Battlin’ Mike Dirnt

Mike Dirnt plays bass with Green Day–and this guy really should be more careful.  He keeps getting hurt. 

The first major incident was at the Woodstock festival in August 1994. 

During a major mud fight during Green Day’s set, Mike ended up being tackled in the confusion by one of the security guards assigned to protect him. 

He fell against one of the speaker monitors and broke a bunch of teeth.  That resulted in some emergency dental surgery. 

A couple of years later, Green Day had to abort their Insomniac tour when a longtime heart condition made it impossible to continue. 

And then in June 1998, he got into a fight with Arion Salazar, the bass player for Third Eye Blind. 

As Mike fought with Arion, someone nailed him in the head with a beer bottle, fracturing his skull.  I hope this guy has a good medical insurance plan.

So What DOES Mylo Xyloto Mean?

Ever since Coldplay announced that they were going to call an album Mylo Xyloto, people have been trying to figure out what that means. (Let's not bother with how to pronounce the damn thing for now.  Everyone seems to have their own version.)

Sorry to disappoint you, but it doesn’t mean anything. Coldplay just made it up.  Why?  

According to Chris Martin, the band wanted something new, fresh and otherworldly—a title that hadn’t been used by anyone anywhere in any context before.  The band thought it was starting fresh with the album so they wanted a title that sounded just as fresh.  

And there’s a bit more to it.  Here’s what Chris told Mojo magazine:  “It’s a layer of crypticism to disguise the fact that it’s completely and utterly about the way I think about my life.”

The Secret History of Rock Trivia Video Blog 001

Welcome to Who Wants to be a Know-It-All?, the game where we see just what kind of trivia geek you are!

Every week, I’ll post one of my "I Did Not Know That!"-type videos, what I like to call The Secret History of Rock Trivia of the Week. 

And remember: if you have any kind of weird trivia, I'm always interested in it! Send it via tiwtter (@alancross), Facebook, or leave a comment at the bottom of this post. If your trivia happens to be credible, I'll use it in one of my video blogs and will credit you. 

See you next time. 

The Word “Punk”

Here is some ancient punk rock history.  Every wonder how the word “punk” came to describe a certain style and attitude in rock’n’roll?  Here’s one possible story.

In early 1975, a fanzine was started up by an 18 year-old fan of weird rock music.  Leggs McNeil was into the kind of music mainstream magazines wouldn’t touch.  That meant stories on the Velvet Underground, the New York Dolls, Iggy Pop and the Stooges and the Ramones.

He called the ‘zine Punk, inspired by a picture of his favourite band—a New York group called the Dictators--posing in some leather jackets.  Naturally, his search for stories took him to CBGBs, the new music club that was just starting to happen.  

The ‘zine caught on with fans and pretty soon, any band that was featured in the ‘zine was being referred to as a “Punk” band.

The First Gay Pop Star

Back in January 1972, David Bowie became the first major pop star to say that he was gay.  He really wasn’t, but he said it anyway because it was good for publicity. 

So that begs the question: Who was the world’s first openly gay pop star?  Jobriath.  Who?  Precisely. 

After David Bowie’s publicity coup, Elektra Records thought that they’d better get their own gay pop idol.  They drafted an actor named Bruce Wayne Campbell from a production of the musical Hair.  He was renamed “Jobriath” and the label sunk a ton of money into the project. 

The hype was sensational: giant posters of a semi-naked Jobriath throughout New York.  A debut performance at the Paris Opera House.  An album made with the London Symphony Orchestra and Jimi Hendrix’s producer.  It was a flop. 

A second album–despite a catchy single called “Scumbag”–also flopped.  Jobriath ended up doing cabaret in Berlin before moving to New York and dying of AIDs in 1983.