2008 Will Be a Great Year for Rock

The Led Zeppelin show was not that important musically, but it has compelled the media and in my case, a classic rock fan -- the target audience. A lot of the music business must be eagerly awaiting its "implications" and I hope there are many. The main thing is people seem interested. To paraphrase Daffy Duck's regret to Bugs after bringing down the house with his suicide, they can only do it once. As Page referred to the repetition of touring, you get the sense they couldn't/wouldn't Vegas-it like the Stones, just doing 100 of the same show over 18 months around the world. Still, the Stones' press conference announcing the Bigger Bang tour held in my neighborhood in May 05 was a great day.

Last night I had the honour of being among the first people to see Tool's new DVD Vicarious. As usual, dark, scary but sort of inscrutable too.

I'm glad I don't totally understand what happened, but to be brief, a translucent being on a desert-like planet has worm-like figures (with faces) come out of its eyes and penetrate a giant orb floating above the barren landscape. Once inside, it looks like a 3D version of the album cover in red. Just wall to wall eyes. It could pull some kids away from video games for a few minutes!

In the meantime, here's a little gold from Tool, 1994's "Sober." Despite the advances in tecnology, Vicarious had a similar look as the older video. Tool has style.

Speaking of which, I thought I would throw up a few good Led Zeppelin reunion links. Hurry on YouTube it looks like WMG may not want it up there. And that is a topic in itself as the the mythical event meets the double edged sword of the "internets." Like everyone else, I'm psyched we get to see it, but if I held the rights I think there would have been a very invasive frisking at the door and confiscation of cell phones, pdas, watches, glasses with cameras in them, etc. I wonder what forms of clothing now have computers built in. Where's Peter Grant when you need him?

Forget the RIAA, if I thought Peter Grant might catch me with these clips on my blog, I would reconsider the following:

Crunchgear is a tech blog but humorously refers to LZ as "indie." If there is a crackdown, note that Roadrunner Records' Blabbermouth has an extensive set of clips. Probably not an accident! If you could direct the fans to a certain part of the company to promote other bands while they watch the classic cuts, that would be the page to send them to. AlleyInsider.com fans the flames of conspiracy but the video of the opening of the show plays on their site.

If there is any company in the world that "gets" the fans and will figure out how to harness the power of the net, it'll be WMG. This reunion was not a baby-boomer thing, I'm sure there was a lot of 2.0 built into the project that may not have even played out yet even at this late date of two days later. Has anyone checked out the contest on Ziddio.com?

The inimitable Ed Christman of Billboard's song for song
CNN "Black Dog"
YouTube "Good Times Bad Times"
Rolling Stone - photos
Rolling Stone - David Fricke review
MOJO - Review by Phil Alexander
NY Times Review by Ben Ratliff
NME clips and comments page (example below):

I ran across an interview in MOJO with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon about her watercolors (as pictured above instead of Led Zep). I will try to keep it fresh and Sonic Youth is a good inspiration on many levels. The newest issue has a feature on their collaborator on the "Tunic (song for Karen)" video, Todd Haynes speaking about his great film I'm Not There. Remind me to do a whole post about that... it's intense and great.