Archive for News Canada
Billboard names Nickelback top band of decade
Nickelback is the top group of the decade, according to Billboard magazine.
Rapper Eminem has been named the top artist of the decade, and ‘N Sync garnered the title album of the decade for its bestselling No Strings Attached (2000).
Nickelback was the highest-ranking band of the decade, only finishing behind solo artists Eminem, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Nelly and Usher, for overall impact and importance.
Despite a distinct lack of critical acclaim, the rock band formed in Hanna, Alta., has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. In the last decade, it released The State (2001), Silver Side Up (2001), The Long Road (2003), All the Right Reasons (2005) and Dark Horse (2008), which has garnered them a 2010 Grammy nomination for best hard-rock performance for the track Burn It To The Ground.
“We’ve just accepted that we’re never going to be the critics’ darlings, and we’re OK with that,” frontman Chad Kroeger told Billboard in 2007.
But it’s not only music reporters who disagree with Billboard magazine’s assertion.
Readers of the U.K.’s Word Magazine recently voted Nickelback the worst band in the world, with Kroeger and company locking down an impressive 20 per cent of the vote. Looks like not everyone is a fan of greasy, bleached hair and enlightening, philosophical song titles such as Something in Your Mouth and S.E.X.
Sample lyrics: “Maybe in the parking lot / Better bring your friend along / Better rock together / Than just one at a time / S is for the simple need / E is for the ecstasy / X is just to mark the spot / ‘Cause that’s the one you really want.”
From top group of the decade to worst band in the world — only Nickelback could be so polarizing.
Source: montrealgazette.com
Rocker Hallyday’s early 2010 concerts cancelled
Producers have cancelled Johnny Hallyday’s tour dates for the next few months, as the veteran French rocker recovers in Los Angeles from complications of recent surgery.
Officials announced Wednesday that with Hallyday “temporarily indisposed,” the final leg of the 66-year-old singer’s farewell tour — including concert dates in France through Feb. 13 — have been cancelled. Ticketholders will be reimbursed, according to a statement.
“He is doing much better,” Francois Zuccarelli, a doctor who examined the singer in Los Angeles on Tuesday, told France’s RTL radio.
“The news is reassuring. He has come out of this critical phase.”
Doctors at Cedars Sinai hospital woke Hallyday — a national icon and bestselling artist considered France’s Elvis Presley — from a medically induced coma on Monday.
“In any case, he will sing again one day,” Zuccarelli said.
‘Totally lucid and conscious’
“I’m not saying he is in good shape, but he is totally lucid and conscious and we even joked about his hospital bed.”
The coma was induced at the Los Angeles facility following an operation there last week to deal with an infection the singer experienced following a procedure on a herniated disc in Paris in late November.
News of Hallyday’s condition has provoked much discussion in France, with even President Nicolas Sarkozy expressing his concern about the beloved singer.
Meanwhile, the French surgeon who operated on Hallyday in November was the target of an alleged assault late last week.
This year has been filled with highs and lows for Hallyday, whose real name is Jean-Philippe Smet.
Although he suffered a series of health problems this year, he also won acclaim for his Route 66 concerts and travelled the film festival circuit after starring in Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To’s crime thriller movie Vengeance.
Source: cbc.ca
Travis Barker Settles Plane Crash Lawsuit
Gil Kaufman
mtv.ca
Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker has settled a lawsuit over the deadly 2008 plane crash in South Carolina that killed four people and caused severe injuries to him and late friend DJ AM.
According to TMZ, the multiple defendants in the case — Clay Lacy Aviation, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Global Exec Aviation, Bombardier Inc. and others — reached an undisclosed agreement with Barker during a mediation session in November, and the confidential settlement papers were filed on December 3.
The same mediation session also brought to settlement a lawsuit filed by the mother of Barker’s bodyguard, Charles “Che” Still, who died in the crash.
Months after the crash, Barker explained that he filed the suit because he believed pilot error and defective equipment caused the accident, from which he and AM escaped, sustaining serious second- and third-degree burns. “You know, I wouldn’t have third-degree burns all over my body or be prohibited to do certain things. I can’t go swimming; I can’t do some of the things that normal people can do,” he said. “I didn’t ask for that to happen.” Though he was optimistic about prevailing in the suit, Barker said winning monetary damages wouldn’t heal the loss he felt after the fiery crash. “If something goes wrong that’s not supposed to go wrong or you fall victim of it, I think you should be compensated,” he explained.
“I lost two friends,” he added , referring to his assistant, Chris Baker, and Still. “Nothing can bring them back or what I lost in the accident.”
Baker’s widow has also filed suit against the same companies over the crash, though it was unknown at press time if she was involved in the same settlement talks.
A similar case filed by the estate of DJ AM (born Adam Goldstein) — who died of an accidental drug overdose in August — is still pending. Last month, AM’s mother amended her son’s $20 million lawsuit against the manufacturer of the Learjet that crashed on takeoff in September 2008, adding a wrongful death claim that will presumably argue that the injuries he sustained in the crash left the former drug addict in so much pain that he sought relief through various drugs to ease the pain and anxiety he felt in its aftermath. Also killed in the crash were the plane’s pilot and co-pilot
Souce: mtv.ca
Heavy metal god Dio diagnosed with stomach cancer
Adam S. Miller
National Post
The heavy metal world is in a state of shock today, with news that one of the most powerful metal singers of all time has been diagnosed with stomach cancer. Ronnie James Dio is probably most famous for replacing Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath in 1979, during a tumultuous time in Osbourne’s career where heavy drinking and drug use forced his ejection from the band. Dio has also been the frontman for bands such as Elf, Rainbow and his own band simply titled Dio, which was still touring this year. Dio’s most famous song is “Holy Diver” and was used in an episode of South Park in 1999. His latest musical project with former Black Sabbath band members is called Heaven & Hell, and they released their first studio album The Devil You Know in April of 2009. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Dio’s work, just go to any heavy metal concert and you’ll see his influence everywhere — as he is credited with creating the famed “Devil Horns” hand gesture, popularized by millions of headbangers worldwide. Fans grew concerned of Dio’s deteriorating health when Dio cancelled their European tour last week, and a statement on their website by his wife Wendy Dio stated that he had been hospitalized.
A statement released yesterday by Mrs. Dio on the band’s website confirmed their fears – “Ronnie has been diagnosed with the early stages of stomach cancer. We are starting treatment immediately at the Mayo Clinic. After he kills this dragon, Ronnie will be back on stage, where he belongs, doing what he loves best, performing for his fans.”
Source: network.nationalpost.com
ZZ Top rock Edmonton
Mike Ross
Edmonton Sun
Last time I saw ZZ Top, not only was beer being served, but beer was being spilled, flung around and hurled into the air.
A whole lot of marijuana was being smoked. Fights broke out. People were making out.
It was outdoors. For a crowd both bad and nationwide, the mythical magic hotrod of the very last classic rock band of the alphabet had plenty of room to roar.
Good gig, I think.
That’s why it was so weird to see these legendary Texas troubadours from the point of view of the soft seats of the Jubilee Auditorium, soon to be home to The Nutcracker –which isn’t the title of ZZ Top’s next album.
This is the price of getting old, I guess. Bush parties given way to a night at the symphony, even if it’s just a three-piece orchestra of rockin’, ballsy, bluesy goodness.
POWERFUL SHOW
Observers needn’t have worried. This 40-year-old band delivered a powerful show last night, more suited to an arena than a theatre.
Many of the 2,600 fans who turned up didn’t even use their soft seats.
While a video screen showed spark plugs, wrenches, wheels, road cases and other automotive paraphernalia, the show was packed with classic rock hits, performed with typical verve and plenty of eccentric, all-out guitar solos from Billy Gibbons.
They opened full throttle with Under Pressure, backed it off a bit for Waitin’ for the Bus, set the night to cruise, took a few side roads, bumped through a version of Hendrix’s Foxy Lady and held in reserve the musical nitro charges guaranteed to send the crowd over the top.
You know them, you love them: La Grange, Tush, Tube Snake Boogie, Legs.
Generally speaking, all of ZZ Top’s songs are about sex, unless they’re about cars, in which case they’re metaphors for sex.
The topics these bearded wonders sing of hold up today. It remains true that every woman is crazy about a sharp-dressed man, that if the girl on the hill won’t do it, her sister will, and if you are looking for some tush, downtown is usually the best place to go.
And when the big fuzzy guitars came out, you know all bets are off.
It helped that the volume was set at a level where one’s scalp vibrated like a bowl of scrambled eggs in an earthquake, while the intimate venue allowed listeners to hear previously hidden subtleties in the music of ZZ Top.
Ha! Just kidding.
FORGET SUBTLETY
There’s nothing subtle about this band, nothing subtle about this show. It was a solid wall of straight-ahead, bare-bones, basic rock ‘n’ roll.
Some folks found it a wee bit too loud, complained about the absurdity of staging rock shows in the Jube, but they were in the minority.
Most of the fans gyrated and boogied and happily had their eardrums blown out. What fun. The turbo-disco stomp of Legs shook the rafters.
The encore was even louder, featuring Tube Snake Boogie, a convoluted version of La Grange and the song probably everyone hear came to hear: Tush.
Very little has changed in 40 years, save for the colour of the hair, length of the beards and the price of the concert tickets.
Sure, there’s some newer material, some filler, and most of it just plows along on one, two, sometimes even three chords like everything else.
BASIC SOUND
Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard haven’t changed their basic sound one bit — putting them into the league of Timeless Rockers Unaffected by Prevailing Trends, along with AC/DC.
As singer Billy Gibbons put it following a spirited rendition of I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide, “Same three guys right here … And same three chords, that’s right.”
He was reacting to a fan in the front row who was waving a vinyl copy of the band’s 1973 album, Tres Hombres (rough translation: the three amigos) — “Man, that’s old,” Billy said — which the band members graciously signed right then and there.
They stopped the show and everything.
The man was clearly touched, and it got him talking beyond the usual drawling Texas gibberish he says to get the crowd going.
‘INTERPRETERS’
Gibbons admitted that ZZ Top is just a rock band that “learned how to play from the blues guys.”
They were “interpreters,” he added.
This explains — and forgives — a few things: like how they stole all their riffs from John Lee Hooker. And the ridiculous beards came from Charlie Daniels, of course.
SOUNDCHECK
MAIN EVENT
ZZ Top
IN THE SEATS
2,600 in the Jube
NOTE PERFECT
Blues-rock arena show stuffed into a theatre but good for the soul
SOUR NOTE
Hard on the ears
RATING
4 out of 5 Suns
Source: edmontonsun.com
Rush, Rita MacNeil win music industry awards
Veteran rockers Rush took the international achievement award and Cape Breton folk singer Rita MacNeil won the national achievement award as the music industry organization SOCAN handed out its awards Monday night.
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, the copyright collective for musical works, gives annual awards for Canada’s top acts and recognizes songs and artists who get the most airplay.
Rush is coming off a year of successful international touring and the release of its album Snakes & Arrows Live. The band, which first toured in 1974, is also wooing a new generation by releasing its classic songs for download on the game Rock Band.
MacNeil continues to tour Canada, appearing frequently over the Christmas period with Men of the Deeps.
Veteran country singer Stompin’ Tom Connors, who began singing in the 1940s, was given a lifetime achievement award.
Connors, 73, returned to touring in summer 2009. He is known for hits such as The Hockey Song, Bud the Spud, Sudbury Saturday Night and The Black Donnellys, which he re-released last year on iTunes.
Finger Eleven, the Burlington, Ont., band that won the Juno Award for rock album of the year in 2008, were recognized for both the top international hit — Paralyzer reached No. 6 on U.S. charts — and for great Canadian airplay for I’ll Keep Your Memory Vague.
Kardinal Offishall’s Dangerous, which won the Juno for single of the year in March, earned the SOCAN urban music award. The song, which also featured St. Louis-based Akon, reached No. 2 on the Canadian charts and No. 5 in the United States.
Also honoured for airplay in 2008:
- Feist for 1-2-3-4.
- Kreesha Turner for Don’t Call Me Baby.
- Hedley for For the Nights I Can’t Remember.
- Gord Bamford for Stayed ‘Til Two.
- Doc Walker for Beautiful Life.
- Deric Ruttan for First Time in a Long Time.
Cuban-Canadian singer-songwriter Alex Cuba, who released his second album Agua Del Pozo in 2008, won the Hagood Hardy award for overall success in jazz, instrumental or world music.
Ottawa-born composer James Rolfe, who writes for chamber ensemble, orchestra and opera, won the Jan V. Matejcek award for overall success in new classical music.
SOCAN also recognized songs that were played 100,000 times on Canadian radio, including five hits written by veteran singer-songwriter Tom Cochrane.
Among the Cochrane songs to reach the benchmark are Big League, Boy Inside the Man, I Wish You Well, Lunatic Fringe and No Regrets. His Life is a Highway has previously earned SOCAN honours.
Source: cbc.ca
Taylor Swift beats Michael Jackson for top prize
LOS ANGELES—In the end, the King of Pop was no match for a country music sweetheart.
Taylor Swift, fresh off her triumph as Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year, took the biggest prize of Sunday’s American Music Awards: the Artist of the Year award.
She had stiff competition from pop star Michael Jackson, who died in June at the age of 50.
“I just want to say that music has never been ultimately about competition,” a visibly shocked Swift said in accepting the award via video link from London, England.
“To even be mentioned in a category with Michael Jackson, who will be missed and loved forever is an unimaginable honour.
“I’m sending my love to the Jackson family,” she added.
Swift ended up winning five of her six American Music Award nominations, including Pop/Rock Female Artist, Adult Contemporary Artist, Country Female Artist and Favourite Country Album.
But Jackson posthumously set the record for most American Music Awards won by any artist.
He scored his record 23rd win with the prize for Favourite Pop/Rock Male Artist, which was preceded by a win for Soul/R&B Male Artist.
His 2003 album Number Ones, which surged back to the top of the charts after his death, also won Favourite Soul/R&B and Pop/Rock Album.
His prizes were accepted by brother Jermaine, one of the original Jackson 5 group that started Michael’s career.
“We love you, Michael,” Jermaine Jackson said.
“It’s not just about winning the award; it’s mainly the message. The message Michael had will live on forever and that’s that he saw good in everyone.
“Start with love and let’s love each other,” he said, wearing a white glittery glove in honour of his brother.
The show was kicked off by another Jackson, sister Janet, who performed a medley of some of her biggest hits. She didn’t acknowledge her late brother, as she did at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Meanwhile, Jackson’s repeat wins weren’t the only touching moments in the program.
Whitney Houston got prolonged applause and a standing ovation after performing I Didn’t Know My Own Strength and accepting the International Artist Award of Excellence from actor Samuel L. Jackson.
Houston thanked God, her family, Arista Records mogul Clive Davis, and all the fans who “supported me and loved me and stayed by me.”
Keith Urban, winning his first American Music Award as Country Male Artist, declared to wife Nicole Kidman, “I love you so much, baby girl. This is for you and Sunday,” their 16-month-old daughter.
As always, the show was mainly about the performances.
Lady Gaga was one of the most compelling at Sunday’s show. Wearing a Vulcan-inspired headdress and vest filled with lights, the 23-year-old performed a medley of songs from her new album, The Fame Monster. She used her microphone to break into a glass case, where a grand piano sat waiting. It caught fire when she sat down to play.
Rihanna strutted the stage in a tight body suit made up of strips of white fabric spaced to show off lots of skin.
Jennifer Lopez drew gasps from the audience when she lost her balance after jumping off a dancer’s back and landing on the stage on her rear end. But she quickly recovered her poise.
Shakira performed flanked by a dozen dancers in tiny black bodysuits.
Kelly Clarkson did a stripped-down version of her hit Already Gone, backed by a string quartet.
The Black Eyed Peas, who were early winners, energized the crowd with Meet Me Halfway and Boom Boom Pow, with dancers wearing outfits made from stereo speakers sharing the stage with Fergie, Taboo, apl.de.ap and will.i.am, who wore a pompadour wig.
Country star and former American Idol Carrie Underwood did Cowboy Casanova in what looked like a gold diaper ensemble with metallic booties.
The show was capped by American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert, whose performance of the first single from his new album, For Your Entertainment, included shoving a male dancer’s face in his crotch.
The American Music Awards honour the year’s top-selling artists in pop/rock, country, rap/hip-hop, soul/R&B, alternative, adult contemporary, Latin and contemporary inspirational.
Fans voted online to select the winners.
Source: thestar.com
ZZ Top still rocking after four decades
They still have the beards, but they’re whiter.
They still dress all in black, but they have some sparkle in their jackets.
One thing that hasn’t changed at all is that ZZ Top still knows how to rock – big time.
The Texas trio brought their boogie-blues-rock to the Abbotsford Sports and Entertainment Centre tonight, proving that even though they all turned 60 this year, they’re tighter than they’ve ever been.
Forty years of playing together might have something to do with it. They’re one of the few acts in rock and roll who still have all their original members after so many years together: lead vocalist and guitarist Billy Gibbons, vocalist and bassist Dusty Hill, and drummer Frank Beard (ironically, the one without the trademark chest-length fuzz). No drama to be found.
Their stage set-up was equally clean and simple – much like their down-home Texan roots. There was nothing fancy here – just three guys on the stage, playing some raw backyard-barbecue crank-’em-up rock. Their video montages consisted of things like spark plugs, wheels, crescent wrenches – often in black and white – and old videos from their 1980s MTV heyday interspersed with abstract and geometric patterns.
There was nothing fancy about their fans either – and that’s a good thing. The crowd in Abbotsford consisted predominantly of 40-plus bandana-wearing, leather-clad fans – even a guy in snakeskin red-leather pants – who just wanted to hear some good old rock ‘n’ roll. They did.
The floor-seat crowd was on its feet with the opening number, Got Me Under Pressure. When Gibbons and Hill did their signature simultaneous guitar sway, the audience went crazy.
But what’s ZZ Top without the hot women? At one point, Gibbon called for a switch from his “African hat” to his “blues hat.” A leggy woman in a little black dress and sporting a bit feathery black hat delivered it to him, and then exited.
Much to the chagrin of the men in the audience, that was the extent of it. Even when they played one of the biggest hits of their career, Legs, the stage stayed clear of anyone other than the trio.
It was all about the music. There were a few less-familiar ZZ Top tunes thrown in there, including a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Foxy Lady , but the night was mostly a run-through of best-knowns, including Cheap Sunglasses, Gimme All Your Lovin’, Sharp Dressed Man and a three-song encore – Tube Snake Boogie, La Grange and Tush.
The only sign that they are showing their age was when, between numbers, a big brute of a guy grabbed Beard from behind, lifted him off the ground, bent him backwards and then put him back down – an on-the-scene back adjustment.
Let’s hope that’s all it takes to keep them going.
Their opening act was Canadian country music star Charlie Major, who also turned in a solid performance.
Source: bclocalnews.com
Slayer Reschedule Canadian Carnage, Announce U.S. Tour
| Keith Carman exclaim.ca
Araya has since been given a clean bill of health after back surgery and the band have declared the two behemoths — now bolstered by opening act Testament — have rescheduled those postponed shows for February of 2010, as well as announced the American Carnage portion of the tour. It’s the closest we’ll ever get to something as monumental as the Big Four tour everyone pines for, or another Clash of the Titans stint like they had in the early 1990s. The six Eastern Canadian dates round out the Canadian Carnage tour overall, which actually kicked off with Western shows during the summer. As for American Carnage, it swings through a large chunk of the U.S., hitting up such cities as Seattle, Houston, Chicago and Detroit. Tour dates: 1/18 Seattle, WA – WaMu Theatre
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| Source: exclaim.ca |
Maybe it was a blessing in disguise when thrash metal giants Slayer recently announced that they were forced to postpone their tour with fellow speed freaks Megadeth earlier this month.On November 3, the official release date of their 10th studio album World Painted Blood, Slayer were forced to announce that bassist/vocalist Tom Araya’s back problems had put him in hospital and they would be unable to honour their touring commitments.Three Day’s Grace concert in Vancouver cancelled
VANCOUVER — Canadian rock band Three Days Grace has postponed their performance in Vancouver tonight, Live Nation announced.
The reason for the cancelled gig is “a family emergency,” the promoters said.
The shows will be rescheduled for 2010, when current tickets will be honoured, Live Nation said. Performances in Kamloops, Kelowna, Prince George and Dawson Creek have been rescheduled for January. The Olympics in Vancouver have meant the 2010 date there is yet to be announced.
The date had been widely anticipated, given the band’s recent success in North America.
Their last two studio albums, Three Days Grace (2003) and One-X (2006) were certified platinum and double platinum in the United States and Canada, respectively.
Music bible Billboard voted the band the number one rock artist of the year in 2007.
The band’s third album, Life Starts Now, was released last month.
The news was also announced on the band’s web site.
Source: The Vancouver Sun
