The Great Rock News Report 10.08.08

Posted by Daniel Wilcox on 10.08.2008

Green Day album on the way, Barker back in action, Limp Bizkit return is official and Fall Out Boy go all-our for the gays. Plus, TV on the Radio and Faith No More team up for supergroup. All this and more in the latest Great Rock News Report!

Intro

Shocking breaking news…



…Enter Shikari still suck. They get this week's award for Worse Band in the World of the Week.

Oh, and for the second week in a row, I insighted a comments section riot, as people jumped to the defense of AC/DC, who I said were "not that good." Anyone would think I'd said they were shit or something. They're OK, but nothing special.

Actually, a fair few people also agreed with me.

I think if I really got down to the nitty gritty of my music opinions, I could piss off a lot more people. But we'll save that for another day.

Onto the news!



It's Official… The Bizkit Are Back!


Early Monday evening, Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst posted a blog on the band's MySpace, speaking on the status of his band. He had this to say:

"Hello my dear family members. Yes, it has been a while. But a while worth the wait. It is getting very close to time to drop the bizkit on the universe. I say this with the absolute best intentions and motivation. We, Limp Bizkit, are excited about the future for us and for you. LBF is the way. LBF is for life. Let's stir some shit up my friends."

Most recently, Terry Balsamo (Cold, Evanescence) rejoined Limp Bizkit in place of former guitarist Wes Borland (now head of Black Light Burns). Balsamo was part of Limp Bizkit in the mid-1990's before leaving to join Cold.

To celebrate, let's take a look back at Limp's studio albums…


Three Dollar Bill, Yall$: Not too many nu-metal CDs get a listen from me these days, but quite often I'll go back and check out this one. Every track is enjoyable if not spectacular, and there are a few songs there that I consider proof that not all nu-metal sucks. The band's cover of "Faith" is ridiculously fun, and Durst's vocals are much less frustrating here than they are elsewhere. The near 20-minute jam session that closes the CD is fantastic, too.

Rating: 8.5/10


Significant Other: Significant Other is easily the band's most hip-hop driven effort, and a damn good album to boot. I do think that, in place, this album is really good, probably some of the best hip-hop and metal fusion I've heard, but in others it really is kind of forgettable. Tracks like "Nookie", "Break Stuff" and "N 2 Gether Now" make up for some of the lesser tracks, as they're pure gems. The Aaron Lewis and Jonathan Davis guest spots were far from a highlight though.

Rating: 8.0/10


Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water: This has a special place in my heart, all down to professional wrestling. If you've seen the video package for the Rock/Austin Mania X-7 match, you'll know why I'm such a big fan of "My Way." Undertaker used to use "Rollin'" as a theme song too, so that's how I got into this album (the first LB album I'd heard). And at the time (I was young and impressionable), I really fell in love with this. So there's the whole nostalgia factor going on there, and I also genuinely feel that there are a good number of really good tracks here. This album sees the band getting much more melodic and I think that they managed to pull that sound off here, certainly much more so than they did in their next effort.

Rating: 9.0/10


Results May Vary: And now we come to their last official studio album, the tedious, shitty, Results May Vary. Limp Bizkit really went straight to hell here as they began to become less and less relevant in the music world. There are just far too many bad tracks to talk about here, none more so than the cover of The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes", a cover that's managed to make me hate the original.

Rating: 3.0/10

Then there's The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1). But that's technically only an EP, so I won't bother covering that. If you do want to read about that though, Dan Marsicano's latest What The Hell Happened To… is a great article all about it. Now then, bring on The Unquestionable Truth (Part 2), Fred!

Butch Vig To Produce New Green Day Album


Producer Butch Vig has reportedly signed on to produce the next album from Green Day. Vig, a veteran producer, has worked on notable albums like Nirvana's Nevermind, Jimmy Eat World's Chase This Light and Against Me!'s New Wave as well as frontman Tom Gabel's solo album, Heart Burns.

Very little is known about the highly anticipated new Green Day album, though the band's label let slip that the record is due in 2009. Their last album, American Idiot, was a massive critical and commercial success and the band followed up the album with the "side project" Foxboro Hot Tubs who released Stop Drop and Roll! earlier this year.

Check out my review of that Foxboro Hot Tubs album here.

I think I'm in the minority when I say I hated all of Green Day's earlier, punkier stuff, , but I loved American Idiot, loved it. It's such a top class rock opera and my expectations for the new album are huge. Hopefully they stick to the sound that made American Idiot such a success as opposed to going in reverse.

Hey Look, A Shit-Ton of Fall Out Boy News


‘Cause I know how much you love it.

Actually, a fair few of you (in the legendary 411 Comments Section) dished out a bit of praise for the guys this week after they donated $50,000 to a campaign to fight Proposition 8, the bill look to ban same-sex marriage in Cali. No doubt, that's a classy move even if there is an element of "publicity stunt" behind it. And yes, the joke does write itself.

Apparently the money came from that product placement in their new video; the product placement that Pete Wentz was bitching about. I don't know if the final version was edited or not, but there really aren't that many shots of the camera phones in their, at least compared to the video for "Thnks fr th Mmrs". Speaking of the video, it took me three or four views before I realized that Sarah Palin is in it. And I'm actually interested in US politics. Go figure.

In other FOB news, Lil Wayne will be guesting on their new album. I'm not a massive Lil Wayne fan, but they could've got worse rappers in there, much worse. Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry is on it too, which is cool. Blondie are something of a guilty pleasure of mine; the track "Maria" in particular. Appearances from labelmates Panic At The Disco, Gabe Saporta (Cobra Starship) and Travis McCoy (Gym Class Heroes) are all rumored too, but there's no confirmation on that yet.

Folie a Deux tracklisting;

1. Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes
2. I Don't Care
3. She's My Winona
4. America's Suitehearts
5. Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet
6. The (Shipped) Gold Standard
7. (Coffee's For Closers)
8. What A Catch, Donnie
9. 27
10. Tiffany Blews
11. w.a.m.s.
12. 20 Dollar Nose Bleed
13. West Coast Smoker

As big a FOB fan as I am, where the fuck do they come up with these titles? Folie a Deux is out November 4. Between that and the new Hinder record, I don't know which I'll be playing first.

I'm kidding, Hinder suck.

Travis Barker is a Fucking Machine; +44 Working on New Album



+44 are recording a new album, just a week after drummer Travis Barker was released from hospital following a fatal plane crash that killed four and left Barker (and DJ AM) in critical condition and suffering from third degree burns. For those that don't know, +44 features two ex-Blink 182 members in Barker and Mark Hoppus, vocals.

Hearing this news prompted me to go back and listen to the band's 2006 debut, When Your Heart Stops Beating. Now I remember thinking that this wasn't that good when I heard the first time two years ago, but giving it another chance, I feel I was wrong. It's nothing spectacular, but it's a damn fine debut effort and will probably be in my rotation for the next few days now.

Recent rumors of a Blink-182 reunion may be appearing more frequently these days, but to be honest, as good as they were, I don't miss them, because we've now got two pretty good side projects out of them. Tom DeLonge, prick that he is, is doing pretty well with Angels and Airwaves and though not as commercially successful, have a solid fan base.

Now back to the inhuman Travis Barker – I have a ton of respect for the guy, going back to work this soon after the crash. By all accounts the drums were at least partially recorded for this new record before the crash, but still, it's pretty impressive stuff.

For those who may be interested, Hoppus is also busy producing the new New Found Glory album. Great.

Slash Discusses Search For Velvet Revolver Singer


Here's an excerpt from Rolling Stone's recent interview with Slash;

RollingStone.com: What's up with your solo album?

Slash: I've been working on the solo album all summer. I only have three of four more songs left to get on [demo] tape. We're probably going to record the album next year. It's hard to say when it will actually be released because this industry is so fucked up right now.

RollingStone.com: What is the status with Velvet Revolver?

Slash: Everything is cool. We've been writing this whole time, but we're on this quest for a singer.

RollingStone.com: It wasn't so long ago when you were in this situation, back when the band was getting together.

Slash: We spent at that time 10 months listening to 200 singers a week, and chased after Scott [Weiland], and managed to make that work. We were off and running, but then things fell short and we're at it again. It's actually sort of a blessing, because we originally wanted to do something really heavy and it took a different turn, especially on the last record. This time around we're not going to make any compromises.

RollingStone.com: Did you learn any lessons learned from the last search?

Slash: Singers are a very interesting breed. It's hard to be choosy when it comes to finding somebody talented enough to be a really great frontman for a rock & roll band. There's always something that comes along with it, just like with any musician. It's all worth it if you manage to get those magical moments.

Here's a Top 10 list of people who I would like to see as VR's new singer;

10. Patrick Stump
9. Jay-Z
8. Scott Weiland
7. Miley Cyrus
6. Robert Plant
5. Alvin and The Chipmunks
4. Chris Martin
3. Ozzy Osbourne
2. Axl Rose
1. Chad Kroeger

I am, of course, being entirely serious.

Elsewhere
- Scars On Broadway cancel tour, with no plans to reschedule, because they couldn't be bothered. System comeback on the way?

- Eddie Van Halen got engaged.

- The Q Awards named Coldplay the best act in the world. Q are fucking insane.

- TV On The Radio frontman Tunde Adebimpe and Faith No More's Mike Patton are working on an album together. That should be really, really good, right? No title or release date set.

- HIM frontman Ville Valo will provide the voice for a hippo in the Finnish version of Madagascar Escape 2 Africa. Why? Because he can, I suppose.

- Kings of Leon got knocked off the top of the UK Singles Chart by Pink this week, but their album Only By The Night remains at number one…

- Except Oasis are guaranteed the top spot this week, with their shitty new effort Dig Out Your Souls.

Outro

The Beatles are overrated. In fact, they suck.

See y'all next week.