Monday, December 22, 2014

Quick News

Very sad news to report, iconic singer Joe Cocker passed away this afternoon at the age of 70 from complications with Lung Cancer. Cocker, who became infamous with his Woodstock performance in 1969, was known for his raspy voice and famous covers including The Beatles' "A Little Help From My Friends" which was used as the theme to The Wonder Years. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family.

It is official! The Hip-Hop Hall of Fame & Museum is coming to New York City in 2017!

On June 1, Riff Raff will release two albums, The Peach Panther and The Purple Panther. The announcement was made over the weekend via Twitter.

Dave Grohl's new supergroup with Slipknot's Corey Taylor, Teenage Time Killer, will release their debut album next year. The band features Nick Oliveri on bass, Lamb of God's Randy Blythe, Corrosion of Conformity's Reed Mullin. The project, much like Grohl's death metal side project ProBot, will boat a ton of special guests. For Teenage Time Killer the band enlisted Black Flag's Keith Morris, Max Cavalera of Soulfly, Neil Fallon of Clutch, Lee Ving of Fear along with members of The Misfits, Municipal Waste, Red Fang, Goatsnake, Brujeria, My Ruin, Prong, Articles Of Faith and SUNN O))).

In a recent interview with NME, Brandon Flowers called out his band The Killers and says they should be at the level of U2 at this point. He said, "There's definitely a drive that we're lacking," Flowers says about The Killers ability to live up to their potential. "It takes a lot of work and that's fine, everybody's different, everybody's gonna have their own road that they go down. Other than Coldplay I'm not sure anybody's made the dent that U2 were able to make. They were so much a part of the landscape and the timing of when they were coming out. It's changed so much now, there's so much music out there and so much noise to compete with, it's strange times. So sometimes it's frustrating with four different people and four different personalities in this band, we don't have that whole history that U2 have of these four young kids that knew each other and grew up in the same town. It is frustrating. People actually talk about how they don't feel like they're adequate, and it's a big band. I don't feel like that - I feel like I can do it."

Also speaking to NME is Karen O. who has confirmed that Yeah Yeah Yeahs are on hiatus. She said, "We're on a bit of hiatus at the moment, so nothing yet. We have to wait to get the urge, get that itch. The time needs to be right and we're OK waiting for that, I think," she said, adding that when the band do get back together it'll be like muscle memory, this unspoken thing between the three of us where it all just… locks in."

RZA also spoke to NME who gave some insight that things are not great inside the Wu-Tang Clan. The rapper and leader of the band said, "There was a lot of opposition within the Wu-Tang circle to doing the album… I'll level with you, the chemistry's not all that good right now. We've all done this long enough to know this process isn't just like, you make an album, then that's that. It's like a presidential campaign. You don't just make the policies then sit back. You create your platform, then you gotta take it to out to the people. It's like there's an energy in the group that stops people enjoying their own success. They gotta sabotage it."

Madonna confirmed that her new album, Rebel Heart, will arrive in March. Take a look at the cover below: