Watch — Brian May on the Queen avatar show

Brian May Was Building a Queen Avatar Show. Then He Stopped.

Brian May got far enough into a Queen avatar show to have it planned out, and then he put it down. Talking to Absolute Radio, May said seeing the Las Vegas Sphere, and what the Eagles did inside it, was what set him off. He spent real time mapping what a Queen version could look like. The thing that stopped him was the machinery it would take to build: there is no version of it without heavy use of AI.

What makes the admission worth reading is that May does not settle the question. He says plainly he has no interest in taking other people's work. Stealing from the Queen catalogue is a different problem, since the catalogue is theirs, and he is not sure where he lands on that. Either way, building it adds to the load AI is already putting on everyone else.

"The doors are open, but I don't know if we're gonna walk through."

He has not given up on the underlying idea. May still wants a permanent room somewhere, maybe several rooms in several cities, where a fan can walk in and watch Queen at full strength, at any point in the band's life. That is the pitch. The technology that would deliver it is the part he keeps backing away from.

Context matters here. The Dio hologram tour and ABBA's Voyage residency have both split audiences, and May has been openly keen on a Sphere residency before now. Coming from the man who has done more than anyone to keep Queen in front of new listeners, the hesitation is the story.

Read the full story →

Listen — Keith Richards, "Bright Lights, Big City"

Keith Richards Drags "Bright Lights, Big City" Into Vice City

Keith Richards has released a cover of "Bright Lights, Big City," the Jimmy Reed blues from 1961, recorded for Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album. The arrangement is about as lean as it gets. A blues riff, drums, guitar, and Richards singing in a voice that has never sounded better than when it sounds used.

Reed has been in Richards' bloodstream since the beginning; the Stones cut the same tune at their 1963 IBC sessions. Richards has called Reed a genius, and the reason he gives is not about technique. It is about how relaxed the man sounded, and how completely his own that sound was, in a Chicago scene full of players.

"He has such a distinctive sound."

The soundtrack around him is a strange room to walk into. Richards sits on a 34-song album alongside Morgan Wallen, Rauw Alejandro, Yung Lean and Travis Scott, with more names still unannounced. Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album arrives November 19.

Rockstar has been using licensed music as set dressing for twenty-five years, and the pick is a smart one. A 1961 Chicago blues, played by an 82-year-old Rolling Stone, dropped into a game built on Miami neon. The joke works in both directions.

Read the full story →
Watch — Eric Kretz on 107.7 The Bone

Stone Temple Pilots' Eric Kretz Draws the Line at AI Songwriting

Eric Kretz sat down with Baby Huey and Chasta at San Francisco's 107.7 The Bone and gave the most specific answer anyone has given lately on where AI stops being useful. Video, he allows. A new band with no budget can feed in prompts, change the visuals, sharpen an idea, and come out with something that looks expensive. He is blunt that this is rough news for graphic designers. Songwriting is where he refuses.

"I hate it as far as an aid for songwriting."

His objection is worth hearing because it is technical rather than moral. What Kretz misses in AI music is the small wrongness in real records. A chord where the guitar has drifted a little sharp. A bass note sitting slightly off the guitar. Nothing you consciously register on first listen, but the thing you find when you finally dig into a song you have known for thirty years and start playing it for everyone in the room. He grants the obvious counterpoint too: the machines will probably learn to fake that, and then they will be able to copy a 1974 record properly.

He is more worried about film than music. Movies can now be assembled in a couple of months, SAG-AFTRA is fighting over how any of it gets controlled, and Kretz thinks the real break comes when audiences start loving characters who were never people. AI has no heartbreak. It may well learn to perform heartbreak convincingly. The money, he points out, all pushes that way.

Stone Temple Pilots still carry three original members: Robert DeLeo, Dean DeLeo and Kretz, with Jeff Gutt on vocals since 2017.

Read the full story →

Curated for rock fans  |  jbonamassa.com

Content sourced from the respective publications. All rights belong to the original authors.