May 2012 News

by Alex Young

Foo Fighters had quite the wild Saturday: They headlined The Bamboozle in Asbury Park, NJ just hours before backing Mick Jagger on Saturday Night Live. And yet they still had enough energy to serve as the house band for SNL's late-night cast party at Rockefeller Center. According to a contributor who attended the party, Foo Fighters performed covers under the moniker Chevy Metal.

Below, you can watch footage of Foo's performing The Stones' "Miss You" with Jagger, JOAN JETT's "Bad Reputation" with Parks and Recs' Amy Poehler, and JOAN JETT's "I Love Rock N' Roll" with cast members Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, and Andy Samberg (via Antiquiet).

by Elizabeth B.

Wanna see Kristen Wiig sing with the Foo Fighters? Sure. Why not?

This is from Splitsider, which reports that after the season finale of SNL on Saturday, a stage was set up at the 30 Rock rink for the afterparty. The Foos' alter ego cover band "Chevy Metal" played for a couple hours and invited a number of castmembers up to sing and play.

Here's Kristen singing JOAN JETT's "I Love Rock n Roll" with Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg on backing vocals. Yikes. She totally would not make it through to the next round on American Idol. I'm just sayin'.

by Jim Bessman

Before inducting the second artist into The Rock 'n' Roll Pantheon (RNRP)--not to be confused with The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame--the personalities behind the RNRP, who choose to remain anonymous, are thrilled at the overwhelming response, not all negative, to the launch of the RNRP, and the tremendous approval, not unanimous, of the initial inductees KISS.

That said, the second inducteeÑmake that inducteesÑconstitute not only the RNRP's first female honorees, but also its first two-fer. Like the word suggests, two-fer means "two for the price of one," and was the music business term given some 25 years ago (incidentally, the required mininum number of years between an RNRP inductee's first release and year of induction) to a double-disc album gatefold package, usually an artist "best-of" and promoted most commonly by the historic Vanguard label, that was budget-priced as if it were a single album.

The two-fer concept is being applied in this case to an artist, JOAN JETT, who came out of a legendary band, The RUNAWAYS. Instead of including Jett with The RUNAWAYS, and then later inducting her as a solo artist in the manner of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (not to be confused with The Rock 'n' Roll Pantheon), it is the policy of the RNRP to induct her and the band simultaneously, a sort of two for the price of one, as it were.

by Betsey J. Denberg

JOAN JETT's "Bad Reputation" is a classic. We'd go so far to say there probably isn't that many people who a)don't know the song and b) don't know all the lyrics. It's also probably one of the top ten songs you're guaranteed to here at a karaoke night.

So, it's not a surprising thing that a good amount of bands make its best attempt at covering "Bad Reputation". Hell, it was even the theme song for the early 00s television show, Freaks and Geeks. But, like most cover songs, some are great, and some are just downright awful. It's just how it goes.

Here's a few cover versions of JOAN JETT's "Bad Reputation" that will make you want to sing-a-long or plug up your ears.

by Joe Lawler

Oldies radio station 93.3 KIOA will host the new Party in the Park concert July 29 at Water Works Park, headlinded by JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS and KC and the Sunshine Band.

Also on the bill is The Spinners ("Then Came You," ""Games People Play"), Dr. Hook ("Cover of the Rolling Stone"), Pablo Cruise ("Love Will Find a Way") and Chuck Negron, the former lead singer of Three Dog Night.

Tickets are $25 for members of the KIOA Email Club from Friday until May 11. Then they'll be $33. Tickets for kids 12 and younger are $10 with each adult-paid admission. Tickets are available through kioa.com and redtrucktickets.com.

by Jen Boyles

In a dream lineup for lovers of badass women-fronted groups of the late '70s, Heart and JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS plan to headline Mystic Lake Casino this summer.

The former RUNAWAYS renegade paired with the famous pair of sisters is a genius double-bill and shows at the casino's Ampitheater are a treat considering the great sound and ample tiered seating. For this gig though, we expect fans might want to get a bit more rowdy than the setup allows. These are classic rock queens, after all.

The show on June 29 marks the fourth time Heart has performed in the Twin Cities in the last three years, the latest at the State Fair this past summer. Having attended all those shows you can rest assured Ann Wilson still wields that brassy trademark wail, albeit not as cutting as it once was. The rapport between the two sisters is sweet and the duo has a fantastic ability to transport their audience back in time a few decades.

JOAN JETT is more of a wild card on this lineup as she and her band The BLACKHEARTS haven't played in Minneapolis since her First Avenue gig in 2006. She did headline a show on the casino circuit in Carlton in the winter of 2011 -- right around the time she was nominated as a 2012 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame inductee but was passed over due to lack of votes. No big deal. It's not like she's been called "The Queen of Rock & Roll" or anything.

Tickets go on sale May 3.

JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS and Heart play Mystic Lake Casino on Friday, June 29. Tickets $35, $41, $47. 8 p.m.