The reunited trio of Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan's tour has topped the list at No. 1 with an industry-leading $151.5 million gross from January 1 to June 30. Guns N' Roses were also the only concert act to sell more than 1 million tickets this year.
The group performed runs across Asia and Europe during the eligibility period, ahead of their return to North America for summer shows starting in St. Louis, MO on July 27.
U2's 30th anniversary Joshua Tree trek lands at No. 2 at $118.1 million, followed by Justin Bieber at No. 3 ($93.2 million) and Metallica at No. 4 ($88 million), with Depeche Mode rounding out the Top 5 at $68.2 million. Read more
here.
The initial talks about retirement came from drummer Chad Smith, who recently revealed a conversation he had with Flea about life on the road, saying, "We were riding in a van after a gig and Flea was like, 'How much longer do you think we should' How do you think we should end this?'"
Despite Smith saying he didn't know if they could continue touring for much longer, Flea said official retirement news would be a surprise to him, as the band had made no plans to stop playing music anytime soon. Check out the video
here.
The song comes from their forthcoming EP "Add Violence", which will be released this Friday, July 21. The EP is the second in a planned trilogy of new releases.
Trent Reznor's haunting vocals come in at about the midway point of the dark atmospheric track. Hardcore fans will note that the packet of pills on the desk may continue an existing NIN storyline. Stream the song
here.
The tune was the lead single from the band's fourth album, "�And Justice For All", which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 on its way to US sales of more than 8 million copies.
On the road in support of their latest album, "Hardwired�To Self-Destruct", Metallica were among the headliners at the 11-day Canadian event, which marked its 50th anniversary with featured sets by The Who, Muse and Gorillaz, among others.
Metallica's current North American stadium run will wrap up in Edmonton, AB on August 16 before the group heads to Europe for a fall arena tour. That trek will begin with a September 2 show at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen - rescheduled from February due to illness - before playing Amsterdam on September 4. Watch the video
here.
Norman shared the secret during an interview with DJ Eddie Trunk (via Gibson, "When Randy did his actual solos - once we've got one - and we did a few punches maybe or he would get one all the way through - then he'd say, 'OK, let's double it!' I would be like, 'Are you sure about that? Some of these solos are pretty complex.'
"'Yeah, I got it, I got it!' So we would double it, and I'm already trying to think what I'm gonna tell Ozzy. [imitates Ozzy's voice*] 'We ain't got the f***ing tracks!' So anyway, we doubled it, and then Randy goes, 'OK, let's triple it!' And I'm like, Oh man, I'm gonna get into a lot of trouble...
"It's like doubling a vocal - it's always better if the guy just doubles the vocal. We had the same thing with Ozzy, everything that Ozzy did was doubled. All his lead vocals were doubled. All of Randy's solos were tripled, on both records."
Campbell was a guest on a recent episode of Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon and spoke about the strained relationship with Dio, "In many ways, I'm kind of saddened that Ronnie and I never had a chance to make it up.
"Because I know that there was a part of Ronnie that was really dark and really angry, but I know that there was another part of him that was really sweet and forthcoming. And I think that under the right circumstances, Ronnie and I would have sat down and had a beer and made our peace and we could have even worked together again, and it would have been great."
Campbell went on to say, "You know, there's a lot of gatekeepers in this industry, and one of the things that they do very, very well is keep people apart. So it wouldn't have happened as long as those gatekeepers were there. That's my point."
Entitled "Anthology 2: Groups And Collaborations", the new 3 disc collection (and digital download) will be released by Rhino Records on August 11th and will feature 56 tracks total, including several previously unreleased tracks.
In addition to material from Howe's work with Yes, Asia, GTR and other bands, the new anthology will also highlight some his collaborations including Fish of the band Marillion ("Time And A Word," 1993), keyboardist Oliver Wakeman ("The Forgotten King," 2001) and Paul Sutin ("Voyager," 1995) and more. See the full tracklisting
here.
"This song is about friends coming together revisiting the fun of their youth," said Love. "Stamos and I have so much love and respect for each other and our 33 years of friendship is still going strong. It was great to have Mark's amazing talent and energy to play off of as we rediscovered one of my favorite tracks."
"I thought I had done some pretty cool things in my life, but when one of your idols calls you and asks if you want to duet on one of your favorite Beach Boys songs, it's truly the pinnacle of a very fortunate career," added McGrath. "Having my good friend John Stamos laying down some monster drums on the track was the icing on the cake."
"I wanted the world to see the Mike Love I know, and his family, friends and bandmates know," said Stamos, who directed the clip. "A joyful guy who doesn't take himself too seriously, but always takes his music seriously. A guy that LOVES singing his songs and is truly happiest when doing so. I think Mike comes off like the funny, cheerful rascal that he really is. He's in the middle of a very happy and grateful time in his life and I think we captured that." Watch the video
here.
The band has released what is billed as "the first studio trailer" for the new album, which can be streamed here. Frontman C.J. McMahon had this to say about the new effort:
"I feel the strongest I've ever felt going into a record. Coming back to the fold of our band has reinvigorated me. I missed my brothers, touring, and of course all our dedicated fans around the world who have always given us their all.
"This new record is going to shape our future; we gave it everything we could and then some. In the past, I was the weakest link and now that I have re-built myself, we are stronger than ever and nothing can stand in our way."
Dashboard Confessional decided to cover "Move Along". Frontman Chris Carrabba had this to say, "When covering a song, we try to adhere as closely as we can to the most recognizable earmarks. Most importantly the melody. The fun comes in the choices the band can make around those earmarks. We had a blast making 'Move Along' ours. The song has so much color and power it was easy to feel inspired by it."
The All-American Rejects picked "Hands Down" with Tyson Ritter sharing, "'Hands Down' is an open-hearted story of young love. In the original recording, the vocal performance is something that carries you through that tale of pure discovery. Vocally, my immediate intention was to play the opposite. For the musical canvas, we wanted to take all the candy away from this song and feed it nothing but opiates, leaving you feeling as if the instrumentation itself was the nerves the lyrics were expressing." Both covers can be streamed
here.
Stet Howland had this to say, "After being home for only a few days from possibly the best tour of my life, I received a conference call from Kurdt and Mike, for a split second I thought to myself 'Oh sh*t, what did I do?' But my concern quickly turned to an un-removable smile when they asked if I would be interested in being a permanent member of Metal Church.
"It's no secret that Metal Church have always been one of my favorite metal bands and that, in my opinion, they are on the strongest ascent of any band in their genre! And given that the band kicks ass live, has an incredible record label, a rabid fan base, relevant new music, recent Billboard chart positions and first week CD sales that rival multi-platinum acts, my answer was an unwavering YES!" Read more
The band will be kicking things off with the Two Door Cinema Club tour which is scheduled to kick off on September 13th in Portland, ME at The State Theatre and wraps up on October 2nd in Richmond, VA at The National.
They will follow-up with two of their own headline shows in Buffalo and Toronto. They will also be making appearances at some music festivals including the Cal Jam Festival (San Bernardino), Midtown Festival (Atlanta) and Life Is Beautiful Festival (Las Vegas). Read more
here.
The performance clip was captured during the San Paulo stop of their band's Hellfire Club Tour and can be streamed here. Frontman Tobias Sammet had this to say about their new package, "Whilst collecting all of this picture material together we were once again made aware of how proud we are of what we have created. There are probably not many musicians who are lucky enough to be able to look back on a 25-year-old band history at the end of their thirties. And especially without any line-up changes in the last 20 years!
"This is even more incredible considering that we're not from Birmingham, New York or a German metropolis but from a small town called Fulda, a place where you normally only know about the insights of the music business by hearsay. I mean, as kids we started to play Edguy shows even before we had visited concerts as fans ourselves! Then we started to play shows outside our home town, then outside Germany and all of a sudden we found ourselves touring in Asia, America and Australia on a regular basis, because apparently there were people who liked our music. And they became more and more. For us, this always felt quite normal, the next step was all that mattered. We didn't think about what happened while things were happening..." Read more
here.
Fans will get their first taste of the new studio effort when the first track "Timbale" is released as a digital single on August 1st. We were sent the following details about the new record:
Rhythmland was produced by Johnson and Craig Long and recorded at Paradise Studios in Sacramento. On the CD, Dennis Johnson (guitar, vocals) is backed by his band, dubbed The Mississippi Ramblers: Tim Metz - drums; Jonathan Stoyanoff - bass; and Craig Long - keyboards, background vocals. Johnson also wrote nine of the album's ten songs and spins a unique take on the classic, "Walkin' Blues." Read more
here.
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