Alice Cooper

[Dead N' Bloated]

No, I don't think so, but I'm not up with his more 'metal' stuff. There was one song that I wasn't familiar with. What was interesting was that Alice played alot of his 'B sides'.....

It was great to hear Public Animal No #9!

Do you know what the song was when he was dressed as the cowboy?

Maybe Desperado? Not sure


 

[stolat]

Nah, wasn't Desperado.

[Dead N' Bloated]

Nah, wasn't Desperado.

Im not sure about a cowboy outfit, I was headbangin' alot so I didnt see alot of the show.


 

[Angel Down]

Heard that the Coop is doing an interesting gig Downunder.

In March he will be perfoming at the Melbourne Casino in the Palm Lounge. A Vegas style act.

Just the thought of it cracks me up. The Alice character in a velvet smoking jacket, doing a Sammy D! 

[Dead N' Bloated]

I am so keen to go to that but its in Melbourne and I'll be in Sydney the night before watchin Ozzy. Still tryin to get there


 

[Malcolm]

Alice Cooper: 40 years on...and 'as insane as ever'

When current shock rockers Marilyn Manson and Slipknot were teething, Alice Cooper was playing arenas and raising Cain across the land. But aside from theatrical extravagances, he had the chart topping anthems to boot.

Initially with his legendary band in the 1970s and then as a metal godfather in his later career, he's amassed a body of work that has stood the test of time.

Conspicuously, at the recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Cooper was again snubbed. On the phone prior to a Japan tour, he didn't seem concerned.

"There's a bunch of good bands that aren't in," he said. "It's five New Yorkers deciding who's gonna be in the Hall. I don't know who gave them that right. I've got every credential...it'll happen. I kinda like the idea that I'm blackballed. What's better, to be in the Hall of Fame or to be kept out of the Hall of Fame?"

Cooper's ghastly getup and ghoulish shows are infamous; guillotines, severed heads and gigantic cyclopes have all adorned his stage. While reaping accolades from generations of hard rockers, this underappreciated songsmith has tinged his tunes with whimsy that most metalheads are too dense to duplicate. Curmudgeons Bob Dylan and John Lydon have avidly praised his songwriting. Without the theatrics, would his songs be more appreciated?

"Yeah, but I wouldn't give up the spectacle," he said. "That's my legacy. Kiss? Ozzy? Who did it first? I did. There's no two ways about that. And I had hits. Few bands putting on the kinda show I did ever broke that barrier. Back in '73, when Billion Dollar Babies went to Number One, the next thing I knew Mick Jagger was wearing eye makeup. He didn't wear eye makeup before that!"

His Japan shows won't be mere nostalgia. Still prolific, his latest, Dirty Diamonds, returns to his garage-rock roots. A new platter, Along Came a Spider, is already recorded.

"I'm excited about this album," he said. "It's about a serial killer named Spider. It's got so many twists and at the end it actually turns you around again. Alice fans will enjoy this."

While casual fans know him as a shock rocker, the original Alice Cooper band started in the early Detroit punk scene. Finding little success in late '60s California, they left the hippies and headed to Cooper's hometown.

"Coming from L.A., we knew the Doors and Buffalo Springfield," he said. "We got to Detroit and there were true rock bands. We didn't fit L.A. Now here's MC5. Here's the Stooges, these energetic Detroit bands. We were the missing finger in that glove."

After early '70s success with Killer and School's Out, the group disbanded. While Cooper carried on solo, he was crippled by alcoholism. Hitting rock bottom in the 1980s, he dried out, changing his ways.

Most shockingly of all, Alice Cooper became born again.

"I'm a true Christian, I study the Book," he said. "I have the problems and temptations. I've been married 32 years, have never cheated on her. Don't drink, don't take drugs. But my show's crazier than ever. It's only affected my personal life. I try to live an honorable life, but it doesn't affect my insanity. I'm as insane as ever."

Still controversial, he notoriously made waves when he referred to the 2004 pro-John Kerry Vote for Change tour as treasonous. Cooper says he was misinterpreted.

"They have every right to their opinion," he said. "But I never understood how rock 'n' roll got in bed with politics. To me rock and politics were the antithesis of each other. When my parents talked politics, I would go in my room and play the Yardbirds. My show has nothing political in it. I do satire. When I play 'Elected,' I['ve] got Hillary and Bush up there beating each other, then they're making out. I satirize, I'm not telling you who to vote for."

Adding to his unorthodox rock persona is his fervent golfing. After leaving rehab, he argues it kept him sober.

"Being from Detroit, nobody played golf," he said. "We had three sports: baseball, football and grand theft auto. When I got out of the hospital, my normal day was get up, make a drink. Sit down. Watch cartoons. Make another drink. Watch Price Is Right. Make another drink. I had to get up and do something new. I went to a course knowing it would take an hour to play a round. Which was great, because I needed to waste five hours. And I picked up a seven iron, swung it and hit it right down the middle. By the end of the year I was a nine handicap and found something as addictive as alcohol. It's like smoking crack, one shot and you're gonna chase it the rest of your life."

Organizing yearly charity tournaments, Cooper claims he's not the only celebrity musician who can swing. "Dweezil Zappa is a good player. Kenny G is really good. He's a guy I play tournaments with; if I beat Kenny G, I've accomplished something...because that guy can play."

[mrlee]

cool stuff above!!!!

thanks for posting

[mrlee]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABCwoWZXfsw

i never knew this happened! cool stuff!

[Malcolm]

According to a posting on the ALICE COOPER fan site SickThingsUK, Cooper will release his new album, "Along Came A Spider", in North America on July 29. The CD was co-produced by Greg Hampton and Danny Saber in Los Angeles.

Alice recently told Billboard.biz that his forthcoming LP is "a real 'Alice' album. Conceptually, it's going to be pretty interesting."

Cooper wouldn't reveal too many details, but said the album is based on a fictional serial killer named Spider, who wraps his victims in a silk web. "Every song is sort of a letter to the police," he explains. "They think they're investigating it from the outside, but he's actually woven them into the whole thing."

"Along Came A Spider" track listing (in alphabetical order):

01. Catch Me
02. Hungry
03. I Am The Spider
04. I Know Where You Live
05. (In Touch With) Your Feminine Side
06. Killed By Love
07. Salvation
08. The One That Got Away
09. Vengeance Is Mine
10. Wake The Dead
11. Wrapped In Silk

[FunkyMonkey]

ALICE COOPER: 'Along Came A Spider' Artwork Revealed - June 4, 2008

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=98341

[fuckin crazy]

I haven't seen him in years, but he was on hell of a showman. By far, one of the best shows I have ever seen.

[Wheres Izzy]

According to a posting on the ALICE COOPER fan site SickThingsUK, Cooper will release his new album, "Along Came A Spider", in North America on July 29. The CD was co-produced by Greg Hampton and Danny Saber in Los Angeles.

Alice recently told Billboard.biz that his forthcoming LP is "a real 'Alice' album. Conceptually, it's going to be pretty interesting."

Cooper wouldn't reveal too many details, but said the album is based on a fictional serial killer named Spider, who wraps his victims in a silk web. "Every song is sort of a letter to the police," he explains. "They think they're investigating it from the outside, but he's actually woven them into the whole thing."

"Along Came A Spider" track listing (in alphabetical order):

01. Catch Me
02. Hungry
03. I Am The Spider
04. I Know Where You Live
05. (In Touch With) Your Feminine Side
06. Killed By Love
07. Salvation
08. The One That Got Away
09. Vengeance Is Mine
10. Wake The Dead
11. Wrapped In Silk

Alice is a fucin genius. That sounds great, I really can't wait to check that out.

[FunkyMonkey]

The Late Late Show w/ Craig Ferguson 9/10/08 - Alice Cooper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z0yZe5h8Zg

Performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiAiLeo-f0A

[Wheres Izzy]

I dunno if anyone else has checked it out but I love the new Coop album. His best work since "Te Last Temptation" in my opinion.

[FunkyMonkey]

The way he describes the chicken incident is funny...

Alice Cooper brings macabre visions to Canada

By Cassandra Szklarski, THE CANADIAN PRESS

September 14, 2008
            

TORONTO - Theatrical rocker Alice Cooper has been raising hell for three decades and shows no signs of slowing down.

On Thursday the 60-year-old kicks off a 25-date Canadian tour in Vancouver, offering up a typically outlandish stage show said to feature zombies, dead Disney princesses, dead babies and a mock execution. Last month, Cooper released his latest disc, "Along Came a Spider," about a serial killer that stalks women so he can fashion a spider from their limbs.

In a recent interview, Cooper talked about his new album, that infamous chicken incident, and rock as art.

CP: Lately, I've seen some media stories refer to you by your original name, Vincent Furnier.

Cooper: Nobody's called me Vince for 35, 40 years. ... Most people that know me just call me Coop. They just say, 'Coop, what's going on?' And I'll tell you how that name got there - Groucho Marx. He knew Gary Cooper very well and he used to call him Coop. And I was a friend of Groucho's and Groucho just called me Coop.

CP: How did you become friends with Groucho?

Cooper: I lived close to him, he came to the shows all the time and he kind of saw us as some kind of warped vaudeville. I ended up being really good friends with him after a while. What an odd couple we were.

CP: What was it about the two of you that clicked?

Cooper: I don't know. You can't get any more of an icon than Groucho, you know. And I think the absurdity of Alice Cooper appealed to him. He never saw it as scary, he saw it as funny. ... He was an insomniac and he used to call me up at night and tell me to come over and help him get to sleep. We'd watch movies and finally he'd just fall asleep and I'd leave at about 2 or 3 in the morning.

CP: Tell me about the tour.

Cooper: It's really been funny, the Psycho Drama Tour. This is actually the second year of that tour and we did . . . about 100 shows last year, and then this year we're finishing it up and then next year we do the Along Came a Spider Tour.

CP: You've got a ton of dates set for Canada. Is this the most extensive Canadian tour you've done?

Cooper: I think it really may be the most thorough Canadian tour - I think it's pretty much Vancouver to Halifax. ... We have a long history in Canada. I recorded two or three of my albums up there in Toronto, I did a lot of writing in Vancouver and things like that. Canada, to me, it's just like being at home, really.

CP: And that famous chicken incident happened in Toronto, didn't it?

Cooper: Yes it did. ... And it ended up being sort of one of the first urban legends in rock 'n' roll, you know, because it got so blown out of proportion. To this day I get into town and the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) is going, 'Hey, are you killing any animals today?' And I'm going, 'I never killed an animal.'

CP: But a chicken did die.

Cooper: Yeah, the audience killed it. I picked it up. It was a bird, it had feathers. I'm from Detroit, I don't know if it can fly or not. First of all, who would bring a chicken to a show? I didn't. Somebody apparently brought the chicken to the show, threw it onstage and I went, 'OK.' And I didn't even throw it, I just kind of chucked it into the front row, thinking, 'Well, here's a good souvenir.' You know, 'Alice gave me a chicken.' The audience tore it to pieces. But, the front two, three rows were all in wheelchairs. So that made it even more bizarre.

CP: That sounds far more horrifying than you ripping the head off.

Cooper: Absolutely. The last thing I expected, I figured somebody in a wheelchair would say, 'Oh look, I've got a chicken, it's a pet now.' Instead, they just ripped the head off. And I went, 'OK.' Next day in the papers: 'Alice Cooper rips head off chicken and drinks the blood' and all that. But it was great for my image, I guess.

CP: Your new album, 'Along Came a Spider,' is pretty sick, I've got to say.

Cooper: Yeah, I like it, it's great. We have an oddity as humans. First of all, we appropriately hate serial killers. Anybody that's a serial killer is so off-balance and so sick - the Charles Mansons, the Jeffrey Dahmers, the Ted Bundys of the world, even the Hitlers of the world. We hate them. But we have some kind of love affair with our fictitious serial killers - we like Hannibal Lecter. ... We don't mind fictitious serial killers because we know they're not real.

So, when you invent a fictitious serial killer you want to make him really interesting. And in this case I said, 'Well, what if this guy fashioned himself after a spider, what would he do?' He would wrap his victims in silk, because that's a nice touch, and he takes one leg, because he needs eight legs for a spider. And I don't try to explain why he does this because who knows why any psycho does anything, but there are different aspects of this guy.

CP: Aside from giving people a few chills, what did you want people to take from the story?

Cooper: It's also funny, too. He's got a sense of humour, (reciting a lyric), 'You look like you'd fit in the trunk of my car.' That's a funny line for any song. What a great opening for any song. And the fact that he stalks the one girl and he says he's so interested in her that he goes into her house when she's at work, tries on her clothes, sleeps in her bed, and then he realizes he really doesn't like her friends. He doesn't like this guy that's been seeing her, so he gets rid of them.

CP: It's so detailed. How do you map out the story?

Cooper: I used to write 10-page short stories all the time when I was in high school and college and even after that. And so I just took one of those stories and I said, 'OK, this guy looks like he would be fun to write about.' Then when you do find a vehicle, you can actually make it come to life. And then the artwork, I think, on the album really brought it to life, and the idea that it was done in the form of a diary. ... I think we don't have enough of that in rock 'n' roll. We don't explore enough art in rock 'n' roll. We just kind of make our albums and walk away saying, 'Eh, it's rock 'n' roll.' Instead of really going for it.

CP: You should put out a companion diary to go with the album.

Cooper: Yeah, it would be great. There are so many different ideas for merchandising you can do for this. I tried to make the CD package as much like a diary as I could. In fact, we even did movie posters for each song. ... I tried to make it very cinematic.

I always think that art is something where you make the audience use their imagination. You don't just spell it all out. You let them have the fun of (imagining): 'What does this guy look like? What does he sound like? What does he do?' You make them ask questions to themselves: 'Well, how does he do this? Well, wait a minute, I don't understand this.'

To me, that's what a good novel is, that's what a good play is, that's what a good movie is and certainly that's what an album like this is. Let the audience use their imagination.

http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2008/09/14/6763761-cp.html

[Malcolm]

The nightmare never ends

Original shock rocker Alice Cooper
on outrocking the kids and reconciling
the biblical with a bloody good time



At once glammy and ghoulish, pioneering ?shock rocker? Alice Cooper?s contribution to rock ?n? roll theatrics is of course immeasurable, and even after 40-plus years of stomping the pines, he can still put on one of the best shows around. On record, though, he has delivered some of rock?s greatest moments (?I?m Eighteen?) and its worst (?Hey Stoopid?). Refusing to be put out to pasture at the tender age of 60, Cooper proved he still has a few tricks up his sleeve when he recently delivered his most solid record in decades, Along Came a Spider. The Mirror talked to Cooper, aka Vincent Furnier, over the phone from a tour stop in Vancouver.

Mirror: How did the concept for the new record, Along Came a Spider, happen?

Alice Cooper: I wrote the short story a while back, and I just found it in my drawer and read it again, and it just clicked that this story, based on this serial killer with all of these character personality conflicts, would make a good concept for a record.

M: I also thought that, musically, it was a return to form, with a sound more akin to classics like 1971?s Killer and Love It to Death.

AC: On the song ?Hungry,? our producer came in with this guitar riff and I said it was really reminiscent of ?Is It My Body,? but just different enough. It was definitely a reminder of that era. If you?re going to go back and grab a retro sound, grab your own. I don?t mind ripping myself off every now and again (laughs).

M: What were those early days in Detroit in the late ?60s like, playing with the MC5, Stooges, Mitch Ryder and so on?

AC: Detroit at that time was by far the healthiest music scene going. When we first went to Detroit, we had never heard of the MC5 or the Stooges. We went on after the Stooges at this festival and when I saw Iggy, I just realized that I had found some competition. Detroit audiences would only respond to bands that had attitude, offered no excuses and played it loud. Every week, we would play bills like Stooges, MC5, Alice Cooper and the Who at the Grande, and even at that time we realized that these were some of the greatest rock ?n? roll shows that would ever happen. Everybody was really competitive too. If Keith Moon had 31 drums, Neal [Smith, ex-drummer] would make sure he had 32.
Vaude-villainy

M: It does seem rare that the Stooges and your current show can still deliver after 40 years.

AC: When people call me and Iggy dinosaurs, I just tell them we?re carnivores because we will take on any band full of 20-year-olds right now and blow them off the stage. I?m not even basing that on content or showmanship, but just on energy alone.

M: Do you ever get pissed that so many people have ripped off your image and theatrics, and continue to do so?

AC: When Marilyn [Manson] came along, I thought, if he was playing hard rock, it was way too close, but he didn?t really. I mean, I respect what he does, but I still think it?s a little funny?gee, a guy with a girl?s name wearing make-up, I wish I would?ve thought of that. When I first met him, it was like Bela Lugosi meeting Boris Karloff.

M: Is there ever a clash between the practising Christian Vincent Furnier and the Alice Cooper character?

AC: I don?t have swearing in my show, references to Satanism or anything I wouldn?t want children to see. To me, it?s just very black vaudeville?it?s not as black and dark as say, Shakespeare. Macbeth is about murder, incest, witchcraft and the occult, and most people will say that?s okay, but if I hang myself on stage or kill a vampire baby in a baby carriage? I think if you can?t laugh at that, there is something wrong with you. My show can be scary in places but I always give the audience a punchline. My show has always been a morality play. When does Alice ever get away with anything without being punished? Never. The bad guys never win in my show. When I see that audience, my posture, voice and attitude instantly changes and, for the next hour and 45 minutes, I don?t break that character, but offstage, I am really nothing like Alice. He?s very dastardly, arrogant and is a pure villain, and I still really love slipping into that skin.

[Dead N' Bloated]

Anyone with any clue where Alice is going on tour next year?


 

[Malcolm]

Hes touring Canada right now..then he plays a few US shows and a few Europe shows and then hes going to announce his Psycho-Drama Tour at some point

[Malcolm]

Anyone with any clue where Alice is going on tour next year?


 

Check the next post dude..New info on Alice's new tour...sounds awesome

[Malcolm]

Alice Cooper Lifts The Curtain On 'Theatre Of Death' Tour

With a revamped set list and four onstage "deaths," Alice Cooper is shaking things up a bit with his just-launched Theatre of Death North American tour.

"It's Alice all the way, but the formula is totally upside down and backwards," the veteran shock-rocker tells Billboard.com. "It's a celebration of Alice stuff. There's no moral to it. It really is just sort of a celebration of different phases of Alice."

Cooper credits Robert Jess Roth, who directed the original stage production of Walt Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" and is a big Cooper fan, with the Theatre of Death concept. "He said, 'I want your lyrics to tell the story,' " recalls Cooper, who had to write a new verse for "Devil's Food" to accommodate Roth's script. "He said, 'I want to tell four stories -- the delinquent Alice, Alice in hell, four different acts. And at the end of each act we kill you; we kill that Alice and introduce the next Alice.'

"He showed me the set list and the ideas and we started talking about what deaths would be good, this and that, and the show just stared forming. All of a sudden we had this elaborate show, new lights and props and costumes and everything, and I really liked it.

Besides the deaths, Cooper is also throwing fans by starting with his usual show-closer, "School's Out" (which is reprised at the end of the night). "People are going, 'What? You don't kill Alice in the first five songs. What's gonna happen?!' To me it's really exciting to do a new show that works like this. And it's more rockin', this show, than the last show. There's more hard rock songs in a row."

Cooper says he plans on filming and recording the Theatre of Death tour at some point before it winds down in December, though he also plans on taking the same show out again in 2010. He also isn't ruling out a future show based on his 2008 album "Along Came a Spider," although he's already started work on his next album, too.

"I've got three or four songs written for it," says Cooper, who says it involves "a new character, a new direction and probably a surprising producer on this one." He plans to hit the studio in early 2010 and finish the album before he heads back out on the road. Cooper also has a part in the upcoming vampire comedy "Suck."