rock and roll

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Santa Cruz Seeks Deadhead Archivist

UC offers $70K for job made in hippie heaven

(Newser) - Far out. The University of Santa Cruz is seeking an archivist to help handle its horde of Grateful Dead material—for a very un-hippie-like $70,000 salary, plus benefits. The school is seeking a "creative" professional with a master's degree, and preferably "expert knowledge" of the "history...

Steven Tyler Quits Aerosmith: Band
 Steven Tyler Quits 
 Aerosmith: Band 
NOT-SO-SWEET EMOTION

Steven Tyler Quits Aerosmith: Band

Move follows missed tour dates and apparent dissension

(Newser) - Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler has left the band, according to rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford and lead guitarist Joe Perry, who have suggested that they're looking for a new singer. The news comes after a disastrous summer tour in which Tyler broke his shoulder in a stage fall and canceled many...

Rock Legend Chuck Berry, Top-Notch Short Story Writer

"Memphis, Tennessee" shows Berry's sociological side: Klinkenborg

(Newser) - The original Chuck Berry version of “Memphis, Tennessee” isn't as well known as some others—by Johnny Rivers, say, or Buck Owens. But the real star is the tune, first released in 1959, which Verlyn Klinkenborg suspects is the “best short story in the form of a song...

Pearl Jam Via Target? It's a Brave New World

'The Fixer' is their best song in years, however you come by it

(Newser) - Pearl Jam has been proudly iconoclastic for years—releasing records on vinyl, eschewing music videos, “bootlegging” concerts, and fighting Ticketmaster—but they’re getting old. So it surprises Jonah Weiner that The Fixer, the single from the band’s new album Backspacer, is “by far the most exciting...

San Fran Returns to Its Psychedelic Roots

Not that any band there would say they knew of a scene

(Newser) - San Francisco seems to have had something of a psychedelic rock resurgence, though don’t ask any of the bands involved to identify themselves that way. “People are so aware of everything and don't really separate it that much,” a man whose band has the telltale brooding drones...

Cops Take Another Look at Rolling Stone Jones' Death

Hundreds of pages of new evidence dug up by journalist

(Newser) - It’s been 40 years since Brian Jones’ body was discovered in a swimming pool—but police are reviewing the death of the Rolling Stones' co-founder in the wake of “new evidence” that he was murdered, the Daily Mail reports. An investigative journalist provided police some 600 pages of...

Woodstock Not Worth the Trip
 Woodstock Not Worth the Trip 
movie review

Woodstock Not Worth the Trip

Mixed reviews for 1960s coming-of-age flick

(Newser) - Taking Woodstock isn’t really about the music: it’s more about coming of age on the outskirts of the festival. Critics are lukewarm about Ang Lee's latest effort:
  • “You can’t deny the smiling mood that wafts through the film like incense,” admits Anthony Lane of the
...

Arctic Monkeys Go Darker, Show Staying Power
 Arctic Monkeys Go Darker, 
 Show Staying Power 
album review

Arctic Monkeys Go Darker, Show Staying Power

Album maintains the 'good stuff,' tries something new

(Newser) - With their latest album, Britain’s Arctic Monkeys show they haven’t let the media hype get the better of them. Alex Turner and Co. try some new directions without abandoning the “good stuff” from “their usual territory,” writes Joe Tangari for Pitchfork. Humbug is “their...

Rock's Worst Career Moves
 Rock's Worst Career Moves 
OPINION

Rock's Worst Career Moves

Bob Dylan's Christmas album is just the latest in a long line

(Newser) - Bob Dylan’s decision to record a Christmas album is certainly ill-advised—“fans may have stuck by him throughout the musically self-destructive late '60s, the God-bothering late '70s, and the Grateful Dead-collaborating-Madonna-imitating mid '80s, but surely even Bob's fans have a limit,” writes John Matthew Hall for the...

MoMa Shines Light on NYC's Punk Revolution

Materials by Patti Smith, Ramones showcase cultural shift

(Newser) - New York’s Museum of Modern Art is showcasing the gritty glamour of the city’s 1970s and early ’80s music scene, where punk, New Wave, DIY, and noise rock ruled, Rolling Stone reports. New Yorkers were feeling alienated—the city was bankrupt in 1975; President Ford told it...

Corgan Picks 19-Year-Old as Pumpkins' Next Drummer

(Newser) - After the departure of longtime—well, come-and-go—Smashing Pumpkin Jimmy Chamberlin and the audition of 1,000 hopefuls, frontman Billy Corgan has named a new drummer, the Chicago Tribune reports. And the kid’s 19. Oregon native Mike Byrne played with local groups before receiving the honor from the Chicago-based...

Les Paul's Genius Will Be Missed
 Les Paul's 
 Genius 
 Will Be 
 Missed
appreciation

Les Paul's Genius Will Be Missed

(Newser) - Les Paul's death today at age 94 has the accolades pouring in:
  • Lou Carlozo, True/Slant: "The solid-body Les Paul guitar that Lester developed with Gibson in the early 1950s is rock and roll. Like the Fender Stratocaster, its shape is so synonymous with the genre that any musician can
...

Best Rock Documentaries
 Best Rock Documentaries 

Best Rock Documentaries

(Newser) - In honor of Woodstock—which happened 40 years ago this weekend—and the “seminal documentary” that captured it, John Farr shares his list of the 10 best rock concert/performance films—all of which are “meant to be played loud,” he writes on the Huffington Post. “So...

Happy 100th to the Man Who Changed Rock
 Happy 100th to the 
 Man Who Changed Rock 
appreciation

Happy 100th to the Man Who Changed Rock

Leo Fender, inventor of the Stratocaster, born Aug. 10, 1909

(Newser) - Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of a man who forever changed rock and roll—even though he couldn’t play the instrument inextricably associated with his name. Leo Fender designed guitars and amplifiers that have endured for decades, including the legendary Fender Stratocaster, played by Jimi Hendrix,...

Tyler Hospitalized After Fall From Stage

(Newser) - Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler was taken to a hospital after falling from stage during a concert at a motorcycle rally in western South Dakota, the AP reports. A concertgoer told local journalists that Tyler, 61, fell while dancing around on a catwalk after the sound system failed during the song...

The Best Rock Frontmen
 The Best Rock Frontmen 

The Best Rock Frontmen

(Newser) - Frontmen are at the heart of rock ‘n’ roll—no matter how amazing the musicians in the band are, they still needs someone with the right mix of talent and charisma to reach the crowd. The Independent compiles the best:
  1. Johnny Rotten, Sex Pistols. Like so many other rockers,
...

Rock's Worst Comebacks
 Rock's Worst Comebacks 
OPINION

Rock's Worst Comebacks

(Newser) - Some bands just shouldn’t—or couldn’t successfully—get back together. The Independent takes a look at the 10 most ill-conceived rock reunions.
  • The Sex Pistols: Sure, the punk progenitors honestly named their 1994 comeback tour "Filthy Lucre," but still "tarnished their own lawless chapter in
...

'Freebird' at 35: a Joke and a Classic

(Newser) - Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" is 35 years old now, and in the course of its life, the song "has been an anthem, a demand, an ode to personal independence, the lamest heckle in the history of rock," writes Christopher Borelli in the Chicago Tribune. "But what it...

A Little Bit Cloudy, a Little Bit Rock 'n Roll

Weather Channel abandons smooth jazz for harder-edged music

(Newser) - The Weather Channel has ditched its familiar smooth jazz background music for the likes of the Rolling Stones—to the delight of watchers and advertisers alike. “People would have it on but they wouldn’t be watching and they wouldn’t be listening,” the exec who pushed the...

Iranian Rockers Won't Stay Mute on Crisis

Plan to get so famous they're unstoppable at home

(Newser) - Iranian band Hypernova arrived in the US in 2007 ready to rock—but not prepared to be caught condemning their home government. Now, as demonstrators flock to protest Iran’s election results, singer “King Raam” is turning up the political volume, the Global Post reports. “There are so...

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