Blog: Atomic Ned

There's a storyline. Not sure how it actually plays into the lyrics, but it was well shot which means there must have been some semblance of a video budget, something you rarely see in the world of '80s/'90s rock bands who are still out there. Jack Blades of Night Ranger has a solo album - Rock N Roll Ride - coming out at the end of March and this is the first single (single being an interesting word because I don't know [...]

One of my favorite guest appearances ever is (ex-Soul Coughing) Mike Doughty's vocal contribution on BT's "Never Gonna Come Back Down". On Feb.1, Doughty put out a memoir of addiction and recovery, called The Book of Drugs and will embark on a tour this month in which he'll perform music, read from his book, and conduct a question-and-answer session. Here are the dates: Mar 3 - New York, NY - City Winery Mar 14 - [...]

I'll admit, I never got into Mercury Rev when David Baker was fronting the band. It was only after he left, and the band started sounding more like The Flaming Lips , that I found them listenable. Baker went on to form Shady after his Mercury Rev departure (I think I picked up Shady's 1994 release, World , out of a dollar bin making it a very good candidate for a Plucked from the $1 bin feature). Baker also produced one of [...]

• Variety Lights - Silent Too Long

In 2008, a year after Quiet Riot singer Kevin DuBrow died from a cocaine overdose, drummer Frankie Banali issued a statement saying, "My friendship, love and respect for Kevin DuBrow as well as my personal love and affection for Kevin's mother and his family makes it inconceivable for me to ever entertain any ovation to reform or to continue Quiet Riot. Kevin was too important to go on without him. It would also be a disrespect to the fans who have supported Quiet Riot for nearly 25 years." [...]

Friday night, The Promise Ring performed a sold-out reunion gig (first in seven years) in Milwaukee. Whether or not a full-scale reunion tour will take place remains to be seen but there are a small (very small) handful of 2012 dates already planned - NJ and NYC (May 19, May 20), San Francisco (September Check out the show reviews at RollingStone.com and ThirdCoast Digest . Related: The AV Club presents [...]

The song? Eh, it's okay. The story line? Nothing out of the ordinary. The ending? The reason I posted this video.

Watching Jessie Baylin perform "Hurry Hurry" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was sort of like watching Whitesnake's "Still of the Night" video for the first time on MTV in 1987. What? WHAT? Yeah, see, I remember watching that video and being like, "Wait, is that Rudy Sarzo playing bass? Wait, is that Vivian Campbell playing guitar? Tommy Aldridge on drums? Huh? Supergroup? No way, Adrian Vandenberg on lead guitar?" Last night, Jessie's band consisted of [...]

Snag a free MP3 of The Cult's new track, "Lucifer", from their forthcoming release, Choice of Weapon (available May 22). Pretty good comeback (comeback? Well, it HAS been 5 years since their last release) for Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy , the songwriting duo behind The Cult's greatest hits. The band's first 2012 show will take place at the Auditorium Shores Stage in Austin, Texas on March 17 as part of the [...]

Did you know about this? I just read a 3-star review of the New Multitudes CD - a collection of songs built upon unrecorded Woody Guthrie lyrics by Jay Farrar (Son Volt), Will Johnson (Centro-matic), Anders Parker (Varnaline), Yim Yames (My Morning Jacket) - in the new issue (Paul McCartney-cover) of Rolling Stone . The magazine's website did a feature on the release which one person commented, probably rightfully so, "Wasn't this album called Mermaid Avenue?" I'm snagging this [...]

Quirky song. '70s-inspired video (shades of The Beastie Boys "Sabotage" if you ask me). It's the latest video by Unknown Mortal Orchestra , the Portland-by-way-of-New-Zealand outfit led by Ruban Nielson. "Strangers are Strange" can be found on UMO's June 2011 self-titled Fat Possum Records release. Read Kevin Elliott's interview from July 2011 with Unknown Mortal Orchestra at The Agit Reader . February and March 2012 tour dates [...]

Haters gonna hate, I suppose. If this video of Sleigh Bells performing on SNL isn't pulled off YouTube quickly, expect to see the comments section flooded with "What is this noise? The girl can't sing in key!" comments (those comments are already appearing for the "Comeback Kid" official video). The more I hear the song, the more I like it but am still not completely sold on Sleigh Bells.

On YouTube, this guy RULES. When he's standing next to you in line, he's a total douche bag.

Just because ... Never heard this song until today. Thought these guys might be straight up gangstas when I heard this Double XX Posse song on XM's "Backspin" station. Watching the video, I think they were more likely to hang with DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince than N.W.A.

Not a ton of original members between these bands (1 in each?) but dozens of great songs. Ok, "great" may be stretching it but I hope this tour hits Ohio this summer. Haven't seen any official dates yet but when they are released, I'll post 'em.

Sometimes it's sad to see guys who had a fleeting glimpse of glory milk it for all it's worth. Like, I'm sure there is an ex-member of The Bulletboys or Britny Fox - a member who never appeared on any recorded material, especially not when those bands were signed to major label deals - booking shows at this very moment either as a solo act or with a new band and using their resume to secure a small guarantee from a club owner. [...]

Another tip from a friend (this time, Metal Rob ). Helms Alee put together a pretty rad '90s MTV-influenced video for the track "8/163. All sorts of references in this NOISY (think Melvins meets Sonic Youth meets Torche ) video - see if you can spot 'em all. There are a few that I think I need help with but my favorite takes place at the very end ( Ozzy & Lita from "Close My Eyes Forever"). Weatherhead by Helms Alee

The fine folks over at Bobby-Best Creative turned me onto George Barnett , a 17-year-old kid from the UK who sings songs about college ("If you want to waste 5 years, baby you can do it with me"), not wanting an ID ("I don't want my iris scanned so I can walk through my yard"), and dancing the night away on his debut EP, Sierra Planes . George is a wise kid, he knows the way of the music world even as a teenager, and he's offering up the EP [...]

Working on a new theme. It's going to be a bit messy around here for a few days.

I'm late to the Cloud Nothings bandwagon though I probably should have jumped aboard when I learned that Dylan Baldi grew up in the same Cleveland suburb that I did. I bet Dylan and I had some of the same high school teachers though I graduated, I'm guessing, at least 15 years before he did. This video doesn't do a whole lot for me but it got over 11,000 views the day it was posted on Vimeo. And while the video is worth maybe a watch or two, the song is pretty [...]

Snow Patrol's latest, Fallen Empires , is released in the U.S. tomorrow. With the release comes a U.S. tour slated to kick off at the end of March. Tickets go on sale for many of these dates starting 1/13. March 29 | Orlando, FL | Hard Rock Live | On sale 1/13 March 30 | Miami Beach, FL | Fillmore Miami Beach | On sale 1/13 March 31 | St. Petersburg, FL | Jannus Live | On sale 1/14 April 2 | Atlanta, GA | The Tabernacle | On sale [...]