The Alternative Nation News Report 11.02.08: The Debut Edition

Posted by Taylor Martin on 11.02.2008

It's the very first edition of The Alternative Nation News Report! AC/DC sells an assload, The Hives copied someone, Linkin Park is working on a concept album, the best album cover ever, oh, and The Beatles are sort of going to be in Rock Band! You’re still reading this? Just click the damn link already!




Hello, one and all, to the inaugural edition of The Alternative Nation News Report. My name is Taylor and in this report you will get all the news you want, but you will also get my opinion on said news. I think 411 has done something like this in the past but the guy who did it fell into a black hole or something. I wonder if anyone has filed a missing persons report. Anywho, the goals of this news report/column/whatever are to inform and entertain. It's like American television, except TV is usually neither informative nor entertaining.

And with that, let's get to the news!

Headlines!

AC/DC's latest album, Black Ice, sold a shitload of copies this week, specifically 784,000 copies here in the States and 1,762,000 worldwide. It debuted at #1 in 29 countries, including the all important market of Poland. That's good enough for the second highest one-week sales of the year, ahead of Coldplay's Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends and behind Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III. The most interesting part of all of this is that it was only available (legally) in three places: Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and the band's website. The album itself isn't bad and it's actually pretty good at times, even though they're not breaking any new ground here. Phil Rudd will never play a drum fill and Brian Johnson's lyrics will never be deep and thought-provoking but sometimes it's good to just sit back, turn your brain off, and enjoy it.

The Hives are being sued for plagiarism by some dude named Jason Shapiro. He says that they stole a riff and a vocal melody from a song called "Why You?" from his band The Roofies, for the Swedish band's 2007 single, "Tick Tick Boom". He also consulted a musicologist who backed up his claim. Shapiro had this to say about The Hives: "I absolutely love The Hives and don't feel great about suing a band I love. But I also feel credit is due where it is due if you borrow a riff." Now, I'm no musicologist, but the two tracks do sound pretty similar and I would implore you look up the tracks for yourself on YouTube or MySpace. As for suing them…maybe. Most music sounds so similar these days that bands are even plagiarizing themselves. John Fogerty did it and so did Nickelback. You know, just for a laugh, here's Nickelback copying themselves:



Oh, what a horrible, horrible band.

In "Best News Ever" news, The Beatles will be coming to Rock Band, sort of. The announcement was made by Apple Corps, LTD., MTV, and Harmonix and the as-of-yet untitled game will be made with the cooperation and oversight of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison's widow, Olivia. Also involved in the project is Giles Martin, son of the original Beatles producer, George Martin, who will serve as the music producer of the game. It is scheduled for a "fourth-quarter 2009" release, which is way too goddamn long to wait for something this awesome. Really though, with everyone on board I have a very hard time thinking that they can fuck this up. Besides maybe Led Zeppelin, The Beatles are the most protective band when it comes to their music and don't hand it over to just anyone. Harmonix and Rock Band have been on a roll lately, delivering not only the first legally released track from Chinese Democracy, but being the first game to feature music by AC/DC. Now, with this new game, Activision and Guitar Hero will have to do something huge (like getting the rights to Led Zep's catalog) to match this development.


Quickies!

- According to Forbes, Elvis Presley is the wealthiest dead celebrity, earning more than Justin Timberlake and Madonna. Whatever, he still died on the crapper.

- Linkin Park is reportedly working on a concept album. Hopefully it will be more like Minutes to Midnight which was a step in the right direction, and when I say "right direction" I mean further away from nu-metal.

- Jermaine Jackson reportedly told the Associated Press that he and his brothers would reunite the Jackson 5. A few days later, Michael turned right around and said that he has no plans to reunite and that he is focusing on his next solo album. Sorry, Jermaine, I know how excited you were about this. Now, I'll take a MexiMelt, a Choco Taco, and a medium Pepsi.

- The Great Britney Spears Comeback of 2K8 continues as she is set to host Saturday Night Live on November 22nd. It's great to see her finally get her life back together and what better place to do it than an American institution like SNL, where greats such as John Belushi and Chris Farley once roamed. Good for her.


Rock Band DLC of the Week of November 2nd

I don't know how many of you play Rock Band, but I can't get enough of it. In my opinion, it's the best party game ever made and one that everyone seems to like. The guys at Harmonix really do know their music and actually take into account what songs the fans want. It shows in the downloadable content that they release, which by the way, has been released just about every week since it first came out almost a year ago. This section will go over the DLC released for the week and whether or not it's worth your Microsoft Points or the money in your PS3 Wallet. DLC is usually released on Tuesdays for the 360 and Thursdays for the PS3.


Harmonix has released the tracklisting for the 20 free songs for download. If you haven't already, go to rockband.com/bonustracks and but in the code on the back of the manual to get the tracks.

Here's the list:

The 88 - "Sons and Daughters"
Authority Zero - "No Regrets"
Between the Buried and Me - "Prequel To The Sequel"
The Cab - "Bounce"
The Chevelles - "Get It On"
The Cocktail Slippers - "Give It To Me"
Dealership - "Database Corrupted"
Endeverafter - "I Wanna Be Your Man"
The Ghost Hounds - "Ashes To Fire"
Hollywood Undead - "Young"
Kutless - "The Feeling"
The Len Price 3 - "If I Ain't Got You"
Lesley Roy - "I'm Gone, I'm Going"
Opiate for the Masses - "Burn You Down"
Semi-Precious Weapons - "Magnetic Baby"
Shaimus - "Like a Fool"
Thenewno2 – "Crazy Tuesday"
Tickle Me Pink - "The Time Is Wrong"
Underoath - "Desperate Times, Desperate Measures"
X Japan - "I.V."

Well, I can't say that I'm not disappointed. I was expecting some big songs and some big names, but it didn't exactly turn out like that. I've only heard of six bands out of this list but I guess it will give the bands some exposure. It is free, though, so you really have nothing to lose and you might even discover a band that you like.

Seeing as we will be deciding who the next President of the United States of America will be on Tuesday, it's appropriate that a three-song track pack by, you guessed it, The Presidents of the United States of America will be available on Election Day. Here's the track listing:

- "Dune Buggy"
- "Feather Pluck'n"
- "Ladybug"

I'm just going to come out and say that the lack of "Peaches" is extremely disappointing. However, I will recommend "Feather Pluck'n" because it's fucking awesome. The Presidents are proof positive that music doesn't need to be serious all the time.

Also available this week are a couple of songs that I don't recommend:

Fall Out Boy - "I Don't Care"
Hinder - "Use Me"

I'm not as down on Fall Out Boy as some others are, but this song is fucking terrible. They're trying too hard to be this band that appeals to everybody and in the process not being as good as they used to be. Fall Out Boy is better than this. And don't even get me started on Hinder. Their "music" is some of the worst shit I've heard in years. I'll just put it this way: if I could pay to not have this song in Rock Band, I would do it.


It's Over!

Before I go, I still have a promise to keep. I promised the best cover ever and I am nothing if I'm not a man who keeps his promises. So, without further ado, here it is:




Yes, that is actually Rivers Cuomo.

Well, that wraps up this edition of The Alternative Nation News Report. Feel free to leave comments on how much you enjoyed this column or how horrible you thought it was. Also, I'm looking to add more features to the column, so if you guys have any ideas, feel free to share them.

Later!