Weekend Rock List: Hidden Tracks

As Coldplay fans may have noticed, the band’s new Viva La Vida contains not one, but two unlisted tracks. To pay homage to the secret song, a victim of the MP3 era, this week’s Rock List is dedicated to hidden tracks. Whether they’re left off the track list, tucked away on an album’s pregap or buffered by 10 minutes of silence after the last song, let us know your favorites and on Monday we’ll reveal the Readers’ List. Here’s our picks: • Nirvana – “Endless, Nameless” on Nevermind • Dr. Dre – “Bitches Ain’t Shit” on The Chronic • Bruce Springsteen – “Terry’s Song” on Magic • Blur – “Me, White Noise” on Think Tank • Coldplay – “To Kingdom Come” on X&Y A few more staff faves from the Nineties — a decade that was all about the hidden track — are after the jump. • Pearl Jam - “Master Slave” on Ten • Cracker - “Eurotrash Girl” on Kerosene Hat • Dave Matthews Band - “#34″ on Under the Table and Dreaming • Alanis Morissette - “Your House” on Jagged Little Pill • Green Day - “All By Myself” on Dookie

Published: 2008-06-21 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock Lists

Bassist Hints At Blur Reunion

Blur bassist Alex James has fueled speculation the band will reunite, insisting he would be "surprised" if they never performed together again.[...] Read more!

Published: 2008-05-24 Provider: StarPulse

News Ticker: The Who, Blur, Nas and Sonic Youth

Pearl Jam, the Foo Fighters and the Flaming Lips will take the stage on July 12th to pay tribute to the Who in an upcoming VH1 Rock Honors episode. The Who will also perform at the event, with all proceeds from the concert benefiting the Teenage Cancer Trust. Former Blur bassist Alex James says a reunion of his old band will probably happen eventually. James cites time commitments as the chief factor preventing the group from reforming. Rev. Al Sharpton, one of the biggest critics of Nas’ decision to use Nigger as an album title, applauded the name change. Radiohead, Beck and Eddie Vedder are among the artists that have chosen their favorite Sonic Youth song for the Starbucks compilation Hits Are For Squares. [Photo: Getty]

Published: 2008-05-22 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Damon Albarn Denies Blur Reunion

Former Blur frontman Damon Albarn has put a damper on recurring rumors of the band's supposed reunion. Speaking to The Sun, he said, "I had

Published: 2008-02-01 Provider: Artist Direct

Blur - James Regrets Cocaine Binges After Colombian Trip

Former BLUR star ALEX JAMES regrets experimenting with cocaine in the band's hey day following a visit to Colombia - branding drugs a "relentless trail of death". The bassist ...

Published: 2008-01-30 Provider: Contact Music

Blur To Reunite

British rockers band BLUR will finally decide this year (07) if they will reunite or split. The Parklife chart-toppers, who went focused on solo proj

Published: 2007-04-29 Provider: Contact Music

Arctic Monkeys Side Project The Last Shadow Puppets Arrive in NYC

Though no one could quite remember the name of the band, a few dozen New Yorkers showed up at Brooklyn’s Sound Fix Lounge last night for a “surprise” acoustic gig by the Last Shadow Puppets: a collaboration between Arctic Monkeys singer Alex Turner and his mate Miles Kane from U.K. group the Rascals. The pair worked through unplugged renditions of eight songs from their forthcoming album to a crowd that included Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig and Rostam Batmanglij. (VW fans will be pleased to know that drummer Chris Thompson is doing just fine after being hit by a taxi in London last week. “He didn’t even need stitches,” Batmanglij says.) The Puppets’ set was decidedly low-key, coming on more like noir-ish Sixties soundtrack music than the loose-limbed Brit-punk of the Arctic Monkeys. Or, as one astute fan noted: “If the Arctic Monkeys are Blur, this is the Good, The Bad and The Queen.” The duo’s debut album, The Age Of Understatement, is due out April 21st, if that sounds like your cup of tea. For our part, we were impressed. [Photo: Bao Nguyen]

Published: 2008-03-05 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Live Shows

Muse Lose Honor Thanks to Acronym For Boner

The coastal town of Teignmouth, England, was all set to honor local boys Muse with a billboard boasting “Home of Muse” at the entrance to town. (According to David Cox, the town’s council chairman, “a small but significant number of foreign tourists come to Teignmouth because it’s the hometown of Muse.”) Then things went terribly wrong: Somebody with way too much free Googling time discovered that MUSE is an acronym for “Medicated Urethral Suppository for Erection,” which is a really hard way to say Viagra or Levitra. The plans were scuttled. “I thought the slogan ‘Hometown Of Muse’ would create a fresher, younger image for the town,” Cox said, “But now I see the Muse slogan might not send the right message.” The town isn’t entirely disowning the band. Cox is planning for Teignmouth “to honour some of [Muse’s] most famous songs,” whatever that means. Meanwhile, the town of Colchester, England, has launched a full-scale investigation into hometown band Blur.

Published: 2007-11-09 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Prince Causes Another U.K. Uproar, Marilyn Manson’s Movie Gets a Shoot Date, Flaming Lips-Scored Doc on the Way

He’s not an official royal, but Prince is generating more ink in the U.K. than anyone named William or Harry. The Mail on Sunday, the newspaper that’s giving away free copies of Planet Earth, is threatening to sue the British equivalent of Billboard for not allowing sales of the newspaper/CD to count toward the album charts. Marilyn Manson’s Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll, starring his girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood as Alice (of Wonderland fame), will begin filming in late autumn. Graham Coxon may or may not be rejoining Blur. The band booked studio time in September as a four-piece, which fueled speculation that Coxon is the fourth piece. Summercamp!, a documentary about (surprise!) summer camp that’s scored by the Flaming Lips, will hit theaters soon. Or you can Netflix it now. Do you ever pause in the supermarket and wonder what happened to key members of Quiet Riot, Cinderella and Nitro? Well, wonder no more, thanks to this article.

Published: 2007-07-14 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Afternoon News Roundup

Rock Bloggin’: God Speaks to Billy Corgan, Tells Him to Post Ramblings on Public Forum

Billy Corgan loves this country. He doesn’t just love this country, he LOVES this country!! (The exclamation points his, not ours). In an enormous blog (or as BC calls it “Blob”) post on the Smashing Pumpkins Web site, Corgan waxes poetic about everything from Uncle Sam living in a timeshare in Trinidad to Epcot Center in Orlando to why his band doesn’t play that many Siamese Dream songs in concert. In a mere 1,156 words, Corgan manages to say everything and nothing at the same time in a bizarro stream-of-consciousness blur that would rival James Joyce’s Ulysses were it a tad more, you know, literary. Making the labyrinthine post more confusing is the strange visual aids Corgan intersperses throughout the text. A picture of the Statue of Liberty in a snow globe (a nod to Zeitgeist’s cover?), a twenty-four minute YouTube video about Disneyland, and a photo of the puck commemoratively being dropped before an empty Colorado Avalanche/Phoenix Coyotes hockey game. Corgan does make momentary sense when he confronts a fan’s question regarding the lack of Siamese Dream songs on the setlist, to which Corgan replies: “’this is not a reunion tour’ … if one was to listen to Siamese Dream from a particular perspective, you might hear me at age 25 or so struggling with how to escape my past! How ironic that that same struggle should now become part of my current struggle for autonomy … the current SP is designed to live on happily, strongly, proudly, and boldly…there is no other way that I can see to water the flowers properly … we choose life, and the love of the moment for the song we choose to sing …” Which is roughly Corgan-speak for: we’re not playing Siamese songs because we’re on tour promoting Zeitgeist. You had ample time to purchase Siamese, now go buy our new one. But wait, it gets stranger. Corgan proudly tells those still reading that “God talks to me,” putting himself in the same weight class as Jesus, evangelists and all those haggard guys we see on th

Published: 2007-10-16 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Paul McCartney Plans Deluxe “Memory Almost Full,” Morrissey Hits the Studio, Rage and Arcade Fire to Rock Big Day Out

Paul McCartney is brewing up a deluxe edition of his Starbucks-approved semi-new album Memory Almost Full. The reissue, out November 16th on the coffee giant’s Hear Music label, will be accompanied by a live DVD, plus three unreleased songs (“In Private,” “Why So Blue” and “222”). After his current tour ends, Morrissey plans to return to the studio to record the follow-up to 2006’s Ringleader of the Tormentors. Morrissey told BBC News that the album is “absolutely written and completely ready.” The ex-Smiths singer is currently without a record contract, but is weighing an offer from Warner Bros. This year’s Big Day Out Festival, to be held late January to early February in select cities in Australia and New Zealand, will feature performances by Rage Against the Machine, Arcade Fire, Björk, LCD Soundsystem and many more. While you wait anxiously for Matador Records to reissue Pavement’s Brighten the Corners, the label will help pass the time by releasing deluxe, expanded editions of Mission of Burma’s Vs. and The Horrible Truth About Burma in early 2008. Blur’s Alex James has declared that the not-quite-yet-reunited band is still capable of making their “best album ever.” The band, with guitarist Graham Coxon back in tow, had scheduled a lunch this week to discuss returning to the studio to record a follow-up to 2003’s Think Tank.

Published: 2007-10-03 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Afternoon News Roundup

Beyonce Show Canceled Over Dress Code, Radiohead Hoax Revealed, Oasis Squashes Beef With Blur

After Gwen Stefani was forced to tone down her performance in Malaysia because of the country’s strict dress code, Beyoncé’s Kuala Lumpur debut was canceled thanks to protests from Malaysia’s Muslim groups. Beyoncé also reportedly refused to conform to the code, which doesn’t allow female performers to show any skin from the top of the chest down to the knees, and thus impeding on her ability to be “Bootylicious.” A countdown is ticking on a recently unearthed site called RadioheadLP7.com, but according to sources inside Camp Radiohead, the only thing that will be revealed when the clock strikes zeros is that the site is a hoax. We smelled “fake” from the onset, given the revert back to Kid A-era font, but that hasn’t stopped us from tricking our friends with personalized messages on the LP7 page. Before there was Kanye vs. 50, there was Oasis vs. Blur. But now, Liam Gallagher tells Mojo that he has put an end to the decade-old feud, officially white-flagging a war of bad words that began in 1995, when both bands released singles in the same week, and should have ended in 1996 when people stopped caring about the feud. Cat Power will release her second album of covers, curiously titled Covers II, on January 22nd. The full track list hasn’t been announced (click here for a short list, though), and Chan Marshall will once again be backed by her Dirty Delta Blues band. Reports that Michael Jackson married his children’s nanny at a shotgun wedding in Las Vegas are completely “not true,” according to Jacko’s spokesperson. [Photo: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images]

Published: 2007-09-29 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Afternoon News Roundup