When Ozzy Osbourne declared himself "the prince of fucking darkness" on a 2002 episode of The Osbournes, he may as well have simultaneously relinquished the title. The MTV hit quickly dissolved 30 years' worth of mystique and danger as it revealed him to be in reality a doddering old family man. But when Ozzy rose to fame in the '70s, every other rock star had an interest in the occult (or at least Hobbits), and heavy metal was still genuinely thought of as the province of Satanists, not nerdy gearheads. But who could be pop music's reigning prince of darkness in the era of rock star transparency, when every famous musician has a whiny MySpace blog? Since it's Halloween, we decided to think of a few options:
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Latest by Tertiad: Nick Cave is a good call.
But no Jaz Coleman? Really?
He's still wears the boiler suit and face paint on stage, can both sing and bellow with the best of them, and spouts all kinds of bizarre, offensive things in interviews. more »
The one about the Hold Steady playing a couple of shows in Europe as a support act for Counting Crows, or the one about the new Cure single featuring remixes by 30 Seconds To Mars' Jared Leto, My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way, AFI's Jade E. Puget, and Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump? I think it's a toss-up, although I have heard that there are a lot of Counting Crows fans lurking in the shadows out there... [AHN / NME]
Latest by DocStrange: @D.R. Mosby: I really liked that last Cure album. "The End of the World" was Smith's best single since "Mint Car" (or maybe even "Friday I'm In Love") more »
Many people find it hard to tell the great from the godawful when it comes to 21st-century mainstream rock. To help figure out which is which, here's "Corporate Rock Still Sells," where Al "GovernmentNames" Shipley examines what's good, bad, and ugly in the world of rock and roll. This time around, he gives the year's rock charts a midway-mark overview.More »
For the last ten years, former Get Up Kid and current My Chemical Romance tour keyboardist James Dewees has been releasing albums as Reggie & The Full Effect, cavalierly tossing earnest anthems alongside joke tracks credited to Finnish metal band Common Denominator and '80s dance-pop nightmare Fluxuation. Rumors are spreading that Dewees is now a full-time member of My Chemical Romance, and his decision to say put Reggie to rest after a final tour is only making the speculation louder. Is this tour really the last chance old school Vagrant-heads will have to hear "Congratulations Smack And Katy" and "Mood 4 Luv?" (And man, does the phrase "old school Vagrant-heads" make me feel weird.)
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Latest by KurticusMaximus: I always liked this guy, because he named his first album after his divorce "Songs Not To Get Married To."
Also, because I like "Get Well Soon."+ Watch video more »
It looks like England's emo protest movement has achieved something after all. In the Daily Mail coverage of the recent suicide of Sam Leeson, a 13-year-old British My Chemical Romance fan, phrases like "emo suicide cult" are noticeably absent, replaced by references to online bullying the teenager received due to his taste in clothes and bands. Hannah Bond's "emo initiation" scars are randomly brought up at the end of the piece, but the rest of the article is noticeably more sympathetic to sad children wearing eyeliner, even describing YouTube videos from friends damning Bebo bullies for their treatment of the kid. Maybe the staff doesn't want to have to risk hearing a youth choir sing "The Black Parade" at them again.
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Latest by RaptorAvatar: @Ned Raggett: It's a gay version of John McCain being melted like at the end of "Raiders of The Lost Ark."
@Captain Wrong: Agreed, not many vocal performances have gotten under my skin the way "Deeper Than Inside" has.
"Angry Son" by more »
Despite the Daily Mail's claims that its reportage on the "emo suicide cult" was "balanced, restrained, and above all, in the public interest," a small herd of darkly dressed teenagers jumped around and sang My Chemical Romance in a creepy "We love you, Conrad" unison within shouting distance of the paper's offices on Saturday. A group wearing V For Vendetta masks can be seen, and I'd like to believe that they were the members of My Chemical Romance themselves, watching over their vulnerable flock and debating whether or not to call for their throngs of fans to kill themselves as proof of their devotion to the Black Parade.
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Latest by MaribelCreusa: Its obvious those guys in Venetta masks weren't anyone from MCR. You only
have to look at their body types to realize that.
more »
Offended by the Daily Mail's portrayal of My Chemical Romance as a "suicide cult band," following the death of 13-year-old fan Hannah Bond, an ever-increasing number of the band's fans are planning a peaceful protest outside of the newspaper's offices on May 31. Fans are being advised to bring placards that say "MCR SAVES LIVES" or "I AM NOT AFRAID TO KEEP ON LIVING," the latter also being the name of the organizers' site. And on the fashion tip, those organizers would rather you left your "emo attire" at home.
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Latest by Intricus: Yea,and even more annoying is how any band like these guys coming out nowadays are somehow tagged with a name like "emo", and are constantly knocked. It was the same thing with "Nu-Metal". People, lets stop coming up with these more »
We've been following the exploits of the moshpitting, Jonas Brothers-hating YouTube sensation ADiehardFOBFan all week, but only Alex Goldberg—who likes to go by the name XxstrokesmegafanxX from time to time—was outraged enough by her profane, grouchy tirades to craft his own point-by-point response; to shield him from the kinda-dim YouTube commenting hordes, we've posted it here. Be warned: It contains even more 9/11 conspiracy theories and the day's second reference to Full House!
Latest by madmangoliath: Christ on a cracker. I met this dude at Terminal 5 before the Justice gig. He was interviewing Midnight Juggernauts. He was awesome to talk to and had those killer shades on. Hope that guy remembers me and my Fred more »
In a recent Q&A session published in The Maine Campus, Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance got sassy about the the much-disputed "emo" label:
Basically, it's never been accurate to describe us. Emo bands were being booked while we were touring with Christian metal bands because no one would book us on tours. I think emo is Fucking garbage, it's bullshit. I think there's bands that unfortunately we get lumped in with that are considered emo and by default that starts to make us emo. All I can say is anyone actually listening to the records, put the records next to each other and listen to them and there's actually no similarities. I think emo's a pile of shit.
This got me thinking: How would Gerard's hostility play out in the bandom universe? Here is my rough estimation:
Sure, marriage changes a man, but when did Gerard Way decide that "looking like John Mayer" was a good idea? Can we have Liza Minnelli stage an intervention for him ASAP, please? [Blender]
For those of you keeping score: MTV2 didn't cut the word "murder" from a 2-ish a.m. viewing of Chamillionaire's video for "Hip Hop Police"—despite its dropping the same word from "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance approximately 24 hours earlier. Can't someone over at 1515 Broadway give Gerard Way a break this month? [MTV2.com]
Today's TRL had at No. 7 My Chemical Romance's "Teenagers," a track that we've sung the praises of in the past. But as is the case with much of the music that sees actual airtime on MTV, the song was pockmarked with bleeps. While some of the x-ed-out words were to be expected, tallying up which words were and weren't blocked by MTV's standards and practices department led to some odd results:
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Above, the long-overdue video for My Chemical Romance's "Teenagers," a glammy stomp that, when all is said and done, should have been released as the second single from the band's most recent album, The Black Parade. While the song is all T. Rex swagger, though, the accompanying video—which drops MCR into a high-school auditorium—kept conjuring up images in our (admittedly notalgia-damaged) heads that were from a certain clip released 16 years ago. (And we weren't the only ones.) We'll probably get to see more of similarities shine through when "Weird Al" gives the MCR video/song the inevitable Green Acres-themed treatment, but for now, here's what we noticed:
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Latest by Christopher R. Weingarten:
Reminds me of the rock remix video of "It's All About The Benjamins"
Which I would link to were it on YouTube... more »
One of our favorite aspects of the start of baseball season, aside from, of course, the games: The possibility of new at-bat songs, those 30-second musical snippets that herald a home-team player's arrival on the field. Mets third baseman David Wright has been agonizing about his choices for this season during most of Spring Training, and with good reason: How can you improve on the opening skronk-blast of "Brass Monkey," one of the songs Wright used last year?
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Latest by drjayphd:
@stopmikelupica: Sounds good in theory, but that wouldn't always work out so well. Trot Nixon would use Triple H's theme song as his at-bat music, and once he gets his fourth plate appearance, "TIME TO PLAY THE GAAAAAAME" gets more »
- The Kasabian/My Chemical Romance feud rages on, with Gerard Way pointing out that Kasabian singer Tom Meighan's last jibe was "poorly worded." [NME]
- We didn't know that Whitney Houston and Ray-J were dating; this explains why she turned down our invitation to go on a scented-candle shopping spree last weekend. [eCanada]
- Simon Cowell doesn't like bloggers, and bloggers don't like him, and we should probably all be more concerned with last night's State of the Union address, anyway. [CBSnews.com]
This new My Chemical Romance clip may be pretty standard, but it does raise two questions. One: Was the whole standing-in-front-of-flames look so cool that it was worth roasting the drummer? (Our answer: Not so much.) And two: Why, oh why, didn't they release "Teenagers" as a single instead of this song, which never fails to make us hit "skip" during our Black Parade listening sessions?
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- My Chemical Romance are planning to turn The Black Parade into a musical. Like the Liza cameo didn't tip that hand. [NME]
- Jewel's out of her record contract and on the prowl ... for a new genre of music to pillage. She's even considering lullabyes, people. [Billboard]
- The Department of Justice has cleared the way for the Live Nation/House of Blues merger. Let a thousand concession stands selling $5 watery sodas bloom. [Pollstar]
Idolator
When Ozzy Osbourne declared himself "the prince of fucking darkness" on a 2002 episode of The Osbournes, he may as well have simultaneously relinquished the title. The MTV hit quickly dissolved 30 years' worth of mystique and danger as it revealed him to be in reality a doddering old family man. But when Ozzy rose to fame in the '70s, every other rock star had an interest in the occult (or at least Hobbits), and heavy metal was still genuinely thought of as the province of Satanists, not nerdy gearheads. But who could be pop music's reigning prince of darkness in the era of rock star transparency, when every famous musician has a whiny MySpace blog? Since it's Halloween, we decided to think of a few options:
More »
Sure, marriage changes a man, but when did Gerard Way decide that "looking like John Mayer" was a good idea? Can we have Liza Minnelli stage an intervention for him ASAP, please? [
