26th November 2010

Mannheim Steamroller Rolls Through NYC

In light of Thanksgiving and the impending holiday music deluge, we figured it would be fitting to feature a band that both performed at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and is known for their Christmas music. Mannheim Steamroller is that artist.

Not only are they the best-selling recording artist of Christmas music with over 27 million Christmas albums sold, they performed atop a float in the parade on Thursday morning which began in New York City’s Central Park. The float Mannheim Steamroller rolled around the city upon was decorated to display the natural beauty and wonders of the great state of South Dakota.

The band appeared as part of the promotion for their upcoming TV special, Mannheim Steamroller’s Holiday Celebration on Ice which will feature a multitude of international ice-skating stars, including Olympic Gold Medalist Brian Boitano, airing on NBC this Sunday. The special was filmed in Rapid City, South Dakota, hence the float decorations.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade also featured performances from Jimmy Fallon and his Late Night band The Roots, Kylie Minogue, and the always interesting Kanye West.

Visit Mannheim Steamroller's page

26th November 2010

Peas Picked For Super Bowl Halftime Show

The Black Eyed Peas have been confirmed as the half-time entertainment at Super Bowl 2011. Since the infamous 2004 performance featuring Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction," organizers have played it a little safer with a succession of classic rock acts. Now they've returned to pop by booking the Peas, whose 2009 album The E.N.D. sold over 7M copies worldwide and spawned several massive hit singles.

"I've been at every single one of them since that [2004 show]," Peas' rapper and producer will.i.am told Rolling Stone magazine of the Super Bowl. "The Prince one, the Paul McCartney one, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen." Last year's performers were The Who, whose show was a medley of their greatest hits including "Pinball Wizard," "Baba O'Riley," and "Won't Get Fooled Again."

"They could have picked anybody, they could rock a million and get Cheap Trick," will.i.am said. "I love me some Cheap Trick, those mother******s is dope. But it says something that they picked us." The Super Bowl show will take place at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on February 6.

Visit Black Eyed Peas's page

24th November 2010

Welcome to the Courtroom: Axl Suing Activision Over Slash

Guns N' Roses was formed by Tracii Guns and Axl Rose, but long ago became just a vehicle for Rose and whatever musicians he could surround himself with at any given time. To fans, guitarists Slash, Izzy Stradlin and Buckethead will always be associated with the band, but that's not acceptable to Rose, who's suing Guitar Hero makers Activision for $20M for including images of Slash in their games.

The complaint filed in a Los Angeles court alleges that Activision "began spinning a web of lies and deception to conceal its true intentions... to promote the game by emphasizing and reinforcing an association between Slash and Guns N' Roses and the band's song 'Welcome to the Jungle.'"

Although Slash co-wrote and performed on "Welcome to the Jungle," Rose says Activision promised that Slash wouldn't be represented in the game. Yet in fact, the cover of the game features a Slash-like image, "with his signature black top hat, long dark curly hair, dark sunglasses and nose-piercing," says the suit.

"This lawsuit is about protecting Guns N' Roses and 'Welcome to the Jungle,'" Rose's lawyer Skip Miller said, "[and] holding Activision accountable for its misuse of these incredibly valuable assets."

Visit Guns N' Roses's page

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24th November 2010

Artists Putting Homeless in Focus

Tom Waits will make his publishing debut with Hard Ground, a book of poetry about the homeless, this coming March. Waits’ words will be alongside photographs by award-winning photojournalist Michael O’Brien’s images of people who live on the ground.

Waits, whom the New York Times once called “the poet of outcasts,” teamed with O’Brien to communicate the common humanity of people who live on the streets, letting words and images "communicate on their own terms, rather than merely illustrate each other.” The book is modeled on the 1941 book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, which combined James Agee's poetry and Walker Evans's photographs of Depression-era farmers.

Coldplay, too, is attempting to shine light on the plight of the homeless by performing two “surprise” Christmastime benefit shows, reported the U.K. Guardian earlier this month. Perhaps an inequitable comparison, Coldplay, by withholding the venues until the last minute, hopes to illuminate the difficulty and unpredictability the homeless face many times each day. According to the band, "gig-goers [will experience] a small taste of the uncertainty faced by the thousands of homeless people who do not know where they will spend the night."

Visit Tom Waits's page