Great White Benefit Concert Raises $175,000

Twisted Sister rocker Dee Snider's benefit concert for the survivors of the Great White fire tragedy raised $175,000. Stars including Winger, Stryper, Staind's Aaron Lewis, Boston's Tom Scholz and Gretchen Wilson teamed up to play the February 25th fundraiser - organized by Snider and Tesla's Troy Luccketta - at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island.[...] Read more!

Publicado: 2008-03-11 Proveedor: StarPulse

Reality Show Recap: “Rock the Cradle” Drops the Hammer

Each week on MTV’s Rock the Cradle, the sons and daughters of musical icons compete for the sort of exposure they would have received anyway on the basis of their DNA. Rock Daily sorts through the nepotistic wreckage. Children’s Story: This week opened up with a bunch of after-party footage that featured stagey-looking dust-ups between a few of the contestants and a full-scale dressing room-destroying meltdown courtesy of last week’s loser Jesse Money. Cardboard host Ryan Devlin announced that next week the stakes “would be doubled” and the bottom two vote-getters would be sent home, which is carny speak for “MTV says we have to wrap up in fewer episodes!” In what could probably be considered another upset if any of this mattered, A’Keiba Burrell-Hammer was forced to pack up her Lane Bryant wardrobe and go home. Baby Geniuses: The show finally arrived at an intriguing premise: each contestant had to sing a song made famous by their rock star parent. This led to some spectacular exchanges, including Bobby Brown not wanting son Landon to perform “My Prerogative” because “it’s already perfect.” On the plus side, Jesse Snider teased doing Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” as an acoustic ballad before smashing a guitar and finishing the song as a balls-to-the-wall rocker. He was the only real standout this week, though on-screen nemesis Crosby Loggins loosened up a bit while performing his dad’s hit “I’m Alright” (aka the Caddyshack song) and Chloe Lattanzi is quickly becoming this show’s version of Kristy Lee Cook: she’s the only one who seems to be improving, though that still doesn’t make her very good. Snider may not have the best voice among the scions left, but he’s certainly the most entertaining. Red-Headed Stepchildren: Where to start? Lucy Walsh did a shrug-worthy version of “Life in the Fast Lan

Publicado: 2008-04-18 Proveedor: Rolling Stone Etiquetas: Rock News, Rock Reality Show Recaps

Rock Reality Show Recap: Celeb Offspring Face the Music on “Rock the Cradle”

Each week on MTV’s Rock the Cradle, the sons and daughters of musical icons compete for the sort of exposure they would have received anyway on the basis of their DNA. Rock Daily sorts through the nepotistic wreckage. Children’s Story: Each contestant got his or her own introduction, and everybody’s story is pretty much the same: Mom or Dad wasn’t really around, then dealt with drugs (Lucy Walsh, daughter of Eagle Joe Walsh), jail (Landon Brown, son of Bobby), bankruptcy (A’Keiba Burrell-Hammer) or apathy (pretty much everybody else). Baby Geniuses: Jesse Snider (son of Twisted Sister frontman Dee) acquitted himself surprisingly well on Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll,” Lil B. Sure (son of Al) crooned a Donny Hathaway song that wasn’t embarassing and Landon Brown worked his way through Seal’s “Crazy” with more dignity than his dad has ever done anything. But the clear favorite (and top-scorer of last night) is Lucy Walsh, whose poised presentation of Don Henley’s “Heart of the Matter” showed that she not only has vocal talent but also has more charisma than her hard hat-wearing dad ever did. Red-Headed Stepchild: Poor pitiful Chloe Lattanzi (daughter of Olivia Newton-John). She grew up “alone in big houses,” battled anorexia and paparazzi, had never performed in front of a crowd before last night and looked like a total disaster. During her version of INXS‘ “Never Tear Us Apart,” she sounded like somebody doing an unflattering Fiona Apple impression on Saturday Night Live. Who Is Getting Disowned: Lattanzi technically gave the worst performance by a mile, though Crosby Loggins’ (son of Kenny) ho-hum run through “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” had negative personality, and the fact that he went last on a ninety-minute telecast might work against him. But if there’s any justice in the univ

Publicado: 2008-04-04 Proveedor: Rolling Stone Etiquetas: Rock News, Rock Reality Show Recaps

Reality Show Recap: Bobby Brown Discusses His “Log Cabin” on “Gone Country”

Every Week on CMT’s new reality show Gone Country, a motley mix of Nashville misfits try to make it big on the Chesney tip. We’ll be watching (and chuckling): Thirty Minutes of Kentucky Fried Reality in Five Sentences: Bobby Brown’s sleepwalking/urination problems continue as our hopefuls learn to dress the part of a country stud, complete with rhinestone blazers, big leather boots and ridiculous hats. Dee Snider, who used to dress like a woman as a member of Twisted Sister, stamps his foot because he’s forced to “wear a jacket.” Next up, our contestants practice their ability to do press junkets. Brown unofficially wins this competition by prefacing an interview by announcing he hates interviews and that he won’t hesitate to go to the journalist’s house “ski-masked up.” Someone needs to inform Brown that this show is Gone Country and not Gone Compton. The Honky-Tonkin’ Highlights: Any time you have Carnie Wilson referring to Bobby Brown’s genitalia as “a weapon,” you have a guaranteed highlight. Wilson and McCormick go to wake a slumbering Brown, but instead get an explicit eyeful of Brown (we assume he forgot to zip up after sleep-pissing on the ground). To quote Brown, “I got big feet. Big feet means I have big hands. One big body part leads to another. Marcia Brady saw my log cabin.” We’re officially traumatized. The Grand Ol’ Finale: Of course, you can’t go country until you learn how to line dance. So that’s our final workshop of this very busy episode. Dancing to “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy),” Sisqo blows the pack away with his urbanization of the line dance, while Julio Iglesias Jr. continues to show his inability to adapt to the country lifestyle by first chastising his songwriters and then completely turning the line dance into a Sir Mix-A-Lot video. But the real MVP, at least for the television audience, is Dee “Two Left Feet” Snider, who c

Publicado: 2008-02-25 Proveedor: Rolling Stone Etiquetas: Rock Reality Show Recaps, Rock Daily

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

Publicado: 2008-02-11 Proveedor: Rolling Stone Etiquetas: Rock News

Dee Snider on “Gone Country,” Election, Benefit Concert, Rocklahoma and More

Last week marked the debut of CMT’s Gone Country, a reality show featuring Bobby Brown, Dee Snider, Sisqo, Carnie Wilson and many other C-listers living together and learning to become country singers. Snider—who now divides his time between a reformed Twisted Sister and radio show on Sirius Radio—got on the phone to talk about Gone Country and a tribute concert he’s planning for the victims of the 2003 Great White fire that killed 100 fans and left many others injured for life. The concert is booked for February 25th at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island and will feature Twisted Sister sharing the stage with Jewel, Boston’s Tom Scholz, Tesla, Staind’s Aaron Lewis, Kellie Pickler and many others. For more info click here. Dee’s a bit of a talker and after an hour on the phone we figured it was best to present his words intact with as little editing as possible. Follow the jump to read Dee’s thoughts on the presidential election, Britney, American Idol, the future of Twisted Sister and his failed attempts to book Aerosmith for the tribute concert. On the presidential election: “This is a wide open field right now, but its gonna shake itself out. I’ve been a McCain supporter since the last election, and when he pulled out I was screaming for him to not support George Bush – but he’s a political animal, and you need a political animal. I’m not a Republican, I’m a neutral. I voted for Clinton. I voted for Perot. I vote for the person who I think is right for the job. Everyone thought McCain was a lost cause. I think as the field thins out he will be the man who’s left standing. On the other side of the fence you’ve got Barack, and you’ve got Hilary. Quite honestly I don’t think that on the day of the election – whether its Barack or Hilary – that Americans in general, in my opinion, will not be able to push the button for an African-American, or a woman. They are creatures of habit, they will talk about it, they’ll say change and they will say

Publicado: 2008-02-07 Proveedor: Rolling Stone Etiquetas: Rock News, Dee Snider

Rock Reality Show Recap: Sisqo Haunts Nashville With “Thong Song” on “Gone Country”

Every Week on CMT’s new reality show Gone Country, a motley mix of Nashville misfits try to make it big on the Chesney tip. We’ll be watching (and chuckling): Thirty Minutes of Kentucky Fried Reality in Five Sentences: Bobby Brown passes his time at John Rich’s gorgeous estate by drinking way too much, sending him into a unshakable hangover on the first day of competition and forcing him to miss the guitar-smashing exercise (how country is that!). The other six contestants travel to the supermarket to pick up ingredients so they can cook for Rich’s grandma. How playing Iron Chef is going to turn Sisqo into Cowboy Troy is beyond us. Rich alerts our magnificent seven that they have to perform in front of a packed Nashville club, who later bear witness to Sisqo performing a country-friend version of “Thong Song” and Brown singing “My Prerogative.” The Honky-Tonkin’ Highlights: The funniest moment this week is awarded to CMT’s commercials for My Big Redneck Wedding, which looks like the greatest show ever, or at least the best show since Dateline started busting child molesters. CMT, where have you been all our lives? The Grand Ol’ Finale: Foreshadowing the show’s most interesting subplot, tempers flared between Bobby Brown and Dee Snider after the spotlight-hogging Brown hopped onstage and started singing background vocals during Snider’s rousing performance of Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” To quote John Rich, “For a minute there, it looked like they were going to slug each other in the jaw.” Late-night fisticuffs at a Tennessee saloon? Sounds like Snider and Brown have definitely “gone country.” Alas, Snider miraculously kept his cool, but still angrily threw his microphone down while leaving the stage. Be sure to tune in next week, when Bobby Brown farts on Carnie Wilson. And no, we’re not making that up.

Publicado: 2008-02-05 Proveedor: Rolling Stone Etiquetas: Rock Reality Show Recaps, Rock Daily

Rock Reality Show Recap: Bobby Brown Out-Crazied by Marcia Brady on Debut of “Gone Country”

Every Week on CMT’s new reality show Gone Country, a motley mix of Nashville misfits try to make it big on the Chesney tip. We’ll be watching (and chuckling): Sixty Minutes of Kentucky Fried Reality in Three Sentences: Welcome to Gone Country, hosted by Rich of Big & Rich, where CMT takes seven distinctively non-country celebs (or sorta celebs) and attempts to transform them into marquee draws at the Grand Ole Opry. Our combatants: Brian Wilson’s daughter Carnie Wilson, Julio Iglesias Jr. (who Wilson mistakes for a member of Menudo), coffee addict Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, The Brady Bunch’s Marcia Brady (Maureen “Mo” McCormick), a platinum-mohawked Sisqo of “Thong Song” fame, American Idol’s Diana DeGarmo and Mr. Whitney Houston himself, Bobby “Super Chocolate” Brown (those are his words!). Quarantined in Rich’s Tennessee mansion, “the biggest log cabin on Earth” as Brown calls it, our seven contestants have two weeks to make themselves into Garth Brooks for a chance to have their country song produced by Rich himself. The Honky-Tonkin’ Highlights: When McCormick asks Brown whether he really suffered a heart attack as was reported recently, Brown responds, “No, I had a big fart in my stomach.” The Brown-McCormick tandem has potential to be the most intriguing reality pairing since Flavor Flav and Bridgette Neilsen. Runner-up goes to Carnie Wilson, who said of Brown, “I don’t know if he’s gonna whip out a gun, a crack pipe … I don’t know.” Ironically, within five minutes of being at the Rich mansion, Brown goes off searching for the gun rack. Sisqo thanks Brown for “paving the way” for his music, which would make sense, if the “way” was paved solely with thongs and one-hit wonders. Plus, for everyone who thought Jan was the craziest Brady, this show flat-out disproves that theory, as “Mo” is

Publicado: 2008-01-28 Proveedor: Rolling Stone Etiquetas: Rock Reality Show Recaps, Rock Daily

Britney Spears News Bonanza! Plus New Janet Jackson Album, “Guitar Hero III” Sued Over Mono Sound and More

Britney Spears news time! Where to begin? We’ll start here: a thirty-second clip of Britney Spears’ almost-didn’t-happen, paparazzi-criticizing new video for “Piece of Me” can be viewed here. Want to see more? Tune into 20/20 tonight at 10 PM on ABC to see more clips and a report about the singer. Her train is so wrecked, in fact, that American Idol doesn’t want anything to with her, as executive producer Nigel Lythgoe tells Us that the poptart won’t appear on AI because “I don’t think she is well enough to do anything.” She is well enough to do one thing: Party! After not appearing at a court deposition because she was “too ill,” Brit showed up at her Hollywood hotspots ’til 2 AM, prompting her ex Kevin Federline to ask the court to not allow Spears to argue for more custody of their children. Janet Jackson will release her new album Discipline, produced by Rodney Jenkins, the Dream, Ne-Yo and her boyfriend Jermaine Dupri, on February 26th. The first single from the album is “Feedback,” which you can find here. Twisted Sister are accused of not refunding $25,000 they were given for a troops-supporting benefit show that was canceled. When the lure of the hair-metal band only managed to sell eighty-seven tickets, the concert was scrapped, and now the band is not only reportedly keeping their upfront fee, they’re demanding the remainder of the $25,000 they’re owed for not performing. The Drive-By Truckers will release their eighth album Brighter Than Creation’s Dark on January 28th. They’ll support the nineteen-song LP with a twenty-nine-city tour that kicks off February 11th in Anaheim, California. In what could be the strangest lawsuit ever, a strange, strange audiophile named Samuel Livingstone filed a class action suit against Activision, the makers of Guitar Hero III for saying that the Nintendo Wii version of the game comes with “Dolb

Publicado: 2007-12-15 Proveedor: Rolling Stone Etiquetas: Rock News, Afternoon News Roundup

CMT Finds Sisqo, Puts a Cowboy Hat On Him and Throws Him On TV

For those suffering from post-Celebrity Rap Superstar withdrawal, Country Music Television has the fix for you. Gone Country will take seven non-country music sorta-celebrities, put them in one Nashville house and attempt to convert them into honky-tonkin’ cowboys and cowgirls. Big & Rich’s John Rich will host the fiasco, which includes American Idol’s Diana DeGarmo, former Hot Listee Carnie Wilson, Julio Igelsias Jr. and the actress who played Marcia on TV’s The Brady Bunch. But we saved the best for this sentence: Rounding out the cast is Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider, Whitney Houston’s ex-husband Bobby Brown and, last but definitely not least, the inimitable Sisqo (!) of “Thong Song” fame. Over the course of six weeks, the contestants will undergo a series of musical and physical challenges in hopes of morphing them into Grand Ole Opry gold. At the end of the six-episode arc, Rich will declare the winner, who will be rewarded the opportunity to record and release a country song. While it’s probably set in stone that DeGarmo pulls a Carrie Underwood and cruises her way to the prize, the comedic potential is still off the charts. Will Brown finally find love in the form of Carnie Wilson or her fellow Celebrity Fit Club star Maureen McCormick? Will Dee Snider be the Sebastian Bach of Gone Country? Does Sisqo have a few extra ticks before his fifteen minutes expires? Our TiVos are already set for the January 2008 premiere episode.

Publicado: 2007-10-22 Proveedor: Rolling Stone Etiquetas: Rock News

Rocklahoma Report: Four Days of ’80s Hair-Metal Mania

The Rocklahoma festival was a whirlwind tour of ’80s hair-metal Olympus. What a weekend — the sisters were twisted, the foxes were Britny and the pussycats were faster. This festival united a swarm of Sunset Strip pay-to-play sleaze metal titans: Ratt, Poison, Twisted Sister, L.A. Guns, Warrant, Slaughter, Skid Row, Quiet Riot. For three days, they rose out of the cellar and into a giant field on the outskirts of Pryor, Oklahoma, where some 30,000 hardcore fans came on, felt the noize and asked each other, “Who were Firehouse again?” Whitesnake didn’t make it, but White Lion did, and so did Great White. This was definitely the place where the down boys go, even if they’re down men now. The fans ranged from local kids to leathery ladies still trying to fit into that vintage Winger “In the Heart of the Young” tour bustier. Some of the bands still had it, others didn’t. Poison headlined Friday night with a set that went heavy on classic-rock covers (“Suffragette City,” nice; “Can’t You See,” gimme a break) though the inevitable highlight was “Talk Dirty to Me,” the song that sums up the entire genre if anything does. Vince Neil did a solo set of mostly Mötley Crüe tunes, though unfortunately not his solo hit “You’re Invited But Your Friends Can’t Come.” (Vince also spread the word about his upcoming ocean adventure, The Mötley Cruise.) Bang Tango blasted through “Untied and True,” Enuff Z’Nuff did “New Thing,” Faster Pussycat did “Cathouse,” and Firehouse (best remembered for their feud with Firehose) probably played a bunch of Firehouse songs, though I took off for the barbecue stand so don’t ask me. Queensryche added a touch of prog. Winger’s “Seventeen” was greatly enhanced by Bang Tango’s Joe Leste, who danced around the beer tent improvising new lyrics: “She’s only seventeen / But now she’s forty-three.” Quiet Riot flubbed a few chords in “Cum On Feel the Noize” and “Metal Health (Bang Your Head),” yet the crowd was rooting for them, giving

Publicado: 2007-07-17 Proveedor: Rolling Stone Etiquetas: Rock News, Live Shows

Eclectic toasts for Ahmet Ertegun

VPage: Diverse crowd fetes late Atlantic founder -- There was something strange about seeing Warner Bros. CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr., Twisted Sister's Dee Snyder and singer Phil Collins in the same room at the April 17 preem for "Atlantic Records: The House that Ahmet Built." But to Ahmet Ertegun, the late, beloved founder of Atlantic Records, such a convergence would be perfectly normal. Great even.

Publicado: 2007-04-22 Proveedor: Variety.com