Magnificent Bastards, The

The Magnificent Bastards were a band formed by Scott Weiland and drummer Victor Indrizzo in 1995. They recorded two songs, one for the 'Tank Girl' soundtrack and one for the 'Working Class Hero: A Tribute To John Lennon' album. Other members of the band include Zander Schloss on guitar, Bob Thomson on Bass and Jeff Nolan also on guitar. Although the band prepared to record an album in 1995, Scott got back with Stone Temple Pilots in the fall of that year to record 'Tiny Music...' The Magnificent Bastards were never heard of again after that.

Meeks, Travis

Travis Meeks (b. 27 April 1979) is the singer of Days Of The New. He tried out the singer spot with Slash, Duff and Matt. Here's a little more information on his band:

Days Of The New: This modern heavy rock outfit from Louisville, Kentucky, USA was signed up to the Outpost Records management team after just three shows, and released their self-titled debut album in June 1997.

Three of the band, Travis Meeks (b. 27 April 1979; singer/songwriter), Jesse Vest (b. 10 May 1977, Jeffersonville, Indiana, USA; bass) and Matt Taul (b. 30 August 1978, Jeffersonville, Indiana, USA; drums), grew up together in Charlestown, Indiana, and previously performed as the Metallica-influenced Dead Reckoning.For Days Of The New they added guitarist Todd Whitener (b. 25 May 1978, Louisville, Kentucky, USA).

Their debut album was produced by Scott Litt, an R.E.M. veteran and the founder of Outpost Records. The first single to be released from the album, "Touch, Peel And Stand', quickly hit the number 1 spot on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, and was featured heavily on MTV. They subsequently toured in support of the record with the stylistically sympathetic Veruca Salt, while Meeks" voice was frequently compared to that of Alice In Chains' Layne Staley.

Meeks, having parted company with the others members of the band (who went on to form Tantric), wrote, recorded and produced the second Days Of The New album on his own. Eschewing the somewhat one-dimensional alternative rock thrash of the debut album, he experimented with lush orchestration, Eastern percussion and tape loops to create an impressively mature collection.

Navarro, Dave

b. David Michael Navarro, 7 June 1967, Santa Monica, California, USA. Guitarist Navarro rose to fame on the alternative rock circuit with his work for two of the scene's most talented but self-destructive bands, Jane's Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Navarro was playing in speed metal band Disaster with drummer Stephen Perkins before they joined singer Perry Farrell in his new venture, Jane's Addiction. His work on landmark albums such as Nothing's Shocking (1988) and Ritual De Lo Habitual (1990) challenged the stylistic limitations of rock guitar, drawing on heavy metal, psychedelic rock and punk to create a daring accompaniment to Farrell's tortured vocals.

Navarro's tense relationship with Farrell, in addition to the band's well-publicised fondness for narcotics, led to their eventual implosion in 1992. Navarro subsequently collaborated with former Jane's Addiction bass player Eric Avery and drummer Mike Murphy on the experimental Deconstruction project, and became an in-demand session player for both alternative and mainstream artists. He turned down a job offer from Guns N'Roses and joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers in time to participate in the recording of 1995's One Hot Minute.

In 1997, Navarro recorded some new tracks and took part in a brief tour with the re-formed Jane's Addiction. He left the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1998 to concentrate on his Spread project, which over the course of three years mutated into his solo debut, Trust No One. The album was followed by Don't Try This At Home, an entertaining and often shocking journal of a year in Navarro's life as documented by the photo booth installed in his house in the Hollywood Hills.

Jane's Addiction reconvened in 2002 to record a new album, 2003's 'Strays', which they followed with a world tour and a reincarnation of the famous Lollapalooza festival, that they headlined that year.

Dave Kushner played in Dave Navarro's band and was tour director for the Trust No One tour.

Nelson, Keith

Keith Nelson is the guitarist who (together with vocalist Josh Todd) first teamed up with Slash, Duff and Matt after they performed together at the Randy Castillo tribute show in April 2002. They parted ways in July 2002, saying Todd and Nelson "didn't fit the bill". Here's a bit more on Buckcherry:

Los Angeles rockers Buckcherry formed in 1995 when vocalist Joshua Todd met guitarist Keith Nelson through their tattoo artist. The duo began hammering out demos for several down and dirty rock songs and soon fleshed out their lineup with Jonathan "JB" Brightman, drummer Devon Glenn and guitarist Yogi.

Signing with DreamWorks Records, Buckcherry released their self-titled debut album in early 1999. The group contributed the song "Alone" to the Mission Impossible 2 soundtrack in 2000, following with their second album, Time Bomb in 2001. In July 2002, they break up.

Neurotic Outsiders

From AllMusic.com: A supergroup formed in Los Angeles in the mid-'90s consisting of B-list guys from A-list bands, Neurotic Outsiders picked up an unexpected following when a one-time charity concert at the Viper Room led to a house-band engagement. Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, John Taylor of Duran Duran, Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses, and Matt Sorum of the Cult and Guns N' Roses spent most of those early gigs playing punk covers.

As enthusiasm for the band increased, they were signed to Maverick Records, releasing one album, the self-titled Neurotic Outsiders, in 1996. Jones wrote most of the songs, while Taylor wrote the remaining songs and the other members collaborated on some tracks. Jones and McKagan shared guitar duties, and all members contributed vocals.

A frenetic, slightly dark blend of punk and pre-grunge Guns N' Roses-style hard rock, the band garnered some radio play with the explicit single "Jerk." After the album's release, they embarked on a national tour of club dates. Upon returning from their tour, Neurotic Outsiders continued to play as a once-a-week house band at the Viper Room for a brief time, taking a hiatus in 1998. The hiatus is likely permanent, as Matt Sorum rejoined the Cult in 1999 and John Taylor rejoined Duran Duran in 2001. ndtrack in 2000, following with their second album, Time Bomb in 2001. In July 2002, they break up.

NRG Recording Services

NRG is a studio in North Hollywood, where Duff recorded bass tracks for songs on 'Contraband'.

NRG has 2 large tracking rooms that feature custom vintage Neve consoles with Flying Fader automation, as well as a mix room equipped with the SSL 9000 J. All rooms are outfitted with custom Dynaudio main monitors, an extensive list of outboard gear, and Studer A827’s for the diehard analog enthusiasts.

NRG Studios recently made some changes to its facility, which has been packed with rocking sessions lately. The private lounge attached to NRG's Studio A has been fully remodeled following the completion of the latest Linkin Park album, Meteora. Michelle Branch also recently visited NRG's Studio A with producer Josh Abraham.

NRG is leading the way in the Storage Area Network (SAN) arena with a groundbreaking system utilizing the latest in fiber technology. Each room comes fully equipped with at least 24 tracks of ProTools linked via fiber wire to a server consisting of 12 password-protected 36 gig hard drives, and an AIT carousel which automatically backs up each session at the end of each night, eliminating the need for time consuming back ups by ProTools engineers.

>>> For more information, visit http://www.nrgrecording.com/

O'Brien, Brendan

Throughout the '90s and beyond, Brendan O'Brien has established himself as one of the premiere rock producers. His distinctive touch, epitomized by guitars that push the needle into the red and a massive drum and bass sound, has helped propel albums by Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Korn, Stone Temple Pilots, the Black Crowes, Matthew Sweet, Train, and Rage Against the Machine (just to name a few) to great success.

He was a member of the band The Georgia Satellites in the 1980s, and went on to head the Epic Records imprint 57 Records, as well as a premier Atlanta recording studio, Southern Tracks. He also played Hammond organ for Bob Dylan's appearance on MTV Unplugged..

In late 2006, Brendan came on board to produce Velvet Revolver's second album. Scott Weiland says: "We were really excited about six months ago, when we first began writing. Then we really kind of flat-lined for a while. We didn't know which way we were going. There was a definite loss of inspiration for a bit there. It has a lot to do with chemistry. Once Brendan came on board, I guess it was kind of like a shot in the arm. It was a new energy."

Project, The

Matt, Dave, Duff, and Slash were being referred to as The Project. From what Slash remembers, this name was given by fans on the internet, during the time when they were being documented by VH1. VH1 was documenting the band's search for a singer. The documentary has aired in December 2004 under the title '(Inside)Out: The Rise of Velvet Revolver'.

>>> MTV reports on the singer search
>>> Rolling Stone: Scott & Slash Speak

Pink Floyd

Velvet Revolver covered Pink Floyd's 'Money' for the 'Italian Job' movie.

Here's the Pink Floyd biography from Allmusic.com. Written by by Richie Unterberger.

Pink Floyd is the premier space rock band. Since the mid-'60s, their music relentlessly tinkered with electronics and all manner of special effects to push pop formats to their outer limits. At the same time they wrestled with lyrical themes and concepts of such massive scale that their music has taken on almost classical, operatic quality, in both sound and words. Despite their astral image, the group was brought down to earth in the 1980s by decidedly mundane power struggles over leadership and, ultimately, ownership of the band's very name. After that time, they were little more than a dinosaur act, capable of filling stadiums and topping the charts, but offering little more than a spectacular recreation of their most successful formulas. Their latter-day staleness cannot disguise the fact that, for the first decade or so of their existence, they were one of the most innovative groups around, in concert and (especially) in the studio.
While Pink Floyd are mostly known for their grandiose concept albums of the 1970s, they started as a very different sort of psychedelic band. Soon after they first began playing together in the mid-'60s, they fell firmly under the leadership of lead guitarist Syd Barrett, the gifted genius who would write and sing most of their early material. The Cambridge native shared the stage with Roger Waters (bass), Rick Wright (keyboards), and Nick Mason (drums). The name Pink Floyd, seemingly so far-out, was actually derived from the first names of two ancient bluesmen (Pink Anderson and Floyd Council). And at first, Pink Floyd were much more conventional than the act into which they would evolve, concentrating on the rock and R&B material that were so common to the repertoires of mid-'60s British bands.

Pink Floyd quickly began to experiment, however, stretching out songs with wild instrumental freak-out passages incorporating feedback; electronic screeches; and unusual, eerie sounds created by loud amplification, reverb, and such tricks as sliding ball bearings up and down guitar strings. In 1966, they began to pick up a following in the London underground; on-stage, they began to incorporate light shows to add to the psychedelic effect. Most importantly, Syd Barrett began to compose pop-psychedelic gems that combined unusual psychedelic arrangements (particularly in the haunting guitar and celestial organ licks) with catchy melodies and incisive lyrics that viewed the world with a sense of poetic, child-like wonder.

The group landed a recording contract with EMI in early 1967 and made the Top 20 with a brilliant debut single, "Arnold Layne," a sympathetic, comic vignette about a transvestite. The follow-up, the kaleidoscopic "See Emily Play," made the Top Ten. The debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, also released in 1967, may have been the greatest British psychedelic album other than Sgt. Pepper's. Dominated almost wholly by Barrett's songs, the album was a charming fun house of driving, mysterious rockers ("Lucifer Sam"); odd character sketches ("The Gnome"); childhood flashbacks ("Bike," "Matilda Mother"); and freakier pieces with lengthy instrumental passages ("Astronomy Domine," "Interstellar Overdrive," "Pow R Toch") that mapped out their fascination with space travel. The record was not only like no other at the time; it was like no other that Pink Floyd would make, colored as it was by a vision that was far more humorous, pop-friendly, and lighthearted than those of their subsequent epics.

The reason Pink Floyd never made a similar album was that Piper was the only one to be recorded under Barrett's leadership. Around mid-1967, the prodigy began showing increasingly alarming signs of mental instability. Barrett would go catatonic on-stage, playing music that had little to do with the material, or not playing at all. An American tour had to be cut short when he was barely able to function at all, let alone play the pop star game. Dependent upon Barrett for most of their vision and material, the rest of the group was nevertheless finding him impossible to work with, live or in the studio.

Around the beginning of 1968, guitarist Dave Gilmour, a friend of the band who was also from Cambridge, was brought in as a fifth member. The idea was that Gilmour would enable the Floyd to continue as a live outfit; Barrett would still be able to write and contribute to the records. That couldn't work either, and within a few months Barrett was out of the group. Pink Floyd's management, looking at the wreckage of a band that was now without its lead guitarist, lead singer, and primary songwriter, decided to abandon the group and manage Barrett as a solo act.

Such calamities would have proven insurmountable for 99 out of 100 bands in similar predicaments. Incredibly, Pink Floyd would regroup and not only maintain their popularity, but eventually become even more successful. It was early in the game yet, after all; the first album had made the British Top Ten, but the group were still virtually unknown in America, where the loss of Syd Barrett meant nothing to the media. Gilmour was an excellent guitarist, and the band proved capable of writing enough original material to generate further ambitious albums, Waters eventually emerging as the dominant composer. The 1968 follow-up to Piper at the Gates of Dawn, A Saucerful of Secrets, made the British Top Ten, using Barrett's vision as an obvious blueprint, but taking a more formal, somber, and quasi-classical tone, especially in the long instrumental parts. Barrett, for his part, would go on to make a couple of interesting solo records before his mental problems instigated a retreat into oblivion.

Over the next four years, Pink Floyd would continue to polish their brand of experimental rock, which married psychedelia with ever-grander arrangements on a Wagnerian operatic scale. Hidden underneath the pulsing, reverberant organs and guitars and insistently restated themes were subtle blues and pop influences that kept the material accessible to a wide audience. Abandoning the singles market, they concentrated on album-length works, and built a huge following in the progressive rock underground with constant touring in both Europe and North America. While LPs like Ummagumma (divided into live recordings and experimental outings by each member of the band), Atom Heart Mother (a collaboration with composer Ron Geesin), and More... (a film soundtrack) were erratic, each contained some extremely effective music.

By the early '70s, Syd Barrett was a fading or nonexistent memory for most of Pink Floyd's fans, although the group, one could argue, never did match the brilliance of that somewhat anomalous 1967 debut. Meddle (1971) sharpened the band's sprawling epics into something more accessible, and polished the science fiction ambience that the group had been exploring ever since 1968. Nothing, however, prepared Pink Floyd or their audience for the massive mainstream success of their 1973 album, Dark Side of the Moon, which made their brand of cosmic rock even more approachable with state-of-the-art production; more focused songwriting; an army of well-time stereophonic sound effects; and touches of saxophone and soulful female backup vocals.

Dark Side of the Moon finally broke Pink Floyd as superstars in the United States, where it made number one. More astonishingly, it made them one of the biggest-selling acts of all time. Dark Side of the Moon spent an incomprehensible 741 weeks on the Billboard album chart. Additionally, the primarily instrumental textures of the songs helped make Dark Side of the Moon easily translatable on an international level, and the record became (and still is) one of the most popular rock albums worldwide.

It was also an extremely hard act to follow, although the follow-up, Wish You Were Here (1975), also made number one, highlighted by a tribute of sorts to the long-departed Barrett, "Shine on You Crazy Diamond." Dark Side of the Moon had been dominated by lyrical themes of insecurity, fear, and the cold sterility of modern life; Wish You Were Here and Animals (1977) developed these morose themes even more explicitly. By this time Waters was taking a firm hand over Pink Floyd's lyrical and musical vision, which was consolidated by The Wall (1979).

The bleak, overambitious double concept album concerned itself with the material and emotional walls modern humans build around themselves for survival. The Wall was a huge success (even by Pink Floyd's standards), in part because the music was losing some of its heavy-duty electronic textures in favor of more approachable pop elements. Although Pink Floyd had rarely even released singles since the late '60s, one of the tracks, "Another Brick in the Wall," became a transatlantic number one. The band had been launching increasingly elaborate stage shows throughout the '70s, but the touring production of The Wall, featuring a construction of an actual wall during the band's performance, was the most excessive yet.

In the 1980s, the group began to unravel. Each of the four had done some side and solo projects in the past; more troublingly, Waters was asserting control of the band's musical and lyrical identity. That wouldn't have been such a problem had The Final Cut (1983) been such an unimpressive effort, with little of the electronic innovation so typical of their previous work. Shortly afterward, the band split up; for a while. In 1986, Waters was suing Gilmour and Mason to dissolve the group's partnership (Wright had lost full membership status entirely); Waters lost, leaving a Roger-less Pink Floyd to get a Top Five album with Momentary Lapse of Reason in 1987. In an irony that was nothing less than cosmic, about 20 years after Pink Floyd shed its original leader to resume its career with great commercial success, they would do the same again to his successor. Waters released ambitious solo albums to nothing more than moderate sales and attention, while he watched his former colleagues (with Wright back in tow) rescale the charts.

Pink Floyd still had a huge fan base, but there's little that's noteworthy about their post-Waters output. They knew their formula, could execute it on a grand scale, and could count on millions of customers — many of them unborn when Dark Side of the Moon came out, and unaware that Syd Barrett was ever a member — to buy their records and see their sporadic tours. The Division Bell, their first studio album in seven years, topped the charts in 1994 without making any impact on the current rock scene, except in a marketing sense. Ditto for the live Pulse album, recorded during a typically elaborately staged 1994 tour, which included a concert version of The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. Waters' solo career sputtered along, highlighted by a solo recreation of The Wall, performed at the site of the former Berlin Wall in 1990, and released as an album. Syd Barrett continued to be completely removed from the public eye except as a sort of archetype for the fallen genius.

Pinskyi, Dr. Drew

Scott's primary recovery specialist and head of Las Encinas Hospital’s Chemical Dependency Program. He is also co-host of KROQ & MTV's "Loveline".

>>> Dr. Drew

Pulse Studios

Pulse Studios is one of the Hollywood studios that VR used to track songs for 'Contraband'.