Monthly Archives: October 2008

Halloween treats from Spin the Black Circle

Halloween is the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll holiday so here are a few treats to get you through the day and prep you for a night of spooktacular fun at whatever Halloween party or concert you end up attending tonight.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM MICHAEL MCDONALD

And of course …

MICHAEL JACKSON’S THRILLER … WITH LEGOS! (Why Legos? Well, just because the video is out there, and well, just because I can. If you want to skip straight to the good stuff, jump ahead to the 8:00 mark for the Thriller dance.)

MAKING OF THRILLER PART 1

MAKING OF THRILLER PART 2

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Hear it here: Eagles of Death Metal’s “Heart On” record

Eagles of Death Metal at Endfest 2006.The Josh Homme side project Eagles of Death Metal are streaming their new record “Heart On” in its entirety on the band’s MySpace page.

You can listen to the record by clicking here.

In more Eagles of Death Metal news, the band begins its U.S. tour Thursday night a Neumo’s. No word on if QOTSA (that’s Queens of the Stone Age for all you non-music geeks) frontman Homme will be accompanying the band on this tour. The one time I saw the band live was at an Endfest a few years ago and they were without Homme.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Deck The Hall Ball feat. Daeth Cab, The Killers, Cold War Kids, presale info

The End’s annual Deck The Hall Ball is scheduled for Dec. 9 at WaMu Theater and will include some heavy hitters featured on modern rock radio playlists.

Here’s who will be there:

The Killers
Death Cab For Cutie
Cold War Kids
Shiny Toy Guns
Aqueduct

The tickets cost $42.50 a pop and the presale begins Thursday at 12:01 a.m. The presale password is “theend” and you can find the presale tix here.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

An idea of what Chris Cornell’s new record with Timbaland sounds like

In case you haven’t heard, grunge God Chris Cornell is releasing an album next month that is a pop record produced by Timbaland. Cornell is touring with Timbaland to support the record and that tour will be at the Showbox SoDo Nov. 2.

Here’s a snippet of a review from a recent Cornell show that gives a quick take on the new matierial. Read the whole review here.

Cornell’s new sound had the feel of ’80s Peter Gabriel, with two metal guitarists roaming the stage and a drummer playing rigid house-music beats as two keyboardists created a swirling, soothing synth sound to match his high-pitched vocals. Cornell exclusively did songs from Scream, opening with “Part of Me,” which set a mild hip-hop rhythm to the chorus “That b*tch ain’t a part of me.”

As a Cornell fan myself, the idea of album sounds like it is a trainwreck to me. Although musical trainwrecks can be fun to watch, I am on the fence about whether to pick up a copy when it comes out. What are your thoughts about the Cornell/Timbaland collabo?

 Here’s a track from the album I found on YouTube.


 

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

More shows on the horizon

The fall concert season seems to be in full swing and I am hoping to catch as many shows as possible beofre winter sets in and I am stuck on the wrong side of the Cascades for going to concerts.

Here are two shows I will be at in the coming week:

Oct. 19: Fleet Foxes @ The Moore

I’m super stoked to see the biggest hometown buzz band of the moment play their biggest hometown  headlining show to date.

Nov. 3: Mike McCready, Tom Morello, Stone Gossard and friends @ The Showbox?

This “get out the vote” show on Election Day even should be amazing. I don’t know who these “friends” are that are also on the bill, but I do know Chris Cornell is in town the night before and if I remember my Chris Cornell history correctly, I think he was once in a band with the three headliners on the bill. Nothing is confirned, but I’m just saying …

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Chinese Democracy to be released Nov. 23

Billboard is reporting Axl Rose’s “Chinese Democracy” record will be released Nov. 23 and will be sold exclusively at Best Buy.

This of course begs the question of whether everyone in the country will get a free Dr. Pepper as promised by the folks at Dr. Pepper.

I’ve heard some of the leaked material and back in 2002 I saw some new songs performed live at the Tacoma Dome (it was one of the most awesome concert experiences of my life) and I’ll say that if what I’ve heard is “Chinese Democracy” then I’m not that impressed. The material isn’t all that bad, but it really isn’t exceptionally good.

My prediction is that Pitchfork will give the record a snarky 4.2 rating and Rolling Stone will rate it at a 3.5 and call it Axl’s way of attempting to forge new ground musically while staying to the Gus N Roses formula that he’s been successful with in the past.

I’ll also go out on a limb and say the record will sell a whole bunch of copies, especially since it is being sold at Best Buy around Thanksgiving time and that the tour behind the record will flop because fans will realize the record isn’t all that good.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Rolling Stone to Katy Perry: “No.”

*Update: The video has been replaced with one that works. Watch it while you can because YouTube yanked the video I posted earlier and I assume they will eventually yank this one too.

“Saturday Night Live” was actually sort of funny last week.

In honor of SNL making me laugh for the first time all season, I thought I would share this short skit poking fun at girl-kissing Katy Perry. I guess she’ll probably never be one of the show’s musical guests.

As the commercial says: “Just when you thought Katy Perry couldn’t get any naughtier, she didn’t.” Click the jump for photos of Perry at the Gorge during Warped Tour.

Continue reading →

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post