Blink 182, Apple, Pixies, Morrissey, Zane Lowe, Reading/Leeds festival and ABBA...
Intro...
Welcome to today’s slice of stuff. Read on to learn details of legal downloads that come at a price, the Pixies set list from the gig I went to, more quality song titles from Morrissey, the hot list according to Zane Lowe, details of the special guests at this years Reading/Leeds festivals and the death threat to a 70’s icon. But first up details of Blink 182’s tour of the UK.
The guys at the rock show...
Those lovable funsters Blink 182 have announced that they are to play in the UK later this year. The trio have revealed that they are to do seven gigs around Britain at the end of November and the beginning of December.
The tour will hit the following venues:
November 30 - Birmingham NEC
December 01 - Glasgow SECC
December 02 - Newcastle Arena
December 03 - Manchester MEN
December 05 - London Wembley Arena
December 07 - Cardiff Arena
December 08 - Nottingham Arena
The San Diego lads have vowed to bring their whole production over including a huge light show and massive video screens. A bit more ‘showy’ than the kit they used at last years Leeds Festival which was basically a 30-foot high rig with the word “FUCK” spelled out in fireworks.
Bass player Mark Hoppus confirmed the inclusion of the extra equipment: "Last time we were over here we just took the basics over - just lights and sound. But this time we've got full production, video screens and stuff."
You say you want a revolution...
After a long delay due to international law or something Europe will finally be getting access to Apple’s fabled iTunes online music store. It seems there will be an announcement in the middle of June confirming that the service will finally be available on our side of the Atlantic in the next few weeks.
For those of you who don’t know (where the fuck have you been living, under a rock?) iTunes is a kind of online version of HMV only without the artificially inflated prices and the acne-ridden staff milling about trying to do their best impression of looking busy as to not incur the wrath of some middle-aged manager going through ‘the change’.
Ahem...
User’s sign up, log in and then download all the tracks they want...for a price. Apple claims that it is a fair way for both the public and the record companies to get a bit of value for money. The punters get a song for around 99 cents while the poor, poor record companies finally get paid for an evil download.
So what is in it for Apple then? As they are the middlemen in this little arrangement they get a cut of any transaction. Now this might only be a few cents but as Depeche Mode sang before Dave Gahan became a mad smackhead #...everything counts in large amounts...#.
At its peak the computer giant sold 3.3 million downloads in a single week and flogged over 70 million in its first year. You don’t need to be Dr Stephen Hawking to work out that the company are raking it in from this little venture. But those figures are just from the USA, how much can they make in Europe?
No doubt the execs at Apple will keep a similar pricing system to that which they use in America at the moment so don’t be surprised to see tracks costing 99p when they launch this month. Instantly they are making around 25% more in Britain the shifty bastards. Oh but it gets better for the shareholders.
Did you know that the iPod is the only portable music player that is compatible with iTunes? So if you want to use the best online song store you will need to for out for a swanky new iPod. Prices for the sexiest thing in music since Kylie’s arse range from £250 up to £400.
Is it worth joining the latest revolution? Well that is up to you I suppose. What Apple is doing is letting you download songs legally using arguably the best digital jukebox and giving you the opportunity to listen to them on arguably the best digital music player...all at a price of course.
It’s educational...
Last Friday I had the utter privilege of seeing the Pixies in London’s Brixton Academy. If you did catch them or will miss them at this summers festival then you really have missed out on what can only be described as an event.
Despite being a bit fatter than before (a LOT fatter in the case of Black Francis) and a little more lethargic than their early 90’s heyday they still fucking rocked! 28 songs in around an hour and three quarters, which included two encores. Live the dream!
There will be a review of the gig appearing here in the next few days but for now here is the full set-list for you to drool over:
'Bone Machine'
'Crackity Jones'
'River Euphrates'
'Wave Of Mutilation'
'Isla De Encanta'
'Monkey Gone To Heaven'
'I Bleed'
'Caribou'
'Cactus'
'Broken Face'
'Something Against You'
'Hey'
'No. 13 Baby'
'U Mass'
'Dead'
'Gigantic'
'Velouria'
'Ed Is Dead'
'In Heaven/'Where Is My Mind?'
'Mr Grieves'
'Here Comes Your Man'
'The Holiday Song'
'Vamos'
Encore:
'Into The White'
'Gouge Away'
'Debaser'
'Tame'
Encore 2:
'Planet Of Sound'
Never disappointed...
Audio Truckstop favourite Morrissey has announced details of the next single to be taken off his new album ‘You Are The Quarry’. ‘First Of The Gang To Die’ will be the follow up to the top three hit ‘Irish Blood, English Heart’ and will be available on July 12 at all good record shops and countless bad ones too.
The Mozfather has given us some fantastic song titles and the B-sides (there are three) to ‘First Of The Gang To Die’ aren’t any different with one exception. ‘Mexico’ isn’t really that good but ‘Teenage Dad On His Estate’ and ‘My Life Is An Endless Succession Of People Saying Goodbye’ certainly are!
Other highlights include: ‘Hairdresser on Fire’, ‘Bengali In Platforms’, ‘November Spawned a Monster’, ‘The Last of the Famous International Playboys’, ‘There's a Place in Hell for Me and My Friends’, ‘The National Front Disco’, ‘We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful’, ‘You’re The One For Me Fatty’, ‘The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get’, ‘I’m Hated For Loving’ and ‘Satan Rejected My Soul’.
And some people claim he is miserable. Pffft...
What is hot...
I like to use Zane Lowe as a bit of a musical barometer – I know there are people out there who would like to use him as something else ranging from a sex slave to food for a shoal of hungry piranhas.
I like the bloke and on the whole I like his taste in music. These are the choons he will be spinning on the wheels of steel at Radio 1 HQ over the next week or so:
Supergrass - 'Kiss Of Life'
J'Kwon - 'Tipsy'
Ash - 'Starcrossed'
Maurice & Noble - 'Hoochi Koochi'
The Futureheads - 'Decent Days & Nights'
The Zutons - 'Remember Me'
Methodman - 'Afterparty'
The Hives - 'Walk Idiot Walk'
Elite Force - 'Driving Me Crazy'
Modest Mouse - 'Float On'
Max Sedgely - 'Happy'
Secret Machines - 'Sad & Lonely'
InMe - 'Faster The Chase'
Linkin Park - 'Breaking The Habit'
!!! - 'Pardon My Freedom'
Hope Of the States - 'Good Horse Hymn'
The Distillers - 'Beat Your Heart Out'
Phoenix - 'Everything Is Everything'
Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster - 'I Could Be An Angle'
Phoenix - 'Run Run Run'
22-20s - 'Shoot Your Gun'
Goldie Lookin' Chain - 'Guns Don't Kill People'
DJ Zinc - 'Steppin Stones'
Do Me Bad Things - 'The Song Rides'
The Roots - 'Don't Say Nuthin'
Manhead - 'Birth, School, Work, Death'
Golden Virgins - 'Lights In Her Window'
The Walkmen - 'Little House Of Savages'
Secret is safe with me...
You know that band on all the Reading/Leeds festival posters set to play between The Hives and Jurassic 5? Mysteriously billed as ‘Special Guests’? Yeah well it is The Distillers. Whoo-and indeed-hoo.
Brody Dalle’s lot are set to play Reading on August 27 and Leeds on the 28th after appearing at the recent Download festival at Donington Park. Also added to the line-up at Reading and Leeds is Modest Mouse who will appear on the Radio 1 Stage.
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A guard after midnight)...
You know the blonde one in ABBA? You would have wouldn’t you? Come on admit it! Anyway if you still want to you had better get a move on as someone has sent her a letter promising to make sure a reunion with the rest of the IKEA mob is impossible.
Blonde singer Agnetha Faltskog (the one that didn’t look like a bloke in drag) is shitting herself after receiving a “terrifying” letter in the post to her remote island hideaway near Stockholm. She is so scared that the singer is under 24-hour police guard.
Her manager Staffan Linde said: "Agnetha receives many letters every day, but this one was different and serious."
Hang on; she receives many letters a day? Why is she so hated? Have I missed something? Does she belong to some fundamentalist group? Does she do experiments on animals? Has she hoarded a cash of nuclear weapons over the years? Is she the cause of Third World debt? Answer me god-dammit!!!
Recluse Faltskog has been terrified of making public appearances for years and already has a live-in security team at her home on top of the police guard.
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