All 13 songs from the self-titled album by Them Crooked Vultures are now streaming online. You may listen here in anticipation of the release -- on Nov. 16 in the United Kingdom, on Nov. 17 in the United States, and on other dates in other countries. Until then, don't forget to pre-order!
Uncut published an interesting take on the music earlier today.
Led Zeppelin fans have criticized Robert Plant for his willingness to sing Led Zeppelin songs during his concert appearances, particularly when new and foreign-sounding arrangements are applied. (Check out the comments section from this post two months ago or this one from only a few weeks ago for two examples.)
We'll see what the reaction is to this.
Last week, Plant dipped into his past but not Led Zeppelin's. He did this by sitting in with Francis Dunnery, who was one of Plant's guitarists on his 1993 solo album, Fate of Nations, and his subsequent tour.
Here's Dunnery, in a LedZeppelinNews.com interview conducted this year, on his work with Plant in the '90s:
Dunnery has been on a U.K. tour supporting his new 2-CD set, There’s a Whole New World Out There, which looks back on his own career by remaking several of the hits with which he's been affiliated -- one of those being Plant's own "Calling to You."
Most other songs on Dunnery's album are re-recordings of tracks he originally performed with his '80s band, It Bites. That band, incidentally, now exists in reunited form albeit without Dunnery, who was its original singer and lead guitarist, having replaced him with a fan.
Dunnery evidently has no problem performing those songs. As for his fans? They dig it! In Australia and New Zealand, for instance, Dunnery will be going on a house concert tour, and two of the shows are already sold out.
Back to my original point: Dunnery's onstage guest on Friday night the final show of his tour, at the Walls Restaurant in Oswestry, was Plant. They ran through a straightforward rendition of "Calling to You," as seen below.
Plant was all smiles as he heard Dunnery's band start up the song, especially when Brett Kull came in with a second guitar harmony that was on the original.
He commanded the first verse on his own, sounding just like he did 16 years ago, when that album was released. But when he missed the cue to enter for the second verse, everybody else who had a microphone stepped in and unfortunately started drowning out Plant.
At other times, it was clear Plant was looking to others for some help with the vocal cues -- and perhaps even the lyrics -- to a song whose arrangement really hadn't changed much. It was evident Plant was a little out of practice on the song, even though it was something he performed with the Strange Sensation as recently as in 2007.
As the song went on and there were no more cues to miss, Plant comfortably began adding vocals wherever possible including throughout instrumental sections.
Keyboardist Tom Brislin soloed, creating a synthesized approximation of Nigel Kennedy's violin on the original and "progging it up" a bit. The sound must have reminded Plant immediately of somebody like Keith Emerson or Patrick Moraz because he immediately misquoted a Yes lyric from "Roundabout," offering, "Mountains come out of the sea and just stand there."
Then, to Dunnery's apparent delight, Plant launched into an impromptu monologue on progressive rock artists he's known professionally, telling a joke about where one Jethro Tull drummer once shoved Ian Anderson's flute. Hmmmm.
On top of Dunnery's echoing guitar effect, Plant ended up vamping on a "When the Levee Breaks" reference, shortened to adapt to a 5/4 time signature: "Mean old levee taught me to weep, mean old levee taught me to weep ..." It sounded great!
So, let me ask all the Led Zeppelin fans out there who think Plant isn't allowed to sing Led Zeppelin songs anymore since he doesn't want to reunite Led Zeppelin a few questions, just to determine the guidelines of acceptability:
Last year, Steven Tyler was rumored to be rehearsing with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham. He was rumored to be one of the singers auditioning for a spot in the touring band that would have emerged, which the press insisted on incorrectly calling Led Zeppelin.
The only singer who has confirmed he was a part of rehearsals last year for this non-Led Zeppelin band is Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge. Because the press insisted the resulting band would have been called Led Zeppelin, it was widely reported that either Kennedy was chief among singers being considered taking Robert Plant's place in Led Zeppelin.
Now, one blogger wants things to come full circle. Daniel Wilcox of 411mania.com says Aerosmith may be in shambles, with the band unsure whether or not Tyler has walked out on their touring commitments. Wilcox thinks Plant ought to volunteer to sing for Aerosmith. Of course, when he said that, he was kidding -- only about as serious as when he suggested Courtney Love ought to fill the same vacancy.
Wilcox finished up, though, with another suggestion, one he says he honestly means: Myles Kennedy. Check out his reasoning, among other things.
In the meantime, another blog has published a rather comprehensive look back at the album Led Zeppelin II, 40 years after its release.
Earlier this week was 40 years since a Led Zeppelin concert in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, and Zeppelin fan Brian Gardiner marked the anniversary of the '69 show in his town with a trip to the library, which resulted in an informative piece on Zep's visit to the Canadian hamlet with a population of 100,000 at the time.
Jason Bonham, whose newly launched official Web site contains several videos from the celebrated drummer's career, has just yesterday uploaded a brand-new video from one of his concerts last week in California.
Bonham had five dates scheduled this month, billing shows as "An Evening with Jason Bonham." During shows, his band has been playing songs from his own past as well as from that of his father, the late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.
One song from Jason Bonham's own past is one that required a spoken introduction from the man behind the drum kit. Bonham spoke up before performing "Like I've Never Been Gone," a song from Robert Plant's first solo album in 1982, to tell a story about his own life and how he came to be involved in Plant's post-Zeppelin career in those days.
To set the scene, the 44-year-old describes the setting as "a period in my life which was a bit -- quite sad, really."
I was 14 years old and had just lost my father and really didn't know what to be doing in life, but Mr. Plant came along, picked me up from school one day. He said, "Would you like to come and jam?"
So I did, and we went to his house, and Robert was working on the first solo album, Pictures at Eleven. And this, to me -- I did all those demos, by the way, before Phil Collins came along, ...
It was a great moment, and it was a great time where I could just forget about that Dad had gone and just be playing music. It really helped me through it. This song means a lot to me. It's called "Like I've Never Been Gone."
Davis Guggenheim, the director of "It Might Get Loud," has just contributed a Q&A with Billboard.biz. (At first, the site incorrectly listed his first name as "David.")
In the interview, Guggenheim plugs the upcoming DVD and Blu-Ray releases of his film documentary that centers on guitarists Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White. But he also discusses an online release of the film by iTunes.
The iTunes download of the movie is currently scheduled for Dec. 8, two weeks earlier than the physical releases on DVD and Blu-Ray on Dec. 22.
Yukari Iwatani Kane of the Wall Street Journal's Digits blog reports this is part of a new iTunes focus on "Music Movies" -- "music documentaries, concert films, musicals and other music-related content."
"As part of the new iTunes feature, Apple has signed two deals to distribute music movies exclusively for a limited period ahead of their release through other outlets. The first is a new concert film, 'Kings of Leon, Live at the O2,' featuring the rock band. It will be offered a week before other outlets on Nov. 3. The other is Davis Guggenheim's music documentary 'It Might Get Loud' about the history of the electric guitar, focusing on Jimmy Page, the Edge and Jack White. That will be available first on iTunes on Dec. 8, ahead of its wider distribution on Dec. 22."From the interview:
WSJ: How did this partnership with iTunes come about?Guggenheim also spoke with the L.A. Times blog Pop & Hiss about the upcoming release of "It Might Get Loud" on iTunes. The resulting piece says:
Guggenheim: We all felt like this was the kind of movie that is perfect for iTunes. I'm sort of suspicious of the fads, but when you can imagine that at ten o'clock on a Friday night, wanting to see a certain movie, specifically a rock and roll movie, you're sort of following the instinct that you might have had in the '70s in Greenwich Village, when you could walk out and go find films like this. After you watch the movie you might say, "I'm going to download that song by Jimmy Page." If you were a music lover, you follow these paths.
"Guggenheim spoke fondly of mom-and-pop record stores, but added, 'there's no music store that can have everything that iTunes has.' ... 'To me, iTunes is my own mom-and-pop,' Guggenheim said. 'That sounds counter-intuitive, but it actually is.'"Addressing the quality of a downloaded movie, Guggenheim posits in the Billboard.biz Q&A:
"I used to assume the quality was terrible. And for a while it was. But I downloaded 'The Sting' the other night and I couldn't tell the difference between that and a DVD. I think the quality issue is gone."As for the convenience of a downloaded movie, the director tells Billboard.biz:
"It's perfect. If you're just a guy out there that loves movies, rock and roll music, and rock documentaries, you've seen all the music and movie venues disappear. The local music store, the local art house theater ... they're gone. That's the bad news. The good news is now there's a home for documentaries and music movies, and you don't even have to leave your home."
Yet the loss of the local music store is exactly what some people are mourning."It's all too easy now to order CDs from the likes of Amazon and download songs from iTunes. This is all well and good but the download generation, which includes my own children, will never experience the excited buzz of a Saturday morning trawling the record shops in search of the latest singles and albums.
"The whole interaction of the buying and selling of records created a social network long before the emergence of the internet generated My Space and Facebook sites and one whereby we actually talked to each other face to face as we shared our passion for our favourite artists.
"I am sure I am not the only one whose record collection inspires fond memories of many hours spent in the likes of Carousel, Harlequin Records, Carlow's, Andy's, MVC, Our Price etc."
Head over to iTunes by Monday, Nov. 9, to get your free download of "Mind Eraser, No Chaser" by Them Crooked Vultures. The track is four minutes and seven seconds long.
The single "New Fang" is already available on iTunes at a download price of $1.29.
The band releases its first full-length album on Nov. 17 in the United States. Until then, LedZeppelinNews.com is offering a rundown of the 13 cuts that will appear on the CD.
The iTunes version of the album includes two bonus tracks, live versions of "No One Loves Me & Neither Do I" and "Gunman."
A Classic Rock magazine panel of judges has voted to honor the late John Bonham with this year's Tommy Vance Inspiration Award.
On hand at London's Park Lane Hotel to receive the posthumous honor last night were the drummer's mother, Joan Bonham, and his sister, Deborah Bonham.
The award was sponsored by Rhino Records.
Other winners in the 2009 Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards include singer Iggy Pop, who was named a "Living Legend"; Ronnie Wood, who received the Outstanding Contribution award; and Ginger Baker, who received the Innovator award.
The presenters and guests in attendance included guitarists Pete Townshend, Jeff Beck, Brian May, Slash, Joe Perry and Billy Gibbons, plus singer Chrissie Hynde. (Update: To add to this, photographer Ross Halfin says Jimmy Page was there, along with Tommy Iommi, Mick Ralphs and Joe Bonamassa in addition to the aforementioned guitarists.)
At the ceremony two years ago, it was Jimmy Page who was named a Living Legend. For that 2007 ceremony, Robert Plant contributed a video tribute to him, which can be seen below.
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