I was expecting to be extremely displeased with this record. Never really being a fan of Whitsnake’s early years, I quite expected this to be an “I was famous and young once” effort from David Cloverdale’s band after all his bolstering comments in the press in recent months. Quite surprisingly, Coverdale and his hired band of merry men have made a record that captures all the elements of their huge selling, self-titled record. Unlike Whitesnake, released in the hair metal heyday of 1987, Good to Be Bad actually has more balls, even when it comes to the ballads. I’d be hard to pressed to say one record is better that the other, truthfully. I can just see the hair metal purists getting out the lighters and Aqua Net right now to burn me a new one. The true question is can Whitsnake manage to make an impression with this record in an era teeming with “Cute Girl” rock and singles being used in T.V. shows? My guess is probably not and the record will mostly likely not even dent the American charts Good to be Bad will most likely only be purchased by hardcore fans and women who see Coverdale as some sort of Fabio figure to middle aged women. This has happened to other bands like, for instance, Dio who released Strange Highways, a record that was easily one of their best efforts, after their widespread appeal had diminished. That’s a shame because tracks like “Best Years” and “Summer Rain,” possibly the band's best ballad yet, are classic Whitesnake and will blend in well with the band's standards like “Here I Go Again” and “Slide It In.” I don’t notice a lot of blue's influence of early Whitsnake, which was said by Coverdale to be a big part of the album, just high octane rock and roll that defined most of the 1980’s. Hopefully, the band will be brave enough to showcase the album on tour and perhaps win over some more fans. Really, Whitesnake should have released this about a year or two after Whitesnake and they would have another multi-platinum disc to their credit. I hope they are gunnin’ for a spot at this year's Rocklahoma because there truthfully is not a limp track on Good to be Bad.

(Amsterdam, NL) - Jevne brings a new energy and live element to house music. His live performances consist of laying down deep, smooth, and funky grooves with a 6-string bass guitar while he mixes an infectious blend of original beats and edits that will get you dancing! His busy touring schedule has taken him all over the US, UK and South America. When he’s not on tour he’s busy running Onethirty Recordings and producing tracks and remixes. Jevne lives house music every day and has for more then 12 years! His label Onethirty Recordings has really made a mark on the house, tribal & tech-house worlds with numerous great releases, including music from Chuck Love, Tony Thomas, Leo Portela, Da Sunlounge, Jay West, Justin Martin, Jevne, Random Soul and many more!Based In Minneapolis, Jevne has been a staple of the dance music scene for more than 10 years. He was the manager/buyer of Let it Be Records for 6 years. The store was known as one of the best independent record stores in the world. Jevne has been involved with some of the largest events to happen in the city from the rave days to his present Onethirty monthly parties. 365Mag went for a little chit-chat with the creative artist.

Photo by Joseph Mohan As Andrew Bird Soldiers On with the recording of his new album– the follow-up to last year’s Armchair Apocrypha– the loop-y Chicago songwriter has taken up a new hobby: blogging. However, unlike those of us who would have to register for a Blogspot or Wordpress account to indulge our net-enabled diaristic impulses, Bird’s words appear online in The New York Times. More specifically, Bird is blogging about his songwriting and recording processes for the NYT blog Measure for Measure. Measure for Measure chronicles the creative processes of its contributors, who include Roseanne Cash, Suzanne Vega, and songwriter Darrell Brown. Bird’s first post is up now, and it details his preparations and plans for the new album: "I’ve got 11 songs mostly written and several dozen distinct melodies. I never worry about the melodies drying up. Since I can remember, I’ve had melodies in my head. I chew my food to them… Words are much trickier. I would forgo words altogether if I didn’t love singing them so much… I’m really an instrumentalist who sings words, and if you care to pay attention, you might enjoy them. So in this post, I will begin reporting on the progress of an as-of-yet unfinished song, with all my doubts and insecurities laid bare." The song Bird details is tentatively titled "Oh No", and he traces its growth from the initial spark of inspiration (a child’s cry on an airplane flight) to the later stages of line-editing lyrics. The post is full of nitty-gritty stuff, for those who like that kind of thing, and there will be more where it came from every few weeks. Despite the recording and blogging, Bird hasn’t neglected to schedule some shows for himself this spring and summer. The first of them is April 5 in Cincinnati. He’s also been busy popping up on friends’ records– he contributes to the new Dosh record, Wolves and Whistles, out May 13 on Anticon, and to Dianogah’s qhnnnl, out June 10 in the U.S. and June 16 in Europe on Southern. Bird: 04-05 Cincinnati, OH - MusicNow Festival ! 04-26 London, England - indigO2 * 04-27 Glasgow, Scotland - The Classic Grand (Tryptych Festival) 06-21 Minneapolis, MN - The Walker Art Center (Rock the Garden) # 07-19 Commerce City, CO - Mile High Music Festival 08-08 Jersey City, NJ - Liberty State Park (All Points West Festival) 08-22-24 San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands Festival ! with Grizzly Bear * with Loney, Dear, Cass McCombs # with New Pornographers, Cloud Cult, Bon Iver

Petty and longtime bandmates Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench are planning to hit the club circuit with the original members of Mudcrutch, the name of their group when they were still relegated to playing diners in their hometown of Gainesville, Fla.  After nearly 30 years, the five musicians—Petty, Campbell, Tench, Randall Marsh and Tom Leadon—reunited last summer on the West Coast to record an album. "I just finished a record with Mudcrutch, my old band before the Heartbreakers," Petty wrote in a message posted on his website. "I am over the moon about it. I couldn't have hoped for it to be as good as it came out."  Mudcrutch will next crisscross California for about two weeks, starting April 12 at a benefit in Malibu for Los Angeles' Midnight Mission and winding up with a four-night engagement at the famed Troubadour in West Hollywood.  But although Petty has released 15 albums with the Heartbreakers (Campbell, Tench, Stan Lynch and Ron Blair, who quit in the 1980s to be replaced by Dan Epstein), Mudcrutch's upcoming effort will put that band's total at exactly…one.  The self-titled debut, featuring a 14-track combination of new and rerecorded tunes, is due out April 29.  In 1975, back when records were records, Mudcrutch released one single, "Depot Street," which was the A-side on an LP that also included the B-side "Wild Eyes."  Leadon, a childhood friend of Petty's who left the band in 1972 and now teaches guitar in Nashville, told the Tennessean newspaper that Mudcrutch's 2007 reunion was "just entirely unexpected."  "It was like a dream, the whole thing," he said. "Tom couldn't have been nicer. It was great to hang out with him again."  Meanwhile, Petty will return to his day job fronting the Heartbreakers on May 30 when the "Free Fallin'" rockers kick off a three-month North American tour in Grand Rapids, Mich.

T.I. is expected to plead guilty on Thursday (March 27) to federal weapons charges, as part of a plea deal that will send the rapper to prison for a year, reports The Associated Press. Citing two sources familiar with T.I.’s case, the AP says the 27-year-old rapper (born Clifford Harris) would be sentenced to 1,500 hours of community service — which he would serve by talking to youth groups around the U.S. — followed by about 12 months behind bars. The unnamed sources told the wire service that, as of Thursday morning, both sides were still negotiating the terms of the plea bargain. According to the AP, T.I.’s prison term could be increased or reduced, depending on his fulfillment of the terms of the deal. He could also serve less time for good behavior. The deal reportedly dictates that T.I.’s message to youth groups should focus on the pitfalls of guns, gangs and drugs. The news follows on the heels of the prosecution’s announcement that a change-of-plea hearing has been scheduled for Thursday afternoon. U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell Jr., who has been overseeing the proceedings thus far, will have to sign off on the deal. T.I. was arrested back in October, mere hours before he was to headline the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta. The rapper was charged with possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers, and possession of firearms by a convicted felon. If he were found guilty without a plea bargain, he would face a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count. T.I. initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, and has been under house arrest since his release on $3 million bond on October 26. He was allowed to leave his house to attend church services on Easter Sunday. MTV News will have more on this developing story throughout the day.

The artful television director Tony Palmer set his video footage of Tangerine Dream's 1975 Coventry Cathedral concert to music from the band's Ricochet album, for broadcast on the BBC. Since then the video has been available in poor quality bootlegs, but now here it is in a new DVD release. Combining psychedelic effects with the cathedral's own architectural and artistic imagery, Palmer created an extended music video for a band whose performances, at that time, consisted of expressionless manipulation of analog synthesizers. The three musicians had a seemingly uncanny ability to build on each others' sounds in a live setting to create semi-improvisatory music of a kind that we no longer hear in this all-digital age. In 1975, analog synthesizers hadn't been compressed into digital simulators within two-dimensional, soulless-looking electronic keyboards. Rather, they were big, sometimes huge banks of patch bays and "black boxes" manually linked together to create sound effects. This video is a good opportunity to witness how such instruments were played. Most likely, no concert of this nature will ever be performed again, by anyone. On the video, however, the musicians' actions on keyboards and knobs don't match the music. How could they? The music is from an album that had nothing directly to do with this concert (though it was recorded at around the same time). This video is neither more nor less than an extended, psychedelic music video of a very cool (and important) band. It is not, however, what a lot of TD fans - an extremely devoted bunch - were expecting. The full title is Tony Palmer's Film of Tangerine Dream Live at Coventry Cathedral 1975. Technically, that's exactly what it is. But it led many fans to think that this was actually a film of the concert, with live recorded sound, and it's not that at all. At 27 minutes, with no extras and $26.98 on Amazon, it's overpriced, too, no matter what you call it and however enjoyable it may be on its own terms. Even Tangerine Dream completists might want to consider renting this first, or buying a used copy.

(Cumberland, USA) - Hardware manufacturer Numark has announced a new tool to combine various USB powered media devices for optimum DJing. The DDS80 provides a compact solution to be used across a number of scenarios.The DDS80 is in fact a complete DJ system for space efficient DJs and consists out of two separate components: DDS and the DDS drive. The DDS is the actual media player itself, designed according to feedback by professional working DJs. It comes with the usual mixing essentials such as key lock, pitch-shift, loop and track look-up while an impressive color screen provides a clear digital interface. Next to this, the DDS offers the possibility to pre-mix a set using the Crate function, as well as an in-detail cueing aid called Profile View.The DDS Drive is the device’s media rack, which greatly expands media options by using the connectivity and simplicity of USB. The DDS can be connected to the DDS Drive and access its 80GB hard drive or DVD/CD-ROM drive without having to use an extra laptop or computer. DDS Drive connects directly to a computer through USB, offering fast and easy upload of music to the system’s drive, either prior or during mixing. The device furthermore offers the possibility to connect various other Mac or Windows formatted USB-powered tools to it, such as iPods, USB sticks or third party media players.The DDS80 is due at retailers in the second quarter of this year.

Smashing Pumpkins are suing their former record label, Virgin Records, claiming that the label used the band name in promotional activities when it had no right to do so. According to Billy Corgan and co, Virgin used their Smashing Pumpkins band name in a promotion tie-in called Pepsi Stuff, despite not being legally allowed to use it for promotional activities. The lawsuit filed by the band claims the label had the rights to sell digital downloads of the band’s music, but not to use their name for promotional activities. They claimed that Virgin’s actions compromised their “artistic integrity”, reports AP. Smashing Pumpkins left the label when they disbanded in 2000, and have been with Reprise Records, a division of Warners, since they rebanded in 2005.

The secrets of Neil Aspinall, The Beatles’ close friend, ‘fixer’ and confidant, are likely to never come to light following his death yesterday (March 24). Aspinall was close to The Beatles throughout their entire career, and was head of Apple Corps until last year. However, he never wrote a memoir, and was keen to keep his time with the band private. The Beatles’ biographer Hunter Davies speculated on the secrets he could reveal in a piece on The Guardian’s website, saying: “I asked him countless times, saying he should get it all down, before it’s too late, if just for his children. He always said no. “Neil was there from the very beginning, a constant friend and associate, never leaving the magical mystery circle, until a few months ago when he retired as head of Apple Corps, looking after their business interests.” One tale that has only just come to light is of Aspinall’s affair with Mona Best, mother of The Beatles’ first drummer Pete Best, even having a son, Victor Roag Best, with her in 1962, when he was 19. Davies writes that John Lennon had told him this in 1967 but had sworn him to secrecy, on the same day the singer had confessed he and manager Brian Epstein had had a one-night stand a few years before.

While I was a little too young to have seen any shows at the dawn of the thrash era, I was into the music by 1984. Serving as a part of the soundtrack of my high school years through 1989, thrash metal was the kind of music perfect for teen angst, but also contained enough musicianship to last through the years as a viable music form. In the beginning there were four bands: Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer, and Metallica. While the first three get a mention in this documentary, the focus is on Metallica’s place in the music scene. Aural Amphetamine starts with the fall of punk and rise of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) and its direct effect on the early genesis of Metallica in California. Lars Ulrich became such a fan of bands like Diamond Head that he flew to England to meet the bands without having a place to stay or much money in his pocket. The interview with Diamond Head’s lead singer is one of the better ones in the movie. He tells a number of anecdotes from the era essential to understanding how influential the movement was to the burgeoning American music scene. There are interviews with ubiquitous music journalists Malcolm Dome and Lonn Friend. Both give historical perspectives on the scene, nicely balancing the artist interviews which are anecdote-driven. Among the artists is Chris Poland from Megadeth, looking grey, but surprisingly normal considering the high-partying reputation of the band. Archival interviews from Metallica and Megadeth are featured, but it's basically material that has been seen before, and quite frankly, very poor copies of some of it. It’s a little jarring seeing an interview from the mid-'90s with inferior film quality than clips from the early '80s. Whether the producers were forced to use these lesser quality prints due to rights issues is unclear. Aural touches on other bands of the genre, including props to Motorhead and Venom, highly respected in the metal world but often overlooked. When it comes to looking at Megadeth, Slayer, and Athrax, the bands get some decent recollections, but a few assertions are left out to dry, like how Anthrax were not at all respected due to lead singer Joe Belladonna. That statement is given no back-up, leaving me scratching my head. They may not have technically been thrash, but every metalhead I knew was into them. I would have liked a more thorough fleshing out of some off the lesser bands that were active at the time, and could have done with a few more artist interviews, especially from those who were there at the beginning. But whether you agree with the movie’s overall thesis about Metallica’s role in the thrash movement or that Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All was the first thrash album (which I do) or not, the documentary is recommended viewing for metalheads and those interested in music history. Aural is not the be-all, end-all of thrash documentaries, but it’s a well-done effort, save for archival print quality issues.