411 Music Fact or Fiction 01.28.10: Haiti, Classic Rock & SOAD

Posted by Mitch Michaels on 01.28.2010

Will System of a Down reunite in 2010? Will The Who rock the Super Bowl? Is the Haiti thing genuine? Will AC/DC rock Iron Man? 411’s Jeff Modzelewski and Mac Scarle debate this and more in the latest edition of 411 Music Fact or Fiction!!!

Thanks for stopping by for another edition of Thursday's MAIN EVENT – 411 Music Fact or Fiction.

This week, it's the conductor of Jam Central Station, Jeff Modzelewski, taking on reviewer extraordinaire, Mac Scarle.

Alright, let's do this!

READY?! FIGHT!!

Round 1
System Of A Down Will Not Reunite In 2010.
Jeff Modzelewski: FACT. I think they're gonna take another year off. They had a pretty fast rise and they did quite a bit of recording and touring over about 8 years. There's always been some (healthy?) tension in the band, and it was probably a good thing that they got away from each other. Serj has had some success with his solo album, and Daron probably wants to do another Scars on Broadway album, since the first one didn't work out so well for him. Serj probably wouldn't emphasize that they're on hiatus if there were plans for a reunion. I'd say they might be back for a summer tour in 2011, but, with most of the band busy in other things right now, it probably won't happen this year.
Mac Scarle: FICTION. I guess? I couldn't stand SOAD after their first two (excellent) records, and wasn't a fan of either Serj's solo project or Scars On Broadway, so this is kind of hard for me to evaluate. But since Scars On Broadway was such a flop and I don't seem to remember Serj's solo record blowing up either, what's to say they won't say "screw it" and do a couple festival dates this summer? Why not? The whole "will they or won't they" reunite saga - for any band - is just super tiresome, but for the sake of their fans I'll say I buy the hints that they'll come back.
Score Card: 0 for 1

Round 2
Steven Tyler has gone insane.
Jeff Modzelewski: FACT. This one hurts me. Aerosmith was my first "favorite band" and Tyler is an amazing frontman. But he's absolutely lost it. Karaoke is one thing. Karaoke at the Home Depot is absolutely another thing. For starters, the guy's 62, about 5'4", and he has a body worse than Ben Czalkasrwelj here at 411 (ha!). What the hell is he doing at Home Depot? He's not building a new deck on his house or anything. He pays people to do that. Which tells me that this was some sort of messed up pre-meditated "let's go to Home Depot and get my name in the papers" idea. The really bad part of this is that it's not really that good of an idea anyways! Who wants to hear Tyler singing over a loudspeaker, especially after sucking down some helium??? This is after the karaoke stunt from a few days ago, which I'd bet good money was a setup. I love Aerosmith, but this is getting kinda sad. I hope Tyler's just crazy and energetic after getting off of his pain medication instead of doped out of his mind.
Mac Scarle: FICTION. This is awesome. What's wrong with having a little fun and being kind of bizarre? The dude is a rock star - and old, and a recovering drug addict. Let him be zany. He's not hurting anyone or himself and frankly the fact that I didn't really hear anything about this beyond just little news blurbs means that he's not exactly doing any real damage to his reputation. Premeditated or not - and like Jeff, I've got more than a slight suspicion that this was less than spontaneous - I don't see any real reason to make any sort of stink over this. And frankly, my biggest beef with this question is that it claims Tyler's "insanity" is a new thing. Dude's been weird for all the 23 years I've walked this Earth, at least.
Score Card: 0 for 2

Round 3
The outpouring of support for Haitian relief by artists like Radiohead, Britney Spears, Lady GaGa and the Hope For Haiti Now album shows that there is still some good left in the music industry.
Jeff Modzelewski: FICTION. At least for the most part. Spears donates a dress? Screw that. That's lazy. The benefit album? Eh, that's a little better at least. Folks at least have to put some effort into that. The Radiohead benefit concert? Now you've got a band putting their money where their mouth is. Most of this is media posturing. Let's be honest. Now, unlike a couple of rants in different columns this week, I'm not going to badmouth the artists who did it. At least they're doing something, and it did raise a ton of money. But for the most part they're doing it because it gets them on TV or because their agent says it's a good idea. They're not doing it because they have some deep-seated need to help the people of Haiti. If that was the case they'd be raising money for Africa or South America or wherever on a regular basis. Most artists don't do that sort of thing. Some do, and those are probably the ones that are doing the Haiti relief thing for the "right reasons." If all an artist did was perform on the telethon, then it's a media thing. If they're putting on their own concert or making a 7 figure donation, that's a little better. The fact is that some of these artists actually care and some don't, and it's hard to figure out who's who. In the end, I don't think the people of Haiti give a shit if the money was raised by someone trying to look good or the money was raised by someone with real concern. As I said before, at least the ones who are looking for good PR are doing something helpful. The good ones are the ones who are donating time and money when the rest of the time, not just when there's a disaster.
Mac Scarle: FACT. I'm going to say this is a fact, but I'm going to say it begrudgingly. I'm sure that there are plenty of celebrities out there - looking at you, Britney - whose handlers see this sort of thing happen and just latch onto it for the sake of good PR. That's the way it's always been. I don't see the same "laziness" in donating a dress that Jeff does, though. What do you expect her to do, exactly? Go down there and work? Money is money, I don't consider it lazy that I just toss some pocket change into the Salvation Army tin every winter instead of stand there and ring the bell. The way I see it - and this is one of those times when I don't let my crippling cynicism take over my worldview - no matter what someone's motivations are for doing something like recording a benefit song, they're still doing good for someone somewhere. And even if they also see it as good PR, they're just as aware that whatever it is they're doing is helping someone who really needs it. Like Jeff, I'd rather see this kind of stuff all the time (but at the same time I can't stand Bono and think Chris Martin's "Make Trade Free" tattoo are incredibly stupid, go figure), but I won't complain about it happening now. Neither will the people who this money will go to.
Score Card: 0 for 3

SWITCH

Round 4
The AC/DC Iron Man 2 soundtrack will be bigger than Who Made Who.
Mac Scarle: FICTION. I guess. I'll admit that I had to look up Who Made Who to even see what this question was talking about, but apparently it's sold pretty damn well. I'm not a big AC/DC fan but their music definitely fits the bill for a huge, over-the-top EXPLOSIONS movie like Iron Man 2. This is kind of an interesting concept - the record is more like an Iron Man-branded greatest hits release than anything else. I can see it selling well, but here's the catch - nobody buys CDs anymore. According to my good friends at Wikipedia, Who Made Who sold 5 million copies in the States alone. If we're going by sales figures - which is totally fair for this question - I'd say there's no way this tops it. There are already AC/DC Greatest Hits collections out there (Ed. Note – Actually, no there aren't), why buy a new one just because it's got Tony Stark on the cover?
Jeff Modzelewski: FACT. Who Made Who sold well, and I'm not sure that the Iron Man soundtrack will sell better. However, that's not the question posed here. Who Made Who was the soundtrack for the movie Maximum Overdrive. Ever heard of it? Neither have I. Iron Man is gonna be a blockbuster. Huge explosions, super hero action, and a hard-rocking classic rock band providing the soundtrack. No, I don't know that it's gonna sell 5 million copies, but it'll definitely have more exposure, both through commercials and the actual movie, and that, my friend, will make it a "bigger" soundtrack.
Score Card: 0 for 4

Round 5
"American Idol" tossing out a finalist because his dad told a newspaper he was in the Top 24 was the right thing.
Mac Scarle: FACT. Like it or not, you and your family signed the contract. Tough luck, guy. Tell dad to put a gag on it. Nothing much more to say about this, really.
Jeff Modzelewski: FACT. Ditto.
Score Card: 1 for 5

Round 6
The Who will rock the Super Bowl.
Mac Scarle: FACT. I'm not really a Who fan (fake mods!) but they should tear it down. Even though I've never liked them much, I (like many other people) thought The Who's set at the 9/11 tribute concert was hands-down the best performance of the evening. This should be pretty great, or at least way better than the last two years. Much like the AC/DC question, that whole bombastic, loud-as-hell rock 'n' roll thing really goes well with the spectacle of the Super Bowl. I'll definitely watch the halftime show, unlike the last two years which I treated as a Taco Bell run and a smoke break, respectively (before anyone tries to nail me on saying they sucked without watching them, I did in fact watch them later online). I will say this, though: nothing The Who do will ever touch Prince in ‘07, aka The Greatest Halftime Show of All Time
Jeff Modzelewski: FICTION. Let's be honest. The Who used to rock. They used to rock harder than any band, period. They smashed their instruments, blew up bass drums, and generally kicked some ass. They won't be doing anything like that. Any blown up bass drums will be carefully choreographed blown up bass drums. Any smashed guitars will first be cleared by the NFL and CBS. The setlist will be approved by boards of men in suits and the "fans running out onto the field" will be staged. That doesn't rock. That's old. That's fake. That's corporate and it's everything that The Who was against when they sang "My Generation" and so many other hits. So, no, the Super Bowl performance will not "rock."
Score Card: 1 for 6

Anything you agree with? Disagree with? Sound off in the comment section.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week!