If you are at Rockfest in Cadott, post some pix on our Facebook page. We’d love to see them! Take care of our man, Lou Brutus!
Some things never change! Metallica and Linkin Park are two of the major rock acts who have continued to sell albums according to mid-year charts released by Nielsen, which tracks music sales through its SoundScan retail software.
Metallica topped two of the sales lists with its Hardwired… To Self-Destruct album, finishing at Number One on the Top 10 Rock Albums chart, which counts physical and digital sales as well as streams. The LP also topped the Mid-Year Top 10 Selling Rock Albums, which is based on pure album sales. Hardwired tallied 540,000 units on the first chart in the period between December 30th, 2016 and June 29th, 2017, finishing just ahead of Twenty One Pilots’ Blurryface and the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 soundtrack. On the second survey, Metallica sold 487,000 units.
Guitarist Kirk Hammett told us Metallica doesn’t take record sales for granted these days: “Just because we’re one of the biggest bands in the world doesn’t mean we’re gonna sell biggest band in the world record numbers. In the past, we have not shifted, you know, the numbers that we expected to and, you know, it’s left us shaking our heads thinking, ‘Why?’ But you know, at the end of the day, you just have to live with your participation in that and knowing that you’ve done the best that you possibly could. That’s good enough.“
Linkin Park’s One More Light landed at Number Six on the Top 10 Selling Rock Albums chart, selling 130,000 copies. Linkin Park also scored on the Mid-Year Top 10 Selling Digital Rock Songs chart, with the song “Heavy” placing second for the year with 361,000 units sold. That was well behind Imagine Dragons’ “Believer” which tops the list with 905,000 sales.
Other tracks on the Digital Rock Songs countdown included Twenty One Pilots’ “Heathens” at Number Four, Kaleo‘s “Way Down We Go” at Number Six and Disturbed‘s 2015 cover of “The Sound of Silence” at Number Seven. The way people consume music now continued to take a toll on overall sales however, with total physical and digital sales falling 7.8 percent during the first half of 2017. Total rock album sales were down 20.9 percent and rock digital song sales fell 27.9 percent. But streaming of rock songs jumped 21.6 percent.
Surprise, surprise! Three new songs by pretty big artists surfaced yesterday.
FIrst was this new one from Nine Inch Nails. The elusive band will release a new five-song EP titled Add Violence next Friday, Jul 21st. The outfit, which consists primarily of founder Trent Reznor and longtime collaborator Atticus Ross, have issued the first track from the set, called “Less Than,” an uptempo tune that starts with an almost cheerful synthesizer before giving way to abrasive guitars.
Add Violence is the second of three EPs that Nine Inch Nails is releasing at roughly six-month intervals. The first one, Not The Actual Events, came out last December. No release date or title has been announced yet for the third and final EP.
Speaking about the EPs on Beats One Radio on Thursday (Jul 13th), Reznor said, “I love the format of an album. I like having 40 minutes to 90 minutes to communicate a grand suite of songs that relate to each other and have something to say beyond the single song serving.” He continued, “But we were thinking about the amount of time it takes to do that and a bit of awareness about what it’s like as a fan with so much choice . . . we thought it might be interesting to split the record up into three parts that come out and have their own moment of attention — each of which are stylistically a bit different.” Reznor added when all three EPs are out, they will tell a “singular story.”
The last full-length NIN album, Hesitation Marks, came out in 2013. Nine Inch Nails will begin a string of live shows on Jul 23rd at the FYF Fest in Los Angeles, with Reznor saying that the band’s new live show will be “anti-technology.”
The second song was this one from Kid Rock, who may or may not be running for a U.S. Senate spot for his home state of Michigan. Yesterday someone wrote he hadn’t filed with the FEC yet to run, but Kid Rock (a staunch Republican) posted this on his official website: “Once again the press is wrong. First of all, I’ve got 15 days from my announcement to file paperwork with the FEC! Second, I’m not signed to Warner Bros!!! – which simple fact-checking would have revealed. I have recently worked out a unique deal with BMG, Broken Bow, CAA and Live Nation to release music ON MY TERMS. Like politicians write books during their campaigns, I’m planning on...”
Kid Rock also posted a second new song on his website.
“Po-Dunk.” Wow! No news on the album title or release date yet. We’ll keep ya posted. Kid Rock has also announced a string of US shows. Find them in Road Rage.
And now this from Avenged Sevenfold!
Blabbermouth reporting “Dungeon Hunter 5,” the latest episode of Gameloft‘s successful hack-and-slash series, has announced a partnership with Universal Music Group and multi-platinum-selling rock band Avenged Sevenfold. The game will offer its players an exciting experience around the universe of the band, with a special bat-themed dungeon and featured in-game assets. The collaboration will also grant fans an exclusive access to “Dose,” a brand-new song from Avenged.
For two weeks, players will be able to enter a thematic dungeon where they will have to part with hordes of undead minions and bewitched demons before the final confrontation against a terrific new boss, inspired by the band’s visual identity and the branding of their critically acclaimed new album, The Stage.
In addition, the soundtrack of this special level will be a new song from the band, exclusively broadcasted in “Dungeon Hunter 5” before its worldwide streaming release on Jul 14.
First displayed on the boss of the dungeon, the bat-themed equipment will also be available for a limited time: an incredible skeleton armor, a guitar-shaped giant sword, and a back shield adorned with Avenged Sevenfold‘s logo.
Following “Malagueña Salerosa” and “Retrovertigo”, “Dose” is the third in a series of new tracks being released by the band over the course of the coming months.
Frontman M. Shadows recently confirmed to our affiliate in Oshkosh/Green Bay Razor 94.7 the bad will embark on a full North American headlining tour in January and February 2018. The trek, which will be announced next month after the completion of Avenged‘s current stadium run as the support act for Metallica, was originally “supposed to happen this summer until we got that call from Metallica so we decided to put it on hold,” the singer explained.
Avenged Sevenfold is touring in support of its seventh album, The Stage, which was released Oct 27th with almost no promotion beforehand.
Well, this is surprising. The Pulse Of Radio via Loudwire says Smashing Pumpkins frontman and founder Billy Corgan is partnering with online music gear marketplace Reverb to sell equipment he used to record and tour behind several Smashing Pumpkins albums. Corgan plans to list over 100 items on the website, including the drum machine he used on the original Smashing Pumpkins’ demos, plus a Stratocaster guitar and a pair of Marshall amps that he played on the group’s classic Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness LPs.
Corgan is putting numerous amps, heads, combos, guitars, basses, and more for sale, with much of the gear spanning the band’s discography from 1991’s Gish to 2014’s Monuments To An Elegy. The Pumpkins leader related the stories behind some of the instruments in a statement, saying that one 1969 Gibson EB-3 bass was used “on everything from Mellon Collie to Machina…It’s one of those secret-weapon recording basses.”
Discussing a 1950s accordion and autoharp used on Mellon Collie‘s “We Only Come Out at Night,” he recalled, “The band laughed at me when I bought (it), so they challenged me to write a song. That’s the song I wrote.”
The Official Billy Corgan Reverb Shop opens on Wednesday, Aug 16th. Sale items can be previewed on Reverb’s website. Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward recently partnered with the site to sell 200 pieces of old equipment.
It’s heavily rumored that the original lineup of Smashing Pumpkins will reunite next year for a major tour, with both Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin hinting at a reunion in recent interviews.
Here are some of the items that Corgan is selling:
-Corgan’s #2 Stratocaster: A modified, star–covered 1988 Fender AVRI Strat that recorded most of Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie, including “Today,” the solo on “Cherub Rock” and many more.
-A pair of Marshall JMP-1s that were the main preamps for Mellon Collie album and the tour.
-Two Alesis drum machines, one used for the loops on “1979” and another used to record many early Pumpkins’ demos before Jimmy Chamberlin joined the band.
-The Fernandes sustainer guitar used in the studio and on tour for most of Adore.
Celebrating life this weekend:
Saturday: John Dolmayan of System Of A Down is 44. Marky Ramone of the Ramones is 61. Jason Bonham is 51. Sunday: Ed Kowalcyzk of Live is 46 and actor Will Ferrell is 50. Have a great one!