Pre-Christmas Music Time Updates

• On Friday we can FINALLY listen to Christmas music. And shame on anybody playing it before then - you know who you are.....
• There is just very little in the way of major music news right now so - thanks to Alan Cross and A Journal of Musical Things for some of the info below.
• The Foo Fighters are launching a tour in 2015 - and they are going back to the old "line up and get your wristband system" - at least that is the release for one of the Canadian shows. There are no Texas dates as of yet.
• Man all of a sudden U2 is getting all kinds of backlash for that free album release. Quick name the longest running band still playing with their original lineup.
• Faith No More has released a new song, I can't embed it but here is a link. Hell-o Moth-er-fuck-er.
• Oh yeah - apparently Stevie Wonder isn't blind.

Blackboard Jungle Updates

On this day in music history, in 1955, after being included the opening credits for the film Blackboard Jungle, the song Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & the Comets went to #1 on the UK charts, having already achieved that feat several months earlier in the US. Although the origins of Rock and Roll began much earlier, including Alan Freed broadcasting beginning in 1951 and eventually coining the term a few years later, Rock Around the Clock was the first #1 rock hit. The song entered the charts six more times - until 1974!

Originally dismissed as a fad by the older generation by the end of the decade Elvis was ruling the charts, Motown Records was formed, Buddy Holly was dead and the British Invasion was around the corner - and the rest, as they say, is history.

Tuesday Updates

• We have a new entry to the Battle of the Dueling Bands - not a band that I am particularly fond of but nevertheless...
• While heading out of Austin the Dropkick Murphy's bus was involved in a fatal traffic accident - while headed up I-35 a pedestrian jumped out in front of their bus in an apparent suicide. They subsequently cancelled their Tulsa show citing various factors including time and mental state of their bus driver.
• Late last week Richard Branson denied ever offering $800 million for a Zeppelin reunion. The Ticket did the math on this, based on 36 date tour and it just doesn't add up.

Dueling Band List

• Micheal Malinin (drummer) vs. Goo Goo Dolls
• Spirit vs. LED ZEPPELIN
• Glenn Danzig vs. The Misfits
• Wu-Tang Clan vs. Wu-Tang Clan
• Black Flag vs. Flag
• Oren Kaplan vs. Eugene Hutz (Gogol Bordello)
• The Turtles vs. SiriusXM
• Bun E. Carlos & David Frey vs. Cheap Trick
• Pandora/Spotify etc.  vs. Musicians
• Scott Weiland vs. STP
• Former Vandenburg members vs. Adrian Vandenberg
• J. Geils Band vs. John Geils/Francesa Records
• Live vs. Ed Kowalcyzk
• Kyuss & Kyuss Lives!
• Current version of Beach Boys vs. any former Beach Boy who is not in the current version
• John Fogerty vs. Creedence Clearwater Revival

• It has been almost a year and KISS still won't shut up about their RRHOF induction......
• I doubt very seriously that Robert Plant tore up an $800 million contract for a Led Zeppelin reunion tour "in front of stunned promoters". Whether or not their was an offer for such is questionable - but I am sure if there was he just simply declined.
• According to sources, it was to be a 3 city tour, with a 12 night stand at each location. There would have been only one US date on the bill on the east coast. That sounds strange right there - the biggest money draw would have been in the United States.
• With that being said wherever they played would have drawn people from all over.
• Brett Michaels underwent kidney surgery last week and has been in and out of hospitals for the last two weeks. I dug out this older article on his health issues - if he has nine lives he has used up at least four of them.......
• Big Bank Hank has passed on to the great Hotel Motel in the sky.
• AND here's a video in honor of such featuring a bunch of white people who can't dance - but they do dress well! I used to know every word to this song.

Well, Well, Well

• Charges against Phil Rudd have been reduced to basically (my interpretation) attempted murder. I would put my money on him still not being in the band, but there is a little more to the story than appears. Here is a nifty timeline for Mr. Rudd - thanks to Ultimate Classic Rock:

May 19, 1954: Phil Rudd (full name: Phillip Hugh Norman Witschke Rudzevecuis) is born in Melbourne, Australia.

1973: He forms Buster Brown with future Rose Tattoo singer Gary “Angry” Anderson.

December 1974: After recording one album (‘Something to Say’) with Buster Brown, Rudd auditions for and joins AC/DC. Over the next decade, the group become international superstars.

April 1983: Rudd parts ways with AC/DC after recording his drum parts for the album ‘Flick of the Switch.’ Reports vary as to whether he quit or was fired, but drug and alcohol abuse, as well as personality conflicts with guitarist Malcolm Young, have been cited as factors for his departure.

1994: He rejoins AC/DC after being invited to several informal jam sessions by Malcolm and Angus Young. Beginning with 1995′s ‘Ballbreaker,’ Rudd has appeared on every studio album and tour since that time, including the upcoming 2014 release ‘Rock or Bust.’

Oct. 7, 2010: Rudd is caught by police with 25 grams of cannabis aboard his boat in Tauranga, New Zealand. He is convicted for possession of marijuana that December, but in April of 2011 the conviction was wiped from his record after it was argued that it would keep him from traveling abroad for AC/DC tours.

July 2011: He branches out into a new venture by announcing that he will open a seafood restaurant in Tauranga called “Phil’s Place.”

July 2012: Three employees at Phil’s Place are fired following an incident in which his dinner order was delivered to his airport hangar instead of his boat. Rudd reportedly verbally abused the staff and kicked the back door and a garbage can. He is subsequently sued for wrongful termination, and the restaurant is closed until April 2013.

March 5, 2014: The drummer is accused of lying when he fails to mention his 2010 marijuana conviction on his application for a New Zealand pilot’s license. A judge clears him of the charge due to insufficient evidence.

March 11, 2014: The Employee Relations Authority rules in favor of the former employees in the wrongful termination case stemming from the July 2012 incident. Rudd is ordered to pay $72,000 New Zealand dollars, the equivalent of more than $55,600 in U.S. dollars.

Aug. 29, 2014: Rudd releases his first-ever solo album, ‘Head Job,’ which features the single, ‘Repo Man.’

Oct. 4, 2014: AC/DC film videos for two songs from ‘Rock or Bust’ without Rudd. Singer Brian Johnson explains that a “family emergency” kept the drummer from attending the shoot.

Oct. 16, 2014: AC/DC raises eyebrows by posting a new group photo without Rudd on their Facebook page. The band offers no official explanation for the omission.

Nov. 5, 2014: Rudd is charged with attempting to procure a murder, possession of methamphetamine, possession of cannabis and threatening to kill after police searched his home in Mauta, New Zealand.

Nov. 6, 2014: AC/DC issue a statement that offered no comment on the arrest, but declares that “Phil’s absence will not affect the release of our new album ‘Rock or Bust’ and upcoming tour next year.”

Nov. 6, 2014: The procuring-murder charge — the most major charge — against Rudd is dropped due to what his lawyer termed “insufficient evidence.” The other charges remain.

 

 

Thursday Updates

• It looks like AC/DC is about to lose another member. Phil Rudd has been arrested and charged with "attempting to procure murder" which basically means hiring a hit man to take, in this case, two unidentified men out. I swear he was involved in another minor incident recently but I could be thinking of someone else. He has also been charged with drug possession.
• In addition he had recently missed some AC/DC assignments, including a publicity shot. Phil has been the main drummer for AC/DC since their heyday but did leave the band for 11 years before returning.
• Chris Slade is available - the only reason he left was because of Rudd's return. According to Wikipedia he currently has a couple of projects going but nothing major. It does cite one of them as an "AC/DC tribute band" - is it really a tribute band if you were actually in the band?
• This kind of technically only leaves Angus as an "original" member......
• Wayne Static's death has been reported to be non drug related. It was stated he had been drug free since the forming of Static-X - he passed three days before his 49th birthday.
• Anyways tonight is King Diamond - this will be a first for me. It the next to last date before he hits Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin this weekend.

See more HERE.