are the nicest people in the world here! I don’t know if our album makes you realise that. But I hope it’s from a more positive place.”
Yes, we’re all very, very nice. Perhaps the nicest people in the world. And we have the best facial hair, too.
YouTube: Covers
Check out this awesome animation of your favorite album covers. Hilarious.
Who Are They Kidding?
“Roger Daltrey has been a world-famous star since the early 1960s when he began his career as the lead singer of The Who, and has since become one of the most popular vocalists in rock music history.” So claims a press release from CBS Entertainment, which draws attention to the fact that Daltrey is going to have a role on a forthcoming episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. “World-famous star.” “Most popular vocalists in rock music history.” Well, it would be hard to disprove that, although the pneumatic praise is a little humid and musty.
“Daltrey is currently on a major worldwide tour with The Who, promoting their current album, Endless Wire,” the release notes. Here is something that can be completely disproved. When Daltrey became a “world-famous star” it was with a band consisting of four people. Two of the four are dead. Now Daltrey and one of them, the guy who wrote the song that’s used as the theme song for CSI, are out touring. That’s 50%. Which effectively makes it a duo. “The Who” does not exist, marketing notwithstanding. “The Who” is effectively a part of “rock music history.”
[To put Daltrey’s appearance on CSI in perspective, consider this: Mr. Britney Spears, Kevin Federline will be guest starring in tonight’s episode – ed.]
Pay to Play Cover Songs
Yipes! If you own a venue that features live music, be sure to either tell your artists never to play covers, or else you’d better remember to pay those ASCAP thugs their grift…
Restaurant owner says songs may cost him his business:
Dorr says a rep from the American Society of Musicians and Publishers paid an unannounced visit to his restaurant one night and heard covers of the songs performed by local band “Black Notes.”
Because his place features local musicians and covers are rare, he didn’t think he had to pay the musicians and publishers group an estimated $2,000 to cover performances of copyrighted tunes.
But the owners of the songs, including Wonder and Hendrix’s estate, say he does.
Now they’re suing Dorr for copyright infringement – and they’re seeking payment of between $750 and $30,000 for each song, along with attorney fees.
And this is supposed to help artists somehow? Isn’t copyright meant to promote the arts? How’s that, by closing down every fucking coffee house in America?
Section 8 of Article I of the United States Constitution gives Congress the power “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” You think this is what the Founders had in mind? Somehow I doubt it.
Thanks, lw!
Paul Westerberg’s Guitar For Sale: Cheap!
Wow, this is pretty cool. You can buy Paul Westerberg’s guitar for only $160!
The Star Tribune has the story:
Boston-based six-string manufacturer First Act — whose $159 instruments caught Westerberg’s eye in a Wal-Mart a couple years ago — recently recruited the former Replacements frontman to design his own guitar for retail.
Featuring a slim body and “punk-rock plaid” pattern on its pick guard, the PW580 is already on sale at Amazon.com and will soon be available in Wal-Mart stores. Retail price: $159.
Westerberg wanted “…something not too heavy, that I could play quietly or full volume. It has a single pick-up, and it sort of snarls. It’s lean, clean, and mean, and it doesn’t have that big, overdriven, fuzzy sound. You can get that with an amp, but the guitar itself doesn’t put it out, and that’s what I was looking for. There’s a definite old-school thing—it belongs in a garage. It probably sounds best in a garage playing surf music or something like that.”
According to First Act: “The story goes that Westerberg was on tour somewhere in the middle of America, and he stopped into a mass retailer to buy shaving cream, and bought one of our crimson ME501 electric guitars on impulse, right off the shelf. He debuted the guitar onstage that night, and quickly brought it into heavy onstage rotation for the rest of the tour.”
Check out its specs. Has anybody out there actually heard a First Act guitar in action, or played one? How do they sound? Because this is a pretty cool thing. Although I’m not quite sure about that “punk rock plaid” pickguard…
Via the rope.