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Drummer admits he doesn’t know what will come of ‘new material.’
By Chris Harris
Jason Bonham
Photo: Larry Marano/ Getty Images
On Friday morning, mere hours before he was due to take the stage with classic rockers Foreigner at Detroit’s GM Renaissance Center, drummer Jason Bonham — the son of late Led Zeppelin kitman John Bonham — told Jim Johnson and Lynne Woodison of local rock station 94.7 WCSX that he’d be an ex-member of Foreigner as of September 1. But that’s not the only thing he said.
Much to the delight of Led Zeppelin fans everywhere, Bonham revealed that he’s been meeting up with Led Zep guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones in recent months and that they’ve been “trying to do some new material and writing.”
It was the first time since Led Zeppelin announced they would re-form for a single performance (which happened late last year at London’s O2 Arena, in honor of the late Ahmet Ertegün, who signed the band to Atlantic Records in 1969) that anyone connected to the band has confirmed publicly that new music could be on the horizon for the iconic rockers. While the bandmembers have stopped short of definitively ruling out such a reunion, singer Robert Plant insisted in the wake of last year’s show that he intended to focus on promoting and touring behind his critically lauded album with bluegrass artist Alison Krauss, Raising Sand.
Not that Bonham knows what — if anything — will happen with the new material he’s been working on with Page (who collaborated with pop singer Leona Lewis on an uneven version of Zep’s “Whole Lotta Love” at the Olympic closing ceremonies in Beijing on Sunday night) and Jones. He said he just shows up and takes his seat behind the kit.
“I’ve been over [to England] a couple of times,” Bonham said. “I’ve been working with Jimmy and John Paul and trying to do … some new material and some writing. I don’t know what it will be, but it will be something. At the moment, all I know is I have the great pleasure to go and jam with the two guys and start work on some material. When I get there, I never ask any questions. If I get a phone call to go and play, I enjoy every moment of it. Whatever it ends up as, to ever get a chance to jam with two people like that, it is a phenomenal thing for me. It’s my life. It’s what I’ve dreamed about doing.”
He said it’s still too early to tell what will become of these “jam” sessions, but admitted that the “possibility of doing something is in the cards. I really felt it was in the cards from the moment we walked offstage at the O2.” Bonham also explained that, before there could be a Led Zep LP, “lots of politics [would need to] get ironed out,” but added that recording with Zep is “something I’ve always wanted to do.”
Bonham noticeably didn’t mention frontman Plant’s name during the discussion. A spokesperson for Page’s management had no comment on the matter, and a spokesperson for Jones’ management could not be reached by press time.
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‘He has a major role in the younger generation to this music,’ producer/DJ tells MTV News of his collaborator.
By Adam Stewart
deadmau5
Photo: Charley Gallay/ Getty Images
It’s no secret that 2010 was a pivotal year for electronic dance music here in the States. With deadmau5 and Swedish House Mafia becoming household names, the genre’s momentum shows no signs of slowing down. Using a conduit of collaboration, artists such as deadmau5 (a.k.a. Joel Zimmerman) have paired up with various underground acts to further the rapid expansion of the genre.
Perhaps one of the most notable movers and shakers of the year is now-Grammy-Award-nominated producer and DJ Wolfgang Gartner, who recently sat down to chat with MTV News about deadmau5 and dance music’s rise to the top.
“He has a major role in the younger generation to this music,” Gartner says, “but there have been certain artists that have been instrumental in helping it cross over and reach the mainstream — which I think is a good thing. I think rap artists using dance beats is a great thing. I think it just brings more people towards this music that we all love.”
Thanks to several key moments, such as deadmau5 taking the helm as house DJ (well, technically “House Artist”) for the 2010 VMAs, dance music has been thrown into the forefront of America’s youth, a key demographic for any genre.
“Everybody knows who he is now and he’s kind of exposing the masses to dance music. These little five-, six- and seven-year-old kids latch on to this ‘mau5head’ logo — they get into the music and he’s bringing this tiny young generation into this music that probably wouldn’t be exposed to it.”
Gartner certainly doesn’t mind the exposure either. Unless you were living under a rock for the past six months, you probably heard one of this past summer’s hottest anthems, “Animal Rights,” a collaborative effort brought forth by deadmau5 and Gartner.
“It was interesting because I kind of had a preconceived notion about how he would be to work [with],” said Gartner. “I think our sounds are really similar, so I figured he would work in a similar way to me, but the way that he writes music is actually completely different to me. But he achieves kind of the same sound through a completely different process.”
Recorded in deadmau5′s favorite Los Angeles studio — that would be rocker Tommy Lee’s House — “Animal Rights” is a thumping progressive house anthem that melds Wolfgang’s unmistakable harmonics and funk riffs with the driving bass line and wobbly synths that make deadmau5 one of the unique forces in the dance music world.
“[Deadmau5] writes these rich complex chord progressions and he does it by drawing these little bars on a grid, which is just amazing that you can do that and get that result,” Gartner goes on to say. “It just proves you don’t have to be able to play keyboards to write amazing music.”
The two sound pioneers never cease to stop pushing the limits on what they are able to produce. Using drastically difference production approaches, deadmau5 and Gartner had the ability to play off each other’s strengths while recording the track.
“I’d say the biggest thing is that I play everything in on a keyboard, like even my drums,” says Gartner. “I play everything in live and he draws it in with notes on a mouse, which blew me away because his music is very musical.”
What do you think 2011 will hold for deadmau5 and Gartner? Let us know in the comments below!
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Album art from Pink Floyd, Blur and David Bowie also included.
By James Montgomery
Coldplay’s new British stamps
Photo: Royal Mail
On Thursday (January 7), the U.K.’s Royal Mail unveiled a series of 10 new stamps, honoring the most iconic album covers of the past 40 years.
The albums featured in the new series are the Rolling Stones‘ Let It Bleed, Led Zeppelin‘s IV, David Bowie‘s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Mike Oldfield‘s Tubular Bells, The Clash‘s London Calling, New Order‘s Power, Corruption and Lies, Primal Scream‘s Screamadelica, Pink Floyd‘s The Division Bell, Blur‘s Parklife and — the most recent album on to make the cut — Coldplay‘s A Rush of Blood to the Head.
Meant to honor “the most potent graphic images of modern times, many of which have provided a visual soundtrack to people’s lives,” the series is the end result of a lengthy research process by the Royal Mail, who looked through thousands of album covers by British artists before deciding on the final list. And, during a Wednesday night BBC Radio broadcast, it was revealed that the queen herself actually approved each design.
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page — who helped design the cover for IV — was on hand to celebrate the release of the stamps and recalled the mysterious nature of the album’s iconic imagery.
“Almost 40 years after the album came out, nobody knows the old man who featured on the cover, nor the artist who painted him,” he said. “That sort of sums up what we wanted to achieve with the album cover, which has remained both anonymous and enigmatic at the same time.”
Of course, any great honor is befitting of an equally great contest, so, on the same day the stamps were made available to the general public, Coldplay decided to give one of their Rush of Blood stamps away. In a message on their official site, the band held a contest to send one lucky fan “a letter using a Coldplay stamp, postmarked with today’s issue date.”
“We visited our local post office earlier today and bought some of the Coldplay stamps,” the message read. “Very nice they are too.”
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Matthew Perry needs a break from Hollywood.
Despite sources claiming he did not suffer any kind of relapse, actor Matthew Perry has released a statement that says he needs to work on his sobriety.
“I’m making plans to go away for a month to focus on my sobriety and to continue my life in recovery,” said the Mr. Sunshine star, who has battled a pain pill and alcohol addiction in the past. “Please enjoy making fun of me on the World Wide Web.”
No further details were released, but an insider says Perry will soon enter a treatment center. We wish him the best.
[Photo: WENN.com]
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Raising Sand, from Led Zeppelin vet and bluegrass superstar, wins five Grammys on Sunday night.
By James Montgomery with MTV News staff
Alison Krauss and Robert Plant accept the award for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards on Sunday
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images
“I’m bewildered,” Robert Plant said onstage as he accepted the Grammy Album of the Year award with Alison Krauss on Sunday night. “In the old days we would have called this selling out, but it’s a good way to spend a Sunday.”
He was probably one of the few who were surprised, because Raising Sand, which won five trophies at Sunday night’s show, is in many ways the perfect Grammy album. It features two respected veterans, a critically lauded producer, some sandpaper-and-velvet vocals and a baker’s dozen of time-tested standards.
You’re probably familiar with Robert Plant from his Led Zeppelin days, and you might be aware of producer T-Bone Burnett’s work on the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack (it won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2002). And if you don’t know who Alison Krauss is, she possesses a haunting set of pipes and is one of the meanest fiddle players in the world. Oh, and she’s won 21 Grammys, more than any other female artist and the seventh-most in history.
Really, she’s the key to Sand‘s success, and not just because of her voice (or her fiddle playing). She and Plant first met in 2004, at a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tribute to legendary bluesman Leadbelly, and the former Zeppelin man was amazed by her knowledge of American Roots music — so much so that they began kicking around the idea of recording an album together. Three years later, Sand was released.
And while Plant possesses the more famous voice, the album’s finest moments radiate from Krauss. Whether she’s getting bluesy on Little Milton’s “Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson” or entwining with Plant’s husky voice on songs like “Please Read the Letter” and Roly Salley’s winsome “Killing the Blues,” she more than carries her end of the bargain.
And perhaps that’s also due to producer Burnett, who handpicked the 13 songs the duo cover on Sand. His arrangements are sparse — giving the two voices ample room to breathe — yet dense, warm and crackling at the same time. It’s a testament to his work that he’s often given just as much billing as Plant and Krauss on the project … and it’s certainly justified.
To date, Sand has sold more than 1 million copies, heaped tons of acclaim and actually earned a Grammy last year — “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)” took home the award for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals.
One expert was surprised not by the album’s success, but by the fact that it’s actually quite a good album.
“At first, the album seemed like a vanity project. … Two names, clearly a one-off record, didn’t have to be any good, you know?” New York Times music critic Jon Caramanica said. “Led Zeppelin fans would buy it because of Robert Plant, Alison Krauss would get a check. But it actually turned out to be a really thoughtful, really good record. So when you combine all that with the fact that the Grammys love to lionize one of their own, I could really see it taking home some awards.”
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Singer cancels kick off date of European leg of his OMG Tour due to illness.
By Gil Kaufman
Usher (file)
Photo: Michael Caulfield/ WireImage
Usher was forced to delay the kick off of his European OMG Tour on Wednesday night in Berlin because of illness. In a statement released to fans, the singer apologized for the last-minute scratch, saying he felt he was suffering from a “sinus complication.” Although the gig was rescheduled for Thursday night at the O2 World arena in Berlin, his German fans apparently weren’t appeased by his effort.
“I am truly sorry to all my fans in Berlin who were inconvenienced by tonight’s postponement of the show,” the singer said in a statement about Wednesday’s aborted concert. “I was ill and felt that I would not have been able to give them the show that they properly deserve. … I am looking forward to performing tomorrow and giving Berliners a great show.”
According to the statement, the singer received treatment from doctors for a sinus issue that affected his balance, but a visibly still-ailing Usher was unable to finish the Thursday make-up show, reportedly abandoning the stage after just five songs.
On Friday (January 14), a follow-up statement from his spokesperson confirmed that he was too ill to play Thursday night’s Berlin date and has been forced to reschedule the next three dates on the tour as well. The Rotterdam show originally scheduled for this week has been moved to March 1 and a show in Antwerp, also slated for this week, has been bumped to March 7.
The statement also updated the singer’s condition: “Usher is suffering from upper respiratory illness, which is currently preventing him from performing a proper show. After consultation with doctors, he has been advised to reschedule the upcoming dates in order to get the rest he needs to ensure a complete recovery.”
Footage posted on YouTube that was purportedly taken at the make-up performance in Berlin shows Usher standing silently at the microphone seemingly unable to sing, with fans booing him at first and then chanting, “Usher, Usher,” as he approaches the microphone and apologizes to them for his struggles. “I appreciate your support,” he told the fans wearily.
“I have been very excited about my European Tour and I deeply regret having to reschedule the shows,” the singer said in the new statement. “I am truly sorry for any inconvenience I have caused my fans. My fans are the best in the world and I am looking forward to getting better so that I can give them the show they deserve.”
Usher wrapped up the North American leg of his tour in December and his overseas dates are slated to last through the spring.
What do you think of the fans’ reaction to Usher’s walking offstage mid-show? Tell us in the comments.
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Kicking his day off with a morning meeting, Jon Hamm was spotted out at a Los Angeles, CA office building on Wednesday (May 11).
The always-hunky ?Mad Men? star was all smiles as he sauntered to his vehicle, coffee in hand, upon finishing up the day-beginning work matters.
The sighting comes just as Jon readies for the May 13th release of his new movie ?Bridesmaids? – of which co-star Kristen Wiig recently chatted with MTV News about how he signed on to star in the upcoming comedic movie.
“I talked to him and sent him the script. We were like, ‘We’re not quite sure what your character is going to be yet, it’s not fully fleshed out yet,’ and he was such a trouper and signed on. And then we were like, ‘OK, now we’re doing a sex scene!’ ” Wiig said with a giggle.
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