Music's 3R's 05.10.10: The Michael Jackson Gay Rumors, Lindsay Lohan’s New Single, NIN Not Dead, More

Posted by Aaron Titan on 05.10.2010

From Lindsay Lohan’s new single and Michael Jackson’s bodyguards claiming he wasn’t gay after all to the Red Hot Chili Peppers getting ready to record their next album, Gucci Mane being released from prison, Trent Reznor saying NIN isn’t dead, and thoughts on Eminem’s new Recovery album, 411's Aaron Titan breaks down the Right, wRong, and Ridiculous from the week in music!




Greetings: Hey there kids! Aaron Titan back with you here for another rousing edition of the Music 3R's.

So I must be the only person here that hasn't seen the new Iron Man film right? Did you go check it out? I hear good things. Isn't Robert Downey Jr. dreamy?

So I got some good news this past week about my future employment, so we all know what that means? Time to plan my summer concert circuit! I currently have tickets to see U2 on their 360 Tour and will be going to the American Carnage Tour (Slayer, Megadeth, & Testament) as part of some review work for 411Mania. Besides those two shows, I'd really like to check out a certain band making a comeback (more on that in a second) and potentially the Iron Maiden/Dream Theater tour. ‘Sides that, I just read that Primus is touring this summer before the begin work on their first album in 11 years. How badass is that news? I've had the chance to see Primus once before on their greatest hits tour that did in late 2006, so I may or may not go see them again. It has potential for sure.

With that, put on your red hats (or hates, depending on your musical tastes) because here's your Opus of the Week:







Opus of the Week: Limp Bizkit - Significant Other

Yes sir, I do believe I just done went and fucked up my credibility there!

Nah! For what it's worth, Significant Other is still a fun listen just like it was when I was a kid. I grew up enjoying Limp Bizkit's music and couldn't be more excited for Gold Cobra to be released this summer. I threw on Limp's sophomore effort this past week just to see if these songs still held true for me to want to buy some concert tickets. Limp Bizkit is touring this summer with Snoop Dogg, and my brother and I were thinking about going.

Now, after re-listening to Significant Other, I definitely want to go and it'll be a really fun time. I'm a fan of New Era ballcaps, but fear not, I don't own a red Yankees hat. I may wear my maroon Cubs one to the concert though! Also, I happen to have an awesome Toronto Bluejays one. Isn't their logo kind of awesome?



If you were into the L.B. way back when, I challenge you to throw this album on again and see how many corny Fred Durst lyrics you still remember! If you haven't heard Limp's first single from Gold Cobra, it's called "Why Try" and it's pretty tasty if you're into the band. If you're not, you might want to go ahead and skip along to the next section:



Titan's Key Tracks: "I'm Broke," "N 2 Gether Now," "Nobody Like You," "Just Like This"

Opus of the Week Backlog:
05/03/10: She & Him: Volume One
04/26/10: My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges
04/19/10: Kanye West: Graduation
04/12/10: Avenged Sevenfold: Avenged Sevenfold
04/05/10: Fall Out Boy: Infinity on High
03/29/10: Dr. Dre: 2001
03/22/10: Cypress Hill: Black Sunday
03/15/10: Maxwell: BLACKsummers'night
03/08/10: Queens of the Stone Age: Songs for the Deaf
03/01/10: Adele: 19
02/22/10: The Ting Tings: We Started Nothing
02/15/10: Nirvana: Bleach
02/08/10: Down: NOLA
02/01/10: Dixie Chicks: Taking the Long Way
01/25/10: Lamb of God: Ashes of the Wake
01/18/10: The Clash: London Calling



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.





Red Hot Chili Peppers Update: While doing an interview about his other band Chickenfoot, drummer Chad Smith gave an update on the Red Hot Chili Peppers' upcoming tenth studio effort [Credit: MusicRadar.com]:

On when the group will start making the new album: "Real soon. Since last October we've been working on things, and probably in a few weeks we'll be going into the studio with Rick Rubin. Pre-production will take a few months, but I'd say by July we'll be laying down real tracks. We have a lot of material, probably about 20 songs."

On the departure of guitarist John Frusciante: "Yeah, things have calmed down. Things were…as you know...they were a little pressurized last year. We were sad to see John leave the band, but he has to do what he wants and follow his path."

On their new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer: "We're all thrilled to have Josh be part of the group now. He's been a friend of ours for a long time. He's played with us, he's played with John - he's a real natural fit."

"Josh is a real creative force. He's going to play guitar, he's going to write music, he's going to sing and play keyboards. The guy is amazing. And the great thing is, we didn't have to go through that whole dating phase that happens sometimes and winds up weird. It's not like we held these open auditions and got in somebody who we had to figure out. We know what Josh can do and we're excited."

Now, I think that this is going to be a key album for the group in regards to how they are viewed by fans for the next decade or so. The Chili Peppers had great liftoff success with their first true guitarist, Hillel Slovak, on their first two releases. Hillel, in my opinion, really set the standard of the sound and energy of this band. The band could've been interpreted as a house party-ish, funk band more than they might have been at the time had Hillel not brought the heavy rock elements and, at times, thrashy sound that put these guys over like Grover with the alternative rock crowd.

When Hillel overdosed and passed away, John Frusciante eventually entered the fold and his signature guitar style/sound helped the band reach their first peak on Blood Sugar Sex Magik. After bailing because the big-ness of the group was not enjoyable, the group still put out good tunes with Dave Navarro, but it just wasn't the same. When John came back and Californication just dominated the entire fucking planet, we knew the Chili Peppers were here to stay and they just knocked it out of the park for the better part of the next decade with the aforementioned 1999 release and their following two discs, By the Way and Stadium Arcadium. Now again, John has bailed, but that's not all the changes we've seen the band go through.

Flea has reportedly been more into piano and electronically-composed music thanks in part to his work with Radiohead's Thom Yorke and his Atoms for Peace project. Also, Chad Smith has been banging the skins for the awesome supergroup known as Chickenfoot, which definitely has the classic 80s rock sounds of Van Halen, given of course that Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony are in that band. Chickenfoot kicks ass by the way, so check them out if you haven't yet:



So what's it going to sound like when these guys come together with all of these new influences and a new, though familiar guitar player (to the guys in the band, not us of course)? Your guess is as good as mine, but I can see it going one of two ways. I think we'll either get a mostly melodic, not-super-funky RHCP album in the vein of what the majority of their work has been like over the previous decade…OR…we'll get some heavy, fast party-style RHCP shit that sort of matches up to their first few albums like The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. Perhaps we will even get a melding of the two. Personally, I'd find it a little more interesting to see if a band at their age and stature to try more of the guns-blazing songwriting and playing, just because it would be fun and would show the world that despite the changes they've gone through, the Chili Peppers still have it.



Muse Rocks Online: Here's an interesting find if you're a Muse fan. It appears that they're currently done touring here in the states until the fall, but for all of our readers over in Europe and Asia, you can catch them live this summer.

5/27: Lisbon; Rock in Rio
6/2: Bern; Stade De Suisse
6/5/2010 Nurburg; Rock Am Ring
6/6/2010 Nuremberg; Rock Im Park
6/8/2010 Milan; San Siro
6/11/2010 Paris; Stade de France SOLD OUT
6/12/2010 Paris; Stade de France SOLD OUT
6/16/2010 Madrid; Estadio Vincente Calderon
6/19/2010 Nijmegen; Goffertpark
6/26/2010 Pilton; Glastonbury Festival SOLD OUT
6/29/2010 Arendal; Hove Festival
7/1/2010 Werchter; Rock Werchter
7/3/2010 Roskilde; Roskilde Festival
7/9/2010 Balado; T in the Park
7/10/2010 Punchestown; Oxegen
7/15/2010 Carhaix; Vielles Charrues
7/19/2010 Helsinki; Kaisaniemi Park
7/21/2010 Stockholm; Zinkensdamms IP
7/23/2010 Bergen; Bergenhus Festning
7/30/2010 Niigata; Fuji Rock Festival
8/1/2010 Icheon City; Jisan Valley Rock Festival
8/15/2010 Budapest; Sziget Festival
8/19/2010 St. Poelten; Frequency Festival
8/21/2010 Krakow; Coke Live Festival
9/4/2010 Manchester; Lancashire County Cricket Ground
9/10/2010 London; Wembley Stadium
9/11/2010 London; Wembley Stadium

If you're like me and you haven't seen Muse yet, feat not! The band thought about all of us lowly people and put of an entire show online. Below is their Seattle show at the Key Arena from their Resistance Tour this spring. If you don't have the 90 minutes of time to view it all now and want to do so later, just click HERE and save the link for later:



Muse "The Resistance Tour - Live"

MUSE | MySpace Music Videos




New Eminem Single I Forgot About: Not sure how I let this slip between the cracks here in my column because I went out and downloaded it immediately when it came out, but Eminem put out a track from his upcoming June 22 release, Recovery. If you hadn't heard it yet, here ya' are with the song "Not Afraid:"





Yeah, sorry about the douchey DJ yelling shit on that version as well as the poor sound quality but a lot of the decent versions were yanked from YouTube already. Good track though and it sounds like we're going to get a more serious Eminem album here. I'm OK with that to an extent as there was definitely a bit too much bullshitting around on The Eminem Show and even more so on Encore.

Relapse was a decent comeback, but I know the guy has more in him that what he showed on that one. What he's gotta' do is get back walking the line between razor sharp Slim Shady where he channels his inner-Tupac and the absurd, out-of-his-mind shit we fell in love with on his first two albums. He hasn't been able to find that balance in a while so hopefully a clear, sober head allowed him to do that this time around. I kind of wonder if we'll ever hear the Relapse 2 shit he scrapped when he opted for the new direction we'll be seeing on Recovery.





Michael Jackson Not Gay After All: Posted by our own Chris Lansdell via the NYPost:

According to his bodyguards, Michael Jackson did not have a sexual relationship with Jason Pfeiffer towards the end of MJ's life...because he wasn't gay.

Bill Whitfield, Javon Beard and Mike Garcia are set to appear on ABC for a second time to dispel the rumours. They claim that Jackson had two girlfriends in his final months. One of them, who Jackson called "Friend", had a European accent.

You know, I do alright for money with my job, but there's gotta' be a way for me to cash in on Michael Jackson's death too. It seems like everybody else has. What I need to do is find a way to make people believe that Michael Jackson and I went to Las Vegas together and we took some random pills, which turned out to be rufies and then we stole a tiger from Mike Tyson and all these shenanigans ensued. Then, I can sell the rights for the feature film and cash in.

Wait, they made that movie already didn't they? Well, shit! I guess I'll have to stick to being a decent person that works hard to make an honest living.

I'm just going to reiterate what I said about all these ‘gay' rumors about MJ last week: The guy isn't here to defend himself and confirm or deny what's being said about him, so why is this being treated like real fact or news? These three bodyguards are even shopping a book around called In Defense of the King, which is going to be a tell-all about their three years working for Jackson. Sure, it'll probably put a spin from some seemingly primary sources on Michael's public perception in the future, but what's the point really?

It's just another example of a talented, deceased performer's name being cashed in on. The guy left three children behind and you're going to put out a tell-all book about him? I'm sure he wouldn't have been cool with this while he was still alive, so why disrespect him posthumously? Just saying…



NIN Lives!: After some fan backlash or whatnot, Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor took to the Facebook message board of his new group, How to Destroy Angels, to deliver this message:

"NIN is not dead and I am about to work on some material that I believe will be quite different than previous NIN very soon."

Really, that's good news and again, for the record, I don't think the "Wave Goodbye Tour" from last year were the last dates we'll see Trent playing as NIN on the road. He'll bring NIN back in a full capacity at some point down the line and you can quote me on that!

Now I didn't put this story in the wRong section because NIN is still alive. I'm actually quite relieved to hear that news, because I'm not sure I "get" the whole How to Destroy Angels project. By that, of course I mean that I don't really dig it. Here's their first single from their upcoming self-titled summer EP, "A Drowning:"





It just sounds kind of like Trent Reznor was starting some new NIN music and a Yoko was entered into the equation. I mean absolutely no disrespect to his wife and HTDA bandmate Mariqueen Maandig, because the two are certainly free to create new music in this project alongside Atticus Ross. I just think that if "A Drowning" is indicative of what we're in store for, Trent isn't meeting the high standard for the music his longtime fans – yours truly included – have expected and those he seemingly set – remember, the guy took 5+ years between albums for a while there.

Trent wrote: "This [How to Destroy Angels] EP is a very early phase of this project. Yes, it sounds more NIN-ish than I believe it will as we progress. To me, HTDA frees me from some of the constraints I've begun to feel (primarily emotionally) in NIN."

I'm just kind of confused by how he could feel constrained in his NIN music, since he did the majority of the recording and envisioning. I'd rather have him take NIN in a new direction that better suited his current tastes and inspirations instead of joining a new band where he's seemingly not on lead vocals and isn't the sole decider of the musical direction anymore. Plus, the band's logo just isn't as cool as the NIN one!!!

Now granted, this is probably what Trent wanted to do and is happy playing music with his wife as well as his friend/longtime collaborator, but heck, I can admit that selfishly, it's not what I wanted. Oh well, I still love Trent and NIN. And hey, maybe I'll be completely wrong on this EP that's coming up as well as their anticipated early-2011 fulllength release. We shall see…





Lindsay Lohan Won't Stop: Drinking? Partying?

Nope! She can't stop thinking about a guy – not girls anymore – that her new song "Can't Stop, Won't Stop" is based on:



You know why this news beat is in the Ridiculous section? Because it's ridiculous that I don't find this song all THAT bad! It's got a catchy beat, the lyrics are poppy and relatable, and while there's been some undeniable auto-tuning of Lindsay's voice here, it's just not that bad! Would I seek out an entire album's worth of whatever Lindsay's cooking up next? Probably not, but hey, Li-Lo has been on the batshit crazy train for quite a while now. It's kind of refreshing to have her tagged to a headline that's not related to substance abuse or daddy drama.

Oh, and did you hear she was cast to portray pornstar Linda Lovelace, the chick from the film Deep Throat? Is that strangely appropriate at this point in her career or what? Seriously though, kudos to Li-Lo for recording an OK pop song in an age of many, MANY shitty ones.

Gucci Mane Out of Prison: Dirty south rapper Gucci Mane is set to be released from prison this Wednesday having served six months of a year-long sentence for assault charges stemming from 2005. He was released early for good behavior from what I can tell.

I'm just trying to find a reason to care here to be completely honest. I understand that he's sold a fair amount of records and all, but having gone on his Myspace to listen to some of his music, I'm just not sure what the big deal is. He sounds like another ringtone rapper, releasing the same stereotypical dirty south shit that we've already heard T.I. and Ludacris (among many other of your favorites I didn't happen to mention here) do better anyways.

I guess it's cool that he's starting to turn his life around and get on track though. I don't see Gucci making the return splash that T.I. will, but we'll see. T.I. killed it on the Grammys right before he got locked up; same with Weezy. I don't recall seeing Gucci up there with Jay-Z on primetime TV, so yeah…. Moving along!

Speaking of T.I., I still really like "Swagga Like Us." Here's that song if you wanna' jam it as you finish the column:



Hasta Luego: Well kids, that's all I've got for you here at the Music 3R's this week. Stay tuned for all things Aaron Titan in the coming few weeks, as I've got some album reviews coming up the pipeline (Black Keys, Soulfly, Stone Temple Pilots, Nas & Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley), and as always, the R's every Monday.

If you haven't seen my latest album reviews, you can check them out with these convenient links:

Godsmack: The Oracle
Court Yard Hounds: Court Yard Hounds
The Flaming Lips And Stardeath And White Dwarfs With Henry Rollins And Peaches Doing Dark Side Of The Moon
Gogol Bordello: Trans-Continental Hustle


See you here same time next week! Cheers!


Soundtrack to the 3R's this week was played by the following artists…
All of The Black Keys' Brothers
All of Soulfly's Omen
Limp Bizkit – "Intro"
Limp Bizkit – "Just Like This"
Limp Bizkit – "Nookie"
Limp Bizkit – "Break Stuff"
The Black Keys – "I Got Mine"
The Black Keys – "Strange Times"
The Black Keys – "Psychotic Girl"
The Black Keys – "Lies"
The Black Keys – "Remember When (Side A)"
Brother Ali – "Us"
Chickenfoot - "Avenida Revolucion"
Chickenfoot - "Soap on a Rope"