With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

Music reviews, gig reviews, fun trivia and extra added random stuff!

“250,000 Miles On A Clear Night In June” June 27, 2011


Just a few random things heading your way for this post. Let’s start with the sale of an iconic item of Michael Jackson’s clothing, it’s the jacket that he wore in the “Thriller” video. It sold recently for £1.1m in an auction in Beverley Hills. It was bought by an US Commodities Trader who plans to use it to raise money for children’s charities. Given the many allegations made against Jacko the use of his old clothes in that way does seem somewhat appropriate, doesn’t it? Click here to read the story on the BBC.

Lady Gaga is being sued in the USA for allegedly pocketing far more money than is appropriate in the sale of her Japan Earthquake Relief wristbands. The lawsuit, in which she is being sued for more than £3m, alleges that the wristbands are sold for $5 each and include shipping and tax costs meaning less than 10% would reach its beneficiaries. But obviously we don’t know how much of the detail Gaga herself is aware of, so watch this space and click here to read the story on the NME site.

Madonna will soon feature in a comic in the US. It will be in Bluewater Productions ‘Female Force’ series of comics. It’s hardly Batman or the Fantastic Four is it? Even more so when you consider that some of the other women to have featured to date are; Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin and Margaret Thatcher. I suppose that the latter two could almost pass as super villains though. Even though I have a large collection of comics I think it’s highly unlikely that I’ll be buying the Amazing Adventures Of Madge.

To coincide with the release of the new Muppets movie later this year a number of rock acts have recorded cover versions of many Muppet numbers. Amy Lee off of Evanescence has  recorded one of my favourite Muppet songs, “Halfway Down The Stairs” originally sung by Kermit’s nephew Robin. Weezer and Hayley Williams off of Paramore have covered “Rainbow Connection”. Other artists recording songs for the album are; Alkaline Trio, My Morning Jacket, Airborne Toxic Event and OK Go.

It's a tragedy that Gaga has not been allowed to record a Muppet song, especially after she murdered so many of Kermit's relatives to make her dress.

Did you see any of the Glasto coverage? I thought the BBC did a great job with it, although I didn’t see the Wombles anywhere! As for the headliners; I thought U2 were ok, Coldplay were bloody good and Beyoncé was truly amazing. She even managed to cover Eurythmics, Alanis Morrisette, Prince and the Kings Of Leon. despite the rumours that her man Jay Z would join her on stage, he didn’t, but she did a rather interesting duet with Tricky. My main thought as I watched her was how little talent the likes of Cheryl Cole actually have.

I’m loving the new Eminem video for “Space Bound”, what do you think of it? It does contain the usual element of controversy from Mr Mathers. This time gun related. But I really believe the man is on top form.

Gaga just get's everywhere doesn't she?

And finally would you like your girlfriend, wife or partner to wear knickers with a picture of Thom Yorke on them? personally I wouldn’t, but if you’re that way inclined you can actually buy them. Has anyone reading this purchased any of them? Click here to see for yourself.

 

“You wave your hand and they scatter like crows” April 10, 2009


Hello once again dear readers. I don’t know what religious persuasion you are, I’m an atheist, but the UK kind of shuts down a little for Easter. Right now I’m not sure whether that means I’ll post more or less this weekend. But anyway here is one for today, Friday 10th April.

let me kick off with some random stuff from a couple of days back. As the regular readers know I went to Whitby (aka Goth Central) for the day. Well while I was there I saw a van for a joinery company. Now I thought the name was quite amusing, but if you have very strong religious beliefs you might wish to stop reading now. OK I warned you, anyway the company was called JC Joinery and I thought that maybe that awful book the ‘Da Vinci Code’ held a degree of truth and maybe Jesus lived and his descendants continued with the family carpentry business. I wish that I had taken a picture of the van, because when I tried to find the company on Google I found loads of JC Joinery companies. Is there a deep seated and ancient conspiracy theory going on here? We should be told!

Back onto the music stuff now. Have you seen the rather excellent video for Eminem’s new single “We Made You“? If not just click on the title. It features appearances by Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse, Blake Civil-Fielder, Elvis Presley and Sarah Palin, but none of these are the real people. It also features appearances from the real Dr Dre and the real 50 Cent. On top of all that there’s a great Star Trek spoof . There is also a rather worrying line in the song where Mr Mathers says “If you think this is bad wait until you hear my album” well something like that anyway. I like the song and I reckon he’s back on form. “Crack A Bottle” never really did it for me. Let me know what you think of the new song.

Whilst his women thought he was dynamite in bed Mr Mathers did have quite a short fuse!

Whilst his women thought he was dynamite in bed Mr Mathers did have quite a short fuse!

Check out this great article from the UK’s Guardian newspaper this week. It has an extract from Frank Zappa’s 1989 autobiography which suggests he had and understood the concept of file sharing long before anyone else. Certainly a long while before the music industry as most major labels still don’t have a clue! Click here to read it.

We are celebrating a birthday today as usual. Today is the 62nd birthday of Karl Russell. Who the hell is Karl Russell I hear you shout. Well he is Karl Russell the lead singer off of the Hues Corporation who hit the top of the US charts in 1974 with the wonderful single “Rock The Boat” The song also made it to number 6 in the UK and I still occasionally play it at my mobile disco gigs. In fact it’s seen by many as being on of the very first disco songs. The group’s name was a pun on the Hughes Corporation, with Hue being the colour of their skin. They had also suggested The Children Of Howard Hughes as a name but their label turned it down.

The Hues Corporation........."sofa so good!"

The Hues Corporation........."sofa so good!"

On this day in 1964 UK acts started a phenomenal run of seven weeks at the top of the US singles chart. Starting with “I’m Telling You Now” from Freddie and the Dreamers and followed by “Game Of Love” by Wayne Fontana, “Mrs Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter” from Herman’s Hermits and finishing with “Ticket To Ride” by the Beatles.

On this day in 1970 at a gig in Boston Jim Morrison off of the Doors asked the audience if “anyone wants to see my genitals?” The management of the venue switched off the power and the gig was cut short. Jim was lucky Ms Bobbit wasn’t in the audience otherwise it wouldn’t have just been the gig that was cut short! Here are the Doors with “The End” live at the Isle Of Wight Festival in 1970. And for all you fact fans did you know where the Doors took their name from? It was from the Aldous Huxley book ‘The Doors Of Perception

The police really didn't believe Jim when he tried to explain that his dog was indeed called 'Genitalia'

The police really didn't believe Jim when he tried to explain that his dog was indeed called 'Genitals'

And finally on this day in 1990 Tom Waits was awarded $2.475m in punitive damages after taking Dorito Chips to court following a radio advert in which the company had used a Waits soundalike. After the case was finished Waits remarked “now by law I have what I always felt I had…… a distinctive voice!” I wonder if Tom’s win led to the Credit Crunch for Doritos? (geddit?)

Here are a couple of songs from Tom Waits who is one of my favourite singers. Firstly and also in keeping with the fact that it’s Easter here is “Chocolate Jesus“. Second up is the wonderful “Downtown Train” some of you may recall Rod Stewart’s cover of this song which I thought was very good but not a patch on the original by Mr Waits

Tom holds up a giant tortilla chip to celebrate his victory

Tom holds up a giant tortilla chip to celebrate his victory