Alternative Music
Bob Dylan Gives Our Half-Assed Year a Half-Assed Christmas Light Show
As the neighbor of Bob Dylan, author and journalist Merrill Markoe has become a celebrity reporter of sorts. For over a decade, she’s documented and analyzed the folk singer’s Christmas lights outside his Malibu home, and this year’s interpretation — Markoe’s last ever — has finally arrived. From half-assed string lights to basic plaster nativity scenes, Dylan’s decorations have prompted Markoe to ask one simple question: “What does it mean?” But the task has proven gruesome as the years have gone by. “Because people keep bugging me, here are you-know-who’s Xmas lights. For THE VERY LAST TIME,” Markoe wrote on Twitter. “But I can no longer take the strain of trying to translate such an obscure method of communication. See thread for my LAST interpretation EVER.” This year, Dylan resorted t...
The LCD Soundsystem Holiday Special Aims for Nostalgia to Mixed Effect: Recap
Even after COVID forced LCD Soundsystem to cancel the remaining three shows of their 20-night Brooklyn Steel residency, the band hasn’t given up on trying to keep things jolly. On December 22nd, James Murphy and co. brought the holiday cheer to Amazon Prime Video with their part comedy, part concert film Christmas special, appropriately titled The LCD Soundsystem Holiday Special. Directed by Eric Wareheim (of Tim & Eric fame), the hour-long special aims to capture nostalgia twofold. It opens with a parody of a ’90s sitcom titled “All My Friends,” in which Wareheim stands in as Murphy in a fictionalized version of LCD Soundsystem. With Macaulay Culkin portraying drummer Pat Mahoney, the band fumbles through assembling the perfect setlist for the night’s gig. Spanning their 2005 de...
GUNS N’ ROSES’ Australian Arena Tour To Receive More Government Funding
Music promoter TEG Dainty has received another AUD $600,000 (approximately $432,000) in rescheduling assistance from the Australian government’s Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) fund for GUNS N’ ROSES‘ COVID-delayed tour of the country. GUNS N’ ROSES‘ Australian tour was initially scheduled to kick off last month, but was pushed back to November 2022 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In a statement in September, TEG Dainty CEO Paul Dainty said that his company “worked for months with the various state governments trying to create a safe environment so that the GUNS N’ ROSES tour could proceed this year. Despite our best efforts, it recently became clear that we could not proceed in 2021 and it has taken time to finalize a plan...
Watch SEPULTURA’s ELOY CASAGRANDE Play Song From His CASAGRANDE & HANYSZ Project
The Paiste YouTube channel has been updated with a video of SEPULTURA drummer Eloy Casagrande playing the song “To Not Belong” from CASAGRANDE & HANYSZ, his prog metal project with João Hanysz. Paiste says in a message accompanying the YouTube release of the video: “Could he play even more energetic? We don’t think so. Always a great pleasure to see and hear Eloy Casagrande banging on those drums. Here he plays the track ‘To Not Belong’ from CASAGRANDE & HANYSZ. Hell Yeah!” CASAGRANDE & HANYSZ‘s debut EP, “Edge Of Chaos”, was released in September. The effort was produced, recorded and mixed by Andre Kbelo and was mastered by Carlinhos Freitas. This past summer, guitarist Andreas Kisser spoke to France’s Loud TV ...
DENNIS DEYOUNG On STYX Reunion: ‘The Vast Majority Of Fans Wanna See The Band Back Together One Last Time’
Ex-STYX vocalist and keyboardist Dennis DeYoung has once again said that he wants to reunite with his former bandmates for one final tour. DeYoung, the voice behind such STYX classics as “Come Sail Away”, “Best Of Times”, “Pieces Of Eight” and “Babe”, spoke about his previous group while chatting with U-Man and Favazz of the St. Louis, Missouri radio station KSHE 95. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “The vast majority of fans, and I know this, they wanna see the band back together one last time. But [the STYX guys] chose a different path. “The people say, ‘Stop whining, Dennis.’ I say, ‘I’ll whine as long as I like. I’m gonna be 75.’ But the truth is [for them] to go out [on tour] w...
BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE’s MATT TUCK: ‘COVID And Brexit Are Making Our Lives Doubly Horrible’
Matt Tuck of Welsh metallers BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE spoke to AndrewHaug.com, Australia’s first-ever dedicated 24/7 rock and metal online radio station, about it’s going to be like for the band to embark on its first pandemic-era international tour. “I think the best thing that we can do now, as far as the band and the crew, is just get double vaccinated and just kind of do what we need to do if we need to travel,” he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “It’s not a huge ask to do a test before getting on a flight, for example — it’s not really a big ask — and if that’s what it takes for us to be able to continue on with our life and our musical journey and our career, that’s what we’ll do. “The world is a big place, a...
Why Hawkeye Was the Best MCU Adventure of 2021
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the season finale of Hawkeye, “The Boss.”] 2021 was the MCU’s busiest year to date, thanks to films and shows delayed by the pandemic. It was also a period rich with the inclusion of new voices behind the scenes and on-screen, as well as some of the franchise’s most experimental storytelling to date. From WandaVision breaking all the fourth walls to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings incorporating wuxia and mythical wonder to Loki giving us the gift of Richard E. Grant in that costume, Marvel delivered some truly wild moments. Given all of that, it could have been the case that Hawkeye, now having completed its six-episode run on Disney+, would have ended up being a bit of an afterthought. Instead, the complete series may not f...
Michael Keaton Bringing Batman Back for Batgirl Movie
Holy Bat-nostalgia! Michael Keaton is reportedly reprising his iconic role as Bruce Wayne/Batman for the upcoming Batgirl movie. As The Hollywood Reporter has it, production on the film is already underway in London, but a new cast list sent to media includes Keaton’s surprise appearance. The actor is already dusting off the ol’ cape and cowl from 1989’s Batman and 1992’s Batman Returns for his upcoming multiversal role in The Flash movie. It now appears it’ll be a little while longer before the suit goes back in the closet, though it’s unclear exactly how it will all work. Batgirl is rumored to be set within the Snyderverse of Justice League (seemingly confirmed by J.K. Simmons reprising his role as Commissioner Jim Gordon), so how Keaton’s Batman will factor into a world p...
The Matrix Resurrections Ending Explained: How Exactly Did Neo and Trinity Return to Do Kung Fu?
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Matrix Resurrections.] The Matrix movies are, well, dense — a veritable gumbo of artistic influences and philosophical musings on the nature of identity couched in dingy cyberpunk and some of the slickest, most revolutionary action Hollywood had to offer at the turn of the millennium. It’s the same series that paired high-kicking setpieces and epic-length freeway chases alongside Keanu Reeves standing in a room with a bearded Colonel Sanders lookalike to talk about the preprogrammed choices we’re given throughout our lives. It’s no surprise, then, that The Matrix Resurrections, Lana Wachowski‘s bold, messy, ambitious, romantic return to the series for the first time in almost twenty years, is just as complicated and unwieldy. Not only...
Home Alone Actor Devin Ratray Charged with Felony Domestic Assault
Devin Ratray, the actor best known for playing Buzz McCallister in the Home Alone franchise, has been charged with felony domestic assault. The 44-year-old actor turned himself into Oklahoma City police on Wednesday after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was booked for domestic assault and battery by strangulation, a felony, as well as misdemeanor domestic assault and battery, according to TMZ. He was released after posting $25,000 bond. A woman identified as Ratray’s girlfriend filed a police report on December 10th, following an altercation the evening before. According to the affidavit, Ratray was intoxicated when he became angry with the woman after she gave away an autograph photo of him without charging for it. The woman alleges that Ratray got physical once they returned to t...
Which Band Is More Important: DEEP PURPLE Or BLACK SABBATH? ROB HALFORD Weighs In
In a recent interview with Spain’s Mariskal Rock, JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford was asked which fellow British band was more important to him personally while he was coming up in the music scene in Birmingham, England in the late 1960s and early 1970s, DEEP PURPLE or BLACK SABBATH. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “They’re all important to me for all of the styles and variety of music that they presented. I was naturally drawn to SABBATH because of the heaviness. If you put PURPLE on and then you put SABBATH on, or SABBATH on then PURPLE, they’re both really strong, powerful bands, depending on which album you’re listening to. “PURPLE are hard rock; to me, they’re not metal,” he continued. “I’ll probably be kil...
ERIC CLAPTON’s Management Defends Lawsuit Against German Widow Who Tried To Sell Bootleg CD On eBay
Eric Clapton‘s management has released a “clarification” regarding the musician’s lawsuit against a German widow after she posted a listing for a pirated version of his “Eric Clapton – Live USA” album for $11 on eBay. Last week, Clapton won the lawsuit against the woman, who claimed she was unaware that her dead husband’s CD was pirated and removed the listing a day after posting it. The judge in the case said that the fact that she didn’t acquire the CD herself was irrelevant and ordered her to pay for both parties’ legal fees (about $3,900). Now Clapton‘s management has issued a statement to the guitarist’s fan club clarifying the 76-year-old’s role in the situation, as well as why they pursued legal action in ...
