John Mayall, the Godfather of the British Blues, died on Monday (July 22) at the age of 90. As leader of the pioneering band the Bluesbreakers, the British music legend helped spark the careers of Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones' Mick Taylor and countless others.
The Bluesbreakers also helped spawn the supergroup Cream, as well as Fleetwood Mac. Cream featured Clapton, former Bluesbreakers bassist Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker. Fleetwood Mac was formed by acclaimed guitarist Peter Green (who replaced Clapton in the Bluesbreakers) and named after his favorite rhythm section of drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie, whom were also in the Bluesbreakers for a short time. (continue)
Metallica frontman James Hetfield will soon be on the silver screen in the dark western thriller, "The Thicket", which will hit movie theaters on September 6th. A trailer for the film has been released by Tubi Films.
The film was directed by Elliot Lester ("Blitz" / 'Aftermath") and stars Peter Dinklage ("Game Of Thrones") and Juliette Lewis ("Yellowjackets"). It is based the Joe R. Lansdale novel, with Hetfield playing a supporting role. (continue)
Deftones have shared the details for their fifth annual Dia De Los Deftones festival, set for Saturday, Nov. 2 at Petco Park in San Diego, CA. Headlined, hosted, and curated by Deftones, the all-ages festival lineup also features IDLES, Sunny Day Real Estate (performing Diary in its entirety), Health, Paris Texas, Duster, Gel and Qendresa.
Tickets go on sale Friday, July 26 at 10 a.m. PT at Ticketmaster.com. Deftones' Artist Presale will run Wednesday, July 24 at 10 a.m. PT to Thursday, July 25 at 10 p.m. PT. Live Nation, Ticketmaster, Padres, and local radio presales will all run Thursday, July 25 only from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. PT. (continue)
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland will celebrate thirty years of the seminal punk label Hopeless Records this August. On August 24th and 25th, the Museum will host Hopeless' traveling road show - the "Hopeless Museum" - during a special weekend of performances by Hopeless artists, and an additional exhibit dedicated to the label's thirtieth anniversary will be opening that weekend in the Museum's Main Exhibit Hall. This new exhibit is a first of its kind celebration of a modern independent label central to the young alternative movement.
The "Hopeless Museum's" weekend visit to the Rock Hall on August 24th and 25th follows its debut at The Valley Relics Museum in Los Angeles, and a stop in NYC this June. The Museum's 1,000+ unique artifacts from across 150+ Hopeless artists' careers include everything from All Time Low's first gold single plaque, Synyster Gates' guitar from Avenged Sevenfold's platinum album Waking The Fallen (2002), and lyrics from The Wonder Years' album Suburbia I've Given You All And Now I'm Nothing, to on-stage outfits, instruments, and other items from Hopeless' new stars like PVRIS, Destroy Boys, Scene Queen, Fame On Fire, LØLØ, NOAHFINNCE, and Point North. Other memorable moments from Hopeless' last thirty years - like a letter from the estate of Leonard Bernstein praising Punk Side Story (1995) a cover of the West Side Story soundtrack and a signed guitar from the 2008 Take Action Charity Tour - are on display as well. (continue)
The Kunes Clark Band is singer/songwriter Jimmy Kunes (Cactus, Savoy Brown, Humble Pie) and guitarist/songwriter Angus Clark (Cher, Joe Lynn Turner, Trans-Siberian Orchestra). The two musicians have known each other for nearly two decades and have performed together in numerous projects in and around New York City. Now they decided to take care of some unfinished business and make an album of material, some brand new, and some based on material they demoed 14 years ago. Rounding out the lineup for this album are drummer Van Romaine (Steve Morse Band) and bassist Winston Roye (Soul Asylum), along with keyboardists Rob Clores (The Black Crowes) and John Deley (David Johansen).
The band has just released their first single "Step Up Step Aside" and singer Jimmy Kunes had this to say about it, "Man gets jilted by girl. A possible ultimatum has been delivered. Man does exactly what he shouldn't do and goes out on the town. Man wakes up groggily to find that the girl hasn't stepped up, she's stepped aside. To allow for more futile wasted nights out on the town. Los endos." Guitarist Angus Clark continues, "It's a tale of two Jimmies - Kunes and Hendrix! The main guitar riff owes a lot to Hendrix, but the way I'm jumping octaves in it comes from some of Kunes' signature vocal acrobatics. That's how we bounce off each other in the writing process. I love the energy on this tune, it reminds me of Thin Lizzy." (continue)
More The Kunes Clark Band News
Former Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg briefly discussed his abrupt dismissal from Slipknot last November during an appearance on the One Life One Chance With Toby Morse podcast.
Weinberg was reluctant to speak about matter and when asked about it by the H20 frontman on the podcast responded, "Truth be told, I'm at kind of a point where I'm not quite yet really ready to talk about it, really. And that's not to dismiss the conversation, but I've spent time, and spend time, just processing the entire experience. And the experience not being the last six months, but really the last 10 years. And finally, in a way, processing all of that. And doing it in kind of what I would consider the responsible way. (continue)
Black Sabbath legends Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler star in a brand new commercial promoting the new home kit for hometown Premier League football club, Birmingham's Aston Villa FC.
The clip is soundtracked by the Black Sabbath classic "Paranoid" and features Ozzy calling up Geezer and suggesting that Sabbath play Villa Park with Butler responding, "As long as I'm left wing!". (continue)
Billy Morrison has just released the lyric video for "The Sound of Freedom," a standout track from his solo album, The Morrison Project. The album was released through TLG|ZOID / Virgin Music Group.
Morrison commented, "Perhaps quite a timely lyric video, considering everything that is going on around the world. 'The Sound of Freedom,' one of my favorite tracks on The Morrison Project album, has a really cool lyric video now." (continue)
Fit For An Autopsy has today announced their forthcoming album The Nothing That Is, set to be released on October 25th via Nuclear Blast. Fans can look forward to their first taste of new music this Friday with the release of lead single and music video "Hostage".
The band shares: "'The Nothing That Is' is a full realization of our identity and intention. Every song on this record serves a purpose, and it feels like our most dynamic and powerful album to date. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do." (continue)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have unveiled their brand new song "Long Dark Night," which is the third single from the band's 18th studio album Wild God, set for release August 30th. This intimate twilight ballad is inspired by the poem "Dark Night of the Soul" by the Spanish 16th-century poet St. John of the Cross. Through its reflective lyrics, the track evokes the poem's themes of struggle and transcendence.
Of the track, Cave says "Long Dark Night is inspired by one of the greatest and most powerful poems of conversion ever written. Ultimately, though, it's a beautiful country tune. It feels like a sweet companion to the song, Wild God." (continue)
Sublime's Jakob Nowell joins Hanuman Welch on ALT CTRL Radio on Apple Music 1. He talks about finding old hard drives in the Sublime storage vault and their plans to complete and release them. He talks about working with Stick Figure on new Sublime song "Feel Like That" and who is dream collaborators would be. Then, he shares what its like to balance the potential of the future with the legacy of the past, and what it was like to perform at Coachella for the first time.
Nowell About Finding Gold On An Old Hard Drive In The Sublime Storage Vault And Working It Into New Songs...: I was trying to drop off this weird, old, encrypted external hard drive that we found in the Sublime storage vault. I was hoping there was gold on there that we could use for it....Rather than just being like, "Hey. We want to make a whole new Sublime record. Let's write new Sublime songs." It feels almost like cheap and it doesn't feel like it's my place. I'm just so stoked to bring my uncles back together to do stuff. And there was so much unreleased material that got left on the cutting room floor. So we're meeting up all here, taking it to our lab here at the studio in San Pedro and doing like remixes and re-imaginings of stuff that's either unreleased or never got a good proper recording. Just doing cool versions of it and then looking to collab with other artists in many different scenes that were inspired by Sublime. (continue)
The Flaming Lips will celebrate 25 years of their seminal 1999 album, The Soft Bulletin, with the brand new The Soft Bulletin 25TH Anniversary Vinyl out September 6. It will be available in limited-edition 2LP Vinyl with stunning Zoetrope designs notably co-created by Drew Tetz and band frontman Wayne Coyne. Plus, it boasts brand new sleeve artwork in addition to an insert with text penned by Wayne.
Recently, Wayne took to Instagram in order to quietly tease this moment and share candid memories of The Soft Bulletin. Specifically, he reminisced about the finale "Sleeping On The Roof." He revealed, "this little piece of music encapsulates the theme of The Soft Bulletin.. It's bleak and resigned but also comforting.. it somehow is hopeless and hopeful at the same time.." (continue)
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the release of George Michael's much-loved iconic masterpiece 'Careless Whisper', George Michael Entertainment, GME, and Sony Music will be releasing the 'Careless Whisper EP' on October 18.
Available on both digital and physical formats, the 'Careless Whisper EP' will feature a previously unreleased live recording of the timeless hit performed at the illustrious Madison Square Garden in New York City during George's electrifying concert on the 23rd of July 2008. The recording captures the historic performance marking his reunion with a New York audience after an astounding 17-year hiatus. It was part of his monumental 25Live tour, a worldwide phenomenon that sold out arenas and stadiums and captivated over 1.3 million fans across the globe. (continue)
All Within My Hands (AWMH), the non-profit, philanthropic organization created by the members and management of Metallica, is incredibly proud to announce the largest expansion of its Metallica Scholars Initiative (MSI) and its largest grant to date. With the launch of year six, 18 new schools join the roster of existing MSI community colleges, with each new school receiving $75,000 to enhance the student experience within career and technical education programs. The Metallica Scholars Initiative now has a presence in 60 colleges across all 50 United States and the territory of Guam.
"When we launched the Metallica Scholars Initiative, it really spoke to me. A collective goal of breaking the stigma of trade skills. Trade skills are vital to society, and what's even more important is to support the many folks who are trying to create a career by learning and using these skills. I am so proud - we all are - to see how this program is changing lives by providing much-needed resources to empower students, and it's great that we're able to make our biggest grant yet to support these students and the future workforce. We are reaching even further for year six of the Metallica Scholars Initiative. This year, our program will be in 60 schools in all 50 states! All thanks to your support." -James 'Papa Het' Hetfield (continue)
Hillhaven, the new band featuring current and former members of Ice Nine Kills and From Ashes To New, recently released their new single "Gaps", and to celebrate we asked Chris Kelly (ex-Ice Nine Kills) to tell us about the song. Here is the story:
This is the song that started Hillhaven, but it wasn't supposed to be. At the time I was playing for another band and had written it with the intent of it being that band's next single. I had spent two or three days with the singer, putting everything together and, not only was the song completely written but we had a final recording. Disappointingly at the time, there wound up being some internal politics that resulted in my decision to leave the band, but I was so proud of that song. I had never done a track top to bottom like that before; I was always just the instrumental guy. Putting this track together had given me this insane confidence boost, just as a songwriter, that I wasn't willing to let it go - so I kept it. (continue)
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