MK Magazine News 2008

 
Legendary rocker Michael Monroe has long been at the forefront of breaking music barriers. This spring he returns with a highly anticipated new group that was announced today (Monday, January 25) at a press conference hosted by pro skater, video director and MTV personality Bam Margera at Swing House Rehearsal & Recording Studios in Hollywood, CA. News about an upcoming album and U.S. tour dates, plus details about the Michael Monroe Mobile Backstage application for mobile devices — the personal hotline between the fans and Monroe’s band anywhere in the world at any given time — was unveiled as well.

Michael Monroe’s band features bassist Sami Yaffa who has played with a remarkable variety of bands including HANOI ROCKS, NEW YORK DOLLS and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS, and guitarist Ginger who has dazzled audiences over the world with his band THE WILDHEARTS. Also on guitar is Todd Youth, the master fretman who has played with many top-tier hard rock ensembles, including DANZIG, MOTÖRHEAD, GLEN CAMPBELL, SAMHAIN, D GENERATION and most recently CHELSEA SMILES. Rounding out the band is drummer Jimmy Clark, whose resume includes providing rhythm for the likes of Deborah Harry (who would later introduce him to Michael Monroe), JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS, GLEN BURTNICK, RICK DERRINGER, WYNONNA, BLACKHAWK and THE VAN ZANT BROTHERS. Jimmy also played in Michael’s band DEMOLITION 23 which also included Sami Yaffa.

Coming off the HANOI ROCKS rebirth from 2002-2009, Michael Monroe makes his long-awaited mark on America starting with SXSW and West Coast U.S. dates in March with his incredible team of players. In addition to a schedule of exclusive live performances, which also includes East Coast dates in May, Michael Monroe and his band are set to enter the studio in the spring to record a new album for the fall.

Fans can keep up with Monroe and his players via the Michael Monroe Mobile Backstage mobile application available now for free through Apple’s iPhone/iPod application store and at www.michaelmonroe.com. With this, Monroe’s followers everywhere can experience everything that happens on the road and backstage exclusively in real time through their mobile phone. In addition to viewing and sharing videos, pictures and messages both ways directly with the band, they can comment and rate all material and also connect with other fans. The application works in iPhone, iPod Touch, most of Nokia & Sony Ericsson phones and many of LG’s & Samsung’s models.

Michael Monroe tour dates:

March 11 - San Francisco, CA @ Paradise Lounge
March 12 - Hollywood, CA @ Viper Room
March 13 - San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick
March 14 - Redondo Beach, CA @ The Brixton March
March 15 - Las Vegas, NV @ Wasted Space @ Hard Rock
March ? - Austin, TX @ SXSW

HANOI ROCKS frontman Michael Monroe will unveil his new band at a press conference on Monday, January 25 at Swing House Studios in Los Angeles, California beginning at 12:00 noon PST. Monroe will be in attendance along with Sami Yaffa (HANOI ROCKS, DEMOLITION 23, NEW YORK DOLLS) and the rest of Michael’s new bandmates. The new group will perform two songs at the event, which will be hosted by pro skater, video director and MTV personality Bam Margera. Details about the Michael Monroe Mobile Backstage application for mobile devices will be announced as well.

The press conference only will be streamed live via Ustream.tv at this location: www.ustream.tv/channel/michael-monroe-press-conference-in-la

The Chicago International Movies and Music Festival 2010 will present Paul Stanley’s “One Live Kiss” on the big screen on Saturday, March 6 at 3:00 p.m. at the Lincoln Hall.

Hailed as an stunning classic by audiences and critics alike upon its release in 2008 by Universal Pictures/Ume/New Door Records, “One Live Kiss” is a unique, personal, and intimate concert film featuring the legendary KISS frontman Paul Stanley and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Louis Antonelli is back as it was meant to be experienced — larger than life on the big screen and in shattering multi-channel digital theater concert sound!!

After the screening of “One Live Kiss”, the Chicago International Movies and Music Festival will host an in-person question-and-answer session with producer/director Louis Antonelli and other special guests.

Lincoln Hall (across from the historic biograph theater)
2424 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60614 usa

Tickets are limited — online pre- purchase recommended

“Sick Bubblegum”, the new video from ROB ZOMBIE, can be viewedby clicking the link  below.

http://video.aol.com/aolvideo/AOL Music/sick-bubblegum/62758602001
 
The song comes off the singer’s new album, “Hellbilly Deluxe 2″, which is scheduled for release on February 2 via Roadrunner Records’ Loud & Proud imprint.

“Hellbilly Deluxe 2″ track listing:

01. Jesus Frankenstein
02. Sick Bubblegum
03. What?
04. Mars Needs Women
05. Werewolf, Baby!
06. Virgin Witch
07. Death and Destiny Inside The Dream Factory
08. Burn
09. Cease to Exist
10. Werewolf Women of the SS
11. The Man Who Laughs

Zombie hinted in an online post that his new CD could be his last, saying, “Well, pretty soon the CD will be dead. All you will have left is digital downloads. So before we say goodbye to the almighty CD, I thought I would give it a big send-off. I love being able to get great artists involved on my CD artwork and this time is the best yet. Since this may be the last true CD I make, I thought I would gather three of the top artists around to contribute some killer new Zombie art for the booklet.”

The artists contributing work to the CD’s booklet are Nocturnals comic book creator Dan Brereton, animation and storyboard artist David Hartman and Italian artist Alex Horley, who has worked for Image Comics and DC Comics.

Rob Zombie will guest on the nationally syndicated radio show “Rockline” with host Bob Coburn on Monday, February 1 at 8:30 p.m. PT / 11:30 p.m. ET. Fans are encouraged to speak with Rob by calling 1-800-344-ROCK (7625).

For more information, visit RocklineRadio.com.

Rob Zombie will take part in this summer’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival tour, which is scheduled to kick off on July 10 in San Bernardino, California.

Zombie’s recent “Hellbilly Deluxe 2″ tour marked his return to the road after moderate box office success as the writer and director of “Halloween II” (Dimension). His R-rated, animated feature, “The Haunted World Of El Superbeasto”, was made available everywhere on DVD and Blu-ray September 22.

“Halloween II”, the follow-up to Zombie’s successful 2007 remake of the original 1978 horror classic, came in at No. 3 in its opening weekend, earning $17 million at the box office. That’s far less than the $31 million his first “Halloween” flick did two years ago.

I’ve been a fan of late night television since my very first experience with insomnia in 1983 and thankfully discovered David Letterman. Ever since I’ve follwed his show as well as his own NBC battle in 92/93 when even after Johnny Carsons wish was to hand the Tonight Show over to Dave, NBC went with the jaw.

I followed Letterman over to CBS and remained loyal and enjoyed many many laughs. I watched Tom Snyder afterwards and when he retired, would watch Conan after Letterman. Now I have dscovered Craig Ferguson who is now who I consider the funniest and wittiest person on all of TV.

My love for late night entertainment goes so deep that I’ve recently purchased both Fergusons and Paul Shaffers autobiographies.

My point, oh yes, my point. Does it make sense that just because Leno’s failed prime time show has bombed in the ratings, that NBC in their “ultimate wisdom” has allowed the network to push Conan O’brien out of the Tonight Show in order to give Jay “lantern jaw” Leno to once again assume his old 1135 EST/1035 CST time slot? It doesn’t add up but I’m happy for Conan to move on and do his thing somewhere else after next fall. I have the feeling, he’ll take his audience with him. He was always cutting edge with a dash of gross out humor, and he does have a solid following for his stylings.

I never thought Leno was funny and I find him annoying at best. His writers have stolen many of Lettermans old bits, stole some of Howards Sterns bits and even went as far as to steal Stuttering John from the Stern show. FUCK NBC, I don’t watch the network anymore anyway. It’d be fun to see this move bite them in the ass and observe the show’s legacy burn the same way as they have with SNL. Which is another story for another time.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. - az

 
Legendary HANOI ROCKS frontman Michael Monroe has issued the following update:

“I’ve been in Los Angeles now for almost two weeks rehearsing with my new band and it’s going great! The band is sounding killer and we’re having a really good time working and stuff. I’m really happy and excited about this. Next week you also will know who’s in the band.

“We’ve already got about an album’s worth of material written and rehearsed, but we’re still gonna write some more, as we’re in no hurry to get into the studio until sometime during the spring to record the album. We do wanna release something
before the summer, though. If not the whole record, at least a couple of songs or so. We’re also rehearsing the live set and I must say I’ve really missed playing a lot of my solo stuff over the past few years. Especially songs from ‘Not Fakin’ It’ and ‘Demolition 23′. The plan is to start playing live shows in March.

“Of course, the weather in L.A. has been horrible just for this time that I’m here. Apparently it hasn’t rained like this for over 20 years or so, but what the hell — you gotta love it! Surely it’s a bit scary with the storm warnings and stuff. The Haiti disaster is really disturbing too. I’m glad so many rich people here are actually doing a lot about it to help.

“Other than that, Hollywood is Hollywood and you do see a lot of interesting characters on the streets around here.”

“Buried Alive”, the latest DVD from HANOI ROCKS, entered the “Music DVD” chart in the band’s home country at position No. 1. The disc was filmed at the band’s final show on April 12, 2009 at Tavastia in Helsinki, Finland. Monroe previously stated about the effort, “It’s sounding pretty good. Surely it’s got some rough spots, but what the hell, it’s live — no overdubs! Considering that it was the eighth show in six days, my voice was holding up quite well…”

HANOI ROCKS’ final album, “Street Poetry”, was released in September 2007 in Finland by WolfGang Records and in Europe by U.K.-based Demolition Records.

In a related story, Biggest HANOI ROCKS Collection Changes Hands
 
R-Beat, an innovative Finnish event production company, has acquired the largest known collection of recordings (MC, LP, CD) of HANOI ROCKS, the first Finnish musical export to achieve international fame. This treasure, collected over almost thirty years by a dedicated private collector, consists of close to 350 items and covers both active periods of the group from 1980 to 1985 and from 2002 to 2009.

The collection includes a comprehensive set of official releases from different countries in all imaginable formats, including promo and special releases and misprints, as well as illegal bootleg versions that were particularly popular in the Eastern Bloc, from Soviet flexi-discs to Polish musical postcards. It also includes a set of record company’s complimentary copies to the artist from the estate of the late drummer, Razzle, with a certificate of authenticity. The collection also includes extremely rare long-box versions of releases made under the Uzi Suicide record label, created by the original members of GUNS N’ ROSES. GUNS N’ ROSES regard HANOI ROCKS as one of their influences and wanted to promote the group in the USA by publishing their back catalogue.

“The scope of the collection takes your breath away and shows how much interest and passion HANOI ROCKS has evoked all over the world”, says Kari Rantala, Managing Director at R-Beat. “The collector has been very dedicated; you can say that this is almost his life work.”

The new owner plans to expand the collection, named Hanoi Heritage, and develop it so it can be exhibited in galleries, hotels and other suitable venues in Finland and abroad in the future. A web site for the project will be launched at www.hanoiheritage.fi.

 
A commercial for original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley’s “Behind the Player” DVD can be viewed below. The set was released in North America on January 19 via IMV, a Los Angeles-based producer of interactive music content and video game systems.

In his “Behind the Player” DVD, Frehley gives an intimate behind-the scenes look at his life as a professional musician, including rare video footage. Go behind the make-up and see the real Ace Frehley as he unmasks his guitar playing style and a behind-the-scenes look at his life. “Behind the Player” also includes rare live performances as well as in depth guitar lessons by Ace on the KISS classics “Cold Gin” and “Shock Me” and the new song “Pain in the Neck”. Ace will lead you through the proper way to play these classics as well as the origins and inspirations of the songs.

“Video Tab” shows exactly how Frehley plays the tracks. The video-game-style animated tablature is similar to Guitar Hero, but shows how to play the tracks for real.

Watch the Spaceman perform with special guest musicians Matt Sorum (VELVET REVOLVER, GUNS N’ ROSES), John 5 (MARILYN MANSON, ROB ZOMBIE), George Lynch (DOKKEN, LYNCH MOB), Chris Wyse (THE CULT), Tommy Clufetos (ROB ZOMBIE) and Scot Coogan (BRIDES OF DESTRUCTION).

Completing this ultimate black diamond are rare live footage, rare KISS photos and a documentary about Ace.

Check out preview clips from Ace Frehley’s “Behind the Player” DVD at this location: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXVzVaguYII&feature=player_embedded

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune by Greg Kot

Dannie Flesher, who oversaw the internationally acclaimed Wax Trax record store and label in Chicago during the ‘80s and ‘90s, has died at age 57.

Flesher died Sunday in his home town of Hope, Ark., of pneumonia. He had dropped out of the music business after Wax Trax folded and his life and label partner Jim Nash died in 1995. Flesher had returned to Arkansas in 2005 to live with family members.

Nash and Flesher opened a Wax Trax store in Denver in the ‘70s, then moved their operation to Lincoln Avenue in 1978. Their store, stocked with imported punk and electronic music, defined the cutting edge and was like the city’s island of misfit toys, where punks, freaks and outsiders gathered to buy music, advertise shows and plot their futures.

In the ‘80s, the store expanded into a label that became the world headquarters for boundary-pushing artists who bridged disco, electronic music, rock, and the avant-garde. Some dubbed the sound “industrial disco,” an umbrella term that included Ministry, Front 242, Underworld, KMFDM, and My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, underground acts who went on to sell millions of records.

Whereas Nash was the flamboyant label spokesman and talent scout, Flesher was the quieter but no less important half of the franchise.

“Jim was the face of the label, but Dannie played a major role; he and Jim brainstormed everything together,” said Reid Hyams, whose Chicago Trax studio hosted countless recording sessions by Wax Trax artists, including legendary bacchanals overseen by Ministry’s Al Jourgensen.

Chris Connelly, one of the label’s key artists, was based in Scotland when he was invited by Jourgensen to participate in a Chicago recording session in 1986. “I had never been to America before, and Dannie came to get me at O’Hare,” he says. “He and Jim pretty much adopted me. Dannie was the rock with the aviator shades and a cool menthol-light cigarette hanging out of his mouth at all times. He had rock-solid info whenever you needed it. Amid all the craziness, a scene made up of complete flakes, he was the reliable one. To live with Jim that long, or to be involved with Trax, you had to bulldoze through.”

Connelly was struck by the modesty of the operation. “I thought every record label in America was in a high rise, but here they were in an apartment above their store, with stacks and stacks of records in the toilet,” he said. “I couldn’t believe the label was being run by two guys who would sit at 1 o’clock in the afternoon and drink a Scotch and smoke a big fat joint. But they had something people wanted, they had great taste in music, and for a while it just got bigger.”

In a 1991 interview with the Tribune, Nash laughed at the notion that he and Flesher were businessmen. “We’re in the business of chaos,” he said. But they had an ear for music that appealed to a large, vibrant audience that was largely ignored by the mainstream music business.

The duo’s cavalier attitude toward business eventually did them in. They never signed contracts with any of the bands they discovered, and ended up losing most of their artists to major labels. Wax Trax went bankrupt and folded in the mid-‘90s, but left behind a towering legacy.
 
“A lot of things opened up in this city thanks to Jim and Dannie,” Frankie Nardiello of Thrill Kill Kult once told the Tribune. “They brought a lot of culture and coolness, a whole bunch of punk glitter, to a place that really needed it.”
 
Flesher is survived by four brothers, three sisters and numerous nieces and nephews. No services have been announced.

 
The countdown to the Decade of Disturbed has begun at www.disturbed1.com! Check out Disturbed’s official website on Tuesday, January 12th at 2 p.m. PST for a very special reveal that fans won’t want to miss.

In March 2010, the band will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the release of their quadruple-platinum-selling debut album The Sickness by reissuing it with exclusive b-sides and expanded artwork, as well as a first-time-ever vinyl edition.

Also in March, Disturbed will relaunch their official website with a special section, accessible by a code included with The Sickness reissue, that will contain exclusive clips, updated weekly, of the band recording their upcoming new album, due for release from Reprise Records later this year. There will also be a special DOD section that will be available for everyone.

Released on March 7, 2000, The Sickness is Disturbed’s best-selling album to date, thanks to such hit singles as “Stupify,” “Voices,” and “Down With the Sickness,” which is the seventh most downloaded track of the ’90s according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Formed in Chicago in 1996, Disturbed have sold 11 million albums and six million digital tracks worldwide, and have scored eight No. 1 singles at Active Rock radio over the course of their career. Their latest album, the platinum self-produced Indestructible, debuted at Number One on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart in June 2008 and remained in the Top 10 for five weeks. Indestructible is the band’s third consecutive Number One album, following their platinum-sellers Believe (2002) and Ten Thousand Fists (2005), making Disturbed one of only six rock bands in history to score three consecutive Number One debuts with studio albums.

SOURCE: Rollingstone.com Photo: Getty Images

Director Robert Zemeckis’ 3-D update of the Beatles’ animated Yellow Submarine has found its crew of actors to voice the Fab Four, with The Princess Bride star Cary Elwes leading the cast as the voice behind George Harrison. According to The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision blog, Dean Lennox Kelly will voice the John Lennon character, Peter Serafinowicz will play Paul McCartney and Adam Campbell will portray Ringo Starr, and all four actors are reportedly negotiating their deals to appear in the Disney film.

For the performance footage in Zemeckis’ motion-capture take on Yellow Submarine, the Back to the Future director has recruited “The Ultimate Beatles Band,” the Fab Four. Producers for Yellow Submarine have secured the rights to the Beatles’ music, so the songs in the film will come courtesy of the real Fab Four and not the tribute band. By hiring actors to portray the Beatles, Zemeckis is keeping in tradition of the original film, which also employed voice actors in place of the actual band. The Beatles themselves only appeared in the film’s live-action epilogue.

As Rolling Stone previously reported, Zemeckis was interested in bringing in the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, to contribute to the Yellow Submarine remake. With actors being cast in their roles, it’s unclear whether Zemeckis still has plans for the pair, but considering new Spock Zachary Quinto interacted with old Spock Leonard Nimoy in the Star Trek reboot, Zemeckis — who is writing the screenplay — can surely construct a subplot where the faux Macca and Starr meet the real Paul and Ringo.

Aside from his performance in the cult classic Princess Bride, Elwes is also known for his starring roles in Saw and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Lennox Kelly also starred in the role of Robin Hood in a BBC series based on the famed archer. Comedy fans know Serafinowicz as the yuppie roommate from Shaun of the Dead and the guy who stole Simon Pegg’s girlfriend in Spaced. Campbell appeared in Epic Movie and Date Movie.

Zemeckis reportedly hopes that the cinematic release of Yellow Submarine will coincide with the London Olympics in 2012. A stage musical version of the new film is also rumored to be in the works.