Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo has started writing his memoirs. What started in 2007 with only 400 words has blossomed into a massive, multi-volume tome stretching over eight volumes. Cuomo will write about the band, his childhood and family history, AND his parents’ childhood. Hooray for us.
Today we celebrate bubble gum – created 80 years ago by Walter E. Diemer. "It was an accident," Diemer said. "I was doing something else and ended up with something with bubbles." What Mr. Diemer was supposed to be doing was working as an accountant for the Fleer Chewing Gum Company in Philadelphia; what he wound up doing was playing with new gum recipes. Diemer, 23 years old in 1928, saw bubbles; he saw the possibilities and an industry was born. Diemer never received royalties for his invention.
International Music Correspondent Sari Maw reports that another cover band has bitten the dust . . .
Dizzy from this weekend’s endorsement of Caroline Kennedy and the pending nod from Sen. Edward Kennedy, Barack Obama announced earlier today that he was backing himself.
Gracie the cat traveled 1,300 miles on an $80 plane ticket, having stowed away in her owner’s suitcase. The bag made it through security and an airport X-ray machine before (accidentally) being picked up by the wrong traveler, who made it home before realizing the suitcase wasn’t his. "I went to unpack and saw some of the clothes and saw it wasn't my suitcase," he said. "I was going to close it, and a kitten jumped out and ran under the bed. I screamed like a little girl." Following a call, Gracie has been returned to her family.
Roberrt James "Bobby" Fisher
After 20 years of perpetuating a lie, Marvel Comics is giving Spider-Man the freedom to play the field. For the latest telling of the popular crime fighter’s story, Marvel is erasing the marriage of Spider-Man/Peter Parker to Mary Jane Watson. The head writer explained that the creative story telling utilized to rewrite history is aimed at making the character more appealing to new audiences.Fucked Up vs. Rolling Stone. Fucked up vs. Camel cigarettes. It may be the first time those words have seen a “vs.” in the middle, but they’re right there in print in a legal complaint filed this afternoon in Alameda County, California.
Indie rock bands Xiu Xiu and Fucked Up today filed a class action lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (the parent company of Camel cigarettes) and Wenner Media (the publisher of Rolling Stone) alleging the unauthorized use of artists’ names, unauthorized use of artist names for commercial advantage (right of publicity), and unfair business practices, all in regards to the ‘Indie Rock Universe’ multipage advertising section that appeared in the 40th Anniversary issue of the magazine published on November 15. The class action, which was instigated by Xiu
Xiu and Fucked Up but filed on behalf of 186 bands and artists featured in the pull out spread, accuses both the cigarette company and the magazine of engaging in “despicable conduct” that was “illegal under settled, unambiguous California statutory and common law.” The lawsuit demands Rolling Stone publish an admission that the artists’ names were used without consent in a spread equal in size to the original ad, as well as seeking actual and punitive financial damages. (Under California law, this could conceptually amount to $750 per issue of Rolling Stone, per band, or a whopping $195.3 billion
Let me get this straight . . . your guitar player/brother hasn’t fully recovered from a 2004 stroke, your bass player has potentially life-threatening kidney issues and a 40-year retrospective is set to be released in 2008. Makes sense to me. On with the reunion.
How is playing in an EMO band a lot like throwing a javelin blindfolded?
Did you hear that 
