Music's 3R's 03.01.10: Lady Gaga’s Hats, Bret Michaels Duets w/ Miley Cyrus, Ozzy Sues, Slash Wants Album with Fergie, Godsmack Update, More

Posted by Aaron Titan on 03.01.2010

From the attention-grabbing fashion of Lady Gaga and Slash and Fergie possibly doing an entire album together to Ozzy suing Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi over band name rights, Faith No More’s Mike Patton showing his junk, Godsmack's upcoming album The Oracle, and Bret Michaels’ creepy duet with Miley Cyrus, 411's Aaron Titan brings you all the Right, wRong, and Ridiculous in the music world in this week’s Music 3R’s.



Greetings:

Well hey there kids! Aaron Titan here and this is the Music 3R's.



I'm actually in a good mood right now, as I'm currently listening to some tunes from the new Gorillaz album Plastic Beach. My first impression – I'm about 6 tracks or so into it at this point – I'm digging it. It's a little less lyrically-driven than their previous stuff, but like, I just like the simple little beats they've got going on here. It's pretty good to bob my head to after a long week as a slave to the grind. It's also a lot more hip-hop oriented than their previous shit, which is pretty cool too.



I also got a hold of the Almost Alice album, which is the official title of the Alice in Wonderland Soundtrack. You can check out my review of that pretty much any day now. Just stay tuned to the Reviews area in the 411 Music Zone.



Oh, and while I've been immersing myself in U2's catalogue lately in preparation for my trip to Chicago's Soldier Field this July for their 360° Tour, I've just read that the opening acts for the tour have been announced.

The first few dates will be opened by Lenny Kravitz, then a few by The Fray, and for the date I'm seeing, Interpol will be opening. I am incredibly unfamiliar with Interpol, though I've been told that their first album is their best work. Any recommendations on where I should start or if I should even bother?

I mean, Soldier Field's beer prices aren't ridiculous judging by the Bears-Lions game I went to last fall, so I could just go get drunk during Interpol.

Please advise me 411 readers!



And now, here's your Opus of the Week…



Opus of the Week: Adele - 19

This is a soulful and flat out raw album. What I love best about the album is that Adele's vocals are pretty much the focus and star of the whole affair and she's got the talent to pull that feat off with style.

"Crazy for You" is a prime example of this. There's just this soft, twangy guitar being plucked in the background, turned down real low in the mix, while Adele is killing it with her own melody she seems to be plotting on the spot with incredible heart.

Then again, there's some awesome accompanying music on here too on trains like "Right As Rain," with some great jazzy keyboards and wailing organs to accompany Adele's gritty, bluesy voice. At times, it sounds like she's singing through the pain of lounge cigarette smoke – can people still smoke in lounges anymore, by the way? – and you can really feel what she's feeling.

And of course there's the symphony of her hit smash "Chasing Pavements," a song I still find myself going back to time and time again. As Randy Jackson likes to say on American Idol about songs like this, "There's a reason it's a hit." Catchy melody, dope singing, and a hook to write home about.

Do yourself a favor and peep this shit out. I promise you'll find a pleasant listening experience from track 1 to the conclusion.

Titan's Key Tracks: "Crazy For You," "Right As Rain," "Chasing Pavements"





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

Godsmack Update: Not much new on the "right" front of things, but I've always dug Godsmack and found this cool YouTube video series they released giving a peek at the making of their new album, The Oracle. I got to see Godsmack open for Metallica back in 2004 and they fucking killed it live, especially their drummer, Shannon Larkin. The Oracle should hopefully be a step up from their last effort, 2006's IV, which I liked, but not all the way through, and especially not the back-to-the-well sequel of a song known as "Voodoo Too." The new album drops May 4th:





















The wRong

I Wanna Rock…ROCK!: The best part about this story was that I got to quote Dee Snider in the title to this news beat. The rest of it's kind of painful to read. I should have touched on this last week, but I went to press before reading it.

Here's a quote from Slash when being interviewed about the track on his new solo album that features Black Eyed Peas' songstress Fergie on vocals:

"I might actually do a rock record with Fergie, because she wants to do a rock record so I might get involved with her on that. She's got this killer rock 'n' roll voice."

Dude, no. Seriously, I'm just not for this. You've been plagued by dramatic lead singers your entire career which has in turn made you far less productive during your working years than you should've been. And it's not that Fergie seems like a dramatic lady or anything. In fact, I can't blame Slash for wanting to spend time in the studio with a bod like that. The face…well, if she turns around, you get this, so yeah…



It's just that, why not work with somebody you could really make some far out tunes with? Do an album with Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge) if you guys get along so well. He's your touring singer now, isn't he? Fuck, make him the new Velvet Revolver singer. What's it been…two, three years now since Scott Weiland left the band? And he's done a shitload of touring since then and STP is getting ready to put out a new record this May (self-titled affair; May 25th just FYI).

And hey, I'm jacked about the solo album from Slash, don't get me wrong. I'm a big fan of his guitar playing for what it is and I dig a lot of artists he's got doing vocals on the album, such as Lemmy (Motorhead), M. Shadows (Avenged Sevenfold), and Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters/Them Crooked Vultures). I just don't think I could take a whole album of Slash and Fergie. It would remind me too much of that horseshit the Black Eyed Peas are getting played everywhere lately that they're trying to pass off as music. "I Gotta Feeling" is probably one of the most annoying songs I've ever heard…ever.

And like, I'm a little skeptical of Fergie being on a rock record coming from such a produced sound as she does. We'll see man. I'm just not feeling it at first glance. Perhaps she'll sway me with the song she does on Slash's solo LP. She sure as hell didn't with that "Paradise City" cover she did with him and Cypress Hill:





Oh, and I just discovered this online too. The first single from the album has been released and it's not too bad. It's called "By the Sword" and features Andrew Stockdale from the mighty Wolfmother. I would've figured Slash would've put out something a little more rockin' for the lead single, but maybe it was a matter of money as far as which singer he could put on the first official single/eventual music video. Anyways, here's the song:







Ozzy Vs. Iommi: Let me preface this by saying I'm biased in this battle towards Tony Iommi, guitarist of Black Sabbath, the band Ozzy Osbourne fronted before beginning in solo career in the 80s. I absolutely love Iommi's guitar style and Sabbath's Paranoid is one of my all-time favorite albums.

OK, here goes!

Fuck Ozzy! Fuck him in his geriatric ass. And hell, he might even be the rightful, legal winner of the lawsuit that I'm about to describe, but that's not the point. I've seen Ozzy sing live five times at Ozzfest and the only times he was passable was when he had the original Black Sabbath lineup backing him when I went in 2004 and 2005. He's washed up and a friggin' hack now. His voice used to be awesome before he fried it and his brain. But whatever! Here's the deal as reported by 411's Mitch Michaels:

Ozzy alleges that Iommi illegally trademarked "Black Sabbath" and wants 50% of the profits. Iommi's lawyer says Ozzy signed away his rights to the name when he quit the band in 1979.

Ozzy's lawyer says he regained his rights to the name when he rejoined the band in 1997 and took over "quality control" of their output and merchandise.

And late last week, the judge rules that the lawsuit has enough merit to move forward!

Really, whoever is legally rightful to profits and shit, you know, whatever. That's not what concerns me and shouldn't be a huge concern to dudes who are already set for life while others like me are fearful their jobs are going to get cut out completely in tough economic times. I'm not even going to go there…

What pisses me off is that one guy in the whole band gets to own the band's name and merchandizing rights. How is that fair when Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, and Tony Iommi had just as much to do with Black Sabbath's success? Hell, even a guy like Ronnie James Dio carried the Black Sabbath flag high and mightily after Ozzy got kicked out of the band.

It's the same deal here as it was with Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses. In Slash's autobiography, he talked about how Axl basically forced them to sign over the rights to the band name to him or he wouldn't continue to sing for Gn'R. It's just kind of shitty that a frontman's ego and star power can enable them to walk all over the talented people who helped get them to the big dance to begin with. Though somehow, I figure Sharon's got something to do with all of this.

The Ridiculous

Mike Patton Exposes Himself: So here's an interesting photo of Mike Patton of Faith No More at a recent festival performance:



Qualified as ridiculous to me. Yeah, it was filler but pretty rousing filler…for the ladies of course.

I'm pretty sure there's an uncensored version of that photo out there somewhere if anybody is interested?

[Credit: Blabbermouth.net]






Lady Gaga Didn't Get Enough Attention as a Child: I kind of got motivated to write this after seeing the above picture. I was actually talking with my girlfriend recently about the shit Lady Gaga chooses to wear out in public on a daily basis. I was like, "Dude, Lady Gaga has some daddy issues or something. She clearly didn't get enough attention as a kid."

I mean, what's the point of walking around wearing a tree on your head. Nobody else does that, so hey, if you want to prove your originality to us all, point taken babe… I guess. The photo makes it look like she was just going out for lunch or something during the daytime. With as much publicity she gets and as famous as she is, you'd think you'd want a break from the limelight for a bit here and there for your own personal sanity.

But hey, that's not what I'm here to discuss. It's just, I don't know, annoying to see her wear shit like that all the time. It's like, HEY! STOP THE TRAFFIC. IT'S ME, LADY GAGA. COME OVER HERE AND LOOK AT ME WITH THIS FUCKING TREE ON MY HEAD. I'M REALLY UNIQUE, AREN'T I!?!? ATTENTION, ATTENTION!!!

But there's another side to this debate that I didn't even stop to think about. I was debating this with my girlfriend, as I said, and she comes back with, "Well, if you had all these designers willing make shit like that for you to wear for free, wouldn't you do it to?"

Good point, I suppose. If it's free, why not? It's gonna' only help you get attention and publicity which turns into dollar signs for you no matter how you look at it.

But still, really? I guess I just feel bad for the chick if she thinks she's gotta' look like a fool in public to make people pay attention to her. Her music's not terrible for what it is. I'll go as far as calling it catchy, though I'm not going to place the "genius" tag on her like a lot of people are doing after just two albums.

Let's just end this before all the Lady Gaga's come out of the woodwork and critique my conservative fashion sense. I think Eminem in the photo below kind of sums up my argument here:







Bret and Miley: Holy shit! I think it's pretty awesome that Bret Michaels is the better singer in this song. If Bret Michaels has better vocal chops than you, you've got something to work on.





Some people are having a shit fit over a few of the lyrics Miley and Bret duet in this song, particularly this one:

Yeah we both know better than this, still we can't resist (still we can't resist)
Slowly get undressed.

HA HA HA HA HA! Holy cow, that's fuckin' genius in a way!

I mean, think about it. Would anybody have really given a shit about this song without a little controversy? I would've completely dismissed the fact that this song or the duo's cover of Poison's "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" even existed before reading about this lyric from Rolling Stone. The rest of the lyrics are pretty hackneyed and downright corny – as are those of any other Bret Michaels song – but this one stands out like a 46-year-old in a dark studio with a 17-year-old…oh, wait, yeah, that's this situation too, isn't it? They clearly put the sexual lyric in there to turn heads and with turning heads come tuned ears that are going to listen to your song. Did we learn nothing from Lady Gaga earlier in the column?

I just hope Rock of Love comes back to VH1 once Billy Ray Cyrus finds Bret Michaels and kicks the shit out of him. That show was pretty righteous.

Hasta Luego: Well, there comes and goes another edition of the Music 3R's. I recently passed the six month mark of tenure here on 411Mania.com. It's been a fun ride and I'm looking forward to continuing to write for this site. I'm having a lot of fun with it and enjoy hearing what others think about all this music nonsense.

Please do feel free to comment below. Again, any advice on the Interpol front is much appreciated. Cheers!

Soundtrack to the 3R's this week was played by the following artists…
Gorillaz – "Orchestral Intro"
Gorillaz – "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach"
Gorillaz – "White Flag"
Gorillaz – "Rhinestone Eyes"
Gorillaz – "Stylo"
Gorillaz – "Superfast Jellyfish"
Gorillaz – "Empire Ants"
Gorillaz – "Glitter Freeze"
Gorillaz – "Some Kind of Nature"
Gorillaz – "On Melancholy Hill"
Gorillaz – "Broken"
Gorillaz – "Sweepstakes"
Gorillaz – "Plastic Beach"
Slash (featuring Andrew Stockdale) – "By the Sword"
Wolfmother – "Fell Down a Hole"
Audioslave – "Gasoline"
Hellyeah – "You Wouldn't Know"
Jay-Z (featuring Swizz Beatz) – "On to the Next One"
The Ramones – "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"
The Ramones – "53rd & 3rd"
The Ramones – "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue"
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – "Runnin' Down a Dream"
Bret Michaels (featuring Miley Cyrus) – "Fall for Me"
The Notorious B.I.G. – "My Downfall"
Korn – "Justin"
Mudvayne – "Everything and Nothing"
Lupe Fiasco (featuring Jill Scott) – "Daydreamin'"
Jill Scott – "The Way (Block Party)"
Mos Def – "Freaky Black Greetings"
Muse – "Uprising"
One Day as a Lion – "Wild International"
Outkast – "Bowtie"
Faith No More – "Last Cup of Sorrow"
Nine Inch Nails – "Capital G"