CyRock presents:

the funniest, weirdest and downright outrageous

pics & clips of the year!

Countdown: 15-1

This year's Christmas holidays were some of the most enjoyable ones I had in a long time! Let's carry this spirit along to 2012 with the second part of our 'Crazy 2011' list! (Read first part here!)

I had loads of fun compiling the second part of this list! I has so much fun that it actually took me much more time to finish it than it should have done! I simply couldn't stop the repeated viewing of some of the clips in the list!

Before I leave you to enjoy it, I would just like to make one small note: There is an intentional omission to the list, related to a certain famous band! This band could have occupied not only one, but several positions in it! There is (of course) a specific reason for leaving it out. All shall be revealed in our New Years' Issue, which will be published in the second week of 2012. 

I would like to wish all CyRock friends a fruitful, creative, healthy, non-toxic, sharing 2012. The rest will come!

The Editor

We kick-off proceedings with another contribution of Metallica to today's society. This time it's about sports, but not the ones that you can imagine or associate with the band and its music (football, baseball, basketball, judo, synchronized beer drinking, etc.). Nop, the mighty ones provided the soundtrack for the Canadian synchronized swimming team performance, with the tunes 'Ender Sandman' and 'Master of Puppets', taken from the 'S & M' album! Do I need to tell you that the girls earned a well-deserved gold metal?

Swim to Water, Waterland!

Who likes Fred Durst? ........ (frozen silence) ........ thought so! BUT, nobody can deny that Limp Bizkit have produced some fun tunes over the years, and that Wes Borland is a great artist! Even more, Limp Bizkit are responsible for perhaps one of the best song / music clips ever, one which is regularly on rotation in work environments' playlists, for reasons than need no further clarification! This year Limp Bizkit returned with a new album entitled 'Gold Cobra'. It kind of flopped commercially, but I thought it was OK overall. What made the headlines though was the hilariously grotesque clip for the same-titled song. Shot in the LA River bank, features a yellow Lamborghini, lots of glitter, and .... well .... things that bounce! Enough said!

The current Slipknot situation is rather strange! Band members do not seem to share the same vision about the future of the band, and Corey Taylor is pushing aggressively his own personal career. Supposedly, there is a consensus that there will be a new Slipknot album at some point in the future. Until then, we still have the opportunity to enjoy the band's live performances, which are always a great experience! Especially because we get the chance to enjoy the famous Sid Wilson's jumps in the crowd. This year's Sonisphere Switzerland jump was one of the most entertaining (i.e. ... EPIC) ones that have been captured on tape, so it deservedly gets our no.13 spot of the craziest things 2011!

They dominate our top-15 list but it's not (only) their fault. I mean, who on earth told this bride and groom: first, to get married (mistakes of the youth!), and second, to actually perform live 'Master of Puppets' during their wedding reception! The absolutely AWESOME bride actually plays the drums better than Lars has done for the last 15 years! Find me a girl like her, and I'll probably get married as well! (watch the word probably, hehe). 

This story does not end here though! Lars may have forgotten how to play drums but he is always a cool guy, no matter what people say! So he invited the couple to play live with the band during the recent '30 Years of Metallica' anniversary gigs @Fillmore! And look, the Metallicouple has a Metallikid already! Bless them!

Question is:

Do you wanna mess with Tom Araya?

Do YOU, REALLY, wanna mess with Tom Araya?

Obviously not. Tom is a big scary guy, who growls ugly in your face and probably has good links with Satan. You might consider messing up with his family then.

So the next question is:

Do you wanna mess with Tom Araya's family?

Do YOU, REALLY wanna mess with Tom Araya's family?

......

Think again! I wouldn't!

... and so you are frustrated that you cannot really mess with Tom Araya.

... and you are frustrated because life sucks in general.

... you really want to let all your frustration out.

... you really want to scream like Tom Araya does.

... but you really can't!

No worries! Tom Araya can fix things for you!

SCREAM YOUR GUTS OUT!

Beastie Boys! Everybody loves them, especially rock / metal fans, despite the fact that they are only one of the best bands in the history of hip-hop music! They have an irresistible 'crossover' feeling which attracts all music fans and their legendary music clips have played no small part in this. Who doesn't remember this EPIC one? And if you're old enough, you certainly know very well their first MTV video hit 'Fight For Your Right to Party'. This year the Beasties revisited the story of this particular clip, in a star-studded 30-minute mini-movie for their new song 'Make Some Noise'! It takes a 'Back to the Future' storyline to the extreme, providing an outrageously gross, classic Beastie Boys experience!

Jimmy Fallon and Conan O' Brien are my favourite American late night show hosts. Apart from their enormous talent in comedy, they have a genuine appreciation for rock & metal music! Jimmy Fallon gave us a cracking example of rock / comedy combination,  during one appearance of his recurring 'Neil Young' character in the show: He covered Miley Cyrus' dance hit 'Party In The USA' as 'Neil Young' in such a shockingly brilliant manner, it is really hard to believe that this is a cover of the original song! What made this cover truly unique though was the appearance of real-life Neil Young collaborators David Crosby & Graham Nash on the backing vocals! Utterly funny & utterly brilliant at the same time.

Can't stop watching this!

It is a well-known fact to CyRock insiders that I have a  huge appreciation for uncle-Lemmy! In last year's review I praised 'Lemmy - the movie' which made me laugh hard, cry hard, and think hard for one-hour and 56 minutes! I also had the chance this year to experience Motorhead live from the first row of the Nova Rock festival! And what an awesome experience that was! I almost "died" during the long instrumental section of the 'Chase is Better than the Catch'! Last but not least, Lemmy, as always, provided us with some typically ingenious quotes during his legendary interviews, like this one, and this one! But our no.8 position has nothing to do with any of the previous things as separate news items / events. It has to do with all these things together, and many, many more! Ladies & Gentlemen, I give my respect to Austin, Texas, for providing us with the first official appreciation day (March the 8th), for the one and only Motorhead band!

ALL RISE!

(click on picture to enlarge!)

On October 18th 2011, I got a mail from Petros, a very good friend of mine whom I trust heavily on his music taste. The mail contained only the subject line 'Enjoy My Friend' and a couple of YouTube links. Little I knew that I was just one click away from the awesome experience of Red Fang! However, this great American metal band does not appear in this list on the merit of its music quality: One of the YouTube links I mentioned earlier directed me to arguably one of the best and funniest music clips of 2011! It is not only my opinion. It has been voted as such by a number of professional metal sites! I won't say why, and I am not going to describe what is going on in this one, because I don't want to spoil the fun of experiencing it for the very first time! You just HAVE to watch this! Cheers Petros & Red Fang, you made some very miserable autumn days pass very quickly!

This is exactly what I call "a late entry"! Rammstein teased us for a long time about their new music clip for the song 'Mein Land'. When it finally came out in November, as part of the promotional campaign for the band's best-of album, it delivered everything promised ... plus more! The Masters of the grotesque came up with another masterpiece, hilariously combining elements of Baywatch, surf movies, and ... Kokomo!

The smart ones will ask: If Red Fang's clip is as bizarre as you say it is, why on earth the Rammstein one occupy a higher position in this list? The answer is really simple: because Rammstein do not just make grotesque clips ... Rammstein are COMPLETELY BONKERS!

Watch the following clip for further proof!

(continue to the next column)

The no.1 choice was actually the easiest one I had to make! It's not only about the great song, the single-take music clip, and the (now famous) dance moves of Tuggle. It's also about the amazing story behind it!

Black Keys decided in September to shoot a music clip for the song 'Lonely Boy', from their new album 'El Camino', which was about to be released. Black Keys are famous for the funny storylines of their music clips, like the one for the song 'Tighten Up'. Apparently, the idea was to film another comic clip for 'Lonely Boy'. For reasons that have never been published, the idea failed miserably, the clip was not funny, and the band decided to scrap it.

BUT ... there was one actor that was cast as extra for this clip. His name was Derrick Tuggle, one of the thousands unknown actors trying to make a living in LA for the last 10 years. Tuggle was playing a motel receptionist in the original plot of the clip. The director noticed him dancing to the song, and asked him if he would like to perform some dance moves through it on camera. Tuggle agreed and he was given one hour to come up with a choreography.

In the next hour Tuggle learned all the lyrics and designed his choreogpahy. He performed it all in front of the camera ON THE FIRST SINGLE-TAKE!!!

When Black Keys decided to scrap the original clip, they had nothing to release ... EXCEPT Tuggle's footage! So, they chose to release it as the official clip for the song! Needless to say NO ONE in their record company agreed with their decision. They tried repeatedly to change their mind, but Black Lips insisted otherwise!

The result of this magnificent  story is certainly one of the best clips in the history of rock n' roll music, at least since MTV established the art. It will certainly be one of the most successful clips as well: It's nearing the 5 million views only 2 months after it was released!

Genuinely funny, genuinely entertaining, it's our no.1 in the list of the funniest, weirdest and downright outrageous pics & clips of 2011.

Dance your way through 2012 with Tuggle!

BLESS HIM!

                The CyRock Team (rockcyprus at gmail.com - rockcyprus at hotmail.com)