...When the inevitable question came -- what was Richards doing up in a coconut tree and did he find what he wanted? -- everyone was ready to set the record straight.

 

"That's a good one. If you saw the tree, you'd realize the joke. Fiji is not just made of coconut trees. It was a little tree," Richards said.

 

Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood were eager to illustrate the point, indicating a height less than half of Richards.

1. "Won't Get Fooled Again," by The Who. Miller's dead-on about this song's rejection of "naïve idealism," in this case a repudiation of the empty symbology of certain factions in the late 60's. True, a lot of people went to those protests strictly for the drugs and sex, and had no constructive ideas for the supposed revolution. Whenever I hear this song I think of what John Lennon once said in a live concert: "Flower power didn't work, so let's try something else."

 

I always felt this song was about the traps of large-scale movements, especially when they're marketed and sloganized in the mass media. The more institutionalized the sentiment, the higher the risk of chicanery -- that someone is going to use dandelions and peace signs for no other reason than to sell you a Coke.

 

7. "Revolution," by the Beatles.  For the same reason as #1, except shorter and with a catchier chorus. Lennon doesn't absolutely reject the revolution, he just has some practical advice regarding pictures of Chairman Mao. They're really not that effective. Mao was never pop. Che Guevara, now that was a rock star.

 

8. "Bodies," by the Sex Pistols. Miller: "A searing anti-abortion anthem." He's right, but the Pistols were anti-everything.

 

11. "The Trees" and 22. "Red Barchetta," both by Rush. (The Canadian band, not Limbaugh.) "The Trees" is a catfight between unionized maples and big-business oaks, finally resolved in a sweet conservative plot twist in which the forest is clear-cut. "Red Barchetta," based on a short story, is about the luxurious consumption of gasoline and speed in a futuristic regulated society. (Rush drummer Neil Peart is a fan of epic author Ayn Rand. This might explain why some Rush songs go on for hours.)

 

17. “Stay Together for the Kids,” by Blink-182. Miller: "A eulogy for family values by an alt-rock band whose members were raised in a generation without enough of them." Well, yeeeah... but listen to the verses. I don't think it can be said that Blink-182 necessarily agrees that parents at continuous war with each other have to "stay together for the kids"; sounds to me like they're saying the whole family would be better off if there was some space.

 

28. "Janie's Got a Gun," by Aerosmith. Miller: "How the right to bear arms can protect women from sexual predators." That's a jump of logic. The song's about a grown woman who exacts revenge on her dad for things he did to her when she was a child. For Miller's interpretation to hold water, he'd have to endorse children's right to bear arms. Could you imagine the chaos at Chuck E. Cheese if that happened? 

 

38. “I Can’t Drive 55,” by Sammy Hagar. Miller: "A rocker's objection to the nanny state." (Smirk) It's all right for the government to peer into our bedrooms -- but leave us alone on the freeway!

 

50. “Stand By Your Man,” by Tammy Wynette. Miller: "Hillary trashed it -- isn't that enough?" Mrs. Clinton didn't exactly trash the song, although Wynette deserved and received an apology from her. What's frequently forgotten about this tiff is that, after all apologies were issued, Wynette fervently supported the Clinton campaign, even performing at their fundraisers.

After eleven years as a band, Sleater-Kinney have decided to go on indefinite hiatus. The upcoming summer shows will be our last. As of now, there are no plans for future tours or recordings.
 
We feel lucky to have had the support of many wonderful people over the years. We want to thank everyone who has worked with us, written kind words about us, performed with us, and inspired us.
 
But mostly we want to extend our gratitude to our amazing fans. You have been a part of our story from the beginning. We could not have made our music without your enthusiasm, passion, and loyalty. It is you who have made the entire journey worthwhile.
 
With love and thanks,
Sleater-Kinney

Gabba Gabba Hey!, the world’s first punk rock musical, takes 18 mini-masterpieces of bliss, longing and despair by seminal New York rockers the RAMONES – including the classics I Wanna Be Sedated, Beat On The Brat, Blitzkrieg Bop, 53rd & 3rd and Sheena Is A Punk Rocker - and weaves them into a postmodern fairy tale about the redeeming power of love.

The 20th annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival has gotten underway in Austin, TX. Alongside the Winter Music Conference in Miami, SXSW has grown into the biggest of these music industry cluster----- (we mean that in a nice way), with what seems like a gazillion bands playing in more showcases than you shake your RAZR at. The keynote artist is going to be Neil Young, who will be interviewed by film director Jonathan Demme (the two recently teamed up for the concert film, Neil Young: Heart of Gold. However, there's going to be 1,400 acts performing, with 20,000 gathered onlookers, trying to cram into every bar and venue in Austin during the course of the next week or so.

Included amongst the musical celebs will be Morrissey, the Pretenders, the Arctic Monkeys, Beth Orton, Belle and Sebastian and just to make sure it's not all rock: Talib Kweli. (Follow MSN's SXSW updates). (Source: MSNBC)

MSNBC preps a guide to emo which frankly, we're happy for since we get confused all the time over what the heck that label actually means. We always thought it applied to pseudo-soft punkers who wrote angsty songs about love (which may not be far off from the truth). Helen Popkin breaks it down for us ... though as she points out, there's no real consensus as to what "emo" means:

"Emo means different things to different people. Short for “emotive” or “emotional” (depending on whom you ask), emo being amorphous enrages those loyal to their version."

Popkin traces a musical genealogy that begins in Washington D.C. back in the mid-1980s, starting with Husker Du's Zen Arcade, then leading to two short-lived bands, Embrace and Rites of Spring, then to Fugazi as part of the second gen wave. Ok, things get a bit complicated here since, by the mid-1990s, there was a split into emocore and indie emo. The former was "associated with dense, caustic music and nontraditional song structure," while the latter was built off a "more accessible pop sound," that bands from the "indie emo" ranks are the ones who made the greatest headway in introducing emo to the world: Weezer, Jimmy Eat World, etc.

From there, emo has since grown into various permutations, none of which seems particularly cohesive. Popkin writes,

"Emo morphed into anything mopey and marketable. Dashboard Confessional emerged as the emo poster band, despite its more typically-pop songs with themes such of "boy-loses-girl" and "I’m sad."

More to the point, emo has taken on a kind of fashion sense, similar to grunge in the early '90s, there's now an emo-influenced clothing palette, what Popkin describes as:

"you’ll get a lot of ‘50s-era Frank Sinatra shirts, along with other thrift-store remnants associated with a plethora of music subcultures (indie, mod, goth, punk, rockabilly, etc.). Pants are tight and hair is often dyed and shaggy — two more styles that travel easily between cliques."

Confused? We are. (Source: MSNBC)

Now in its 12th year, the Warped Tour has announced most of its line-up for its two month summer tour. Surprisingly, the Warped Tour is now the longest running rock tour in the country – partially because it attracts a loyal following, partially because it's managed to out-last other competitors that eventually dimmed (see Lollapalooza and Lilith). In any case, this year's Warped Tour will have Joan Jett and the Blackbyds (that's a helluva flashback for an '80s teen such as myself) at the helm, alongside Less Than Jake, Say Anything and AFI, amongst other emo-rockers.

The Tour kicks off in Columbia, Maryland on June 14th and then runs for the next eight weeks across the U.S., with four Canadian dates, including the last two nights of the Tour, on August 12 and 13th, in Toronto and Montreal, respectively. (Source: Rolling Stone)

According to Billboard, the hottest new rock band right now is ... The Kinks. For those older than, you know, 14, you'll probably note that the Kinks aren't exactly new but a recent rash of commercials using the group's music has been an unlikely source of bringing the 1960s British rock band back into vogue. Of course, you might be surprised to see who's pairing the Kinks with what products: Cadillac using Led Zeppelin made some sense but the Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night" for ... Tide detergent? "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" is being used in IBM ads while "Everybody's Gonna Be Happy" ends up in ads for Abbott Labs, a medical equipment company.

Part of this trend could be tracked back to 2004, when Hewlett-Packard made what we think was a brilliant call in using the Kinks' "Picture Book" as part of HP's digital photo printing campaign. Says Kenny Ochoa, who helps license for the group, "When spots work, they really work. The music and visuals drove that spot – it was a perfect marriage." Oddly though, Billboard notes that none of these songs, including "Picture Book" or "All Day" are available for download and there are no immediate plans to change that policy. We don't understand what the reluctance is here since it'd only serve to help push more money towards the group ... or at least, their label. I mean, shilling for a detergent is fine but selling a popular song to consumers isn't? (Source: CNN)

Rod Stewart's been enjoying some good success with his last few albums – mostly covers/standards – and now, it looks like he'll have to cash out some of that in order to pay off a $3,000,000 verdict he now owes a Las Vegas casino, stemming over a cancelled concert from December 2000. Stewart was supposed to play at Harrah's over the New Year's weekend – a big gig, big enough that Stewart was paid $2,000,000 as an advance.

However, Stewart ended up canceling the gig, citing throat surgery he had a few months prior. This is a key point: Harrah's attorneys claim that Stewart had no business accepting an advance if he knew about the throat surgery (or its effects) months in advance. Apparently, a federal judge agreed and ordered that Stewart not only pay back the $2,000,000, plus an additional million in "interest, penalties, and attorney fees," PLUS a little over $100,000 more on a contempt charge stemming from evidence that Stewart didn't turn over to Harrah's attorneys. Stewart had no comment but his legal counsel plans to appeal. (Source: AOL News)

The latest stop on the Rolling Stones massive world tour will be China, a country where the group has never played before. They're set to hit the city of Shanghai on April 8th, three years after they were originally supposed to play there. However, fears over the SARS virus lead to shows being cancelled and it's taken a few years to reschedule the Stones back there.

Given China's infamous habit for censorship, the Stones are not immune (looks like China and the NFL have something in common): there's a list of songs they won't be allowed to play in Shanghai including: "Let's Spend The Night Together," "Brown Sugar," "Honky Tonk Women" and "Beast Of Burden." "Beast of Burden"? Really? (Source: FMBQ)

Living up to their image as one of the original bad boys of punk, the Sex Pistols have sent over what amounts to an FU notice to the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame, "declining" their invitation to appear at a ceremony where the British rock group will be inducted. The Pistols posted the following note online, bad grammar and all:

""Next to the Sex Pistols, rock and roll and that hall of fame is a p*** stain. Your museum. Urine in wine. We're not coming. We're not your monkeys. If you voted for us, hope you noted your reasons. Your anonymous as judges but your still music industry people. We're not coming. Your not paying attention. Outside the s***-stream is a real Sex Pistol."

It's not clear if the Pistols just hate the idea of the Hall in general or if they're just P.O.ed for having been snubbed five times before (they've been eligible since 2001 but voters have only put them in this year). (Source: Rolling Stone)

We know the Rolling Stones are popular, yada yada, but whoa – one million people actually turned out to see the group in Rio De Janeiro this past Saturday night. The two hour show, like the Stones' tour in North America, highlighted songs from both their recent A Bigger Band LP along with the group's many classics. In order to accommodate the crowd, the group played on Rio's Copacabana Beach and 6,000 police officers were on hand to make sure things didn't get out of hand.

The group was insulated from the main throng of the crowd ... by about 4,000 VIPs who got priority seating in front of the stage. Says Fredo, a teacher from Sao Paulo, "It is always like this in Brazil, everything for the millionaires." Speaking of money, the city government of Rio shelled out $750,000 to host the concert but that only paid 16% of the total cost: the rest was picked up by telecommunications companies Claro and Motorola.

Just for trivia's sake: this wasn't the biggest concert ever. Believe it or not, Rod Stewart played the same beach in 1994 and drew an estimated 3.5 million people. Yeah, Rod Stewart. Take that Mick! (Source: MSNBC)

Punk purists have often looked at the crossover success of American bands like Green Day and Blink-182 – who are often described as punk or "post-punk" bands – and turned up their noses but the Sex Pistols' John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten just lays it out in plain (British) english:

""Don't try and tell me Green Day are punk. They're not, they're plonk and they're bandwagoning on something they didn't come up with themselves. I think they are phony.

By the way, "plonk" = awesome term.

One huge issue Lydon has is the fact that when the Sex Pistols were coming up, they were a scourge of the British establishment and had to deal with government and police harassment. Lydon says that these new punk bands haven't paid enough dues to earn the term:

""So there we are fending off all that and it p**ses me off that years later a w**k outfit like Green Day hop in and nick all that and attach it to themselves. They didn't earn their wings to do that and if they were true punk they wouldn't look anything like they do."

No response from Green Day yet but we're all for a battle royale grudge match between the two bands. Straight street like You Got Served. (Source: Contactmusic.com)

Following up on their reunion show last year, legendary British rockers Cream plan to set up a few more dates together ... at least, so says the group's bassist Jack Bruce. For many years, the trio of Bruce, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker have largely lead separate lives but apparently, in their older age, the three are finding some satisfaction in regrouping. Just don't expect a Rolling Stones like tour. Says Bruce:

"What we feel is that it's so special, and also so emotionally draining that it's not something we could do every day. We will play more, but where and when I'm not at liberty to say."

Tease.

Bruce will be on-hand at the Grammys tonight to help accept an award of behalf of the group for "lifetime achievement," alongside other awardees including fellow Brit David Bowie, country's Merle Haggard, and the late Richard Pryor and Robert Johnson. (Source: Yahoo News)

For all the love that the Arctic Monkeys get, there's at least one group who aren't feeling too warm and cuddly: anti-smoking crusaders. See ... the cover of the UK version of the album (and presumably, the upcoming U.S. release) features a simple B&W photo of a man smoking. This has Dr. Laurence Gruer, of the Scottish National Health Society, concerned that the image will simply reinforce the idea that smoking = cool:

"It is the fastest-selling album in British history, but it gives out the wrong image. With a blatant image of a guy smoking, it will be seen by many as a cool thing to do."

The Monkeys' manager, Johnny Bradshaw has dismissed the concerns, noting, "We have not had any complaints from supermarkets or places where the album has been stocked."(Source: Gigwise.com)

On any given morning of music news, there's been one headline that has shown up so many times, you'd think it was permanent: "Pete Doherty arrested." The British rocker's excesses with drugs and run-ins with the law have become so frequent, he's like a self-cariceture of himself. What would be more shocking to hear about is he spending a day sober. The NY Times profiles the troubled musician and states upfront: "Mr. Doherty himself is becoming the kind of musician who dabbles in music between drug-related incidents."

That's not hyperbole: Doherty had a magical day just this past Friday where he managed to get arrested not once, not twice, but three times: once for driving under the influence, once for assaulting a fan at a show and once for carrying heroin in this jeans. That's a Behind the Music hat trick if we've ever seen one.

These problems have damaged the potential success of The Babyshambles, the group Doherty now fronts. For a few months, British press was drooling over them but as Doherty's problems escalated, more fans began to tire of cancelled shows because the lead singer was in jail or otherwise incapacitated. According to Paul Rees, the editor of the UK's music mag Q,

"What's happened is that Arctic Monkeys have come along and taken all his fans away with one fell swoop... It's still debatable how great his talent is. He was very promising, but it's never been fulfilled. All he's done is frustrate people."

We wouldn't go as far to say that Doherty has a death wish but his appetite for self-destruction seems insatiable at this point. (Source: NY Times)

Look, it's not that we mind that Bono has an interest in working with rap artists. He told the AP the other day that, after listening to Kanye West (why are we not surprised it'd be that name?),

"I happen to be in really a truly great band, and experimentation has been the lifeblood of this band. We of course will look and are looking across at hip-hop and see the amazing innovation in the studio."

Presumably, Bono is hinting at the possibility of something like a Maroon 5/Kanye West collaboration (which has happened twice already). That could sound, uh, ok, though we have flashbacks to stuff like Santana + Wyclef's "Maria, Maria," you know, pop-driven rather than a harder edge like M.O.P. moshing it out or the entire LinkinLimpKornBiscuitPark contingent.

The problem we have is ... what the hell took Bono so long to arrive at this conclusion? It's not like he's some hot new band, contemplating a hip-hop collaboration; U2 became hot in the 1980s at the same time hip-hop was exploding into global popularity too. We assume U2 hasn't be living under a rock that whole time so why now? Again, it's not that we mistrust the motives here but the timing seems strange. (Source: Allhiphop.com)

As we were tracking British music news the last month, the only headline that seemed more common than "Pete Doherty arrested," were ones hyping the new Arctic Monkeys release, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. Seems like the entire United Kingdom has been waiting for the new Oasis to come along and they've anointed the Monkeys to be that band. (Sorry Coldplay).

The group managed to scare up 360,000 units in its first week of release, good enough to be the fastest selling album in British music history, some 55,000 records better than the last record holder, Hear'Say's Popstars from 2001. Reuters credits part of the band's success to their use of the internet to help market themselves though their spokesperson puts it in grander language:

"A band like this comes along maybe once every 10 years and I think their words and energy has struck a cord with the British public.

Americans will get to hear what all the hype is about on February 21, the day the CD comes out here. (Sources: Billboard, CNN)

Our friend over at the Washington Post, J. Freedom du Lac reports today that Sly Stone, ever the reclusive, may be coaxed out of his self-imposed industry exile to perform at the Grammy Awards next month. Not just Stone himself but the entire group would be reuniting for the performance. As du Lac lays out, this is no small deal:

"It would be Stone's first live performance since 1987, and his first major public appearance since Jan. 12, 1993, when Sly and the Family Stone were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It would also mark the first time since 1971 that the band has played in its original configuration."

After getting hooked onto cocaine in the worst way (like, Rick James bad) in the early '70s, Sly Stone descended out of public view and into murky rumors; at several times, he had been erroneously reported to have died and unquestionably, his recording career had ended despite being one of the most highly-acclaimed acts of the 1960s and '70s.

Regardless if he and the Family Stone roll through, there will be a tribute to the group that night, including a medley (uh oh) by John Legend, Maroon 5, will.i.am, and Steven Tyler. (Source: Washington Post)

At this point, we don't blame anyone who feels a little Bono-ed out. The only music celebrities who made more headlines than him were probably 50 Cent and Pete Doherty, though Pete might get a pass on overexposure since his repeated public drunkeness and drug possession arrests are at least entertaining in the same way a car wreck sort of is. With Bono though, at least his news-making doesn't involve 1) threatening other artists, 2) girlfriends hooked on coke and/or heroin. U2's latest frontman is stirring up things by announcing the launching of "Red," a new initiative to help eliminate AIDS in Africa.

For Red, Bono is teaming with several partners which includes Gap, Converse, Armani and American Express; each of these retailers will be designing a custom-line of Red items who proceeds (part or in whole) will be donated the Global Fund which already handles a quarter of the world's AIDS programs. For example, American Express is coming with a "Red Card," where 1% of purchases will go to the Global Fund. There will be a "Red line" at Gap and Converse doing the same and Armani is supposed to come out with a line of Red sunglasses which we can probably expect Bono to be sporting soon. The companies are making a 5 year commitment; not bad considering how fast fashion moves. (Source: Hecklerspray by way of antiMUSIC)