Music Missive
By: Ken Brzezinski |
Wednesday September 16, 2009 |
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U2 360 Tour, The Stones, Metallica & more.. |
| Hello and welcome to the inaugural edition of My Music Missive. The great folks at Static Multimedia have given me a little freedom to give you the current news in the music industry. I'll also be adding my own flavor with a little commentary on new albums and news items I really love or hate. So strap in, this is going to be a fun ride!! Let's start with the biggest music news of the week. At the MTV Video Music Awards, as many of you already know, Kanye West got up on stage while Taylor Swift was accepting her "Best Female Video" award and proclaimed his friend Beyonce had "the best video of all time." Now, one, that's a really haughty statement to make, and two, WHY ARE YOU ON STAGE!? It is a showing of extreme arrogance to jump up and say that on someone else’s time. This was Taylor Swift's moment in the sun and he tanked it. Thankfully, Beyonce understood the gravity of the situation and gave Taylor her well deserved moment later on when she was accepting her own "Best Music Video" award. Truly a class act. This actually reminds me of when Tim Commerford, of Rage Against The Machine fame, jumped up on stage and tried to take down a piece of the set during the acceptance speech of Limp Bizkit "singer" Fred Durst during the 2000 VMA's. The difference is, well intoxicants probably. That, and Tim Commerford didn't get up and say "Fred Durst you suck" no matter how much a lot of other people wanted him to... Kanye gave what had to be the most back handed and half hearted apology I have ever heard the next night on Jay Leno. The moment of that interview for me came when Jay Leno, being the elder statesman he is, asked Kanye what his mother would think of what he did to which the normally verbose rapper had NOTHING to say. Always ones to push the envelope politically, U2 have debuted a new stage show for the 360° Tour. The fact that the stage is in the center of most venues isn't new the new or original part about it, cool as that feature is. No the more innovative part of it has to do with this massive stage not having any definition other than the boundaries. There is no defined "upstage" and "downstage" as it is perfectly symmetrical on all sides. Any edge can be the front of the stage, which is really cool for the fans. While it has been done by other bands in the past, Metallica most notably, it has not yet been done on this massive of a scale. There are also 4 connecting "arms" that reach upwards of 160+ feet into the air, all of them with their own 20 million dollar sound system in them. It takes over 100 trucks to haul just THIS part of the stage. It truly is a sight to behold, and if Bono and the boys are heading to a stadium near you, I suggest you go out and see it just for this spectacle. Rolling Stones fans can rejoice as the band is reissuing the release of their monumental concert at Madison Square Garden from November of 1969. Get Out Your Ya Ya's was the first OFFICIAL live Rolling Stones album ever. Now we all know that a lot of bands only throw you a bone when they re-release an album or a concert, but in this case, Keith and Mick are giving you a steak or two to chew on. Firstly, the concert is remastered. Granted, that is really only for the hardcore Stones fan or the hardcore audio geeks, but it is, first and foremost, the meat and potatoes of the set. Next up comes what I love when bands reissue an album, the unreleased tracks. While it isn't never before heard compositions by the band, this is the first times these tracks have seen the light of day. Next up on the list of goodies is a DVD of music videos directed by Maysles Brothers who directed the Gimmie Shelter documentary. We see musical universes colliding as The Rolling Stones are seen hanging out with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and The Grateful Dead. I think the best feature of this reissue is the fact that there is a disc that is devoted solely to the opening acts of the night. That night, it was guitar god B.B. King and Ike and Tina Turner. Also included is a nifty 50+ page booklet with tons of new pictures from the show. Rounding out the treasures in this package, the Stones try to bring their music to a new generation by giving Guitar Hero 5 players a chance to download the live version of "I'm Free" to their game. If you are even a passing Rolling Stones fan, this is a must have. Finally, turning our focus to the world of heavy metal, there is a lot of strong chatter on the blogs and amongst artists that a once unthinkable convergence of bands could happen. Anyone who grew up listening to metal in the early to late 80’s knows who I am talking about when I say “The Big Four”. These are the bands, widely considered by peers (not industry insiders), to be the four most crucial pieces to launching the American heavy metal movement. They are, of course, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax. These bands have toured together before, just not all at the same time. All three bands have toured with Anthrax as a supporting or co-headlining act countless times. And recently, a tour was announced with Slayer and Megadeth on the bill to take place in Canada. Now, if this concert works, I do like the chances of the “big one” happening. I say this because there is a lot of tension between members of all of these bands. Dave Mustaine (Megadeth), Lars Ulrich (Metallica), and Kerry King and Tom Araya (Slayer) are some of the biggest mouths in music. Dave and Kerry like to go at each other and Metallica any chance they get, Tom likes to bash Metallica once in a while too, and Lars, while he doesn’t trash bands, he generally just can’t shut up. So, you have all of these egos that have to coexist under the same roof. They have to hammer out who gets what time, who headlines, who gets blah blah blah. If they love the music, if they love the fans, or if they would love the challenge, they will find a way to make it work. But if just one piece (Dave I’m guessing) can’t check their ego at the door, this concert will never happen. Personally, I would LOVE to see this. I’m not a Slayer fan, but I will sit through a set of mindless crap soloing and singing just to see this amazing show as something like this wouldn’t come around, maybe EVER again. |
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