Amatrice, Italy- Powerful earthquake destroys town (Photo: Reuters)
So sad to wake up to the news of the devastating earthquake in Italy. Mother Nature has not been kind to us humans lately. I think she is pissed off! And who can blame her?
Also woke up to a bunch of audio files sent to me by the fine folks who work with Metallica. Soundbites from James talking about the new music. Although it’s not exclusive, we will share them soon. Stay tuned! And speaking of ‘Tallica…..
The Pulse Of Radio reporting it‘s been an astounding seven years since Metallica last did a full, proper North American arena tour, but drummer Lars Ulrich told Rolling Stone that’s about to change. Ulrich explained, “It’s time to come back, and do some proper penetration of America . . . We’re going to start pretty much full-on touring in January and are looking to figure out what we’re doing in North America, but there will definitely be some pretty extensive touring in America.”
Ulrich told us a while back that rehearsing for a tour is different these days: “At our age, it’s not really rehearse as in like, how does ‘Enter Sandman’ go? It’s more just kind of, you know, loosening up and kind of getting the battered bodies somewhat up to speed. It’s a little bit like sort of, you know, kickstarting like a car that’s been sitting out in the snow for a while. You know, you need to let it run and idle for a few minutes before you drive it.”
Metallica will be touring in support of its long-awaited new album, Hardwired…To Self-Destruct, which will be released on Nov 18th. Ulrich said he’s looking forward to playing a lot of the new album live, remarking, “Some of the stuff on ‘Death Magnetic’ was pretty cerebral. You had to really think about what the next crazy part is that was coming up. Some of the songs from the new record are a little more physical. It’s gonna be a lot of fun to play this.”
The first single from Hardwired…Set To Destruct, simply titled “Hardwired,” is out now. The album will be issued on double CD, vinyl and digital download. A deluxe version will feature a bonus disc containing the riffs that formed the origins of the album along with “The Lords Of Summer,” which the band debuted on tour a couple of years ago. Metallica is releasing Hardwired… through its own label, Blackened Recordings.
Frontman James Hetfield told the Twin Cities Pioneer Press the group is enjoying being its own boss. He explained, “We’ve been working on this record, realistically, for eight years. But it’s been two years starting to put songs together and, literally, the last two months is when it all started to come together. There’s no rules anymore as far as you’ve got to do what the record company says or what the manager says. It’s got to be cool and fun for us, that’s the number one priority.”
Metallica already has a couple upcoming shows on its calendar: the band perform at The Global Citizen event in NYC’s Central Park on Sep 24th (info here) and at Neil Young‘s 30th anniversary Bridge School Benefit concert, set to take place on Oct 22nd and 23rd at at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA. Expect some new dates to be announced soon!
BTW, Blabbermouth reports according to Billboard.com, “Hardwired” has entered the Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks chart at position No. 2. The cut also landed at No. 18 on the Mainstream Rock Songs airplay chart after less than three days of airplay in the track week ending Aug 21. It’s the 32nd-charting song for the band on Mainstream Rock Songs, stretching back to the debut of “One” on the Mar 11, 1989-dated list. m/–m/ Metallica rules!
Jacoby Shaddix, Tony Palmero, Jerry Horton, Tobin Esperance of Papa Roach at AP Awards last month. interviewed by our affiliate THE BLITZ!
Pulse also says Papa Roach frontman Jacoby Shaddix told Los Angeles radio station KLOS (Full Metal Jackie’s Whiplash) the band has gotten a whole different feel on its upcoming album from recording in a North Hollywood studio. He explained, “L.A. brought a whole different kind of gnarly, rugged street vibe out of our band. I think that’s kind of the thing that we lost over the course of our records . . . it’s like, ‘Go back and rediscover your struggle, homie. Rediscover what people are going through out on the street.’” Shaddix also said the new disc, the band’s ninth studio effort, features “a little more of that old-school stuff,’ such as Shaddix rapping, which he hasn’t done on a Papa Roach record in a long time.
Shaddix added, “I do a lot of work out in the community back home, helping people in need and stuff like that, and I see that the struggle is real. We’re in North Hollywood, so it’s, like, gunshots are going off, and we’re, like, hanging outside the studio. Helicopters are flying over. And I’m, like, ‘This is where I need to be making a record.’”
Shaddix told us not long ago Papa Roach is always itching to prove itself all over again: “We’ve always had that hungry, you know, fighter spirit, that hustler spirit, you know, and that’s just something that’s been ingrained in our band since the beginning. We’re still excited about this rock and roll band that we’re in, and we’re still…it doesn’t feel like a job to us. When we get in that room and the four of us start jamming, it’s like there’s something magical that happens there and, you know, we just can’t deny that.”
The new Papa Roach album will be out sometime in early 2017. In the meantime, the band will head out on a Canadian tour with Five Finger Death Punch next month, beginning on Sep 9th in British Columbia, Canada.
Hot off their Sterling Spoon Tour (an anniversary tour that took them straight into the 25th anniversary of Lollapalooza), Jane’s Addiction has announced the release of a massive box set, due Oct 21st.
The 6-cd/vinyl set collection includes the 1989 Nothing’s Shocking and 1991 Ritual de lo Habitual albums, along with the vinyl debuts of their 1990 Live From the Palladium concert recording, a selection of rarities and demos and live takes from the 1997 Kettle Whistle compilation. The set is a snapshot of highlights from the band’s lengthy career, which began in 1985 under the guidance of singer Perry Farrell.
Guitarist Dave Navarro told us a while back how much Jane’s contributed to his own personal development since the band’s formation: “Rarely do I acknowledge how much I’ve grown as a person. It’s like, when I was 17, all I cared about was playing loud rock guitar solos. That was pretty much it. And then, you know, Perry had a lot of experience in music, and he’s an incredible artist. And so he taught me a hell of a lot about music and what it can do and what true creativity’s about.”
The box set is limited to a run of 5,000 copies.and will have a list price of $99.98. The group did have a hand in the creation of the set and selected the artist who did the cover painting.
As mentioned, Jane’s Addiction has been on the road this year on its Sterling Spoon tour, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first Lollapalooza. A handful of shows remain on their tour schedule. See them on our Road Rage page
LA Bomb squad at Wes Scantlin’s West Hollywood home.
Wes Scantlin from Puddle Of Mudd is in the news again! Pulse reporting the singer has gotten in trouble again for his erratic and possibly dangerous behavior, although for once he was not arrested. According to TMZ, Scantlin’s car at his West Hollywood home has been broken into several times, so as a way to scare off potential future thieves, he set up two vehicles to look like they were wired to explode. One car had wires leading to the motor, while the second one had wires going from a door to a gas tank.
However, some of his neighbors got one look at this, and were so freaked out that they called the cops. The bomb squad came out and evacuated four surrounding buildings while they ascertained the cars only looked like makeshift bombs and weren’t real ones.
Amazingly, Scantlin wasn’t arrested for once, but the police “laid into” him for the harebrained scheme. Scantlin was arrested this past spring for skipping a court date related to his trespassing and vandalism charges from earlier in the year. In early January, Scantlin was arrested on suspicion of breaking into his former home and vandalizing some of the property. Scantlin lost the house to foreclosure in 2015. He had several previous busts in 2015 for possession of a controlled substance and driving under the influence.
They’re back. Love ’em or hate ’em, Nickelback released a cover of “Dirty Laundry.” The Canadian rockers are currently in the studio recording their ninth studio album, tentatively due in early 2017 possibly on their own label or through Republic (that info is TBC.)
While Nickelback was in the studio laying down tracks for the follow-up to 2014’s No Fixed Address, they decided to have some fun and play one of their favorite songs, Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry.” Instead of letting the impromptu recording go to waste, they wanted to share it with their fans. Take a listen to their rendition on Spotify. Released in 1982, the original version of “Dirty Laundry” was written and produced by Henley and Danny Kortchmar.
Frontman Chad Kroeger told us a while back that making each new record different is what keeps things interesting for Nickelback. “When we get in the studio to take on the daunting task of making a Nickelback record, all the band members have such diverse tastes in music that it’s a lot about keeping us happy,” he said. “We don’t want to get onstage and play the same kind of music for two hours. We like to make sure that everybody in the band is happy and that seems to be keeping the fans happy.”
In June 2015, they canceled the majority of their tour dates in support of the band’s eighth album, No Fixed Address, so that Kroeger could recover from surgery to remove a cyst on his vocal cords. Sadly, I didn’t get a copy of the song in time for next weekend’s Labor Day Cover It Up special edition of hardDrive, but you can certainly expect it on our Thanksgiving weekend special! BTW: our Labor Day special will have a bunch of never before heard cover tunes, including some recorded ones in the hardDriveRadio studios and from artists themselves. So be sure to tell your friends and be listening to your local hardDrive affiliate. You will also be able to stream the show on the hardDriveRadio APP starting the week of Sep 05.
IN STUDIO……
Matt Heafy of Trivium joins us tomorrow in the hardDriveRadio studios for an acoustic performance and podcast interview. Got questions? Send ’em in. He’ll also appear tomorrow evening at Sam Ash Music in NYC for Epiphone guitars!
Happy 48th today to Spider One from Powerman 5000!