Rockblog

It’s my favorite time of the year. The week after Christmas and bargains can be found just about everywhere to fill up your CD collection and not bust your bank account.

In the UK, huge bargains can be found at both Woolworth’s and Zavvi. Both companies went into administartion and Woolworth’s is shutting down. If your local Woolies is still open, go see if they have anything left in the CD section. In between the crap there might be some good rock albums waiting to be sold for next to nothing.

This past weekend I went to both Woolworth’s and Zavvi and came away with albums from AC/DC, Aerosmith, the Damned, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Rainbow, Talking Heads, the Eagles, Jackson Browne, and possibly one or two others I can’t remember now, without spending much money.

I also saw an HMV ad on TV this morning saying their sale is now on, so I might have a look in there this coming weekend to see if there are any good rock albums up for grabs.

It’s time for the Rockblog countdown of the top 10 Christmas rock songs.

To be eligible for the Top 10 Christmas rock songs countdown the song has to rock, be about Christmas, and be an original version - so while we love Bruce Springsteen’s “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”, Joan Jett’s “Little Drummer Boy”, and most of this year’s holiday favorite We Wish You a Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year, none of those songs are eligible.

10. Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody  - If you live in the UK this song needs no introduction. If you’re not listening to it now, you will be within the next fifteen minutes. Good song that loses places for being completely overplayed.

9. Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday - Again, no introduction needed if you live in the UK. The song you’re probably listening to if you’re not listening to Slade.

8. The Damned - There Ain’t No Sanity Clause - A fun punk rock Christmas song that takes its title from a Marx Brothers’ movie. 

7. Widespread Panic - Christmas Katie - A cool song from the jam band’s ‘Til The Medicine Takes album.

6. George Thorogood - Rock n Roll Christmas - Being an above average Christmas song means it makes the list. Being a below average Thorogood song means it misses out on the Top 5.

5. Fleshtones - Christmas with Bazooka Joe - From their new Christmas album on Yep Rock, Stocking Stuffer. Could easily have picked any of the originals on this release. Some of the songs - icluding “Christmas With Bazooka Joe” - can be heard now on the band’s MySpace page.

4. Billy Squier - Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You - Christmas goodness from one of the favorites from M-tv’s very early years. 

3. Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight) - It’s the Ramones and it’s a Christmas song. No other reasons needed.

2. Chuck Berry - Run Rudolph Run - This song has been covered by virtually everybody that ever wanted to do a rock Christmas song, but couldn’t be bothered to write their own or come up with a rock arrangement of something else. Plus, all rock and roll lists should include at least one Chuck Berry song that’s not “My Ding-a-ling”. 

1. The Kinks - Father Christmas - Not just a great Christmas song, this is a great rock and roll song. The attached video isn’t the best quality and the audio doesn’t quite match up, but don’t worry about that and listen to the song. Unfortunately, the story to this song is just as relevant today as it was when released in 1977.

The Rockblog has been quiet for the last few days. I wish I could say it was because I was too busy enjoying the cheer of the festive season. But the truth is I’ve not been feeling well this week. Started with a runny nose on Monday night and by Tuesday night I felt like I was a fixing to die.

I went online Wednesday morning to score some AC/DC tickets for Wembley Stadium in June, but other than that I’ve have spent the rest of the last three days blowing my nose, coughing up phlegm, and sleeping.

I’ll leave it to Aerosmith to let you know how I’ve been feeling. Here’s a live clip from Houston in 1977 of the band playing “Sick As A Dog” from the Rocks album. If there’s anybody out there who only knows Aerosmith from their 80’s and 90’s hits, I suggest you go check out some of the band’s 70’s albums. They all rock.

Rock music has a long history of people supposedly “selling their souls” for talent, fame, and fortune.

There is the legend of Delta blues musician Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil at the Crossroads in exchange for being able to play, sing, and create the greatest blues anyone had ever heard. Johnson went on to become one of the finest ever blues musicians and influenced rock artists such as Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton. (Rockblog note: this legend is explored in the 80s film Crossroads. In the movie the Karate Kid battles the devil’s guitarist, Steve Vai, for the soul of Robert’s old friend Willie. Check it out.)

And in 1975 heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath went as far as naming their first “greatest hits” compilation album We Sold Our Soul For Rock ‘N’ Roll.

With the internet and online shopping sites it should be easier than ever to sell your soul for musical immortality. Right?

Apparently not.

MusicRadar.com report:

“A musician fed up with his life has today been barred from selling his soul to the highest bidder on eBay.

“Dante Knoxx, 24, of Bournemouth in the UK offered his “used” soul on Ebay for a starting bid of £25,000.50 - or a Buy It Now price of £700,000.

“But eBay have today (15 December) pulled the listing. The auction had two hours to go and no bids had been made, but eBay said Knoxx’s auction breached one of the firm’s policies.”

My guess is the devil was sitting at his computer waiting to put in a bid at the last second so nobody would bid against him and drive the price up.

The Rockblog would like to wish Dante Knoxx luck in finding a suitable market in which to peddle his soul and hopes he can soon find a satisfied buyer.

Australian rock band AC/DC have announced a string of summer stadium concerts in Europe as part of their Black Ice tour.

AC/DC have sold out all of their European spring Black Ice tour dates scheduled between February and April next year. The new summer tour dates will hopefully quell some of the demand on ticket resellers who have made a killing by snapping up as many of the spring tour tickets as possible and selling them on for obscene profits.

The announced AC/DC Black Ice stadium tour dates are:

I will be trying to get tickets for the Wembley Stadium concert when tickets go on sale. We already have tickets to see the band at the O2 Arena in April, but I can think of nothing better than rocking outside with AC/DC on a sunny (hopefully!) summer’s evening.

But getting AC/DC tickets still might be easier said than done. The spring dates all sold out in no time at all and their latest album Black Ice spent a month at the top of the combined European album chart. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to get tickets again.

The Top Ten songs most often used to prepare prisoners for interrogation at Guantanamo Bay have been released by Stop The Music Torture, a campaign set up by human rights group Reprieve.  

There are some pretty good rock songs making the top ten. In fact, the playlist looks a hell of a lot better than any of the local radio stations I can pick up.

The Top Ten Guantanamo Interrogation Songs:

1. Enter Sandman – Metallica
2. Bodies – Drowning Pool
3. Shoot to Thrill – AC/DC
4. Hell’s Bells – AC/DC
5. I Love You, from the Barney And Friends children’s TV show
6. Born In The USA– Bruce Springsteen
7. We Are The Champions – Queen
8. Babylon – David Gray
9. White America – Eminem
10. Sesame Street – theme from the children’s TV show

With the exception of Barney, David Gray, Eminem, and Sesame Street that’s not a bad list of songs. And I’d take the Sesame Street theme over Mr Rodgers’ Neighborhood any day.

This would be like a vacation compared to the crap music I’m assaulted with when going into any of the shops in the local shopping centre. If they really want to torture these people with music, I’d suggest tuning to any of the UK analogue radio stations. They repeat the same shit songs over and over and over. It’s enough to drive you crazy.

Disney has banned the Santa Barbara punk/metal band SNOT from performing at their House Of Blues venue in Orlando. SNOT have issued the following statement on their MySpace blog:

“Unfortunately, SNOT has been ejected from the 12/20/08 show at the House Of Blues Orlando. It was to be the last show on the Mudvayne, 10 Years, SNOT tour… Why were we dropped from the bill?
Because, according to Disney, “everything about SNOT is offensive, including the name”…
We did our best to comply with their requirements, including removing images from our Myspace profile, agreeing to not play certain songs, and providing “them” a set list for approval… Well… It wasn’t good enough… We were rejected… Taken off the bill…
So, what WE did was get on the phone and book our OWN show down the street at another place in Orlando called The Haven.
To any and all SNOT fans that wanna come see us at the Haven we will post all the info soon…”

This is not the first time Disney has pulled this shit. Last year Disney canceled shows by the metal band Machine Head at both their Anaheim and Orlando House of Blues venues.

Why build a rock and roll venue and then ban rock bands from playing at it? I’m sure if SNOT guaranteed a sell out crowd and loads of money in Disney’s pocket they wouldn’t have a problem with them.

Rock and roll isn’t meant to be safe. It’s not meant to be family friendly. It’s meant to offend. Get over it or get out of it, Disney.

This amounts to censorship on Disney’s behalf. The only thing I hate more than censorship is when people mis-use the name rock to describe things that most obviously don’t rock. Like Camp Rock. What a load of shit. But what else would you expect from Disney?

Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend from rock group The Who were among this year’s recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors for achievements in the performing arts.

The British rockers were recognised for having an impact on American culture. The ceremonies began with a State Department dinner hosted by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday in Washington DC.

Other performers who were honored include actor Morgan Freeman, country singer George Jones, and Barbara Streisand.

It’s great to see Daltrey and Townshend being recognised. Besides putting out some great rock and roll songs over the years, the two surviving members of The Who are also deeply involved in charities including the Teenage Cancer Trust in the UK, for which The Who have reportedly raised close to £3,000,000 to provide specialist teenage cancer wards.

Trying to chose a video to go along with this post has been difficult with so many excellent Who songs to pick from. The Rockblog has decided to go right back to the begining and present to you Roger Daltry and Pete Townshend with Keith Moon and John Entwistle performing the first song they released as The Who, “I Can’t Explain”.

Rock guitarist extrordinare Joe Satriani has sued the band Coldplay for alledgedly plagiarizing one of his songs.

According to Reuters, Satriani’s copyright infringement suit, filed on Thursday in Los Angeles federal court, claims the Coldplay song “Viva La Vida” incorporates “substantial original portions” of his 2004 instrumental “If I Could Fly.”

The Rockblog can’t figure out why Satriani would want to admit that Coldplay, probably the most boring band in the world, stole one of his songs.

We then find out Joe is seeking a jury trial, damages and “any and all profits” attributable to the alleged copyright infringement. Of course, “any and all profits” is a good enough reason.

If Satriani really wanted to win this case he should have filed in Germany. Earlier this week a German court found ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore guilty of plagerising a guitar solo on his 199o song “Still Got The Blues”.

The song he supposedly plagerised was not released until 2000, but was played live on a German radio station in 1974. So on the off chance Gary did hear it, he filed it away for another 16 years before using it. Crazy shit like this makes us thankful the Germans didn’t win the war. 

As far as the Joe Satriani case, there are videos on YouTube comparing the two songs. I was going to post it on here, but would never be able to fogive myself for subjecting the Rockblog readership to listening to Coldplay.

The Rockblog wishes Joe Satriani lots of luck in this case and wonders why he couldn’t also have filed a cease and desist order on Coldplay as well.

There are reports that Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea will join the reunited Faces featuring Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood.

The Rockblog reported the Faces reunion plans last month. The Faces were always going to have to find a new bass player for the upcoming reunion with original bassist Ronnie Lane having passed away in 1997. The Rockblog wonders if Flea’s inclusion in the band will take the spotlight away from Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood.

What happens when the rest of the Faces stroll on stage in their normal stage attire and Flea is wearing a light bulb on his head?

Or worse yet, only a sock?

Flea is a great bass player and a very outgoing performer. But will his inclusion in the band overshadow the Faces reunion?