411 Music Fact Or Fiction: Week 21
Posted by Mitch Michaels on 08.03.2007
Evocator Manes and Mikey MiGo talk about KISS concerts, Britney Spears’ sanity, Led Zep reunion rumors and more in the first week of the EM Championship Series!
Welcome back to the twenty-first edition of the 411 Music Zone's Fact Or Fiction. Each week, two writers will be given statements regarding hot, up-to-the-minute music news and make a case as to whether that statement is fact or complete and utter bullshit (ie, fiction). And, just for the fuck of it, I'll be here to tally up how many times the writers agree. Got it?
Music ForF reaches the drinking age in style this week, as we begin the EM Championship Series. Each week, another 411 staffer will sit in the hot seat across from our beloved longtime contributor, you know him as Evocator Manes, I know him as EM and his mom knows him as angel baby, uh…Evocator Manes. In week one, EM takes on the tamer of the savage animal himself, Mikey MiGo.
Here we go…
1. Britney Spears has gone completely batshit crazy.
EM: FICTION. The mental midget was not exactly stable and hinged to begin with, but no one heard because her name still meant something and possibly because she was able to hold it in check while she built her star power, something that means as little now to the world as the word "dignity" means to her. Still, one wonders what had happened if she would have kept on with Mr. "Dick In A Box".
Mikey MiGo: FICTION. Keyword in this one is "completely". She's gone batshit for sure, but not completely. Her white trash roots are showing and, being in Middle America, these things are common occurrences. The main difference is that she has a crazy bodyguard instead of a crazy boyfriend, but either way it's crazy. The old cliché is that you have to fall before you rise. She's falling pretty hard, which makes a potential comeback even that much better.
Score: Hit me baby one (for 1) more time
2. Tupak Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.'s unreleased material has been bled dry.
EM: FICTION. Once again, this happened years and years ago, in the case of Biggie, possibly even before his death...oh wait, you said unreleased material. In that case, still FICTION, but wrong reason. Every last wheeze, fart and sneeze is not pinned to wax just yet, though their recent unreleased material is of about the same quality and perhaps even same substance as the formerly unreleased material that cascaded into their respective trousers slightly after death...
Mikey MiGo: FACT. I own most of each of these men's living discographies. Both of them are huge influences on many of the rappers out there today and with good reason. Both are legends and their LIVING body of work speaks for itself. With each new release of "unreleased" material, their legacies are faded. I can understand why living rappers would want to do collaboration with their idols, but respect should overshadow that. Let these guys rest in peace and let us enjoy their living work. There's probably good reasons why they chose not release what's being currently force fed to us.
Score: One (for 2) Day At A Time (Em's Version)
3. Tony Yayo should go to jail for slapping a kid.
EM: FICTION. Who the fuck is Tony Yayo? FICTION anyway. More people should be slapping kids.
Mikey MiGo: FACT. Tony Yayo is a rapper of the G-G-G-G-Geee Unit. This whole story is news to me, but with the power of Google I educated myself on the situation at hand. Yayo is being accused of hitting the son of Jimmy "Henchman" Rosemond who manages G-Unit rival The Game. Apparently there was also a gun flashed at the kid. I can't care less about the G-Unit/Game nonsense, but why involve a 14 year old into the mix? If these allegations are true (who really knows?), he and whoever was with him should serve some time for this.
Score: It's like every other day we in Japan or Brazil/But Yayo ain't the one (for 3) that's payin' your light bills/You only want me cause I'm makin' the mils/When I hit it from the back I got you hooked like quills
INXS says SWITCH!
4. Led Zeppelin will reunite this year.
Mikey MiGo: FICTION. I highly doubt something like this would just happen out of nowhere. There would be press conferences, time to hype up the media, and time to prepare a huge tour. I' love to be wrong and for it to be "FACT", but the small rumors of one show doesn't cut it. 2008 would be good though.
EM: FICTION. Both Jimmy Page and Robert Plant said they never would and then more or less did, albeit under a couple different incarnations (Honeydrippers and their own names + the word "Unledded") but the big problem back then, and now, is John Paul Jones and his complete lack of interest in that. Page seems to be the one pressing the issue, as before, but Plant also seems disinterested and I suspect the world largely doesn't care anymore, having had quite enough of reunions in general.
Score: There's a sign on the wall/But she wants to be sure/Cause you know sometimes words have two (for 4) meanings.
5. KISS should have cancelled their show when Paul Stanley was having heart trouble.
Mikey MiGo: FACT. This isn't a fill in, a roadie, or someone that's not as significant to the performance. This is Paul Stanley. The show should have been postponed, but that obviously didn't happen because KISS isn't about music. KISS is officially a corporate identity for middle aged men to feel relevant again. It's all about merchandising and getting as much money out of our pockets and into theirs. I've never been a fan and with things like this, that's not going to change anytime soon.
EM: FICTION. I would not expect Mikey to know this, but KISS has had various mishaps and never have they stopped a show for that and never will they. KISS is doing fewer and fewer shows and they're not going to cancel one unless something much more drastic than Paul Stanley being carted off for a pre-existing condition happens. Paul explicitly asked them, nearly demanded that they continue the show, before he left. For those at the show, they got a very rare setlist and a very unique performance, because KISS always delivers and always gives the fans their money's worth.
Score: Two (for 5) Sides Of The Coin
6. Thirty years after Never Mind The Bullocks, the Sex Pistols are overrated.
Mikey MiGo: FICTION. It's easy to say that the Sex Pistols are overrated when they're not being shoved down out throats like other "legendary bands". The main reason I say fiction is because the band themselves could care less about what we think. They helped define punk music (REAL PUNK MUSIC) and left a respectable mark on the history of modern music. Rotten's hand written note to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is one of the best "acceptance" speeches I've ever seen and probably ever will. I just get ill when I see an emo kid wearing a Sex Pistols shirt. I wouldn't even call myself a fan, but these kids definitely don't represent what this was all about.
EM: FACT. This was then and is still, nothing more than a marketing experiment and I highly recommend everyone check out The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle when they get a chance. The songs were nothing special, delivered in a manner that was less special and because sound was so drastically different, basically a dumbed-down and slowed-down Ramones with some barely discernible choruses tossed in and on a much larger scale and because they looked intentionally controversial and again, highly unusual to everything else, it generated interest. The entire band/phenomenon was based almost entirely on image. All in all, this will be a very
minor footnote in the history of music, particularly since punk devolved rather quickly into pop thanks to another band tagged with the "punk" label, The Clash.
Final Score: Sensurround sound in a two (for 6) inch wall/Well I was waiting for the communist call/I didn't ask for sunshine and I got World War III/I'm looking over the wall/And they're looking at me
Mikey and EM don't agree on much. Mikey had some good moments this week (Kudos to his research on Tony Yayo), but his repeated use of the phrase "living body of work" started to make me uncomfortable. EM came like the God of Thunder of the KISS question, which is why he remains on top in Week 1 of the EM Championship Series.
Thanks to Mikey, EM and YOU, John Q. KISSDemon for dropping by this week. Be on the lookout for more Music Fact Or Fiction!
