ATTENTION, PAPARAZZI!
Since snagging the MTV Video of the Year Award in her notorious meat dress last year, Lady Gaga has been keeping up a breakneck pace. After playing at the Staples Center in August 2010, the superstar extended her Monster Ball Tour and will hit the Honda Center stage with openers Scissor Sisters on March 31. The singer/cultural phenomenon also announced on New Year’s Eve the release dates for her new album, Born This Way, and its eponymous lead single.
OC fans should be able to get a taste of the new material at her show, which fits in nicely between the releases of the single and the album. This marks her third full-length in less than four years, so all the local “little monsters” should be well-fed with pop candy in 2011. From a Jan. 3 Heard Mentality blog post by Danielle Bacher.
JOSH FREESE’S LATEST GIG: PARAMORE
According to SPIN magazine, Long Beach resident and session drummer (and former OC Weekly cover man) Josh Freese has been pegged as the fill-in drummer for Paramore’s upcoming tour dates in South America.
As we reported a couple of weeks ago, the band recently encountered a few issues when guitarist and drummer Josh and Zac Farro dropped out, later releasing a scathing statement citing front woman Hayley Williams as the main problem.
Freese currently divides his time as a full-time member of A Perfect Circle, The Vandals and DEVO, but has also drummed with everyone from Weezer, Sting and Paul Westerberg to Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age and Guns N’ Roses.
While the general reaction online so far seems to be of the “WTF-Paramore?” nature, it seems fans forget Freese is a session drummer, too, recording with the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry, J-pop star Ayumi Hamasaki, Puddle of Mudd, Michael Bublé, Katy Perry, Cher, Miley Cyrus, Gavin Rossdale and Avril Lavigne. From a Jan. 3 post by Vickie Chang.
WAR DEDICATE SHOW TO TEENA MARIE
As 2010 came to a close, Lonnie Jordan of WAR opened Dec. 30, 2010’s concert at the Grove of Anaheim by dedicating the band’s set to the late Teena Marie. The music world continues to mourn the loss of “The Ivory Queen of Soul,” who passed away at the age of 54 on Dec. 26. Jordan recalled sharing the very same stage with the singer just two years ago: WAR were playing their annual end-of-the-year show at the OC venue on Dec. 29, 2008, when Marie joined the band for an improvisational jam that surprised and delighted concert-goers.
As it turns out, Marie singing “Hey Lonnie” (with Jordan returning a “Hey Teena”) at the end of that performance might have been her final appearance in Orange County. She had headlined a concert at the Grove of Anaheim just six months prior, but had no such dates slated in 2009 or 2010. From a Jan. 3 post by Gabriel San Roman.
