Diving Headfirst Into The Underbelly Of The Pop Counterculture!
Al Jourgensen has been discussing bringing Ministry to an end with mp3.com. He discusses Ministry’s final tour, his distaste for the Bush dynasty, and the upcoming REVCO album. You also get to meet his dogs, Lemmy and Ozzy.
Ministry, who’s Metal Hammer sponsored UK tour takes place next month, are about to call time on their 27 year career and this will be the very last chance you get to see the industrial titans.
See for yourself here.
The life and career of Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister is being celebrated in a new documentary, tentatively titled “Lemmy” and slated for release in 2009.
The film promises fans more access than ever before to Kilmister’s life, and includes interviews with past and present bandmates and such peers/admirers as Slash, Dave Grohl, the Clash’s Mick Jones, Alice Cooper, Steve Vai and wrestling superstar Triple H.
Directors/producers Greg Olliver and Wes Orshoski (both of whom have contributed to Billboard) are shooting the film on a combination of HD video and super 16 mm film. Other giants from the world of metal and hard rock will appear in the film as well, with details to be announced. “We haven’t heard the word ‘no’ yet after any interview request,” Olliver says.
“Lemmy never ceases to surprise me,” Orshoski says. “You think you know who Lemmy is, but you have no idea. If you think you have Lemmy all figured out, trust me. You don’t!”
“Shooting Lemmy is like filming dangerous wildlife. He never does what you expect him to do, and he never does anything you want him to do,” Olliver says with a laugh. “A lot of the coolest shots are shots we had to wait for four or five shows to go by before we could get them.”
A distribution deal hasn’t yet been inked, but the teaser clip, featuring on-stage footage and such amusing backstage segments as Kilmister testing out a bass amp at deafening volume and telling dirty jokes, is available at Lemmymovie.com.
A US judge has today tossed out a lawsuit by a former Ramones drummer who says he was cheated out of royalties.
US District Judge Shira Scheindlin said in a ruling last week that a contract Richard “Richie Ramone” Reinhardt signed when he performed with the US punk rockers between 1983 and 1987 clearly covered digital uses of his songs.
She noted that the contract defining phonograph records contained the words “now or hereafter known” when referring to forms of reproduction, making it clear that future technologies are covered by the agreement.
Reinhardt filed a lawsuit last year claiming he was owed nearly $US1 million ($A1.06 million) in royalties on songs sold over the internet.
He wrote six songs for the group.
The Ramones helped define punk after forming their band in New York in 1974. They performed for 22 years, with various members, before their last show in 1996.
Three of the group’s founding members, Johnny, Reinhardt’s six songs for the Ramones were Smash You; Somebody Put Something in My Drink, Human Kind, I’m Not Jesus, I Know Better Now and (You) Can’t Say Something Nice. Jeff Sanders, a lawyer for Reinhardt, did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.
According to RollingStone.com, Nine Inch Nails mainman Trent Reznor earlier today (Tuesday, April 22) released a brand new song, titled “Discipline”, to radio stations. Unlike the instrumental Ghosts I-IV album, which was web-released less than two months ago, the new track actually features vocals from Reznor. In addition, an April 21 post on NINE INCH NAILS’ official web site, www.nin.com, reads “2 weeks!” echoing a similarly mysterious message posted in mid-February that ultimately resulted in the release of Ghosts I-IV.
Nine Inch Nails recently launched an online film festival showcasing short films made by fans to accompany music from the new Nine Inch Nails album, Ghosts I-IV. According to a press release, the Nine Inch Nails channel on YouTube, which went live on March 13, is accepting submissions immediately through May 1. Music from Ghosts I-IV is available for filmmakers through YouTube’s AudioSwap channel. Submissions will be personally reviewed by Trent Reznor, who will host a festival featuring the best entries at a later date.
Reznor released Ghosts I-IV online on March 2. The two-hour collection of 36 untitled instrumental tracks was made available in various high-quality DRM-free formats at different price levels. According to a press statement, a total of 781,917 copies of the project were transacted at NIN.com in the first week of release, including paid and free downloads, plus pre-orders for physical editions of the set. The total gross earned was reported as $1,619,420.
The expensive “ultra-deluxe” limited edition of Ghosts I-IV sold out almost instantly despite a steep $300 price tag. (I actually ordered one of these!) A digital version is available for five dollars, along with a $75 limited edition “deluxe” package. A $10 double CD version and a $39 vinyl edition was made available at U.S. retail on April 8.
I’ve seriously lost count of the times I have seen Henry Rollins on his spoken-word tours of Australia. It must be at least ten times or pretty damn close to that.
It was with great anticipation I was waiting for this gig. I bought six tickets to the show for myself and friends a couple of months ago. Two of them decided not to show up tonight, leaving me with two unpaid-for tickets. So in essence, I only received monetary compensation from one person and ended up paying for everyone else. I can assure you, this will never happen again ‘cos if people want to go to gigs from now on, I will not be the one buying tickets. Never again. I will only be getting them for myself and my girlfriend and everyone else can make their own way to the show.
I digress. I just felt bitterly disappointed to be treated this way but I wasn’t going to let this spoil my evening.
Hank, as usual, was phenomenal. He performed a riveting dialogue for close to three hours never once even stopping to have a drink of water. Dunno how he does it. It must be exhausting, but as usual he had the entire audience in the palm of his hand for the duration of his act, hanging on every word he spoke. Amazing.
The real treat of the night tho, was getting to meet the guy after the show. There were about ten fans waiting at the side of the venue and Henry was there posing for photos, signing autographs and chatting with all in question. After three solid hours on stage, you’d think the guy would just want to go back to his hotel room and just crash. I was exhausted from just sitting there witnessing the guy but nope, he was on the street giving his time to all the fans that were there.
And he seemed genuinely pleased to be doing so.
My sister, who would have to be one of his biggest fans had left just after the show – so I thought it would be a nice surprise for her if I asked Henry to sign my ticket stub for her. I approached him introduced myself and asked if he wouldn’t mind signing the ticket. He obliged. I shook his hand and thanked him for all his years of amazing performances. He was totally cool and I felt delighted that I got something really cool and special for my sis.
Continue reading ‘Henry Rollins – Comedy Theatre, Melbourne’
After much recent speculation, Eric Avery has agreed to join former band mates Jane’s Addiction for a one-night-only performance at the first-ever U.S. NME Awards. The iconic foursome will be crowned with the Godlike Genius Award during the ceremony and performance, to take place at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles on April 23. Jane’s Addiction is joining the likes of The Clash, New Order, Primal Scream and Manic Street Preachers, who are among the acts to have picked up the Godlike Genius prize at the UK awards.
Avery has continually declined offers to reunite with the band and instead focused on his musical endeavors, most recently, a debut solo LP, “Help Wanted”, released last week on Dangerbird Records. “I’ve chosen to reject the prospects of reuniting in the past for personal and philosophical reasons. I have always considered reunions to be a way to make a quick buck, and it sells short my own experience of it the first time around,” Eric Avery attests. He adds, “The reason I started to even consider this is because it’s honoring the past instead of trying to recreate it.”
NME will bestow this award upon Jane’s Addiction because, as they state, “[they've] done more than any other band to introduce American alternative music to the mainstream, founding the touring Lollapalooza festival and giving what frontman Perry Farrell refers to as the ‘alternative nation’ a real cultural focus and voice.”
Ok. I want one of these. I want one real bad! I think it would look so friggn perfect standing watch over my toilet bowl! So if any of you Dogmatic droogs know where one can get one of these.. shoot me an email.
Figurines of Pope Benedict XVI go on sale in a gift shop in Washington DC, as the Pope prepares to visit the United States.
Friggn Catholic fruitloops!
George Orwell’s ’1984 and ‘Animal Farm’ are about to be re-released with some pretty special cover-art. These classic literature titles which I thoroughly enjoyed way back in my high school years, have been given a Shepard Fairey make-over and boy, DO judge a book by its cover! These look amazing and as most of us who have read them already know, are incredible books as well.
Read more at Penguin’s blog. And check out the artwork after the jump…
Seinfeld’s George Costanza made a big fuss about owning a car that belonged to actor John Voight.
Well how about owning a car, a Lamborghini no less, previously owned by the world’s most famous erotic actress, Jenna Jameson?
Jameson has set up an auction on internet trade website Ebay to sell her pristine yellow 6 speed, V12 6.2 litre Lamborghini for the asking price of $182,900 U.S.
It is unclear as to exactly why Jameson is selling the car. But considering her retirement from pornographic performance earlier this year, and a lawsuit made against her by fellow porn star Tera Patrick, maybe it was time for Jenna to cut out the excess?
Several weeks ago Sam and I were at Outre Gallery checking out the always amazing artwork they have available for sale. We recognized one of the curators Gemma from her Flickr set and subsequently introduced ourselves. Sam told Gemma whilst pointing to moi, this is ‘Hellblazer’. Gemma reacted excitedly and asked if I would like to photograph forthcoming events at Outre. I was blown away as I have been such a fan of the shop/gallery for many, many years. I usually attend many events there and always take photos anyway. To be officially asked by them to be their photog floored me. For me, this is such a huge honor.
The next event that was on the Outre agenda was Shag solo exhibition show ‘The Birds & The Beasts’.
I was all excited and a little nervous at the same time as now I would be taking photos on a somewhat official capacity. I was nervous because I wanted to do a good job for the guys and I wanted them to be happy with the photos.
We got to Outre a little after 6.30 and were rushed inside prior to the event beginning. I finally got to meet Outre’s main man Martin and introduced myself. I had been in correspondance with Martin back in the 90′s and he had assisted me with some articles for a website I used to run so it was great to have a formal introduction.
We were then introduced to artist Josh Agle – who is better known as Shag. He was very nice and courteous and I politely told him to try and ignore me for most of the night as I would be in his general vicinity taking photos of him mingllng with the people.
A little after 7pm the crowd began to grow and grow and grow! It was massive and at one point the only place I could find some respite was behind the counter. It was insane and was proving to be an amazing night.
I had literally worked up a sweat photographing the event but I can assure you, I had a wonderful time!
So to Shag and all the Outre crew, thanks for a fab night!
View pics of the night here.
