MSN Music Blog - Reverb

Sharona's story

The subject of one of the most iconic songs of all time talks about Doug Fieger

By Mark C. Brown Feb 18, 2010 5:53PM
The Knack single "My Sharona" didn't disappoint in fueling adolescents' fantasies, either with the words, music, or the picture sleeve of its subject.

My SharonaSharona then

Sharona Alperin went on to be a high-end Realtor in Los Angeles and she reflected recently on the death of singer Doug Fieger and what the single did for her life.

Sharona AlperinSharona now

 

Jackson Browne still says "No Nukes"

Also unseen Prince, and Abbey Road for sale

By Mark C. Brown Feb 18, 2010 12:09PM

No Nukes. How many times does the man have to say it?

 Thirty years later, Jackson Browne still against the nukes. Here’s a new interview with radio legend Nicole Sandler; besides talking politics, Browne reveals he’ll reunite with David Lindley for a tour soon.

 


Bad idea: No Doubt may cover Lionel Richie and other ‘80s hitmakers on a new album.

 

New doubts about No Doubt


This is like selling off the Eiffel Tower or Statue of Liberty. Abbey Road is for sale. An excerpt: "EMI bought the house at number 3 Abbey Road for £100,000 ($160,000) in 1929 and transformed it into the world's first custom-built recording studios."


Some guys taking a walk near Abbey Road

 

Blink and you'll miss them. Some footage of Prince rehearsing for the "Purple Rain" tour has surfaced, but his lawyers are already all over it.


Prince, rockin' as always


Patti Smith talks about her new book. "When I left the public eye in 1979, I felt that I had contributed all I knew in the arena of rock 'n' roll"


Patti Smith


 

 

 
Tags: AltRockFolkLiveMusicRandBRecordedMusicRock

Charity Hurts Your Ears

Stereogum's 25 Worst Charity Music Videos

By percy thrillington Feb 17, 2010 12:34PM
The wags at Stereogum, bless their sarcastic hearts, have commemorated the occasion of Live Aid 25 with a list of the 21 worst all-star charity music videos of all time. I know what you're thinking: I can't remember 21 of them. "We Are the World," "Do They Know It's Christmas"... sure, everyone knows them. But what about Ferry Aid? The Take It Back Foundation? Hear N'Aid? If you've forgotten about the willingness of seemingly cool rock stars to come on all moist and earnest for the charity dollar, you need to check out this list. It is astonishing. 

A few high/lowlights:
(I actually love this one. Check out how Kool Moe Dee is too cool to sing on the chorus.)
(How did I miss this?)

Of course, this list feels incomplete without the original "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and "We Are the World," so...


 

Another Day, Another Indie Rock Festival Headlined by Pavement

Sasquatch 2010 lineup revealed!

By percy thrillington Feb 16, 2010 3:09PM
Set against the breathtaking spectacle of the Gorge at George, WA, Sasquatch has become one of the premier indie-rock focused music festivals in America. The announcement of the bands for this year's fest, which will be held May 29-31, came last night. It's like this, and like this, and like that:

PAVEMENT
My Morning Jacket
Massive Attack
Ween
Vampire Weekend
MGMT
The National
LCD Soundsystem
Band of Horses
Broken Social Scene
Passion Pit
Tegan and Sarah
She & Him
Dirty Projectors
The xx
New Pornographers
Nada Surf
Long Winters
Drive by Truckers
Kid Cudi
Mountain Goats 
Minus the Bear
Public Enemy
The Hold Steady
Camera Obscura
OK Go
Deadmau5
Quasi
Fruit Bats
Brother Ali
Midlake
Dr. Dog
Caribou
Simian Mobile Disco
City & Colour
No Age
Temper Trap
Vetiver
Miike Snow
Portugal. the Man
Telekinesis
The Middle East
Mayer Hawthorne
Why?
Girls
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Wale
The Lonely Forest
Japandroids
Boys Noize
Yacht
Laura Marling
Patrick Watson
Freelance Whales
Past Lives
Cymbals Eat Guitars
The Low Anthem
The Very Best
Phantogram
Neon Indian
Hudson Mohawke
Nurses
Tallest Man on Earth
Fresh Espresso
Mumford & Sons
Jets Overhead
Tune-Yards
Shabazz Palaces
Fools Gold
Morning Teleportation
Z-Trip
Dan-Funk
Local Natives
Avi Buffalo
Booka Shade
A-Trak
Yes Giantess
Craig Robinson
Rob Riggle
Garfunkel & Oates
Luke Burbank
If the traffic ever diminishes, you can get tickets at Ticketmaster or here.
 

Happy Presidents Day (Observed)

The Presidents of the United States of America... as the founding fathers intended

By percy thrillington Feb 15, 2010 12:35PM
Seattle's own. 

And Speaking of Raging Narcissists...

Guns'N'Roses play a show for Fashion Week

By percy thrillington Feb 12, 2010 1:35PM
Gather round, young'n's; it's time for a wee history lesson. See, waaaay back in the 1980s, when "rock band" meant something more than just a video game, there was one such rock band that seemed to be bigger than all the others combined. They were called Guns'N'Roses, and they made two or three albums that lots of people inexplicably loved. Even more inexplicable: Guns'N'Roses still technically exists! And every so often, they appear live somewhere. Most recently, they turned up at the John Varvatos store (built on the smoldering ruin of CBGB) for a L'Uomo Vogue afterparty that had some affiliation with Fashion Week. The lesson, as demonstrated by this murky audience vid of the "well well well my Michelle" song, is that no matter how big and powerful a band once was, they can and will be reduced to the sound of a bunch of high school students in a garage lit by one red bulb in the fullness of time.



The setlist, courtesy of Stereogum:
01 "You're Crazy"
02 "Mr. Brownstone"
03 "I Used to Love Her"
04 "Welcome To The Jungle"
05 "Street Of Dreams (The Blues)"
06 "Sorry"
07 "It's So Easy"
08 Band intros --> "Patience"
09 "Rocket Queen"
10 jam --> "Catcher In The Rye"
11 "My Michelle"
12 "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"
13 "Whole Lotta Rosie" (AC/DC cover)
14 "Paradise City"
---- ENCORES
15 "Sweet Child O' Mine"
16 "This I Love"
17 "Night Train"
 

John Mayer's Narcissistic Apology for Being Narcissisitic

Mayer acts contrite onstage

By percy thrillington Feb 11, 2010 1:22PM
After John Mayer's Playboy interview proliferated around the web yesterday, the world agreed he was a complete bastard. The consensus was so dramatic that even Mayer noticed, and gave this possibly sincere, but undoubtedly self-involved "apology"/acknowledgement onstage last night:


 

And You Said John Mayer Couldn't Get Worse

Mayer's Appalling Playboy Interview

By percy thrillington Feb 10, 2010 1:00PM
In an age where pornography is harder NOT to find than it once was to find (notice I don't say "to come by"), one may rightfully ask: what is the point of Playboy Magazine? The photos are airbrushed beyond human recognition, the models are genericized to the point of being almost invisible, and the entire aesthetic seems caught between three generations, none of which is being served. Well, the answer used to be a punchline. Nowadays you really do read Playboy for the articles. In the case of this month's interview with blues pop web celebrity John Mayer, you read them to find out just what a d-bag one bafflingly famous person can be. 


PLAYBOY: You wanted to become a rock star, and now that you are one, it’s ruined your confidence? That’s odd.
MAYER: Lately I’ve realized it’s okay to enjoy being a rock star. Like, it might actually be fun to wear sunglasses in the airport and sit in the first-class lounge as a fucking rock star who’s about to go on a world tour. I had related it to something so painful, so frustrating, so confusing, that it would give me a tension headache. Being a famous musician seemed to have brought misunderstanding and strife and a fist in the back of the head when I read something about myself. I wrote this line yesterday: “Someday soon these will just be things we used to do.” I’m sort of making a list of all the things I know I’m going to laugh at myself for taking so seriously.

Not so bad, but WAIT!

PLAYBOY: If you didn’t know you, would you think you’re a douche bag?
MAYER: It depends on what I picked up. My two biggest hits are “Your Body Is a Wonderland” and “Daughters.” If you think those songs are pandering, then you’ll think I’m a douche bag. It’s like I come on very strong. I am a very…I’m just very. V-E-R-Y. And if you can’t handle very, then I’m a douche bag. But I think the world needs a little very. That’s why black people love me.
PLAYBOY: Because you’re very?
MAYER: Someone asked me the other day, “What does it feel like now to have a hood pass?” And by the way, it’s sort of a contradiction in terms, because if you really had a hood pass, you could call it a nigger pass. Why are you pulling a punch and calling it a hood pass if you really have a hood pass? But I said, “I can’t really have a hood pass. I’ve never walked into a restaurant, asked for a table and been told, ‘We’re full.’"
PLAYBOY: It is true; a lot of rappers love you. You recorded with Common and Kanye West, played live with Jay-Z.
MAYER: What is being black? It’s making the most of your life, not taking a single moment for granted. Taking something that’s seen as a struggle and making it work for you, or you’ll die inside. Not to say that my struggle is like the collective struggle of black America. But maybe my struggle is similar to one black dude’s.
PLAYBOY: Do black women throw themselves at you?
MAYER: I don’t think I open myself to it. My dick is sort of like a white supremacist. I’ve got a Benetton heart and a fuckin’ David Duke cock. I’m going to start dating separately from my dick.
PLAYBOY: Let’s put some names out there. Let’s get specific.
MAYER: I always thought Holly Robinson Peete was gorgeous. Every white dude loved Hilary from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. And Kerry Washington. She’s superhot, and she’s also white-girl crazy. Kerry Washington would break your heart like a white girl. Just all of a sudden she’d be like, “Yeah, I sucked his dick. Whatever.” And you’d be like, “What? We weren’t talking about that.” That’s what “Heartbreak Warfare” is all about, when a girl uses jealousy as a tactic.
Uh...

PLAYBOY: You’ve also been called a man-whore.
MAYER: I feel like women are getting their comeuppance against men now. I hear about man-whores more than I hear about whores. When women are whorish, they’re owning their sexuality. When men are whorish, they’re disgusting beasts. I think they’re paying us back for a double standard that’s lasted for a hundred years.
PLAYBOY: What does the word womanizer mean to you?
MAYER: Well, wouldn’t a womanizer have dated more than two girls in two years?
PLAYBOY: You and Aniston got back together and broke up again in 2009. How many women did you sleep with in the eight months after the breakup?
MAYER: I’m going to say four or five. No more.
PLAYBOY: That’s a reasonable number.
MAYER: But even if I said 12, that’s a reasonable number. So is 15. Here’s the thing: I get less ass now than I did when I was in a local band. Because now I don’t like jumping through hoops. It’s been so long since I’ve taken a random girl home. I don’t want to have to submit myself for approval. I don’t want to audition. I’d rather come home and edge my shit out for 90 minutes. At this point, before I can have sex I need to know somebody. Unless she’s a 14 out of 10.
A reasonable number indeed. There is more below this jump.

PLAYBOY: In 2006 you began dating Jessica Simpson, and the paparazzi started stalking you, turning you into a tabloid fixture. Certainly you knew that was going to happen.
MAYER: It wasn’t as direct as me saying “I now make the choice to bring the paparazzi into my life.” I really said, “I now make the choice to sleep with Jessica Simpson.” That was stronger than my desire to stay out of the paparazzi’s eye. That girl, for me, is a drug. And drugs aren’t good for you if you do lots of them. Yeah, that girl is like crack cocaine to me.
PLAYBOY: You were addicted to Jessica Simpson?
MAYER: Sexually it was crazy. That’s all I’ll say. It was like napalm, sexual napalm.
PLAYBOY: But before you dated her you thought of yourself as the kind of guy who would never date Jessica Simpson.
MAYER: That’s correct. There are people in the world who have the power to change our values. Have you ever been with a girl who made you want to quit the rest of your life? Did youever say, “I want to quit my life and just fuckin’ snort you? If you charged me $10,000 to fuck you, I would start selling all my shit just to keep fucking you.”
Aaaaaand....

PLAYBOY: At this point, what’s your ideal relationship?
MAYER: Here’s what I really want to do at 32: fuck a girl and then, as she’s sleeping in bed, make breakfast for her. So she’s like, “What? You gave me five vaginal orgasms last night, and you’re making me a spinach omelet? You are the shit!” So she says, “I love this guy.” I say, “I love this girl loving me.” And then we have a problem. Because that entails instant relationship. I’m already playing house. And when I lose interest she’s going to say, “Why would you do that if you didn’t want to stick with me?”
PLAYBOY: Why do you do it?
MAYER: Because I want to show her I’m not like every other guy. Because I hate other men. When I’m fucking you, I’m trying to fuck every man who’s ever fucked you, but in his ass, so you’ll say “No one’s ever done that to me in bed.”
PLAYBOY: Do you do something different in bed than other guys?
MAYER: It’s all about geometry. I’m sort of a scientist; it’s about being obtuse with an angle. It’s sort of this weird up-and-over thing. You gotta think “up and over.”
Finally, lest one forget:
MAYER: People are lining up around the block right now to watch me play music tonight. If some kid called me a douche bag on his terrible blog, I don’t really care. I’m letting myself out of my own prison. I’m not going to be a prisoner to a warden I can’t see. From now on I’m just going to pretend that people really dig the shit out of me. I’ve been so afraid of rocking the boat that I’m not sailing anywhere. I’ve been trying to prove to people I’m not a douche bag by not dating, by keeping my name out of Us Weekly. That’s fucked up, man. I’m not dating. I’m not even fucking. So now I’m going to experiment with “fuck you.” In 2010 my goal is to get more mentions in Us Weekly than ever.
Nice work, dude.