PJ + TP = zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Well, I was fortunate enough to drop $100 on one of summer's hottest tours last night - Pearl Jam and Tom Petty at the Xcel. This show affirmed the fact that the big stadium show is just not for me anymore. Both bands put on OK sets, but virtually every song I heard was something I've heard on the radio a billion times before. Why couldn't these guys spice up the setlists a little bit? Both bands basically seemed like they were just going through the motions, getting their paycheck at the end of the night, and then going back to the tour bus to engage in a rousing game of Scrabble.

7 bucks for a beer??!! Ricockulous.

As far as I'm concerned, I'd be fine with never stepping foot into an arena show like last night ever again. Some of my most rewarding musical experiences have taken place at venues like First Avenue and the 400 Bar. I think it's time to revisit those places in the near future.

Kevin Richardson Quits Backstreet Boys

:-( As far as we know, the Backstreet Boys, unlike Menudo, don't have a mandatory retirement age. So we'll assume the aging boy band's oldest member, 33-year-old Kevin Richardson, really is leaving to pursue "other interests."

A statement announcing Richardson's departure from the group was posted on the BSB Web site Saturday. "After 13 years of what can only be described as a dream come true, I have decided that it is time to leave the Backstreet Boys," Richardson said. "It was a very tough decision for me but one that was necessary in order to move on with the next chapter of my life."

Richardson didn't specify what that next chapter would entail, but he did pledge that fellow members Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, Nick Carter and A.J. McLean would always be his "little brothers" and have his "utmost love and support."

The dark-haired singer also thanked the band's fans for "all the beautiful memories we have shared together" and said he hoped they would join him in the next phase of his life.

Cousins Richardson and Littrell, both from Lexington, Kentucky, began singing together as children and later graduated to performing R&B and doo wop styles at local fairs and festivals. Richardson moved to Orlando in the early 1990s and became a tour guide at Disney World, eventually hooking up with McLean, Dorough and Carter to form Backstreet Boys, named after a flea market in Orlando. After inviting Littrell to join the band, they became one of the most popular groups on the scene, helping to launch the boy-band craze of the late '90s and selling more than 30 million albums in the process.

But the group was forced to take a break in 2001 when McLean entered rehab to deal with addiction problems (see "Backstreet Boys Postpone Tour As A.J. McLean Seeks Treatment"). Richardson spent some of the ensuing three-year hiatus performing in the musical "Chicago" on Broadway. The band returned in 2005 with the release of their tepidly received Never Gone album (see "Backstreet Men? The Boys Grow Up On First Album In Five Years ").

The rest of the group said they had no plans to replace Richardson.

"Earlier this year, after much soul searching, Kevin Richardson came to us and told us that he had decided to leave the group and pursue other interests. He gave his blessing to continue the music without him," read a statement from the group, who are about to enter the studio to work on a new album that they hope to release later this year. "We have no intention of replacing Kevin, and the door will always be open for him to return to the Backstreet Boys. We wish him the all the best in his future endeavors.

The group's Jive Records publicist did not return calls for comment at press time.

Story courtesy of mtv.com.

New Everclear video

Check out the video for Everclear's new single, "Hater", right here.

Some random videos

Check out QOTSA jamming on "Avon" at Glastonbury 2002 here (Grohl on the drums - sick).

Oh wow - here's another one..."Song For The Dead", live at Werchter '02. See it here.

Last one for this evening...you just have to see it to believe it, I guess.

La La

La La is a cool way to get rid of those CDs in your collection that you never listen to anymore, as well as snag albums that you really want to hear. For the low, low price of $1.49 per CD, you can snag an album from the huge La La library. It 's basically a way to allow you to hook in to the collections of a huge variety of listeners.

To find out more about the service, check out lala.com, or go to the Yahoo press release here. Also, I have 10 invites to get connected with the service. If your interested in signing up (which is free of charge), drop me an e-mail at thecolourandtheshape@gmail.com and I'll hook you up.

New Release Tuesday

The following albums are some recommendations for discs that you should run out and pick up today:


Frank Black - Fast Man/Raider Man (27 track double album!)







Pearl Jam - Live At Easy Street (EP available at Independant record stores)









That's all for now.

Happy Anniversary!

I'd like to wish a happy 4th wedding anniversary to my babydoll. Like our daughter, I couldn't imagine life without her...here's to the next year being as kickass as the last one.

On a completely unrelated note, the first acoustic show on the Foos latest tour has been reviewed at nme.com.

New Weird Al song

Weird Al has posted a new song on his website recently. It's a cover of that horrible, overplayed James Blunt song, "You're Beautiful". Al has reworked the tune into "You're Pitiful", and you can download it here (scroll to the bottom of the page).

Red Hot Chili Peppers Rolling Stone cover story / The Three Amigos

The RHCP have made the cover of the latest Rolling Stone, and you can check out the cover story here.

In other news, you can purchase The Three Amigos at Best Buy this wek for the low low price of $4.99! An incredible deal on a hilarious movie.

"FRIENDS LEFT MESSAGES ON MY CELL PHONE SAYING 'I'M SORRY DAVE'S DIED'"

From the latest NME and fooarchive.com...

Dave Grohl is dead. At least that's what the Internet is saying. An American newsblog has proclaimed the demise of the Foo Fighters' frontman, and the story is gently floating around internet chatrooms with an air of gutted disbelief.
At almost the same time, plans for the band to play an acoustic concert at London's Apollo Victoria Theatre on June 14 are being finalised. Confused? There clearly was only one man who could clear up the mess and tell the truth about Dave Grohl's fate, the band's new acoustic tour, their huge outdoor gigs in London and Manchester, and the Foo Fighters' future. That man was Dave Grohl.

Hello Dave, last week it was rumoured online you had died.
"I know! I got a phone message from a friend saying, 'Er, I guess ... Jordyn [Grohl's wife] ... this is maybe ... for you. I'm so sorry to hear what happened.' I heard this message and went, 'What the fuck?'. They were leaving a message on my cell phone saying, 'I'm sorry Dave died.' That was weird, but I guess I've finally graduated to that status of being an internet rumour. lt weirded me out a bit, but it's stupid. I'm like a cockroach - don't worry, I'll be around for a long time."

NME wasn't convinced of your death, but to be on the safe side there was talk here of a memorial cover in the unlikely event it proved true.
"(Laughs.) Goddam it! See what you've got to do to make it in this town?"

Not only are you not dead, but you've announced an acoustic show in addition to your Hyde Park and Manchester gigs?
"We're going to do a few acoustic shows while we're there. That is kind of closer to the original idea, which was to come to each city, play a big rock show and then the next night play an acoustic gig that mirrored the concept of the record. Logistically, that was a nightmare, so we figured we'd get all the rock touring out of the way and then do the acoustic stuff. I didn't foresee any rock shows this year. I didn't think we'd do any, but Hyde Park was too much to say no to."

You played two festivals here last year, now you're doing your own.
"Someone from our management asked if we'd be interested in Hyde Park and I said, 'Yeah, but wait a second, isn't that huge?' They told me the capacity is 85,000 and I said, 'Dude, there is no fucking way we'll sell that many tickets!' But they convinced me if we sell 40,000 it's still a huge show, so I thought, 'Let's see what happens.' It's been great - we've been building our own festival where we get to pick the bands. First of all Queens Of The Stone Age have to play because they are my favourite band in the world. Then we thought it will be really great if we have a killer special guest, and somebody said, 'What about Motorhead?' I couldn't even fathom playing a gig with my favourite band of all time, but we called Lemmy and asked and he said, 'Sure.' It's going to be the favourite bill I've ever played on in my whole life. I can't imagine going on after Mot6rhead. Usually I listen to their CDs before we go onstage to psych myself up. Now I can just sit on the side of the stage, drink Jagermeister and see them for real."

Will you be tempted to do any guest spots?
"Well, whenever I see the Queens play, I always wish I was their drummer. There's no question about that, but Joey [Castillo] is such a great drummer it's nice just to be able to sit and watch your favourite band rather than be in them. It was fun to be in them, but it's more fun to have a drink in your hand and sing along. I'm going to get liquored up for our set, I'll be pickled."

Have you done much preparation for the acoustic show?
"We've been rehearsing for the last month in our studio, running through the album and doing acoustic versions of songs from other records. When we were making this album I really imagined the acoustic side of things to be the next step for the band. I imagined it opening doors we've never been through before and it leading to something completely different in our future. We went around, did all the rock touring - the best and biggest shows we've ever done - and that's turned into it's own monster, but I kept looking at my watch thinking, 'When are we gonna get around to this acoustic thing? I really want to know what it's like to sit down, play a gig and walk offstage having not broken a sweat, no pulled muscles, no hangover.' So I've really been waiting and looking forward to this for a while. It's nice to sit down and actually perform something beautiful that has a dynamic that we've never really explored live before. It's fucking great.
"The other night I played an acoustic show at a radio station festival here in Los Angeles - KROQ's Weenie Roast. It's this huge show they have every year. I got a call to see if I wanted to go down and playa couple of acoustic songs. The way they work the show, they have a revolving stage so when one band finishes, the stage turns and there's another band. You don't know who's next and they keep it moving for the whole show. Usually it's 12 of the most popular bands of the moment, so it was Chili Peppers, AFI, Rob Zombie - all these rock bands. I drove down with my wife, my mother and my kid in the car, acoustic guitar in the trunk, figuring I'm just going to play a couple of songs. Then they tell me I'm the surprise guest! I asked them, 'People don't know I'm here and I'm supposed to go on after AFI with just a fucking acoustic guitar? Are you fucking kidding me?' So I walked up to the stage, AFI were just finishing, and their side of the stage was just a wall of Iron Maiden amplifiers. Mine is just a fucking microphone! I stood on the stage, and as it started turning I really thought I'd get lynched. So I played the opening chords to 'Everlong' and the place went fucking berserk! Absolutely apeshit! It was great. I did four songs and the crowd sung along at the top of their lungs to 'Best Of You', 'My Hero', 'Times Like These' and 'Everlong'. It was moving man, but the coolest thing was breaking down the verses so it was so quiet that I swear you could hear people sniffle in the crowd! That's what it's all about. That's what I'm looking forward to, as I can't wait for people to hear acoustic interpretations of the older songs. I want to break it down so people are sat in their seats with goosebumps on their arms."

How come your Nirvana colleague Pat Smear Is rejoining Foo Fighters for the acoustic shows?
"Pat's back, it's fun! As we were putting this whole thing together we invited a few of our friends. A lot of the songs have more than two guitar parts so I started thinking, if there's a place in a song where we can build even bigger, we should. So rather then get someone we don't really know, let's get someone who's been in the band before. I'd been in touch with Pat, so I asked him and he said yes. Honestly it's like he never left.
"He's one of the greatest people I've ever met in my entire life, I remember when Kurt came to practice and said, 'Oh I've found our second guitar player,' so we asked 'who, and he said, 'It's Pat Smear from The Germs,' We couldn't believe he was still alive. I imagined, since he was in The Germs he'd be some beat-up junkie barely making it in Hollywood. He came to the first practice and I swear it was like a beacon of light. It completely lifted the mood and made it a happier place to be."

Speaking of Nirvana, Kurt Cobaln was voted Number One In NME's Heroes Issue. What do you make of that?
"Well, you know, Kurt inspired me a lot. I definitely fell in love with a whole new sense of music after having played with him. He was a great guy. He was one of the sweetest, most gentle people I've ever met. It still amazes me the outreach of what that band accomplished. I still run into people today who tell me if it wasn't for Nirvana they wouldn't have picked up their instrument, or if it wasn't for Nirvana they wouldn't have made it through high school. I think a lot of people consider - well, obviously - Kurt a hero and he was definitely an inspiration."

Is It true you're going out for lunch with Courtney Love - she told NME you two were speaking again?
"Nah, I haven't had lunch with her in a long time!"

She said relations have thawed somewhat though.
"(Laughs, sarcastically.) Yeah! Next question! (Laughs.)"

So what's next for Foo Fighters?
"The summer is going to be our send-off. I don't know how much time we're taking off, or when we'll be back. These shows will definitely be the last shows for a while. We've always looked forward to taking a break, and usually our breaks are whittled down to nothing because we can't stand not making records. We always had the urge to make another album, but I think it might be time to go home and re-evaluate. You know what? Having said that, it will never fucking happen! I get two cups of coffee in me and I want to hit the road. But after doing something like Hyde Park, what are we going to do? We have to come back bigger and better. We've grown. Now we're selling 85,000 tickets in a park in the middle of town. It's hard for me to imagine anything getting better. That's a good feeling to have, but I'm going to fucking try to make it even huger. Not that I want to be the biggest band in the world, but I want to be the band that your band doesn't want to go on after!"

Do you have any ideas? Does the acoustic record mean you can now go in any direction you like?
"That's the thing that makes it so confusing. Usually when you have a string of rock records you think, 'Alright, let's make a rock record!' Now that we've split into two directions, we've hit this schizophrenic mark. We can do one of two things. We can make a beautiful, song-based album, or we can make the craziest, thrash-metal shit you've ever heard. I've asked the other guys in the band which one should we do. Who knows, maybe we'll make a folk record!"

Is it true you have a greatest hits album in the pipeline?
"Yeah, I think that's happening this fall. There's a greatest hits coming out, but there'll be some new music on it - two new tracks. They wanted the greatest hits to come out before 'In Your Honour'. I had to say, 'wait a second, I think we might have a couple more in us: It seemed a little premature."

So this is the end of chapter one?
"I definitely feel it there when my bones start creaking in the mornings. Usually I'm pretty good at imagining what comes next. This time, it's a puzzler. There's a thousand things I want to do musically, but what do I do with Foo Fighters? Who knows?"

What bands do you dig at the moment?
"I liked Arctic Monkeys a lot - I was into that record. I think it's really good. God, The Raconteurs' record is so fucking cool! I met Brendan Benson - he's a friend of my ex-wife - ages ago when he was doing demos in his bedroom. We made friends and his first solo album, 'One Mississippi', is such a fucking masterpiece. I was surprised He didn't become huge. I was convinced Brendan would be a star - he had so much talent. So when I heard he and Jack were getting together to make this record. I thought, 'Fuck, this going to be good!- The songs are wonderful. Brendan's a genius Jack's a genius - we actually asked them to play the Hyde Park gig. but they disn't want to as they were still getting their legs. but I'm really excited about that record. I know the Gnarls Barkley record has been huge over your way for a while, and it's just starting to blow up here, but that album - particularly the Violent Femmes cover 'Gone Daddy Gone' - is fucking great. Also - and this will sound ridiculous and will destroy any credibility I have in the rock world I'm sure - but I just discovered the Scissor Sisters record! I fucking love it. man! It's a fucking good record. I grew up listening to Motorhead and ABBA, so I can enjoy Scissor Sisters just as much as I can put on a Slayer record. I tell you man, those fucking songs are good!"

And, as their friend, you must be looking forward to Kaiser Chiefs' new album?
"Absolutely! You know what, I love drinking with those guys. Fuck their records, I just want to get drunk with them. I heard Ricky Wilson got knocked over, is he OK?"

Yes, apparently his scissor kicks saved him.
"See, those rock moves come in handy. He's a martial artist!"

Finally, plugged in or acoustically, on a scale of one to 10, how much will Foo Fighters rock this summer?
"This one goes to 11, buddy! This summer is going to be a big one - absolutely."