[HOT]
Take Your Kid To Work Day … to the Max!
Sure, they have the genetics and, more often than not, the chops. But the nepotism going on in the Rock world these days has to have aspiring and veteran musicians everywhere saying, “Brother, can you spare a gig?” Jason Bonham has a no-bid contract to play anytime “Led Zeppelin” does a show, thanks to his deceased father’s tenure with the band. Teenager Wolfgang Van Halen somehow scored the job as Van Halen’s permanent bassist. (The last name’s no coincidence.)
And now it has been announced on Bruce Springsteen’s Web site that Jay Weinberg (pictured thanks to Backstreets.com), 19-year-old son of E-Street Band drummer Max Weinberg, will fill in for his pops on some dates on Springsteen’s upcoming tour. Lending Dad a hand while he plays bandleader on the new Conan O’Brien-hosted Tonight Show, Jay is said to be subbing on “a small number of shows.”
The younger Weinberg currently plays with mediocre New Jersey Hard Rock band The Reveling, which has several club shows scheduled in the next few months. (Hmmm, wonder at which shows he’ll pick to appear?) We just can’t wait until these kids are forced to play 100-seaters in a few years: “Whaddaya mean you don’t have a private, temperature-controlled dressing room for my Kabbalah teacher!”
[WARM]
Music Coming Back to MTV (Not Really)
Saying MTV shouldn’t stand for “Music Television” anymore because they don’t show videos is a bit like complaining that reality shows aren’t real or Chicken McNuggets aren’t “chicken.” Duh. A recent press release touting more music for the stations in the MTV family (VH-1 included) isn’t going to result in the stations featuring music videos any more regularly. Instead, MTV’s “long-form programming” (i.e. reality shows, which, by the way, aren’t real) will now be enhanced with more cross-promotional features.
Some of the examples of the “new” MTV described in the release include artists whose song snippets are featured on shows like The City and The Hills and — our personal favorite — videos shown in “credit squeezes,” which refers to the video snippets shown in a box as the credits roll after their reality shows. While perhaps good for the artists — chart jumps for featured acts are proudly touted — it all seems a part of the industry’s attempt to make small a market that has grown exponentially big. Some silly Emo band getting 1,000 more ringtone downloads because someone heard four seconds of its song on Sex with Mom and Dad doesn’t exactly seem to signal a revolution. It sounds more like Kahn’s hoping to sell a couple more hot dogs because they shoot more T-shirts into the crowd during a baseball game.
[COLD]
Malibu Get Edge-y
For all of the wonderful things U2 does for the world — fight AIDS, work to end global poverty, soundtrack iPod commercials — the band sure seems to get hit with some less-than-friendly accusations over admittedly sketchy endeavors. Recently, U2 was decried for setting up its publishing company in the Netherlands, allowing them to avoid a massive tax bill in their beloved Ireland. Cries about the hypocrisy of not paying enough taxes where they live were met with Bono saying, “What’s actually hypocritical is the idea that then you couldn’t use a financial services center in Holland.” Yeah, you damn Dutch-haters!
Now guitarist The Edge has the people of Malibu, Calif., in an uproar over a huge land development plan. According to LA Weekly, the guitarist plans to build five houses across 1,000 acres. Edge and his partners in the project are accused of building huge trenches, blowing a chunk out of a mountain, interfering with existing views, upsetting the ecosystem and filling the area with “McMansions.” The project also evicted the 73-year-old Malibu Mountain Archery Club, seen as a historic institution in Malibu. Just wait until he brings the giant lemon!
