Morrissey has revealed at the South By South West festival in Texas, that he and the other former members of The Smiths were offered $5 million to reform and play at the Coachella festival in California last year.
However, he refused claiming that money was never an issue, but he did throw in some Smiths’ numbers into his set at the SXSW show.
www.morrisseymusic.com has all the official info.
Strokes Guitarist Nick Valensi is to appear on Regina Spektor’s new album, which will be out in June, titled Begin To Hope.
Specktor had opened for The Strokes on their Room Of Fire tour and says she has around 700 songs to whittle down for the upcoming album, which has her using electric guitars and drum machines.
She is set to showcase the new material on her forthcoming US tour.
Click over to www.reginaspektor.com for the gossip.
Damian J Kulash, singer with current video kings Ok Go, was arrested in Orlando this past weekend for resisting arrest.
He was standing outside the venue and, according to reports, was alerted to the police by having an “intent to take pictures and talk to fans”. This is, apparently, enough to warrant a stern telling off and after he refused to move, he was handcuffed and taken to a jail cell.
Reports are that he got the police to watch the superb video for A Million Ways, which makes him an absolute legend. He was released the next day following his eventful 9 hours.
Check out the band’s website [and make sure you watch the videos] at www.okgo.net
Mike Relm, the turntable wizard and Abjekt favourite, has announced some dates in the UK as part of a tour which sees him travel across various countries in Europe. The diminutive DJ will start his tour with a London date in Brixton before taking himself off to Swindon, Brighton, Bristol, Leeds and Nottingham as well as playing in Germany, France, Holland and Greece.
The tour dates are:
12-May Brixton Fidgil @ Plan B
13-May Swindon Furnace
14-May Cologne Gerbaude 9
15-May Munich Atomic Café
16-May Berlin Maria
17-May Paris Point Ephemere
18-May Poitiers Air Borne
19-May Rotterdam Rotown
20-May Utrecht Ekko
23-May Brighton Ocean Rooms
24-May Athens Soul Stereo
25-May Bristol Academy
26-May Leeds Leeds Metropolitan University SU
27-May Nottingham Rescue Rooms
To check out the review of his DVD, click here and for all your other Mike Relm needs, visit his website at www.mikerelm.com
I know what you are thinking as you look at this image – “what the fuck!”.
But hold the next line as these are the most comfy shoes i have worn in ages, like pillows to keep your heel bruises with smiles on their smug faces! Well goodbye suckers cos i ain’t riding without these even if they look like they just flew out of a gay Miami slumber party!
Seriously, i opened the box and was almost sick, but it was my birthday, slipped them on and you know what – “it’s my party and i do what i want to, pizza face” because these may be big shoes and i don’t usually float a mid-top, but they pack em, if you know what i mean. Summer is round the corner in this town and i will be wearing these at every slumber party AND even at the skatepark at lunch times, so suck my oil.
By the way, have you seen the Lakai trailer for Fully Flared yet?* No? What kind of droid are you?
*hint to visit their website….
OK, arguably Emerica make the best skate shoes out there, i know what i prefer to ride in when i go skate and they are usually in the top 5 shoes in my porch that i grab on the way out.
Now these little beauties have just become number one on that grab list purely due to it’s simple form. I mean, if you are one of those fat sneakered types, then fuck it, you know that Emerica ain’t famous for that style really (unless you grab a pair of those Ellingtons and to be honest, he has done the offs from this team anyways), but seriously if you like a good clean simple skate shoe with style then these in black and white can’t lose.
The padded tongue is the best part (pardon the etnies pun) as the shoe just glues around your feet straight from the box without you having to wear it in. These are similar to the Tilts – with a superb grippy sole and also sleek to so you can pull birds in them out at your local boozer as well. What more do you want?
Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson is set to record a solo album, but Garbage are far from split up. Manson, who recently inducted Blondie into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, recorded new tracks in London and claims she has no set schedule for a release date. She has worked with David Arnold, the man she worked alongside for her James Bond theme “The World Is Not Enough“.
Fans shouldn’t worry about a split from the band though, as Manson claims this is just a hiatus for the band members to do their own thing, admitting that a press release should have been drawn up but wasn’t.
Check out the usual band updates over at www.garbage.com
Whether or not we’ll all be flying off 30 foot ramps and riding rainbow rails in the future is still uncertain, but if you want to see how far we can take this skateboard thing, look no further than Danny Way. The bionic Super-human keeps surpassing himself with wilder stunts every time, and the next one looks like something out of a morphine dream.
The Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas boasts a monolithic-sized electric guitar in its front yard, and Danny wants to play the 40 foot beast for kicks. Basically (???), the plan is to perform a 25 foot bomb drop into a 27 foot quarterpipe!!! Has Danny bitten off more than he can chew this time? I’d like to see what the local bookies odds are for this one… The stunt will take place on Wednesday April 5th, so stay tuned if you want to see Danny etch another knotch in his history stick.
Saxon, the 80s metal giants, have had problems ahead of their scheduled appearance at Desert Rock, the metal concert in Dubai, which is due to have 25,000 people in attendance and is being fronted by overlords Megadeath.
The problem that has arisen stems from their hit Crusaders which has been vilified in the Arabic press which resulted in the organisers pulling Saxon from the bill. Maybe its just a case of them being too metal for the Middle East! Put that on a t-shirt!
Saxon themselves responded by saying they were extremely disappointed because they believe music is there to break barriers, not to incite racism or hate.
For more, check out www.saxon747.com
Alright, someone has to draw the line between what constitutes skateboarding and what constitutes a stunt? This difference has led many die-hard vert fans astray as they watch their idols dangling in thin air above historical monuments and 20 foot towers of plywood.
In any case, the following dream has to be a stunt because besides a skateboard being used, any similarity with the activity has literally flown out of the window.
New Flip Skateboards rider Bob Burnquist wants to test his nerves at the Holy Grail of stuntman ship- The Grand Canyon! However, Bob isn’t going to strap a nitro-glycerine tank to his deck and Evil Knievel it to the other side (Which, I’ll remind you Mr. Evil failed to do…). Nope. Bob wants to combine his two adrenaline fuelled pastimes – skating and base jumping- by rigging up a rail or ramp of some sort, fly off the end of it and proceed to freefall his way into the history books.
This stunt will be aired on the Discovery Channel on March 23rd, but if ever you’re in the Hell Hole Bend region of the picturesque chasm, say a prayer for our Brazilian friend…
