Good morning! Sitting on the lanai, waiting on electrician. Certainly a change from the little NYC office in my apartment. They have these lawnmowers you can stand up in and mow. Like a segway with blades. Nifty.
Ok, Corey! Done! Excited to hear what Stone Sour have in store for us! As you can see, Corey Taylor posted to the minions the good news that the first new music from the band’s upcoming album Hydrograd will arrive next month. Taylor did not name which song will be debuting next month. Hydrograd itself, Stone Sour’s 6th studio effort, is coming out in Jun although an exact date has yet to be unveiled (I’m guessing 6/9.) “Fabuless”! Indeed!
Taylor told us recently about the new material: “It is the best stuff that we’ve ever written. It’s got a lot of different directions, but at its core it’s very hard rock, almost in a modern/classic sense. There are some hints of punk in there. There’s some cool hard rock/heavy metal. There’s just all of these really cool elements that we’ve never maybe allowed ourselves to kind of go to.”
Why Hydrograd? Corey told Lou Brutus that in 2007-2008, while running through a Scandinavian airport trying to find his gate, he noticed an old-fashioned departure board. While running by a gate, he thought it read “Hydrograd.” He stopped dead in his tracks to figure out “where the hell is Hydrograd?” But he didn’t actually see the word “Hydrograd,” he saw “Boston,” and in his haste, read it incorrectly. And remembering this incident, he conjured up the name for the new record. You will hear this interview with Lou very soon on hardDrive and hardDrive XL.
Bassist Johnny Chow recently described the disc as “a straight rock and roll album” in an interview with our Detroit hardDrive affiliate WRIF, adding, “It’s just very groove-oriented, very melodic (with) big choruses. We’ve got some mellower songs on there too, which are equally just as amazing and have a lot of groove to them.” Chow called the record a “bit of a departure” from previous Stone Sour albums.
The band recorded the album live in the studio, cutting a total of 18 songs from which 14 or 15 will make the CD. Stone Sour will play the Rock On The Range Kick-Off Party on Thursday, May 18th at Express Live! in Columbus, OH. Can’t wait to be there to see the band! The event will start the Rock On The Range weekend, with Metallica, Soundgarden and Korn headlining this year’s festival.
Stone Sour will also be special guests of Korn on the latter act’s “Serenity Of Summer” trek, which starts on Jun 16th in Salt Lake City and wraps on Aug 2nd in Cleveland.
The Pulse Of Radio reporting Royal Blood is at it again. The British duo has posted another video clip online to tease their upcoming second album, following a clip that the band posted back in Dec right before the holidays. The new video is a 48-second montage of behind-the-scenes footage from the studio where the pair have been working since last year on the follow-up to their 2014 self-titled debut.
The duo’s celebrated debut LP became one of the fastest-selling albums in British music history and was a success in the U.S. as well, yielding the hits “Figure It Out” and “Out Of The Black.” It was nominated for the Mercury Prize, one of the most prestigious music awards in the U.K.
Singer/bassist Mike Kerr told me a while back that he was astounded at the success the duo had in such a short time: “We didn’t anticipate any response really when we started the band, and we had no real agenda at all from the beginning. We were just having a bit of fun. So when I look back and see how far it’s come, it’s pretty amazing really.“
The only new music we’ve heard since the release of the band’s debut disc was a song called “Where Are You Now?” which appeared on the soundtrack for HBO’s now-canceled music series Vinyl. Royal Blood already has a string of live appearances coming up this summer, including the Governor’s Ball in New York City on Jun 2nd through the 4th and the Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee on Jun 11th, as well as a full slate of European festivals.
Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a new interview with Rolling Stone that although he does not shy away from expressing his feelings about Donald Trump, he prefers not to create a negative experience at the band’s concerts. Armstrong explained, “For us, we want to try and keep the energy in the room positive and create a form of unity. First and foremost, I want people to have a really great experience away from the negative press and negative stuff that you see on the news and Facebook.”
When it’s pointed out he shouts out a “f**k you” to Trump every night during the song “American Idiot,” Armstrong said, “People know how I feel. I feel like going negative is just throwing fuel on the fire. I feel like the government is trying to create a culture war between us in a lot of ways . . . I want people to feel unity when they come to a show. At the same time, I’m not going to puss out on saying what I feel about him and his administration.”
Bassist Mike Dirnt added, “I mean, American Idiot wasn’t f**k George Bush . . . And I certainly won’t give Trump the credit of saying this is a Trump record.”
The band’s latest album, Revolution Radio, debuted at Number One on the Billboard 200 album chart last October and features the hits “Bang Bang” and “Still Breathing.” Following its current North American leg of dates, Green Day will take a break before heading overseas and then returning to this continent for another round of shows in August.
BTW: Like many of his contemporaries, Billie Joe Armstrong is not a fan of audience members using mobile phones to film the band’s shows. Armstrong called out a fan in the front row for filming the show with his phone, saying, “If you’re looking at me through a screen, you aren’t looking at me. You stare at that cell phone for 24 hours a day. Not tonight!” (Thanks The Pulse Of Radio.)
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl will join Sammy Hagar, the Grateful Dead‘s Bob Weir, Fleetwood Mac‘s Mick Fleetwood and other artists who will perform at the fourth annual Acoustic-4-A-Cure show, a Bay Area benefit concert held by Hagar and Metallica‘s James Hetfield to raise money for the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.
Grohl will actually replace Hetfield on this year’s lineup, as Metallica’s WorldWired tour will prevent the Metallica frontman from participating for the first time in the event’s history. Other appearing this year include Sarah McLachlan, Steve Vai, former Eagles guitarist Don Felder and Pat Benatar. The show will take place at San Francisco’s Fillmore on May 15th. Tickets for the Acoustic-4-A-Cure concert go on sale Friday (March 31st) at 10:00 a.m. PT via Live Nation.
The show features almost exclusively acoustic performances, such as the one in 2014 during which Hetfield played a surprise cover of the Beatles‘ “In My Life” before being joined by Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong for Bob Seger‘s “Turn The Page.”
The 2015 concert featured Hetfield performing Adele‘s “Crazy For You” alongside his teen daughter Cali. The benefit was created by Hagar and Hetfield, while other artists who have appeared in the past include Alice In Chains’ Jerry Cantrell, John Mayer, Joe Satriani, RHCP’s Chad Smith and more.
Our friends Black Stone Cherry just posted their music video for “Cheaper To Drink Alone” off their awesome Kentucky cd. Blabbermouth reporting the clip was filmed on Feb 21 at Spillway Bar And Grill in Bowling Green, KY and directed by Blake Judd.
“This video is the first time we have stepped outside of our comfort zone, only to end up further into our comfort zone,” commented BLACK STONE CHERRY. “It’s funny, it’s light hearted, it’s rock ‘n’ roll. It shows a side of the band that exists on a daily basis, and that is our love for ridiculous humor and not taking ourselves too seriously. We hope y’all enjoy it as much as we did creating it! We are also honored to have appearances of our friends from Number JUAN Tequila, Against The Grain Brewery, and Lzzy and Joe from our longtime buddies Halestorm.”
Lastly today, I posted European dates for Seether in Road Rage. Have a great day!
Happy Birthday to Lady Gaga, who turns 31 today.