Spinner

Man Who Attacked Noel Gallagher at Festival Pleads Guilty

Richard Moore — 2009-11-23T04:51:00+00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News, UK

A man has pleaded guilty to assault after attacking Noel Gallagher at the V Festival in Canada in September 2008.

During a headlining performance from Noel's former band Oasis, Daniel Sullivan was accused of mounting the stage and lunging at the guitarist, causing him to fall and injure himself. Sullivan admitted to causing bodily harm to Gallagher in the Ontario Court of Justice on Nov. 20.

Crown attorney Ruth Neilson -- reading an agreed statement of facts to Justice Richard Schneide -- said, "Sullivan managed to make his way up to the main stage area, run past the electrical cords set up along the stage, pass the drum kit and lunge toward Noel Gallagher, shoving him violently from behind with great force."

U2 to Headline Glastonbury in 2010

Richard Moore — 2009-11-23T03:52:00+00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News, UK

U2 are to headline the Friday night slot at the 2010 Glastonbury Festival, organisers have confirmed.

The Irish megastars are regularly the subject of pre-Glastonbury speculation but this time around, in advance of the festival's 40th anniversary, their involvement has been confirmed.

Festival organiser Michael Eavis said: "I promised the the best possible line-up for the show next year and the confirmation that U2 will play their first ever Glastonbury - and their first major festival gig since the early 1980s - is fantastic news."

Former Byrds Member Chris Hillman Ponders Teaching Career

Pat Pemberton — 2009-11-22T12:00:00+00:00

Filed under: News, Exclusive

After lecturing at the Library of Congress last month, former Byrds member Chris Hillman says he could envision himself one day teaching a college class. Having been a member of three successful bands, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer seems uniquely qualified.

"I could do it," he tells Spinner, noting that his friend, Mark Volman, formerly of the Turtles, taught music at Loyola Marymount. "I would probably -- depending on the circumstances."

Preparing an hour speech wasn't easy for Hillman, who didn't keep a journal or scrapbooks during his 47-year career, which included stints with the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Desert Rose Band. To put himself at ease, he created a comfortable environment.

Julian Plenti Covers Pixies and America in Chicago

Garin Pirnia — 2009-11-22T10:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News

Saturday night at Chicago's Metro, Julian Plenti, the alter ego of Interpol lead singer Paul Banks, introduced his first solo record, 'Julian Plenti Is...Skyscraper.' Since the record itself clocks in at 37 minutes, Plenti bolstered his 45-minute set with a couple of covers and extra goodies.

With a four-piece backing band that included a cellist, Plenti performed all 11 tracks from his album but interspersed them with songs originated by the Pixies and America.

Oddly enough, the Pixies were simultaneously doing a gig across town, something Plenti may or may not have been aware of. The cover wasn't specific just to Chicago -- apparently he's been playing the cover in other cities -- but it was still a rather timely coincidence.

Jason Boesel, 'Hand of God' -- Free MP3 of the Day

Mike Spinella — 2009-11-22T06:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Free MP3 Download of the Day

Artist: Jason Boesel
Song: 'Hand of God'
Album: 'Hustler's Son'
Sounds Like: Ryan Adams, M. Ward

Download: 'Hand of God' (MP3)

[Get Winamp] [Download Help]

Next MP3

Steven Tyler Opens Up About Aerosmith Hiatus

Liz Colville — 2009-11-21T17:00:00+00:00

Filed under: News

Following his impromptu white-flag appearance at Joe Perry's solo show in New York last week, Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler says he is taking time off from the band, but insists it's no big deal.

A rep for Tyler tells the press that the lead singer's hiatus from Aerosmith won't be substantial.

According to the rep, Tyler is merely recovering from a shoulder injury and is also using the time to work on his autobiography.

Tyler suggested several weeks ago that he would be focusing on his solo career and "Brand Tyler" more in the future, but since then, he has tried to quell rumors that Aerosmith is splitting up or replacing him.

Roger Daltrey Yells At Disruptive Fan At Solo New York Show

Robin Milling — 2009-11-21T16:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News

At New York's Nokia Theater Friday night, the Who lead singer Roger Daltrey was royally ticked off by a heckling fan for shouting over the personal storytelling interludes of his 'Use It Or Lose It' show.

The 65-year-old rocker was enjoying the intimate setting of his solo outing, using the opportunity to share childhood working-class tales of toiling in a steel factory. But he was forced to stopped mid-story to berate an annoying fan.

"There are people here who are interested in hearing what I have to say," Daltrey scolded, "so shut the f--- up already. Come up here and we'll see who shouts louder!"

Camera Obscura Keeps Calm At Atlanta Gig

Justin Jacobs — 2009-11-21T14:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News

When the house lights dropped at Camera Obscura's show at Atlanta's Variety Playhouse Friday night, an eerie hush fell over the crowd. There was no deafening here-they-come applause; just silence, as if the band needed quiet in order to come onstage.

It was an odd feeling, but appropriate. The Scottish sextet, currently on a U.S. tour, to be followed by several dates in Australia, entered the muted, blue-lit stage to play a short and tight set of warm, delicate twee pop that seemed like it could have emerged from a sophisticated music box.

'New Moon' Music Supervisor Reveals Soundtrack Process

Charley Rogulewski — 2009-11-21T12:00:00+00:00

Filed under: News, New Music, Exclusive, Movies

Alexandra Patsavas, the music supervisor for the 'Twilight' films, doesn't want to pick a favorite when it comes to the 15 tracks on the 'New Moon' soundtrack. "Oh gosh, that's like asking a mother to pick her favorite child," Patsavas tells Spinner. After a long pause, she admits, "I'm especially proud that Thom Yorke agreed to be on the soundtrack." For his part, the Radiohead frontman submitted the unreleased, exclusive solo track, 'Hearing Damage.' "The track is physically transcendent, gorgeous and used at a key moment, almost in its entirety, in the movie," Patsavas reveals.

Novelist Stephanie Meyer has sold more than 70 million copies of the 'Twilight,' series, her vampire-tinged, 21st century remake of the quintessential 'Romeo and Juliet' love story. The second film of the series is in movie theaters across the US now and its accompanying soundtrack, which also includes new music from Death Cab for Cutie, Grizzly Bear, the Killers, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Muse, Lykke Li and the Editors, has been riding strong on the Billboard Hot 200 for the last five weeks, at one point reaching No. 1.

Tune-Yards Plays Packed Brooklyn Record Store

Liz Colville — 2009-11-21T11:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News

At Permanent Records in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on Friday night, tUnE-YaRdS, the moniker of New England native Merrill Garbus, performed her impressive genre-bending one-woman show for a rapt, head-bobbing crowd eager to see what all the fuss was about.

Garbus was making a pit stop between her opening sets for the Dirty Projectors' sold-out four-night stint in New York, which concludes tonight and Sunday night.

The multi-instrumentalist, who is sometimes joined by bass player Nate Brenner, proved she needed no accompaniment Friday, commanding percussion, vocals and strings on her own.

Bassnectar, 'Cozza Frenzy' feat. Seasunz -- Free MP3 of the Day

Mike Spinella — 2009-11-21T06:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Free MP3 Download of the Day

Artist: Bassnectar
Songs: 'Cozza Frenzy' feat. Seasunz
Album: 'Cozza Frenzy' [iTunes]
Sounds Like: Major Lazer, Chemical Brothers

Download: 'Cozza Frenzy' feat. Seasunz (MP3)

[Get Winamp] [Download Help]

Next MP3

Fever Ray, 'Seven' -- Video of the Day

Adam Horne — 2009-11-20T18:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Video of the Day

Artist: Fever Ray
Video: 'Seven'
Highlight: More of the other-worldy weirdness we've come to expect from the Knife's Karin Elisabeth Dreijer Andersson.

The Chum Bucket: Lady GaGa to Perform for the Queen + More

Adam Horne — 2009-11-20T17:00:00+00:00

Filed under: The Chum Bucket

Lady GaGa is going to perform for the Queen in London. We weren't aware that she was a fan. [Angry Ape]

Check out NPR's 'Most Important' records of the decade list. [NPR]

Rosanne Cash sits down for an intimate performance in the KCRW studio. [KCRW]

John Mayer and pint-sized pop star Justin Beiber are currently engaged in the artist beef of the century. [Idolator]

Hmm ... the Black Eyed Peas' 'Party All the Time' sounds awfully familiar. Adam Freeland agrees. [Prefix]

Twisted Tales: Redbone Bring Native American Pride (and Controversy) to Radio

James Sullivan — 2009-11-20T17:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Twisted Tales

If you called a Native American "Redbone" at the Thanksgiving table, you might get a drumstick upside the head. But in the late 1960s, when American Indians were reclaiming cultural pride alongside other minorities, two brothers sharing Cherokee, Apache and Shoshone blood defiantly took the term Redbone for the name of their band.

The brothers already had a fairly impressive résumé in the music business by the time they decided to make their heritage an asset. Born Pat and Lolly Vasquez in Fresno, Calif., they adopted the last name Vegas to downplay their birth name's Latino roots.

Pat and Lolly were proficient from a young age on bass and guitar, respectively, accompanying pianist Oscar Peterson at the Monterey Jazz Festival before heading to southern California in the early '60s to cash in on the surf-music craze. As the Avantis, the Vegas boys recorded several surf instrumentals, working in the studio with then-unknown session musicians including Glen Campbell and Leon Russell. Regulars at the Haunted House in Hollywood, which featured a stage designed to look like a monster's mouth, Pat and Lolly joined the house band on ABC's teen pop variety show 'Shindig' and bagged a cameo in the teensploitation movie 'It's a Bikini World' alongside the Animals and Bobby "Boris" Pickett.

Jello Biafra and Shepard Fairey Spoof Obama 'Hope' Image

Dan Reilly — 2009-11-20T16:00:00+00:00

Filed under: News, New Music, Exclusive

Any album with a title that openly mocks President Obama needs a cover that's equally subversive, and Jello Biafra's artwork for 'The Audacity of Hype' certainly delivers. The former Dead Kennedys frontman opted for a version of Shepard Fairey's famous "HOPE" picture and replace Obama's image with a demonic version of himself, fangs and horns included.

Rather than just get an artist to spoof the picture like so many others have done, Biafra went to Fairey himself. "We've known each other for years, at least by phone and being fans of each other's work. He'd done another album cover for me after the Seattle protests," Biafra tells Spinner, referring to a show he did with the No WTO Combo with Nirvana's Krist Novoselic and Soundgarden's Kim Thayil. "I'd seen a variation of Shepard's hand about to strangle the Earth on the cover of one of Seattle's weekly magazines and thought 'This is perfect.' The in-house Art Director of [Biafra's record label] Alternative Tentacles put me in touch with Shepard, so we tweaked the picture to get it ready for the album cover and we went on from there."

Julian Casbalancas Rocks Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' Theater

Steve Baltin — 2009-11-20T15:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News, New Music, Exclusive

Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas is currently "camping out" in Los Angeles. As part of his excursion, he's doing a month-long residency of shows, playing every Friday at the Broadway Palace Theater. It turns out there's a lot of history at the venue. "I don't think there's ever been a rock show in that place," Casablancas tells Spinner. "It's where 'Thriller' was filmed and it's just a rad place, to be honest. It feels super-grand and kind of dilapidated, but in a charming way. [It's] super-intimate so even the worst seat you can see my expression."

When Casablancas chose the venue, he admits he wasn't aware of the historical significance, as it's the venue where Michael Jackson and his date are watching the movie. The venue even recently recreated the clip's marquee to honor the late pop icon. "I didn't know about it at first and I only found out after I started to fight for it," he says. But it was definitely an added bonus for him. "It's just the vibe is so great and as we're kind of debating, they were like, 'Oh, that's also where 'Thriller' was filmed,'" he recalls. "I was like, 'You're not arguing your case for not doing a show here.' The place feels special already and that definitely doesn't demystify it."

Jack Penate Performs Live on the Interface

Charley Rogulewski — 2009-11-20T14:01:00+00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News, Video, New Music, Exclusive

Jack Penate is your token rock fan-turned-star. "I fought for about an hour over Chris Martin's guitar way back when Coldplay first started. He threw it in the crowd and I didn't get it," Penate tells Spinner during a recent Interface taping in our Los Angeles studios. He also got handpicked from the audience to dance onstage with Missy Elliot. "I was really obsessed with her first record," he says. "I wasn't the normal Missy Elliot looking fan, and I think she liked that, so she brought me on stage. I was like 16 or something -- at that point I was break dancing and all that kind of things that you do. I just danced and took photos of me and her cuddling."

These fan encounters eventually led to Penate's 2007 debut 'Matinee,' which reached No. 1 on the UK's indie rock chart. For his part, Penate created his own signature sound that sonically blends rockabilly, reggae and tropi-Cali all into one.

Imogen Heap Writes Songs for Zach Braff, Charity

Robin Milling — 2009-11-20T14:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News, New Music, Exclusive, Movies

Actor/director Zach Braff gave Grammy-nominated English pop star Imogen Heap plenty of exposure in America when he used 'Let Go,' a former Frou Frou song, in his break-out film 'Garden State,' so she thought she might return the favor. "I wrote the song 'Wait It Out' for this Zach Braff film called 'Open Hearts,'" she tells Spinner. "I read the script on the way to Hawaii to write songs for 'Ellipse' and I loved it. I wrote this song for him helping me get the first one started in 'Garden State' but the film 'Open Hearts' fell through. He wrote me an e-mail recently asking me to write songs in another film ['Swingles'] for the character played by Cameron Diaz but I haven't read the script yet."

Heap is also very generous when it comes to lending her voice to charitable causes. She participated in the album 'Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace,' an initiative to support the human rights effort in Tibet. Her latest pet project is a dream charity event that involves her fans and what they believe in. "I have this grand plan for the next tour I do in April, which is to go to each city and create some kind of platform for people to enter information on this computer screen at the venue on how they want me to improvise a song," she says. "I have to improvise a song on the theme of what they want." Once the song is written, she'll record it and put it on iTunes. "When people buy it the proceeds go to the charity that is particular to that city," she says.

Jason Segel Joins the Swell Season for Special Performance

Cristin Maher — 2009-11-20T13:30:00+00:00

The Swell Season provided fans with an extra special performance last night in Los Angeles, Calif. when funny man Jason Segel joined the musicians on stage. Segel, who played piano, performed an original song accompanied by the Swell Season.

When Segel asked Marketa Irglova how to write a meaningful song, she told him to "write from the heart and include as much personal information as possible." Segel took this advice to heart and literally provided as much personal information as possible.

Greil Marcus Praises Sex Pistols, Celebrates Book Anniversary at Lecture

Kenneth Partridge — 2009-11-20T13:30:00+00:00

Filed under: News, Book Club

The young John Lydon was so brilliant, author Greil Marcus argued Thursday night during a presentation at Columbia University, that the iconic Sex Pistols singer, now 53, should be forgiven for appearing in British butter commercials.

"I think John Lydon did so much to make the world a richer, more abstract, more contingent place -- and did more to raise the stakes of what people see as art -- that I don't care what he does to make a buck," Marcus said. "I think he deserves every penny."

Marcus' absolution of Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, came after the writer -- one of the most intelligent rock critics of all time -- gave a dramatic reading of the play he wrote as a precursor to 'Lipstick Traces,' the book whose 20th anniversary he was on hand to commemorate.