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An intimate Q&A with the protagonist of “Walk Hard”
Listen to a special audio documentary on Dewey Cox featuring RS contributing editor David Wild. Dewey Cox is one of the legends of rock & roll: the center of seemingly every musical movement from the Fifties… |
As you may have already noticed, the new issue of Rolling Stone is our special Yearbook 2007, where we chart the year’s best releases, rock-star rants, reunited bands, Amy Winehouse meltdowns, dickheads (according to Bill Maher) and much more. Keep watching this site for all our year-end lists. Up first is the 100 Best Songs of 2007 — from Jay-Z and Rihanna to Feist and Nickelback (seriously), it’s the ultimate 2007 playlist. Click here to check out the list, and listen to (and watch!) the songs for yourself.
| Jay-Z triumphed, and Rihanna offfered us shelter under her umbrella, while Springsteen, Bright Eyes and Arcade Fire reported on the storm
1 “Roc Boys” |
- With only twelve days to go ’til Christmas, Coldplay has posted an early present on their Web site for their fans: “2000 Miles,” the band’s cover of the Pretenders song. “We love Christmas songs, but every time we try and write one it’s awful,” Chris Martin writes. Maybe Martin could learn a thing or two from the Killers.
- Thom Yorke will revisit his solo career early next year as he releases three 12′’ singles featuring nine remixes of tracks from his debut album The Eraser. Among the remixers are the Field, Burial, Four Tet and Modeselektor.
- The seventh annual Ponderosa Stomp is branching out to include conference panels next year. The American music fest will take place April 29th and 30th in New Orleans and feature performances by Ronnie Spector, Roky Erickson and more.
- To celebrate getting picked up for another season on HBO, or because they’re just overflowing with humor, mock rockers Flight of the Conchords will release a full-length album in April 2008.
- From Broadway to the Mafia way: After Jay-Z’s American Gangster received the show-tune treatment, now DJ Skee has mashed-up Jigga’s new album with the score from The Godfather.
The committee that hands out Oscars has narrowed down a year’s worth of film soundtracks and end-credit music into a fifty-nine track “short list” of songs that will be eligible for Best Original Song at the 80th Academy Awards. Eddie Vedder, who contributed solo tracks to the Sean Penn film Into the Wild, and Sondre Lerche, who recorded the Dan in Real Life soundtrack, both have three songs on the list. Vedder will most likely get some definite Oscar nod love, as his “Guaranteed” was nominated for Best Song at the Golden Globes this morning (he’s also up for Best Original Score at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s January 13th ceremony).
August Rush leads all films with four potential nominations, with John Legend’s “Someday” the favorite of that bunch. Other interesting inclusions: Roger Waters’ “Hello (I Love You),” which we’re assuming is not the Doors’ song (original music only is considered) from The Last Mimzy, plus there’s the Flaming Lips’ oddball “I Was Zapped by the Super Lucky Rainbow” from Good Luck Chuck and “The Tale of the Horny Frog” from The Heartbreak Kid, and Rufus Wainwright’s “Another Believer” from Meet the Robinsons.
Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger will once again vie for an Oscar statuette, as two of his Wham!-inspired contributions to Music and Lyrics are on the short list. Schlesinger almost took home the Academy Award in 1997 for penning the song “That Thing You Do!” from the film of the same name, but Madonna’s “You Must Love Me” from Evita pulled an upset victory. The upcoming Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story also had three songs on the list, meaning that it’s likely John C. Reilly will have to appear as Cox to perform in front of millions of people Oscar night.
So how does the Academy pick five finalists from this enormous list? The whole thing sounds very complex: On January 15th, they’ll screen clips featuring each song in random order, and then vote. Though a better question may be what happens to the Oscars if the Writer’s Strike keeps going?
Who: Dirty South rapper Radric “Gucci Mane” Davis, who after spending some time behind bars, has learned to translate a life of crime into lyrical street anthems. Sounds Like: Gucci’s new album Back to the Traphouse finds the Bessemer, Alabama native unleashing crime-thick lyrics with his patented Southern drawl over explosive synth beats and sing-song hooks. The album, a sequel of sorts to his debut Traphouse, features guest spots from Ludacris, Lil’ Kim, Rich Boy, the Game and late UGK rapper Pimp C. Three Things You Should Know: 1. Gucci killed a man — in self-defense. While visiting the home of a female friend in 2005, Gucci was forced to shooter down an intruder after the man (an associate of Young Jeezy, with whom Gucci has an ongoing beef) stormed into the room, guns blazing. While Gucci didn’t serve time for that incident (again, self-defense), he did serve six months in the slammer for beating another man with a pool stick. 2. Gucci passed time in the pen (he was locked-down twenty-three hours a day) writing a screenplay about his life. The son of an Atlanta hustler nicknamed “Gucci Man,” Mane started out on his father’s path by dealing crack at the age of nineteen. After his release from prison, Mane got an important pep talk from another rapper. “Ludacris told me to keep my nose clean,” Gucci says, “I plan on doing that.” 3. He may have a rep as a thug, but Gucci says he’s laid-back and isn’t afraid to show off his sense of humor. He even got his start as a rapper doing comic remakes of hit songs. “I would remake ‘The Humpty Dance’ as ‘The Gucci Dance,’” he says, chuckling. “I was like a ghetto Weird Al.” Get It: Gucci Mane’s Back to the Traphouse hit record stores yesterday. Click above to check out his video for “Freaky Gurl.” (more…)
- Scott Weiland has been charged with driving under the influence of drugs, and prosecutors allege he also refused to take a chemical test required by law. When news broke of Weiland’s November arrest last week, his rep said the Velvet Revolver singer voluntarily took a Breathalyzer test that would clear him of charges. The Los Angeles City Attorney felt differently, and now Weiland faces up to a maximum of a year in jail (with a minimum of eight days due to a prior conviction and failure to take a drug test), a $1,000 fine and the possibility his car will be impounded for up to thirty days. He will be arraigned later today.
- Britney Spears failed to show for a scheduled deposition in her custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline yesterday. Spears’ friend told E!, “When [Spears] saw the media frenzy outside her house, her anxiety skyrocketed,” and both her doctors and attorneys felt it best for her to stay home.
- Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin recently blogged to let fans know he’s recovering from a back injury that caused the band to cancel dates on their recent tour, and is back at work with the Pumpkins. “We are back in the studio recording some songs for a possible release worldwide,” he wrote. “Look for these around the first of the year.”
- Activists plan to protest R. Kelly’s Los Angeles concert tomorrow night over the singer’s ongoing child-pornography charges, the Los Angeles Times reports. Kelly’s manager indicated this is the first protest on the tour (which is one month into its two-month run), and activist Jasmyne Cannick acknowledges it’s been rough gaining support for her cause. “It’s a challenge to get the black community to even discuss it,” she says. “They’e acting like he doesn’t have fourteen counts of child pornography against him, [and] we’re all acting like we don’t have daughters and nieces and little sisters.”
- Snoop Dogg will host his third annual Snoop Youth Football League Benefit on Saturday at the Los Angeles House of Blues, with all proceeds benefiting the three-year-old football league Snoop created to give inner-city kids the chance to get involved in organized sports.
[Photo: Getty]
