Author Archives: robert duffy

For those of you who don’t have a local independent music store in town to support, let it be known that Best Buy will be offering the new White Stripes record for $9.99 and the Raveonettes EP for only $4.99.

Hey, I know that Rolling Stone is not what it used to be, but it’s good to see other people realizing how great this album is. I’ve been saying this for weeks now, but “Elephant” is simply amazing, and is going to be huge this year. RS gives it five stars:

There are still only two of them. But now they sound like an army. The White Stripes made Elephant, their fourth album, in just two weeks last year, at a London studio outfitted with an eight-track tape machine and recording gear that predates the Beatles. But the Detroit duo walked out with a work of pulverizing perfection. Singer-guitarist Jack White and his ex-wife, drummer Meg — the undisputed king and queen of the new garage movement — finally romp and rattle like a fully armed band. It is a glorious thing to hear. It will be one of the best things you hear all year. (full review)

And what about our friends across the ocean at NME? Let us see:

The eloquence, barbarism, tenderness and sweat-drenched vitality of ‘Elephant’ make it the most fully-realised White Stripes album yet. (full review)

Buy the record here. You know you want to. You know you will sooner or later. It’s only a question of when.

I saw Warren Zevon live a few years back in Jersey and it was one of my favorite shows ever. He’s such a great musician, such a great performer, knowing that he’s going to die very soon depresses the hell out of me.

However, it’s good to know there’s so many musicians paying tribute to him by performing on what will obviously be his last album.

Tom Petty, Mike Campbell, Emmylou Harris and Joe Walsh have recently joined the guest list for what will be Zevon’s final album, as he was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in August. Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Don Henley, Ry Cooder, Dwight Yoakam, David Lindley, Timothy B. Schmit, Jim Keltner, John Waite, Billy Bob Thornton and Zevon’s son Jordan are among those who had previously made contributions to the album. Zevon has also recorded a cover of Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” for possible inclusion. The recording will be the follow-up to 2002’s My Ride’s Here (full story)

The shit has hit the fan.

For a movie set in a strange sci-fi future, it’s weird that they use a lot of artists and music from a few years back. Anyway, here’s how the soundtrack will shape up:

Disc 1
Linkin Park – “Session”
Marilyn Manson – “This Is the New Sh–”
Rob Zombie – “Reload”
Rob Dougan – “Furious Angels” (Instrumental)
Deftones – “Lucky You”
Team Sleep – “The Passportal”
P.O.D. – “Sleeping Awake”
Unloco – “Bruises”
Rage Against the Machine – “Calm Like a Bomb”
Oakenfold – “Dread Rock”
Fluke – “Zion”
Dave Matthews Band – “When the World Ends (Oakenfold Remix)”

Disc 2
Don Davis – “Main Title”
Don Davis – “Trinity Dream”
Juno Reactor – “Tea House”
Rob Dougan – “Chateau”
Juno Reactor – “Mona Lisa Overdrive”
Don Davis vs. Juno Reactor – “Burly Brawl”
Don Davis – “Reloaded Suite”

The soundtrack ships May 6.

On the television right now is a five year old kid rapping. His name is Lik’ Max$o. It’s on some new TV show that judges children. Sisqo is one of the judges. And Lance Bass.

This actually makes me want to turn the war coverage back on. Help me. Someone.

Update: Lil’ Max$o has two girlfriends who don’t know each other.

Kiesha “Areila” Jenkins checking in with a review of Monday’s Zwan concert:

Cleveland Rocks, for several reasons
by Kiesha Jenkins

Spring Break rolls around only once a year, and while many of my fellow Ohio University students plunked down their parents’ hard-earned money and boarded planes to Cancun or Miami or whatever other southern city rich, drunk college students go, I went a very different direction – North.

Cleveland, ah! Take a deep breath and smell the lake. Take a deeper one and smell Canada. Or, take a little drive and make your way to the Agora, a hip club similar to the Newport but with a much better sound quality. And while you’re there, hey, why not catch Zwan?

Yes, Robert Duffy and I braved Interstate 71 for three hours to catch the band in all their glory. Having seen them back in December at the Newport, and having gotten my hands on their album, I was very eager to see the band again, this time familiar with all their material. We decided to take a seat in the balcony, mainly so we wouldn’t have to stand through the whole show. This proved to be a wonderful idea, and the view was great. We got to watch the kids in the mosh pit bat around a beach ball.

The opening band was called The Children’s Hour. I was not a fan. It was a interesting sound (electric and accoustic guitars, harp) and Dave Pajo playing drums for a few songs, but I just wasn’t into it. And neither was the audience. After a few songs, the crowd turned brutal, and during the quiet moments in between songs, they could be heard shouting things like “Turn this bullshit off!” These kids obviously wanted Billy Corgan and wouldn’t take anything but.

They got their wish. The Children’s Hour finished up with a song that most of the crowd recognized as the theme song to “Sharon, Lois and Bram’s Elephant Show” (I love you in the morning/and in the afternoon/I love you in the evening/underneath the moon!) and got off stage in a hurry. The beach ball made a triumphant return, until someone batted it onto the stage and the roadies threw it backstage.

Zwan was incredible. The show was loud and energetic. Billy was happy, something I’m sure shocked all the goth kids wearing their Smashing Pumpkins t-shirts. They played (as far as I could tell) every song off their new CD and a few extras that I honestly didn’t recognize. They were greeted with love and admiration from the crowd, especially every time Billy shouted out “Balcony!”

There was even a statement about the war, when Billy said, “Thank you for making it so easy for us to play. It isn’t easy right now to be jolly, so thank you for giving us your energy, your blood and whatever else comes out of your body.”

Two encores followed the main set, and the entire Zwan show lasted about 2 hours. Mr. Duffy and I were on our way back to the hotel by 11:00 p.m. I haven’t been home that early from a concert in a long, long time.

So all in all, it was a great trip, and I’m looking forward to heading back to the Rockingest City in Ohio in May for Ted Leo and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. And to get a photo of the World’s Largest Rubber Stamp.

Oh yeah, one more thing. I’d like to give a ‘shout-out’ to the bodyguards at the Agora. They were the nicest guys ever. When the kids were batting around their beach ball, they retrieved it everytime it went out of the kids’ reach. They even climbed onstage twice to get it back for them. And they made sure everyone who was bodysurfing got down safely. It was a nice change from those assholes jerks at the Newport.

Gateway is not being too orignal in their new ad campaign “Rip, Burn, Respect” that strangely resembles last year’s Apple campaign, “Rip, Mix, Burn”.

The heart of Gateway’s education campaign is “fair use”–a legal term that stops short of being an absolute right to use copyrighted content but does serve as a defense against copyright-infringement suits in many cases of academic or personal use. On Gateway’s Rip, Burn, Respect site, the company notes that consumers have the “privilege” to make copies of their own CDs, or transfer music they’ve bought to MP3 players. (full story)

Bah.

Rumors are flying, according to Product Shop. Let’s follow closely, friends and enemies.

And here are the lovely R.E.M. tourdates to make a Friday even better:

Sept. 1: Seattle (Bumbershoot Festival)
Sept. 3: Portland, Ore. (New Amphitheater, w/ Wilco)
Sept. 6: Mountain View, Calif. (Shoreline Amphitheatre, w/ Wilco)
Sept. 7: San Diego (Street Scene)
Sept. 10: Los Angeles (Hollywood Bowl, w/ Wilco)
Sept. 11: Las Vegas (Thomas and Mack Center, w/ Wilco)
Sept. 13-14: Morrison, Colo. (Red Rocks, w/ Wilco)
Sept. 16: Minneapolis (Xcel Energy Center, w/ Ed Harcourt)
Sept. 17: Kansas City, Mo. (Starlight Theatre, w/ Ed Harcourt)
Sept. 19: Dallas (NextStage, w/ Ed Harcourt)
Sept. 20: Houston (Mitchell Pavilion, w/ Ed Harcourt)
Sept. 21: Austin, Texas (Austin City Limits)
Sept. 23: New Orleans (Lakefront Arena, w/ Sparklehorse)
Sept. 24: Birmingham, Ala. (Oak Mountain Amphitheater, w/ Sparklehorse)
Sept. 26: Chicago (United Center, w/ Sparklehorse)
Sept. 27: Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio (Blossom Music Center, w/ Sparklehorse)
Sept. 28: Auburn Hills, Mich. (Palace of Auburn Hills, w/ Sparklehorse)
Sept. 30: Toronto (Air Canada Centre, w/ Sparklehorse)
Oct. 1: Philadelphia (Mann Center)
Oct. 3-4: Jersey City, N.J. (Liberty State Park)
Oct. 5: Boston (Tweeter Center)
Oct. 8: Washington, D.C. (MCI Center)
Oct. 9: Chapel Hill, N.C. (Dean Smith Center)
Oct. 11: Atlanta (Phillips Arena)

Nice.

Han Q. Duong was one of the five people who visited the old school ghetto donewaiting.com Delphi forum before we got the new board that many people read and post in. And because of that, we will always love him.

Anyway, he runs his own beautifully designed site and is currently running a review of the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs record:

Like many bands now, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are drums/guitar/vocal, trying to stretch that out as far and fast as they can. Nick Zinner’s guitar style sounds like a fuzzed up blues/slide player, something like a punchier version of PJ Harvey’s records. Brian Chase roams free on drums, and Fever To Tell exploits his sound well. Without a bass, you can hear the thumps and wacks fill the room, and the record sounds about very close to a live performance. Karen O’s vocals sound downright animalistic, with all her melody lines interspersed with yelps and pants. (full review)

Han also runs this hella huge Sleater-Kinney review HQ.