It is a Bittersweet Symphony after all, The Verve ended their 8 year dispute and reunited! They have entered the recording studio and are playing a small tour in England in the fall. All of the original members are back, but Simon Tong who is currently busy with his latest band The Good, The Bad and The Queen.
In related news, Weezer is also in the studio. This dismissing reports the band had too broken up or were not planing on making a sixth record. River and the boys hope to have it out by next spring (keep your fingers crossed that is it better than Make Believe).
In the strange, sad and sick events that occurred this weekend to WWE superstar Chris Benoit, his murder/suicide has raised more questions in any celebrity death case than Anna Nicole Smith. This morning Raine Maida singer for the Canadian Rock band Our Lady Peace, who had written the entrance music for Benoit, had this to say via their myspace page: In 2000 Our Lady Peace was asked to write a song for a WWE wrestler. I admit to being heavily influenced by martial arts but entertainment wrestling was never my thing. I knew very little about the sport. Our drummer Jeremy was more the wrestling aficionado in the band. Nevertheless one night in Toronto we met with a professional wrestler for dinner at a local restaurant chain. His name was Chris Benoit. Immediately I was struck by his appearance. Not overly tall but freakishly muscular and wearing a very large neck brace. He had suffered a few herniated discs in his neck days before and was on hiatus until he had surgery and was able to rehab. Throughout the evening we learned about Chris and about the sport. Chris was a purest and came from a true wrestling background. His technical abilities were revered by all who followed him. Above that he seemed like a decent, nice man if not a little tortured. Nothing surprising coming from someone so dedicated to this absurd lifestyle of injuries, painkillers, steroids and constant travel. We ended up recording a theme song for him in Seattle during the next few months. We would see him a couple more times at various shows on tour in the US and he seemed pleased with the song we wrote for him. Today I learned through numerous emails and Myspace comments that Chris Benoit had killed himself along with his 7 year old son and wife. I think back to that dinner we had years ago and struggle to come to grips with the fact that this was Chris' destiny. Assuming the authorities are correct in their assessment, I can't help but think Chris must have been in immeasurable pain both psychologically and physically. We may never know the answers to why this successful man ultimately was unable to handle this world and in no way do I personally absolve him of any guilt concerning the death of his son and wife. I guess I simply feel sad and somewhat shocked that someone I knew briefly had such a terrible and tragic ending to their life.
