That’s just music

Recently, Q magazine was awarded with professional prize from the Maggie Awards for designing the best cover page. As Gigwise notes, it particularly relates to Q’s April (2009) cover, which shows absolutely stunning Lily Allen; eyes just get stuck on her due to some intimate electricity. She is obviously very cool, and that’s the only reason why Q designers were able to get the prize. Editor-in-Chief of Q magazine Paul Rees has noted, “Lily Allen is hardly under-exposed, so it was essential for us to come up with something that was both striking and unique.” Absolutely great girl, and those panthers only underline her character and unique qualities. By the way panthers are absolutely real, they were brought into Q photo studio in special cages. Rees also said that wild cats were not photographed right next to Allen. “Patently no one would let us put a pop star within three feet of a man-eating big cat, so in 18–foot high cage separated Lily and the Q team from them, and the magic of digital photography put them together.” So far there is no information on Lily Allen’s reaction to Maggie Awards’ prize, which was given to Q with her beautiful help.

American singer and actor Tom Waits had prepared the release of his new album, said Pitchfork. “Glitter and Doom” will come out on two disks on November 24 and should contain those songs, which were performed by Tom during his 2008 tour. On the first disk listeners will find sixteen tracks that were recorded in the American and European parts of the tour; the second half is called “Tom Tales” – it literally includes tales and short stories told by an artists during his performances. Actucally, very unique way to make things going in the music world, and it trully represents Waits. The whole track list of the “Glitter and Doom” album looks like this:

CD1:

01 Lucinda / Ain’t Goin Down (Birmingham - 07/03/08)
02 Singapore (Edinburgh - 07/28/08)
03 Get Behind the Mule (Tulsa - 06/25/08)
04 Fannin Street (Knoxville - 06/29/08)
05 Dirt in the Ground (Milan - 07/19/08)
06 Such a Scream (Milan - 07/18/08)
07 Live Circus (Jacksonville - 07/01/08)
08 Goin’ Out West (Tulsa - 06/25/08)
09 Falling Down (Paris - 07/25/08)
10 The Part You Throw Away (Edinburgh - 07/28/08)
11 Trampled Rose (Dublin - 08/01/08)
12 Metropolitan Glide (Knoxville - 6/29/08)
12 I’ll Shoot the Moon (Paris - 07/24/08)
13 Green Grass (Edinburgh - 07/27/08)
14 Make It Rain (Atlanta - 07/05/08)
15 Story (Columbus - 06/28/08)
16 Lucky Day (Atlanta - 07/05/08)

CD2:

01 Tom Tales

Legendary Guns N’Roses, which was recently accused of plagiarism had totally denied all of it like never before. As Rolling Stone magazine said, the band’s representative Irving Azoff told the public that everybody in Guns N’Roses “vigorously contests these claims and intends to respond accordingly.” Two independent record labels, British Independiente and it’s American branch Domino Recording Company have started the court procedure against Axl Rose on October 5. They insist on the fact that Guns N’Roses without any consent with them had used fragments of Ulrich Schnauss’ (German musician) “Wherever You Are” and “A Strangely Isolted Place” on their “Riad N’ the Bedouins”, which was released on the latest album “Chinese Democracy”. The following record labels have rights to Schnauss’ music and currently will ask Interscope-Geffen A&M for one million dollars of compensation. Azoff has underlined that “the band believed when the record came out and still believes that there are no unauthorized samples on the track”. Again, things of this nature happen again and again among musicians, and honestly, most of them never really turn into reality. A lot of music tracks sound similar, sometimes almost identical, but at the same time there is no act of plagiarism. This time it may not go anywhere because most likely nobody will prove Gn’R’s possible sample taking process. Most likely it just did not happen.

Oasis vocalist Liam Gallagher said that he is not hoping to get his band back on stage any time soon. This quite strange announcement came out from him during his recent interview with The Times. Before he told this sad information the band’s faith was still not very well known, and a lot of speculations were heard here and there. As Liam noted, the band was practically destroyed right after his brother Noel Gallagher had decided to leave Oasis; and it’s true because without their duet the band simply cannot be imagined at all. “Well, Oasis is no longer. I think we all know that. So that’s done. We’ve always had a lot of fun. I’ve always had a lot of fun. That’s why it was never hard work for me. It was a joy and it was always a bit of a bummer when the tour ended”, he said. Formally they fell apart on August 28 this year, when Noel (guitarist and the author of almost every song they’ve produced) wrote a message on the official band’s website stating that he is leaving them. Practically, the reason for it was a big fight between two brothers that they simply could not overcome, so Oasis seems to be over for now.

Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore is planning to open his own publishing house, said ClashMusic. Musician wants to publish books written by his close friends and those he admires the most in this world; those who have influenced his ideas. This guy is already well known for his knowledge of literature, especially among Sonic Youth fans. One of the first publishing experiences within his project is going to be a book by Raymond Pattibon who had previously co-worked with the band in the past; he  particularly designed an album cover for their “Goo” album. As ClashMusic notes, Moore’s publishing house, which is now called Ecstatic Peace Library will unite all Pettibone’s art works. For those who are not very familiar with his art may recall black and white cartoons, or at least something of that nature. It’s already planned that Ecstatic Peace Library will start working by the end of 2009, and may become closely related to the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Ecstatic Peace! was opened in 1981 by Moore and produced a lot of interesting bands among which are Be Your Own Pet, Awesome Color, Violent Soho, Black Helicopter and many others. In other words, Moore is more than just a musician, he keeps on producing and creating everywhere and all the time.

Madonna has won the court case against the British newspaper Mail on Sunday, which published a few photographs from her almost ten years old wedding ceremony with Guy Ritchie, said Sky News. At the same time there is no information on the amount of compensation she is about to receive. Basically, why Madonna still cares about those photos is not very well known, hence she is not with Ritchie anymore, plus this was so long ago. Madonna ‘went’ to court and started this legal action against Associated Newspapers (Mail on Sunday’s owner) right after they’ve published those eleven photographs that according to her opinion had to be kept in secret. The wedding between Madonna and Guy Ritchie took place in Scotland in December 2000; and the most important part about it was that she did not allow any journalists to the ceremony. However, one of her house designers had copied some pictures and later sold them for five thousand pounds. It was all secret until October 19, 2008 when The Daily Mail’s additional issue (Mail on Sunday) had published them all, thus angering Madonna. Money that she is going to get will be sent to the Raising Malawi foundation, which is being led by Madonna and Michael Berg.

The White Stripes leader Jack White made an artistic debut in producing and directing a video, said The Rolling Stones. This video was filmed on his song called “I Cut Like a Buffalo”, which is a third single made by Jack’s new music project The Dead Weather. The guy is trying himself in almost everything, and once again proving the fact that if a person is talented in one thing then he is going to be talented everywhere. The Rolling Stone journalists are noting that White was most likely inspired by the infamous David Lynch; it may be proved by the dark and mysterious atmosphere and colour themes used in a video. Actually, not the worst example for the beginner! This debut turned to be The Dead Weather’s secong video; previously it was “Treat Me Like Your Mother”, also quite successful thing. It’s interesting to note that “I Cut Like a Buffalo” is the only song from the “Horehound” album which was written by White and nobody else from his band. He is surely trying his talents all the way through, and so far everything was very successful. The album “Horehound” was produced by the Third Man Records label, which was particularly created by White in 2009.

Currently, some talented fans of the legendary Ramones are planning to make a movie about their favourite band, which was formed in 1974 in New York, said Hollywood Reporter. The base for this movie will be a book written by Mickey Leigh – Joey Ramone’s brother, called “I Slept With Joey Ramone”. A book itself should see the light in December 2009, so the movie’s plot will be known to fans way before it comes out. Ramones were always surrounded by lots of scandals and rumours, so possibly this new material will show some details, and maybe shall clear things up for everyone who likes the band. It’s known that talks about making a movie about them were already taking place for years, and the only problem was in the lack of those who could actually make it. Right now, Fox Searchlight studio had decided to actually move on with it, but still there is no solid agreement on whether they will make it happen at all. Again, even today not everyone can tell a clear story about Ramones. Of course, all the details are totally “classified” and surely nobody knows when it will be ready, so those who trully admire Ramones should get themselves together and just wait; hopefully it will come out one day.

Sir Paul McCartney had prepared the new double album, with his recent concert performances, said New Musical Express. Also, this release will include the DVD with all kinds of interesting things. Generally speaking it will incorporate his summer 2009 concert in the Citi Field stadium in New York, and like most of his performances shall go into history. “Good Evening New York City” should come out on November 23 and as Gigwise particularly notes the US fans may see it a little bit earlier, on November 17; vinyl version will be available as well. “Good Evening New York City” includes thirty three songs by The Beatles, The Wings and Fireman. The last two bands were personally formed by Sir Paul, so all of it is already legendary and will go into history books. The high quality DVD recording should be absolutely stunning because first of all, it was made with fifteen super high tech cameras, and second, before the concert it’s organisers gave seventy five additional cameras to fans who were supposed to record everything around them. In other words, power of McCartney’s fans was particularly strong during that New York concert, and surely it should not upset those who are about to watch it in their homes.