Miscellaneous Music News

[Bunny555]

Rolling Stone Magazine asked their followers to Tweet them their rock tattoos. These are the top 20.......Fantastic artwork though I have to admit that I wasn't familiar with a few of them.

Your Rock Tattoos: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Pictures | Rolling Stone

[Critical]

Is anyone else watching the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction concert on HBO?

I just tuned in as Guns N' Roses took the stage. I saw them SO many times back when they started out in small venues in Hollywood. It's a bit surreal to think of them in the hall of fame now. Very douchey move for Axl not to show up. Of course, he's been touring with a whole different group of musicians and calling it Guns N'Roses, so maybe the band wouldn't be so happy to see him. I just googled and Axl actually created a website for GNR that, if you didn't do any more looking, would seem like it's a site for the actual band and not this lame retread. He was always the creepiest back in the day with his Heroin green teeth and jockey shorts. I guess some things never change.

Chris Rock's joke: Let's face it, even if Axl was coming tonight, he wouldn't be here by now.

I have to say, seeing the look of pure joy on Steven Adler's face behind that drum kit made me really emotional. He's had such a tough time trying to overcome his drug addiction. He could just as easily be dead. I'm so glad he's not! It's obvious he's glad too. Watching him play was really great. Back in the day, they ALL were loaded pretty much. I remember seeing them at the Whiskey, where the bands literally walked off stage and back to the bar. Steven just never dialed it back.

Since I missed most of this concert, I'm going to have to catch it later tonight.

Red Hot Chili Peppers up next. Woot! With them, the Beastie Boys and GNR, it's like my teens and early 20's on stage!

ETA: Good grief! Why am I crying during the freaking Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert? Flea tearing up when he thanked his mom = Anyone mentioning Hillel =

[Cootie]

Thanks for the reminder - I'm a little late on this, the Beastie Boys are being inducted right now. So sad to hear the letter Adam Yauch wrote to celebrate their induction. My son used to love the Beastie Boys when he was a child, so listening to this is bringing me back quite a ways, too - to my twenties and thirties

[Critical]

I forgot it was on too. I'm just now watching it all the way through and I teared up again when Flea thanked his mom. I love that guy.

I didn't think I'd get so emotional over this thing, but man, I'm a mess watching it! The In Memorium tribute was emotional too, especially since it was to "At Last" and Etta was the last face they showed on the screen.

I was happy to see Gilby Clarke playing with GNR. I used to see him at the Whiskey when he played with Candy. He was always a sweet guy. I still have Candy's "Whatever Happened to Fun" on cassette tape. I lost the LP, and I don't know if I could ever find it again.

That final number of "Higher Ground" was incredible! That's one of the only covers that I actually like better than the original and I love Stevie. I guess I like the funk that RHCP brought to it.

There were boos for Axl, but Billy Joe was right that he was one of the best front men in rock and roll history. It's a shame he couldn't have acted like an adult and shown up for the induction ceremony.

[Cootie]

Higher Ground was great. It must have been fantastic to be there at the ceremony. Critical, you mentioned cassette tapes and it reminded me that I have a drawer of them upstairs. The groups featured tonight were definitely from the height of the cassette tape era! I have never seen any of the featured groups live - Mr. C and I were busy raising our babies in the 80's and we only went on one date during that time , but it was the date of the decade for me. We saw The Who in the Tacoma Dome. I was partly deaf for days after that, but loved that show.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers were pretty wild! I wonder how many calories they burned up during that performance?! I noticed that most every one of the artists thanked their parents for putting up with their noise back in the day. That was very sweet...

[Critical]

Higher Ground was great. It must have been fantastic to be there at the ceremony. Critical, you mentioned cassette tapes and it reminded me that I have a drawer of them upstairs. The groups featured tonight were definitely from the height of the cassette tape era! I have never seen any of the featured groups live - Mr. C and I were busy raising our babies in the 80's and we only went on one date during that time , but it was the date of the decade for me. We saw The Who in the Tacoma Dome. I was partly deaf for days after that, but loved that show.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers were pretty wild! I wonder how many calories they burned up during that performance?! I noticed that most every one of the artists thanked their parents for putting up with their noise back in the day. That was very sweet...

I have TONS of cassette tapes in boxes! The one I mentioned is actually a home-taped version of the album. Now I can't find the actual LP. Maybe I'll end up finding a copy of it in a record store some day....

Watching this concert has made me want to dig out old cassettes and LPs. I know I used to have an early copy of Appetite for Destruction with the original cover, but I'm pretty sure I sold it on ebay when I was short of cash. What an idiot! Seeing GNR, in particular, reminds me of the days when I was in Hollywood seeing bands all the time. I think I would have believed you if you told me then that they would be in the R&R HoF, but I don't think I would have believed you if you'd told me that they'd all still be alive! I can't even count the number of times I saw GNR in concert - from little clubs to big arenas sharing the bill with Aerosmith.

I'll bet iTunes downloads for all of these bands went up tonight!

[lizardcat]

Critical--did you ever see L.A. Guns? (You must have, if you were in L.A. back then.) I had just gotten hired to do concert reviews for a daily paper--I think it was 1987--and they were my first assignment, so I have a soft spot for them. I still think they should have gone further than they did, particularly considering all the hair-metal dreck that DID make it.

The next summer I covered GnR opening for Aerosmith. I gotta admit, I was underwhelmed....but Aerosmith was at the top of their form, since they really had something to prove that tour. So perhaps an unfair comparison.

[Critical]

Critical--did you ever see L.A. Guns? (You must have, if you were in L.A. back then.) I had just gotten hired to do concert reviews for a daily paper--I think it was 1987--and they were my first assignment, so I have a soft spot for them. I still think they should have gone further than they did, particularly considering all the hair-metal dreck that DID make it.

The next summer I covered GnR opening for Aerosmith. I gotta admit, I was underwhelmed....but Aerosmith was at the top of their form, since they really had something to prove that tour. So perhaps an unfair comparison.

Totally! I saw LA Guns so many times at little clubs! I think I saw them open for Whitesnake once too....or maybe it was Iron Maiden....or Aerosmith (saw them a bunch of times too). Big difference, I know, but I saw so many bands in those years. I worked at a store that had a Ticketmaster outlet, so I went to a lot of concerts!

I think I saw GNR and Aerosmith on that same tour. Aerosmith buried them! While GNR was still a great band, in a lot of ways they'd already started to implode (mainly because of Axl and drugs) by the time they got really successful. They were never better than those early club days, imo.

ETA: I have to say, I thought it was incredibly sweet for Matt Sorum to step aside during the performance and let Steven play drums. I read a statement released by Matt and he said Steven should play drums and that he would do whatever the band wanted. To read the whole statement: Guns N' Roses: Drummer Matt Sorum on Rock Hall, surviving the band - latimes.com

[lizardcat]

I wish I'd seen GnR in the clubs, then! That explains why the hype was so intense by the time they toured nationally.

I've lived in Boston and D.C., and I can't think of a single local band that sounded better after they hit it big.

I went to a sickening number of shows back then, too--probably five or six a week, sometimes two a night. I was the youngest reviewer on staff so got all the leftovers while the senior guys picked one or two shows a week. No one else would see the metal bands, which was fine with me!

[Critical]

They were all loaded back in the clubs too, but the cracks hadn't started to form in their relationships with each other and the drugs hadn't taken the toll that they did later on. Maybe it was that the egos hadn't taken over yet They're still one of the most exciting bands I ever saw live. In spite of the fact that Axl is a jackass, he really was an incredible front man. You could feel it, even in the beginning, that they were special.