Norfolk, Va. police sure picked a belated time to come to the realization that hip-hop artists occasionally use four-letter words. During his set with the funk band Galactic at the Bayou Boogaloo & Cajun Food Festival in Norfolk on June 21, the Bay Area-based rapper Boots Riley of the Coup came under fire for the obscure charge of “abusive language,” under a law that the city hasn’t invoked in 26 years, and never against a performer.
Shawties, don’t go to the club tonight. According to a press release from Live Nation, tonight’s T.I. show is cancelled.
The only thing stranger than Boy George’s planned concert for the City of New York Department of Sanitation’s annual Family Day on Aug. 17 is the latest bit of info that he won’t be coming to the States after all. Boy George, who wanted to perform for the department in gratitude for “the kindness shown to him during his community service with them in 2006,” has been denied permission to enter the U.S. This means his U.S. tour is scrapped too. A representative from the U.S. State Department declined to comment, stating that it is against policy to talk about individual visa cases.
Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme had some disappointingly ironic timing in unleashing one of the most spectacularly offensive dressing-downs of a fan I’ve ever seen. At Oslo’s Norwegian Wood festival Friday, a feverish and justifiably peeved Homme called out a young audience member for chucking a bottle at him during a performance of Queens’ song “3’s and 7’s.” But what followed was a diatribe that demolished all boundaries of taste (the kid didn’t seem to mind, though, as he tossed devil horns and grinned the whole time he was being escorted out).
The rant is deeply un-postable on a family music blog (though it’s easy to find on YouTube if you search for “Josh Homme” and “Norwegian Wood”), but highlights include repeated use of the word “faggot” coupled with an odd threat from Homme to have forcible sex with the male fan in front of his friends. Whether he was right or wrong to stop the show and yell at the kid is one thing, but does this disgusting meltdown mean one should re-think their QOTSA fandom?
Pop music is certainly not immune from blatant homophobia, and Homme was admittedly in a volatile spot after the bottle altercation. But still, when an artist says something this ugly, even in a heated onstage fight, should fans still support them afterward? If Homme had used other minority epithets, like ones used to slur African Americans or Latinos, he’d likely never be able to make another major label record. Homophobia seems to be the last bastion of socially acceptable (or at least less socially punishable) discrimination and hate speech, and whatever Homme’s personal thoughts on homosexuality are, this kind of casual ugliness and gross machismo only reinforces the double-standard in using particular epithets. Are some slurs just more career-ending than others?
– August Brown
Photo by Spencer Weiner/Los Angeles Times
R&B superstar R. Kelly may be still “Trapped in the Closet,” but he is no longer trapped in the courtroom. A Cook County, Illinois, jury today acquitted him of child pornography charges, ending a high-profile trial that involved a caterpillar-shaped mole but, regrettably, no midgets.
For the full lowdown from the Chicago Tribune, click here.
So what do we think? Was justice served? Leave your comments below.
– Margaret Wappler
Photo of R. Kelly waving to fans today after leaving the Cook County Criminal Court Building by M. Spencer Green / Associated Press
Curiosity has been running high in Korn Nation about the nature of singer Jonathan Davis’ solo album, but here’s a twist that fans of the L.A.-based metal monolith might not have anticipated: Davis will do some tryout work in the studio with English producer Guy Sigsworth, who’s made his name working with artists of a distinctly different temperament and gender — notably Björk, Imogen Heap (he was her bandmate in the group Frou Frou), Britney Spears and, most recently, Alanis Morissette.
Davis’ reps say nothing is confirmed, but Sigsworth says Davis called and proposed a session in L.A. “It felt so right because it was so completely, utterly unlike everything else I’ve worked on,” says the producer, who stresses that it’s strictly an exploratory get-together that might or might not click.
Did Davis give any clues about his musical goals?
“He was saying to me that he wanted to sort of crash together the madder bits of Frank Zappa with the madder bits of Peter Gabriel. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s a good starting place, let’s see what happens.’ It has to be worth a shot, doesn’t it? I’d love it if it pans out.”
When Sigsworth comes to L.A. to brainstorm with Davis this month, he’ll also spend time in the studio with Spears. He’s produced three songs for her, including the 2004 hit “Everytime.”
“It’s weird to think I’m doing him and Britney at the same time,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll try to persuade them to do a duet together. That might be pushing it too far.”
Please, Guy, push it. That’s something the world needs to hear.
— Richard Cromelin
Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler checked himself into an unidentified rehab facility earlier this month to recover from recent foot surgery. A spokeswoman for Tyler said the surgery was done “to correct longtime foot injuries resulting from his … athletic stage performances.”
Tyler checked himself, but his spokeswoman said, “I have no further information available” on the nature of the rehabilitation. No further word on whether it is for physical treatment for the foot itself or substance-related due to medications used in the course of the surgery and post-surgery.
“The doctors told me the pain in my feet could be corrected but it would require a few surgeries over time,” Tyler said in a statement issued today. “The ‘foot repair’ pain was intense, greater than I’d anticipated. The months of rehabilitative care and the painful strain of physical therapy were traumatic.
“I really needed a safe environment to recuperate where I could shut off my phone and get back on my feet,” Tyler’s statement continued. “Make no mistake, Aerosmith has no plans to stop rocking. There’s a new album to record, then another tour.”
– Randy Lewis
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Veronica, Alison, get thee to the El Rey tonight: Rumor has it that your favorite bespectacled Catholic (lapsed?) will be playing a secret show after his turn tonight at the Hollywood Bowl. We confess we know no more than that but a phone call to the El Rey revealed someone rehearsing in the background, though there is nary a name on the official schedule for tonight.
–Margaret Wappler
Photo by Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times
For all you wannabe Mo Tuckers, Cindy Blackmans and Susie Ibarras out there, your time has come. The electrofunk duo Chromeo is looking for a lady drummer to perform “Fancy Footwork” with them on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on June 17. What are the requirements? According to the call out sent by a band representative, you need to be in the studio “roughly 2pm to 8pm” and you need to be down for “some costuming and movement + snare drum playing.” Oh, and you “don’t need to be Sheila E. or anything.” Sounds like an easy way to make $308 to me. To be considered, contact Mac Burrus from “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” at jklmusic@gmail.com.
– Margaret Wappler
Photo by May Truong
Dance party on Sunset Boulevard — alert the authorities.
Brooklyn eight-piece !!! (Chk Chk Chk) will be announced as a Sunday headliner for the Sunset Junction Street Festival, sources say. The two-day, three-stage fair — with carnival rides, food booths and plenty of toasty pavement — goes off Aug. 23-24 in Silver Lake.
Isaac Hayes and Stephanie Mills will join the party too — along with the likes of Langhorne Slim, Menomena and Health. Previously confirmed for the festival were Cold War Kids and Broken Social Scene on Saturday night, and Sister Nancy, Kinky and the Black Keys on Sunday night, as well as a reunion of psych-rockers Beachwood Sparks.
The Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra will be headlining the Sanborn Stage on Saturday night.
The annual steamy shindig always offers a pretty decent barometer of the local scene too, with SoCal bands occupying the afternoon and early-evening slots on the rock-oriented Bates Stage. This year’s no different — besides ascendant noise-rock outfit Health, the Happy Hollows, Radars to the Sky, the Henry Clay People and Gram Rabbit are a handful of the locals said to be playing the festival. Stay tuned for more.
The schedule so far is posted here.
– Kevin Bronson
Photo/collage of !!! courtesy of Warp Records
