It seemed like a good idea at the time. A couple months ago, close friends and former SLUH grads Tony Cerame and John Simon noticed that the gut-rocking, god-loving, glory-touring guys in Creed are coming to The Pageant this Saturday. At this point, they'd like to clarify one item: "We cannot, in any way be confused with Creed fans," insists Simon, though he admits he occasionally catches himself singing "Higher" in the shower. "Their songs are just so bombastic and Jesus-y that I can't help myself." Instead, the guys have become surprise (and sarcastic) philanthropists.

When Cerame's reaction to the tour announcement was, "You couldn't pay me enough to go to that," he second-guessed himself, brought in Simon and hatched a plan for charity. To raise money for the Gateway Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the two music fans will attend Creed in concert -- completely sober.

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No, this is not super exclusive footage of Hologram Freddie Mercury. But sometimes archive footage does more to preserve a memory of deceased musician than a special effects trick.

A few days after Tupac Shakur came back from New Mexico appeared as a "hologram" during last month's Coachella festival, cynics wondered aloud about the optical illusion becoming a trend. Somebody even put together a humorous "poster" advertising next year's show, which consisted exclusively of either bands with deceased members or performers who have long since passed away.

Anybody who dismissed such a prophecy as far-fatched was probably a little taken aback when Queen announced it would use an optical illusion of Freddie Mercury to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the musical We Will Rock You. According to BBC interview with Queen guitarist Brian May, members of the band had been planning the special effect:

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RFT File Photo

Andrew Elstner, guitarist for Torche and vocalist for the St. Louis-based Tilts, encountered a media frenzy after a bat urinated in his eye at a rustic Wildwood house.

Realistically speaking, bats are more inclined to slurp up bugs than terrorize humanity. But the critters probably aren't getting a lot of love from Andrew Elstner, one of the members of the St. Louis-based Tilts and guitarist for Torche.

Elstner, a St. Louis native who now lives in Atlanta, touched off a frenzy when he revealed to the world that a bat urinated in his eye. In a telephone interview with RFT Music, Elstner says the inexplicable tale unfolded while he was walking around an old Wildwood abode late at night. He was staying there after a recent Tilts show at El Leñador.

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Wikimedia Commons

Spin Magazine recently elaborated on Megadeth rocker Dave Mustaine's love for his mini-horse.

When metal demigod Dave Mustaine isn't raising eyebrows with his kind words about GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, he's usually melting faces as the frontman for Megadeth.

With so many years of rocking under his proverbial belt, Mustaine is entitled to some of the finer things in life. But according to Spin Magazine, one of Mustaine's most-prized possessions isn't a golden record or a platinum toothbrush. No, Mustaine is enamored with a miniature horse he found named Rocky:

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Earlier this month we told you about Juggalobook, the newly-launched social media hub where fat white trash with soaked-in-facepaint brain damage and undrinkable generic soda for blood Juggalos and Juggalettes can meet and discuss things like the proper wielding of hatchets, "neden" and just how it is those goddamned blasted confusing magnets really work. Hypothetical example:

Juggalo 1: You know, I don't think it's really magic. Today my science teacher said--
Juggalo 2: Science?! You poser!
Juggalo 1 again: BRB, I accidentally touched my face and now I have black paint all over the keyboard; my mom's gonna kill me!

Ever the marketing whores entrepenuers, Violent Jay and Shaggy 2 Dope have taken an existing social media success story and applied their own brand to it, likely with very lucrative results. Now the Godfathers of outside-the-box hip-hop merchandising, The Wu-Tang Clan, are throwing their hat in the social media ring with a Wu-Tang inspired version of the popular online game Farmville.

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Marky Ramone: punk, drummer, romance novelist.

Surely it could not have been easy being one of the lesser Ramones, but never let it be said that Marky Ramone, who assumed the drum kit after Tommy dropped out, was content to rest on the laurels of secondhand rock stardom. Even as the band stopped touring and its founding members slipped off this mortal coil, Marky was making plans for his second act, as he revealed to Tom Scharpling, host of The Best Show on WFMU radio out of Jersey City. (The radio station, by the way, that, via deejay Irwin Chusid, introduced the world to the unique musical stylings of the St. Louis-born chanteuse, Lucia Pamela.)

In this exclusive interview from 2006 (don't worry, the news* is not the least bit stale), recently rebroadcast, Marky reveals his secret passion...for romance novels! Lady Wainsworth's Desires, the first volume in Marky Ramone's Erotic Knights series was due out very shortly, and the drummer was eager to talk about it.

"It's not your mutha's romance novel," he says proudly. "There's nuthin' too dirty or too graphic, but it's kinda titillatin'."

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It was only a matter of time. Insane Clown Posse fans have their own language, style of dress, food / drink, tattoos, rituals and culture -- why wouldn't they have their own Facebook?

Fans of ICP call themselves "Juggalos" (or "Juggalettes" for the ladies) and they have now been supplied with their own social network, Juggalobook. We poked around on Juggalobook for a few hours. And then we pondered the very existence of the Juggalo. Here's what we thought:

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The real question is not "What is 'American Pie'?" but "Who is writing these questions?"

Now that Odd Future rapper Earl Sweatshirt is apparently back from Samoa, one of the music world's biggest mysteries is over. This means we can turn our attention to other matters. Such as this: Just who is sneaking all the indie-rock questions into Jeopardy!?

In the past month, Jeopardy! contestants have been faced with questions about Fleet Foxes and Best Coast. Those are hardly unusual, albeit unexpected. After all, Jeopardy! had an "Indie-Rock" category back in 2009, and it wouldn't at all be surprising if someone on the writing staff kept up on current buzz bands and frequented rock clubs.

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Homer Simpson proudly displays his Grammy Award for Outstanding Soul, Spoken Word or Barbershop Album.

Adele could soon become a Grammy paper champion. Oh sure. 21 is a worthy entrant for the coveted Grammy for Album of the Year. "Rolling in the Deep," after all, topped the 2011 Pazz and Jop Poll by a pretty substantial margin. And in an era where physical releases don't sell particularly well, 21 is a remarkable outlier. The album -- which has spent an astounding nineteen non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart -- sold at least 17 million copies across the globe.

Those are impressive attributes for any contender for the Grammy's biggest award. And there's little question that Adele deserves praise if she ends up winning big during Sunday's award show. But there's just one problem: For some reason, the hoosiers who control the Grammys forgot to include Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in the Album of the Year category. Instead, Adele's masterwork got grouped in with Rihanna's Loud, Foo Fighters' Wasting Light, Bruno Mars' Doo-Woops & Hooligans and Lady Gaga's Born This Way.

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The FBI's National Gang Threat Assessment update has been making the rounds today and one part of it has been particularly eye-catching: The inclusion of Juggalos, about which the FBI has this to say:

The Juggalos, a loosely-organized hybrid gang, are rapidly expanding into many US communities. Although recognized as a gang in only four states, many Juggalos subsets exhibit gang-like behavior and engage in criminal activity and violence. Law enforcement officials in at least 21 states have identified criminal Juggalo sub-sets, according to NGIC reporting

Let us join the chorus of voices wondering if this characterization is not just a little extreme and generalized. Like any group of people, some Juggalos are bad apples, most are generally good apples and some are really excellent apples, like the folks behind Denver-based charity Juggalos Making A Difference.

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