It is hard to believe that R.E.M. have been going for over 30 years now and they are still producing some top quality alternative rock music.
The American three-piece from Georgia are Peter Buck, Mike Mills and frontman Michael Stipe, minus their old collaborator Bill Berry who left in 1997.
Their fifteenth album entitled ‘Collapse into Now’ will be released on the 7th of March and initial critical response looks favourable, with a great review by Rolling Stone Magazine.
The studio album features some interesting collaborations with artists like Patti Smith and Joel Gibb, but the track I am looking forward to listening to the most is the one with Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam.
It has been revealed that Californian rockers Queens of the Stone Age are to return to the UK during May to play their 1998 self-titled album in full, along with a selection of B-sides from that time.
Tickets go on sale from 9am this Friday for the following four dates:
London Roundhouse (May 17th)
Dublin Olympia Theatre (19th)
Glasgow O2 Academy (20th)
Manchester Academy (21st)
The album is similar in song style to that of Josh Homme’s time with Kyuss, and has been dubbed “robot rock”.
For all QOTSA fans this looks like a great opportunity to see the band up close and personal in more intimate settings than the usual rock arenas the band is used to performing in.
Have you been listening to the first single from Panic! At The Disco in two years? If so, do you think it was worth it?
The Ballad Of Mona Lisa is certainly one of the hottest songs around at the moment. Since it was released on the 1st of February fans have been flocking to the shops to buy it on CD or downloading it like crazy.
The Las Vegas rockers’ new album (their third record) entitled ‘Vices and Virtues’ will be available from the 29th of March, so if you want to know if it lives up to the hype then you still have over a month to wait.
Popular rockers Nickelback are reportedly involved in a lawsuit with fellow Canadians Ecoline Crush, who are claiming that they stole material from their 1997 release entitled All That You Are.
This supposed breach of copyright is being fought out in Central District California Court, with a claim for damages over Nickelback’s use of the song Figured You Out, which features on their 2003 album The Long Road.
It remains to be seen what the outcome will be over this battle, with neither side prepared to make a statement.
Do you think that the Nickelback track “bears a substantial similarity” to the song produced by the Vancouver-based band?
Despite the much-publicised differences between the former band-mates, Slash proves that he bears no grudges against the ability of Axl Rose as a leading singer.
In fact, the guitarist, speaking with Entertainment Weekly, said that Axl deserves to be up there with the best singers and lyricists, although he would still place Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones as number one.
Slash said:
“I saw the Music Radar poll where Axl was voted the greatest lead singer of all time. I thought that was pretty cool.
“We may have had our differences, but it will never undermine the fact that Guns n’Roses, when it was originally together, was one of the best rock bands. And Axl has always in my mind been one of the best frontmen and lyricists in rock and roll, period.
“There’s Axl, Roger Daltrey, Steven Tyler, Robert Plant and Mick Jagger. I’d probably say Mick was number one because he’s been doing it for so long. But if I had a top five, Axl and John Lennon would be in there.”
And while it is good to hear of Slash’s appreciation of Axl as an artist, it is still a shame that the original Guns n’ Roses line up will, in all probability, never play together again.