Monday Morning Newsletter (4-13-09)

In an open letter PETA has asked the Pet Shop Boys to rename themselves the Rescue Shelter Boys. The looney civic group defended the letter, explaining that "most dogs and cats sold in pet shops are sourced from profit-hungry breeders who may have bred them in cramped, filthy conditions." The Pet shop Boys politely rebuffed them.

This April 17th ShadyVille Dj's King Magnetic is hosting a release party for his album The King and The Cauze at the sterling Hotel Allentown. It’s hard to be a rapper in coal country. It's already available as a free download here.

The Beatles are releasing a complete remastered catalog on September 9th. It’s the same day as The Beatles: Rock Band video game will be out. A digital realize is still being held up by Steve Jobs. It’s that ongoing argument between Apple Inc. and Apple Corp. damn you Steve Jobs!

Slightly less climactic is Beck’s decision to reissue his 1994 album One Foot in the Grave. The double disc release is planned for April 14th. In addition to the original 16 tracks, the second disc includes 13 unreleased tracks.

Anticon has made theFREEhoudini , a free uber-mix available as a free download. The 39-minute-long mix features appearances from Buck 65, Aesop Rock, Busdriver, Lionesque, Slug of Atmosphere, D-Styles, DJ Baku, Pedestrian, Sole, Serengeti, and Yoni Wolf and Odd Nosdam as cLOUDDEAD

Ferret Music has signed Revolution Mother. The Long beach California locals are now planning their second release "Rollin' With Tha Mutha" for a July 07th debut. Warning to liquor stores: stock up on Yeager.

Hell has frozen over and Ted Nugent is reuniting his old acid rock band The Amboy Dukes. April 17 The Amboy Dukes are receiving a Distinguished Achievement Award at the annual Detroit Music Awards. The groups appearance at the show will be their first since 1968. Nugent has described the Dukes as "the world's greatest garage band.” Which regardless of his ego... is somewhat accurate.

Billy Bob Thornton has canceled his band’s Canadian tour. It all goes back to Billy Bob’s CBC interview. The irritable actor compared Canadian fans to mashed potatoes without gravy. Despite the bland insult Canucks revolted. At a post-interview show in Toronto Thursday the band was soundly booed.

Rapper Kanye West appears in the news twice this week: Once for expanding his brand with a new sports beverage, and once for being parodied as a homosexual fish on South Park. West will soon have his own energy drink through GURU Beverages. The money will be spent on therapy to get over that whole gay fish cartoon thing.

Monday Morning Newsleter (11-17-08)

Today is the birthday of Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian folk and country singer. He is 70 years old today and despite releasing 20 bland LPs in those decades no one has put him out of his misery. Happy Birthday greetings to Mr. Lightfoot.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honored Les Paul last week with the 2008 American Music Master award. Hundreds gathered to honor him at the Playhouse Square State Theater in Cleveland, OH. Other Hall of Fame members performed including Duane Eddy, Dennis Coffey and Slash. Way to go Slash, you only look a little out of place there buddy.

José is in mourning this week. Miriam Makeba, the South African, singer died of a heart attack. She performed a full set at an anti-Mafia concert in Itlay then dropped dead. In her heyday she was a badass: in 1976 she addressed the UN to denounce apartheid. The nation of South Africa banned her music and she had to live in exile for over 30 years.

At a concert in Sydney, Australia last week, singer Rihanna suddenly grabbed her stomach and ran off stage. She was in the middle of the song “Umbrella” and was seen to be clutching her stomach moments before the incident. A representative told us that she is not bulimic and is perfectly healthy. José says, lay off the ipecac.

Also ill this week is Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher. Kelliher was hospitalized in London for an undisclosed crotch ailment. Doctors will are monitoring his condition which is said to be improving. Mastodon has opted to continue the European Unholy Alliance Chapter 3 package tour as a three-piece.

One-time Jimi Hendrix drummer Mitch Mitchell died this week. He had just completed a tour with the Experience Hendrix project. He is the longest lived member of the original trio, and the only not to die of drugs and alcohol–related causes. He was 62.

You may have read that *NSYNC lip-synch artist Lance Bass has been in cosmonaut training in Russia. On the Tonight Show this week Bass, admitted he is now two inches smaller than he was before he began the program. (Please insert dick joke here) Space suits apply pressure to the body, because of pressure differences. He explained further that his trainers made him a special suit that would contract him in space.

Paula Goodspeed, a Paula Abdul stalker, was found dead near the American Idol judge’s home this week. Goodspeed reportedly died of a drug overdose. Goodspeed actually auditioned for the show back in 2006, and didn’t make it past Simon's wit and gay flamboyance. The police currently consider Paula Abdul a possible suspect.

Rapper Kanye West has been arrested again. This time he “allegedly” assaulted a photographer outside the Tup Tup Nightclub in Newcastle, England. The moody rapper also scuffled with the paparazzi outside the club. Photographer/stalker Terry Blackburn claimed to have been injured in the incident. Police detained West at his hotel but have released him without charge.

Monday Morning Newsletter (9/28/08)

This week singer Clay Aiken outed himself to the world in People magazine, confirming that he was a homosexual. Aiken, stated "I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that." Did anybody actually think he was straight? What surprised Jose is that he knocked some broad up with a turkey baster.

Currently the former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and DJ AM a.k.a. Adam Goldstein are hospitalized as a result of burns and other injuries that occurred during a plane crash last weekend. The medical director of the Augusta Burn Center says both men should make a full recovery. The musicians plane crashed in South Carolina killing four people last Friday. The dead include pilot Sarah Lemmon, co-pilot James Bland, Barker's assistant and bodyguard, Chris Baker, and Charles Still. The wrong people always die first.

Chris Cornell's new album, Scream, is slated for a November release date. Famous Hip-Hop producer Timbaland produced the effort and the duo intend to do a short tour together to support the release. The eight planned gigs will begin in Denver on October 17, ending in Seattle on November 2. Jose thinks it sounds like Michael Jackson covering Cornell's last solo album.

Kid Rock is about to end up like Billy Carter. Kid has signed a deal to develop and market his very own vanity beer with Drinks America Holdings. CEO of Drinks Americas J. Patrick Kenny stated, "Kid Rock is a reflection of great American rock and roll music and the American spirit, and we think we can create a beer in that same image." I can only assume that image translates to strong and cheap.

Kanye West is now entertaining a hobby in pedophilia by producing a new children's puppet show. The program Alligator Boots has been described as "Hip-Hop meets the Muppets." Alligator Boots is not yet a series, but only a hopeful pilot being shopped to Comedy Central. Strangely the stink ends with Jimmy Kimmel who owns Jackhole productions, the executive producers on the program.

50 Cent has been hard at work with Activision developing a video game, 50 Cent: Blood In The Sand. Recent Wallstreet news indicated the game could be cut because of an impending merger with Vivendi. Blood In The Sand still has a targeted release date of March 31, 2009. Jose says don't truck wit' fiddy. He shoots people for real.

Another dead rapper is on the verge of releasing a hit record. The long-dead TLC member Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes drops her new record Eye-Legacy on November 11. It features previously unreleased tracks from Lopes, and collaborations with Missy Elliott among others. How do dead people collaborate? Jose will not be writing music reviews from the grave I promise you that.

Yes vocalist Jon Anderson has been replaced on tour due to acute respiratory failure. The rest of the band is continuing with the tour while he recouperates. He has stated that he is "disappointed that they were not willing to wait till 2009 when I'm fully recovered."

The Pretenders, are releaseing a new album, Break Up The Concrete, on October 7. Their ninth studio albu, will include a limited run of eco-packaging that comes with seed paper. This paper can be planted and may sprout Afgahn Polm in about four weeks. Fucking hippies.

Monday Morning Newsletter (9/15/08)

The RNC continues to use music without seeking the permission of its copyright holders. Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar recently commented: “Permission was not sought or granted nor would it have been given to use Right Now.” McCain use the song “Right Now” at a rally in Dayton, Ohio just a week ago. Perhaps Ted Nugent will license him a little something?

AC/DC has announced their first world tour since 2001 will kick off October 28 in Wilkes-Barre, PA. The tour will begin with a set of arena gigs in America. Dates for South America, Europe and Asia are to be announced shortly. Bad news for Abba fans; the highly anticipated Abba museum will not open as planned next year. Organizers maintain that the project will proceed as planned, but will be unavoidably delayed. The city of Stockholm is obviously disappointed as this was their only hope for tourism beyond academic research groupies.

Prince will be releasing a self-described “coffee table book” this October. The tome 21 Nights will document his 21-night run at London's O2 Arena. The collection of candid photographs comes packaged with a CD, Indigo Nights.

Linkin Park's Chester Bennington will be releasing a solo album early next year. Since 2005 he’s been squirreling away tracks since 2005 for the side project. The working title is “Dead By Sunrise” but that’s so terrible Jose expects it to change.

Hi Fi Recordings will be releasing a new album from Todd Rundgren September 30th. The LP, Arena is Rundgren’s first studio album in four years. The album is rumored to be his first guitar-focused rock album since 1993’s No World Order.

Kanye West was arrested at LAX International Airport and then released this week. Apparently a TMZ photographer got up in his grille and his body guard broke the man’s video camera. West and his bodyguard are expected to be charged with vandalism and battery. TMZ has already posted the video.

Avenged Sevenfold has canceled the remaining dates on their U.S. tour due to vocal fatigue. Vocalist M. Shadows first experienced problems a week ago at a show in Huntington, WV. He was diagnosed with vocal fatigue days later. The tour will resume on October 15 in Japan. José recommends laying off the blunts.

Oasis’s new album Dig Out Your Soul will be out this October. The LP will be also be released as a collector's edition which includes a bonus disc of remixes and b-sides, a DVD, a vinyl copy of the album, and a hardcover book. The collectors edition weighs about 11 lbs.

The long rumored White Zombie 5-disc box set will see a release late this year. Rob zombie himself describes the compilation as complete and unadulterated. This rumor dates back to 1996, but it appears all the legal obstructions have aligned and Mr. Zombie has a green light. No information on the label as yet.

New Kanye West: "Love Lockdown"

Or: How I hate to admit that I really like this song

So, amidst the 12 hours worth of football I watched on Sunday, it was during the night game where the Bears visited the new Colts stadium, that I flipped over to the MTV Video Music Awards for a bit here and there. I could easily go on a tirade about how times have chnaged, much different from the piece I wrote on the amazing 1999 VMA's that took place on 9/9/99 for my high school newspaper, but this is not about that. It sort of is in that the grand finale of the evening was Kanye West premiering his new song, "Love Lockdown", to the world. I'll be the first to admit, I've always very publicly denounced him and his primadonna ways, but there are a few of his songs ("Good Morning" being the one that comes to mind), that I actually do like.

So, anyway. 'Ye premieres this new song "Love Lockdown" Sunday night, and I was just floored. The melody instantaneously stuck to my head. My ears, they were shocked to hear him not rapping his words, but rather singing them. A deep groove and a sparse piano finished out the arrangement before tribal meets marching band drums stomped their way in for the chorus. I hated admitting, but I was a fan.

So, yesterday, West takes to his blog to post the finished version that will be included on his upcoming fourth (and might I add awesomely titled) 808's & Heartbreak. The beat and the music are all the same; the vocals sent through a vocoder for effect while the piano carries the rest with the 808 in tow. The chorus is the most interesting part - while Kanye sings the line some what off kilter, as if he couldn't carry a tune, comes in a syncopated handclap that sounds so out of place yet like it belongs at the same time. Very lo-fi hand clap is how I can best describe it, and it's what makes me ever so curious to hear what his Heartbreak has to offer.

808's & Heartbreak is out December 16th(?) on Interscope.

Stream: "Love Lockdown" [here]