Hello Friday! Where have you been all week?
Oh man, I am sitting on a powder keg! I have a super exciting interview coming up on Monday and I can not wait! All I am saying is…..stay tuned!
In the news today, Pulse Of Radio reporting Bullet For My Valentine frontman Matt Tuck told Billboard.com the band’s new album, Venom, is the direct result of fans saying they wanted to hear a more ‘angry, aggressive’ sound from the group. Tuck explained, “People were wanting a pissed-off band, and it’s hard to write stuff like that when I don’t feel like that on a personal level. So it was more visiting these places and writing this style of song which I did before the band got signed, which ultimately got us where we are today. It was just taking that onboard and making a conscious effort to do something that wasn’t very nice.”
Tuck told us no matter how heavy Bullet For My Valentine’s music gets, the band always wants to keep it melodic: “We’ve all grown up on heavy metal and quite extreme music and stuff, but you know, as a band and as songwriters together, we definitely love melody, you know, and I think it’s such an easy thing to do, you know. You don’t have to compromise on anything by being in a band, you know. You just do what you want to do. We can be as heavy as we want, but at the same time, that doesn’t make it a good song, you know. So we still want to show off our technical abilities and be a hard rock/metal band, but at the end of the day, it’s the vocal that counts, really.” Venom is the band’s fifth album and is due out on Aug 14th. It follows up 2013’s Temper, Temper. The first single is called “No Way Out.”
Tuck continued, “Some of the most horrible, nasty lyrics are some of the (band’s) most popular songs . . . It’s weird how people have such a strong reaction and a positive reaction to songs or lyrics which aren’t very nice at all, but I guess that’s why people love our band in the first place.” One track on Venom, called “You Want A Battle? (Here’s A War),” deals with the subject of bullying. Tuck revealed that the song was based on his own experiences in high school, saying, “It took me a long time to actually pluck up the courage mentally and physically to stand up for myself, so it was kind of momentous moment for me.”
Bullet For My Valentine will join Slipknot‘s Summer’s Last Stand tour this summer, along with Lamb Of God and Motionless In White. The trek kicks off on Jul 24th in West Palm Beach, FL. Matt was also asked by Billboard about the band’s decision to honor a request to carry the ashes of two fans who died in a car accident on the road with them. Tuck replied, “It’s such a beautiful gesture, it makes you feel a bit funny inside. It’ll make the family a little bit happy in a s**tty situation. I can’t even imagine (dealing with that), so anything we can do to help, it’s not even a question.”
Hey, here’s yet another rock festival. And they said Rock Is Dead? Come ON! Godsmack, Slash, Stone Temple Pilots, Skillet and Puddle Of Mudd are among the acts confirmed to perform at the first annual Food Truck & Rock Carnival, which comes to Oak Ridge Park in Clark, NJ from September 18th through the 20th. Additional artists performing at the event include ’80s favorites Skid Row, Slaughter, Faster Pussycat, L.A. Guns, Lita Ford and Kix. Promoters promise that the festival will also feature “entertainment that the entire family can enjoy, with . . . a classic carnival experience, free food truck competition featuring 40+ trucks and four stages of continuous live music.” Also included in the daily activities will be GCW pro wrestling, karaoke and amusement rides. A Tribute Bands Music Stage in the free carnival area will include performances by Tool cover band Schism, Rage Against The Machine cover band RATM2, Ozzy Osbourne cover band Ozzmosis and other tribute acts. Ticket prices for the festival range from $29.99 for basic single day passes and $54.99 weekend passes to VIP packages that go for $3,500 and $4,500!!! Hit the festival website for more!
Smashing Pumpkins founder and sole original member William Corgan has realigned the band’s ever-changing lineup again. After playing a recent string of tour dates with the group, Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk and Killers bassist Mark Stoermer have left the Pumpkins patch, replaced by Robin Diaz and Katie Cole respectively. Diaz has recorded with Chris Cornell, Courtney Love, Britney Spears, One Direction and others, while Cole is a singer-songwriter from Australia who opened for Corgan last year. Cole will also be the opening act on the Pumpkins’ upcoming acoustic tour, and will pull double duty on those shows. The hiring of Cole returns a woman to the bass player position in the band. Previous bassist have included D’Arcy Wretzky, Melissa Auf Der Maur and more recently, Nicole Fiorentino. Fiorentino and drummer Mike Byrne were shown the door last year. Corgan and guitarist Jeff Schroeder are the band’s core members. The Pumpkins will embark on an eight-city acoustic tour starting on Monday, June 15th in Buffalo, NY, to be followed by a full co-headlining trek with Marilyn Manson that starts on July 7th in Concord, CA.
RIP Sir Christopher Lee. You brought us 60 years of acting greatness! As Saruman. As Dracula. In The Man With the Golden Gun. And in the Star Wars prequels as Count Dooku.