Billboard reported yesterday Guns N’ Roses and Geffen Records has set Sunday, November 23rd as the release date for the long awaited follow-up to 1993 covers album The Spaghetti Incident?. The industry pub also confirmed Best Buy will be the exclusive retailer for Chinese Democracy.
Now, there’s probably only one reason to get hot and bothered about all this. Free Dr. Pepper. There are 23 flavors in Dr. Pepper, which is more than Axel has in store. Which means I could care less about Axel’s outdated, out of touch, and self-serving music, especially after hearing leaked demos of “I.R.S.,” “Better,” and “Madagascar.” Yeah, they’re demos, but they’re shit.
The only redeeming factor — other than the potential to score a can of free DP –, to Chinese Democracy smelling like decade-plus old fart is Interscope confirmed Appetite for Destruction will be available on vinyl on October 28th.
Anyway, most Decibloggers are kvlt, but we have to ask. Will you buy Chinese Democracy or is Gun N’ Roses about as relevant as, say, this?
We here at the Deciblog rarely get political, but this faux cease and desist letter from rock legends Heart to Republican senator and presidential hopeful John McCain is beyond classic. Now, we have to fucking clue why McCain or his advisors think “Barracuda” relates to his alleged maverick political stance. But…whatever. It sounds ‘mavericky.’
These lines from “Barracuda” seem alarmingly fitting for the McCain campaign’s current mud-slinging.
“If the real thing don’t do the trick
You better make up something quick
You gonna burn it out to the wick
Aren’t you, Barracuda?”
In what could be the most controversial decision of this fall’s judicial season, the Supreme Court of the United States is set to begin hearings to review whether the highly-contested pro-Death Magnetic opinion delivered by the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit in US v. Metallica should be overturned on purely aesthetic grounds. In a lengthy opinion delivered by Circuit Judge Jon O. Newman, the lower court ruled that new material from Metallica did not serve the interests of the “common good” and that the inclusion of a third chapter of “The Unforgiven” was unacceptable “even for fans of St. Anger.”
Almost immediately, Metallica’s legal team petitioned for a writ of certiorari to urge the Supreme Court of the United States to review the lower court’s ruling. After skimming the latest issue of Kerrang!, Chief Justice John Roberts rearranged the docket for the October 2008 term to accommodate a case that promises to dramatically alter how America thinks about “abortions and the death penalty.”
According to Jack Sebring, a senior staff reporter at the Capitol Hill-based Roll Call, there is no legal precedent for US v. Metallica and Justice Anthony Kennedy — a Reagan appointee — could be the swing-vote in any decision. “John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer are united in beliving that Metallica were captured after …And Justice for All and replaced by robot replicas. But John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito are obsessives and completists and even enjoy that collaboration with Ja Rule. US v. Metallica hinges on Kennedy’s vote — he has admitted in past interviews that St. Anger ‘wasn’t so hot,’ but is committed to listening to it again to rule out ‘knee-jerk reactions’ that could hamper justice… for all.”
In Roth v. United States (1957), the Supreme Court attempted to define obscenity as “whether to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.” Washington insiders and pundits assume that the Roberts-led court will invoke the Roth test in determining whether Death Magnetic constitutes obscene or pornagraphic material unprotected by the First Amendment.
Unfortunately, Supreme Court Justices are barred from commenting on ongoing proceedings, but according to Federal Prosecutor Mary L. Dutton, “Metallica’s legal team was unsuccessful in recovering the Grammy in Metallica v. Jethro Tull, but recovered to kick Napster’s ass in 2000. Here’s a case with even greater stakes, and it isn’t only a question of Free Speech; this is an opportunity for the only court higher than the court of public opinion to make a determination on whether or not this truly sucks.”
Jersey-based Shocker Toys has licensed likenesses/characters from Dethklok and Gwar for its upcoming line of action figures. The 5.5″ Dethklok line, featuring Nathan Explosion, Murderface, Skwisgaar, Toki, and Pickles, is sold as a limited edition set (click here to order).
At press time, it’s unknown if Shocker will introduce new Dethklok characters — or how the original five will be updated for Wave 2 –, but the toy company has a three full waves of action figures for Virginia-based schlock-rockers Gwar. Three. Shocker, popular for its articulated block action figures known as Shockinis, broke the bank with Gwar Wave 1 — 7″ vinyl replicas of Beefcake (painted sculpt), Oderus (unpainted sculpt), and Technodestructo (unpainted sculpt). Lined up for Wave 2 are Jizmack, Balsac and Bozo Destructo and Flattus, Slymenstra and Sleazy P Martini for Wave 3.
Shocker expects Gwar Wave 1 to be available sometime in November.
I’m not particularly bright or worldly, so don’t hold it against me if this little compare and contrast is old news. Anyway, the other night I caught the video for Priest’s “Heading Out to the Highway” on VH1 (whose desert “chicken race” conceit clearly went on to inspire both Queens of the Stone Age and Paula Abdul). You’ll notice, um, Halford being Halford out on the open road between 2:36 and 3:01.
Remind you of any overexposed pop culture phenomenon of the last five years or so? Like, you know, this?
I can’t find any interviews where Napoleon mastermind Jared Hess fesses up to Priest fanship. Which sorta makes sense since homeboy is a practicing Mormon. Then again, Hess directed the Postal Service’s video for “We Will Become Silhouettes.” You tell us: What’s more gay?
Sorry, GETTING OFF TRACK. The point of all this is I can’t be the only one who noticed the eerie similarity between Halford and Heder. In fact, I’m not, because commenter “yzracer22″ redundantly pondered “his dance moves remind me of napoleon dynomyte [sic] when he’s dancing” four months ago. Whatever. Can somebody just dub “Highway” over the dance scene already?
What happens when Keijo Niinimaa, lead throater for Finnish grind gods Rotten Sound, teams up with key members of the Tampere metal scene?
This…
Incredible moments throughout (the handrail ass-slide at 12 seconds, dumpster peek at 16 seconds, ice cream chomp at 2:00). As funny as it is “Cold Embrace” has some brilliant qualities (production, riff at 1:27, Finnish doom/death vibe at 1:54) as well. Let’s just say we’ll be tracking down a copy of Medeia’s recently released Cult album.
Gojira’s new video for the song “Vacuity” is yet another reason why the French neuvo metallers are step away from ruling all. Beautifully shot by filmmakers Julien Mokrani and Samuel Bodin with RED cameras — the same cameras used by Peter Jackson and Jumper director Doug Liman –, “Vacuity” is quite a visual and auditory feat. It looks like a movie trailer and sounds like a Mack truck crashing into a Large Hadron Collider.
That’s probably why Decibel awarded The Way of All Flesh an 8/10 in this month’s issue (Nov 2008, issue #49), featuring Amon Amarth frontman/warrior Johan Hegg on the cover. Get it!
Apparently Matador Records has a blog which they have cleverly named “The Matablog.” Hm. That’s cool, but what’s even cooler is the news on the Matablog. It reports that, “To celebrate the release of The Chemistry Of Common Life, in stores this coming Tuesday, Fucked Up will be playing live for twelve hours straight at a storefront in New York City.”
Shit-goddamn, is it just us or is that an awesome fucking idea? It’s at least as cool as playing a rooftop, except it’s probably even cooler since it doesn’t happen on a roof. And twelve hours is a long time. That’s double the amount of sleep than we get a night and nearly as long as we spend at the office everyday. If you do the math, it’s actually half a day!
The post also elaborates on the special guests joining Fucked Up throughout the debacle, including Mobb Deep (?), Gods & Queens, David Cross, plus additional unannounced “megastars.” Twelve hours later, we hope that city-dwellers appreciate the performance while they’re busy rummaging through the rubble, collecting their shattered lives.
Oh, and Fucked Up has this hot promo video. They’re regular PR whizkids. Check out the full post here.
