Talk About Rock Music

Dave Matthews Band, who will be supporting Bruce Springsteen at the Hard Rock Calling Festival in June (see previous post), have now revealed the track list to their new album Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King which is out on June 2nd.

The first single “Funny The Way It Is” is still available as a free download over at DMB’s official site and the new album features 13 songs (listed below). The band also unveiled the hand-drawn cover artwork.

Dave Matthews, when speaking with Rolling Stone Magazine, explained that; “This is a good record. Even people who don’t like Dave Matthews Band are going to like this record — and if they don’t, then they just don’t like music.”

Rolling Stone also called Big Whiskey “DMB’s heaviest album yet, both musically and emotionally” so it is certainly something to look forward to. The album is also a tribute to saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who passed away early in the album’s recording as a result of injuries sustained in an ATV accident. The album’s title, “GrooGrux King” is a reference to LeRoi’s nickname.

Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King track list:

“Grux”
“Shake Me Like A Monkey”
“Funny The Way It Is”
“Lying In The Hands Of God”
“Why I Am”
“Dive In”
“Spaceman”
“Squirm”
“Alligator Pie (Cockadile)”
“Seven”
“Time Bomb”
“My Baby Blue”
“You And Me”

Although it is not taking place till June next year, the Glastonbury festival has already confirmed the first band in the line-up for one of, if not THE biggest festival taking place next year.

The four piece band, who hail from our very own city of culture (That’s Liverpool if you didn’t know) are called Major Major and recently won the Rockstar Bands competition held earlier this year in a village called Pilton.

By winning the competition, they won a place at Glastonbury and also a recording session at Peter Gabriel’s studio!  Well done lads!

It hasn’t been announced which stage they will be performing on but you may have seen them recently if you went to the Glastonbury party gig where they played with the likes of The Ting Tings and Franz Ferdinand.  If you haven’t had the chance to check them out yet, take a look at their myspace page and have a listen to the songs they have uploaded on their main page.

Tickets for the festival have already gone on sale with an option to pay a deposit to reserve a place.  This is the forst time that the festival has sold tickets in this way.  They tell us it is because they want to make it easier for students to go but other news reports that they only broke even last year so looks like they may want to get your mioney in the bank early enough to earn big sums of interest - just a thought!

Hoping to still get tickets for Hard Rock Hell to be held this December at Pontins in Prestatyn?  They sold out 3 months ago but they have managed to blag a few extra tickets so get to the website NOW and see if you can book the last few.  The accomodation has been fully booked but there might be cancellations so keep checking.  There are some B&B’s nearby which are worth checking out if you can’t get a cancellation.  If you are one of the lucky few who managed to buy tickets, you are in for a real treat this year.  There are some top bands who are playing this year and the venue isn’t half bad either.  Scuzz TV will be sponsoring the Young Blood stage so get yourself there for prizes, competitions and maybe a spot on tv!

The show runs over 2 days on the 5th and 6th of December and will have 3 stages on the Friday and 4 on the Saturday.  This years rocking line up so far is as follows:

Friday 5th December

Classic Rock Stage - 17:45 - 03:00

Thin Lizzy - 22:30 - 00:00

Tigertailz - 02:00 - 03:00
Doro - 00:30 - 01:30
Budgie - 20:50 - 22:00
Benedictum - 19:35 - 20:30
Glyder - 18:30 - 19:15

Metal Hammer Stage - 19:00 - 01:00

Cancer Bats - 00:00 - 01:00
Johnny Truant - 23:10 - 23:40
The Ghost of a Thousand - 22:20 - 22:50
The Plight - 21:30 - 22:00
Textures - 20:40 - 21:10
Blackhole - 19:50 - 20:20
Hexes - 19:00 - 19:30

Young Blood Stage - 14:00 - 18:30 - Sponsored by Scuzz TV

Jett Black - 18:00 - 18:30
Attica Rage - 17:00 - 17:45
Heaven’s Basement - 16:15 - 16:45
Big Linda - 15:30 - 16:00
Get Vegas - 14:45 - 15:15
Lethargy - 14:00 - 14:30

Saturday 6th December

Main Stage - 17:30 - 03:20

Viking Skull - 02:20 - 03:20
The Wildhearts - 01:00 - 02:00
Black Label Society - 23:00 - 00:30
Clutch - 21:40 - 22:40
Orange Goblin - 20:30 - 21:20
Panic Cell - 19:30 - 20:10
Hawkwind - 18:15 - 19:15
Litmus - 17:30 - 18:00

Clive Aid Stage - 12:00 - 18:00

Beholder - 12:00 - 12:45
Hecate Enthroned - 13:00 - 13:45
Million $ Reload - 14:00 - 14:45
Pig Iron -15:00 - 15:45
Dope -  16:00 - 16:45
Warrior Soul - 17:00 - 18:00
Chariot - 18:15 - 19:00

Born Again Stage - 12:00 - 17:20

Spit Like This - 12:00 - 12:45
Pride Tiger - 13:05 - 13:45
Praying Mantis - 14:00 - 14:45
Tygers of Pan Tang - 15:00 - 16:00
Wasted - 16:20 - 17:20

Porshhamar Stage - 17:40 - 01:00

Battlelore - 17:40 - 18:25
Korpiklaani - 18:45 - 19:40
Alestorm - 20:00 - 20:45
Outcry Fire - 21:05 - 21:35
Ravens Creed - 21:50 - 22:30
This is Menace - 22:45 - 23:30
Powerquest - 23:45 - 00:40
Firewind - 01:00 - 02:00
Blitzkrieg - 02:15 - 03:15

Last years show was an absolute success and this year looks to be even better.  Check out the official site for further information on the line up, tickets, accomodation, forums and even listen to some of the bands that will be there. (more…)

Last week, Guns N’ Roses AND Queen managed to get 2 songs in the top 10 most downloaded track list released pre 2000, “The 10 Most Dowloaded Golden Oldies”. The songs from the 70s, 80s and 90s listed below weren’t necessarily the biggest hits in those decades. It all depends on how its measured. If its done by how many weeks they were at number one, then for the 70s, that would be “You Light Up My Life” sung by Debbie Boone, the 80s would be “Physical” by Grease Superstar Olivia Newton-John and the 90s would be “One Sweet Day” recorded by the 90s Diva Mariah Carey and soul quintet Boyz II Men, none of which appear in our top 10 list by Nielsen/Soundscan!

The “real” hits of those decades are surely the songs that we are still downloading today and have lasted the test of time.

Here is the list of the top 10 songs realeased pre 2000 that you have been downloading, as of last week.

1. Don’t Stop Believin’ - Journey (1.821m)
2. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen (1.348m)
3. Sweet Home Alabama - Lynard Skynard (1.346m)
4. Somewhere Over The Rainbow / What A Wonderful World - Israel Kamakawiwo’Ole (1.339m)
5. Sweet Child O’ Mine - Guns N’ Roses (1.267m)
6. Eye Of The Tiger - Survivor (1.206m)
7. Good Riddance - Green Day (1.168m)
8. We Will Rock You - Queen (1.168m)
9. Welcom To The Jungle - Guns N’ Roses (1.154m)
10. Iris - Goo Goo DOlls (1.091m)