MUSIC MAKES FOR
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
TOO MANY BLOWS TO THE HEAD
Boxing great Oscar De La Hoya will follow in the footsteps of such athletes-turned-musicians as Deion Sanders and the 1985 Chicago Bears by releasing his first album this month on the EMI Latin label. De La Hoya says he wants to retire from the ring in about two years and devote himself to music. "I want to do it forever. I want to do it like Frank Sinatra," he said. "I can't wait to consort with the mob, have sex with starlets and showgirls and boss my friends around. You know, like ‘Hey, Sammy get me a scotch and soda and light my smoke.'"
WOULD IT BE SO BAD IF PERRY WANDERED AROUND IN THE DESERT FOR 40 YEARS?
Jane's Addiction/Porno For Pyros frontman Perry Farrell will incorporate his experience as co-founder of the Lollapalooza tours with his recent studies of Jewish history to organize a music festival, the Los Angeles Times reports. The wacky poster boy for alternative music has teamed with the Israeli government to develop a festival tied to the celebration of the Jubilee Year of Judaism. Slated for next spring at Tel Arad, the ruins of an ancient city in the Judean desert, Farrell hopes to recruit U2 and Radiohead, whose frontmen, Bono and Thom Yorke, have been, with Farrell, the top music activists in Jubilee 2000, a separate campaign to forgive the debts owed by developing nations. Said one industry insider, "Playing in the middle of the desert certainly wouldn't hurt any of those bands. In fact, it might be a step up."
AND THE TRIBUTE TO SPEEDY GONZALEZ WAS IN BAD TASTE AS WELL
Three Mexican music groups said Friday (9/29) they will refuse the Latin Grammy awards they won two weeks ago, claiming that the awards are biased against traditional Mexican music. Los Tigres del Norte, Los Temerarios and Texas-based tejano group Los Palominos said the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences was biased against Mexican regional stars during the first-ever Latin Grammy Awards on Sept 13. Even though there are about 40 Latin Grammys and about 100 regular Grammys handed out each year, they claim many genres are not represented, including the award for best traditional non-English speaking Amazonian group with four or more members who have moved to Mexico City after living at least six years on the north side of the Andes.
APPARENTLY, THEY DO KNOW JACK
A party at the Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg, TN, turned into a rock concert when The Wallflowers and Third Eye Blind took the stage. In celebration of the 150th birthday of founder Jack Daniel this month, about 1,000 invited guests were kept in the dark about who would be performing Saturday (9/30). Organizers were afraid they would be overrun with gatecrashers if word got out in advance. "It was nice to actually get a paycheck from this gig," said Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins. "We just thought we were playing for Jack."
Pearl Jam is planning to release recordings of 46 shows from its North American tour as authorized bootlegs, similar to the 25 already released from the band's European tour. According to the band, no release date has been set for the North American sets. "Twenty-five double discs are just not enough," said a lunatic fan. "Everyone should have another 46 copies of the same songs."
