The J-Spot - Volume 1, Issue#2

New Cellphone Wallpapers:

    I have uploaded some new cellphone wallpapers of Assassin's Creed and a couple other to throw in some variety. If you have a web-enabled cellphone you can download these creations directly to your phone and you can download them from the site I uploaded them to and then transfer them to your phone via USB or Bluetooth connection. I have uploaded them in the largest size so that you can use the web site I posted them on to re-fit them to your cellphone's screen size. Below are a few of the wallpapers I uploaded this week. Click the link to visit the site: http://www.mytinyphone.com/profile/teammojo/


New Cellphone Ringtones:

    I have uploaded several new ringtones to the same site as the cellphone wallpapers found above. You can download these straight to you web-enabled phone or you can download them to you computer and transfer them to your phone via USB or Bluetooth connection. The ringtones I have uploaded are made from the same songs I have chosen for this weeks "Who's Next" section.

     - Song 1: Paralyzed from Rock Kills Kid

     - Song 2: When the Sun Goes Down by Arctic Monkeys

     - Song 3: Keep Forgetting (Intro) & Chorus Section by The Cinematics

Music News:

 - Symphony X Confirmed For Artarfe Rock Festival
    SYMPHONY X are the latest act confirmed for Spain's Atarfe Vega Rock Festival, which will take place March 7th/8th, 2008 in the city of Atarfe (at 11 km from Granada, Andalusia).

Confirmed acts on the bill now include: DESTRUCTION, EXCITER, GRAVE DIGGER, KATATONIA, KORPIKLAANI, KOTIPELTO, MAYHEM, MY DYING BRIDE, SYMPHONY X, TRIBAL and UNLEASHED.

For more info about the festival, visit the official website at www.brmusic.net.

 - Queensryche Enter Billboard Charts
    QUEENSRŸCHE's collection of covers, "Take Cover", has sold 5,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 173 on The Billboard 200 chart.

Singer and chief songwriter Geoff Tate, guitarists Michael Wilton and Mike Stone, bassist Eddie Jackson, and drummer Scott Rockenfield put their stamp on 11 classic tracks with "Take Cover".

Not known for playing many covers live, Tate says the album gave the band a chance to relax and have some fun. "During soundchecks, Stone and Michael like to play 'name that riff,' and sometimes the whole band joins in. That's really the way this album came together too. We got together and started playing songs to each other, and then we picked our favorites."

The eclectic list of songs reflects the members' divergent tastes and includes a few surprising selections such as "Heaven On Their Minds" from the hit musical "Jesus Christ Superstar", the O'JAYS R&B classic "For Love Of Money" and an operatic epic originally performed by the Italian duo of CARLO MARRALE & CHEOPE, "Odissea". Recognized as an accomplished vocalist, Tate says he enjoyed the song's demanding arrangement. "I really like this song because there is a lot for a singer to sink his teeth into, plus I got a chance to sing in Italian, which was interesting considering I don't speak a word of it."

The set covers a lot of ground both lyrically and musically, opening with "Innuendo", QUEEN's epic song about life and death; "Almost Cut My Hair", CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG's paean to freedom; and the medieval metal of BLACK SABBATH's "Neon Knights".

"Take Cover" also features QUEENSRŸCHE's distinctive arrangement of PINK FLOYD's "Welcome To The Machine", an acoustic version of BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD's "For What It's Worth", and a highly charged live version of U2's "Bullet The Blue Sky". "We'll never top the originals; they're classics for a reason," Tate says. "We were more focused on finding different approaches that took the songs in unexpected directions."

Singing PETER GABRIEL's "Red Rain" and THE POLICE's "Synchronicity II", Tate says, were opportunities for him to explore music he'd previously overlooked. "I'd heard these songs on the radio before, but I didn't really appreciate them before the guys suggested we record them. It was a rewarding experience doing this album because it gave us all a chance to pay tribute to some of the bands that have meant so much to us over the years, and we all discovered new songs to love."

"Take Cover" track listing (original artist in parenthesis):

01. Innuendo (QUEEN)
02. Bullet The Blue Sky - Live (U2)
03. Synchronicity II (THE POLICE)
04. For What It's Worth (BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD)
05. Welcome To The Machine (PINK FLOYD)
06. Red Rain (PETER GABRIEL)
07. Neon Knights (BLACK SABBATH)
08. Almost Cut My Hair (CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG)
09. Heaven On Their Minds ("Jesus Christ Superstar")
10. For The Love Of Money (THE O'JAYS)
11. Odissea (CARLO MARRALE & CHEOPE)

 - Queens Of The Stone Age Doing Animated Film?
    The Pulse of Radio reports that QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE might be working on an animated film based around "Bulby", the character shaped like a light bulb that appears on the cover of the band's latest album, "Era Vulgaris", as well as some of the group's recent videos. According to Gigwise.com, the QUEENS have met with Hollywood studio execs about the project and have brought in a designer and potential director to work on it. A source said, "It's going to be the new SpongeBob SquarePants or Ren And Stimpy."

QUEENS frontman Josh Homme told The Pulse of Radio why "Bulby" and another broken light bulb character ended up on the cover of "Era Vulgaris". "The title has an accidental air of seriousness, and I think that just helps to kind of illustrate that, 'No, no, no, not that serious actually,' you know," he said. "And I also think that it kind of strikes a little bit of a balance between that '50s generation of advertising, that sort of naive generation where Drippy the Oil Drop sold Exxon Oil or Fred Flintstone sold smokes, you know, which seems really Satanic."

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE starts a U.K. tour on Friday (November 23), but will return home to the U.S. in December for a string of pre-holiday shows.

Proceeds from a December 9 concert at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, California will go to various charities and organizations, including Operation Safe House and Palm Desert High School.

 - SLASH Interviewed At ROCK 'N ROLL FANTASY CAMP
    The Rock 'n Roll Fantasy Camp Podcast sat down last week with VELVET REVOLVER/ex-GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Slash, who talked about his experience at camp, how it's just as cool for him as it is for the campers, his memoir called (obviously enough) "Slash", the Guitar Hero games, and how long it's been since he played the GUNS N' ROSES classic "Sweet Child O' Mine".

To listen to the 12-minute chat, download the MP3 audio file from this location (12 MB).

 - LED ZEPPELIN To Resume Rehearsals As PAGE Promises Live Surprise
The UK's ITN recently conducted an interview with LED ZEPPELIN guitarist Jimmy Page about the band's upcoming December 10 reunion show at the 02 Arena in London. Watch the two-minute report below.

The Pulse of Radio reports that LED ZEPPELIN was set to resume rehearsals this week for the London gig, following the show's postponement from its original November 26 date after Page broke his left pinky finger. Page told Reuters that the finger was almost healed, saying, "I'm able to do what I ought to be able to do. It's just a bit bruised and it's a bit painful still, but with this two weeks' postponement...it's going to be fine."

Page also revealed that the band might perform a song that it has never played live before. He explained, "There's one number that we rehearsed, I assume that it will make it to the (concert), that we never played at any point in time. It dates from when the band was together between 1968 and 1980. It's a really intense number."
The set list for the show, which will cap a tribute concert to late Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, has been the subject of intense speculation among fans. The band is expected to revive many of its classic tracks for the promised two-hour performance.

Page, singer Robert Plant and bassist John Paul Jones will be accompanied on drums by Jason Bonham, son of late ZEPPELIN drummer John Bonham, for their first concert together in 18 years.

As for the continuing rumors about a full-blown ZEPPELIN tour, Page made another of his ambiguous statements to Reuters, saying, "Let's just do the O2 and we'll see what happens from there."

Adding fuel to the fire, LedZeppelin.com has been launched as the "ultimate online destination for all LED ZEPPELIN fans," with a press release stating that it will be "keeping the world up-to-date on LED ZEPPELIN's activities."

Finally, did THE CULT frontman Ian Astbury accidentally confirm that ZEPPELIN will tour next year? According to MTV.com, Astbury said during a CULT show in Cincinnati on Saturday night (November 17), "We'll be back next year, because we're opening for a band you may have heard of...the name starts with an 'L' and has a 'Z' in it." When an audience member called out "LED ZEPPELIN!" Astbury nodded and raised his fist in the air. Representatives for both THE CULT and ZEPPELIN declined comment.

 - Ex Megadeth Bassist Talks Possible Reunion
    The Rock 'n Roll Fantasy Camp Podcast sat down last week with former MEGADETH and current F5 bassist David Ellefson, who talked about his experience at camp, his current projects, how he got into and out of MEGADETH, and if he'd ever work with Dave Mustaine again.

On the topic of whether he will ever reunite with Mustaine and his former MEGADETH bandmates, Ellefson said, "Dave and I have met — about two years ago, it was. He had reached out to me and I gladly reciprocated and we met and we had dinner and buried the hatchets. There was a lot of legal unhinging with our business stuff together and that's, to some degree… He and I will always be in business sort of the way Lennon and McCartney are always in business because we have a… sort of like we raised some kids — we've got albums, we've got work, we've got our songs we composed together — there's all this stuff, and that's gonna be there. And it was nice for he and I to sit down and look each other in the eye and talk without having managers and attorneys and, you know, the entourage and stuff, around. It was nice, because, really, that's how he and I met — he and I met just face-to-face — and it was nice that we got to have a hook-up like that; I'm really happy about that. And I don't know if that means one day we'll ever be in a room with our guitars on again or if it'll just be, like, when we come into each other's town, we call each other and go out to Starbucks and hang out and get caught up about what's happening with the kids, you know what I mean?! [laughs] I don't know what that is. But I think rather than trying to force it, it needs to just sort of happen on its own time. I think any successful reunion that I've seen — whether it's MÖTLEY CRÜE or THE WHO or THE EAGLES, or whoever it is — it seems like the only successful ones happen because everybody… It's almost like enough time has to go by where you're willing to forgive, you're willing to let… it's, like, the time does heal the wounds, and you're able to sort of move past all of that stuff so that you can be in that place that I saw Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend being — which is with a real sort of gratitude and a real zeal for the rock and roll reason they got together in the first place."

F5 — the Phoenix-based band featuring Ellefson, ex-SICK SPEED vocalist Dale Steele, and guitarists Steve Conley and John Davis — has entered the studio to record the follow-up to its 2005 debut, "A Drug for All Seasons". The CD is being produced by Ryan Greene at his Crush Recording facility in Scottsdale, Arizona.

F5 called in Ellefson's longtime rhythm section cohort Jimmy DeGrasso to play drums on the album following the recent departure of original F5 drummer Dave Small.

"This looks to be a very musically invigorating record", said Ellefson. "No doubt there will be hints of F5's past sound on the disc but these new songs are definitely developing in a much more progressive direction."

A spring 2008 release via Oarfin Distribution is expected.

"A Drug for all Seasons" was released in North America in September 2005 via Cleopatra Records. The original version of "A Drug for all Seasons" is also available in Asia on JVC Victor Entertainment and in Europe on Mascot Records.

Who's Next:

This week I have picked a few selections from the Indie/Modern Rock genre. The tune below from the band "The Cinematics" has a real 80's feel that I really dug. The song "Paralyzed" from "Rock Kills Kid" has a great guitar riff and I 'm always a sucker for a sweet riff. The last selection "When the Sun Goes Down" has a great laid back story telling kind of intro that kicks into a punk sort of thing that really completes and makes the song. I hope you enjoy!

     - Song 1: Keep Forgetting by The Cinematics from A Strange Education CD

     - Song 2: Paralyzed by Rock Kills Kid from Are You Nervous? CD

     - Song 3: When the Sin Goes Down by Arctic Monkeys from Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not CD