Music's 3R's 10.26.09: Kanye's New Movie, New Rihanna, Lil' Wayne's Guilty Plea, More

Posted by Aaron Titan on 10.26.2009

From Kanye West's "Fairytale" video, Rihanna's new single "Russian Roulette," and Lil' Wayne's 2010 jail sentence to Faith No More's possible reunion tour hitting the US, Sublime playing shows against family's wishes, and the confirmation of Them Crooked Vultures' debut album, 411's Aaron Titan brings you all the Right, wRong, and Ridiculous in the music world in this week’s Music 3R’s!



Greetings

Welcome back to my inner cyber sanctum known as Music 3R's. I'm Aaron Titan, back here with another rousing commentary on this week's music world news. Lots of interesting things to get to this week, but first, I've got to brag a little bit.

So, I attended the grand re-introduction of a minor league hockey team called the Quad Cities Mallards. I casually followed this team throughout my childhood, but the team folded for a larger organization for a few recent years. This year, the Mallards are back and to celebrate the return, they brought in Night Ranger, straight out of the 80s. Let's just say this was what I had the chance to witness on Saturday night:





Seriously man, maybe not something that would still fly with the kids these days, but an awful lot of fuckin' fun, especially considering it was included with the cost of my $10 ticket. Night Ranger was actually a lot of fun and did a couple covers for the half hour I stayed.

Oh, also, I've corresponded with Mitch Michaels and he gave me the OK to assume responsibility for reviewing the upcoming long-term cyber-released Smashing Pumpkins 44-song opus, Teagarden by Kaleidoscope. I will post reviews of the album after every four songs are released, so that makes 11 total reviews. You can find those here on 411Mania exclusively in the Greetings section of my column in the near future when the album starts arriving online.

Anyways, enough with that nonsense! Let's get down to brass fuckin' tax!

The Column

For those unfamiliar with the 3R's 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



Here Come the Vultures!: We finally have a release date of November 17th for Them Crooked Vultures' self-titled debut album! Fuck yeah! The super-group – featuring Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) on guitar and vocals, John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) on bass and keys, and Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) on drums – announced the 13-song tracklist below:

1) "No One Loves Me & Neither Do I"
2) "Mind Eraser, No Chaser"
3) "New Fang"
4) "Dead End Friends"
5) "Elephants"
6) "Scumbag Blues"
7) "Bandoliers"
8) "Reptiles"
9) "Interlude With Ludes"
10) "Warsaw or The First Breath You Take After You Give Up"
11) "Caligulove"
12) "Gunman"
13) "Spinning In Daffodils"

Being a long-time fan of all three members' work and having seen two of their projects live (Foo Fighters once on the 2005 Foozer tour; Queens at Lolla 2006 and opening for Rage Against the Machine in 2007), I'm quite pumped for this album. They're supposed to be announcing more tour dates around album release time so hopefully they play around my neck of the woods. I think it'll be a fun and raucous album and I personally can't wait to get my hands on it. Check out some Vultures below to tide you over:









Faith Again?: OK, so I just got into the band Faith No More this summer. I'd had their greatest hits album sitting around on my hard-drive for like, a couple years. I'd heard their hit "Epic" like a million times in the past but hadn't really listened to any of their other stuff. Then, I was watching the Palladia channel at my parents house one night and they had clips from the Download Festival on. The hour-long show was capped off by three Faith No More songs. I felt two emotions: 1) Mind-explosion feelings of having my brain blown by how awesome the tunes were, and 2) Anger at myself for not listening to their stuff sooner. Listening to it with new ears, my first impression was that they were doing what System of a Down did before System did it. It's really in your face and somewhat goofy while still remaining heavy and fun. Listen to the videos below and you'll see some of Serj Tankian's vocal mannerisms in his elder statesmen, Mike Patton.

Now, I'm a full-blown Faith No More fan, and while I've had ‘no more faith' for a while now, it appears I can once again. Mike Patton and company having been touring in Europe and South America on a reunion tour since June. Recently, bassist Billy Gould said on his Twitter account:

"Yes ... we are now actively planning on U.S. dates.

Not a confirmation, but if they are actively planning them, that's about as good as a U.S. tour confirmation to me. I hope they hit venues bigger than 1,100 person capacity clubs, though I'm not sure how big of a following they have here in the States these days. Pretty big I'd assume? I hope they can make it happen. They'd certainly be a prime candidate act for headlining spots on festivals like Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo next summer.






Rihanna Goes Russian:





This is the new Rihanna single, "Russian Roulette." It was written and produced by Ne-Yo, and I think it's pretty cool. It's really moody and that's what I appreciate most about Rihanna. She's got one hell of a voice! It's also really vulnerable, an emotion you'd probably expect her to display with her new music after the circus she went through with Chris "Swift Fists" Brown earlier this year. I just ordered her debut album Good Girl Gone Bad (the Reloaded version) because I didn't have it yet, so yeah, pretty excited to see what she brings to the table the second go-around.

The "Russian Roulette" single cover art and that of her upcoming sophomore album Rated R (November 23) are below for your enjoyment:






The wrong


Weezy Getting Locked Up: This past Friday, Lil' Wayne pleaded guilty of felony gun possession charges in a New York court. He stands to serve a year in prison, but could be out in eight to ten months with good behavior. First of all, what's with the shitty timing for MCs on the rise lately? T.I. put out the biggest album of his career and gets locked up for a year on charges of illegal attempts to purchase weapons. Now Wayne on gun possession? In the end, it's kind of a waste, because just imagine what these two could be doing for their careers during such absences. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of T.I., though I am a recently converted Wayne fan; regardless, I can appreciate that both have big fan-bases and contributed to the hip-hop game in some way.

The funny part about Wayne's upcoming sentence is that there shouldn't really be a dearth of his music while he's locked up. He's talked about putting out his Rebirth and Young Money All-Stars albums in one 2-LP package around December. Then, we found out he's already working on Tha Carter IV. He's also rumored to be releasing another mixtape called No Ceilings very soon. Honestly, the dude could just live in the studio until his February 2010 sentencing and be able to release a song a day during his jail sentence if he wanted to. He's got that kind of work ethic.

The thing about this is, if you're gaining such prolific fame, why even put yourself in such a position? If you feel you really need the protection around you, you've got a posse who you can be to keep themselves packing for such emergency scenarios. Even Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock has got a posse in Gris and Dot Com! Then, if any guns are discovered, you're not the one taking the fall. It sounds horrible and really, it is, but the reality is that MCs have been shot in the past. It's like Mos Def and Talib Kweli say:

One two three!
It's kind of dangerous to be an MC.
They shot Tupac and Biggie.
Too much violence in hip-hop, why-ohhh!





Sublime is Back…Maybe: First off, if you haven't listened to Sublime before, you really need to go out and get their self-titled album and 40 Oz. to Freedom. Listen to them, absorb their message and good grooves, come back, and thank me.

For the rest of you who have been long-time Sublime listeners, apparently they're making an Alice-In-Chains-like comeback of sorts. Cypress Hill put on this big pro-marijuana concert, the Smokeout Festival, this past weekend. It was headlined by Slipknot, Cypress Hill, and The Deftones. Sublime were listed as the "Very Special Guests." Surviving Sublime members Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson have reunited under the Sublime moniker with new vocalist Rome Ramirez to play Sublime stuff. The group, however, received a message from their late, original frontman Bradley Nowell's family and estate executors on their Myspace:

"It was recently announced that Sublime bassist Eric Wilson and Sublime drummer Floyd 'Bud' Gaugh are 'reuniting' and teaming with singer and guitarist Rome Ramirez in a band they intend to call 'Sublime.' Prior to his untimely passing, both Bud and Eric acknowledged that Brad Nowell was the sole owner of the name Sublime. It was Brad's expressed intention that no one use the name Sublime in any group that did not include him, and Brad even registered the trademark 'Sublime' under his own name.

As Brad's heirs, and with the support of his entire family, we only want to respect his wishes and therefore have not consented to Bud and Eric calling their new project 'Sublime.' We have always supported Bud and Eric's musical endeavors and their desire to continue to play Sublime's music. We wholeheartedly supported Bud, Eric and the many talented members of the Sublime posse that formed the Long Beach Dub All-Stars, soon after Brad's death, to honor him through their original recordings, live performances and Sublime music until they disbanded in 2001. But, out of respect for Brad's wishes, we have always refused to endorse any group performing as 'Sublime,' and now with great reluctance feel compelled to take the appropriate legal action to protect Brad's legacy.

Our hope is that Brad's ex-bandmates will respect his wishes and find a new name to perform under, so as to enhance the 'Sublime' legacy without the confusion and disappointment that many fans have expressed upon seeing the announcement."
Now, as far as I'm aware of as of this writing (Sunday morning before NFL kickoffs), this trio still played as Sublime. They were definitely still being advertised as Sublime on the Smokeout Festival's website. If that's true, then it sounds like there's some legal action happening. A few things about this bother me though:

1) First off, I'm not a fan of one member of the band owning the rights to the band name. Axl Rose fought for that during the turmoil of the Use Your Illusion touring days of the (mostly) original Guns N' Roses lineup. The band is the collective group, as Lars Ulrich so succinctly puts it in the Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster, so why should one member own the collective group name for themselves?

2) Doesn't this new Sublime playing as Sublime get Brad's music out there to the fans? I mean, I'm assuming the 2009 version of Alice in Chains is playing a shit ton of Layne Staley-penned songs on their tour, which is only a good thing. It gets his music and message out there, keeping it alive and getting more people to listen to it who may not otherwise have before. That, in turn, makes the executors of his estate more money, just like it would Nowell's family.

3) These two guys playing under the Sublime banner doesn't really cheapen the band's legacy, but that's just my personal opinion as a fan of the band. I mean, if I saw this new Sublime on the bill of a concert or festival and it was within driving distance, I'd probably check it out. I was just a kid when Nowell died, so it's not like I got the chance to hear some of my favorite songs ("What I Got," "Date Rape," "5446 That's My Number/Ball and Chain") the way they were meant to be heard: live!

4) I'm pretty sure Bud and Eric knew very well that they were allowed to play Sublime's music but not use the name. Why they went ahead without at least asking first is beyond me. They could have marketed it as "Bud and Eric of Sublime playing Sublime classics" and still have gotten the same fan reaction. It's not like the fans would show up expecting anything less or more by the band being marketed as Sublime for this show. We all know Brad OD'ed in 1996.

The fallout from this will be interesting. Again, as far as I know as of press time for this week's column, they played as Sublime yesterday.





The Ridiculous

Kanye's Fairytale?:





Now if you're a Kanye fan, don't go getting upset quite yet. I actually happened to enjoy this short film for what it was. Let me bring you up to speed first…

So last week, a new short film starring Kanye West called We Were Once a Fairytale debuted online. The clip, directed by the acclaimed Spike Jonze – most recently of Where the Wild Things Are fame - runs just shy of the ten-minute mark and is actually extremely entertaining and surprisingly in the light of Kanye's recent image.

If you chose to opt out of the clip above, what you missed was Kanye West being super drunk at some sort of party, being rather forward and loud with present company and being somewhat shunned, maybe or maybe not hooking up with some random chick, vomiting this weird red papery stuff, cutting himself with a sword, birthing some sort of mouse thing, giving it a smaller sword, and watching the mouse thing kill itself with the sword. Yeah…ridiculous, which is why it's in this section of the column. I'll say two things about this short film:

1) I could sit here and try to dissect the deeper meanings, symbolism, and junk in this short film; however, that's not my style. Hell, I mostly read nonfiction, though I can certainly appreciate the symbolism in the arts. There's probably a bunch of deeper meaning to this clip, but the only connections I made were during the club scenes. Lots of people shunning Kanye and rolling eyes at his not-so-humble demeanor act is pretty paralleled to how people see him in real life. Maybe a second watch of this film struck home with him a little too hard and that's why he decided to hightail it to India. Who knows!?

2) If nothing else, Kanye West is entertaining. At the end of the day, his primary job responsibilities are to entertain the masses and he's doing that once again with this clip. I was entertained and sat after a 9-hour work day and hour drive to top it off and watched this with interest. See if you feel the same way. I haven't really talked to anyone about this short film, so I'm kind of wondering what everyone else thinks of it. Please do let me know below.

Hasta Luego
Right, wRong, and Ridiculous, that was this week's Music 3R's. I trust you're still well, dudes and darlings. Please leave feedback below – especially about that Kanye video – and I'll see you here next week. Cheers!