Music's 3R's 09.14.09: VMAs, Van Halen Tour, Guns N' Roses, NIN Waves Goodbye, Kurt Cobain/Guitar Hero, More

Posted by Aaron Titan on 09.14.2009

From new possible tour dates for both Van Halen and Guns N' Roses and controversy over Kurt Cobain in Guitar Hero 5 to Nine Inch Nails ending touring (for now), the VMAs, and Tommy Lee's new Methods of Mayhem album, 411's Aaron Titan breaks down the Right, wRong, and Ridiculous from the week in music in the latest edition of Music's 3 R's!




Greetings

Welcome back to another edition of The Music 3'Rs. I'm Aaron Titan, you're the reader, and this is week four of my tenure here on 411Mania. It's already been a great ride and I feel I'm really starting to gain steam. Only just gettin' started brudda'!

I'd like to thank everyone who's been reading. You're the ones who make this worth it. I've enjoyed all the commentary my columns have sparked in the "Comments" section each week. Last week was particularly interesting, as the last thing I expected to happen was a Tokio Hotel lovefest. I was glad to be able to throw Tokio Hotel fans a bone though, as it seems like that band is prime for getting shat on.

Truth be told, I've had the chorus to Tokio Hotel's "Automatic" in my head off and on for the last week or so. I may have to break down and buy their album Humanoid when it comes out if this shit keeps up. However, I need to drop by Best Buy sometime soon and get myself hard copies of Jay-Z's Blueprint III, Matisyahu's Light, and the upcoming Shadows Fall album Retribution (which features a guest vocal spot by one D. Randall Blythe of Lamb of God, my favorite band of the last several years). All in good time though, as I'll need a paycheck or two to come in first. I can get by with just streaming them online in the meantime I suppose!

Alright, enough shenanigans. Let's start shit off, shall we? First, the formalities...

The Column

For those unfamiliar with the 3'Rs concept, here's the breakdown. I will be reporting and commenting on happenings in the music world and categorizing all the hoopla into three sections: the Right, the wRong, and the Ridiculous. The Right will feature news, albums, and announcements music-related that I'm personally stoked about. The wRong will be the bad versions of all three of the aforementioned. The Ridiculous is the worst of it all, that which makes good ol' Mr. Titan shake his head in perplexing amazement.

The Right

Van Halen to Tour: Last week, Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff announced that Van Halen will be going out on tour in 2010. Is this a good thing? I think so. Here's why...

First off, I've never seen Van Halen live in any capacity, and I feel slightly obligated to do so. My dad had just come back from seeing Van Halen (in the Hagar era) the night my mom went into labor with me 22 and a half years ago. Ever since birth, I've always had some sort of affinity for Van Halen.

Second, we've got David Lee Roth on vocals. Say what you will about the guy's abilities as a singer, but he's always been one hell of a frontman. You can't really say David Lee Roth wouldn't be entertaining still in 2010. He would. I mean, the guy's never really been a top-notch singer, but Van Halen can just rely on Eddie for musicianship and performance credibility.

The guy's got his problems, but he's one hell of a guitar player. I've always maintained that he never quite reached his potential. I always wondered what would happen if Eddie Van Halen decided to strike out on his own with a solo project or tour with the Eddie Van Halen Band. If I remember my rock history reading, he almost did just that a while back but it never materialized. It's kind of the same situation as Slash. The guy's put out a lot of great material, but imagine how much more Slash guitar shit we could enjoy if he hadn't been plagued by substance abuse and drama from his lead singers for the better part of his career. OK, I'm getting off topic...

The only downside I see in this Van Halen tour idea is that we don't have Michael Anthony on bass/backing vocals. I've always loved his bass playing and for some reason, his backing vocal parts have always been extremely recognizable to me, even on the Chickenfoot album. Instead, we'll have Eddie's son Wolfgang on bass, which is cool I guess. What's kind of lame is that Guitar Hero: Van Halen will have the current lineup and no Hagar tunes (as far as I know), which is kind of shortchanging what this videogame could be. Perhaps that's why they're giving it away for free if you buy Guitar Hero 5.

By the way, I'm going to visit a college friend next weekend and will be playing GH5 and Rock Band: The Beatles for the first time while enjoying mass amounts of PBR and whiskey and cokes, so I'll post my thoughts on those games next week hopefully. I'll touch on some more GH5 later in the column. To get back to my main point though, Van Halen tour? I'm there if it happens. Should be a fun time!





Guns N' Roses Touring?: In yet more nostalgic touring news, a big Japanese concert promoter lists Guns N' Roses as performing two dates in December, one in the Osaka Dome and one in the Tokyo Dome. A Taiwanese promoter also lists GnR as performing a date in December. Well holy shit, what to make of all of this?

It was actually being rumored earlier this year that GnR would mount a co-headlining tour with Van Halen in 2009, which would have been extremely fun, but in typical GnR fashion, nothing really materialized of it. Honestly, I hope these shows do happen and the GnR machine can finally gain some steam back here in the States for a 2010 North American Tour. I'm a member of the population that really liked 2008's long-awaited Chinese Democracy album. I put two new GnR songs on my 2 road trip mixes this past weekend ("Street of Dreams", "Better") and listen to Chinese Democracy pretty regularly, much as I do Metallica's Death Magnetic.

Tangent: Actually, I'm really proud of one of the mixes I made for my road trip. Usually, I have to skip a few songs that I realized were poor choices for my current mood or the trip itself, but this one was enjoyable through all 23 tracks. Usually, I don't repeat artists on a mix CD, but I've been on a big Faith No More kick for the last month, so I put two of their songs on there. Here's what I had:

Lots of Songs: Created on September 10, 2009

01) Faith No More: "Introduce Yourself"
02) Foo Fighters: "Razor"
03) Gorillaz: "19/2000 (Soul Child Remix)"
04) Guns N' Roses: "Street of Dreams"
05) Joan Jett & The Blackhearts: "Bad Reputation"
06) The Rolling Stones: "Gimme Shelter"
07) The James Gang: "Funk Number 49"
08) The Ramones: "53rd & 3rd"
09) Queens of the Stone Age: "Little Sister"
10) Vampire Weekend: "A-Punk"
11) Terry Reid: "Seed of Memory"
12) Bob Dylan: "Subterranean Homesick Blues"
13) Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band: "Turn the Page"
14) David Bowie: "The Man Who Sold the World"
15) Faith No More: "Easy"
16) Jimi Hendrix: "Crosstown Traffic"
17) Johnny Cash: "Folsom Prison Blues"
18) Rick Astley: "Never Gonna Give You Up"
19) The Sex Pistols: "Bodies"
20) Stevie Wonder: "You Are the Sunshine of My Life"
21) The Beatles: "Happiness is a Warm Gun"
22) U2: "I Will Follow"
23) Led Zeppelin: "Moby Dick"

Yeah, that's right! I put some Rick Astley on my mix! OK, I admit it's a cheesy song, but I had just seen the following on TV and got inspired:





OK, tangent ending...now!

Now I'm not saying new GnR is better than "Appetite for Destruction"- or "Use Your Illusion"-GnR, because it's not. But it's fun, different, and something I can get down with. I have some friends who saw Axl and company on their tour in 2006 and said it was a fantastic show. I think we're going to have to stop pretending that Axl and Slash are ever going to reunite. I for one am a realist and can settle for Chinese Democracy GnR. If you aren't of that persuasion, then move on to other things and let the rest of us enjoy it.

The wRong

Nine Inch Nails Wave Goodbye:

Trent Vanegas + Trent Reznor: The Wave Goodbye Interview from upload on Vimeo.

September 10th marked the end of Nine Inch Nails as a touring act as they finished their "Wave Goodbye" tour at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theater. Trent Reznor and company had played The Downward Spiral in its entirety a few times on this tour and not to fizzle out on the last date, they played a behemoth of a show laden with several special guests and encores. The setlist is listed below:

01. Home
02. Somewhat Damaged
03. The Collector
04. Discipline
05. March of the Pigs
06. Something I Can Never Have
07. The Frail
08. The Wretched
09. Ruiner
10. Head Down
11. Burn
12. Just Like You Imagined (with Mike Garson)
13. La Mer (with Mike Garson)
14. Eraser (with Mike Garson)
15. The Becoming (with Mike Garson)
16. Down in the Park (instrumental piano by Mike Garson)
17. Down in the Park (with Gary Numan)
18. Metal (with Gary Numan)
19. I Die: You Die (with Gary Numan)
20. 1,000,000
21. Letting You
22. Survivalism
23. Suck
24. Down In It
25. The Hand That Feeds
26. Head Like a Hole

Encore 1

27. Me, I'm Not (with Atticus Ross)
28. The Warning/Sign (with Dave Navarro)
29. Piggy (remix)
30. Gave Up

Encore 2 (with The Dillinger Escape Plan)

31. Mr. Self Destruct
32. Wish

Encore 3

33. Atmosphere
34. Dead Souls
35. The Good Soldier
36. The Day the World Went Away
37. Hurt
38. In This Twilight

I've been fortunate enough to see NIN live twice. My first (and favorite) NIN show was at the University of Illinois' Assembly Hall arena in Champaign, IL. This was in 2006 and was the first date on the '06 leg of the "With Teeth Tour." It was a fantastic show with a great setlist and incredible lighting display. After my first Metallica concert (2004) and seeing Rage Against the Machine at Alpine Valley in 2007, this was probably the best show I've ever attended. I also caught NIN on the final day of Lollapalooza 2008, which was also a fun show.

Honestly, I don't believe that this is the last we've seen of NIN live (Trent even hints at this in the video I posted), but I do think it's going to be a LONG time before they do any sort of performing again. Trent Reznor has had a long-documented list of illness and vocal issues on the road over the last few years. I remember Trent talking about how he had to go offstage to vomit during the With Teeth Tour show I saw. He also canceled his performance the night before Lolla last summer to deal with vocal problems. He had to reschedule the CA "Wave Goodbye" shows because of health problems too. While this news is a bummer to NIN fans like myself, Trent Reznor has been busting his ass as a performer for the last 20+ years. If he wants to just focus on creating music as a performer and producer (he's supposedly producing the new Jane's Addiction album), that's his right. He's earned the break, though I look forward to new Nine Inch Nails music and eventual live dates somewhere down the road.





VMAs: The MTV VMAs were this past Sunday. I did not watch the show live. Bad entertainment scheduling for this viewer, as I'm a big Chicago Bears fan and we had the season opener on NFL Sunday Night Football against our heated rivals in Green Bay. Also, WWE's Breaking Point PPV was on and I was busy catching two great submission-style matches between WWE Champion Randy Orton and John Cena as well as World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk against The Undertaker. The VMAs don't mean shit and were relegated to my DVR hard-drive. I'll watch them sometime this week and offer my thoughts.

Don't get me wrong, MTV's Video Music Awards are always somewhat fun. I mainly look forward to the performances, much as I do for the Grammy Awards. As Chuck D said, "Who gives a fuck about a goddamn Grammy?!" The performances I'm looking forward to going to back to watch are Jay-Z and Alicia Keys doing "Empire State of Mind," Beyoncé Knowles (who will hopefully be doing a dance/performance of "Single Ladies"), and Muse. I haven't listened to much Muse in the past but all the hype around their new album is getting me intrigued. I hear their live show is unparalleled.

But in the end, a VMA, Grammy, or any other award is a meaningless piece of metal/plastic/wood/shit and I can't really get excited about it all. It's not like MTV really plays music videos anymore anyways, right? I haven't seen many music videos in the last couple years, but I have seen Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" and if she doesn't clean house, I'll laugh. Eminem's "We Made You" is also a lot of fun.

Kurt Cobain in Guitar Hero:





Guitar Hero 5 was recently released. This go-around features cuts from Nirvana, Bob Dylan, The White Stripes, Tom Petty, and many others. Guest appearances in the game include Carlos Santana, Shirley Manson (of Garbage), Johnny Cash, Matthew Bellamy (of Muse), and the late Kurt Cobain (Nirvana).

Recently in the press, Cobain's widow Courtney Love has lashed out at the game's producers, expressing distaste for Cobain's avatar and use as an unlockable character. This comes off as quite strange, considering Activision's previous reports that Love was closely involved with the complete design and look of Cobain's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"-style appearance in the game. She supposedly signed off on the use of Cobain's music and likeness, since she's the executor of his estate. Cobain's Nirvana brethren Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic have released a statement expressing their anger at Cobain being included as an unlockable character that gamers have complete control of. For example, when playing Guitar Hero: World Tour, I am able to use unlockable character Billy Corgan not only as a guitarist, but a drummer as well. Grohl and Novoselic apparently see this unlimited use of Cobain's likeness in the game as disrespectful.

Honestly, being able to play as Kurt Cobain or any musician is really all in good fun and I don't think Activision intended any disrespect to Cobain or Nirvana's legacy. I was never close to Kurt and his suicide only affected me as a fan of their music at the time, so perhaps my feelings on this don't hold much water, but that's my take on it. The game's already out and there's not much they can do about it now except sue, which seems very hard to pull off if Courtney Love signed off on it as reported.

The Ridiculous

Tommy Lee's Big...Idea:





Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee is at work on his second Methods of Mayhem album. As he says in the video above, he's planning on posting the raw tracks he has completed for the second Methods Of Mayhem album on October 5 for fans to work with and submit for a chance to make the album proper. Essentially, he's done some of the work but he wants other musicians to finish it up for him for free.

Before I really lay into this idea, let me say that I own Lee's first Methods of Mayhem self-titled album. It was released in 1999 and is really fun. It came out in the age of nu-metal and obviously has a lot of rap and rock mixed together; however, the production and riffing is really solid. He's got a ton of awesome guest spots on it including Snoop Dogg, George Clinton, Kid Rock, U-God from the Wu-Tang Clan, and two awesome collaborations with one of my favorite electronica groups, The Crystal Method. It's a good album and I can't believe I've owned it for a decade now.

That said, this is a fucking lame idea. Yeah, the act of collaborating with total strangers is "rad" for Tommy Lee, but really, he's just giving some ideas to other people to flesh out and submit to him. Why the fuck wouldn't he look through his cell phone contacts, as they're probably a who's who of musicians that we've actually heard of. That was the fun part of the debut Methods of Mayhem album. What Lee is doing with this project now is just plain lazy and kind of uninspired, even though it's not really been done before. I for one will be boycotting this album on basic principle. It's one thing to hire songwriters or flashy producers, but it's another to almost completely pass the creative process off to amateurs. Period.

Hasta Luego

And so goes another Music 3'Rs. Hope it was enjoyable as it certainly was whilst penning it. As I said before, I'll comment on MTV's Video Music Awards show next week as I had to have this to bed at press time (Sunday evening for me). It's just about time for kickoff as I write this, so here's hoping the Bears can pull it out against the Packers! Leave any love, logic, or lambasting below and I'll see you here same time next week! Cheers!