Being relevant is a poison chalice. Those who seek it lose themselves on their journey. Take Metallica for instance (bear with me), they struggled with the demons within (anyone?) and tried to return to their roots to remain relevant. In the process they released an album of shredding sans songs. Oh, and they released it on a playstation game. Relevant? Riiiight.
AC/DC on the other hand haven’t tried to recapture anything. They used to make kick arse rock and roll albums. This year they made a kick arse rock and roll album. And you can’t buy the tracks individually, so it remains an album. Sure, AE/DC ( little chord progression gag for you there folks!) could be dismissed as an old dog with an old trick. But fans will surely reply ‘So?’.
Dacca write straight up rock songs about drinkin’, rootin’ and fightin’. Don’t get fooled by the song titles on Black Ice. ‘Skies on Fire’ , ‘Stormy May Day’ and ‘War Machine’ could lead you to believe that maybe global warming or America’s spiralling war has crossed their lyrical horizon. Fret not (second guitar gag – woohoo!) I’m pretty sure the machine in ‘war machine’ is, like, your love piston.
I could get all high falootin’ on you with the ‘less is more’ argument. That it takes great skill to write a rock song that relies on tried and tested structure. Anyone can be original, but try doing the same thing for decades and still get kids to pay for it. But I wont.
Brendan O’Brien has delivered an album that will make every AC/DC fan remember why they love the Dacca. In an era when not only musical instruments have been forsaken, but also melody, maybe a fifty-something yr old man in school shorts still has a lesson or two to teach.
THINK: Vintage AC/DC. The good stuff READ: The above BUY: Black Ice at JBI HiFi Now (why wait?)
EDIT: Black Ice has topped the album charts in 29 countries!
Kanye West exploits the Stockholm Sydnrome. I’m sure of it. No matter how many time I told myself that my love would most definately NOT be locked down, I found myself quite enjoying that whole faux-tribal thang the shorty got goin’ on.
And he’s not alone. way back in September 07 I reported with outrage that the Sex Pistols were rerecording Anarchy in the UK for Guitar Hero. How dare they? I asked the couple of American Teenagers that actually read this page, rather than just plunder the mp3s.
Then Metallica released ‘Death Magnetic’ on Guitar Hero the same day the album was launched. And what’s more, by all accounts it sounds better on the game! And I was a little less outraged that time.
So it comes as no surprise to me that I was pleased to learn that TOOL approved three songs for Guitar Hero World Tour — if they could be involved with the artwork and design of the game. The result: a digital venue based on Tool’s artwork and videos, and “Parabola,” “Schism” and “Vicarious” rockable on the game.
Check out the uber-tool screen shots, an interview with Adam Jones and a vid of two pro drummers having a crack at ‘Vicarious’. And I’m not the slightist bit outraged. Check out this interview with guitarist Adam Joneshere.ROCK!
Lil Wayne popped up at The Roots Miami gig yesterday. Check out ?uestlove’s ‘a milli’ while drumming. All very impressive, but I’m still left wondering:
Check out this interview with guitarist Adam Jones 
