2/28/07, 5:51 pm EST
Why the hell are we still putting up with bland network programming censored by standards that haven’t been upgraded in 50 years? The Sopranos , Entourage , Nip/Tuck , The L Word …the best shows on TV all have the freedom to do basically whatever the hell they want. Just imagine how much more entertaining Full House would have been if Bob Saget had been allowed to use his stand-up material instead of the sappy scripts they shoveled on an unforgiving laugh track. We’ve all got cable and DVRs to record shows whenever they happen to air, so please, producers, take your best products off the big networks to media more forgiving of the occasional F-bomb or full frontal nudity. Consider just a few of the unregulated possibilities…
Comments (12) Link to this E-Mail
More Overhauling TV
2/28/07, 5:42 pm EST
What you are looking at here is a real live behind-the-scenes shot of Matt Dillon with J Mascis and Lou Barlow on the set of the new Dinosaur Jr video for their song “Been There All the Time.” Dillon, who rocked a brief appearance as a boorish cop in the 1987 video for the Pogues “Fairytale of New York” , is directing the clip. We trust that it will be awesome.
Because we think Matt Dillon is the coolest (check out Erik Hedegaard’s intriguing feature on the actor , which we published last summer) we wish we could say he’s the first actor to get with the actor-turned-video-director trend, but it’s not the case. He’s just the latest in which seems to be an ever-growing list.
Sean Penn made the typically baffling choice to direct both Shania Twain’s video for “Dance With the One That Brought You” back in 1993 as well as Peter Gabriel’s video for “The Barry Williams Show” in 2002. More recently, benefactor to lo-fi rockers everywhere and resident Hollywood hipster Zach Braff directed the video for Gavin DeGraw’s song “Chariot” and brooding romantic Joaquin Phoenix directed People in Planes’ video for their song “If You Talk Too Much (My Head Will Explode) .”
Is this a thing now? If so we have some suggestions. Here are our dream collaborations, who would you like to see merge Hollywood with the rock world?
Comments (14) Link to this E-Mail
More Rock News
2/28/07, 4:19 pm EST
Yesterday Nine Inch Nails released a concert DVD entitled Beside You in Time . We thought this meant we were getting a day off from this whole Year Zero Project , but some eagle-eyed NIN message boarder noticed that on the Blu-Ray Edition of the BYIT packaging, in expiration-date lettering, read the words “Secure,” “Broadcast,” “Informatics.” Add a “.com” and voila: www.securebroadcastinformatics.com .
The page resembles a futuristic Yousendit in disrepair. Reconstruct the scrambled puzzle pieces, enter the password “matt26:45-46″ (an appropriate Bible passage) and another site pops up: www.solutionsbackwardsinitiative.com/pilgrims .
With the next site, Trent and the YZ crew have engineered a time capsule from the Year Zero (fifteen years from now). We learn that books are banned, perhaps the reason many of the project’s websites feature hidden text. This time it’s John Milton’s anti-censorship plea Aeropagitica . We also learn that the site operates illegally, as a means for the people of the future to catalog and spread banned art. There’s likewise a bunch of Quantum Physics talk, but that’s out of our ballpark. Maybe one of you is an expert in the space/time continuum? Help us out. What does it all mean?
[Thanks to the NINHotline ]
Comments (33) Link to this E-Mail
More Project Zero
2/28/07, 2:45 pm EST
Loner kids are different than anti-social birds, even if they both have black hair.
Comments (26) Link to this E-Mail
More Clip of the Day
2/28/07, 2:29 pm EST
Comments (24) Link to this E-Mail
More Daily News: In Brief
2/28/07, 1:10 pm EST
Congratulations, Sundance! After you sang “Mustang Sally” on last night’s American Idol , Paula proclaimed, “That’s like the best vocal I think we EVER HEARD!” Well put, Paula. She’s crazy, obviously, but it was a whole lot better than “Nights in White Satin.” Sundance has learned what side his bread’s buttered on, and he took the lead last night by giving the old ladies at home what they want: a nice husky Southern boy with good manners (he even calls Ryan Seacrest “sir”), lots of Bo Bice winks and a King Tut beard. The other dudes are still struggling, probably realizing it doesn’t matter since Lakisha Jones is going to roast them all. Howard Jones look-alike Blake Lewis did his “vocal turntablism” on a version of Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity,” but he was more fun last week with his blatant Morrissey imitation. (Request for Blake: “I Know It’s Over!”) Chris Sligh, still doing the Jack Osborne class-clown shtick at 28, revealed he’s married to an apparently real nice girl, but he’s still grating. A.J. Tabaldo’s voice is like a lard bath, but it’s never going to win him a date with Antonella. So who’s going home?
Comments (17) Link to this E-Mail
More American Idol
2/28/07, 12:48 pm EST
If you ever wanted to see Timbaland’s home movies, now is your chance. The video for “Give It to Me,” the producer-turned-rapper’s first single off debut solo album Shock Value , is essentially a montage of web-cam-esque shots of Timba and his collaborators — Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake — interspersed with tedious, poorly shot onstage footage. Sometimes a limo rolls by or JT laughs at something we must assume was funny. That’s it.
We were hoping a kick-ass video could save this song for us, but instead we’re feeling even more skeptical about this record. Let’s hope the Hives collaboration rocks…Do you think this clip helps or hurts the song?
Comments (8) Link to this E-Mail
More Rock News , Videos
2/28/07, 11:08 am EST
You can’t take it anymore. There’s this one song, on this one album, which keeps the record from being perfect. Every time you reach for it (or scroll to it on your iPod) this feeling of dread descends. It’s like, you love Blonde On Blonde , but does it really have to start with that annoying “Rainy Day Women” song? (For us the album starts with “Pledging My Time.”) You are able to go back and edit that one album so that the offending track is removed. Which record do you go after, and what song do you kill?
Comments (148) Link to this E-Mail
More Lunchtime Poll
2/28/07, 9:01 am EST
Comments (11) Link to this E-Mail
More Morning News Roundup
2/28/07, 8:54 am EST
Overdue market correction or massive suicidal crash — by any term, the 415-point Dow plunge yesterday was the steepest drop in five years. Is it over? Our playlist thinks not…
Comments (23) Link to this E-Mail
More Playlist of the Day
2/27/07, 5:51 pm EST
One of the most common ploys to boost ratings on a struggling show is to hype the impending death of an important (yet somewhat unloved and completely replaceable) character. But the networks have mostly wasted this golden opportunity by operating on too small a scale — stealing a page from the comic book model, they should make the kill-off a huge universe-wide event.
The answer is The Executioner — a hit man or serial killer who travels from show to show, knocking off characters past their sell-by date as he goes. Another week, another unsolved homicide. They could get anyone to play him, really, as long as it’s Ray Liotta. (He’s got some spare time on his hands now anyway.)
We all have specific characters we’d tune in to watch die. Our humble suggestions (don’t make us beg): (more…)
2/27/07, 5:30 pm EST
As Ray Davies and Debbie Harry took the stage at last night’s Tibet House benefit concert to lead the audience in an acoustic sing-along of “Lola,” members of the rapt crowd exchanged incredulous glances, doubting that the evening could could get any fucking cooler.
And then it did.
Michael Stipe and Patti Smith — just two of the heavyweights on hand to celebrate Tibetan culture at Carnegie Hall’s seventeenth annual shindig — launched into a rendition of “Everybody Hurts” that made everyone watching a little verklempt. But before anyone had time to wipe their eyes, Stipe unveiled “Chorus and the Ring,” a never-been-played-live tune inspired by a chat he had with William Burroughs about Kurt Cobain. Don’t you love it when pop culture comes full circle?
And so it went for two-and-a-half hours. One icon set the stage for the next — Harry introduced Davies as one of her “all-time idols” — and artists played stripped-down mini-sets that treated thirsty ears to killer one-off performances.
Highlights included Lou Reed’s curmudgeonly grumble on the pissed-off “Ecstasy,” Ben Harper — backed by a string quartet — belting out a mournful “Amen Omen” and Debbie Harry jamming on an unplugged “Heart of Glass.” Also awesome: Patti Smith paying homage to George Harrison (who would have turned sixty-four on February 25th) with a slow-burning “Within You, Without You.”
And then the motley crew of musicians stormed the stage for the finale, urging everyone out of their seats with Smith’s “People Have the Power.” No one dared to keep still.
Comments (41) Link to this E-Mail
More Live Shows
2/27/07, 4:08 pm EST
Seventies rockers Deep Purple recently told their fans not to purchase their re-released-without-permission crappy live album NEC 1993 , citing it as “one of their worst ever concerts.” The album was later withdrawn from circulation.
Deep Purple, we appreciate the honesty.
If only all artists were as truthful, owning up when a stinker album slips through the cracks. Deep Purple’s gesture got us thinking: Which albums by great artists should come with a sticker, like Parental Advisory, warning listeners that the music within isn’t that good? We picked ten, add your picks to the record…who knows which band will comply. (more…)
Comments (154) Link to this E-Mail
2/27/07, 3:28 pm EST
It may start as a fashion statement, but those long bangs and dark clothes can quickly mean danger.
Comments (34) Link to this E-Mail
2/27/07, 2:21 pm EST
Comments (21) Link to this E-Mail
Advertisement
Click "Copy Me" to add the RS.com Widget to your Facebook page, blog, MySpace page and more.
Sign up to have this sent to you (via RSS)
Subscribe to Rolling Stone Rock & Roll Blog feed
See all available RSS feeds / learn more
Get 22 additional issues for only $14.97 (a total of 26 issues). That's 50A¢ an issue! If I don't like the magazine, I just write "cancel" on the bill. I owe nothing and keep my FREE TRIAL issues.