The Wonderful World of Rock

That Ted Nugent! What crazy thing will he do next? Apparently, the Nuge went on a rampage recently at an NRA convention, where he was speaking to a crowd of fellow gun nuts. At one point in his speech, the Motor City Madman brandished a pair of assault rifles and urged fellow members to limit their social circles to only other members, and to become “hardcore, radical extremists.”

The Nuge went on to encourage the attendees to exact their own brand of vigilante justice on criminals, laying waste to carjackers, child molesters, and an assortment of other social undesirables. He topped off the event by screaming, “No court case. No parole. No early release!”

Now, of course, no one in college likes the Nuge anyway, so these latest salvos of pro-gun fervor are unlikely to surprise or confound anyone. If anything, it will strengthen his fan base among hicks and lunatics. I’m pretty sure it made me like him more. I mean, you have to respect someone standing up for their beliefs in such an un-PC way.

No one is even supposed to like guns anymore, and here the Nuge is wielding two, while speaking in public no less. He’s not going to let anyone else tell him how to think, or apologize for who he is. And that’s rock ‘n’ roll, Nugent style. I, for one, will see my Nugent records making a heavier rotation on my record player after hearing this wild news. No other rock dinosaurs still have this much energy.

Speaking of rock dinosaurs, you’ve probably already heard about the Dinosaur Jr. reunion. If you read the Vanguard, you definitely have, as I wrote about it a few months ago. But there have been some developments, and the plot has thickened considerably. Now, the pioneering indie rockers have scheduled a full-blown reunion tour for the summer, and will be hitting a lot of locations in the U.S. Unfortunately, none of them are on the West Coast as of yet, but on the newly created Dinosaur Jr. web site the band has hinted at the possibility of western dates if their already scheduled reunion dates go smoothly.

The band reunited on the Late Late Show last Friday, where they were reported to be rockin’ well together like it was the old days. If this is any indication of things to come, and if they’re anything like all the other “seminal” (see “money hungry”) bands that have reunited over the past year, we should hopefully get some tour action in our very own city.

Do you remember Coldplay? That Radiohead rehash band that had a hit a couple years ago? Oh wait, they became huge, didn’t they? That Chris Martin’s mug is plastered on the cover of every rock magazine around now, isn’t it? My prediction that they would bomb was 100 percent wrong, wasn’t it? Me being wrong aside, Martin was reportedly involved in some shenanigans recently at a secret Coldplay concert. While on stage, Martin spotted Oasis’ Noel Gallagher in the audience, on the balcony of the venue. Since Noel Gallagher is apparently Martin’s idol, the cue-balled singer clambered up the speaker stack and launched himself onto the Gallagher-inhabited balcony. On arriving, he encircled the singer in a hearty embrace. Unfortunately, Martin’s band was attempting to continue playing without him, and was severely hampered when Chris found himself stranded on the balcony, 15 feet away from the action. This didn’t stop the enterprising baldy, as he proceeded to jump the 15 feet back onto the stage to continue the concert. Whoa.