Music's 3R's 11.02.09: Chili Peppers & Kid Cudi Recording, Jay-Z/Alicia Keys Play World Series, Rob Zombie Jumps Labels, Ozzy/Sharon on Raw, More

Posted by Aaron Titan on 11.02.2009

From Jay-Z and Alicia Keys performing at the World Series and the new Adam Lambert single to studio updates from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Kid Cudi, Rob Zombie jumping to Roadrunner Records, Corey Taylor trying out for Velvet Revolver, and Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne's hosting gig on WWE's Raw tonight, 411's Aaron Titan breaks down the Right, wRong, and Ridiculous from the week in music!



Greetings

Salutations people! It's Aaron Titan here once again with this week's Music 3R's. I write this just after Halloween, and I trust you all went out and did something fun and/or spooky.

I chose to take ‘er easy this year and just wear my Jack Skellington knit cap instead of an all-out costume. I spent my afternoon doing some paperwork while watching the film Misery for the very first time. I really enjoyed it and thought Kathy Bates was super creepy. After finishing that up, I turned to my complete South Park seasons collection (I own all 12 that are on DVD right now) to watch two Halloween episodes. First was the one from the series' beginnings where Kenny becomes a zombie thanks to an accident with some Worcestershire sauce. Then, I watched the one where Korn comes to town and it all turns into a Scooby Doo episode. I followed that up with the Charlie Brown Halloween special, then off to a friend's house for pizza, Notre Dame football, Michael Jackson's Live at Bucharest DVD, and plenty o' Long Islands.

I also placed a pretty substantial Amazon.com order this week. I've got Wolfmother's Cosmic Egg coming with my pre-ordered copies of Slayer's World Painted Blood, Weezer's Raditude, and Them Crooked Vultures' self-titled debut. Not sure when they're shipping, but hey, there's always the option of streaming them online in the meantime like I did with Wolfmother's new one. What a great album by the way! I recommend Andrew Stockdale's latest Wolfmother offering, as it's pretty special.

Oh, and set your clock back if you haven't done so yet.

Okay, let's get to it then, shall we? And…oh wait! This first:

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

More Peppers Please: Not jalapeno, not Julius, and not banana, but Red Hot ones. Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith said they've begun the creative process for their next album, the follow-up to 2006's Stadium Arcadium. He also gave a tentative timeframe of when we can expect it, saying it's probably going to take a year and could be released around the third quarter of 2010.

He also said they've considered adding some more experimental components to the music. Flea's been working with Radiohead's Thom Yorke lately and Smith said he'd been given some electronic stuff from Flea to browse through for inspirational purposes. Smith also confirmed they have some demos with piano on them.

Honestly, this is all good news in my opinion. I think if a band isn't constantly fucking around with their new music and trying new things, they get stale. Why put out stuff that sounds like that last album when we already have that album to begin with? Do I want the Chili Peppers to become a band that relies on electronic samples and keyboards? Not really. I think they do what it is they do pretty damn well and have done so for a long time. They're at the point where they can make each subsequent album something new and special with some extra ingredients. They can try things that are a little unexpected. I'd love the new album to rock a bit harder than the last few did, not that they were bad or anything. I've just always been a Blood Sugar Sex Magik guy and wouldn't mind a return to a stronger presence of the hard rock funk these guys are capable of putting out from start to finish. Either way, it's exciting!

To help tide you over until the new album, check out this badass instructional video and jam from Chad Smith and Flea:





These Lights Will Inspire You:





This was a pretty big moment. I honestly don't remember the last time a hip-hop performer played before a Major League Baseball game, if ever. Please correct me if I'm wrong on that below in the Comments section. Either way, this was a big moment not just for Jay-Z – how many more mountains can the guy really conquer at this point – but for hip-hop music in general. Hip-hop has come a long way in just the last few years and it's really great to see it represented and recognized within the context of one of the most American of settings: a World Series baseball game.

Also, I understand that "Real As It Gets" featuring Young Jeezy is the next single off of The Blueprint III. Great song in its own right, but I think Hov should consider putting out "On to the Next One" as the single after that. That's probably the best song on the album in my opinion. Just an ill beat man! Here's a clip of Jay-Z performing that very song at Madison Square Garden on September 11th:







More Kid Cudi on the Way: Kid Cudi's already hard at work on some music to follow-up his highly successful Man on the Moon album, which is awesome news to me. I love that album and have had it playing pretty consistently since I bought it. Cudi recently revealed some interesting details on a highly collaborative project he's calling Cudder:

MTV Shows

You see, this is kind of the appeal of Kid Cudi to me. He's really doing some fun, different stuff and this project could end of being something special. I think this album has the potential to be more of a "fun" summertime album that will tide fans over until Kid Cudi does a more serious-themed album that can truly follow up Man on the Moon in the right way. I hope said album is another concept type album. With Cudder, I think he's enjoying his newfound fame and getting to work with all these musicians he looks up to. He's doing this album because he can. More power to him. I doubt he can pull a decent hip-hop song out of Green Day, but we'll see. Cudder should be out by next summer according to Cudi.







Zombie to Roadrunner: After an 18-year tenure on Geffen Records between his solo and White Zombie careers, Rob Zombie left the label to sign with Roadrunner Records' Loud & Proud label. I think this is a good thing.

First off, he generally seemed unhappy with the way Geffen had been treating him and his music. I mean, Zombie was all set to release his new album just 2 weeks from now and it had a lot of momentum and publicity getting behind it online. For whatever reason – and the label switch may have been the reason – it was pushed back into 2010 and Zombie's now out touring on a record without a release date yet. That means he really can't play a whole lot of new material on the road or he'd risk losing the crowd a little bit during the live shows.

However, good for him for getting onto a label that does a really good job with managing hard rock acts and getting them on some solid tours together. For example, Roadrunner had a really strong presence at the Rockstar Mayhem Tour this summer with both Trivium and Killswitch Engage on that bill in solid timeslots. Plus, being on a label that specializes in hard rock and metal music, they should be able to do some really cool stuff with Zombie and keep him relevant in today's music scene. Records labels can still matter if they want to matter. The problem is that most don't anymore and the Internet is becoming everybody's label anymore.

I kind of hope Roadrunner encourages Zombie to do a little more work on his upcoming Hellbilly Deluxe 2 album before it drops early next year. I've heard the lead single "What?" as well as "Sick Bubblegum" and I think they're both pretty mediocre at best. I also heard "Burn" and "Werewolf Women of the SS" and thought they were OK. "Educated Horses" was an awesome album overall and deserves a better follow-up than what I've heard so far. Most sequels end up sucking in the movies, and I'm worried this sequel will as well, but hopefully it won't. I'm going to keep faith in that the rest of the album is worth a damn though and I'm still pretty excited to hear Zombie's latest offering when it drops next year. After all, John 5 is playing guitar on it, so that automatically lends it credibility to me personally. I love watching that guy play live!











The wrong

For Your Entertainment?: Recent American Idol runner-up dropped his new single "For Your Entertainment," the title track for his debut album which comes out on November 23rd. I really liked some of the rock-oriented songs he did on what I saw of American Idol last season, especially when he played "We Are the Champions" with the surviving members of Queen. Here's "For Your Entertainment"… for your entertainment?





I think this is a pretty awful song. Whoever penned this song really phoned the job in, because the lyrics are completely uninspired, even for pop music standards. It's not really that catchy, and the beat doesn't really work. I mean, the sound he's going for here is pretty fun, but it's just too slow for what it's trying to achieve: getting people to dance and sing along. Maybe his following from Idol will get into this, but I kind of wonder if Lambert is gonna' fizzle out like so many Idol hopefuls have done in the past. Maybe there's a reason the guy lost to Kris Allen.



Velvet Revolver Still in Limbo: Slipknot/Stone Stour frontman Corey Taylor confirmed last week that he was among the many vocalists that have tried out to replace Scott Weiland in Velvet Revolver. Said Taylor:

"I had a meeting with those guys, we did some demos together, and it just didn't work — for whatever reason. It was just really cool. It was one of those things where it's like I could have got to jam with legends, man, in my opinion."

I think it's about time Velvet Revolver finds somebody or just goes away. How long have they been looking now? Like two years? You couldn't find the "right guy" in two years? That's kind of hard to believe. They've tried out a bunch of really talented singers in Lenny Kravitz, Sebastian Bach, and Chris Cornell. Why the hell not have Corey Taylor join up? Tell me that Velvet Revolver wouldn't have had a bigger fuckin' edge with that guy fronting the band.

I can understand the band's fear of hiring another nutcase, given their experiences long ago with Axl Rose and more recently with Scott Weiland bashing them in the press while on tour with them. They need to find a guy soon or it'll be even harder to get back at it and gain the fame and acclaim they once had. Just find a dude who can sing his ass off, handle the job, and isn't a crazy asshole. Do it, and do it soon VR!

Really though, I don't expect it to happen anytime before 2011. Slash's solo album is coming out in February and there's a lot of people out there who want to hear that music live. I expect him to tour pretty extensively and maybe even do a follow-up album afterwards. He wants to record and can't do that with his current band stalling for so long, so if he's off doing his own thing, how committed can he really be to finding a new VR singer? Not a whole lot, probably…

The Ridiculous





Ozzy and Sharon Get Raw: Tonight, the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) will continue their weekly celebrity guest-host gimmick by having Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne host their flagship program, Monday Night Raw. Oh boy…

First off, I'm a huge WWE fan and just a longtime wrestling fan in general. Yes, I know it's fake. Yes, I know they're not the best actors in the world. However, it's entertaining to me and I enjoy following it. I've attended several WWE live events in the past, including Wrestlemania 22, and I never miss Monday Night Raw (unless I have to DVR it and watch later because of a good Monday Night Football matchup like we have this week with Atlanta playing New Orleans).

The deal is that each WWE show has a "General Manager" who acts as the authority figure and "books" the matches, rules in controversies or disputes between wrestlers, and handles any other craziness. Monday Night Raw was without a GM for a bit after Donald Trump (yes, Donald Trump) left as the "owner," but over the last few months, they started a deal where each week, a celebrity or retired wrestler will come in to host the show and has all the acting authority power that a GM normally would. You may have seen athlete hosts' clips on ESPN in recently months, such as Ben Roethlisberger and Shaquille O'Neal.





Now, the Monday Night Raw guest host thing has been pretty hit-or-miss at times, especially with hosts who can't talk on the mic on a live TV broadcast very well at all. A good example of that is Kyle Busch and Joey Lagano of NASCAR fame last week. Now Sharon Osbourne – on the other hand – should be able to hold her own just fine. Ozzy…well he's at the point where he can barely get through interviews coherently. He just stumbles own his words a lot and could come off looking badly tonight. One would think that Vince McMahon would let Sharon do most of the talking and have Ozzy appear in pretaped skits for comedic relief. All I really ask about tonight is that Ozzy appears with DX and does the classic crotch chop. That would be hilarious!

Hasta Luego
And there you have it! That was the Music 3R's, where we keeps it real! Have a great first week of November and I'll see you here next week. Cheers!