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Whether or not you are a Rush fan, there’s no getting away from the fact that those three guys (particularly Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson) have a sense of humor and are not afraid to stretch themselves a bit and try their hand at some comedy routines. Their idea of comedy doesn’t align too well [...]

Post from: Real Rock News

With 2008 on the verge of becoming a distant, boozy memory, join the Rock Daily crew as we look back at the year that was. Ah, 2008, the year Chinese Democracy became a reality, Obama was elected President, Britney Spears went from crazy mama to hot mami. To quote our favorite Kanye West rant of ‘08, it was the year of the “Squid Brains.” But who was the year’s most-blogged-about star? What posts did the readers comment on the most? How many times did we discuss the Phish reunion and the R. Kelly sex tape? And how many times did David Archuleta fans demand that we “eat our hat?” All those answers and more as we blog down Rock Daily’s best moments of the year:

Most commented, non-Rock List:

• Robert Pattinson Vs. The Jonas Brothers: Who Has the Crazier Fans?
• Guns N’ Roses Return To Radio With “Chinese Democracy”
• The 2008 MTV VMAs Live Blog: It Has To Be Better Than Last Year
• Mellencamp Asks McCain to Stop Using Tunes

Most commented, Rock List:

• Weekend Rock List: Readers’ Top Albums of 2008
• Weekend Rock List: Next Velvet Revolver Singer
• Weekend Rock List: Best Beatles Covers

Most commented Comment of the Week:
• (Comment of the Week: When Teenyboppers Attack)

• Number of times Kanye West appeared in the headlines: 90
• Number of times Britney Spears appeared in the headlines: 85 (2007 Headlines: 86. That’s consistency.)
• Number of times Metallica appeared in the headlines: 74
• Number of times Radiohead appeared in the headlines: 65
• Number of times Barack Obama appeared in the headlines: 52
• Number of times Bruce Springsteen appeared in the headlines: 51
• Number of times AC/DC appeared in the headlines: 41
• Number of times Led Zeppelin appeared in he headlines: 32
• Number of times Chinese Democracy appeared in the headlines: 28
• Number of times Enuff Z’Nuff appeared in the headlines: 1 (Tied their 2007 number!)
• Number of times we had to report on that really creepy R. Kelly sex tape trial: 17
• Number of stories concerning the whereabouts of Roger Waters’ escaped inflatable pig: 3
• Number of stories concerning Roger Waters without mentioning his escaped inflatable pig: 1
• Number of bad Lil Wayne “A Milli” Jokes: 5

• Number of Phish reunion stories: 10
• Number of Blur reunion stories: 6
• Number of My Bloody Valentine reunion stories: 5
• Number of Toadies reunion stories: 3
• Number of Creed reunion stories: 1 too many
• Number of Pavement reunion stories: 0

• Number of times we received death threats from David Archuleta fans because we didn’t enjoy their boy hero’s debut single “Crush” all that much: 1
(David Archuleta Debuts First Single “Crush”)

• Number of times we probably would have received death threats from Jack White had our inbox not been full: 1
(Is the Second Raconteurs Album Coming Out Next Week?)

Number of Live Blogs: 5

• The Grammy Nomination Show Live Blog: Foo Fighters, Mariah Carey and a Bunch of Names
• TR-Later! Rock Daily’s Farewell to “TRL” Live Blog
• The 2008 MTV VMAs Live Blog: It Has To Be Better Than Last Year
• Archuleta or Cook? The Last “American Idol” Countdown (And Live Blog) Begins
• 2008 Grammys Live Blog: Harder, Better, Faster, Blogger

And that’s it, folks! Happy new year and we’ll see you in ‘09!

photo courtesy of www.photobucket.com

We’ve almost reached the end of 2008, and we gotta say it was a good year for metal. The genre continued to grow and diversify, as best exemplified, perhaps, by the top headbanging fest of the year, Rockstar Energy Mayhem. In a single day of Mayhem, fans could witness mainstream extreme metal (Slipknot), mainstream regular metal (Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch), power metal (Dragonforce), lumbering prog/doom metal (Mastodon), contemporary thrash (Machine Head), deathcore (Job For a Cowboy), pre-deathcore/hardcore (The Red Chord), alt-metalcore (36 Crazyfists), female-fronted metalcore (Walls of Jericho) Christian metal/hardcore (Underoath) and hard rock (Airbourne, Black Tide).

Metallica returned to their thrash metal roots after more than 17 years of fairly commercial songwriting, and delivered Death Magnetic, a powerful showcase of technical musicianship and brute force. Slipknot proved they’re still alive and well with their first number one album All Hope is Gone and Testament returned with a vengeance, delivering The Formation of Damnation, their first studio record of new material in 16 years to feature lead guitarist Alex Skolnick. Innovative French metallists Gojira released the stunning The Way of All Flesh, which brought death metal to new progressive heights and Chicago black metal experimentalists Nachtmystium put out Assassins: Black Meddle Vol. 1, which owed almost as much to Pink Floyd as Emperor.

While numerous contemporary bands were paving new paths, old-school outfits were suggesting the brightest route to the future is through the past. AC/DC stuck to its “21-gun salute” and released Black Ice, which was only sold at Wal-Mart and, despite a complete lack of Internet sales, shifted over 1.6 million copies. Guns N’ Roses finally released Chinese Democracy (exclusively through Best Buy) and despite disappointing sales, the record drummed up a boatload of publicity because of a botched promotional move by Dr. Pepper (which promised a free bottle to every American if Chinese Democracy was released in 2008) and because it was actually listenable and totally didn’t suck. Judas Priest released the most ambitious album of their career, the double-disc concept record Nostradamus and supported the project on the monstrous Metal Masters tour, which also featured Heaven and Hell, Motorhead and Testament.

If 2008 offered evidence to the theory that heavy metal gets stronger in tough times, 2009 promises to be even more devastating. Clearly, it’s gonna be a rough year for the world’s economies, and it’s already shaping up to be a killer year for metal. Look for new albums by Slayer, Lamb of God, Mastodon, Megadeth, Deftones, Sigh and God Forbid, just to name a few.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There are still a few hours left of 2008. Go forth and make them as metal as possible.

We love it when Breaking Artists make good and wind up on our Best Albums of the Year list, like Fleet Foxes, Jamey Johnson, the Knux and Bon Iver did in 2008. Here’s a look back at their Breaking videos, plus two bonus clips — Deerhunter busking on a Brooklyn street and Sam Champion rocking out in their van. To review all our 2008 Breaking stories, performances, exclusive downloads, video premieres and more, spend your holiday weekend with the Breaking Blog.

Fleet Foxes

Jamey Johnson

The Knux

Bon Iver

Deerhunter

Sam Champion

We think this guy’s still in the band, tacky shirt notwithstanding

Indianapolis Christian experimental hardcore band Gwen Stacy are praying that 2009 will be a more stable year than 2008, and their pleas have nothing to do with war or the economy. This year they lost two key players; first, vocalist Cole Wallace was fired for personal reasons and was replaced by rhythm guitarist Bobby Oakley. Guitarist Chris Suter was hired to perform on tour. Then in November, Oakley quit for reasons unknown and ex-Oceana vocalist Keith Jones temporarily took his place. And now, the band has announced that ex-Once Nothing frontman Geoff Jenkins will be its new vocalist.

“He had been playing guitar for [Once Nothing] for about the last two years,” the band said in a statement. “Before that he was the front man of a band and has been looking for an opportunity to do vocals again. We are very excited about this transition.”

Jenkins’ first performance with Gwen Stacy will be January 16 in Bloomtown, Indiana on “The Life I Tour” headline jaunt, which also features Our Last Night, Vanna and In Fear and Faith. Shows are scheduled through February 7 in Terre Haute, Indiana.