I have a friend that's a religious right wing nut job. He didn't believe Saturday's end of the world prophecy but he does believe Obama is the Anti-Christ and that the tornadoes we've been having this spring are a sign of the "end times".

I wasn't there, it's an article from the No Depression website.

From RollingStone.com: Mick Jagger and Dave Stewart in Beverly Hills, January 16, 2005. Vince Bucci/Getty Images By ANDY GREENE For the first time since the Rolling Stones formed nearly 50 years ago, Mick Jagger is part of a new band: Super Heavy – featuring Dave Stewart, Joss Stone, Damian Marley and Indian film composer A.R. Rahman. The band has quietly been recording together over the past 18 months, with their debut LP planned for sometime around September. "It's different from anything else I've ever been involved in," Jagger tells Rolling Stone. "The music is very wide-ranging – from reggae to ballads to Indian songs in Urdu." The group got its start two years ago when Dave Stewart called Jagger from his home in Jamaica. "I live in Lime Hall right above St. Ann's Bay," says Stewart. "It's kind of the jungle, and sometimes I'd hear three sound systems all playing different things. I always love that, along with Indian orchestras. I said to Mick, ‘How could we make a fusion?' We were talking about an experiment, and then we started talking about voices. It was all born from that conversation." Jagger loved the idea, and after lots of brainstorming and phone calls around the world, they settled on Stone, A.R. Rahman and Marley - whose rhythm section helped flesh out the band. "We wanted a convergence of different musical styles," says Jagger. "We were always overlapping styles, but they were nevertheless separate." About 18 months ago, the band gathered in a Los Angeles studio. None of them had prepared any music. "We didn't know what the hell we were doing," says Stewart. "We were just jamming and making a noise. It was like when a band first starts up in your garage. Sometimes Damien would kick it off and then Joss would sing something on top of it. We might have a 22 minute jam, and it would become a six minute song." The loose method was inspiring for Jagger. "One of the beauties is that, just speaking as a vocalist, I did other things," Jagger says. "I played guitar and harmonica, but there's four vocalist on the album. Not everything was reliant on me.” The band’s name came from some improvised vocals by Marley. "He was just singing 'Heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy, super heavy,'" says Stewart. "We thought that sounded good and it sort of stuck with us." Jagger is confident that Stones fans will embrace the group. "It is a different kind of record that what people would expect," he says. "It's not all weird and strange though. I think Stones fans will think it's a bit odd, but they'll find most of it accessible. They've heard me play harmonica before and a lot of it is pretty high energy." As of now, there are no plans to bring Super Heavy on the road. "We're experimenting at the moment and just taking it day by day," says Stewart. "I think if we're rehearsing and it sounds great and people love the idea then nobody would rule out the possibility of it." Might Jagger's other group be hitting the road at some point in the future? In an interview with USA Today, Keith Richards said he was optimistic. "Something's blowing in the wind," he said. "The idea's there. We kind of know we should do it, but nobody's put their finger on the moment yet. This is what we want to ask each other: Do we want to go out in a blaze of glory? We can, if Mick and Charlie feel like I do, that we can still turn people on. We don't have to prove nothing anymore. I just love playing, and I miss the crowd." When asked if the Stones are going to tour next year, Jagger just chuckles. "I don't have any announcement to make at the moment," he says. "I'm just, uh, ya know...just doing this right now."

From NoDepression.com: by Kim Ruehl As luck would have it, I'm in New York City this week for a number of reasons. But, today, it just so happened that the Americana Music Association was holding an event at the Gibson Showroom uptown, just west of the south end of Central Park, to announce the nominees for its 2011 Americana Music Awards. The event was really fantastic. In case you didn't have a chance to watch the live stream (which Kyla posted here earlier), it was just a small gathering of industry folks in a recording studio uptown. T Bone Burnett swung by to accept an overdo award. Levon Helm sat in with an all-star band of past Americana Music Award winners. Benmont Tench accompanied on piano, Jim Lauderdale did some tunes on guitar, and Rosanne Cash delivered a terrific rendition of "Long Black Veil" from her 2010 AMA Award-Winning album The List. The Civil Wars were also on hand to play a song, although I was running late and unfortunately arrived just as they were finishing up. Then, all the artists got together to perform "The Weight." This was, no doubt, the most incredible moment of the event, with Helm dropping his natural soul on one of the verses, before handing the next one to Cash. Once the nominees were announced, everyone gathered for cornbread and drinks in the control room, while the artists posed for a photo op. In all, a wonderful kickoff event to what will, no doubt, be an even more memorable week this fall in Nashville. The 2011 Americana Music Honors & Awards will be handed out during the Americana Music Festival and Conference this Oct. 12-15 in Nashville Tenn. For more information, visit the AMA Website. Now, without further ado, this year's nominees: ALBUM OF THE YEAR Band of Joy Robert Plant Welder Elizabeth Cook Harlem River Blues Justin Townes Earle Blessed Lucinda Williams ARTIST OF THE YEAR Buddy Miller Elizabeth Cook Hayes Carll Robert Plant NEW/EMERGING ARTIST OF THE YEAR The Civil Wars Mumford & Sons Secret Sisters Jessica Lea Mayfield SONG OF THE YEAR "Down by the Water" - The Decemberists "El Camino" - Elizabeth Cook "KMAG YOYO" - Hayes Carll "Harlem River Blues" - Justin Townes Earle INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR Buddy Miller Gurf Morlix Kenny Vaughan Sarah Jarosz Will Kimbrough DUO/GROUP OF THE YEAR The Avett Brothers The Civil Wars Mumford & Sons Robert Plant & the Band of Joy

Saw these guys perform at Music In the Park during Artsplosure in Raleigh, NC yesterday. Can't say I was ever a fan of theirs back in the day but they certainly brought it last night. This is a fan shot video from 2008 of the version of the band I saw last night:

If this does come to pass I also hope he sees fit to release new music on vinyl and/or CD. I find it particularly odd that he would go the download route when he was one of the most outspoken opponents of making Zeppelin's music available via iTunes.

...and the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aACFbC5dF7w

http://youtu.be/C3-YuGEW59c

I'm be starting a thread in the Polls section on how long it takes before this thread is locked. Please, no wagering this is an exhibition not a competition.

Sometimes that may have something to do with it. I know that lots of folks think the flame cover of Skynyrd's Street Survivors is worth a lot of money and in some cases it is. Prior to eBay where you could drive the bids up, it was worth $35 at most and that was a copy that was in mint condition. I was listening to a radio show a few years ago when they had a memorabilia expert on and he said that copies of Street Survivors on 8-track are actually worth more since vinyl copies are much easier to come by because so many were pressed up on vinyl.

Goes to show you that even something you'd think would be considered a collector's item doesn't even bring that much. Now, if I were to sell it on eBay that would be a different story but I don't plan on parting with it.

I found it in the used section of Schoolkids Records in Raleigh a few years ago. It was only $2-3. They have a copy of Alice Cooper's Muscle of Love on vinyl on sale for something like $15 that's also completely intact. For some reason I threw away the cardboard packaging my original copy came in many years ago. It also comes with a poster I'd totally forgotten about.

"Because the Night" was a co-write by Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen.

I imagine several people kept the rolling paper, if only has a collector's item:

Yes, they can. It's called having an opinion.

Not necessarily true. Gillian Welch, who hasn't released an album in 8 years has managed to keep it a secret that she's releasing a new album on June 28th. It would still be a secret had it not been reported on NPR's website in relation to a story about a listening party they conducted for new music. Goes to show that even in the age of the Interwebz that you can still keep such projects under wraps.

I've heard quite a bit of it but have yet to buy it. Still need to pick that one up as well as the latest from Steve Earle, Emmylou and The Baseball Project. Cool interview with Cooley here despite the fact that the interviewer is completely fucking clueless:

I've noticed that when some people are huge fans of a band or artist, they never think they get enough love even when the band in question is as popular as Queen. I think it's a case of not being able to see the forest for the trees.

From RollingStone.com: Pete Townshend Will Finally Deliver His Memoir Next Year The Who guitarist plans release the book in fall 2012, after 15 years of work Elsa/Getty Images By ANDY GREENE Pete Townshend's long-awaited memoir Who He? is finally going to see the light of day. The Who guitarist has inked a deal with Harper Collins to release the book, which the publisher says will hit shelves in the fall of 2012. “In the 1970s, Pete Townshend famously asked the musical question ‘Who are you?’” Harper Collins executive editor David Hirshey said in a statement. “Now, in his autobiography, generations of fans will finally get the answer they’ve been waiting for.” Townshend began working on his autobiography in the mid-1990s. When he was cautioned by the British Police in 2003 for accessing child pornography on the Internet, Townshend explained that he was researching material for the book. "I have been writing my childhood autobiography for the past seven years," he said in a written statement. "I believe I was sexually abused between the age of five and six and a half when in the care of my maternal grandmother who was mentally ill at the time. I cannot remember clearly what happened, but my creative work tends to throw up nasty shadows - particularly in Tommy. Some of the things I have seen on the net have informed my book which I hope will be published later this year." There was no further word about the book at the time, but four years later Townshend began a blog with plans of posting segments of it online. "The backbone is complete, all the research is in place," Townshend wrote. "And yet, because my creative and professional life is still so active, I feel I will never catch up with the present unless I retire simply to write. To retire, simply to write, when I am already a writer, presents a contradiction. So rather than endlessly write, I am going to publish." He published a fascinating account of the day that the Who previewed Tommy for critics in 1969 at a London jazz club, but soon afterwards he shut the site down with little explanation. In September of 2008 he wrote on his website that the book was "on ice." There's been little word on it since. The Who have been off the road since they toured Australia in 2009. Last year they played halftime at the Super Bowl, as well as staging Quadrophenia for charity at the Royal Albert Hall. Roger Daltrey expressed interest in bringing that show - as well as Tommy - on a world tour this year. A few weeks ago, the Who frontman announced an extensive solo tour where he'll play Tommy straight though. What exactly that means for the future of the Who remains unclear. One year ago, Townshend expressed a reluctance to return to the road. "I’m tired of touring at the moment, and I’m writing," he said. "So there are no plans right now." In that same interview, a fan asked Townshend about touring Tommy in 2019 to celebrate the album's 50th anniversary. "If we wait until 2019 one thing I can assure you: I will not be on stage," he wrote. "I will either be composing or decomposing."

From RollingStone.com: Exclusive: Hear Neil Young's Unreleased Country-Rock Gem 'Amber Jean' Gorgeous 1984 tune will be featured on Young's new archival disc, 'A Treasure' Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images By ANDY GREENE Click here to listen to Neil Young's "Amber Jean" In the early Eighties Neil Young moved from genre to genre at a frantic pace – jumping from vocoder-infused New Wave to rockabilly to country in just a few short years. In 1984 and 1985 he toured with the country group the International Harvesters, playing a large number of songs that never found their way onto albums. On June 14th he's finally releasing some of this material on the archival live disc A Treasure. The set contains 12 tracks drawn from various shows on those tours, including five that have never been released. Check out a stream of "Amber Jean," a tribute to Young's daughter Amber that he began playing in concert just weeks after she was born. Young just wrapped up his year-long Twisted Road American theater tour, and next month he's hitting the road with Buffalo Springfield for their first tour since 1968. He's supposedly working on the second volume of his massive Neil Young Archives box set, but when it's actually going to come out is anyone's guess. He tends to take his time on these things.

I wouldn't get my hopes up for an 02 DVD just yet as it still hasn't been made official. And by "official" I mean an actual press release.