Sunday Bloody Sunday: News & Assorted Gibberish 02.22.04

Welcome to the third installment of Sunday Bloody Sunday! Decided to drop
the ‘Rants’ portion of the title because it’d give me a much better
opportunity to NAG at you. Ha ha? No? Damn. Tough crowd this week. Alright,
well first things first, I have to apologize to 411’s own Ari Berenstein for
the gaffe I made last week. Ari was the one who e-mailed me with the
suggestion I cover Sarah Slean for Sound Advice. all that was in the
e-mail was ‘Ari’ though, and I didn’t immediately clue in as to who it was
until well after the fact. Nobody’s perfect, despite how close I come to
reaching that benchmark, so I hope no ill will is there.

Not a whole lot of babbling on from yours truly today. This week can be
filed off into the ‘okay’ pile, as my hockey team, the Vancouver Canucks,
were able to end the Divealanche’s obscene winning streak, but were beaten
by the Minnesota Mild in what can only be described as a ‘rape’. I did get
Pixies tickets thanks to my brother, so I’ll be one of the lucky few
attending their fourth show coming up in April, so woo hoo for that. Beyond
that, nothing much else to report, I’m afraid, so let’s clear the appetizers
off the table and get ourselves ready for the main course, that being…

Da News

– Top story this week would be the Canadian Music Industry going and
following suit with their American counterparts. As Elliot href=”http://www.411mania.com/music/columns/article.php?columns_id=2121″>reported
earlier in the week, a tag team of EMI and Universal were looking to try and
sue 29 different file sharers. Shaw Cable, is looking to fight the record
labels, much in the same way Verizon is fighting the RIAA down in the States
right now. It’s interesting to note that it’s still legal to download
shit here in Canada, but uploading stuff to people is going to get the
industry looking at you pretty darn quickly. Finally, if there’s any
Mapleheads out there who are worried they might be getting looked at, href=”http://www.canfli.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=24″>this
site
has got the information you need to see if you’re one of the
potentional defendents in an upcoming copyright suit. I think by now
everyone knows my basic stance on the record labels cracking down on file
sharers. In case it’s not crystal clear yet, href=”http://www.macmerc.com/news/archives/1270″>here’s a site that
provides you with a diagram to figure out if your Pepsi bottle has a free
iTunes track thingy available in case you’re a complete incompetent. Funnily
enough, this’d be the second time that Pepsi’s made this sort of mistake by
making the liners too easy to read through the bottle. Anyone remember the
free Pepsis fiasco with the Crystal Pepsi bottles a couple of years ago?
Heh.

– Protestors, finding the War In Iraq to be tapped out and ‘old news’, have
decided to jump onto a new worthy cause to serve as a new excuse to dress up
in silly costumes and parade around Main Street in. href=”http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/”>Here Today…Gone To Hell
have started a petition in protest of the forthcoming Guns ‘N Roses Greatest
Hits that’s coming out later this year, claiming that the suggested
tracklist is weak as-is, and there is no real incentive for anyone to
actually buy the CD, considering there is no new material on it. Umm,
I know that’s become the norm nowadays, to include new material, but it’s a
friggen Greatest Hits! Universal is under no obligation to toss out new
material unless they think it’ll help sell the new record. Besides, you’d
have to convince Axl Rose, lard ass that he is, to go and take his href=”http://www.awfulplasticsurgery.com/archives/000252.html”>plastic
face
and record some material that doesn’t suck. Go ahead and click on
the second link there, I dares ya! Angry Surly 80s Axl transforms into Happy
Go Lucky Panda Riding Axl over the course of a decade! Scary stuff.

– Billy Corgan shows that he’s still very adept at making friends and
influencing people as he completely ripped former bandmate James Iha
(Smashing Pumpkins) a new blowhole. Desperate to try and attract some sort
of attention to himself now that giving bizarro poetry readings has lost
it’s charm, Corgan decieded to take it upon himself to post the ‘real’ story
regarding the break up of the Smashing Pumpkins on his website. On his
former bandmates, this is what Corgan had to say:

“The truth of the matter is that James Iha broke up the Smashing Pumpkins.
Not me, not Jimmy (Chamberlin), but James. Did it help that D’arcy Wretzky
was fired for being a mean-spirited drug addict, who refused to get help?
No, that didn’t help keep the band together, not at all.”

Wow. I hope that the rest of us lowly mongoloids can only hope to achieve a
shred of the perfection that permeates every single fibre of Corgan’s being,
because href=”http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=amazing+colossal+man&sa=N&tab=wi”>the
Amazing Colossal Man
has never had a bad day in his life. Never you mind
Adore (which, from my jaded standpoint was okay, but nothing
spectacular) or Machina, or the blissfully sweet, but ill-fated Zwan
project you headed up. It should also be noted that the original post has
long since been deleted off of Corgan’s website, but not before this info
made the rounds on the majority of the other news sites. God’s Gift to
Music, Poetry and all other Arts is currently at work in the studio on a
solo album and a DVD of him performing with an acoustic guitar will be due
out right before that.

– The RIAA, surprising absolutely no one, sued another 531 file sharing
users earlier in the week. This comes as a disappointment to some members of
the music industry, as they feel the RIAA is underachieving. I mean, they
sued 532 users last month, and now they can only get 531? Quit with
the slacking, RIAA, and start making with the lawsuits! Sheesh, you slow
down and people might actually realize you’re not actually doing a whole
hell of a lot in trying to solve this problem. Oh wait, did I say that last
bit out loud? Good.

– In a recent interview for Chart magazine Puddle of Mudd frontman Wes
Scantlin jumped on the Diss Durst bandwagon, ironic considering that his
band was the first to be signed to Fred Durst’s label. “He doesn’t write our
songs, he doesn’t produce our songs, he doesn’t do anything for us. He
doesn’t do our videos anymore. He doesn’t do anything for this band,”
Scantlin was quoted as saying. Our sources here at Sunday Bloody Sunday have
been unable to either confirm nor deny that Mr. Scantlin actually prefers it
that way. Wink, wink.

– So the bassist for Queens of the Stone Age, Nick Oliveri has insisted that
he didn’t quit the group…he just really, really, really, really wants to
keep working with his meal ticket Josh Homme. In a recent
interview (culled from href=”http://www.blabbermouth.net”>blabbermouth.net), Oliveri had the
following to say:

“Ya know, I’m not going away, I’m going to try to talk him into playing
music with me. I didn’t quit. I just don’t get it. Yeah, I get f*cked up, I
get real f*cked up, but I show up to play. I just need to talk to Josh, but
now I can’t get in touch with him. Ya know, I didn’t get married to get
divorced, and I didn’t join this band to quit it. I’m not a quitter, I want
to make another f*ckin’ record, I think QUEENS is a great f*ckin’ band. It’s
crazy the band of no rules now has f*ckin’ rules. I just want people to know
because I’m not a f*ckin’ flake and I didn’t quit.”

Umm. There were reports stating that Josh kicked Nick out of the band due to
his excessive partying and the such. I would now like to go on the record as
saying that maybe, just maybe those reports might be just a little, teensy
weensy accurate. Especially when you consider that Homme said that kicking
Oliveri out of the band was ‘the hardest thing’ and that he considers him to
be a ‘brother’.

Ahh, but the fun doesn’t stop there, boys and girls. Continuing the drama,
we have Oliveri seemingly trying to get in the last word on his webpage:

Hello everybody. I’m in L.A., and it’s getting to be too much. You know
what I mean? I’m ready to go out on tour again with Mondo Generator. I just
wanted to tell you folks what’s really goin’ on – good news and bad news.
The bad news, which you all know, is that Queens of the Stone Age, as we all
know it, is no more. I heard it’s now called “Queens Lite.” Unfortunately, I
was fired, and Mark Lanegan decided to cut out from the Queens and focus on
his solo project. His new record will be out this spring.

Anyways, a pure idea has been polluted. It’s funny. ‘a band about an idea?
The concept was simple: A ROCK BAND, selfless, mindless, ego-free,
unprotected, about danger, sex, and no bull-shit rock ‘n roll. You know what
happens when a pure and original rock band gets polluted, poisoned by hunger
for power, and by control issues? Things get really out of control. I’m
noticing that people start fighting for control, especially when they
realize they have no control. And what ever happened to loyalty?

The strongest leaders are chosen by their followers, not self-appointed. The
best front men are chosen by their fans. At one time, the thing I really
loved about the Queens was that there were three front men, organic and
original. I’d never heard of a rock band with three lead singers, with three
different voices. My favorite band is dead.

Could someone PLEASE tell me when it became cool for rockstars to go online
and post snitty little posts back and forth to each other? We’ve all more or
less come to expect this sort of thing from Fred Durst, but what’s with the
sudden rash of everyone going out and slandering each other. First
Corgan, now the guys in Queens of the Stone Age. In what will hopefully be
the last word regarding this matter, Homme released another statement today
saying that he’s continuing working on the new Queens of the Stone Age
record, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Nyah, nyah, nyah, NYAH!

Okay. I’ve now dedicated way too much of the Internet to the Queens of the
Stone Age. Short of someone in the band committing suicide, expect no more
coverage on these guys for the next month or so, just to balance out the
cosmos and to appease Al Gore, patron saint of the Intra-web.

– The most overhyped band in the world that was only able to achieve a slice
of fame thanks to a drug overdose has another rarities collection coming
out. Surviving members of Blind Melon will be coming out with a rarities
disc or a live disc or something. I’m sure if you care enough you can go and
find out more about it. Me? I feel dirty enough having already written this
much about them. No, I don’t like ‘No Rain’, I hate the f*cking ‘bee girl’
and any yammering idiot who has taken up an acoustic guitar and tried to
play this song to impress ‘babes’ needs to be castrated.

– Indie rockers The Anniversary have decided to call it quits. The band has
remained more or less incognito for the past couple of months, after a
rather public meltdown between their record label, Vagrant, and ex-label
mates Saves The Day. No real word was given as to why the band split up, so
expect this one to be chalked up to the ‘creative differences’ pile.

– In a story that really hasn’t been making the rounds up here, but I
thought I’d include it if only for the people involved, Canadian rockers the
Tea Party have bounced producer Bob Rock from the studio and have started
anew with a new producer by the name of Gavin Brown, href=”http://www.theteaparty.de/studio.htm”>according to an online studio
diary
written by Tea Party drummer Jeff Burroughs. Most recently he’s
done work with punkers Billy Talent, and he’s most assuredly an improvement
over Throb Cock, whose track record for making once good bands completely
and utterly suck in addition to working with already crappy as f*ck groups
is well known, and I’m glad that the band is no longer working with him. If
you’re interested in the Tea Party and what they sound like, the website
referenced above usually has a download of the month for you to check out.
This month is a rather choice selection, as it’s a soundboard quality
recording of a recent concert of theirs.

– Hawksley Workman is currently in Bangladesh right now filming a special
for Canadian music television station Muchmusic. The special will be a
feature on child labour and the garment industry and looks to be a good
change of pace from the usual dreck and garbage they show on Much. In
semi-related news, the video for Hawksley’s latest single,’No Reason To Cry
Your Eyes Out Tonight’, href=”mms://a2.v60675.c6067.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/2/6067/1/ouirock.download.akamai.com/6067/video/clips/hawkleyworkmannoreason.wmv”>has
been released
. It features French actress Marion Cotillard, whom you can
also see in the Tim Burton flick Big Fish. It’s a little cheesy in my
opinion, but hey, I’ll take any kind of ‘new’ Hawksley I can get.

– David Bowie will be re-releasing his classic disc, Diamond Dogs
later in May. Just like the 30th Anniversary release for Aladdin Sane
and Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Diamond Dogs
will be getting the same five star treatment and be coming in new packaging,
which’ll include rare photos and information, as well as a bonus disc. The
tracklisting for the whole ensemble is:

CD 1:
01 Future Legend (1.07)
02 Diamond Dogs (5.56)
03 Sweet Thing (3.38)
04 Candidate (2.40)
05 Sweet Thing (reprise) (2.32)
06 Rebel Rebel (4.30)
07 Rock ‘n’ Roll With Me (4.02)
08 We Are The Dead (4.54)
09 1984 (3.27)
10 Big Brother (3.20)
11 Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family (2.04)

CD 2:
01 1984*/Dodo** (5:27)
02 Rebel Rebel (U.S. Single Version) (2.58)
03 Dodo (2.53)
04 Growin’ Up (2.23)
05 Alternative Candidate (a demo for proposed 1984 musical) (5.05)
06 Diamond Dogs (K-Tel Best Of Edit) (4.37)
07 Candidate (Intimacy mix) (2.57)
08 Rebel Rebel (2003) (3.10)

Absolutely amazing little gem on it’s own, but the second CD just
happens to be icing on the cake for a Bowie fan such as myself. This, along
with the release of the 90s Bowie albums next Month, plus his upcoming
appearance in Edmonton is gonna make this a rather expensive couple of
months for me here.

– In related re-release news, although not necessarily in related genres,
Nas will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of Illmatic with a
re-released ‘platinum’ edition of the album. The disc will come with remixes
of tracks on the album, as well as a couple of underground cuts, one of
which being ‘Chizzle’. Look for this to be out March 30th.

– Jaywalking miscreants Oasis are looking to the public for help on their
upcoming DVD. A recent post on their web
site
is asking for anyone who has Oasis pictures or memorabilia,
particularly stuff from ’92-’95, to shoot an e-mail to
oasisdvd@metropolis-group.co.uk. Anything recieved will be looked at for
possible inclusion for their DVD, which is being overlooked by veteran Oasis
film-man Dick Carruthers who also has their videos Familiar To
Millions
and There and Then on his resume. So for all you
pseudo-Beatles fans out there, here’s your shot at recieving acknowledgement
from your false idols!

– Depending on who you ask, Nine Inch Nails will/will not be headlining this
year’s Lollapalooza tour, and there may/may not be a new record due out from
Mr. Reznor in June.

– Let the rumor mill start flying with the break up gossip! Big Boi, member
of Outkast, booked a solo date over in London earlier this week. Big Boi
will be playing at the Camden Electric Ballroom in London on March 1st. No
word as of yet as to why he’s opted to go for a solo show.

– But wait! It looks like those running off to the rumor mill may be doing
it a little prematurely. It looks as though Outkast will be making their
first fantastical foray into film (try saying THAT one three times fast)
with the appropiately titled, Speakerboxxx. The film will be a
musical and will be aired on HBO. Shooting begins in May, while Andre 3000
and Big Boi are hard at work for the music to the soundtrack. As for the
details regarding the film? Well, it’s going to be a 1930s piece and has
been described as being a mix of The Color Purple and Amelie.
Interesting. Also due out from Outkast is the video for ‘Roses’, which is
about the only song on Speakerboxxx/The Love Below that features
Andre AND Big Boi together. The video will feature a cameo by Paula Abdul
and should be hitting the airwaves by the end of February.

– For any closeted gay, alcoholic college student out there, there’s always
been the Smiths. Their 1986 album, The Queen Is Dead, features the
group in front of the Salford Lads Club, which became a rather popular
landmark for Smiths fans, a group who are fairly rabid in their devoutness.
Although initially incensed with the affiliation, the Salford Lads Club now
have a room devoted to the Smiths. A Smithstonian, if you will. And before
anyone decides to e-mail me calling me all sorts of mean things, I’d just
like to point out that I happen to like the Smiths as well, so chill out, I
was just making fun at some of the more devoted music fans out there.

– The group Eisbrecher, which is made up of former members of Megaherz, has
their new album for sale now. Normally this wouldn’t count for inclusion
into the news section here, but the CD comes with 2 blank CDRs that have the
same silk screening as the original CD, so it gets a mention in here. That
rings as something that’s pretty cool and Metallica might want to take a
page out of Eisbrecher’s book and include like 50 blank CDRs with whatever
counts as their new release. At least then people will have a reason to buy
a Metallica album: they’ll be able to listen to good music, and by that I
don’t mean Metallica! Hoo-ha! I’m on a roll today with the FUNNIES! A modern
day Bill Keane, if you like!

– The East Coast Music Awards, which are like the– aww hell, I’m not even
going to try to compare them to the Grammys. Anywho, the East Coast Music
Awards were held this past Monday with Newfie act Crush sweeping the awards
ceremony with 5 statuettes. Damhnait Doyle, Jimmy Rankin, Ron Hynes and
Dutch Robinson all walked away with 2 awards, while East coast mainstays
Sloan picked up Best Video, and newcomer Matt Mays, who was opening for Sam
Roberts on a Maritime tour, won the New Artist Award. I also win the prize
for Best Reporter for not ripping on Buck 65, who won Alternative Recording
Of The Year, considering what I think about his ‘music’.

– To further show what an amazingly slow news week this was, third
place
winner for Canadian Idol, Billy Klippert, was somehow able to get
his mitts onto a recording contract. As though Ryan Malcolm’s miserable
failure of a release wasn’t enough for us, we’re now being subjected to THIS
pinhead who looks like an over-the-hill Billy Idol. Here, I’ll let his
visage speak for itself:

src=”http://www.completelycrazy.net/civilian/klippert.jpg”>

Just…ugh. And the reason why he was booted off of the show? He decided to
do a cover of ‘Plush’ by Stone Temple Pilots. On Canadian f*cking Idol. To
top it off, this yahoo is from Calgary, so I now have the distinction of
knowing that this idiot has a record deal and also comes from the same city
as me. Absolutely wonderful.

– To close out the news, and in what’s becoming a sort of a tradition here
at Sunday Bloody Sunday, I bring you information regarding a Melvins coffee
table book, titled Neither Here Nor There. The book will be available
exclusively at shows while the band is on tour this year as well as the href=”http://www.ipecac.com/”>Ipecac Recordings website starting March
9th. A limited edition will be available that’ll come with autographs and a
companion CD. Check it out if you’re one of those old school punkers out
there.

Now with Da News out of the way, let’s get ready for a second helping and
mosey on over to…

Anti-Pop: 24 Hour Complaint And Technical Support

I got my first non-411 Music Zone Writer/non-friend e-mail from last week’s
column, care of 411 Games’ href=”http://www.411mania.com/games/columns/article.php?columns_id=2125″>Bryan
Berg
. He chimed in with his own 2 cents regarding the Benzino/Eminem
controversy that’s going on and more or less sums up the whole thing with
this:

“I’d like to think that people should hone their craft to improve to
Eminem’s level rather than bitch about skin color.”

I think that more or less works for me, and it should for you guys, too.
While we’re at it, too, Eminem could perhaps go and take a couple lessons in
beat making so that he can make himself a little more well rounded as a
producer. See? Both sides can learn something from one another, it’s not
that hard. The second point from Bryan that he wrote about in his e-mail
(which was technically his FIRST one, but I like changing it up to keep
y’all confused…) was regarding the Bitch Queen of MTV and the movie that
was ‘inspired’ by her insipid f*cking song. Bryan sez…

“The Skater Boy movie. Do any of these hacks realize that by the time
the Skater Boy movie comes out, nobody will even remember who the heck Avril
Lavigne is? That’s the nature of the pop beast (or at least that’s what I’d
like to believe) – here today, gone tomorrow, forgotten somewhere
inbetween.”

Gotta disagree with you there, reasons being apparent in a moment or two. I
think that Ms. Bitch Queen still has some star power left in that ragged
plumber’s ass of hers, and you KNOW marketing will be revving up the Hype
Machine into overdrive for her. Anyways, this segues nicely into the next
part of Anti-Pop.

Earlier this week in the Hall Of Justice meets East coast palatial estate
that’s the 411 Staff Writer’s hideout, Herr Evocator (aka FUCK YOU) proposed
all of us answer href=”http://www.411mania.com//ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=rock&Number=4793176&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1″>a
forum post
by 411ite loverboy. href=”http://www.411mania.com/music/columns/article.php?columns_id=2113″>Melchor
(who has your Ozzfest details covered), href=”http://www.411mania.com/music/columns/article.php?columns_id=2129″>FUCK
YOU
(this week dispensing out advice to the lovelorn), and the meat that
makes up the Minority Report sandwich, href=”http://www.411mania.com/music/columns/article.php?columns_id=2136″>Jeffrey
Fernandez
(giving y’all some info on Mr. Nelllllllllly, and has an
interesting Late Night Jukebox this week. Bran Van 3000 to Cowboy
Bebop to Green Day? And here I thought my playlist was oddball, nice to see
a good, if eclectic, mix) all contribute with their thoughts on the
following six questions. I was supposed to kick this shindig off last
Sunday, but I was too busy lapping champagne off of the breasts of
overpriced Canadian hookers
didn’t get my backstage pass into the
aforementioned Hall Of Justice meets East Coast palatial estate til after I
had posted my column, so I’ll wrap things up this week. Right, anyways,
here’s the questions, feel free to offer your 2 cents in the Forums.

1) Will rock or metal ever have another resurgence that doesn’t include
“garage bands”?

I’m not sure I entirely understand this question, because garage bands to me
have always been the groups that are formed through classified ads in
newspapers, high school buddies getting together, open mic nights at your
local pub, and so on. The vast majority of artists out there who have become
‘awesome’ started off as garage bands of some kind. If the poster meant
groups like the Strokes or the Darkness, who seem hellbent on trying to
recapture the look, feel and sound of eras gone by then yes, I think that
we’ll see a resurgence of rock/metal where those sorts of bands will be left
in the dust.

2) Will there ever be another band like the Beatles, who completely sweep
America off their feet?

With the way the music industry is in right now, it’s really, really
doubtful. Music back then and music now is so different in their approach,
their delivery and everything else that it’s hard to come up with a
completely homogenized band that’ll capture the imagination of
everyone. We’ve got sub-genres upon sub-genres of music out there,
and the music industry seems to have no problems with working with
disposable artists. There’s no interest in trying to build up new artists
and let them do their thing anymore, once a label is able to strike gold
with a particular artist, the market becomes saturated with a bunch of sound
alikes and that’s it for the original as well as the knock offs. Also given
how file sharing has changed how music distribution is handled, I don’t
think we’ll ever really see another run of Beatlemania unless there’s a
drastic shift in listening patterns and the current way the industry itself
handles things and I don’t really ever see that happening.

3) Will there ever be another Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, or any other
guitarist who just amazes you?

Okay, I may be running the risk of getting tarred and feathered here, but
I’m a huge fan of Jack White’s guitar playing and I think he has the
potentional to rise up and become one of those ‘iconic’ guitarists but he’s
not there yet. Zakk Wylde seems to keep turning heads, although beyond the
stuff he’s done with Ozzy, I haven’t heard any of his stuff. The guitarist
for the Darkness, Dan Hawkins, is a pretty good shredder, although he’s just
going through an already established and done-to-death style. Jonny
Greenwood from Radiohead I think is completely underrated as a guitarist and
musician in general, and I think he’s going to be one of those guys whom we
look back on in later years and remember as being utterly f*cking brillant.

4) Will a couple of crap rock bands like Nickelback, Puddle of Mudd or
Godsmack wilt away and go away in the next 5 years?

Considering Nickelback’s latest has been a failure (in comparison to
Silver Side Up) and they’ve fired through the singles in almost
machine-gun fashion, look to see them g-o-n-e by the end of this year unless
something miraculous happens for Hannah, Alberta’s finest. Pudd-izzle ‘O
Ma-Dizzle may as well be written off, but that’s what I thought of 3 Doors
Down and then they came back with that blowjob video to the American troops
so who knows? Godsmack are planning to release an acoustic album so
look to see their fanbase all but vanish upon arrival of that stinker.

5) Will Avril Lavigne be laughed off the face of the Earth after her
sophomore CD bombs?

Doubtful. It sounds like she’s more or less going to be sticking to what
worked for her on her first disc, so there’s nothing on it that’s really
going to alienate her fanbase a la Britney or the Spice Girls. Her live
album did pretty well when it was released last year, so there’s still
interest in the Bitch Queen of MTV, although it’s debatable just how much of
an interest there will be. I predict a strong follow up and showing on the
Billboard Charts, followed up with her ‘experimenting’ on her third album,
which will have her completely vanish from the public eye until she’s
reduced to working as a greeter at the grand opening of Napanee’s Wal-Mart.
Hopefully I’m wrong, but it doesn’t look to be the case.

6) Who is the current band that will still be around 10 years from
now.

Conor Obrest of Bright Eyes fame seems to have his shit together and if he
can pull himself out of the whole mopey emo-kid image he’s been pigeonholed
into, I think we’ll be seeing/hearing some good things from him. If we wanna
take a look at more ‘mainstream’ bands, then the Foo Fighters aren’t going
anywhere soon, I think, unless Dave Grohl’s involvement in just about every
rock sideproject forces the band to splinter apart. Honorable mention goes
to Earth The
Californian Love Dream
who are virtually unheard of right now, but I
expect to be hearing big things from in the coming years.

href=”http://www.411mania.com/music/columns/article.php?columns_id=2134″>Aaron‘s
got a tale about a man, his house and a mouse. Sadly, this particular mouse
is of the small, cat fodder kind, and not of the DJing, major label fodder
kind. He’s also the reason why there’s so many food references in this
particular column this week. He’s also got some exclusive dirt on
what goes behind closed doors at 411’s Hall of Justice. The hell are you
waiting for? Click on the link, already, mo fuggas.

href=”http://www.411mania.com/music/columns/article.php?columns_id=2123″>Tom
Cocozza
understands that hating the poor man’s version of Frank Sinatra
(Michael Buble) is a Good Thing. I really hope this idiot (Buble, that is!)
goes by and performs in NJ one of these days, as I’m sure it’s a capital
offense to try and cover Sinatra tunes there. Tom also misses each and every
one of you. Go read his column for a personalized ‘i missed you’,
straight from Tom himself! Mine said:

“If it’s any consolation, I missed you guys. Especially you. You are
something else, my damie!”

Go and see what YOUR message from Tom’ll look like, alright?

– Read the entire figures section. Lots of information coming out from
Toyfaire resides over in there, so if you’re into action figures (McFarlane,
Lord of the Rings, among others), go and check it out.

The alternate dimension version of
411
is week 2, going in to week 3. More good stuff in what seems to look
like 411’s first affiliated webcomic.

– Elliot’s got some good stuff in his href=”http://www.411mania.com/music/columns/article.php?columns_id=2121″>column
this week. Check out the bipartisan punk voting sites story, as well as his
touching on the idiocy of certain Canadian politicians, regarding the whole
Conan O’Brien vs. The Quebecois last week. Very quickly, I’d just like to
say that the NDP party is more or less our version of the Green Party as
they’re a fairly left leaning political party and tend to be a fairly
minority group in federal politics, so please take what Alexa McDoughnut
says with a grain of salt. Also consider that we’re going into an election
year and the political groups are going to start sticking their noses up
Quebec’s glorious puckering starfish in order to get votes. They happen to
be the second biggest block of voters outside of Ontario so having them on
your side sure as hell can’t hurt. Especially considering the Liberal party
is in a bit of a tailspin right now. Christ, I’m channeling href=”http://www.411mania.com/wrestling/columns/article.php?columns_id=2477″>Eric
S
. right now, talking politics in a non-politics column spot. Ah well,
better him than Monroe. Time to move on before he sends some goons up to my
house to bust my kneecaps for gimmick infringement.

– Josh Nason speaks my mind regarding Spiderman: there’s href=”http://www.411mania.com/comics/columns/article.php?columns_id=2135″>way
too f*cking much Spiderman out there right now.
We need more
BATMAN. Batman stomps Spiderman any day of the week, no question. Ha.
An inside joke buried DEEP into one of my columns. No, I don’t expect any of
you to get that last bit, but go read Josh, he’s got a good piece this week.

– Finally, go and welcome Gloomchen to 411 Music with her href=”http://www.411mania.com/music/reviews/article.php?reviews_id=2809″>Fear
Factory review
. Gloomchen and Warren Woo scare me with their reviewing
skills. Go check Mr. Woo out if you want his thoughts on the href=”http://www.411mania.com/music/reviews/article.php?reviews_id=2810″>Kanye
West
disc that just came out.

With our second helping done, let’s wrap things up with dessert and call it
a night, finishing this column out this week is some more…

Sound Advice

Okay, so this week I’ll be taking a look at a Winnipeg band that’s had the
distinction of being able to open up for bands such as Fugazi, Samiam and
Propaghandi. Sixty Stories is a female fronted band that does catchy synth
pop music and they’ve been a favorite of mine ever since I caught them on a
radio show about a year and a half ago. The group formed in 1999, touring
with the aforementioned Propaghandi, and releasing a demo tape, Care and
Work
to the general public. In 2001 the group signed to Smallman Records
and released a split CD, Different Places To Sit/A Loveless Kiss,
which also featured tracks from the now defunct Painted Thin. Following that
was their first full length release, Anthem Red in 2002. Currently
the band is on hiatus, as members in the band have gone back to school, so
as it stands right now, you’d be best suited to pick up their albums if
you’re looking to get into them.

As for the band itself, lead singer Jo Snyder sounds absolutely amazing.
She’s got a voice that I’m enthralled with while listening along. It’s not
exactly what you’d expect from a pop/synth group so it’s awesome to hear it.
She’s got some pipes on her, for sure. Unfortunately I’ve never been able to
catch them live, as their appearances in/around where I reside have either
conflicted with other shows or I didn’t hear about them after the fact. A
couple of people that I do know have caught them and have enjoyed them live,
so they seem to get a pass in the live performance book.

You can check out soundclips from Anthem Red in it’s entirety on their
website, sixtystories.com in the
Discography session. You can also buy their stuff from the href=”http://www.smallmanrecords.com/merchandise/merchandise.asp”>Smallman
Records site
if you’re so inclined.

Other Artists Featured In Sound Advice: href=”http://www.hawksleyworkman.com”>Hawksley Workman, href=”http://www.samrobertsband.com”>Sam Roberts.

If you want to see a band or artist featured here (preferably Canadian)
e-mail me at trevor411music@hotmail.com with your suggestions or catch me on
AIM as flinch311. I apologize for the quick ‘n dirty job here this
week for Sixty Stories, but I’m currently writing this at 3AM Saturday
morning, having to be at work in 6 hours. Busy crunch for me this week. Next
week we should have a Sarah Slean write up, unless I change my mind and do
something else up.

The End Is The Beginning Is The End

All that’s left is the bill for this monstrosity of a
column meal. Tune in on Monday for Melchor, who’ll be
picking up the tab and pick up the new Tantric or John Frusciante if you’re
looking for something new to burn money on and look for reviews on Matthew
Barber and Courtney Love later this week from little ole ME!