Monday Morning Newsletter (10-27-08)

CMJ Wrap up 2008: Rusty, Dany and José have returned to the bosom of the Stranded in Stereo offices. All are alive and in possession of their original number of fingers and toes. The hangovers have worn off, bruises are fading and everything should be at least limping in the right direction this morning. José has the energy to slander, and that makes it all ok.

José found it well-timed this week that Guns n’ Roses drummer Steven Adler, was shaking and sobbing this week on the TV program Celebrity Rehab. Apparently Slash didn’t invite him to play on his upcoming solo LP. Is it real or is it a ploy to help Chinese Democracy?

Rock n’ Roll continued to favor Obama this week. Obama campaign offices in both Richmond and Charlottesville are now selling tickets to Dave Matthews Band and Jay-Z benefits. The Jigga series culminates October 29th in Cleveland, OH. On a related note, Rolling Stone was kind enough to make a complete list of the artists that have resorted to legal action to stop the McClain Campaign from using their music. José continues to be wildly amused.

U2’s vocalist Bono will be contributing to the New York Times Op-Ed section in 2009. The Times Editor Andrew Rosenthal recently said the Irish rocker will write at least six pieces for the newspaper uh... Pro bono. José never works pro bono.

It was lost now it’s been found. A life-size wax model of Paul McCartney's head was left on a London-to-Reading train last Thursday. The owner of the head, Joby Carter announced a $4,000 reward on BBC News the following day. By Friday the head was recovered in a dumpster. The head is was originally made in the 1960s and had been in a Beatles display at the Louis Tussauds museum.

Another member of the Grateful Dead is dead. Keyboardist Merl Saunders died Friday at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Francisco of a stroke. He was 74. Durring his career, the jazz and rock keyboardist collaborated with an incredible array of acts including Miles Davis. His most recent release Blues from the Rainforest was in1990, a collaboration with former bandmate Jerry Garcia.

Monday Morning Newsletter (10/20/08)

We are almost up to a full Mixtapes-worth of artists who have asked the McCain campaign not to dirty their songs with his wrinkly, formaldehyde stinking touch. This week Jon Bon Jovi demanded that Sarah Palin, to cease the use of his song “Who Says You Can’t Go Home.” Caribou Barbie had no comment.

I aired the rumor weeks ago but now we have confirmation. The Guns N’ Roses album Chinese Democracy will hit stores on Sunday, November 23rd The album will be sold exclusively in Best Buy and iTunes. Axl plans to tour with a band of hired monkeys in support of the album beginning in 2009. José predicts another 10-year delay.

It was a sad day in Motown this week. Levi Stubbs, one of the original members of The Four Tops, died this week. He was 72. Stubbs had stopped performing in 2000 due to his declining health. The Four Tops had a massive, 45 hit singles in their career. Please adjust your death pools, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, the only living original member of the Tops.

My Morning Jacket has been forced to cancel their upcoming European tour after vocalist Jim James fell offstage last week. In Iowa City, about 30 minutes into their set the intoxicated Mr. James performed a center stage face plant. He was hospitalized and released a day later.

Madonna is back on the market, hide the teenage boys. After seven years of marriage a spokesperson announced that she is calling it quits on Guy Ritchie. The pair is currently negotiating the division of their combined $525 million. José says it’s easier to divide up stocks and bonds than adopted children.

Don Cornelius, the former host of the TV show "Soul Train," was busted this week. After a neighbor reported a domestic dispute, police were called to his Hollywood Hills home. The 72-year-old producer was arrested on suspicion of felony domestic violence. He was released on $50,000 bail and ordered to appear in court next month.

We had a spectacular on-stage blooper this week on the MTV Latin American Music Awards. Fauxmosexual Katy Perry did a belly flop onto a giant oink multi-tier cake, but had underestimated the slipperiness of frosting. She proceeded to fall on her ass and face repeatedly and eventually crawled off stage on all fours. This all of course distracts from the question: Why is she on the Latin Music awards?

Chinese Democracy is Set

I could really care less, really, but if this involves me getting a Dr. Pepper (why can't it be Mr. Pibb? Tell me you have Mr. Pibb!!?) then I guess it's alright with me.

Best Buy is releasing the oft-delayed, oft-discussed, nay-thought it was actually done Chinese Democracy by Guns 'n Roses on November 25th, pushed back a whopping two days from the original Sunday, November 23rd bombast. Either way, families can rejoice in this - it will be available just in time to be the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving dinner discussion since it's after the election and all.

This album was started, in theory, in 1994 when I was 10. I am now closing in on a quarter of a century. It's taken Axl Rose three-quarters of my life to make this album. It's going to probably be the biggest let down to a lot of people, but you know what, I'll listen to it just because. I wonder what song will be better, "Riad 'n The Bedovins" or "Prostitute". Decisions, decisions.

Chinese Democracy:
01 Chinese Democracy
02 Scraped
03 Shackler's Revenge
04 Street of Dreams
05 If the World
06 Better
07 This I Love
08 There Was a Time
09 Riad N' the Bedovins
10 Sorry
11 I.R.S.
12 Catcher
13 Madagascar
14 Prostitute

Monday Morning Newsletter (06/23/08)

Beck will release a new album on July 8th. Modern Guilt will be his first release on DGC since 2006. Producer Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton described the LP as a melding of hip-hop and punk folk like everyrthing else Beck every did. To Support the record Beck has already scheduled dates in the US and Europe.

This week Ted Nugent sold off a large share of his wild game trophies. The iconic guitarist is a well-known hunter and gun nut. What was not well known was that the Nuge had bagged a rhinoceros and a zebra both of which are for sale. The Nugent family is selling off the trophies to simplify a move to a more remote compound a little closer to scenic Waco, Texas. For the record Jose preferred his material with the Amboy Dukes.

Volcom Records will be releasing Totomoshi's new album, Milagrosa, July 8th. The Frisco-based metal act will be touring nationally in support of the album. For the record, Totimoshi was intended to be gibberish but in the Chinese language Hakka, the word means a constipation. This is only the second record on Volcom Jose has cared about in 8 years.

I know I promised not to write about Amy Winehouse but this is just classic. After smoking more crack than Richard Pryor, Winehouse has ruined her lungs. Her father, Mitch Winehouse, has stated that Amy has early stage emphysema and will have to wear an oxygen mask unless she gives up the crack pipe. At least she didn’t set herself on fire.

The experimental and existential band Negativland is releasing a new album, Thigmotactic, July 15th. Since the 1970s, Negativland has showered us in a series of self-indulgent, loops, cut-and-paste tributes to Dadaism and self-debasement. So Jose was surprised when he heard that Thigmotactic included actual songs. Mark Hosler, a founding member of Negativland, apparently was tired of banging on pots and pans.

The new Guns & Roses album leaked this week. Gag. Jose laughs every time that he sees that YouTube video of Axl getting pegged in the nards with a water bottle. Normally Jose will not approve of a crotch shot, but Axl is an exception.

Slipknot, the biggest band in Iowa is releasing their fourth opus All Hope Is Gone. The work is slated for an August release. The band previewed the album for 24 hours on their website this week. Already naughty bloggers have leaked the unmastered versions of the songs. Nine guys in red jumpsuits: if they weren’t wearing masks I’d think they were a pit crew.

The hip-hop duo Dalek has founded a new record label, Deadverse Recordings. They already have albums by Oddateee, and Laura Minor. In the near-term, Dalek plan to stay with Ipecac Records, but in the future, there is no telling what success will do to them.

Monday Morning Newsletter (03/31/08)

I went to two great shows recently and have three more this week. Jose Fritz just sits around and gets you in he know with the Monday Morning Newsletter!

Duran Duran got its world tour off to a rough start. Wednesday, at the inaugural show in New Zealand singer Simon Le Bon forgot lyrics and bassist John Taylor stormed angrily off stage. In a statement to the press the band admitted that they were very frustrated with the generally low percentage of 50-year-old groupies that put out.

The soft drink company Dr. Pepper is attempting to coax former Guns And Roses vocalist Axl Rose into releasing his album, Chinese Democracy, in the year 2008. On the table is an offer to provide a free can of soda to every man woman and child in the United States. This is so retarded I can’t think of anything else to say.

Equal Vision Records is putting-together a new DVD/CD compilation slated for release on April 15th. It will feature videos and tracks from bands past and present including The Fall Of Troy, Converge, Chiodos and others.

Roadrunner Records will be reissuing Life Of Agony's River Runs Red on April 29th. The new version of the album will feature 4 bonus songs tacked onto the albums original track listing. This continues their decade’s long tradition of re-releasing albums to pay the rent.

This April will see the long-delayed release of Director Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Stones biopic flim. Readers over the age of 50 will remember an earlier band biopic named Gimmie Shelter. When asked about the similarities between the older film and the brand new Shine a Light Scorsese said “Well now they’re really old.”

On charges of rape Richard Ream was arrested at LAX this week. You know him better as Rikki Rockett, the sleazy 46-year-old drummer of '80s hair-band Poison. He was on a flight back from an oldies tour in New Zealand.

Yesterday, in an off-handed remark Moby explained the mid-1990s explosion of the indie-rock licensing. “Some decisions I've made were more fueled by desperation than anything; some of the more gratuitous licensing. Sorry about that.”

Champions of public drunkenness, Queens of the Stone Age will headline the SoCo Music Experience festival at Centennial Olympic Park l, scheduled for May 17. The Atlanta event is appropriately sponsored by Southern Comfort.

Anti-Emo Violence in the city of Queretaro, Mexico has escalated into flash riots. An anti-emo movement has grown into organized attacks on pink haired sissies wherever they may roam. In Mexico City gay-rights organizations suggest that the attacks are fueled by homophobia. The problem being that being emo doesn’t make you gay.; going to the bath-house at 21st and Sansom makes you gay. Read more here.