Found posts tagged as "Controversy"
Oh, Metallica singer/guitarist James Hetfield: we love your unfiltered outspokenness … well, most of the time anyway. And occasionally, you even have a point, such as when you claim the web allows any bonehead able to strum a guitar to release music, thereby sucking overall music quality into the gutter. The appropriate response? Bad bands must die.
So sayeth Hetfield in an interview recently picked up by Artisan News Service which also surveyed Marilyn Manson and ex-GN’R guitarist Slash on the state of music and the music industry today. (Hey… you there in the back… wake up!)
File under “Ew.” Also, “How much??” A pair of Elvis Presley's apparently pee-stained underpants are set to go up for auction in England next month. Really, is nothing sacred? And would they be worth less clean?
Somewhere, the members of Nickelback are smiling. The much-maligned Alberta rockers have often been cited as bland by cooler-than-thou acts such as the Black Keys. But that duo, along with similar so-called “hipster” darlings including Bon Iver, Montreal’s the Arcade Fire, MGMT, The Decemberists, Death Cab For Cutie and TV on the Radio have been slammed by L.A. Weekly as among the "worst hipster bands" performing today.
You just knew the engagement announcement between punk-pop singer and pride of Napanee, ON Avril Lavigne and Nickelback screamer and pride of Hanna, AB Chad Kroeger was going to send the interweb into a frenzy, and it has, with pundits alternately mocking and supporting the couple with gusto and many bad puns.
This might be something to watch, precedent-wise. Lawyers for corporate behemoths Pizza Hut and the Home Depot are denying that a pair of ads improperly used music by righteous American blooze rockers the Black Keys.
Rare is the celebrity who grants a media interview without specifying which topics are permissible and which are off-limits. Usually, these rules are delivered by surly publicists (who often hover during chats for enforcement) and the reason is two-fold: to force interviewers to focus on whatever the celebrity is currently promoting and to avoid forays into uncomfortable areas (a.k.a. the stuff people really want to know about). Media seldom owns ups to this trade-off but it is standard practice, especially in the film world.
Happily, musicians have tended to be looser in this regard (Julian Lennon and Scott Weiland notwithstanding). And yet former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash – long noted for his candor – has begun issuing a list of off-limit topics to interviewers. Sigh... another rock star illusion shattered.
If he weren’t such a complete dope, Megadeth singer/guitarist and extreme right-winger Dave Mustaine might actually be dangerous. But his inflammatory comments – specifically, suggesting the U.S. President Barack Obama was somehow behind recent mass shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin - still manage to rankle the sane, namely, a member of schlock-metal outfit Gwar and, more poignantly, a victim of last month’s Colorado shooting.
Their detainment in a Russian jail has become a cause célèbre, gathering vocal support from Madonna, Sting, Björk, Red Hot Chili Peppers and, most recently, former Beatle Paul McCartney while sparking protests around the globe. But all for naught: the feminist punk trio Pussy Riot was today convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred," and sentenced to two years in prison.
Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee is many things – talented rock drummer, animal rights activist, lover of women and unabashed clown. But is he a thief? Yes, says an L.A. engineer who claims he pitched the idea for Lee’s wacky/awesome upside-down rollercoaster drum solo set-up gizmo thingy back in 1991 but was never given credit for it.
File under: there must be a good explanation because otherwise this just makes no sense. The 80s hair-metal band Cinderella (see power ballad "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)" and marquee tours with Poison and Skid Row) cancelled a long-booked concert in Colorado claiming the stage was “too small” to accommodate their show.
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