Rush will be making their first U.S. television appearance in more than thirty years on Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report.”
The Canadian band Rush, which hasn’t performed on U.S. television in more than three decades, will play their classic “Tom Sawyer” on the Comedy Central show Wednesday (11:30 p.m. EST). The Geddy Lee-led trio, which is currently on tour, hasn’t played on U.S. television since 1975.
Rush is only the latest act to perform on “The Report,” which has steadily edged closer to “Ed Sullivan Show” territory. With increasingly frequent musical performances, “The Report” has grown a variety-show impulse, evident in other upcoming bookings. The rapper Nas will perform on July 23, Toby Keith will return for a second performance on July 28 and Crosby, Stills and Nash will play on July 30.
The Stephen Colbert-hosted comedy show was originally launched as a parody of conservative political punditry — and shows like “The O’Reilly Factor” do not make a habit of hosting music performances. But “The Report” circus has expanded into musical realms, often with its sonorous host joining in. John Legend, Neil Young, R.E.M., Tony Bennett, Peter Frampton, Willie Nelson, Barry Manilow, John Mellencamp, the Roots and Carole King have all performed on the show.
Cool. Here’s a video of Rush playing “Tom Sawyer,” albeit not on “The Colbert Report.”
At last nights MTV Video Music Awards, Britney Spears wasn’t the only one making an ass out of herself. Kid Rock and Tommy Lee got into it after Kid Rock reportedly punched Tommy Lee in the face. Kid Rock says that Tommy Lee instigated the fight by taunting him, saying “I never hit nobody for nothing before. I told him to shut the f–k up.”
As MTV VJ Sway reported during the post-show telecast:
“Tommy Lee was sitting by Diddy. [Kid Rock] just walked up and decked him!”
According to an onlooker in the audience, “They had each other at the necks, they were practically strangling each other.” Another eyewitness saw Tommy Lee escorted out, “screaming the f-word over and over again.” He was taken out into main casino in front of thousands of fans.
Jamie Foxx added his two cents while presenting the Best New Artist award with Jennifer Garner. “Stop all of this white-on-white crime. Tommy Lee and Kid Rock fighting like black folks – it’s hilarious.” Foxx, added, “Who won? I was in the bathroom. Pamela Anderson has got a hard choice to make.”
Diddy wanted to get in on the fun too, and while he introduced the final performance he said, “I was supposed to be doing this with Kid Rock, but you know, we got to stop the violence. It’s not just hip-hop artists that fight.”
The police eventually came to Kid Rock’s hotel room and cited him for misdemeanor battery.
Seriously, Kid Rock? You choose the VMAs to punch Tommy Lee? It just kind of takes the hardcore out of the fight when you’re doing it in front of preteen fans who vote on Moon Men winners. I’m just sayin’.
What others are saying:
Mollygood says, “Still no word as to why the security team didn’t let the idiots kill each other.”
In Touch says, “Pamela Anderson’s two ex-husbands really don’t like each other.”
Celebrity Smack says, “And he didn’t open handed bitch slap him either, according to a witness, ‘Tommy got it pretty bad.’ Well yeah! Tommy Lee is a little scrawny dude and was probably wasted. That would be like kicking Keith Richards ass. It wouldn’t take much.”
celebitchy says, “Maybe that’s why tensions were high when Rock ran into Lee. Even if Lee hasn’t rekindled his relationship with the mother of his children, he still gets to see her often enough and I doubt she has much to do with Rock.”
Glitterati says, “How much do you want to bet they planned that to get a little attention for both of them? I mean, it’s not like you get into a relationship with Pam Anderson thinking you’ve got her attention always and forever, or that she’s never had a man before you.”
dlisted says, “Why didn’t MTV show this shit?! It would’ve been better than the crap they put onstage! Nothing says entertainment like two old has-beens duking it out.”
Best Week Ever says, “Kid Rock and Tommy Lee got kicked out of last night’s VMA Awards after getting into a fistfight over which one of them was the most irrelevant aging rocker in the room. Thank god Axl Rose wasn’t on hand, because there would have been an all-out riot.”
A Socialite’s Life says, “If Tommy Lee pressed those charges after starting shit, he is a sissy man. Tattoos and piercings and previous overdoses don’t make you a badass. Rednecks will school you. They will put down their can of Bud and their corncob pipe, whoop your ass, and then sit back down and resume listening to Toby Keith. Respect.”
Source: “Tommy Lee, Kid Rock Brawl at VMAs” [People]; “Rock Cited for Battery after Tommy Tussle” [TMZ]
Yeah!! …..here I am minding my own biz having a great time with my friend Criss Angel (magician) and watching the MTV awards in the front row saying hello to all my friends……Pamela comes and sits on my lap who I love and adore….and also say hello to my friend Travis Barker and his wife!…..and i get a text from another friend P. Diddy and he says come sit with me…..and he’s sitting with Miss HOT Megan FOX so I go over and sit with P! Not a minute later and Alicia Keys starts her amazing performance….(”I apologize sweetie…..I had nothing to do with the timing and disrespect”)……back to the stupid-ness!!….so….. I get a tap on the shoulder from Kid Pebble…I stand up and embrace him with a semi hug and say “Hey dude…What up”?? He punches me in the face…..well if ya wanna call it that!?….more like a bitch slap!…….Wuss!! Anyway….i go to knock this jealous country bumpkin the f$%k OUT….and before I can have a meeting with my fist and his ugly ass mug ….security guards… grab me and haul my ass outta the award show! So I’m fine and of course leave to my room with police and owner of the Palm’s George Maloof……the rest is paper work and bullshit!… Anyway…… I would like to apologize to Alicia and George and MTV for the disrespectful bullshit caused by a piece of shit called Kid Pebble!!
The Dixie Chicks have been known more for their politics than their music the last four years, so it should have come as no surprise that they won five Grammy awards last night.
After death threats, boycotts and a cold shoulder from the country music establishment, the Dixie Chicks gained sweet vindication Sunday night at the 49th annual Grammy Awards, capturing honors in all five of the categories in which they were nominated.
[...]
The Dixie Chicks took home Grammys for the top three awards: record, song and album of the year. Their “Taking the Long Way” (Open Wide/Columbia) won best country album and “Not Ready to Make Nice” also captured best country performance by a duo or group with vocal. That song is an unapologetic response to the furor set off in 2003 when the band’s lead singer, Natalie Maines, made an off-the-cuff antiwar remark to London concertgoers: “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”
But Sunday’s awards were the Recording Academy’s rejoinder to the country music radio establishment, which ignored the album. Accepting the award for song of the year, Ms. Maines joked, “For the first time in my life, I’m speechless.” But she found her voice on later trips to the stage. “I’m very humbled and I think people were using their voice the same way this loudmouth did,” she said, self-referentially, after “Taking the Long Way” was named album of the year. The Dixie Chicks’ sweep of the major Grammy categories served as a sharp counterpoint to their shut-out at the Country Music Association awards in November. The Recording Academy consists of members across the nation who work in all genres of music. The Country Music Association’s membership is concentrated among artists, engineers and executives tied to the Nashville establishment.
The Grammys have a long tradition of giving their country category awards to artists with relatively little appeal to country fans, like k.d. lang, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Lucinda Williams. They also have a history of making political statements with their awards, most notably the bizarre award to Hillary Clinton for her narration of “It Takes a Village.”
Then again, the Grammys have a habit of finding a favorite and sticking with it, especially in the country category. Vince Gill has won the Best Male Country Vocal Performance award nine times and Johnny Cash, Ronnie Milsap, and Willie Nelson–all favorites with the critics and fans alike–have won repeatedly. Similarly, the Chicks won for “Fly” in 2000, before their political activism, and “Home” on February 23, 2003 and didn’t make their big statement in London until March 10. So, while there’s little doubt that politics played a role here, Grammy voters always liked the Chicks.
Still, as Lorie Byrd points out, their nomination and award in the “best country album” category is rather much, “since the Chicks said this was NOT a country album and it got practically no play on country stations.”
Duncan Black uploaded the video of their performance of “I’m Not Ready to Make Nice” at the show to YouTube:
The Chicks still sound great but this song is hardly their “A” material, let alone “Song of the Year.”
The politics of this is all rather odd, generating wild overreaction from both sides. Dissing the president at a concert in the capital of our biggest ally is hardly tantamount to Jane Fonda’s activity in Hanoi. On the other had, we get nonsense like Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead’s remark: “I think people are paranoid. I think that if they speak out, they think they’re gonna get whacked by the government. It’s pretty oppressive now. Look at the Dixie Chicks. They got whacked.” As Betsy Newmark points out, “The government didn’t ‘whack’ the Dixie Chicks. Their fans did. Is the position of the cognoscenti now that fans can’t express their opinions of musical artists by deciding not to buy their music?”
Sean Hackbarth and Dan Riehl both think the Hollywood establishment’s open antagonism to Red State America constitutes a large reason that the music industry is in so much trouble. While I don’t doubt that there’s some minor backlash, it seems far more likely that the wide availability of digital music and the record industry’s clinging to a decades-old album packaging system is the main issue. Red Staters have been making fun of “Hollyweird” for as long as I can remember, yet they continue to go to the movies. And it’s unlikely that people will quit buying Toby Keith and Gretchen Wilson albums to teach the Grammy people a lesson.
The international press won’t get their first look at the documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing until its gala premiere at the Toronto Film Festival tonight. But EW.com got an early look at the sure-to-be-controversial doc in Los Angeles and can attest that the film will continue to bring the (ex?) country trio more plaudits from progressives and further condemnation from conservatives. And if you think singer Natalie Maines had some harsh words for President Bush in public, wait till you hear what she had to say about him behind the scenes.
In one memorable scene, Maines watches news footage of the president being interviewed about the furor that followed the singer’s on-stage comment that she was ”ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas,” which resulted in the group being dropped from most radio stations, as well as protests and plummeting sales. ”The Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind,” Bush told Tom Brokaw at the time, adding, ”They shouldn’t have their feelings hurt just because some people don’t want to buy their records when they speak out. You know, freedom is a two-way street.”
After watching this footage, Maines repeats the president’s comment about how the group shouldn’t have their ”feelings hurt,” incredulous, and then says, ”What a dumb f—.” She then looks into the camera, as if addressing Bush, and reiterates, ”You’re a dumb f—.”
[...]
Initially, sisters Emily Robison and Martie Seidel seem downcast over their apparently nose-diving popularity, but Maines assures them, ”I think this is better for our career.” And when whether to stay quiet or get their backs up becomes an issue, the singer jokes, ”Now that we’ve f—ed ourselves, I think we have a responsibility to continue to f— ourselves,” amid gales of laughter.
[...]
Cameras are rolling when the three women and their cowriters are working on the lyrics for the title song of Taking the Long Way, their latest album — including the moment of creation of a key line: ”Wouldn’t kiss all the asses that they told me to.” One of the band members proposes adding an addendum, quickly scotched: ”Gave a lot of [oral sex], but wouldn’t kiss all the asses!” ”We did kiss SOME asses,” another member adds, in full disclosure. Clearly, though, the days of butt-smooching are over for this gleefully contentious group.
Several concerts on the Dixie Chicks’ “Accidents & Accusations” tour have been canceled after slow ticket sales, but the group says it has replaced them with other dates. Kansas City, Houston, St. Louis, Memphis and Knoxville are among 14 cities no longer on the original schedule released in May, according to a revised itinerary posted Thursday on the Dixie Chick’s Web site. Other shows, including Nashville, Los Angeles, Denver and Phoenix, have been pushed back to later dates.
The North American leg of the tour kicked off July 21 in Detroit. Billboard magazine and other trade publications have reported lackluster sales in some markets, particularly in the South and Midwest. Group spokeswoman Kathy Allmand said Monday that the total number of North American dates remains the same, with several Canadian cities added in place of the U.S. shows.
The trio released a statement last week attributing the changes to attempts to “accommodate demand” and said more dates might be added next year. The group also said the adjustments will allow them to promote the documentary “Dixie Chicks: Shut up and Sing,” for the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
The Canadian, lesbian singer k.d. lang said years ago that when she told people she was a country singer, they asked “What country.” Apparently, for the Dixie Chicks, the answer is “Canada.”
In fairness, it should be reiterated that, by any reasonable standard, the Chicks are still wildly successful despite backlash over their political statements about the president and the war. Indeed, their views are probably closely aligned with the American public’s at this point. Not so much with the core country music audience, though.
Initial ticket sales for the Dixie Chicks’ upcoming tour are far below expectations and several dates will likely be canceled or postoned. Ticket counts for the 20-plus arena shows that went on sale last weekend were averaging 5,000-6,000 per show in major markets and less in secondaries, according to sources contacted by Billboard. Venue capacities on the tour generally top 15,000.
In contrast, the band’s new album, “Taking the Long Way,” sold 526,000 units in its first week, according to Nielsen Soundscan, the third-largest sales week of 2006. The album logged a second week in the period ended June 4, according to sales data issued Wednesday. Despite those numbers, early ticket sales are clearly not meeting projections. The plug was pulled on public on-sales for shows in Indianapolis (August 23), Oklahoma City (September 26), Memphis (September 27) and Houston (September 30) because of tepid pre-sales in a national promotion with Target stores. The Memphis show has been pulled off the route and the status of the shows in Indianapolis, Houston and Oklahoma City remains uncertain. Industry speculation has it that much or all of the tour may be postponed. At the very least, it is likely routing and capacity will be reconfigured.
Early ticket sales for this tour are in marked contrast to the Chicks’ last proper outing in 2003 when a national on-sale moved some 867,000 tickets the first weekend, and second shows were added in several markets. The Chicks ended up with the top-grossing country tour of 2003 at $62 million.
But not all shows on this tour are below projections. “We’re happy (with our on-sale) and comparatively seem to be ahead of most,” says John Page, Global Spectrum COO/GM at Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, where the trio is booked for July 25. A second date was added for the Air Canada Center in Toronto, where the first show sold out in eight minutes. “Canada loves the Chicks,” says ACC booking director Patti-Ann Tarlton.
Needless to say, the primary fan base for country music is not Philadelphia or Toronto. (Canadian k.d. lang used to joke that when she told people she sang country music they’d ask, “Which country?”)
Jonathan Adler cites recent reports that the Dixie Chicks’ new CD has debuted at #1 on the album charts as evidence of political acceptance: “Although some country stations refuse to play their music, the Dixie Chicks seem are doing okay. Their new album hit number one in sales on the Billboard charts this week, and also topped the country album charts. Either their fans don’t care about the trio’s politics — or they do care, and the Chicks are more popular than President Bush.”
Yet, as a recent Reuters report notes, this is far from clear. All emphases added:
Country trio the Dixie Chicks, the darlings of Nashville until their singer criticized President Bush three years ago, opened at No. 1 on the U.S. charts on Wednesday with their first studio album since then, but sales were sharply lower. “Taking The Long Way,” their third chart-topper, sold 525,000 copies in the week ended May 28, according to tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan. The figure ranks as one of the biggest openings of the year, and exceeds industry expectations by more than 100,000 copies. But it paled against the 780,000 copies that their last studio release, “Home,” sold during its first week in August 2002. It spent three weeks at No. 1, and has sold 5.8 million copies to date. In April another country trio, Rascal Flatts, opened at No. 1 with 722,000 copies of its new album.
The lower sales for the new Dixie Chicks album were not unexpected given that country radio is largely ignoring the Texans. The first single, the defiant “Not Ready To Make Nice,” stalled at No. 36 on Billboard magazine’s Hot Country Songs chart.
On the other hand, the trio has garnered plenty of attention in the mainstream media, with a Time magazine cover story, and a segment on CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes.”
All the attention — or lack thereof — stems from a throwaway comment made by singer Natalie Maines during a London concert in March 2003. She told the crowd that the band was embarrassed to come from the same state as Bush. If one critic had not mentioned it in his review, she might have gotten away with it, but it quickly escalated into a major incident.
Radio stations stopped playing their songs and organized public destructions of their discs, sales slumped, death threats ensued, and country stars like Toby Keith bashed them. The women have largely laid low in the past few years to focus on their expanding families, and recording the new album in Los Angeles with rock producer Rick Rubin.
At this stage, it’s possible the Dixie Chicks are abandoning their country music base, rather than the other way around. Rubin is best known for his work with funk-rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who had ruled the charts for the previous two weeks, and with deceased Nashville renegade Johnny Cash.
“I’d rather have a smaller following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith,” Dixie Chick Martie Maguire told Time. We don’t want those kinds of fans.”
So, while the Chicks are still quite successful by any measure, they’ve become alienated from a large part of their “base” and are now crossing over into pop with the help of tremendous media exposure. That’s fine–and I applaud them standing by their views, even one’s I find insipid, rather than caving to pressure–but hardly evidence that their former fans admire their politics.
That they are more popular than President Bush, though, is quite likely. Then again, who isn’t?
Meanwhile, Chris Lawrence observes, “Things are clearly topsy-turvy when Michelle Branch has gone country while the Dixie Chicks have gone rock-and-roll. Not that the two genres are all that distinct these days, mind you (or, for that matter, historically).”
The Dixie Chicks’ new album, “Taking The Long Way” has debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts, breaking their own record.
As Taking The Long Way debuts at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 best-selling albums chart this week, with first week’s sales of 525,829, the Dixie Chicks have become the first female group in chart history to have three albums debut at #1, breaking the record the Chicks established in 2002 when the group’s last studio album, Home, debuted at #1 and made them the first female group ever to have two albums debut at #1.
[...]
Taking The Long Way arrives in the midst of an incredible media blitz surrounding the Dixie Chicks, who were honored with a profile on CBS’s “60 Minutes” and appeared on the cover of Time magazine an unprecedented two times in May. The group was featured in a five-part series of interviews, culminating with an SRO live concert at New York’s Bryant Park on Friday, May 26, on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” The Dixie Chicks will sit down for an in-depth interview on “Larry King Live” tonight, Wednesday, May 31.
Now records for “female group” are somewhat dubious, much like Brooks & Dunn’s numerous achievements as “vocal duo.” Those are very small categories and there’s not much competition currently or historically in either.
Still, having three consecutive albums debut at #1 is an impressive enough achievement. Even more so considering how much the Chicks alienated their fan base three years ago with a series of derogatory comments about a then-wildly popular President Bush.
Roger Friedman reports that the Dixie Chicks are out with their first new album in four years and that its first single, “Not Ready to Make Nice,” deals with death threats and other negative reaction the band received for making derogatory comments about President Bush and the war in Iraq.
Three years ago, the Dixie Chicks were getting death threats for the stands they took on the Iraq war. Now, in the first single from their new album, they address those threats head on. The song is called “Not Ready to Make Nice.”
“And how in the world can the words that I said/Send somebody so over the edge/That they’d write me a letter/Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing/Or my life will be over.” I cannot recall in the history of pop, country, rock or R&B — maybe somewhere in rap — this issue coming up. In the same song, lead singer Natalie Maines warbles: “It’s a sad, sad story when a mother will teach her/Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger.”
I’ve heard the album, called “Taking the Long Way,” due out May 23, and it’s a potential blockbuster. “Not Ready to Make Nice” is already making inroads on country radio after being leaked last week. According to Billboard’s Radio Monitor, the single jumped from 54 to 36 in one week, with 3,703 “spins” on country radio alone. The single is also listed as a 94 percent probable success on the Hit Predictor chart.
All of that is to say, country music listeners don’t seem to mind that the Dixie Chicks are speaking their minds about several topics including the war in Iraq and President Bush. They are not the first people you think of as war protesters or folk singers with a message. But the Dixie Chicks are back with their first album in four years, and they are mad as hell.
[...]
But “Nice” is sure to stir things up again for the group. In March 2003, lead singer Maines told an audience in London, “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.” A month later she softened a bit, telling Diane Sawyer: “It was the wrong wording with genuine emotion and questions and concern behind it. … Am I sorry that I asked questions and that I just don’t follow? No.”
She hasn’t changed her mind or her opinions. No one will ever accuse the Dixie Chicks of flip-flopping, that’s for sure.
It helps that their position on the war is now the majority view.
It’s one thing to refuse to buy their albums or go to their concerts; that’s the price of taking a stand. Threatening to kill someone because they utter unpopular words is despicable, if not un-American. Ironically, it’s what the enemy does.
To add more visibility to their protest, the Chicks should get naked again.
