Aloha, Summer Lovers! After an extended hiatus gallivanting across my country ’tis of thee, Mr. Lang has been invited back to the melodic stomping grounds he inhabited during summer 2001.
Enough with the pleasantries, dear readers, and onto the bold-faced name-dropping music news. Oh, so much to report.
Rob Zombie has expanded his roster for the July 9 tribute album for the Ramones. U2, Tom Waits, Metallica, Garbage and The Pretenders have all been added to “We’re a Happy Family,” joining already-signed players including Eddie Vedder, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day and Marilyn Manson.
Zombie, who has already put his feather touch on “Blitzkrieg Bop,” announced that U2 will cover “Beat on the Brat”; Waits, “Jackie and Judy”; Metallica, “We’re a Happy Family”; the Pretenders, “Something to Believe In”; and Garbage will engineer “I Just Want to Have Something to Do.”
Rock fans should start saving their pennies now. On the same day, an album of Pixies demos from March 1987 will be released. Half of the demo is off the fabled “Purple Tape,” with the other half tracks that morphed into their debut, “Come On Pilgrim.” The set list includes early versions of “Here Comes Your Man,” “Subbacultcha” and “Broken Face.”
Said former frontman Frank Black, who grabbed his Catholics and played WOW Hall on Monday, about the demo album: “We knew it might just be a demo if no one was interested in it. It was all still fun. It wasn’t like I had my mortgage riding on the line at age 20 or whatever. I was still running away from my phone bills and school bills. Money was the least of my concerns. It was pure art.”
Item? Gwyneth Paltrow has been named the gatekeeper of fashion. Kirsten Dunst has the world on a platter as the heroine with the hair color to match Spidey’s tights. But who is the It Girl in Tinseltown right now? Ozzy Osbourne, who plays “Ozzy,” on the MTV hit show “The Osbournes.” He and his nuclear bomb family can add to their resume the coveted honor of knocking professional wrestling from cable TV’s top spot. So what now? Market, market, market. Two more seasons of the show, a book about the family and an Ozzy auto-bio are ready to hit. In the meantime, “The Osbourne Family Album” show soundtrack hits stores June 11, and it’s set to be a regular neighborhood block party. Former neighbor Pat Boone, whose coupling with the Osbournes first turned the music world onto the family dynamic, turns in a cover of Ozzy’s “Crazy Train.” Ozzy adds his own version along with “Dreamer” and “Mama, I’m coming home.” Kelly Osbourne croons a cover of Madonna‘s “Papa Don’t Preach.” Headbangers John Lennon, Eric Clapton, The Kinks and The Cars also appear.
The Ozzy “Overexposure 2002 tour” will hit Buckingham Palace for the Party at the Palace Pop Concert. Queen Elizabeth and other royals will attend the June 3 show. The event is part of a four-day Mardi Gras to celebrate QE’s 50 years on the throne. Ricky Martin, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Clapton and Tom Jones will also play for about 12,000 specially invited Brits.
Staying across the pond, London techies have cracked Sony Music’s elaborate technology to prevent CD burning. Web newsgroups have been chatting up the discovery that a person can scribble around the rim of a disc with a 99-cent felt-tip marker. Simple solution.
Three days after announcing their resignations, Napster chief Konrad Hilbers and poster-boy Shawn Fanning have both rejoined the company, following an $8 million bail-out by Bertelsmann Entertainment Group. The deal saves the college survival tool from bankruptcy, which prompted the departure of the two executives. BEG owns Arista and J Records, where the likes of Santana and Alicia Keys are inmates.
Napster probably wasn’t the cause, but Eminem announced his “The Eminem Show” will be released Tuesday because everybody already has a bootleg. Interscope kept the record under tight lock and key, but the album is widely available on the Web, and bootlegs are on the streets at $5 a pop.
Speaking of pop, Pink has opened her big mouth again, and Mr. Lang couldn’t be yawning more. But in case you, dear readers, don’t see the humor in an over-produced bleached-blonde female songstress berating the fake qualities of over-produced bleached-blonde female songstress Britney Spears, listen to this: Pink loves Ecstasy. She even recommended President Bush drop a little X. She previously suggested XTC be handed out in school lunchrooms.
Separated-at-music-birth sister Spears is shooting back at Brit tab The News of the World, which wrote this week about how much she supposedly misses former beau Justin Timberlake, and how the break-up sent her glossy lips to the liquor bottle. A flak for Jive Records said Spears hasn’t done any British interviews recently.
Britney plays Portland on May 30 with Nikka Costa. Pink plays Portland on June 22 with Candy Ass.
In “Record Labels Just Can’t Catch A Break” news, the parents of Aaliyah filed a lawsuit against Virgin Records and others Monday. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Aaliyah’s parents, Diane and Michael Haughton, in Los Angeles Superior Court, contends that the overloaded plane was the wrong one for the charter flight to Florida and that the pilot was unqualified to fly it.
And finally, a little local news: Portland’s own The Dandy Warhols will come out of hiding to play a Crystal Ballroom show June 13. Dustin “I’m not related to a Beastie Boy” Diamond will team with Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine for an Agate Hall show Friday. Just a couple of many worthy shows coming up. Go see a show!
E-mail managing editor Jeremy Lang
at [email protected].
His opinions do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald.