Frank Black is going to be rocking out the Mercy Lounge next month. I have already ordered a ticket.

Most excellent...

Frank Black - Mercy Lounge - Nashville, TN - 10/04/2006

Over the weekend, British papers discovered that Banksy, the artist who notoriously sneaked fake versions of famous paintings into art galleries last year, replaced as many as 500 retail store copies of Paris Hilton's debut CD with a retouched and remixed version. Now, it has been revealed that Danger Mouse -- the producer behind Gnarls Barkley, Gorillaz, and the famous Grey Album -- is behind the remix portion of the disc. Along with completely reworked liner notes that included topless photos of Paris slathered with slogans like "Every CD you buy puts me even further out of your league," the CD featured remixes of Hilton songs by someone credited as "DM," letters that stand for Danger Mouse. The song titles were also changed to names like "Why Am I Famous," "What Have I Done," and "What Am I For." According to an email from his management company obtained by SPIN.com, Danger Mouse met Banksy in London while shopping for disguises. The two had one singular statement about the project: "It's hard to improve on perfection, but we had to try."

Remember what Paris had to say about her album?

Of her album, she says, "I, like, cry, when I listen to it, it's so good."

I wonder what she does when she listens to Danger Mouse's version...

SPIN.com: Danger Mouse, Banksy Burn Paris

"We want to be a dangerous band, like Fugazi or The Clash or Bob Dylan. Woody Guthrie's folk music influenced me a lot," Yang said. "But because the government doesn't care about us, we are not forbidden from playing. Maybe we are not dangerous. It's sad."

I'm sorry, but anyone whose music appears on "Friends" is not dangerous. Furthermore:

It was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics poll. In 1998 Q magazine readers voted London Calling the 32nd greatest album of all time; Rolling Stone named it the best album of the 1980s (although it was released in 1979 in the UK, its U.S. release was in 1980) in 2000, and in 2003 named it number 8 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time"; also in 2003, the TV network VH1 placed it at number 25. Pitchfork Media ranked it number two on their Top 100 Albums of the 1970s. In 2004, Entertainment Weekly named it the Greatest rock album of all-time.

They go on:

"We are trying to change the image of punk rockers. We just want to tell the audience that the music is pure and that we are nice and not violent."

Many punk rockers in China are long on style and short on substance, critics say. Few of them can articulate what they stand for or explain what their songs mean.

So which way do they want it? The scene seems split on the most basic issues.

China's Punks Look to Rock

Syd Barrett, the eccentric guitarist who founded Pink Floyd but later left the music business to live quietly and somewhat reclusively, has died at the age of 60, according to a spokeswoman for the band.

A spokeswoman for Pink Floyd told the Press Association: "He died very peacefully a couple of days ago. There will be a private family funeral."

CNN.COM - Pink Floyd legend Syd Barrett dies

Nashville producer and artist Jeremy Dickens remains on the vanguard of electronica in a city known for twang.

MemeStreams user logickal has a new EP out. You can get it from iTunes, Rhapsody, Yahoo Music, and BeatPort. Jeremy also keeps a blog with numerous podcasts featuring his tracks.

We were all fans of Logickal's last release. I look forward to listening to this one.

dPulse Recordings : Logickal

"Like the 309," the last song written by Johnny Cash before his death, will be included on "American V: A Hundred Highways."Due July 4 via American Recordings/Lost Highway, the album was recorded with producer Rick Rubin in the months leading up to Cash's September 2003 passing.

The balance of the set includes such songs as Bruce Springsteen's "Further On (Up the Road)," Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind," Hank Williams' "On the Evening Train," Rod McKuen's "Love's Been Good To Me" and the traditional spiritual "God's Gonna Cut You Down."

With Cash's engineer David "Fergie" Ferguson, the songs were completed by a group of musicians who had worked on previous "American" recordings: Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench and guitarist Smokey Hormel (Beck, Tom Waits), along with guitarists Matt Sweeney (Guided By Voices, Chavez) and Jonny Polonsky.

The Man in Black will ride once more...

CNN.com - Johnny Cash's final song: American V to come out July 4th

"Have you, like me, been recalling the great protest songs of the Sixties, and wondered where the new protest songs are? Yesterday, I found out."

Not really.. But I'm all about music with message, even though I'm more into Bad Religion than stuff that came from the hippie movement. However, I do have a sweet spot for Neil Young.

It started as a rumour - gossip shared by fans on internet chat sites. Could it true, they asked? Could Neil Young, a cultural lodestone for a generation of country rock fans, really be turning his attention to President George Bush and the war in Iraq? Now Young himself has confirmed it. Not only has he recorded an entire album about the conflict, but in one of the songs he spells out who he thinks is to blame for the ongoing chaos and violence and what the consequences for that person should be. That track is called "Impeach the President".

"I just finished a new record - a power trio with trumpet and 100 voices," the 60-year-old says in a ticker-tape message posted at the bottom of his official website. "Metal folk protest? It's called Living with the War."

I liked the sentiment, but I didn't care much for Let's Roll as a song. I was also somewhat miffed when Young came out supporting the Patriot Act.. I'll be interested in seeing what the lyrics are like.

Independent Online Edition | Neil Young sets his sights on Bush

Harraj Mann, 24, played the punk anthem London Calling and classic rock track Immigrant Song in a taxi before a flight to London.

The lyrics to both tracks made the driver fear his passenger was a terrorist.

Mr Mann, of Hartlepool, Teesside, had boarded the plane at Durham Tees Valley Airport when the flight to Heathrow was stopped and he was arrested by police.

He said he was told he was being questioned under the Terrorism Act and his choice of music had aroused suspicions.

If this is the case, my playlists would get me shipped directly to Guantanamo.

"I played Procol Harum's Whiter Shade Of Pale first, which the taxi man liked. I figured he liked the classics so put on a bit of Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song - which he didn't like. Then, since I was going to London, I played the song by The Clash and finished up with Nowhere Man by The Beatles."

Oh please. Let's see how this would go with DJ Rattle:

"First, I started up with an American classic, Neil Young's 'Revolution Blues'." Said Levay. The words of this classic include the following: "Yes, that was me with the doves, setting them free near the factory. Where you built your computer, love. I hope you get the connection, cause I can't take the rejection. I won't deceive you, I just don't believe you."

This did not heighten the attention of the taxi driver, but the last verse of the song did: "With my carbine on, I keep em hoppin, till the ammunition's gone. But i'm still not happy. Feel like something's wrong. I got the revolution blues. I see bloody fountains, and a ten million dune buggies, comin' down the mountains."

"Then, I went into some Bad Religion, 'The Numbers Game'" Said Levay. Among the lyrics are the following: "They call it liberation. With opiates of silicon big brother schemes to rule the nation. We're one nation under god. We stand above the rest, with mighty high technology, we're never second best. Our specialty is infiltration!"

"From there it went downhill as I played Petter Bazooka by the Dead Milkmen followed by some Public Enemy." Said Levay, "At this point I noticed he was sweating and visibly perturbed."

If I played The Clash, I would play Guns of Brixton.

This would be a great time for someone to ask JonnyX about the time he drove me to the airport in 2000...

'Playing The Clash made me a terror suspect' | the Daily Mail

The U.S. Justice Department says it has launched an inquiry into possible price fixing in the burgeoning online music industry.

The Justice Department would not name the companies it has targeted. "The antitrust division is looking at the possibility of anticompetitive practices in the music download industry," spokeswoman Gina Talamona said Thursday.

Universal and Warner have been told by the Justice Department to expect a formal demand for information, according to the two officials, who requested anonymity because the probe was ongoing. Warner has publicly acknowledged that it was subpoenaed by Spitzer.

CNN.com - Feds probe online music price fixing - Mar 3, 2006

The T-Shirts are now available! Enjoy the METAL!!!!!
James Vance made metal history on 12/23/85 when he was inspired by Judas Priest to blow his face off.
WAY TO GO JAMES! A TRUE METAL HERO!!
Support the METAL!!! Tell your friends!!!!
Buy T-Shirts NOW!!!

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U: By Popular Demand, BLACK T-shirts also available HERE!

To honor the 20th Anniversary of one of American music's most stupid events, MemeStreams user Terratogen has made a t-shirt memorializing the only survivor of the suicide pact that shook the metal world.

Put on your METAL FACE!!! | James Vance vs. Judas Priest