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Behind the Scenes at Grammys: Paramore, Beyonce, Mika, Aretha Franklin, More

The red carpet at the Grammy Awards this year was a bit like a bad acid trip: 500 feet of crimson carpet, a group of scary-looking Sgt. Pepper’s dancers with freaky makeup, an Amy Winehouse lookalike working for the TV Guide Channel and bleachers packed with crazed fans singing every song by the artists that came their way. Rock Daily spied Yoko Ono going in for a photo op with Beyoncé (but at the last second Solange jumped in to pose with her big sister instead), and Paramore singer Hayley Williams, who was the happiest girl on the carpet. “It’s an honor. I’m nervous. I’m worried I’m gonna trip because I don’t wear heels,” she said. Williams noted that she didn’t toss a few back to loosen up. “I don’t drink, but that’s okay. When we started touring, I wanted to be cool so I drank when we were overseas, but it doesn’t appeal to me.” Maynard James Keenan of Tool was pretty damn sure that his band wouldn’t be coming home with the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. “Nope. Foo Fighters will get it,” he said. “I hear they are performing with an orchestra. That’s gonna be amazing. I came for the fiftieth [anniversary of the Grammys],” he added. “This is my first time here.” The Plain White T’s worked the carpet with the Delilah, who’s an Olympic hopeful, and told us they’re recording their next album in April and shooting for a September 2008 release, while the extremely tall Mika revealed he’s somewhat inspired by prostitutes. “You know a lot of my lyrics are twisted,” he insisted. “I have a song called ‘Lollipop’ that four-year-olds sing, but the truth of the matter is it’s about a hooker. I would come across them at three o’clock in the morning coming out of the studio in Miami.” Akon announced he was hoping for “a hotel room full of ‘em” after the awards. Full of what, we naively asked. “Women!” he replied. The more wholesome Ne-Yo, who was up for five Grammys, wasn’t worried that having his

Published: 2008-02-11
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Rock News

According to Baseless Evidence, Led Zeppelin and Metallica to Headline Bonnaroo

Led Zeppelin tour leaks keep coming from the strangest of sources. First, it was the Cult’s Ian Astbury blurting out what could be the biggest secret in rock as he announced his band would open for the still-unannounced and unconfirmed Zeppelin reunion tour. Now, “an anonymous reader” reportedly told the Lefsetz Letter writer Bob Lefsetz, “Zeppelin just confirmed for Bonnaroo. They can’t officially announce until after the London gig so pass it on! Also Metallica is confirmed on the bill too!” Zeppelin, the stars of Rolling Stone’s current issue, have not announced any dates outside of their December 10th reunion concert at London’s O2 Arena. Both rock bands make sense though for the ‘Roo: Led Zeppelin could single-handedly draw a Woodstock-sized audience to rural Tennessee even without a hundred other bands on the bill, plus the festival headlined the reunited Police last June. Metallica would continue Bonnaroo’s trend of putting hard acts on the marquee, as the festival experimented with Tool among its headliners in 2007. But can we really believe “an anonymous reader” of The Lefsetz Letter? We barely believe our own “anonymous readers.” Just two weeks ago, a fake Coachella flyer was making the rounds claiming that Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine and an unretired-from-the-stage David Bowie were headlining the 2008 Indio, CA, festival. But with the ever-increasing number of festivals being held in the summer, Led Zeppelin would seem like a major coup for the hippie heaven Bonnaroo … that is, unless, they can orchestrate a Phish reunion. Related Stories: Required Reading: Led Zeppelin’s 1975 Rolling Stone Interview With Cameron Crowe Led Zeppelin: The Story of the Most Sought-After Rock Reunion Is in the New Rolling Stone Zeppelin Watch: Ian Astbury says The Cult Will Open for Led Zep in Cincinnati Next Year [Photo: Getty]

Published: 2007-12-04
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Rock News, Led Zeppelin Reunion, RS 12/13/07: Led Zeppelin

Fricke’s Picks: Porcupine Tree, the Future Kings of England and the Raspberries

The Art of Nightmares Porcupine Tree – the long-running British progressive-rock band founded and commanded by singer-guitarist-composer Steven Wilson – are rare in their field: obsessed not with fantasy but the death of it, particularly in children. At a recent head-trip gig at New York’s Beacon Theatre, films of sickly-white preteen zombies – hypnotized by computer screens, gulping medication, brandishing handguns – were projected on a screen behind Wilson during his tangled distortion-bomb riffing in the long title track of the recent album, Fear of a Blank Planet (Atlantic), and the record’s even longer centerpiece nightmare, “Anesthetize.” A schoolgirl ran amok in what looked like a ruined psych ward during the convulsive title instrumental from the group’s new EP, Nil Recurring (Transmission). Wilson started Porcupine Tree in 1987 as a home-studio experiment that has since evolved, live and on an extensive series of records, into an aggressively modern merger of Rush’s arena art rock, U.K. prog classicism – especially Pink Floyd’s eulogies to madness and King Crimson’s angular majesty – and the postgrunge vengeance of Tool. There are no dragons evident on Fear of a Blank Planet or Nil Returning. But there are plenty of demons. And King Crimson guitarist-sage Robert Fripp plays on both records, an impeccable seal of approval. New Royal Freaks Witches and fiends run riot through the lyrics and instrumental vapors of the six extended tracks on The Fate of Old Mother Orvis (Backwater), by the Future Kings of England. The audaciously named British band’s mix of art rock and freak folk is also rife with other specters – the pastoral Floyd, ’72 Genesis, the echosoup psychedelia of Amon Düül II – whipped together with an ardor that sounds like yesterday and tomorrow at once. Seventies Rock Candy Hard and sweet, the Raspberries were never the second coming of the Beatles. They were, in the early Seventies, and still are – based on a show I just saw by the original li

Published: 2007-11-08
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Fricke's Picks

Maynard James Keenan’s Puscifer: Tool Leader Speaks on Enigmatic Side Project

When you say the name of Maynard James Keenan’s new recording project, Puscifer, it is “Pus as in Puss’n'Boots,” says the Tool singer on a recent afternoon at Electric Lady Studios in New York. “Not as in a boil,” he adds with a dry chuckle. Keenan, working on the record on a rare day away from Tool’s current world tour, explains that Puscifer “is my attempt to make music to inspire people. Heavy rock is sinking, the industry is dying. This is definitely not thinking man’s music” — elliptically referring to Tool’s dense, serpentine metal — “but groove-oriented music that makes you feel good.” The music Keenan previews at Electric Lady is suitably provocative, with a good-time roll. “Queen B” features a bee’s nest of overlapping, processed vocals — including Keenan’s own deep country baritone — over noir-ish hip-hop drumming, like Keenan’s previous side outing, A Perfect Circle, in Tennessee-midnight-radio dub. “Dojo” is marching percussion and sinister electronics with what sounds like the death gulp of a Duane Eddy-treble guitar. “World Up My Ass” is Keenan’s version of the 1980 Circle Jerks song — total psychic collapse as straight-up backwoods fun. “Country Boner” is delightfully offensive and something of an antique — a cover of a song by the Illinois garage band Electric Sheep, which featured pre-Tool guitarist Adam Jones and his high school buddy, Tom Morello, later in Rage Against The Machine. Keenan describes Puscifer as “more of a collaboration” than a group. Contributors include Primus drummer Tim Alexander, guitarist-soundscaper Jonny Polonsky and, on vocals, Lisa Germano and actress Milla Jovovich. And Keenan says the music could end up as more than just an album, which he expects to issue in October. “I’d like to release it in different ways — maybe two songs at a time, every three

Published: 2007-07-19
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Rock News