From Brian's website today...
Here is the confirmed artists & track listing for the Queen Tribute Album on Hollywood Records
HOLLYWOOD RECORDS QUEEN TRIBUTE ALBUM
Artists and tracklisting of the forthcoming Hollywood Queen tribue album, will include the following. More details to follow:
We Are The Champions - GAVIN DEGRAW
Good Old Fashioned Loverboy - JASON MRAZ
Bohemian Rhapsody - FLAMING LIPS
Stone Cold Crazy - ELEVEN FEAT. JOSH HOMME
Death On Two Legs - ROONEY
Play The Game - JON BRION
Tie Your Mother Down - SHINEDOWN
Under Pressure - JOSS STONE
Sleepin' On The Sidewalk - LOS LOBOS
Bicycle Race - BE YOUR OWN PET
'39 - INGRAM HILL
Who Wants To Live Forever - BREAKING BENJAMIN
Killer Queen - SUM 41
Fat Bottomed Girls - ANTIGONE RISING
Bohemian Rhapsody - CONSTANTINE [from American Idol] PLUS THE CAST OF WWRY (VEGAS)
I have to admit...I was a bit..er..I'm trying to be polite here...
....surprised at the CRAPPY artists they got including...American Idol's Constantine...
Antigone Rising has a record deal with yes..you are about to hear me right..."Starbucks Coffee" Shops who now hawk their own records to the "mellow" yuppy crowd.
Joss Stone & Los Lobos are about the only artists on there I can barely tolerate.
Freddie is flipping in his grave. OHHHHHH
:0
I thought that the band personally requested Constantine for the album after he performed BoRap on American Idol? No matter...it should be an awesome performance. He did a pretty incredible job with it on the show, considering they only let him sing about 90 seconds of the song, and with the cast of WWRY and Brian May on backing? Hell, I'll plunk down $13.99 for that.
Plus Jason Mraz and Gavin Degraw are both pretty respectable indie rockers. And the Flaming Lips are freaking legends in the indie music scene. I mean...it could be worse. They could have gotten someone like Kelly Osborne or *gag* Ashlee Simpson to do a few covers. At least they got people with some talent.
The Flaming Lips and Josh Homme's contributions could be intersting. But I hope this gets released for download via iTunes, Napster etc, so I can get those two tracks and leave the rest (which are by artists whom I do not know or care about). At Least there is no 'WWRY' by Nickelback, as has baeen mentioned before. Small mercies, eh?
I had truly thought that they were going to have some big time current credentialed artists..who all cite Queen as an influence...
Greenday
Foo Fighters
My Chemical Romance
The Used
And like it would have killed Hollywood Records to get some heavyweight stars who have perfomed with Queen or are their contemporaries, like say..
David Bowie
Elton John
Annie Lennox
Geez...when the records companies put out tribute records to The Eagles or Johnny Cash...they show some damn RESPECT by getting high profile veteran stars..and...contemporary star artists who cite Cash or The Eagles as influences or worked with them.
This blows! Big time. What a dissapointment.
Rooney is actually pretty good, joss stone on up is gonna be weird because she has a deep voice, but hey we'll see, and Flaming Lips on Bohemian Rhapsody will be a totally diff. BoRhap will be totally different so don't expect anything.
Actually, Ingram Hill probably has done a great cover of '39. They are a young, up and coming band with two hits, Almost Perfect and Will I Ever Make It Home. They are featured on the new, um, Herbie soundtrack with a cover of Boston's More than a Feeling. You should check that out or better yet check out their music at link
The artists featured on this album all have followings with the 15 year old to 30 year old crowd who may not be that familiar with Queen. A great opportunity to introduce their work to new audiences.
They should have had Green Day in there doing We Are The Champions....the rock tributes (Dragon Attack etc. will still be way better)....don't know why they included "loverboy" in the set...hollywood's idea i guess
I've heard Jon Brion perform "Play the Game" before at his weekly live show at Largo ( link ) and he usually does an outstanding job at whatever he touches (he's produced all of Fiona's albums, produced the Magnolia Soundtrack, Eternal Sunshine soundtrack, Punch Drunk Love soundtrack, prudiced Aimee Mann, Rufus Wainwright, etc...
He's got a quirky, eerie pop sensibility and I can't wait to hear that track above all others.