Tag: "noel gallagher"

All month long you’ve been bombarded with year-end lists ranking the best albums of the year, songs of the year and the like. Here at Vs., however, we decided to give you a more unique year-end list; the year’s biggest music beefs. Feuding musicians is nothing new to rock and roll, but the advent of the Internet and sites like Twitter give artists an easy platform to take shots at each other—and we get to watch it all happen in real time. So without further ado, the music world’s biggest beefs of 2011:

4. Bon Iver vs. The Avalanches

This one all started back in February, when The New York Times held an interview with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. There was an unpublished excerpt in the interview regarding the GRAMMYs, where Vernon called them “ridiculous” and “not important,” and also slammed any artist who was hoping to win a GRAMMY. But after Bon Iver was nominated for four GRAMMY awards, the unpublished excerpts leaked online. Electronic group The Avalanches took offense to these comments, especially since Vernon is appearing in ads for Bushmills whiskey. The band said via Twitter, “a musicians ‘art is compromised’ if he/she desires a grammy .but endor$ing a product with proven devastating health risks is ok? a product which kills 100k p/a in the US alone..man kids look up to you. #rememberwhenitwascoolNOTtosellout.” While the Avalanches do bring up some good points about the dangers of alcohol and how Vernon’s appearance in the ads might possibly affect the younger members of his fan base, their comments about selling out seem a bit over dramatic. With record sales dwindling it’s become common practice for indie artists to license their music for advertisements in order to make a living. Artists like The Black Keys, Vampire Weekend and countless others have done so in recent years while maintaining their artistic integrity. Our advice to the Avalanches? Quit trying to pick fights with other bands and finish your second album already! We’ve only been waiting eleven years….

Continue reading ‘Vs: 2011′s Biggest Beefs’

• We’ll just agree to disagree, Black Keys, but only because your new album is so deliciously good.
• Noel’s definitely not-so-secretly seething that Foo Fighters isn’t opening for him.
• You’d think that Gene Simmons would have been happy to have gotten this much attention.
• Oops, guess we forgot to wear our cardigans and thick-rimmed glasses for Bon Iver day.
• It kind of looks like The Love Boat, except with less fornication.
• We’re betting that Matisyahu’s next facial hair project is an epic biker handlebar.
• Alan Braxe: “I just spilled some Kool Aid. I don’t know why everyone’s making a big deal out of this.”
• Why do we get the feeling that “truth” is a modern version of Grease?

You didn’t think RR&R would torture you with anything as tedious as another year-end Best-of list, did you? Granted, we do have a piece in the works that will inform you of some excellent albums you might have missed along the way, but that’s as close as we’re willing to get. Instead, this time around we’ll simply take stock of both the magic moments and the missteps that the last twelve months have brought us—works that delivered delight and dismay in equal measure.

Old Punks Never Die

Wire – Red Barked Tree

As the original post-punk outfit, Wire has always lived or died by how well they balanced their arty side with their edgy side. Their discography isn’t without its share of miscalculations in that area, but thirty-four years down the line from their debut album, this one is right on the money.

Gang of Four – Content

The Gang were right on the heels of Wire in first-gen U.K. post-punk, and were just as groundbreaking, but their twenty-first century revitalization has been marred by some dodgy moves. First they re-recorded a batch of their classics on 2005′s Return the Gift, and then they made matters worse with this irksome outing, which is considerably more annoying than the output of the worst third-hand Go4 copyists.

Social Distortion  - Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes

True survivors, old-school SoCal punks Social Distortion have been through every rock & roll tribulation—death, drugs, you name it (How did VH1′s Behind the Music miss these guys?)—but not only are they still going strong, they added some extra bluesy swing and Stonesy swagger to their latest.
Continue reading ‘Riffs, Rants & Rumors: 2011 in the Rearview Mirror’

• Biebs giving teenage girls everywhere a reason to want to become President of the United States.
• People expecting a documentary about Queen Elizabeth are going to be so disappointed.
• Chris Martin is really fitting into his role as the anti-Gallagher.
• Sorry to all those hoping for more hipster drama.
• Remember when we’d have to wait what seemed like eons for the next Radiohead release? Those were the days.
• Wait, so that wasn’t Florence Welch dressed up as Katy Perry hosting SNL? We’re so confused.
• You’ll forgive us if we don’t hold our breath for X Factor‘s chances for yet another season.
• It’ll be like American Idiot, but with less obnoxious pop-punk anthems.

• Santa Claus must be looking at his new rival with an eyebrow raised completely to the ceiling.
• M83 is really giving Kenny G too much hope of a sax revival.
• Even now, Michael J. Fox plays guitar better than most. Whoa, that’s heavy.
• We all know the only reason Noel Gallagher isn’t involved is because he wasn’t offered the part of James Bond.
• We can already see all the teenyboppers scrambling to book their closest churchs for their Twilight weddings.
• Placebo needs to take some of their own medicine and get back to working on their next album already.
• Leonard Cohen’s got no new ideas.
• Nice one, Roots.

• Not sure what makes the indie world angrier: Siamese Dream or Billy Corgan’s duckface.
• The Boss is back. Look busy.
• We’re guessing that the Supreme Audiovisual Council of France didn’t like the video for “Baby Got Back” either.
• For once, we agree with will.i.am – none of us wanted this.
• Blake Shelton sleeping through an awards show where he was a winner kind of tells you how exciting the AMA’s are.
• If this project derails into a contest of who can look sillier, we won’t be surprised.
• With hair like that, we sure hope Nicki Minaj’s ideas are, uh… beyond ordinary.
• Honestly, Beyonce, we’re still not sure.
• Sorry, diehard Oasis fans, we have some bad news for you. But we do have some good news for people who revel in the Gallagher family drama.
• Pre-Jonny Radiohead material is like turquoise-colored ice cream. You don’t know if you’ll like it, but it’s so strange-looking that you’ve gotta try it.

• We wonder how Kurt Cobain would react to hearing the Muppets’ a capella version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
• Way to broaden your horizons, Alex Turner.
• Not so fast, looks like the Biebs may still be the baby daddy after all.
• WTF Gallagher headline of the day: Noel is upset his phone wasn’t hacked.
• Google’s next obvious step towards world domination.
• A supergroup with Amy Winehouse and ?uestlove!? If only.
• Apparently being a female touring musician isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

• Axl Rose’s solution: blame the guy who isn’t in the band anymore.
• And who said that political movements couldn’t be lucrative?
• For German dudes, Rammstein sure tan well.
• RHCP: “We aren’t changing for you, you’re changing for us.”
• And a new music superpower was born.
• For anybody who can’t get enough 11 in their lives.
• Noel’s not desperate, unless it’s for cash.
• We’re sad too, Peter. We’re sad too.
• Nadine’s obviously too cool for Girls Aloud.