The Day in Rock Digest for 04/21/11: BW&BK starts us off with this sad news: News is still coming in, but Jon Oliva's Pain guitarist and collaborator with many a Florida based metal outfit, guitarist Matt LaPorte has passed away. Circle II Circle bassist Mitch Stewart referenced the unfortunate event on his Facebook page. more
The Big Four - featuring Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax - will play one exclusive show on Metallica's home turf this Saturday, April 23rd at the Empire Polo Club, Indio, CA. Listen to footage of Metallica rehearsing their classics 'Fade To Black', 'Phantom Lord', 'Orion' and 'Leper Messiah' here
Slash will reportedly play a secret gig in Stoke, where he was born, during July with details being announced shortly. more
After weeks of waiting, the Beastie Boys star-studded video for their new track Make Some Noise has made its debut, building anticipation ever more for the upcoming release of Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. The number of celebrities involved is ridiculous, with Danny McBride, Elijah Wood, Steve Buscemi, Ted Danson, Chloe Sevigny, Kirsten Dunst and more joining the party. Oh yeah, and Jack Black climbs out of a motherf**king DeLorean. Check it out here. Funnier sneak peak at the short film is here (and uncensored)
Underoath are reportedly teaming up with Times Of Grace (featuring members of Killswitch Engage) for US tour this summer according to this.
Thrice will be entering the studio on May 2 to begin recording their seventh full-length and follow up to 2009's Beggars. A fall release is expected via Vagrant Records. more
Infernaeon have announced the departure of vocalist Brian Werner. Commented the band: After much forethought, Infernaeon has decided to part ways with our singer Brian Werner. He was planning on leaving the band after our appearance at the Babylon Rising festival in Puerto Rico, and it was decided afterwards that it would be beneficial if he carried out those plans. more
Epitaph has updated their Kings Road Merch site with a number of cassette tapes of their early to mid 1990′s releases. more
Deception Of A Ghost, Catalepsy, and This Time It's War will team up for some touring next month more
Vocalist Niklas Kvarforth of Shining has issued the following update: "Guitarist Fredric Gråby has left the ranks of Shining today because he no longer felt able to continue playing. Unfortunately, this means that we have been forced to cancel our appearance at the Ragnarok Festival this month as there is not enough time for a new guitarist to learn the material. We are also pleased to announce that Christian Larsson, who has been playing bass with the band for some time on a temporary basis, has now has joined Shining as a permanent full-time member." more
H2O has wrapped work on Know Your Roots, a covers album that's expected to be released later this year via Bridge Nine Records. more
Crimson Glory will celebrate their 25th anniversary by embarking on a headlining tour of Europe with support from Triosphere and Cirrha Niva. more
On this day in 1967, Working at EMI Studios in London, The Beatles completed the sessions for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by recording a short section of gibberish which would play in the LP's run-out groove. They record assorted noises and voices, which engineer Geoff Emerick then cut-up, randomly re-assembled and edited backwards. At John Lennon's suggestion, this was preceded by a high-pitch, 15 kilocycle whistle audible only to dogs.
On this day in 1973, Tony Orlando & Dawn started a four week run at #1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Tie a Yellow Ribbon (Round the Old Oak Tree)," which became the biggest seller of 1973, selling more than 6 million copies. The song is based on a true story of a prisoner who wrote to his wife asking her to tie a yellow ribbon around an oak tree in the town square of White Oak, Georgia, if she still loved him. Find out what else happened on this date in music history here
(Gibson) Gerard Smith, bass player for who played bass for the Brooklyn band TV On The Radio, died yesterday(April 20) from lung cancer.
The band's website announced the news: "We are very sad to announce the death of our beloved friend and bandmate, Gerard Smith, following a courageous fight against lung cancer. Gerard passed away the morning of April 20th, 2011. We will miss him terribly."
Gerard Smith had been with TV On The Radio since 2005 and played on their most recent release Nine Types of Light. Smith had not been on the road with the band, who were touring in support of the album, so he could be treated for his condition.
Sammy Hagar is making the media rounds and making headlines promoting his No. New York Times best selling autobiography, "Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock."
The headlines have come from his comments about his former band Van Halen and his alien abduction story.
He appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" this week for an interview but also appeared in a skit where his alien abduction was re-enacted! You can now watch video footage of both below:
(Gibson) Stephen Mitchell considers himself Kings of Leon's #1 fan. As such, he's been filming the band for a decade, steadily putting together footage for the upcoming documentary Talihina Sky – about to make its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival. The director recently spoke to Spinner.com about the members' sometimes violent relationship (three of them are brothers, after all).
"[Nathan and Caleb Followill] have notoriously gone at each other over the years," he said. "They've had knockout – I mean broken shoulders, pulled hair, trying to stab each other. Those two are like twins almost. They're so close but they're too close, if that makes sense."
The movie follows the Kings from their first show in a garage to playing to enormous crowds at giant festivals, following the release of their 2008 breakthrough Only by the Night. Since Mitchell has been to so many of the band's shows, which one does he think was the best?
(Gibson) Ace Frehley has announced that he will perform his 1978 self-titled solo album in its entirety at a festival show this December.
According to Blabbermouth, the former KISS guitarist will dust off "New York Groove," "Snow Blind" and the rest of the classic Space Ace tracks at the Hard Rock Hell V festival in Prestatyn, Wales on December 3.
In 1978, all four members of KISS each released their own solo album. Frehley's disc, which featured the #13 single "New York Groove," rose to #26 in the U.S. album charts and was eventually certified platinum. The album also featured appearances by future David Letterman musicians, Anton Fig and Will Lee.
(Rock News Desk) Less Than Jake have become the latest musicians to be targeted by the [publicity seeking] Westboro Baptist Church and the attack has left them bewildered.
The ska-punk outfit's recent show in Florida was picketed by a group of the cult's members, who traditionally hold up placards including "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for 9/11″.
"Let's face the facts. Less Than Jake doesn't exactly send parents running for cover," says drummer Vinnie Fiorello. "It had to have been a slow night at Bible study… or they heard the truth that we're a travelling band who love Satan but hate guns? Or maybe it's because three out of five members love anal and the other two love Satan?"
(Gibson) Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders lost an estimated 40,000 pounds when staff at the Sheffield, England, watering hole that he owns – Bowery Bar – accidentally opened a 215-year-old bottle of Henry Jefferson of Whitehaven. Helders' staff had purchased the bottle of rum for 70 pounds but didn't realize its value until they'd already popped the bottle, and spilt some of its contents onto the bar.
Helders and Arctic Monkeys bandmate Alex Turner were among those who sampled a few shots. A source told The Sun this week, "The bar staff were mortified when they found out what they had done. Later on that night everyone was talking about it including Matt, Alex, and former Arctics member Andy Nicholson. Everyone was shocked but found it pretty funny – except the manager who runs the pub for Matt."
The Bowery Bar posted a message on their Facebook page acknowledging, "The industry experts seem to agree that we've opened a bottle of booze potentially worth about 40 grand. [Expletive]. It was a stupid mistake but it made a lovely dark 'n' stormy cocktail. Now we've got some of the country's leading rum experts investigating and coming to see us."
(Rock AAA) Avenged Sevenfold dominated the Revolver Golden Gods Awards at Club Nokia in LA last night, taking top prize in four categories.
M.Shadows beat Corey Taylor and Bruce Dickinson to lift the Best Vocalist Award, while band mates Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance were jointly awarded the prize for Best Guitarist. Temporary drummer Mike Portnoy won the award in his category and the band took the plaudits with the award for Album of the Year for Nightmare.
The band also headlined the evenings show and although Portnoy didn't make an appearance he paid tribute to the late Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan saying: "It was an honour for me to play on the album and do the job the Rev wasn't able to complete. The thing that blew me away was the fans! Thank you all."
(Gibson) Neil Young will release a new live album, A Treasure in June. The 12-song live album comes from Young's 1984/85 U.S. tour with his band The International Harvesters, in support of Young's country album Old Ways.
The International Harvesters featured longtime Young collaborator Ben Keith (who died last year), Rufus Thibodeaux on fiddle, Spooner Oldham and Hargus "Pig" Robbins on piano.
A vinyl edition of A Treasure will be released on June 7 and the CD and CD/Blu-Ray edition will follow a week later.
Yep Roc Records have set an August 2nd North American release date for Fountains Of Wayne's new album, Sky Full Of Holes. Here are the official details:
Recorded in New York City, Sky Full Of Holes features 13 new songs by Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger, ranging from high-energy power pop to intimate, acoustic-driven ballads.
Songs like "The Summer Place" and "Richie And Ruben" showcase the band's renowned storytelling abilities and flair for creating memorable characters; elsewhere, they take a more impressionistic approach, as in the shimmering "Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart" and the elegiac "Cemetery Guns" (a lyric from which provides the album's title).
Iron and Wine had this big announcement on Wednesday: While Record Store Day was officially this past weekend, we decided that any day could and should be record store day. So, on May 17th, Iron and Wine will release a split 12" featuring recent sessions from both bands from the Daytrotter vaults.
This 12" is limited to 1000 copies and is being offered exclusively thru mom and pop records stores around the country, along with The Rough Trade shop in London should you live across the pond. There will also be a select number of copies available thru each band's website, the Daytrotter website and at the shows if there are any left!
We're trying our best to make it available to our fans that really want it, and cater as much as possible to our friends in retail.
Doghouse Records sent over this bit of band news: You, Me, And Everyone We Know has announced they will be breaking up, in light of the band's recent tour cancellation.
The band's final release will be Things Are Really Weird Right Now. The band has written the following message to all of their fans:
Hello friends, So it's been a while and some things have happened lately that have left some of you guys speculating as to what's going on with us. Well, let me just cut right to the chase: We (Rico, Augie, Mike, John, and Kyle) have made the tough decision to leave You, Me, And Everyone We Know. The reason for this, without getting into specifics, is that it recently came to light that Ben had made some decisions that directly affected us as people and to the band as an entity throughout it's existence, and we just felt these issues coming to light were irreparable for us, making it a situation where we couldn't imagine getting back in the van or writing a song with him. This decision, and I assure you it was not an easy one to make, unfortunately had to be made in haste, as is the nature of our business and more specifically our situation at the time. As most of you know, we had immediate touring plans with other amazing bands and we just couldn't wait any longer on making this eventual decision. This was done out of respect for these bands, promoters, and to you our fans.
(Gibson) Jeff Beck is possibly in the form of his life: 2010's studio album Emotion and Commotion won two Grammys, then earlier this year, he released his retro-styled tribute to guitar pioneer Les Paul. And now, he's got a teenage guitar prodigy as a support act.
Beck recently toured Rock 'N' Roll Party Honoring Les Paul to promote the latter project, but is now back with his regular band to continue spotlighting his music from Emotion and Commotion. In tribute to Les Paul, Beck told Mlive.com: "Hearing Les' music as a young boy at home over the radio, I knew that is what I wanted to do. I would definitely say that he inspired me to pick up a guitar and learn to play. Les was an innovator and so ahead of his time. The tricks he developed were genius."
Beck is not just about the past, though. For some of his forthcoming U.S. dates, Beck has Tyler Bryant as support and on-stage sparring partner. Bryant is just 19.
(hennemusic) As expected, Metallica have confirmed an appearance at Quebec's Summer Festival (Festival d'été de Québec) on July 16 in Québec City, Québec, Canada.
Here's the word: Our European vacation has been extended to include a visit to our neighbors to the north as we are honored to have been asked to play at the 44th edition of Festival d'ete de Quebec on Saturday, July 16, 2011.
As part of the 11 day festival, we will be on the Bell Stage on the Plains of Abraham and we are fortunate to have our fellow Bay Area resident and long time friend Joe Satriani joining us to open the show.
(PR) Vh1 Storytellers: Kings Of Leon will kick off the 15th anniversary season of the music series on Friday, May 13th at 11 PM ET/PT on Vh1.
"'VH1 Storytellers' is one of my favorite shows. I always used to watch all these people talk about their inspirations… this is an honor for me," said Kings of Leon lead singer Caleb Followill during the taping outside of Nashville, TN on April 5th. Caleb along with brothers Nathan, Jared and cousin Matthew Followill performed 12 songs in front of an intimate 150-member audience.
The hour-long "VH1 Storytellers" episode will feature the band performing a selection of hits including "Sex on Fire," "Radioactive" and "Use Somebody" which earned the band three Grammy awards in 2010 including "Record of the Year." While introducing "Radioactive" lead singer Followill told the audience, "You know there's always gonna be an element of our background in the songs and our background was the church - or is the church. We're finally at the age when we're comfortable in our own skin and we're not scared to admit that and not scared to put it out there… I think the more honest that we've been throughout the years, we get the better result that way."
Bad Religion has premiered a new music video for the new single, "Wrong Way Kids" from the group's album, The Dissent of Man.
According to the announcement: The song is an up-tempo, powerfully melodic tribute to the band and their fan's shared histories as rebellious yet durable outsiders. The new video can be viewed here.
The footage begins in present day with lead singer Greg Graffin offering a knowing message of hope for Bad Religion's many fans: "Even though they're misfits," he states, "There's a light at the end of the tunnel." A subsequent shot reveals a defiantly unconventional Graffin on stage with the band back in 1984 counting down the song intro. From there it's a surging beat, powerful guitars and signature sing-along chorus set against a stirring non stop montage of found footage showing the band's remarkable rise from teen rebels to international punk luminaries.
Kylesa will return to the road on May 25 for a series of headlining dates as well as performances at several summer festivals.
"After a small break from several months of touring here and abroad, we're ready to get back on the road here in the U.S. and are very much looking forward to playing these lauded and diverse festivals," said songwriter/guitarist Laura Pleasants.
Hour of 13 will be the support act for the Kylesa shows between May 25th to June 2nd.
(Rock News Desk) Thin Lizzy legend Phil Lynott had a brother and sister he never knew about – because his mum couldn't bear to share her guilty secret.
Philomena Lynott has finally brought daughter Philomena, 60, and son Leslie, 58, into the limelight, after giving them up for adoption at birth then reconnecting with them decades ago.
And she says she always wanted to tell of her hidden family – but the pressure of being an unmarried mother to Lynott was already a massive challenge. Philomena tells the Irish Times: "I don't walk around ashamed any more that I had two other children. When I lost Philip I thought that was the end. But now I have these two wonderful people loving me."
Cannabis Corpse have completed work on their brand-new full-length record, entitled Beneath Grow Lights Thou Shall Rise.
The album will see a July 12, 2011 release from the mighty Tankcrimes, who also released the band's The Weeding EP back in 2009.
Mixed by Erik Rutan at Mana Studios and mastered by Alan Douches at West Side Music, Beneath Grow Lights Thou Shall Rise was recorded by the band's own Phil "Landphil" Hall, and reeks of DIY putrefaction.
(Gibson) More than 500 years worth of Liverpool, England's historical documents are now available online, shedding light on the ancestors of Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney – their baptisms, marriages and other public records.
Available for the first time today via Ancestry.co.uk, the collection includes upwards of three million documents, among them the records of each of Lennon's grandparents' baptisms and their marriage, as well as McCartney's grandparents' marriage record.
Historian Annabel Bernhardt-Reeves tells the Liverpool Daily Post, "As well as having vast historical and genealogical value, these records are also incredibly interesting from a cultural perspective, detailing the heritage of two of the biggest stars the country has ever produced – John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Our researchers didn't know who they would uncover when digging around in these records, and were thrilled when they uncovered half of the members of the legendary band The Beatles – two of Liverpool's most famous exports."
(Gibson) The Offspring are "12 or 13" songs into the writing process for their new album, according to the band's official podcast. The forthcoming release will be the group's first since 2008's Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace.
"It's going to be great," frontman Dexter Holland said. "It's going to be the best damn record we ever did."
He also said that the reactions of a five-year-old provided the telltale sign of how good the new songs were. "You know what's a really good sign?" Holland asked. "When you are working on a song and you play it for a niece or nephew, or a young kid, preferably about five and if it sticks with that kid and you hear them humming it later in the day!"
Frontiers Records have announced a May 17th North American released date for Warrant's new album Rockaholic.
Rockaholic was produced Keith Olsen (Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Scorpions) and the album is mixed by Pat Regan (Kiss, Deep Purple, Ted Nugent).
Warrant original members Erik Turner, Jerry Dixon, Joey Allen and Steven Sweet welcomed long-time band friend and fellow touring mate, singer Robert Mason (Lynch Mob, Cry of Love) into the fold.
(Gibson) Liam Gallagher has said that his new band Beady Eye plan to start on their next album sooner rather than later. In an interview with the Irish Times, Gallagher promises that Beady Eye will not "put the ball down, sit around in a big house and go 'we're great. We won't be booking into the studio for months and months on end. We're not going to be rolling over this album into the next year. There will be an awesome second album coming soon."
Self-confidence has never been in sort supply with Gallagher and he's convinced that Beady Eye have what it takes. "I want us to be as big as The Beatles, as big as The Stones," he said.
"I want our music to stand the test of time. I could go on before The Beatles, I could go on after The Beatles – all of us in this band could. It's that great."
(Gibson) The 32nd Annual Blues Music Awards will start with bang—or at least, a bingo—this year, as it has just been announced that the Steve Miller Band will open the festivities on May 5. Miller's latest album, Bingo!, garnered the Space Cowboy his first-ever BMA nomination this year.
Miller is no stranger to the blues, having cut his teeth as a sideman on Chicago's famous blues scene, playing alongside the likes of Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters.
Also appearing at the awards, as a presenter, will be actor Jason Lee, star of the TNT show, Memphis Beat. Lee himself closes many episodes of the show performing blues songs and Elvis covers live on stage. BMA winner Keb' Mo' arranges and performs much of the program's music. The show also features Steve Cropper playing guitar on the theme song.
(Rock AAA) Jon Bon Jovi's charitable good works continue to move apace as his Soul Foundation opened a $3 million shelter for homeless young people in Philadelphia.
The Rights of Passage apartments were officially opened yesterday (April 19) in the Kensington district of Philadelphia by Bon Jovi and Mayor Michael Nutter who said:
"The Rights of Passage Program not only provides a safe place for homeless youth, but also provides skills and experiences needed to become independent and responsible adults"
(Rock AAA) Rush relaunched their Time Machine Tour in Fort Lauderdale a few weeks ago.
North American dates run through the end of April, before Rush hit Europe and the UK in May; June sees a return to America, with the whole thing wrapping up July 2 in Seattle.
Following the tour, the band is set to continue recording their 20th studio album, "Clockwork Angels," due in 2012. On the road, Rush have been playing two tracks from the forthcoming disc: "Caravan" and "BU2B."
(Girlie Action) Marianne Faithful will release her 23rd album, Horse and High Heels, in the US on June 28th via Naïve Records.
The collection of songs consists of four originals and eight covers ranging from Carol King's "Going Back" to Greg Dulli & Mark Lanegan's "The Stations."
Four of the tracks feature virtuosic guitarist John Porter (Eric Clapton, The Smiths) while Lou Reed and Dr. John/MC5's Wayne Kramer each make cameos on multiple songs.
(Conqueroo) Tea Leaf Green's seventh studio album, Radio Tragedy!, will be released through Thirty Tigers available worldwide on June 7.
Fans who pre-order the album by May 1st are eligible to win handwritten lyrics from the songwriter.
"Much of this record is a reflection on the ups and downs on the road to radio gold, chasing dreams and ghosts on America's highways and finding triumph, sorrow and sacrifice in the pursuit," says Josh Clark. "Tea Leaf Green has been a band for over a decade. We've tried to simply focus on music, just music, honest music, operating in the shadow of braggart auto-tuned rappers and inane teeny bop prop puppets that has come to rule and choke the life out of what was once America's greatest export — rock 'n' roll."
(hennemusic) James Durbin keeps impressing on American Idol, and this week was no different. Durbin put together a visual experience to match his performance level, pulling out all the stops for his version of Muse's "Uprising," on 21st Century Songs week.
Since his vocals have never been in question, it's been interesting to watch Durbin grow each week in the visual department: from pianos on fire to Zakk Wylde sitting in, James continues to develop a mentality of creating an overall concert experience.
For his Muse track, James had a post-apocalyptic look as he played alongside a marching band drum section. There was something else familiar about the whole thing, as James explained post-show via Twitter: "The mic stand/cane was a take on Freddie Mercury turned (in honor of him being crowned The Golden God Award) Mr. Alice Cooper! Thank you ALL!"
For those who missed the breaking news yesterday, Gibson has this: British metal band Judas Priest announced this week that founding guitarist K.K. Downing, 59, retired from the band and will not join them on their forthcoming farewell tour, named the Epitaph Tour.
Remaining members – singer Rob Halford, guitarist Glenn Tipton, bassist Ian Hill and drummer Scott Travis – issued a press release to announced Downing's replacement as Richie Faulkner, the 31-year-old guitarist behind Lauren Harris and Dirty Deeds.
In a recent interview Downing was asked for his thoughts on the farewell tour, and he said, "To be perfectly honest, I have not given any thought as to possible case scenarios after the final tour. At the moment though I feel that Priest has played its part in music history and feel very proud to have achieved what we have. So there is a good positive feeling inside me and, of course, I feel very indebted to the fans all over the world. As for the future, we probably need the help of [Priest's most recent album] Nostradamus."
The performance captured on this film from March 2010 is musically flawless but it does not hold the lightning-in-a-bottle excitement created by last falls well-received comeback album Red Velvet Car. (3 stars)
- Read the full Heart - Night at Sky Church DVD review
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