MusicNewsTidBits.com

I can’t tell you how much Siouxsie has influenced my life.  How many times she made me feel good and evil at the same time.  See one of her great performances singing one of her greatest songs, Israel.  I even did an art project using the lyrics of this song back in high school. And YES, that is Robert Smith of the Cure on guitar. Remember the Cure had broken up and he filled in for them.

I don’t even like commenting on this but Metallica has launched a “limited edition iPod interactive jacket.” Um . . .yaaa.  Metallica teamed up with Sessions on this jacket that has a built-in pair of speakers, an amplifier and illuminated control pad on the outer sleeve.  Your iPod or iPhone plugs in and is safely tucked away in a waterproof compartment.  Oh and the jacket also has Metallica graphics including the Death Magnetic photo inside the liner and the M4 logo.  And if that wasn’t enough you can put the hood up for added bass.  The jacket is limited to 800 and will be coming out this Autumn.  You can make reservations at Metallicas MetStore until June 8th but you have to give them 50% of the whopping $330 price tag.   I don’t know about you but the metal heads I know wouldn’t even have $3.30 to spend on this.

Turntablist extraordinaire DJ Qbert has launched the first ever video-based online DJ School.  It’s called QSU or Qbert Scratch University and the courses go from cutting techniques to “battle” strategies when in competition.  Qbert has partnered with ArtisWorks, which is a company that develops internet-based businesses for musicians.  Qbert says “It’s cool that scratching has so many fans around the world and we can all be in one place now and learn from each other no matter where we live.”  Check out the video:

Ok, I have an update.  Turns out the poem that we thought was good ol’ 16 year old Bob Dylan titled “Little Buddy” wasn’t written by him.  It was actually a revised version of lyrics of a Hank Snow song.  Oh well, it’s still going up for auction and will still sell for the reported $15,000.

I finally got to see them last November and I have to say it was one of the best shows I have ever seen. This is one of my favorite songs – The Wait

This is sort of music news considering the consultants on this movie are some heavy hitters in the Bay Area music scene.  A movie called ‘Weight’ is coming out based on the life story of one of Oaklands youngest drug kingpin Darryl “Lil’ D” Reed who was in control of the local drug trade in the late 80′s.  Damn, by the time he was 18 he was making millions and by 21 he was facing a pretty large prison sentence on federal drug dealing charges.  Well Too $hort, E-40 and MC Hammer have been consulting on the making of this film to keep the “authenticity of the project.”  The film doesn’t have a director yet but its due out in the Spring/Summer of 2010.

The Cool Kids are giving out a free 21 track mixtape titled ‘Gone Fishin’ and you can get it over here:

http://coolxkids.com

If you haven’t worked with these types of downloads just hit the RAR download and when it opens up, put in the 4 letter code in the top right and hit ‘download file.’  Another ad window will pop up but just get rid of it.  Save it to your desktop or wherever and open it with a program that unzips files.

The auction house Christies has a piece of history for sale.  That’s right, a two-page poem written by Bobby Zimmerman, or as we know him, Bob Dylan.  Titled “Little Buddy” it was written in the mid 50′s for ‘The Herzl Herald’ which was the newspaper of Northwestern Wisconsin’s Herzl Camp where he was a little camper. Apparently it’s about a little dog who is killed by a drunk guy.  It’s on sale until June 23rd and if you have about $10,000 – $15,000 you can own it.  But you can read it here if you don’t

Broken hearted and so sad
Big blue eyes all covered with tears
Was a picture of sorrow to see

Kneeling close to the side
Of his pal and only pride
A little lad, these words he told me

He was such a lovely doggy
And to me he was such fun
But today as we played by the way

A drunken man got mad at him
Because he barked in joy
He beat him and he’s dying here today

Will you call the doctor please
And tell him if he comes right now
He’ll save my precious doggy here he lay

Then he left the fluffy head
But his little dog was dead
Just a shiver and he slowly passed away

He didn’t know his dog had died
So I told him as he cried
Come with me son we’ll get that doctor right away

But when I returned
He had his little pal upon his knee
And the teardrops, they were blinding his big blue eyes

Your too late sir my doggy’s dead
And no one can save him now
But I’ll meet my precious buddy up in the sky

By a tiny narrow grave
Where the willows sadly wave
Are the words so clear you’re sure to find

Little Buddy Rest In Peace
God Will Watch You Thru The Years
Cause I Told You In My Dreams That You
Were Mine

Good ol’ Coldplay is givin up a free live album called LeftRightLeftRightLeft. Get it here

LeftRightLeftRightLeft

Joan Jett is releasing a pretty cool package vinyl reissue for ‘I Love Rock N’ Roll.’  The package includes the vinyl, a Blackheart Record’s Tote Bag and an I Love Rock N’ Roll T-Shirt with the infamous photo of herself.  The men’s package is $35 and the womens is $40.  Get it here: