After years and years of loathing, it seems Rolling Stone Magazine is finally changing their tune about AC/DC's brand of rock 'n' roll music.
Yes, once again, Rolling Stone has defied their history by gloriously featuring AC/DC in an another preview of Black Ice which was posted online earlier today.
By most fan accounts, that rag has virtually despised AC/DC their whole career (with the exception of Back In Black) but now they seem to want to help promote the new record by actually offering details of the Black Ice recording sessions while, at the same time, praising the new songs.
Of course, this praise is a far cry from what Rolling Stone has previously said about AC/DC's music. For example, back in the nineties, when they declared Brian Johnson's "banshee vocals are even more shrill these days." in their 2 stars out of 5 Ballbreaker review or the time they said AC/DC had set "a new record for the longest career without a single new idea" with the release of the Razors Edge album.
In fact, not once has AC/DC ever been on Rolling Stone's cover in the United States despite the fact that the band are Rock 'N Roll Hall of Famers and they sell more albums than anybody (except The Beatles) in today's market after 35 years in the music business.
I surmise that this seemingly new found respect for AC/DC has more to do with Columbia Records marketing machine than any true change of heart from Rolling Stone, but I guess time will tell as the band prepares to hit the road soon.
In other AC/DC news, it appears Rock Band 2 might feature some hidden AC/DC songs other than the previously announced, Let There Be Rock.
Apparently, if the above rumored screen shot is to be believed, Shoot To Thrill from Live At Donington will be in the mix, too. You'll find the story about it here and why wouldn't they want more AC/DC tracks in Rock Band? One song is certainly not going to be enough to satisfy the average rock fan!
Lastly, I could really care less about what's on TV these days but, it would be remiss of me not to mention that Rock N Roll Train is being used to help promote the season premier of the CBS show, Criminal Minds, called "NYC Under Attack." (see the video above)
Why they didn't use Safe In New York City instead is something I'll never understand. Oh well, score another big win for the Black Ice division of the record company marketing department.
In other minor news of note, Cinema Blend recently posted a review of No Bull - The Director's Cut and some obscure festival is desperately trying to get some headlines by announcing they want AC/DC to play there next year. But, of course, as has been well said before, AC/DC "doesn't want, or need, to share a stage with anyone."
Fans of this blog probably realize that I think the opinions of Rolling Stone Magazine are virtually worthless when they're reviewing AC/DC's (or anybody's) music. However, they posted an early mini-review yesterday of the new album, Black Ice, in their latest issue that has shocked and awed many an AC/DC fan on the interwebs.
Sweet vindication! Last year in this column, AC/DC singer Brian Johnson promised that they’d tour in 2008. Well, he wasn’t kidding. Soon they’ll begin rehearsals in a secret location, before hitting U.S. arenas in late fall. We heard this news at the Sony HQ on New York’s Madison Avenue, before hearing all 15 tracks of the band’s earthshaking new Black Ice, recorded in Vancouver in just eight weeks with Brendan O’Brien. On it, Brian wails about skies on fire, blood in his eyes, storms raging, lightning flashes, hard rain and pretty women. Angus Young shreds throughout (we dig his slide work on “Decibel”), and the rhythm cats — Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd — are solid as a rock. The first single is “Rock ‘N Roll Train”; “She Likes Rock ‘N Roll” will be a stripper anthem; and “War Machine” (our favorite) will tear you to pieces.
So what does this really mean? Is the new album kickass like Back In Black kind of kickass or is this just hype intended to sell magazines to middle-aged AC/DC fans? I guess we'll have to wait and see for ourselves but the new songs certainly sound promising, don't they?
Well, I guess they should be awesome songs considering all the time it took the band to produce a new album (8 years!).
Anyway, the song title "Rock 'N Roll Train" is now back on the table, apparently, though Undercover News said earlier it would be called "Runaway Train."
Perhaps some lucky fan who participated in yesterday's video shoot in London will fill us in on what song they heard so as to clear up this confusion? I hope so...
Btw, Rolling Stone certainly liked the song "War Machine" which makes me wonder if the lyrics to it reflect some sort of leftist leaning, anti-Bush kind of message.
Hmm, wouldn't that be interesting if AC/DC got a little political like they did when they wrote "Burnin' Alive" which was apparently about the Waco incident?
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In other AC/DC News, I've neglected to mention that a Director's Cut of the "No Bull" DVD is coming to the Blu-Ray on September 9th which will also include the following, according to Undercover News.
The new version of the disc will include the previously unreleased live versions of `Cover You In Oil` from Gothenburg, Sweden and `Down Payment Blues` recorded in Daytona, USA.
The Blu-Ray disc has also been updated to include `Angusvision` for the tracks `Shoot To Thrill`, `Hail Caesar`, `Rock and Roll Ain`t Noise Pollution` and `You Shook Me All Night Long`. On these tracks, you`ll see what Angus Young was seeing.
There's a nice promo site set up for it on ACDCrocks.com right now if you'd like to pay them a visit, btw.
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Lastly, a Swedish publication has posted a rumor (supposedly from someone in the band's production company) that AC/DC will play Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden sometime during the Summer of 2009. Read it for yourself here in Swedish or in Google-translated English.
