Does this music video really prove when Van Halen were at the top of their game?
August 29, 2008
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Before David Lee Roth left the band and they became a poor pop metal imitation of their former greatness, Van Halen ruled the world with the primal fury of Godzilla raging through Tokyo. The VH/Roth ouevre, particularly their first four studio albums, have a rightful place among the best metal albums ever. Here’s the band at the height of their powers:
http://blog.thesavagescience.com/2008/08/28/van-halen-at-the-top-of-their-game
Review: Rage Against the Machine at the Democrat Convention
August 29, 2008
The music event that was characterized as having the largest potential this week for violence between activists and police went off Wednesday more like a mass training in peaceful resistance.
Joined by like-minded anti-war rockers State Radio, The Coup, Flobots, Jello Biafra and Wayne Kramer from the MC5, Rage Against the Machine headlined an impassioned midday concert at the Denver Coliseum featuring the band’s hits, political speeches and calls for nonviolence.
More than anything, the concert was a respectful nod to Iraq Veterans Against the War, which, along with Tent State, mounted the show to call attention to their agenda: Encouraging a hasty end to the war, providing veterans with comprehensive healthcare, and rebuilding Iraq.
After the headliners capped off a loud, amped up performance with the fan favorite “Killin in the name,” Rage guitarist Tom Morello called on the roughly 8,000 concertgoers to join him and other entertainers in a march for peace to the Pepsi Center.
“We’re going right now,” he said. “We’ll meet you outside.”
Non-violence was the theme of the day.
Earlier on stage, Vietnam War veteran and author of “Born on the Fourth of July,” Ron Kovick, said this was a historic day in Denver.
“We will bring the troops home,” he said, “and we will do this nonviolently, in the spirit of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.”
Biafra, a Colorado native and punk legend for fronting the Dead Kennedys, reminded the crowd that there “is such a thing as a police riot,” he said. “Don’t give them any reason” to start one.
Before the concert, Boots Riley, frontman for the political hip-hop/funk band The Coup, said the event was a way of questioning Democrats’ on their Iraq plan. “What they’re talking about is going to take years,” he said. “Meanwhile people are dying.”
Kramer’s band, the MC5, performed during the explosive 1968 Democratic National Convention. He said this day in Denver had “poetic and historic significance” for him.
“Just the fact that I’m here 40 years later is a treat for me,” Kramer said.
http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_10318511
Experts don’t think Metallica’s Sounds Like Mude track is technical error
August 29, 2008
Asbjørn Slettemark of the Norwegian music industry magazine Faro Journalen reports that METALLICA’s record label, Universal Music Norway, has confirmed that it has received several complaints over the sound quality of the new METALLICA single “The Day That Never Comes”, which was released via the iTunes store late last week. “There will be a new version of the song on iTunes in a short while,” Eivind Slotsvik, senior product manager at Universal Music Norway, told Faro Journalen.
Slotsvik claims, however, that the “The Day That Never Comes” audio file that was serviced to Norwegian radio and press is not distorted like the track that was being sold via iTunes. “What we know is that there is something wrong with the version sent to iTunes,” he said. “The version we have received does not contain similar errors.”
Faro Journalen downloaded one of the versions Universal Music released to the press via its digital promotional database. The magazine then sent the file to Lasse Svendsen, editor of Norway’s hi-fi magazine Lyd & Bilde (Sound & Vision). Svendsen was shocked by what he heard.
“Oh my God, this is unfortunately a classic example of how bad things get when studio technicians and musicians gets to play with expensive compressors and limiters,” he said. “The file is a 313 kbps AAC sound file, which isn’t necessarily that bad, but someone has chosen to maximize the volume with a compressor, so much so that the whole sound file just sounds like mud. The cymbals sound like broken glass, the drums like trees cracking, and the guitars — which are mixed equally loudly — sound like someone shoved a screwdriver into my ears.”
Kjartan Overby is responsible for the music archives at the Norwegian national radio station at NRK. “The Day That Never Comes” was one of this week’s most played tracks on NRK’s youth channel P3, and Overby told Faro Journalen he reacted immediately to the sound level on the song.
“I have never heard anything like this on songs we have added to the archive. It is probably not a technical error. The file was like that when we received it from Universal Music,” he said.
Lyd & Bilde editor Svendsen has low expectations for the “Death Magnetic” full-length album, which is scheduled to hit stores worldwide on September 12. “We can only hope that the CD won’t sound this bad, but I don’t have high hopes that this will happen,” he said.
A representative for METALLICA’s Mission: Metallica web site — the online experience related to the group’s forthcoming album, “Death Magnetic” — sent out an e-mail message to the site’s registered members last week claiming that the sound quality problems on “The Day That Never Comes” were related to “the creation of the track from master,” before reassuring fans that “this is not how it will sound on the album.” He then added, “We’ve identified the source of the problem to prevent it in any subsequent singles released in advance of September 12.”
Although the band itself has not yet addressed the issue directly, it is believed that the source of the problem lies in the actual mix and not the mastering. With only three weeks left before “Death Magnetic”’s scheduled release, it is highly unlikely that any changes will be made to the album’s final mix, a scenario which is almost certain to disappoint may of METALLICA’s most loyal fans who have been voicing their displeasure over the new single’s production on the band’s official message board.
“The Day That Never Comes” audio (entire song):
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=103625
Lars Ulirch of Metallica uses Oasis to give up cocain as he reveals in interview
August 29, 2008
Lars Ulrich quits drug with Noel Gallagher’s help
Metallica’s Lars Ulrich used Noel Gallagher as an inspiration to give up cocaine.
The drummer set he decided to quit the drug a few years ago, and took the Oasis guitarist as an inspiration.
“A couple of years ago I was like, ‘You know? Enough of this. I don’t need it’. It was literally something that happened one morning, like ‘Y’know? Fuck that’,” he told The Quietus.com.
He added: “I was very impressed with Noel Gallagher. As you know, I’m an Oasis fanatic, and Noel was like [adopts Mancunian accent] ‘You know what? No more cocaine!’ (Gallagher quit in 1998) and I thought, ‘If he can do it, everybody else can do it’.
“I had my fun with it, it was always more of a social thing. We were never like rolling around and spending days in bathroom stalls, and peeking out the keyholes of doors for days.”
http://www.nme.com/news/metallica/39346
Why would Axl Rose of Guns N Roses have hots for Kelly Osbourne? New inspiration?
August 29, 2008
Axl Rose wants to “f**k” Kelly Osbourne.
The 46-year-old Guns’n'Roses rocker reportedly made the comment when he bumped into Kelly, 23, at a recent Hollywood party.
New York designer Richie Rich, who was with Kelly at the bash, told America’s OK! magazine: “Axl was really weird with her. He kept leering at her and saying, ‘I want to f**k you’.”
Kelly was recently seen sporting a huge black eye after a cupboard fell on her.
The incident happened when Kelly returned to London from the UK’s Reading music festival, after contracting a stomach bug.
A friend of the star said: “Kelly had already called in sick to work for Radio One on Sunday (24.08.08) because she was doubled over with bad stomach pains.
“When she got home she reached up to get a glass of water from the cupboard to have a drink when the entire thing fell off the wall and smashed into her face.
“Kelly had blood pouring out of a lump in her head, while black and blue swelling started almost straight away around her eyes.”
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/news/article_1427611.php/Axl_Roses_Kelly_desire
