With a string of previous sold out Australian shows in the bag, Cobra Starship return to our shores for Soundwave this year and have just announced they’ll be playing two exclusive Sidwaves in Sydney and Melbourne. The group will be joined by pop punk outfit Forever The Sickest Kids, These Kids Wear Crowns, and Kill Hannah.

TICKETS ON SALE MONDAY 30TH JANUARY, 9AM

MONDAY 27TH FEBRUARY MELBOURNE, THE FORUM – 18+
www.ticketmaster.com.au

WEDNESDAY 29TH FEBRUARY SYDNEY, THE HI-FI – Licensed All Ages
www.thehifi.com.au

Exclusive to Soundwave Pirate radio will be ‘HAUGMETAL’ a weekly 2-hour metal show hosted by none other than Andrew Haug, every Thursday night from 8pm – 10pm. “Haugy” has been the voice of metal in this country for a over a decade in his former role as host of triple J’s The Racket.

As Haugy said to Tone Deaf in today’s interview with him and his band Contrive, his move from triple j was the station’s decision: “It was Triple J’s decision. Many people thought that I was retiring from the show. Why would I retire from something I absolutely love?”

His message for Soundwave fans is similarly enthusiastic: “Super psyched to be bringing you a weekly dose of smashing tunes from all things Soundwave. You’ll also hear from some of the godliest names in the biz taking part in this monstrous metallic gathering. If 2012 is the year the world ends? Then jump right in and let the metal flow with ‘HAUGMETAL!”

‘SOUNDWAVE PIRATE RADIO’ launches on Thursday January 26^th January 8pm with ‘HAUGMETAL’. Tune in via www.soundwavefestival.com

His and the groups indie cred and views on selling out were then questioned by none other than Australian group The Avalanches (yeah, those guys that have been promising us a second record for over a decade), who accused Vernon of being a sell-out for appearing in an ad for whiskey. Weird, we know.

Now Pitchfork has uncovered a fitness video staring the enigmatic front man. For real, the video is shot in an infomercial/documentary style and tells the story of Vernon’s fitness regime and his relationship with his personal trainer, Jeff Rogers. In the video Vernon reveals that he has a back condition called sciatica and Rogers has been helping him to overcome his condition.

We’re not sure if this is for real or is a brilliantly executed parody but it’s funny nonetheless. Enjoy the video below!

So why is it genius? Firstly, she didn’t buy the 288,000 jelly beans. That would cost her a fortune and given she started the project while she was still in high school something that would be out of reach for most teenagers. Instead she approached Jelly Belly, one of the biggest makers of jelly beans in the world, who signed on to the idea and are currently doing all the hard promo work for her video online.

“We never expected it to take that long so it definitely got frustrating at times. But we all believed in it so much and we were so invested in it,” Grannis said in an interview with Fox News. “And it was cool because at the end of every day we could see the progress we made, so that helped a little bit.”

According to Jelly Belly the music video was made with 288,000 Jelly Belly jelly beans, spread throughout 2,460 frames, filmed across 1,357 hours.

“Basically, he (director Greg Jardin) built a little cable casing so each individual frame of the video would be projected down onto this little table, and then people would spend the next hour placing the jellybeans in to coordinate with the picture,” Grannis explained. “Then they put a piece of plexi glass down and then I would lie down on top of that and we would spend the next fifteen minutes getting me into an exact position and then we take a picture and then we start all over again, so it was pretty tedious.”

The video has been an instant hit, gathering just over 3 million views since it was unveiled on Youtube a fortnight ago. For a singer that no-one had heard of before this has to be considered a smash hit.

But the people really licking their lips, apart from us after watching the video, are Jelly Belly who are running a huge social media campaign to try and gather more Facebook friends. It’s also worthwhile considering that what we’re really looking at is 3 minute advertisement for Jelly Belly.

But who cares? This video seems like a win-win and until people start yelling ‘sell out’ we may be about to see a large number of musicians and brands attempt to emulate this campaigns success. We’ve seen the future of online music promotion, and it sure is tasty.

You can watch the music video below, and if you’re interested also check out the making of video below it.

Talking to the reporter after the incident where she walked off stage in an expletive filled rant after a fan held up a picture of her late husband Kurt Cobain, Love says “When people come to me and say, ‘I love Nirvana.’ I wasn’t in Nirvana. However, I do own Nirvana … with my daughter and because of tax laws I have to give money to his sister, Kim Cobain, and [Kurt's mother] Wendy Cobain,”

Love also explains why she dragged Cobain’s former bandmate and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl into the mix saying “What I was saying, is Dave [Grohl] makes $5 million a show, he doesn’t need the money. His mother’s a banker, his father’s a stock broker and he’s making $5 million a show. Why the f**k then does he have a Nivana Inc. credit card and I don’t? And last week he bought and Aston Martin on it,”

How does Love know that Grohl bought an Aston Martin? Because she rang up American Express and told them he had died in a horrible plane crash and that she wanted all the records for the Nirvana Inc. cards. “If it’s a fan, at a bank or whatever, I’ll get information” she said. “If it’s like, a mean black lady, I’m not getting the information.”

“My sister-in-law is homeless, she lives under the bridge that Kurt sang about. It pisses me off that my mother-in-law- doesn’t have a front door in the winter, her boiler doesn’t work and she has black mold, and Dave bought an Aston Martin last week.”

But her bashing didn’t end there, she also claimed the Grohl didn’t write a single note or even the drum riff on Nirvana’s seminal single ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.

You can watch both interviews below. For the MTV video skip through to 13:40.

It seems that after molesting a few 80s rock classics earlier in the set when the singer wants to belt out a rendition of Bon Jovi’s ‘You Give Love A Bad Name’ it becomes all too much for the guitarist who in a moment of clarity decides to go out in a blaze of glory.

Decided that he’d rather destroy his equipment than play Bon Jovi one more time the guitarist walks up to the microphone as the lead singer starts to belt out the famous ‘Shot through the heart / and you’re to blame’ intro, and says ‘screw this band, I’m going solo’. He then turns his frustrations on his equipment channelling his rock brothers from The Clash as he does his best to emulate the famous over-the-shoulders guitar smash.

The rest of the band look around in disbelief not sure what to do next, as the clearly pissed off drummer throws his sticks in the direction the guitarist walked off stage. The crowd reacts with boos with one woman yelling ‘you’re a fucking asshole’ whilst another man yells ‘rock n roll’.

You can watch the hilarious footage of the incident below, immortalised forever thanks to Youtube. Also don’t forget to check out our slideshow of the biggest on stage meltdowns.

But sometimes choosing not to be safe can have dire consequences, as a Them Crooked Vultures fan in the UK found out the hard way. According to The Daily Mail, 52-year-old Robert McIndoe attended the concert in July 2009 to see some of his rock idols, Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme, Foo Fighters singer Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, who make up the supergroup.

But after the gig McIndoe had trouble sleeping due to a loud ringing in his ears as a result of the loud music. His wife Shirley recounts that her husband was mad at himself for not wearing earplugs but thought the annoyance would eventually disappear. ”

When it first happened he wasn’t too bothered about it because he thought it would subside,” she said. “and the friend he had been with also had ringing in his ears that day. But it was a constant irritation. He didn’t get a night of sleep after that.”

After repeated visits to the doctors failed to solve McIndoe’s ailment he turned to sleeping pills to try and get some much needed sleep. But even the sleeping pills failed to improve his quality of life and eventually he decided to take his own life by deliberately overdosing on the pills at the families home in south-east London.

His attempt was unsuccessful and after a stint in recovery he was allowed to return home. “He said he hadn’t wanted to wake up because he couldn’t bear the thought that he was no good to us,” his wife said of the suicide attempt. “He just wanted to sleep and not be suffering. They kept him in hospital for three days and I thought that had been the low point, and we were moving forward.”

According to a psychiatrist McIndoe saw after the attempt on his life he was “prepared to be deaf or dead” if no relief could be found and even considered permanently deafening himself by having his auditory nerve cut.

On 31st October McIndoe was found dead after it appeared that he had stabbed himself to death in a second suicide attempt. “He was very distressed, saying he didn’t think he could go on,” his wife said. “It was awful, he looked terrible, and he just felt so bad all the time. He was desperate that it was never going to change – he didn’t know if he could live like this.”

A hearing into his death is currently being conducted in the UK. If you or someone you know is depressed or having suicidal thoughts for immediate assistance call Lifeline – 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service – 1300 659 467. For more information about depression and anxiety visit www.beyondblue.org.au or call the info line on 1300 22 46 36.

The other interesting thing is according to the original uploader ‘klootime’ the demo tape was recorded before guitarist Jonny Greenwood joined the band. The songs, called ‘Girl (In The Purple Dress)’, and ‘Everybody Knows’, take Radiohead into a sound that is much more reminiscent of R.E.M and U2 than the Radiohead that we’ve all fallen in love with.

Have a listen to the tracks below and let us know what you think.

The planning application, which was lodged back in August, asks for permission for the following works at 280 Lygon St, Brunswick East, the address for the bandroom:

Partial demolition of an existing building, the development of a multi-storey building (five storeys plus basement) for shop and dwellings, use of the land for the purposes of dwellings, the continued use of part of the land for the purpose of an hotel and office space, waiver of loading bay requirements associated with the shop use and reduction in car parking requirements for the dwellings and shop

The bandroom is one of Melbourne’s most famous venues and plays host to a number of up-and-coming international acts and mid-level local acts each and every week.

The news comes off the back of a tough year for live music venues around the country with many venues either shutting down or circumstances changing that paint a stormy future. The Prince Bandroom in St Kilda was recently sold to a restaurant group who have indicated that there probably won’t be a future for the business once they redevelop the rest of the complex into restaurants.

Also in the last year Brisbane has lost The Troubadour, Sydney has lost Low Bar, Tone Bar, and The Hopetoun, and in Melbourne they lost The Arthouse, and The Public Bar. Once shining light however was the announcement last week that the Hi-Fi group of venues will be setting up shop in Sydney to compliment their existing venue locations in Brisbane and Melbourne.

We’ll let you know if we hear anything more on the planning application.

UPDATE 22nd November 2011: The bookers of the venue have released a statement

Surely this is the doomsday we’ve all been preparing for as music enters a world where virtually no physical copies are sold anyone. Sure, we all knew this day would eventually come. Hell, they’ve already taken our cassettes and they’ve taken our mini-discs from those who bothered.

Ok, so the Mayans didn’t actually predict the demise of the compact disc, but that hasn’t stopped plenty of others taking a shot. According to Side Line Music Magazine, the major labels are gearing up to pretty much halt CD production by the end of 2012 or beginning of 2013. Reports from those within the major label machine say that majors plan on replacing the discs with streaming and digital downloads.

Limited Edition’s will continue to be produced on CD as collectors items but in a much smaller capacity and only for major artists. They expect wide-scale CD production to halt sometime in 2012.

Not everyone is so sure that we’ll see the death of the world’s most popular music format so soon however. Billboard, who do the album charts in the US think that perhaps we’re being a bit premature saying “there is no major label plan to abandon the CD format by the end of 2012. A major corporation isn’t going to take such incredibly drastic measure. Can you imagine what the recorded music divisions of EMI or Warner Music Group would fetch if they stopped selling CDs?”

The LA Times did some  of their own investigative journalism on the subject and found that up to 75% of US music sales in 2012 were made through the purchase of Compact Discs. In some genres the figure was even higher: 93% of Latin, 85% of gospel and 84% of country records were all physical discs.

So what do you think? Are we ready to see the CD go the way of the Dodo?