Rock Report
It was 50 years ago today that some would say the music died. On February 3rd, 1959, a plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" J.P Richardson crashed outside of Clear Lake, Iowa. While all three were big rock and roll stars at the time, their tragic and untimely demise wuold help turn each of them into icons...
Does anybody really watch the Super Bowl for the football anymore? Seriously. I know there are the die hard NFL fans out there, but the massive audience that the Super Bowl attains each and every year seems to have less to do with football and more to do with everything else that surrounds the game...
Last week we looked at the influence television has had on music, especially when it comes to sales in the last decade. This week we flip the concept around and consider the affect music has had on the tube. TV has helped sell records, but have bands helped increase ratings? Has music been profitable on the small screen? Have people ever really been interested in watching music on television?...
Today marks the 42nd anniversary of the Rolling Stones release of the single 'Let's Spend the Night Together.' Two days later, the band would perform the song live on the Ed Sullivan Show. Of course, there was a small edit that Mick and the boys had to make to actually get the song on prime time TV. They had to tweak the words, and sing 'let's spend SOME TIME together'...
Out with the old, in with the new, right? In this case, the new is 2009 and all the musical potential the year holds. While there are lots of unpredictable possibilities, there are a few sure things that rock fans have to look forward to. Here's a rundown of a few of them...
I know it sounds cliched to say, but I still can't believe how quickly a year can go by. Over the next few weeks, we at 92.5 JACK FM will be looking back at 2008, but for the last JACK eMag until the new year I thought I'd share with you my top 5 music news stories of the year. If you read this column and the Rock Blog regularly, at least one of my top picks won't be much of a surprise, but you might find a few of my other choice a little offside...
Yesterday marked the 28th anniversary of John Lennon's death. Anniversary seems like the wrong word, since most of us typically associate it with something festive or celebratory. The death of Lennon is neither of those things. It's one of the most senseless acts of violence in our recent history. It's tragic how someone whose life is synonymous with peace and love could have faced his end in such a violent manner...
So what were you doing this past Sunday morning? Sleeping in? Breaking with the family? Church? me, I was at Best Buy not far from my house picking up Chinese Democracy, the first new Guns N Roses album of original material since 1991. Think about that for a second. 1991. 17 years ago. George Bush Sr. was still in office. The Toronto Blue Jays had yet to win the World Series. Tom Cruise was sane...
Two weeks ago I made my way to Hamilton to see Yes in concert. They've long been one of my favourite bands, and I've attended many a Yes show, but for the first time in years I could honestly say 'this one' was going to be different. Out of the band was longtime frontman Jon Anderson, the victim of acute respiratory failure which had left him sick and frail and unable to tour. In was a singer from Montreal named Benoit David...
Remember the days of the Beatles vs the Stones? Ok, even if you weren't around back in those days, we've all heard the stories. Well in this new millennium the big musical battle isn't between bands but between video games. In one corner we have the established champion - Guitar Hero, which was been around for four years and 6 video games. In the other, Rock Band, which introduced drums and singing into the mix and recently release its second game...
There's a scene in U2's 1988 documentary Rattle and Hum right before the band goes into "Bullet in the Sky" where bassist Adam Clayton is sitting in a pub. We don't hear the questions, only the answer...
In the 1970s Kiss was one of the most successful bands on the planet. They sold albums, sold-out arenas, and moved merchandise like nobody's business. They were comic book characters come to life. Of course it couldn't last...
What's in a name? When it comes to rock and roll, a heck of a lot. Some names seem random, while others are clear and consise. Some offer up interesting visuals while others leave a lot to the imagination. I thought this week I'd throw out a few groups and the histories behind their names...
By the time you read this, I'll be on my way back from State College, PA. My reason for being there was to see the surviving members of the Greatful Dead perform together for the first time in 4 years at a fundraiser for Barack Obama. The other artist on the bill was the Allman Brothers Band, one of the greatest jam bands of all time...
When I was 15 years old I started listening to the Grateful Dead for the first time. It's safe to say I didn't really get what they were all about, but they were cool so I tried to fit in as a bit of a Dead Head...
Downloading all the songs cost you Xbox Points, roughly 1400 of them. If you're into the game and you love The Who, then purchasing The Best of The Who for Rock Band is pretty much a no-brainer. And it's an excellent way to get primed to see The Who in Los Angeles on Jeff and Carly's Party Plane too!
Did you know there are people out there that believe that Paul McCartney is dead? That the guy who has been putting out music since the end of the Beatles in 1970 ISN'T ACTUALLY PAUL MCCARTNEY? Come on...
"As god as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."
That, quite possibly, is the defining line from one of television's most enduring sitcoms, WKRP in Cincinatti...
This week on Jeff and Carly's Maximum Music Morning Show we've started playing The Who By Numbers. Basically we're giving away a trip for two to see The Who in Los Angeles every day...
In the era of viral videos and widgets, it might serve some bands well to go back and see how some of the best have gotten the word out that they’re hitting the road. It could be the difference between empty seats and full pockets...
Unlike the Beatles, who quietly decided to retire live concerts, this summer the Police made sure every one knew that they were calling it quits…again. After over a year on the road for what has become the third most successful tour ever, the Police declared that their last concert was going to be it for them. No trips to the recording studio. No more gigs...
Gene Simmons hit on my wife. Seriously.
He’s probably hit on your wife too, but there was something very cool about standing in a convenience store last winter and watching the Demon himself give my beloved “the eyes” and tell her that she’s a “cute one”. It was Gene Simmons, after all, the man who put the sex in sex, drugs, and rock and roll...
I’ve got a friend who goes to the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee every year. He gets a group of his friends together, packs up his van, makes the 13 hour pilgrimage, and loves every minute. For the first few years he would ask me to join him and I would politely refuse until he just stopped asking. While I’d love to see so many of the bands that fill out the bill each and every year...
"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I do not know what will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. We're more popular than Jesus now”...
On the night of January 23rd, 1978 Chicago's Terry Kath was playing a game of Russian roulette with a .38 revolver, repeatdly pulling the gun's trigger. A noted gun enthusiast, Kath then moved onto a 9mm pistol...
I started listening to Pink Floyd in 1990. I was 13 years old and someone told me I should listen to this album called "The Wall." At the end of my first listen I thought to myself, "I don't get this at all." What was the story? Who was Pink? What was happening? I didn't like it. But something about it made me listen to it again...
Motley Crue's Vince Neil wasn't as lucky as Ace Frehley with his notorious 1986 car accident. While Vince, driving under the influence, may have escaped physical unscathed when he crashed his car near California's Redondo Beach after hours of partying, his passenger fared far worse...
Remember when you'd be listening to your music in your bedroom or in the basement and your parents wuold bang on the walls, yelling at you to turn down the tunes? I bet Dick Clark never told his kids to turn it down. If anything, I bet he would tell his kids to turn 'em up. After all, Dick Clark has always been considered the World's Oldest Teenager...
In the world of rock, the Mills-McCartney divorce is probably the worst you'll come accross, but there have been some other ones that have been below the belt. Take the union between Mick Jager and Jerry Hall...
It's easy for music biz types to point their fingers at the world wide web and scream "bad bad Internet!" The industry is suffering from rampant filesharing and leaks, and is continually learning how to sail the music business through new and previously unchartered waters...
Here's three of my favourites:
"This Is Spinal Tap" may be about a fictional British rock band, but no film captures the signts, sounds, and smells of life on the road for a rock band...
Although the man who would bring the life of the Man in Black to the big screen was a recognizable and bankable star, Joaquin Phoenix found his star shining even brighter after his award winning portrayal of Johnny Cash in 2005's "Walk the Line"...
Icons like Bob Dylan and the guys in Pearl Jam are content to stand on stage with the barest of lighting and simply sing their songs to the masses who gathered. But for some of rock's greatest performers, live performance is as much about what is on stage as what they're singing about...
