Doctor Orders Aerosmith To Cancel Concert
Aerosmith's recently launched Global Warming tour has hit a big speed bump. The band has been forced to cancel tonight's show for medical reasons.
The band was set to play Bristow, Va. tonight (July 3rd) but have postponed the date until August 12th.
The band advised fans via Facebook that frontman "Steven Tyler is under doctor's orders to refrain from performing to provide vocal rest. The concert will now take place on August 12th." more on this story
Video Raises Questions for Manslaughter Case Against Lamb of God Singer
New fan filmed video casts some doubt on the manslaughter case against Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe as it shows the singer had no part in the alleged victim hitting his head, which was believed to lead to his death two weeks after being injured at the band's concert in Prague in 2010.
The victim, named as Daniel N. in the press reports about the case, reportedly tried to jump on the stage three times and fan filmed video surfaced previously in a local news report which from the angle it was filmed, appears to show the singer and a security guard tossing the fans from the stage, and it's alleged that was when he hit his head, though the video does not show Daniel's landing or hitting his head.
However, the new fan filmed footage, while grainy, shows that during what is being assumed as Daniel's first attempt to jump on the stage, it appears he is pulled off the stage by someone in the audience and hits his head. The band's singer does not appear to be involved in anyway. Some reports speculate that it was a security guard that pulled him off the stage. You can read more and see the video more on this story
Linkin Park Beat Justin Bieber
(hennemusic) Linkin Park have scored their third UK no. 1 as their new album, "Living Things," debuts atop the British album charts.
The Official Charts Company reports the band's sixth UK top 10 bumped Justin Bieber's "Believe" out of the #1 position.
"Living Things" sold 41,000 copies, just 3,000 more than the new Maroon 5 disc, "Overexposed," which landed at number 2. more on this story
Metallica Weren't Into Mission To Lars Movie
(Classic Rock) The film-maker behind documentary movie Mission to Lars says most members of Metallica weren't interested in the project but she's still a fan of the band.
The film tells the story of severe learning disability sufferer, Tom Spicer, who wants to meet thrash drummer Lars Ulrich. It charts the efforts of his brother Will and sister Kate as they try to make the meeting happen, and learn much more about their sibling and his Fragile X syndrome as they go.
And while drummer Ulrich has voiced his support for the work, Kate Spicer says the rest of the band didn't want to know. "There's no two ways about it. James Hetfield and the other guys were not into our project, no way," She tells Geeks of Doom. "It's funny – nobody's really asked me about that. They were quite… they weren't into it at all. You could tell it was Lars' thing. But I feel that's kind of their thing – they've just got their own things going on." more on this story
Duran Duran To Preview New Album Ahead of Release
Duran Duran will offering up fans an advance listen to their new live album, A Diamond In The Mind: Duran Duran Live In Concert 2011.
The album is set to be streamed on Spotify for 24 hours on July 9, one day prior to its July 10 North American release.
Eagle Rock offers this description of the album: Recorded live at Manchester, England's MEN Arena in December of 2011, the career-spanning show, which also includes numerous tracks off the band's recently released All You Need Is Now CD, is a stunning reminder why original members Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, Roger Taylor and Nick Rhodes continue to be a vibrant artistic force in pop music today. In fact, the band will be representing England when they headline the upcoming BT London Live Opening Ceremony Celebration Concert in Hyde Park, London for the 2012 Summer Olympics. more on this story
Smashing Pumpkins Archives Opened For Pisces Iscariot Reissue
The Smashing Pumpkins third album Pisces Iscariot has been fully remastered and will be reissued on July 17 in North America and July 16 internationally.
The reissue is the latest installment in EMI's reissue campaign for the band and is being released in multiple configurations: Deluxe Physical Album--which comes with a live DVD and the first-ever Pumpkins demo reproduced on cassette--Deluxe Digital, Standard Physical, Digital and 180G Vinyl. The bonus content and special features were curated from the band's archives by Corgan, and have been remastered for the first time from the original master tapes by Bob Ludwig.
"A collection of odds and orphans from the dusky realms of Pumpkinland" is how Pumpkins founding member Billy Corgan describes Pisces Iscariot in the liner notes penned by David Wild. "Pisces Iscariot was the little mix tape that went platinum," writes Wild. "This unlikely smash album that some came to mistake for the Pumpkins' third studio effort even yielded a hit single--another wonderfully odd moment in the landslide that was the intense early success story of Smashing Pumpkins." more on this story
George Martin Movie Set For Release
Eagle Rock have set a September 11th release date for the DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Video version of the film, Produced By George Martin.
Here is the synopsis: The documentary is a feature-length profile of Britain's most celebrated record producer. In this very personal film, Sir George talks about his childhood, his war experience and his early days as a music student.
Originally broadcast to great acclaim in 2011 as part of the BBC's "Arena" series, this version contains over 50 minutes of additional interviews not included in the TV broadcast version. These extras include contributions from Rick Rubin, T-Bone Burnett, Howard Goodall, Jimmy Webb and Ken Scott. more on this story
Mutt Lange Approves of Def Leppard Rerecording Classic Hits
(Classic Rock) Def Leppard's rerecorded versions of classic tracks have received producer Mutt Lange's seal of approval.
The band recorded new versions of Pour Some Sugar on Me and Rock of Ages after failing to make a deal with their former record label over releasing the originals digitally. They plan to continue the process with more of their 80s hits.
Lange produced the classic recordings but didn't contribute to the new versions. However, singer Joe Elliott reports the deskman gave them "a total thumbs-up." He explains: "Phil Collen sees Mutt a lot, and he played him the re-records. Mutt couldn't believe how brilliant they were. He was like, 'Wow, guys, incredible job!' Phil was raving about how much Mutt was raving about them." More rock news.
Queensryche To Debut New Singer
(Classic Rock) Queensryche will make their first appearance with new singer Todd La Torre at the end of the month.
They'll headline the last day of the Halfway Jam in Minnesota, which also features Lynch Mob, Stryper, Bang Tango, Blackfoot and Enuff Z'nuff.
The prog metal band confirmed they'd sacked Geoff Tate on June 20. More rock news here.
Slipknot's Clown Will Retire When Band Ends
(Classic Rock) Sean 'Clown' Crahan of Slipknot says he'll end his career when the band splits.
"Since the beginning, every show we're told ourselves that this could be the last," he reports.
"My kids know that if I die on stage, that's where I should have gone. I don't want to, though – I want to live for a very long time. I'd like to retire and leave on a good note. Whenever Slipknot calls it a day I ain't coming back." more on this story
Emerson, Lake & Palmer's First Two Album Expanded For Reissues
Emerson, Lake & Palmer's first two albums, Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1970) and Tarkus (1971) will be reissued by Razor & Tie on September 11th.
Both reissues will be available as 3-disc deluxe editions containing never before released 5.1 Surround Sound and Stereo Mixes, including previously unheard out-takes.
Three time Grammy-nominated producer and engineer Steven Wilson (who has also recently remixed classic albums by Jethro Tull and King Crimson for acclaimed 40th anniversary editions) worked from the original Greg Lake produced multi-track tapes to remix both albums. more on this story
Korn Set Live Video and Album Release
Korn have set a September 4th release date for The Path Of Totality Tour: Live At The Hollywood Palladium.
The BluRay/CD and DVD/CD combos showcase the band's concert that took place on the night the Path of Totality album was released.
The show featured special guests Skrillex, 12th Planet, Flinch, Kill The Noise, Datsik, and more. more on this story
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Former Anthrax Singer Teams With Rudy Sarzo
(Gibson) Rudy Sarzo has a new band called Tred with former Anthrax singer Dan Nelson.
In addition to Dan Nelson, Tred features Adrenaline Mob guitarist Mike Orlando and Twister Sister drummer AJ Pero, and Sarzo describes the music as "tribal funk metal. It's very different from anything I've ever done before."
Tred is wrapping up sessions for their debut album, with further details to be announced once Orlando has wrapped up his current round of Adrenaline Mob touring. more on this story
Tinnitus Cuts Prog Band's Live Career Short
(Classic Rock) A prog rock band will end their live career this weekend as a result of their frontman's battle with tinnitus. Tinyfish will play their last live show at the Celebr8 festival in Kingston-Upon-Thames, England, under headliners It bites and IQ.
Vocalist, guitarist and studio drummer Simon Godfrey contracted hearing problems as the result of an assault in 2001, during which he was struck on the head with a bottle.
The condition, often described as "ringing in the ears" is shared by Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich and Who guitarist Pete Townshend, among others. Its side-effects include severe emotional problems – last year amateur guitarist Robert McIndoe committed suicide after contracting tinnitus at a Them Crooked Vultures concert. more on this story
Alice Cooper Band Members Forms Beasto Blanco
Alice Cooper band's Chuck Garric has teamed up with Chris Latham and producer, Tommy Henriksen to form the new band Beasto Blanco.
"With Beasto Blanco, we have set out to create a live, raw power, rock & roll band that will allow us to indulge our influences and imagery that has shaped our collective musical background. Beasto Blanco taps into a truly unique rock sound, but still stays true to our roots," said Garric.
The band's first single "Breakdown" which just hit iTunes, is already being heavily played in Alaska and Reno, NV. "We're psyched at the positive feedback we've received from our fans!" said Chris Latham. "We can't wait for the rest of the world to hear our first single! And not to mention the video is KILLER!!" more on this story
Primitive Weapons, Mares of Thrace and Pilgrim Tour
Primitive Weapons will be hitting the road later this month for a set of East Coast dates with Mares of Thrace and Pilgrim.
The tour will kicking off on July 27th at The Acheron in Brooklyn, NY and will continue until the band hits Chicago on August 10th.
Primitive Weapons will be hitting the road in support of their debut full-length, "The Shadow Gallery." more on this story
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Usx's Nate Hall Touring With Yob's Mike Scheidt
Usx frontman Nate Hall will be hitting the road later this month for a North American tour with Yob's Mike Scheidt.
The tour will kick off on July 14 in Asheville, North Carolina and run through July 23 in Washington, DC.
Hall will be touring in support of his solo debut A Great River, released via Neurot Recordings May 8. more on this story
3 Pill Morning Set For Sevendust Tour and Album Release
3 Pill Morning will be hitting the road with Sevendust next week ahead of the release of their new album.
3 Pill Morning will ne releasing their new album, Black Tie Love Affair, on July 17th via A2Z/Page 2 Music/eOne.
Frontman Jeff Stebbins, had this to say about the effort, "From our perspective, Black Tie Love Affair is the album that will put 3 Pill Morning on the map to stay. We've been a band for a long time and our expectations for this release are light years beyond what we've pushed for before. Our plans are simple, tour, tour, tour, and always be writing and pushing to beat anything we've done before."
Outshine Lose Their Voice
Swedish metal band Outshine has parted ways with their vocalist Erlend Jegstad and issued the following statement:
"For quite some time there has been internal issues regarding the ambition, time, economy and overall direction of what Outshine should aim for in the future. This has now come to a point where we can't collaborate any more."
"Outshine: - We've been playing together for 7 years and have had some really great moments. The albums and tours has been amazing to do but now this all has come to an end. In order for Outshine to rather go forward than backwards this break-up is needed. We wish E.J. the best and hope everything goes well for him." more on this story
B Sides
Preview New KISS
(hennemusic) KISS release their new single, "Hell Or Hallelujah," today Tuesday, July 3 in North America.
The track will appear on the band's 20th studio album, "Monster," due in October.
A :30 preview of "Hell or Hallelujah" appeared on Amazon UK; it's since been removed from the site, but fans are sharing the clip online. Listen here.
Van Halen's Full Hometown Show Streaming Online
(hennemusic) Van Halen wrapped up the first leg of their "A Different Kind Of Truth" tour this past week in New Orleans and video of the band's complete hometown show has been posted online.
The band is taking the summer off before heading to Japan for a series of November shows.
A few weeks ago, Van Halen played two homecoming shows in Los Angeles at the Staples Center - a week apart. The June 1st show was followed by a return date on June 9th. Video of the full June 1 concert has surfaced. Watch it here.
Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo 4th of July
Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo will be having a very busy 4th of July with satellite radio specials and a television appearance.
Red, White & Benatar 4th of July, a 3-hour salute will kick-off this Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. (ET), and broadcast throughout the day on Sirius XM (Ch. 8). There'll be encore presentations on Thursday, July 5th at 2:00 a.m. & Saturday, July 7th at 7:00 a.m. (ET).
The duo will host the special show along with playing some of their favorite songs, greatest hits and sharing the inspiration behind them. more on this story
Asking Alexandria's Short Film Streaming Online
Sumerian Records have posted Asking Alexandria's new short film, Through Sin and Self-Destruction, on their YouTube page .
The label says: This is a controversial, uncensored look into the real lives of a new era of rockstars for today's generation as they take over the Sunset Strip. This is the first, but not last collaboration between writer Ash Avildsen and director Frankie Nasso, who together take you on an ambitious visual endeavor that hasn't been strived for in rock since the legendary Guns N' Roses trilogy.
The film is comprised of three music videos for the songs "Reckless & Relentless," "To The Stage" and "Dear Insanity." Guest appearances are made by Belladonna, Andy San Dimas, Sebastian Bach and more. Watch it here.
Green Day Preview Part III of Album Trilogy
(hennemusic) Green Day have unveiled the preview trailer for third and final installment of their forthcoming album trilogy.
The band has been in the studio recording not one, but three albums – a trilogy entitled ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tré!.
The projects will be released in stages, on September 25th 2012, November 13th 2012 and January 15th 2013 respectively. Watch the preview here.
Singled Out: Wolves at the Gate
Today Wolves at the Gate guitarist and singer Stephen Cobucci tells us about the song "Slaves" from their brand new album "Captors," which was released today. Here is the story:
'Slaves' was probably one of the songs that was the most fun to write as well as the most challenging. As a band we had never tackled anything like this song on many different angles. I originally wrote the song on the acoustic thinking that it would never become a song that Wolves would play. All I had written was the intro and the chorus that I recorded as a voice memo on my iPod. For about a week I would jam it on my acoustic, mulled it over, and thought about whether or not I would show this to the guys. I eventually worked up the courage and sent Jeremy the voice memo I had recorded and told him that I wanted to turn this into a Wolves song. At first listen he said that it was "very different" from anything that I had been sending out. But I got an excited text from him two or three days later encouraging me to pursue this song. With the song writing on this new record, I really wanted to push myself to expand the creativity of our music even further. I wanted to push the envelope of what is expected by our listeners and the expectations we have for ourselves.
Lyrically I had planned out the story line of the song long before I wrote the music and I literally woke up in the middle of the night and wrote the lyrics to the first half of the song. Up until this point I hadn't written a song for Wolves that followed a story line because all of our songs have been reflections on life experiences and things that the Lord has taught me/changed in my life. I wanted the song to paint a picture of the story with the hope that the listener could envision the story line as they listened. I truly believe that this song is something that applies to everyone and hopefully our listeners will take the time to dig into the lyrics of this song. Before the lyrics and music were completed I got together with the guys and explained the concept of the song. Right then and there we decided to story-board the idea. So our bassist, Ben Summers, pulled out a sheet of paper and we drew out the whole story line like you would for a book or novel and then discussed how the music should correlate with the actual story. One of the goals in writing the song was that I really wanted it to be a mirror image of itself structurally. We wanted the song to grow to a climax, just like you would in a novel, and then fade to a resolution in the story. As well as musically, the lyrics of the song mirror each other but with slight differences in the characters point of view.
The story behind 'Slaves' is something that is in essence a story about myself as well as, in all actuality, all of humanity. It encompasses the different places people's hearts tend to be at times. The story starts at dusk when this slave decides to escape and run from the master. He runs all through the night out of fear of getting caught and being punished by a master that he perceives to be tyrannical. He finally escapes to what he believes to be freedom and quickly realizes that this life of fulfilling his every desire and want is leaving him empty and broken. It climaxes to the middle of the song where the slave is screaming out in anger, frustration, and desperation. He now fears that this decision to run has brought him to his demise. The slave then comes to the realization of his mistake and all runs back to the master with more fervency then his initial flight from the master. All throughout the song he speaks of these chains that are wrapped around his body that he seeks to rid himself of. It isn't until the end of the song that it is revealed to him the reality of his bondage and the personality of the master. My goal was to mainly focus on the slave so that people could identify more with the character with the hopes that they would in turn see the goodness of what Christ has done for them by providing the freedom of salvation in Him alone.
The idea of being a slave, in any culture, denotes such a negative connotation. In America we think about the scars that this country has due to the awful treatment of slaves during the early years of America's inception. The general perception of slavery and being a slave is one with no endearment whatsoever. For a long time, I myself lived under the perception that being a slave to anything was undesirable. It hit me like a ton of bricks a while back when I was reading in Romans 6 about being a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. I had read that scripture before, I had heard it before, but God really opened up my eyes to it in a much more real way. It was verse 16 & 22 that really gripped my heart and shook me. v.16 "Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?" v.22 " But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life." A couple days later I then was listening to a sermon by a man named John MacArthur about this very same passage and topic. I could really tell that the Lord was seeking to awaken my heart to this truth, thus it propelled me to want to write this song. The reason why so many times people hate the idea of slavery is due in part to a fear of a wicked master. A wicked master only has his own best interest in mind, is abusive, and seeks only to gain, steal, and exploit the slave. When we allow ourselves to be slavs to sin, we are allowing satan to take mastery over our lives and hearts whose goal is to kill, steal, and destroy. The realization I came to about this idea is this, I do not fear being a slave to Christ for I know that my master is good. He has always provided for my every physical need, has shown an abundance of grace in my life by forgiving me of my sins while I lived in defiance of Him, and persistently loving me despite how unfaithful I can be.
After we finished story-boarding the content of the song the next difficulty began in so far as writing the music. It was very exciting to get the outline of the story solidified but then the real challenge came with creating music that would sonically match the place the character was in as the story progressed. I battled with this song for about three weeks to a month trying to get it to the point where I felt every part of the story was communicated well with the music. If it weren't for the voice memo application on my iPod, I don't think this song would have ever come to fruition. Ask anyone in my band, but I am notorious for mumbling little ideas into my iPod so that I don't forget them. Sometimes they are melodies, sometimes drum ideas, guitar stuff, lyrics, anything that comes to mind. A lot of the time it comes to me while I am working. Ben Summers and I do construction when we're off the road and many times I find myself in the awkward situation where I get an idea and I run quick to get my iPod to capture it. Of course I never have an instrument so I literally just make the sounds with my mouth or playing the rhythm with my hands. It's a really technical and extremely professional way of writing music as I'm sure this is how Coldplay and U2 write their records as well. The main melody of the song, that is sung at the very beginning and also heard throughout the song, I heard in my head and recorded it immediately into my voice memo. I remember showing the melody to Ben Summers and he said it sounded like Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which to me was completely a compliment, although I wasn't completely sure what he meant by that. It has a really interesting dark tinge to it while at the same time being quite melodic.
We were really excited for this song because it possesses the ability to be a showcase for everyone in the band to shine which was really cool to be able to do. It was a lot of fun recording this song as well because we were seeking to capture a much different feel in this song that in some of the others on the record. The intro of the song we tracked with one of the drum room mics just sitting in the tracking room. Our producer, Andreas Magnussen, just had me sit down and play it with my acoustic a couple times and tried to keep it really raw sounding. The acoustic guitar I used was really awesome because it was actually a gift from a fan of ours I have become friends with named Anthony Bauchner. We met him at a show in Chicago and he drove up to see us play in Dayton for a show and brought this really old Gibson acoustic guitar that was made sometime in the early 1950s. It's a beautiful guitar that has a lot of character in its sound and look. So it was really awesome to be able to use that guitar on the record. For those who have heard the song already, you will notice in the beginning that there is a guest vocalist who sings back and forth with me. We were fortunate enough to have Shane Blay (guitarist and singer for Oh Sleeper) come in and sing on that song for us. He did an excellent job on the song and were very grateful he was willing to do that for us. We've always been big fans of their music so naturally we were honored. At the midpoint of the song it reaches the climax of the story so musically we wanted there to be a real feel of tension. We knew we wanted it to sound chaotic, an organized chaos, that felt natural, raw, and live. So our producer told me to grab my guitar, head into the tracking room, crank up the amp, and go nuts. And that I did. It was probably one of the more fun experiences in the studio as we were trying to capture...noise.
When writing music, it at times can be really difficult to keep things simple while writing heavy music. Our goal with 'Slaves', more than with the other songs, was to maintain simplicity in the song writing while not compromising the integrity of writing a heavier song. When we used to write songs a while back, the mentality was always about how much we could cram into one song. But as we have progressed in our understanding of what makes a good song in it's entirety, we've realized that less is more. It's a common cliche that you hear all the time, but it really has made a difference in how we write songs. We also saw through touring that while it's one thing to record a song and capture a lot of cool elements, it needs to sound just as good if not better played live. All of these things factored into the writing of this song and we are really proud of the product that we walked out of the studio with. We're looking forward to seeing how our fans respond to this different look at a Wolves At The Gate song.
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