That’s just music

Famous American rapper DMX had confessed about the fact that he was stealing, possessed drugs and kept on being violent with animals, said the AP news agency. During the court hearings in Maricopa (Arizona) DMX (whose real name is Earl Simmons) made a deal with the investigation, according to which he is not trying to deny all the above convictions. In riverse, the court is not going to continue to pressure him and will close the case. Due to this legal deal Simmons will be put to jail for three months, and after that he will be forsed to stay under a constant police supervision. Until the verdict is finally given Simmons will stay in custody, and the worst for him is that all this waiting time shall not be counted. Back in 2007 DMX was cought under some real fire. Still it’s hard to tell if he was really so ruthless with animals, particularly dogs, but the law is really stepping on his shoes this time.

Other deal requirements will prohibit him from having any pets or animals, and of course no guns. Besides that, he must undergo the special psychological treatment program, which is prescribed to people who are potentially or literally cruel with animals.

Guns N’ Roses is planning to start the world tour (sometimes by the end of March, 2009), which is going to last for nearly two years. What a shocking news for the band that stayed without an album for almost fifteen years. This information was given to the Rolling Stone magazine by the band’s guitarist Richard Fortus. This giant tour will be dedicated to their new album “Chinese Democracy”, which took decade and a half to be released. It’s going to be the fifth tour in support of this album since 2001, but the first one after the actual release. Currently, there is no official information from Axl Rose himself due to his traditional habit of not communicating with the media. Rolling Stone believes that an upcoming tour will allow them to stand out as headliners of many summer and autumn festivals on both sides of the Atlantic. Well, fifteen years in making of the album require some pay off, and this band needs to work quite hard to popularise it.

“Chinese Democracy” was released on November 23 and right from the beginning had experienced a lot of warm judgements from the critics, but failed to lead the music charts. The only exception took place during the first week of sales. Some people criticise Axl for this failure because he refused to show off and promote it.

Visitors of the Stereogum.com will be able to win the 8 Gb iPod Nano player with the full Smashing Pumpkins discography in it. Slowly, but definitely the music industry is realising that new things are going to continue no matter what. Besides the studio albums it will include b-sides, rare songs, and previously unreleased song ‘Translucent’. This “full of music” iPod will be a ‘lottery gift’ called ‘Gum Drop Giveaway #69’. In order to be a part of this procedure one should register on Stereogum.com. A winner shall be identified on February 1, 2009. The owner of iPod Nano will also receive “If All Goes Wrong” DVD, which is dedicated to the band’s 20th anniversary. It contains various interviews with Billy Corgan and other musicians. Jack Gulick is the director and producer of the DVD, who is also famous for his notable co-working with Metallica, Godsmack and Bruce Spingsteen.

Previously, Billy Corgan kept on saying that the music industry in it’s traditional shape and form cannot exist anymore. According to him their fans are not willing to worth the band’s music anymore, especially if it’s long and alternative. Well, possibly his view is currently being reflected upon this free gift.

Deep Purple legendary vocalist Ian Gillan is planning to perform together with the Paris symphonic orchestra in two German cities – Grafenhainichen and Magdeburg, said Blabbermouth. By organizing these two concerts they shall write another important page in the history of rock and classical music. The whole program is called “Classics Play Rock” and may include a lot of attention. The coolest thing about it is that both rock and classical sides have agreed to make everything going without any problems. This joint concert program shall include the most famous Deep Purple songs, but the whole plan was not revealed so far, and it sounds like the whole track list will become known only during the concerts. In addition, Gillan will repeat this co-operation with the classical stuff again in September, 2009 together with the Prague orchestra. Definitely, everyone would like to perform with such a person.

Ian Gillan used to leave Deep Purple twice, but each time he just kept on coming back. He was in the middle of every Deep Purple song which became legendary, and practically without him this band would probably not exist. Recenty, Gillan had performed together with the band in dedication to their 40th anniversary. In January, 2009 he is about to release his solo album “One Eye on Morocco”.

Virtual band Gorillaz which is organized by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett (designer) turned to be the most popular group of 2008 among the users of MySpace social network, said New Musical Express. The total number of votes reaches up to 682875. All these guys have decided to proclaim them to be the best out of eight other bands. It seems that virtual stuff in the music industry keeps on moving. The second spot (596885 votes) was taken by Bullet For My Valentine, and a third place went to Amy Winehouse (542268). Here is a complete list: 1. Gorillaz, 2. Bullet for My Valentine, 3. Amy Winehouse, 4. Coldplay, 5. Lilly Allen, 6. M.I.A., 7. Oasis, 8. Imogen Heap.

Besides that, MySpace had published a list of the most popular videos of 2008. Practically, it was quite expected that popular music on TV will be reflected upon this social network. Madonna’s “4 Minutes” goes first. The Verve’s “Love is Noise” follows her, and “Toe Jam” which is performed by BPA (David Byrne and Dizzy Rascal) takes the ‘bronze medal’.  

1. Madonna – “4 Minutes”, 2. The Verve – “Love is Noise”, 3. BPA – “Toe Jam’, 4. Justice – “DVNO”, 5. Oasis – “I’m Outta Time”, 6. Dragonforce – “Heroes of Our Time”, 7. Sigur Ros – “Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysingur”, 8. The Raconteurs – “Old Enough”.  

The new U2 album “No Line on the Horizon” shall be released on March 2, 2009 and will include five variations, said Billboard. Despite the traditional format it will also be available in three ‘gift’ versions for 35,98$, 49,98$ and 96$. Each one will incorporate Anton Corbijn’s documentary about U2. Anton Corbijn is the famous music video director and producer. He is co-working with this legendary Irish rock band for a while, and has made a few videos for them. Other differences between each version may vary on the quality of booklets, and possibly some other exclusively minor things. Every time when a consumer is looking at those 98 cents and the commercial variety of albums nothing cool comes to mind. During the age of the online music distribution, iPods and MP3s such things look too traditional because in reality only the hardcore fans will actually go for it. What actually matters is not the price, but the quality of music. Anyway, good luck to U2 with this new release, hence so far this band kept it quite real.

“No Line on the Horizon” will be their 12th studio album since the release of “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” in 2004.  

The American Recording Industry Association (RIAA) had declared it’s wish not to press any charges against those who are downloading music illegally using the MP3 format, said Cnet News. Instead of following that repressive path the RIAA will concentrate upon those who are downloading more than five/six thousand songs per month. In other words, those who are just playing with it shall not be followed. Of course, this is the great news for almost every Internet user who is getting things with the help of ‘digital progress’.  RIAA’s new strategy will be supported by the unknown (so far) Internet providers, which are planning to limit the traffic speed (kpbs) to those who are vigourosly downloading an incredible amount of music all the time. Every user who is getting too much stuff on the Internet will get a warning message on his/her email.

Previously RIAA was trying to follow everyone who had violated the copyright laws. However, these methods were getting negative feedbacks from musicians, users and even some record labels. Critics believe that such ‘dragon-like’ actions only make things worse and cannot be effective. One of the loudest court procedures made by RIAA is the case of Jayme Thomas. She was found guilty for stealing and spreading of twenty four music tracks (had to pay 220 thousand dollars fine). A year later the judge had accepted the fact that this was a bad mistake.

The British rock legend Jimmy Page is now officially considered to be the best among the greatest guitar players of all times, said Blabbermouth. These results were taken from the polls made by the American radio station “Chop Shop”. This list was set up by the experts that work in the various branches of music industry. Totally it includes one hundred guitar players. Particularly, all these musicians were graded on the basis of nine criterias including technical abilities, their influence on music, songwriting, uniqueness of their sound, and scenical longevity. Pretty hard to accomplish every point, but Page must deserve it. He seems to fit into each one.

The second guy is Jimmy Hendrix. He definitely takes up all the above criterias, but misses the last one. Eddie Van Halen came in third, and it’s really hard to say if he was placed on the right spot. Let’s just believe those experts. Eddie made some good music and always used to sound quite innovative. Here is a list of the first ten musicians:

1. Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), 2. Jimmy Hendrix, 3. Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen), 4. David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), 5. Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones), 6. Pete Townshend (The Who), 7. Steve Vai, 8. Les Paul, 9. Angus Young (AC/DC), 10 Jeff Beck.

American police is suspecting that Sharon Osbourne (a wife of the Black Sabbath leader Ozzy Osbourne) attacked a woman for saying something really bad against her husband, said The Guardian. As Sharon’s victim reported, this incident took place during the filming of the American reality show “Rock of Love”: Charm School”, which is organized and led by Ozzy’s wife. The one who presumably suffered Sharon’s attack is an ex-Playbody model Megan Hauserman. It was said that Sharon grabbed her hair and began to scratch Hauserman’s face. When women are fighting just try to be as far as possible, especially if they’re rocking! Sharon Osbourne turned to be extremely angry after Megan had accused her of being only the manager of a brain-dead rock star and that there is nothing else she can do in her life. Anybody would get angry… LAPD’s representative has stated that they’re investigating this scandal, but still cannot prove if Sharon was really doing it. After all who knows, even though it sounds like Ozzy’s wife is capable of protecting her husband and this story may be very realistic anyway. All thumbs up for Sharon.

Sharon Osbourne became quite famous after the reality show “The Osbournes”, which was aired on MTV since 2002. The last episode was made in 2005.

Canadian indie-rockers Arcade Fire have released their concert DVD under the name “Miroir Noir”. This release represents a documentary about the band’s tour which took place in support of the album “Neon Bible” in 2007. A seventy minutes long movie was directed by Vincent Morisset, and actually filmed by Vincent Moon. DVD incorporates various concert and studio appearances including a “Neon Bible” performance inside the elevator (it was a part of their Take Away Shows project). “Miroir Noir” was recently posted at this site http://miroir-noir.com/, successfully continuing the Internet advertising traditions. It can be downloaded in three versions (5,99$ 9,99$ and 13,99$). Besides that, it can be ordered on the traditional disk for 15,99$, and if someone wants the gift version it’s price may reach 29,99$. Sounds like every version is pretty much the same, but advertising makes it look very different. Only the gift version contains Arcade Fire performance on BBC (Saturday Night Live). At the same time the gift version can be delivered exclusively until March 31, 2009, so those who consider themselves Arcade Fire fans should reach for it before this date.