Good guy Dave Grohl did it again. He showed how he is the nicest guy in rock by inviting a fan onstage to play drums on a song with him and the Foo Fighters at a recent gig in Toronto for their Sonic Highways tour which is continuing despite the fact that Grohl broke his leg back on June 12th during a show.
A fan by the name of Anthony Bifolchi who had just turned 18 years old came to the show and held up a big sign saying: “It’s my birthday, can I play drums?”. Grohl saw the sign and was more than happy to oblige Bifolchi's birthday wish, though he jokingly said “If you suck on the drums, I will personally tar and feather your ass backstage.”
The band and Bifolchi ended up playing Big Me (the video can be watched below) from the band's first album Foo Fighters since it was their easiest song. The kid managed to do a pretty good job with the song overall despite a minor hiccup near the end where he tried to end a bit early (but compensated for it with a respectable drum fill).
It's just a shame that other rockers can't be as fun and nice as Grohl. Some times people take themselves too seriously and don't just let loose and have fun with things. After all, rock n' roll is nothing if not fun, right?
Recently long time AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd was sentenced to 8 months house arrest by a judge in New Zealand after being charged for and pleading guilty to possession of pot and meth and threatening to kill his personal assistant and his family. You would think that such a light sentence would be a major sigh of relief to anyone in Rudd's position, but apparently not as the drummer is now filing an appeal for his sentence.
The reason for such a light sentence is that Rudd's lawyer was able to convince the court that Rudd's actions were not his own claiming methamphetamine induced psychosis. Apparently enough evidence was brought to the table to prove this, so Rudd got a bit of leniency.
According to a statement given in The New Zealand Herald by Rudd's lawyer Craig Tuck the appeal was filed almost immediately after the sentence was given. The paper also described Rudd as being "visibly disgruntled after the hearing, telling a reporter to “get a f—ing job” on his way out of the courthouse.".
The reason for the appeal is that Rudd feels that by being kept at home like this he is missing out on the opportunity to earn tens of millions of dollars touring with AC/DC despite the fact the band is currently already touring without him with former drummer Chris Slade. Rudd feels he still has a place in the band despite having no contact with the band since he was first charged. The judge recognized this fact and told Rudd that he "was not a member of AC/DC before the time he was arrested.".
Rudd has been warned by the judge to keep his nose clean because any repeat offenses would certainly lead to actual jail time, also stating that Rudd as a touring musician should have known the risks of drug related activity better than anyone.
The judge said:
“You are now 61 years old, Mr. Rudd, you are not 21. I’m simply not persuaded that you have done enough
to establish the consequences of the conviction would outweigh the seriousness of the offending.”
Personally I feel Rudd got off way too light even if he wasn't fully responsible for his actions. The guy needs professional help. Some hard core drug counseling/addiction help should have been mandated. Then again, a person has to want to change in order for the therapy to be effective so maybe not. Either way, I think the judge should have in some way come down a little harder. Hopefully Rudd can get his act together and not be any more trouble.
A quick news blip of Rudd's appeal can be watched here:
5 Songs to Get You Through the Week is a feature I run on Young Ears,
Fresh Perspective on Sundays/early hours of Monday morning where I pick
out 5 tunes that I think are notable and tell you a bit about them. The
point is to give you some rocking music to help you deal with your
weekday blues. You can either listen to one each day, listen to them all
at once, or any other combination that you feel. As long as you can get
through the week without the man getting you down, that's all I care
about. Without further ado, here are the 5 tracks I've picked out for
this week:
1. Yankee Rose, by David Lee Roth
After quitting Van Halen in 1985, front man David Lee Roth embarked on a briefly successful solo career. He recruited quite the band too: Gregg Bissonette on drums, Billy Sheehan on bass, and Steve Vai on guitar. The main single Yankee Rose from the debut album Eat 'em and Smile is a fun stereotypically 80's hair metal song. However, with such fantastic players implementing some real skill and artistry into it and Roth being as charming as he is it's hard not to love it.
2. Don't Stop, by Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac keyboardist Christine McVie just had a birthday! What better a way to commemorate the occasion than with one of the best known hits she wrote and performed with Fleetwood Mac? I always did like how this song always did have an uptempo marching kind of feel to it. It's also a great way to tell someone that even though you aren't in love with them any more you still care about them.
3. Mystery, by Dio
The late great metal titan Ronnie James Dio also just had a birthday! Were he still with us he would have been 73. Mystery was always one of my favorite solo tracks of his because it is an under rated hidden gem in his catalog. It is so melodic vocally yet still packs the same kind of punch that you would expect a Dio song to. It's probably one of the more pop-like numbers he wrote but he made it work and that is all that matters.
4. San Francisco Blue, by Joe Satriani
Guitar wizard extraordinaire Joe Satriani is about to put out a new album (Shockwave Supernova) later in the month. One of the tracks that he is currently streaming from it is a cool swingy bluesy number called San Francisco Blue. It has a pretty warm jaunty vibe to it that stays throughout the duration of the track. It puts you in a better mood. I always did like the way that Satriani plays the blues despite his high amounts of technical prowess.
5. Slow Ride, by Foghat
Stoner rock doesn't get much better than Slow Ride, by Foghat now does it? Not that I condone such illegal activity, but if you do partake this is a classic track that you have to do your thing to at least once. It's not hard to understand why with how crazy psychedelic the guitar solos get during multiple parts of the song. Hell, even the intro is pretty spacey and out there. Do yourself a favor and get it on vinyl if you do choose to get happy.
Former Led Zeppelin front man Robert Plant is ready to headline the Forrest Live festival in England this coming Saturday. You would think a man of his musical stature would have his pick of just about any larger than life rock band to choose from as his opener. Instead, Plant has selected a band of elementary school students for the post.
The band is called Y Storm and its members are ages 10-11 from Ygsol OM Edwards, a school located in Wales. The kids actually write their own music in both English AND Welsh; something that Plant seems to be very fond of.
Plant came about this merry band of youths because the guitarist in his band The Sensational Space Shifters named Liam Tyson has two children who are in the band. In an interview with NME Tyson says:
“He [Plant] knows they’ve been in a band, he’s seen the progression over
the years. He champions all
things Welsh, so it was the next step to do. For their age they’d give
anybody a run. They’re on the gig because they’ve done well
over the years and they’ve progressed and progressed and they’ve kept
progressing.”
It is not surprising that Plant would want to give his band mate's kids a chance, but nonetheless it is a bit of a bold move to let young kids be your opening band when you're a titan of rock. It really is a kind gesture and probably boosts the confidence and morale of those kids a great deal. Best of luck to them at the show and in their future endeavors.
In 1967 the way rock n' roll was made changed forever when a man from Seattle, WA released his debut album. This man was none other than Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix had been struggling to get by on the R&B circuit as a backing guitarist when Linda Keith (at the time girlfriend of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards) hooked him up with ex-Animals manager Michael Jeffery; who brought him to London to sign a recording contract. From there Hendrix bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell and thus the Jimi Hendrix Experience was born; releasing their debut album Are You Experienced? not long after.
Are You Experienced? is one hell of an explosive debut album. It contained many of Hendrix's biggest hits: Foxy Lady, Red House, Purple Haze, and more. Besides those it contains a number of other songs that showcase Hendrix's intense psychedelic bluesy song writing and style of face melting guitar soloing that would forever influence the way guitar players think of what one is to do on an electric guitar. Many consider Are You Experienced? to be where hard rock/heavy metal truly began.
Hey Joe is a cover of a Billy Roberts song. However, it's Hendrix's version that most people who are familiar with. It is pretty much a blues/rock standard by this point and a great way for a guitarist to showcase their bluesy soloing chops. It is a fairly simplistic mid-tempo kind of tune that is about a man wanting to shoot his woman after she was messing around on him behind his back. You know, a typical blues song. However, Hendrix's innovative approach to the song really does take it to a whole other level.
The Wind Cries Mary is a more relaxed song, but features some absolutely delightful blues chords in it. The main riff is iconic in the way it uses them. There are so many intricacies laced into the song that it would be quite an accomplishment to be able to play the song note for note. The guitar solos may not be as intense as they are in many of Hendrix's other songs, but they contain the same amount of intricacy and delightful vibes as the rest of the song. It just goes to show you don't have to shred to be great; even if you're Jimi Hendrix.
It is no surprise that Are You Experienced? was a massive immediate success. Hendrix was truly ahead of his time when he wrote and recorded these songs. It truly is a shame that he is part of the 27 club. A guitar player with an interest in rock, blues, or even metal could learn a lot just by putting on this album and learning the riffs and solos. Hendrix took basic blues technique and blasted it into outer space. Even if you aren't a guitar player, there are so many classic tracks and hidden gems for you to discover. Get this album NOW.
Are You Experienced, by Jimi Hendrix receives 5 out of 5 stars.
Track List:
1. Purple Haze
2. Manic Depression
3. Hey Joe
4. Love or Confusion
5. May This Be Love
6. I Don't Live Today
7. The Wind Cries Mary
8. Fire
9. Third Stone From the Sun
10. Foxy Lady
11. Are You Experienced?
Slipknot and Stone Sour front man Corey Taylor has a message for rapper Kanye West. In a recent 40 second video posted to YouTube (which can be watched below) Taylor tells West he is not as great as he thinks he is. Nowhere near, in fact.
In the video, Taylor has this to say:
“Kanye, you are not the greatest living rock star … The fact that you had to tell people that kinda says it all.”
What elicited this message was that West recently made the aforementioned statement while performing what is considered by many people (myself included) a horrible mockery of Bohemian Rhapsody, by Queen at the Glastonbury Festival on June 27th.
I have to agree with Taylor on this one. I'm not the biggest fan of his music (though some of it isn't that bad) it's about time that someone with a fairly well known name in the music industry finally started directly publicly stood up to Kanye and let him know what an egotistical piece of garbage he is. It almost seems as though he is making it his main goal in life to anger and upset as many people as possible to draw attention to himself.
You should definitely watch the video. It's pretty entertaining.
The hopes and prayers of many in the hard rock and metal community may finally be answered; if only for a brief moment. Founding Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore is considering a short lived return to rock after nearly 20 years of playing only Renaissance music with his wife Candice Night in their group Blackmore's Night.
Blackmore has announced he would like to make a brief return to rock for just a few shows in June of next year. This news came about when Blackmore was interviewed in a recent issue of a French publication La Parisien.
Blackmore says:
“Just for a few days, next June. But for now, I’m not decided on the persons I want to work with. I’ve got a good idea about the ideal candidates, but it wouldn’t be fair to say anything now. I will know exactly in one month who I want to have in this band to play Deep Purple and Rainbow songs. We will probably play three or four shows in June; that’s all.”
Former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner has actually been saying for a while that he and Ritchie were going to get together to do a big Rainbow reunion tour, but many have figured that to be wishful thinking. When asked whether or not this was true and if Turner would be part of the project, Blackmore said:
“I think that Joe will not be part of the adventure, and he doesn’t know it yet. He does his thing, I like him, and I made good albums and good songs with him, like “Street of Dreams’ (a 1983 Rainbow track that Blackmore’s Night later reworked). But I’m thinking about doing a mixture in the band, with famous people and not so famous ones. That’s my state of mind at the moment, and you’re the first person I talk to about it.”
Blackmore almost made a return to rock not that long ago when former Deep Purple band mate vocalist David Coverdale got into contact with him to work on a tribute to their fallen band mate keyboardist Jon Lord. In the end Blackmore did not go through with the project and Coverdale turned the it into a Whitesnake (which he fronts) album full of covers from his time in Deep Purple called The Purple Album.
I really do hope to God that Blackmore goes through with this no matter how small of an outing it may be. It has been too long since Blackmore played proper rock music. I'm really curious to see what kinds of musicians he will hire on if he is not going to be recruiting anyone he has worked with in the past. I'm not surprised he is making that move due to the fact that he has always changed his musicians quite frequently over the years. I get the feeling the shows will probably all be in Europe. Most things like this would be. Either way, hopefully there is some good footage. Maybe, just maybe if we pray hard enough he might expand the amount of dates and do a whole new album. Probably not but we can always dream, right?
