SMASHING PUMPKINS’ NEW MUSIC IN CAR ADD

The Smashing Pumpkins have released a new tune. The song is called FOL and it was featured in a car add during the Super Bowl. Probably not the best way to hear a new Pumpkins release but I’ll take it-why not? The song sounds like an old B-side, a lot of fuzzy guitars and energy but something didn’t translate in the recording. The song is good though. I wasn’t too impressed the first time around when I saw it in the car commercial but after seeing the full song on YouTube, it wasn’t bad. He’s tapping into the angsty/lonely/bored teenager thing again and there’s magic there. It worked for them in the old days and Billy’s doing it again this time around in FOL. That whole vibe worked for the Pumpkins and Billy knows that. Some people will hear this and say that he’s becoming a caricature of himself, fair enough. But give Billy credit where it’s due. He still writes good material (although “As Rome Burns” would have made a much better single than FOL) and let’s be honest, when he tried to experiment no one bought his albums (for the record, I like his solo stuff). So, Billy’s going back to what works: The Smashing Pumpkins. No, he’s not compromising, he’s expressing his art through a medium that works and I say, good for him. Who can complain about the Pumpkins reforming, it’s exciting, there was a spirit there and Billy knows it. It’s just too bad, that spirit that surrounded the old Pumpkins in the mid-nineties had as much to do with that time as the music did, there was a spontaneous wave in a moment that can never be fully recreated again. The Pumpkins are still good but it isn’t the same now, we can reminisce but that old feeling will never thrive the same way it did when melon collie came out. Ah, who cares I still love the Pumpkins!

Watch FOL Now!!


Watch As Rome Burns Now!!!

G n' R bassist writes for Playboy

Yes, you heard it right. The ex- Guns n’ Roses and Velvet Revolver bassist is writing for playboy. Now, the thing that’s really interesting is that he’s not writing about sex, drugs or rock n’ roll, he’s doing a financial column in which he wants to “be a voice of the people” and “bring down some of the crooks on Wall st”.
After Guns n’ Roses, McKagan was faced with a decision: either cool it with the tired rock cleche lifestyle or end up in a pine box. Thankfully, he chose the former. He then filled the booze void by earning a business degree from Seattle University where he developed a fondness for the written word. McKagan has been doing a weekly column for Seattle Weekly since 2004 and is now branching out to Playboy.com as well.
It’s nice to finally see a rock veteran take the high road. Tommy Lee faked his way through the school thing in his show, couldn't shake the goofball image and still didn't get any ratings. McKagan on the other hand has found a new outlet, he’s broken from the tiresome party til' you die schtick and actually managed to do something more entertaining and stimulating than Velvet Revolver ever could have hoped for (thank god that’s on its last legs). This guy is the real deal and he’s proven it once more.

Lily Allen Covers The Clash

So Lily Allen is covering The Clash’s straight to hell. I’m of two minds of the whole thing. For one it’s cool cause it’s for an organization called War Child and War Child protects children in war zones. On the other hand though, straight to hell is a damn good clash song, quite possibly my favourite clash song. Now to have Lily Allen butcher it with her soulless quiver has left me a little conflicted. Charity is good, butchering a Clash song, not so good. If she did say a Kelly Osbourne song it would be more fitting (for her, not for War Child). Now I can already hear her fans murmur under their breath but honestly, she’s capitalizing on the watered down angst market. Her whole attitude thing just sounds flimsy. Her persona seems to deal in generally accepted issues that masquerade as controversial. Oooh, she’s outspoken, she’s got something to say. Yeah, (s)he’s a poseur with a poseur attitude who thinks her annoying diatribes that spout off some really obvious, watered down bull regarding topical events and redundant twenty-something coming of age dilemmas is somehow insightful. Ooooh, she’s doing her part for women’s rights. Why? Cause she’s unladylike…..seriousy? Who really believes that? Well she is an environmentalist, but who isn’t these days. As a listener I feel I’m kept at arms length for the whole song. I mean this is a brilliant Clash song. To have some 23 yr. old bratty poseur who eats chocolate in her videos pour her obnoxiously mouthy monotone into it is just a little annoying.

Watch Lily Allen butcher Straight to Hell!!

DYLAN TO DO SUPER BOWL PEPSI AD

“Don’t think twice, I’m only singing for Pepsi”. Dylan is teaming up with Will.I.Am to do a $3 million, one-minute Pepsi add at the Super Bowl. The duo has apparently done a mash-up of Dylan’s 1973 “Forever young” and the song is likely to appear on iTunes.
Now before you all stammer around asking why the hell Dylan is doing a Pepsi add? Don’t forget this isn’t 1965 Dylan; this is post -1965 Dylan. Not to say that Dylan has compromised his intentions after blonde on blonde (is there any conversation that could be beat more to death?), in fact, quite the reverse. Regardless of why Dylan will do the commercial, he sure isn’t going to stoop to some rock purist and muster up some excuse. Instead, Dylan will always defy expectation. If he didn’t, we wouldn’t be giving half enough of a shit to bother even discussing it. The point is Dylan doesn’t give a shit, and like it or not, we don’t want him any other way.

COP PEES ON METALLICA FAN!!

A Metallica fan got more than his share of greased up head bangers during a Metallica concert that took place on Jan. 18. Joseph Houston, an off duty cop who was in attendance at the show in Boston opted to forego the standard raised devil horn salute. Instead, he stuck his penis in the air and well, peed all over a nearby fan. Just to clear up any doubt about where this guy bathed in the gene pool, he then referred to an escorting officer who happened to be black as “Obama”.
Now I’ve been down that road, you’re 15, you’re at that pinnacle of your buzz, you feel invincible, you’re high all-mighty adolescent guitar God has just gone from E to F for the hundredth time that night. You feel primal; you need release. You add up the pro’s and con’s and since you’re not getting laid anytime soon, you throw your dick to the wind, shake it back and forth and turn on the tap. Pure bliss. Now there’s just one difference here. Houston is a 29 year old cop who has eaten so many sausage rolls he’s beginning to look like one himself, he’s not a 15 year old kid but an ignorant prick who unfortunately, also happens to be an ignorant prick of a cop. Apparently he flashed his badge to try to get back in the show, luckily to no avail.
It’s true that Metallica sucks these days but damn peeing on a guy? What the fuck? Anyway, the cop is being punished with a paid vacation. Ouch. And he’s getting charged with trespassing, apparently it’s a $100 fine. Double ouch. Hopefully he’s got Dream Theater tickets cause I’d like this guy a lot more if he took a dump at a Dream Theater show.