Iggy Pop Named Ambassador for Record Store Day 2012

Iggy Pop has agreed to take on the role of official ambassador for Record Store Day 2012. Set to take place on April 21, Record Store Day celebrates the virtues of independent record store establishments, and is marked by special shows and one-day sales events.

In a prepared statement, Pop said, “I got my name, my musical education and my personality all from working at a record store during my tender years. Small indie shops have always been a mix of theater and laboratory. In the ’50s and ’60s the teen kids used to gather after school at these places to listen free to the latest singles and see if they liked the beat. You could buy the disc you liked for 79 cents and if you were lucky meet a chick. Clerks in these places became managers (like Brian Epstein), label heads (Jac Holzman) and Faces on album covers (like me).”

To read Pop’s statement in its entirety, visit the official Record Store Day website.

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Stevie Nicks: Fleetwood Mac Will Tour Again, May Record Again

In a recent interview with celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, Fleetwod Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks revealed that Fleetwood Mac will tour together again in 2012. But she’ll first ride out the release of her new solo album, In Your Dreams, and the release of Lindsey Buckingham’s solo album after that.

“When [my new] album and Lindsey’s album come to a stop then Fleetwood Mac will gather again and we’ll either make another record or we won’t and we’ll just go on tour,” said Nicks, who released her first solo record in 10 years on May 3.

Buckingham’s album, which Nicks calls her “favorite thing he’s ever done,” is due out in September and will be called Seeds We Sow. Nicks’ own solo album debuted an #6 on the Billboard 200 chart this month.

The last time that Fleetwood Mac played together was 2009. Their last album was 2003’s Say You Will.

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Dave Grohl Wants to Record Albums in His PJs

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, by now you’ve heard the Foo Fighters decided to record their just-released album, Wasting Light, in frontman Dave Grohl’s garage. But, the real question is, “Why?”

Grohl told MTV News, he simply found the relaxed approach to recording refreshing, invigorating and fun.

“The making of this album was kind of the most fun we’ve ever had making a record, because it was so laid-back,” he said. “I wish every album was like this, where I didn’t even have to get out of my pajamas. Dude, it was in my house. ... I liked doing it this way. Let’s leave it at that.”

Listening to the raw-sounding album, it’s obvious the collection was recorded the lo-fi, old-school way: with tape, no computers and a lot of spirit.

“It was my idea to do it to tape, which nobody does it to tape anymore, everyone uses computers, and computers are rad and whatever, but tape, you have to actually play, and you have to be good. You can try to make it sound as good as it can, but at the end of the day, you get what you get on tape, that's it,” Grohl said.

The recording took Grohl back to the Nevermind days.

“When I first brought it up, I said, ‘Hey, I want to do this to tape,’ and everybody was like, ‘Well, can you do that?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s the way we used to do it,’ and Butch [Vig], the producer, he produced Nevermind, like, 20 years ago, and that was tape,” he said.

“…I basically said, ‘If I see one computer in my house, you’re fired.’ Why go 99.9 percent of the way? If we’re going to do it, let’s go all the way.”

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Poison Drummer Wants to Record New Material

Poison drummer Rikki Rockett says it’s time for the band to record new music, but in the meantime he’s thinking of forming a new band to satisfy his need for new material.

Speaking to Bravewords.com, Rockett said he found it annoying to be a ‘heritage’ act at a time when he was in the best musical shape of his life. “Here’s the thing that drives me crazy: we have learnt so much in our career… yet it amazes me that we are not putting all of those things together into an album,” Rockett said. “I know I’m a better player than I was even 10 years ago. I know everybody is better. Everybody has had more experiences… I can’t tell you how overdue a new record is.”

Poison hit the road with Motley Crue and the New York Dolls this summer, and Rockett says that if Poison don’t go into the studio after the tour he would like to form a straightforward rock band in the vein of Bad Company. “I love to stretch out and try new things, but I do know who I am and you’re not going to get a Rikki Rockett jazz record,” he said.

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U2 Set to Break Rolling Stones’ Record

The Rolling Stones formerly laid claim to the highest-grossing tour of all time, but U2 have overtaken them with their U2 360° world tour, which began in 2009 in Barcelona and is still going strong.

This Sunday, April 10, U2 will officially break the record with their performance at Sao Paolo’s Morumbi Stadium. At that point, the 360° tour will have fetched more than $558 million. And it’s not over yet, kids.

Billboard estimates that by tour’s end, it will have grossed more than $700 million.

A U2 tour date reportedly grosses about $6.4 million, with the band playing to an average crowd of 63,600. So far the 360° tour has hit more than 30 countries.

The Rolling Stones previously held the record for highest-grossing tour with their 2005-2007 A Bigger Bang tour.

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