Free Republic

A satanic rock band from Sweden known as Ghost is planning a 13-stop tour in America beginning in New York City on January 18. The band, whose keeps the names of its members anonymous, is actually a devil-worshiping ministry that features a lead singer who calls himself “Papa Emeritus” and dresses up as a kind of satanic pope in a skull mask and cardinal’s robes. Their “13 Dates of Doom” tour in the U.S. will include two other “doom rocker” bands, Blood Ceremony and Ancient Wisdom. Their flyers advertise the tour in this way: “In the name of Satan, we...

He is still revered around the world as a peace-loving working class hero. But by the time he died, John Lennon was a closet conservative embarrassed by his radical past, according to his former personal assistant. Fred Seaman claims that the former Beatle was a fan of Ronald Reagan, who went on to become America’s Republican president in 1981 and forged a close political alliance with Margaret Thatcher.

There is no way to quantify if a band or artist is overrated. ItÂ’s more of a feeling than anything else. There exists in popular music a hierarchy. ItÂ’s been created, and is constantly altered, by both natural and artificial means. At the top sits The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis, Michael Jackson, U2, and Madonna. At the bottom rests the 8th place American Idol contestant. Everyone else fall somewhere in between. Determining which artists are overrated and which are correctly rated is not a science. ItÂ’s not even an art. ItÂ’s just an exercise to start a conversation. ItÂ’s...

  Well-wisher ... John Lydon famously railed against the monarchy in Sex Pistols anthem God Save The Queen By SEAN HAMILTON AS snarling punk idol Johnny Rotten, singer John Lydon famously railed against the monarchy in The Sex Pistols' Seventies anthem God Save The Queen. So you might not expect him to join well-wishers queuing to congratulate Prince William and Kate. Here he tells SEAN HAMILTON why he wishes them well. WHEN I heard William had popped the question to Kate, I had a nice cup of tea for them. Later on, I might even put some bucks fizz...

‘Rockin’ the Wall’ DVD Review: A Splendid Reminder that Rock and Roll Means Freedom! by Ezra Dulis You had to hide it somewhere that no one would find it: your very first record, tape, CD– whatever medium– that Mom and Dad didn’t approve of. You had to listen to it through headphones or when they were out of the house. You had to do this because you knew it was an act of rebellion; your parents did not want you hearing that music performed that way with those lyrics, and you decided that you wouldn’t obey them. According to the...

A founding member of ELO has been killed following a freak accident involving a giant bale of hay.Mike Edwards, 62, who played cello for the band for three years, died when the giant bale weighing 50 stone crashed down on top of his van.Mr Edwards died instantly in the accident after the bale careered down the hill, and flipped over a hedge.             Eccentric: Mike Edwards's bizarre costumes and ability to play his cello with fruit were a major part of ELO's appeal     Bowing out: Mike Edwards, on the far right, played...

Rocker John Mellencamp said on Tuesday that the Internet was the most dangerous invention since the atomic bomb, although new technology could paradoxically delay the inevitable demise of rock 'n' roll. But before then, "some smart people, the China-Russians or something" may have already conquered America by hacking into the power grid and financial system, he warned during a public seminar at the Grammy Museum. Mellencamp, 58, has established a reputation during his career as a bit of a loose cannon disdainful of music industry niceties. He still lives in his home state of Indiana, saying he never fit in...

<p>Nigel Godrich has had no problem working with what some would consider the best artists ever. The real challenge is the acts that never were.</p> <p>"It's always terrible," Godrich said of movies that contain an artificial group. Action-romance "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" has four of them.</p>

Ringo Starr kept his 70th birthday celebration going on Tuesday night (July 7) with a concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall that was positively star-studded, thanks in part to "a little help from his friend," Paul McCartney. The former Beatles bandmates topped off the show by surprising audience members with a performance of "Birthday" from "The Beatles [White Album]," and appropriately so. With McCartney on lead vocals and Starr behind the drum kit, the duo performed with classic rock 'n' roll flair. "Birthday" was preceded by another all-star collaboration, when Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band played "With...

Ok, gang, the trailer to our documentary---coming in August---is now available. Among those you see in the trailer are "Mother's Finest," Robby Krieger, David Paich (Toto), Jimmy Haslip (Yellowjackets), Mark Stein and Vinny Martell (Vanilla Fudge), LA film score composer John Van Tongeren, Voice of America legal counsel Joseph Morris, Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot), Hungarian/Euro star Leslie Mandoki, and me. Glenn Beck did a 15 minute interview with me to air tomorrow, three times, and the trailer is (I think) being played behind me for part of it. Rock on! www.rockinthewall.com

  If you seek proof that liberal-arts scholarship is mostly a stinking heap of rubbish, behold the Journal of Popular Culture. Here are three recent examples of articles that have appeared in its dispensable pages: “Queer Dress and Biased Eyes: The Japanese Doll on the Western Toyshelf,� by Judy Shoaf (February 2010); “SpongeBob SquarePants: Pop Culture Tsunami or More?� by Jonah Lee Rice (December 2009); and “‘There’s Genderqueers on the Starboard Bow’: The Pregnant Male in Star Trek,� by Stephen Kerry (August 2009). Yet the ultimate testimony to the journal’s shining irrelevance appears in its current issue: “Rockin’ the Right-Wing...

...The playlist has been hand-selected to annoy the Taliban, according to one US special forces officer. "Taliban hate that music," said the sergeant involved in covert psychological operations, or "psy ops", in the area in Helmand province. "Some locals complain but it's a way to push them to choose. It's motivating Marines as well," he added after one deafening round of several hours including tracks from The Offspring, Metallica and Thin Lizzy. The officer said they also broadcast messages from the Afghan government, as well as threats to the Taliban -- there are no obscenities, "but we tell them they're...

Another year, another reason to raise bloody hell over who didn't get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — and who did. Tonight, a fresh class of five historic names will march into the coveted main hall: ABBA, Jimmy Cliff, Genesis, the Hollies and the Stooges.

Pink Floyd are suing their record label EMI, claiming that it has no right to sell their songs except as part of full albums. According to a 1999 contract, tunes like Money and Another Brick in the Wall cannot be "unbundled" from the albums on which they appear; EMI alleges this does not apply to downloads. "Pink Floyd [are] well-known for performing seamless pieces," said Robert Howe, the band's lawyer, at a High Court hearing yesterday. "Many of the songs blend into each other." To reflect this, Pink Floyd's renegotiated 1999 contract "expressly prohibits" EMI from selling songs out of...

Um, you've got the wrong state, Boss. Legendary rocker Bruce Springsteen made an onstage geography goof Friday when he bellowed "Hello, Ohio!" to adoring fans at the Auburn Hills Palace -- in Michigan. The "Born in the USA" crooner referred to the neighboring state several times before trusty E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt whispered their actual location into his ear.

Freepers: we are in the pre-production phase of a documentary film about rock music and its role in undermining communism and helping to bring down the Berlin Wall. (Please don't inundate me with the significance of Ronald Reagan. We know that. We exploring OTHER factors that also contributed to this). If you have ANY contacts, friends, relatives who were behind the Iron Curtain, 1970-1991, and went to rock concerts or played in a rock band over there, I'd like to be put in touch with them. We'd most certainly like to film them on tape. If you know ANY major...

Bono and The Edge have described their forthcoming Spider-Man musical as "dizzy" and "not a straight take on the myth". Turn Off The Dark, the production the Dublin band has written music and lyrics for, is set to open on Broadway in New York in 2010. They also confirmed American actress Evan Rachel Wood would play the part of MJ and revealed more about the other characters. ...Bono said: "We've got a new villain, it's a girl. It's a very extraordinary role. We've taken it to a much more dizzy place than you'd expect. We've got big tunes. We're very...

One lesson of this year's Lollapalooza, held this past weekend at Grant Park here, is a confirmation rather than something new: ­Recorded music drives fans to live shows. Thus, it can seem like the recording industry exists to support the concert business. "The music business is upside down," said alt-country singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen. "You don't tour to support your record. You put out a record to support a tour." "Do you see people going ­record shopping? No," said Perry Farrell of Jane's ­Addiction. "Downloading free music. Yes. Going out for live music. Yes. I love recorded music, but the...

The sky grew dimmer on Sunday, as another great ray of light from the Sun Records roster, Billy Lee Riley, died. Riley, who'd been battling cancer since May, died at St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro, Ark., after being admitted on Saturday. He was 75. Although Riley had been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer, which had spread to his bones, his wife, Joyce Riley, said the singer was feeling optimistic. "We weren't thinking the end was coming so soon," said Joyce. "He was actually feeling better lately. So the very end was unexpected. But, he went peacefully." One of...

Found in a German cave, suggesting humans were piping tunes from bone and ivory flutes more than 35,000 years ago, new research has shown. Scientists discovered remains of the instruments in a German cave once populated by some of the first modern humans to settle in Europe after leaving Africa. Instrument has five finger holes and two deep V-shaped notches at one end The finds suggest that our oldest ancestors in Europe had a well-established musical tradition. The most significant discovery was a complete flute made from a griffon vulture bone. Measuring 21.8cm, with a diameter of about 8mm, the...

...The San Francisco natives, who barely rate a second glance on the streets of their hometown, can't walk down the sidewalks of Paris without being stopped. At the House of Blues after midnight Wednesday, the band was greeted by an audience that cheered with recognition at the start of every song, sang along on the choruses and clearly knew the whole Groovies story. But the Ponderosa Stomp is a special stage, a two-night festival-within-a-festival that has become something of a growing tradition between the two weekends of the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fair, which closes its 40th annual...

“You’ll be back again,” sang Barry & the Remains, starting their headlining set on Tuesday night at the eighth annual Ponderosa Stomp. It’s a song about a straying girlfriend, but the Remains could have been singing about themselves and many of the four dozen acts — rockabillies, bluesmen, R&B shouters, swamp-rockers, honky-tonkers, psychedelic bands — playing the House of Blues here in the Stomp’s two nights of nine-hour shows. In the mid-1960s Barry & the Remains toured the United States with the Beatles and made an album of crafty, surly garage-rock. Then they broke up, becoming one more rock-history footnote....

...Rock music blaring from boomboxes has proved one of the best defenses against an annual invasion of Mormon crickets. The huge flightless insects are a fearsome sight as they advance across the desert in armies of millions that march over, under or into anything in their way. But the crickets don't much fancy Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones, the townspeople figured out three years ago. So next month, Tuscarorans are preparing once again to get out their extension cords, array their stereos in a quarter-circle and tune them to rock station KHIX, full blast, from dawn to dusk. "It...

Michael Lang said plans for a 40th anniversary Woodstock concert are "all speculative ideas" for now, but he hopes to bring them to reality this summer. The Woodstock co-founder told Billboard.com that his vision is "a free event...a very green project," possibly in New York City. "We want to have as small a carbon imprint as we can and use as many green techniques as we can," said Lang, who was in Austin as part of a South By Southwest panel discussion about Woodstock. The holdup? "It's got to be sponsor-driven," he explained. "It's free, but it costs a lot...

Around this time last year, Paste's marketing director (now-emeritus) Caren Kelleher compiled a pretty freakishly extensive blog post detailing statistical trends among bands playing at the 2008 SXSW Music Conference. It seemed, then, that animal band names were actually on the wane, but judging from this year's schedule, they've definitely made a comeback; there are more than 60 animal bands slated to play the 2009 conference (including associate editor Kate Kiefer's favorite, Kittens Ablaze). But still, what's next? At one point, it looked like crystal bands were the next big thing, but that trend seems to have spluttered out, so...

Sonic Moodswing weekly radio show is exploring the hidden meanings of some rock classics as well as some underground cult-classics .... you'll never hear these songs quite the same again: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - Iron Butterfly Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen Lola – The Kinks American Pie - Don McLean and more...... Playing 7-9 eastern tonight: Winamp or iTunes: listen Windows Media: listen Real Audio: listen

WASHINGTON - Rock star Bruce Springsteen endorsed Democratic Sen. Barack Obama for president Wednesday, saying "he speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years."

A live UK music venue today dodged a fine after members of the Rolling Stones lit up cigarettes on stage in defiance of the smoking ban. The Stones are rounding off their two-year Bigger Bang world tour with a trio of dates at London's O2 Arena. On the first date, officials had to tell the band to stub out their cigarettes after the guitarists, Keith Richards and Ron Wood, performed while smoking.

Freepers: Major Los Angeles radio station, Star 98.7, is having a band contest, and one of the contestants is a popular rock band with Christian roots called "The J Band." You can help them out, and help them spread their message by taking a minute to go to the website and vote for their video. With all the trash out there, it's good to see a band with some good messages get a break. Visit the site to vote, and simply scroll down until you see, "The J Band": http://www.star987.com/pages/rock_star_vote.html?feed=204416&article=2403680 You can also visit www.jband.com for more info on the...

The Day the Music Died By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM Published: July 12, 2007 MICHAEL BELLUSCI’S quotation in his high school yearbook was, “It ain’t rock if it ain’t loud.” Growing up in Flushing, Queens, he played guitar and drums, idolized Jimi Hendrix and performed in cover bands. Later, he went on the road as Ringo in the musical “Beatlemania.” These days, if his left ear happens to be covered by a pillow, Mr. Bellusci, 47, hears the alarm clock as a faint tick, tick, tick, not a blaring BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. In cacophonous restaurants, he watches people’s mouths so he can...

In the 2000 film "Almost Famous," young William Miller (Patrick Fugit), the stand-in for writer-director Cameron Crowe, somehow turns his first assignment for Rolling Stone into a month-long trek across the country with the mythic band Stillwater, transforming a rote profile into a star-making cover story while pausing just long enough for a tryst with three gorgeous "Band Aids" (Fairuza Balk, Anna Paquin and Bijou Phillips). If that really was life for the magazine's journalists in the '70s -- and Crowe swears his movie is accurately autobiographical -- it certainly isn't anymore. "Dude, this looks like Enron or something," says...

SMASHED HITS Pop lyrics re-appraised by the Magazine A Whiter Shade of Pale, a number one single in 1967, is at the centre of a legal dispute. But what do the words mean? - "Great intro, uh?" - "They nicked it from Marvin Gaye." - "He nicked it from Bach!" This description of Procol Harum's 1967 hit A Whiter Shade Of Pale is from the film The Commitments, but it might also end up as an exchange in the Royal Courts of Justice, where former members of the band are trying to settle a royalties dispute over the song -...

LOS ANGELES -- The father of late Doors singer Jim Morrison has broken his silence to share memories of his estranged son, who once sang about killing him and joked that his family was dead. George Morrison, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, is one of the contributors to The Doors by the Doors, an authorized memoir released this week. The book's author, rock journalist Ben Fong-Torres, also interviewed the band's three surviving members and Jim's younger brother and sister, among others. "We look back on him with great delight ... The fact that he's dead is unfortunate but looking back...

WASHINGTON--Baby boomer and former President Bill Clinton is laying plans to celebrate his 60th birthday in grand style with a charitable fundraising extravaganza in New York late next month that will include an invitation-only concert by the Rolling Stones and contributor packages that run to $500,000 and higher. Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, who has generally avoided high-profile participation in her parents' political and philanthropic activities, is serving as co-host of the three-day party. She will host a Saturday brunch on a weekend that also features a golf tournment at the Bayonne, N.J., Golf Club, multiple receptions and a dinner at the...

The odd northern soul single might have sold for $10,000, but a 60s garage punk record fetching that amount has not been seen until now. But this is what "Boy, What'll You Do Then", by Denise & Company, a 1966 recording on the Wee label out of Oakland, California, recently sold for. This raucous recording, only the second copy known to exist, was initially featured in an eBay auction, where it garnered intense interest from collectors and received bids of over $4,000, until the item pulled by the site due to incorrect auction procedure. A dealer then privately bought the...

The former home of Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett, who died in July, has attracted huge interest from potential buyers undeterred by the reclusive singer's patchy home improvement efforts. Dozens of people have viewed the 1930s house in Cambridge, England, which in the delicate words of the estate agent "provides an excellent opportunity for sympathetic improvement and updating." The walls are painted a patchwork of pink, orange, brown, blue, turquoise and lavender, while cheap wooden shelves cling precariously to the walls of every room. Barrett's decorating has done little to deter people from taking a look, with 40 viewings last...

Judge Sides With Original Supernova In 'Rock Star' Suit Ruling requires Tommy Lee's band to change name following show's finale. David has defeated Goliath. According to a Tuesday (September 12) ruling by San Diego Judge John Houston, the producers of CBS' "Rock Star" are going to have to come up with an alternate name for Supernova, the band made up of Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee, Voivod's Jason Newsted and former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke. Last month, the original Supernova — an Orange County, California, punk trio — filed for a preliminary injunction in San Diego's U.S. District Court...

Thanks to the Libertines, the audience now think it's their right to charge the stage. Dave Simpson on rowdy bands, unruly fans and riotous gigs [snip] The crowd suddenly started killing each other," he sighs. "Bottles were getting smashed over people's heads. Bodies flying everywhere. It was pure chaos." Drummer Mince Fratelli took refuge in the women's toilets, while the ill and bewildered singer was escorted from the dressing room by a policeman. You won't see this sort of thing in stadiums, where crowd barriers and security teams hold sway, but small to medium-sized venues are increasingly having to deal...

TUPELO, Miss. — Rockabilly singer and songwriter Jumpin' Gene Simmons, who worked with Elvis Presley and had a top 20 hit in 1964 with the bouncy "Haunted House," has died. He was 69. He died Tuesday at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo after a long illness, according to Holland-Harris Funeral Directors. Simmons — not to be confused with the Kiss bassist with the same name — was in show business for more than 50 years, working with such names as Sam Phillips and the Bill Black Combo. More recently, he co-wrote "Indian Outlaw," which became a big hit in...

The celebrities will be on risers along the side of the hall, while the main floor, emptied of seats, will be given over to fans, to roam and hoot and jeer as they please. Which raises the question: What if some wild fan abandons his network-designated station and rushes toward the beautiful people? “He should be encouraged at all points to storm the stage and to create a television moment that people will talk about at the water cooler the next day,” said Hamish Hamilton, one of the producers. “Or even better, that people will download and put on...

COLONIE, N.Y. -- As the live beat of Beatles classics begins bouncing off the walls of the Elks Lodge, a man with a gray mustache stands before his drum set and speaks up in a Liverpool lilt. "Let's take you back," he tells the crowd, "to the days when I used to play with a bunch of guys by the names of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison." Ringo Starr's playing the Elks club? No. Meet Pete Best, the drummer booted from the band just before Beatlemania exploded. John, Paul, George and new guy Ringo went on to become voices...

Face the music, parents Posted: August 12, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern By David N. Bass © 2006 News flash: What teens watch, listen to and read affects their thinking and behavior. Sound common-sensical? In years gone by, it was. But today, in our increasingly permissive culture, otherwise well-intentioned parents often ignore the obvious. Some even downplay the notion that the media influence behavior at all. Kids are resilient, right? They can see the fakery in lurid music and risqué movies. But such sentiment rings hollow in the face of those nagging things called "facts." Yet another study highlighting this reality...

WESTPORT, CN, USA -- Despite the fighting in Lebanon, English rock band Deep Purple says that it plans to perform at the Baalbek Music Festival outside of Beirut later this year. A press release from the band confirmed that Deep Purple would indeed honor its July 28 performance near the war-torn city, also promising an immediate makeup date should the festival's promoter choose to cancel the show. Deep Purple is currently one-quarter of the way through a planned two-year world tour and to date has not canceled a single show, a trend that it hopes to continue. Ian Gillan, lead...

On a recent Monday, six people — soon enough four, then two — were browsing the bins of compact discs at Norman’s Sound and Vision, a music store on Cooper Square in Manhattan, around 6 p.m., a time that once constituted the daily rush hour.A decade ago, the number of shoppers might have been 20 or 30, said Norman Isaacs, the owner. Six people? He would have had that many working in the store. “I used to make more in a day than I probably make in a week now,” said the shaven-headed Mr. Isaacs, 59, whose largely empty aisles...

LONDON - "When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now," sang Paul McCartney on "When I'm Sixty-Four," a jaunty tune from The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" album. A spokesman would not say how McCartney planned to spend the day, but he could be excused for skipping a party. It has been a traumatic year, in which the former Beatle split from his wife of four years, Heather Mills McCartney, amid lurid headlines about their relationship and her past. "People seem to be interested in him as a celebrity, but not as a musician," said Beatles historian Peter Doggett...

PITY the conservative rock fan. So many musicians are ganging up on the president. Bruce Springsteen is on tour playing protest songs. The Dixie Chicks just put out an album with a song that finds them standing firm against President Bush. And the Rolling Stones last year released a song calling the president a hypocrite. But to prove there is still some music for conservative rockers, National Review has published a list of the 50 greatest conservative rock songs. John J. Miller, who compiled the list, explains the criteria: "The lyrics must convey a conservative idea or sentiment, such as...

BE WILD, NOT EVIL: THE LINK WRAY STORY A tribute by Jimmy McDonough © 2006 Link Wray seemed so strong, so invincible, like he'd be lurking around forever, just wailing away in some East Jesus s**thole, terrorizing another doomed amp while he stuck the neck of Screamin' Red in the dazed faces of a new batch of converts. I guess I took him for granted. The music business sure did. Link is the music for the midnight ride. No question about it, he sounds best when you have somewhere to go. Tearing down the highway in some s**tbox of a...

  Canteen Music Dedication  Click for our National Anthem!(remove your caps please!)Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists...

Led Zeppelin’s classic ‘Stairway to Heaven’ has been voted the best guitar solo of all time.The rock behemoth fought off competition from Van Hallen’s ‘Eruption’ and Guns n Roses’ ‘Paradise City’ which were number two and three respectively. The list was based on 2,000 votes in a poll conducted by Total Guitar magazine. Magazine editor Stephen Lawson said: "Everyone loves to play air guitar when they hear the moment in a song where the guitarist rocks out." The full Top 10 is as follows:1. Led Zeppelin – ‘Stairway to Heaven’ 2. Van Halen – ‘Eruption’ 3. Guns N' Roses –...

Ah, March, the time of year when the music business heats up, the world's hot bands descend on Texas and the hipsters get their marching orders on which groups to worship for the next few months. By the time you read this, Racket will be in Austin, wallowing in the rock and roll phantasmagoria of South By Southwest – more than 1,100 bands playing on probably twice that many stages amid fields of fajitas, kegs of Lone Star, breakfast tacos by the ton and caramel-colored oceans of Shiner Bock, all at the world epicenter of twitching, frenzied, clench-jawed hype. While...