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Pete Townshend Muses on Rock Honors, Smashing Computers, Eddie Vedder in E-Mail to Rolling Stone

After taping VH1 Honors: The Who, Pete Townshend e-mailed Rolling Stone’s Jenny Eliscu with a post-mortem discussing his own performance, his desire to smash plastic Rock Band instruments and the advice he gave Eddie Vedder a few years ago. Here’s the message: Despite my smiley face, I was on guard on the red carpet and didn’t say much although the New York Times guy caught me off guard with the best question of my life, delivered almost dead-pan: “WHY DON’T YOU JUST DO WHAT ROGER WANTS?” For a split second I tried to answer. The show felt clunky to me because I find it hard to mix work and pleasure, and so much of it was about mixing with people and accepting their good wishes. I tend to shut myself away before and after shows, it’s about making the best of the very little I have left to give the audience. Trying to increase the force of the water by closing down the valve on the hose, so to speak. I thought Roger sounded good. He’s been keeping himself active, doing small shows, and it showed. It always takes me 20 minutes or so to loosen up. This was our first show for a year or so, so I was rusty on guitar. I felt like I was holding a spade (shovel). I dreamed last night of trying to play the show with a guitar actually covered in soil. I have been playing piano since last July, and only acoustic guitar (on the sofa while watching episodes of Medium or Boston Legal as my way of remembering America). Electric guitar and arm-swinging is not what I do between dog-walks and arthritis. You probably know that VH1 Rock Honors was originally floated as an idea to help sell Viacom’s Rock Band. My son and his buddies did play with Rock Band around Christmas, until I lent it to the much younger son of Rachel’s drummer. I never tried it. I thought I’d probably end up smashing it. I did have an idea for a stunt — if Viacom is VH1, and they own Rock Band, what about giving me a plastic guitar to smash on the show? Even better, what about giving me five hundred thousand plast

Published: 2008-07-23 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Rock Diary

Wilco to Play Their “Complete” Catalog Over Five Nights, Quiet Riot Singer’s Death Ruled Overdose, More

Wilco will “attempt the complete Wilco” during a five-night stint in their Chicago hometown, frontman Jeff Tweedy told Billboard. “We’ll try to clear out the dusty corners of the catalog that we haven’t attended to in a while,” he added. The band will play the Riviera Theatre February 15-16 and 18-20 before heading out on a short spring tour in the Northeast and Southern states. The death of Quiet Riot singer Kevin Dubrow has been ruled an accidental cocaine overdose by Nevada’s Clark County Coroner based on toxicology results that arrived yesterday. Dubrow was found dead in his Las Vegas home last month. The Mars Volta will hit the road in January to promote their fourth album, The Bedlam in Goliath, out January 29th. Marilyn Manson has also announced additional dates on his Eat Me, Drink Me tour for early next year. Dates for both bands after the jump. A new study by RZO accountants Bill Zysblat and Joe Rascoff has concluded that U.S. musicians will benefit from overseas touring thanks to the weakening value of the dollar. The firm, which has calculated tour finances for huge acts from the Rolling Stones to the Police, estimates “a ticket two years ago that was EUR100 got the band $100. Today that same ticket gets the band $147,” Zysblat says. He also predicts that while U.S. bands may start spending more time overseas, this could mean less time on U.S. soil by foreign acts. Just in time for the holiday season, R. Kelly is releasing a deluxe package version of his Trapped in the Closet DVD today which features all twenty-four installments of the exaggerated drama. Among the extra features are running commentary from Kelly, a DVD trivia game and live performances of several chapters. And there’s more: Kelly, who’s currently on tour and awaiting another hearing next week in his child-porn trial, is also launching trappedintheclosetmerchandise.com to sell shirts with the faces of Closet’s chara

Published: 2007-12-12 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Morning News Roundup, On Tour

Nightwish's Dark Passion Play Live

Band returns to N.A. soil this spring.

Published: 2008-04-17 Provider: IGN

Ragweed Finds Fertile Soil At the Birchmere

Based on Cross Canadian Ragweed's live albums, the Oklahoma band's home-turf concerts devolve into drunken singalongs. But during the country-rock quartet's 2 1/2 -hour set at the Birchmere on Tuesday, the audience of 20-somethings stayed mellow and head-bobby until the encore. Would the band...

Published: 2007-06-07 Provider: Washington Post