Photo credit: Bob Gruen
My whole life I will always remember this day as John Lennon‘s birthday. And it’s also Columbus Day! You can actually watch it live at Noon ET today marching up 5th Avenue! Snag a front-row seat to the parade with EarthCam’s live webcam. Not near a computer? No problem! Enjoy the event from anywhere with EarthCam’s Webcams app.
Well, I guess looks CAN be deceiving! The Pulse Of Radio says Foo Fighters revealed in a new interview with NME filming talk show host James Corden‘s Carpool Karaoke series was not as much fun as it looks on camera. The band members appeared on the show last month and belted out several Foos classics while driving around with their host. But guitarist Pat Smear admitted that the long shoot got tiresome, explaining, “By hour three in dude’s car it got less fun. It kinda went on. When we stopped at Guitar Center, that felt like we were done, but it was like ‘this is halfway.‘”
Frontman Dave Grohl added that filming the segment was “a little uncomfortable,” saying, “I don’t mind singing my own songs at Glastonbury or The O2 but if I had to sing you a song right now I’d be too embarrassed.” After Smear suggested that singing other artists’ songs would be easier, Grohl remarked, “I could do that all day. We did the Ramones and Rick Astley, but they didn’t use it. I don’t know why.” The hours of filming were eventually whittled down to one 12-minute segment. Grohl did emphasize that Corden was “definitely” a music lover and “a very nice guy.”
Grohl told me a while back the Foos love to play cover songs whenever they can: “Honestly, we are like the highest paid cover band in the world. Whether it’s ‘School’s Out,’ ‘Cinnamon Girl,’ ‘Under Pressure,’ ‘Stay With Me,’ ‘Let There Be Rock,’ ‘Tom Sawyer,’ ‘Detroit Rock City’ — I mean, like, we’ve got this big long list.”
The new Foo Fighters album, Concrete And Gold, debuted at Number One on the Billboard 200 album chart last month, selling 127,000 equivalent album units in its first week of release. The band’s fall North American tour kicked off on Saturday (Oct 7th) in San Bernardino, CA with Cal Jam 17, a daylong festival featuring the Foos headlining a bill that included Queens Of The Stone Age, Royal Blood, Cage The Elephant and more.
Variety.com reports to be clear, CalJam wasn’t just 12 hours of celebrating Foo Fighters, but it was a fan’s dream. During their two-hour-plus set, the band somehow managed to make a festival with thousands of onlookers feel intimate. While they ran through hits like “Pretenders,” “All My Life,” “Best of You,” and “My Hero,” along with singles off their new album, Grohl got personal with the crowd, even rushing into the middle of it at one point to strum his guitar surrounded by fans.
And they brought out the big guns, too. Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, who played at the 1978 CalJam, joined Foo Fighters on stage to perform “Draw the Line,” and Liam Gallagher joined for “Come Together.” They also welcomed the Kills’ Alison Mosshart to collaborate on their new song together, “La Dee Da,” and even Rick Astley to hurl expletives at the audience and “rick roll” the entire festival with “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
The venue was complete with a Foo Fighters museum as well, featuring the throne Grohl performed on after he broke his leg… and the cast he wore during that time.
Queens of the Stone Age performed old hits like “<a href="” target=”_blank”>Little Sister” along with new songs off their album “Villains” amidst a stunning light show. But it wasn’t lost on the band that the festival was taking place less than a week after 59 people died and 500 others were injured during a mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas. Between songs, Queens frontman Josh Homme took a sign from the audience that read “VEGAS STRONG” on the front, proudly stopping to hold it up and flip it over to show the names of shooting victims written on the back. The sign remained in prominent placement behind Homme — whose close friends Eagles of Death Metal were onstage during the 2015 terrorist attack on the Bataclan in Paris — for the rest of the set: a simple, yet appropriate tribute to such a recent tragedy.
Daytime temps at CalJam were brutal. Over 95 degrees, but it didn’t hamper the Brits in Royal Blood, who was one of the final acts before the sun went down, and if you didn’t know any better, it would be hard to believe that the U.K. rock band is only comprised of two people. But according to Variety, vocalist and bass guitarist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher were a sight to behold, with Thatcher in particular delivering a show-stealing drum solo near the end of “Little Monster.”
Thirty Seconds To Mars performed on last Thursday’s (Oct 5th) episode of The Ellen Degeneres Show, where singer Jared Leto was asked by host Ellen Degeneres for his thoughts on the Oct 1st mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas that left 58 dead and hundreds more wounded.
Asked if the incident made him more fearful of performing live, Leto replied, “You know, it’s horrific. It’s heartbreaking, but I do think that no matter how much evil there is in the world nothing can defeat the human spirit. We need to continue to live our lives, to follow our dreams and to keep moving forward.”
Leto added, “It’s just heartbreaking and senseless, and you know, I hope that if there’s anything that comes from this, it’s that we all get a little closer. We all listen a little bit more and have a greater sense of understanding and empathy and kindness with each other.”
The band performed its current single, “Walk On Water,” on the show, in a rather awkward sequence that had the group sitting in the audience for the first half of the song. “Walk On Water,” has reached Number Five on the Modern Rock chart and climbed to Number 17 on the Active Rock survey. The band has hinted that details about its upcoming fifth album will be unveiled soon.
Leto can now be seen in theaters as the mysterious creator of a new race of replicants in Blade Runner 2049, which opened Friday (Oct 6th). Anyone see it? I’m curious how it is. I have a bad feeling about it and I loved the original, so there’s that.
Papa Roach has followed up the recent release of its ninth studio album, Crooked Teeth, with a new live EP issued through Spotify. Titled Live At BBC Radio One, the four-song set was recorded during a session for BBC Radio One’s Rock Show earlier this year. The EP contains the tracks “Born For Greatness,” “Periscope,” “American Dreams” and the classic “Last Resort.”
Singer Jacoby Shaddix told us a while back Papa Roach is at its best when it’s performing live: “That’s what it’s all about. I mean, we’re out there on the road and it’s about stepping on the deck and putting everything we have in our lives and leaving it there on the deck every night. And that’s the thing about this band that I think our fans love, is that we bring the ruckus live.”
Shaddix is “doing good” after undergoing surgery to remove a polyp from his vocal cord in August. Bassist Tobin Esperance told Metalshop that Shaddix “sounds great and he feels good.” Back in 2012, Shaddix had similar surgery to remove a nodule on his vocal cord.
Papa Roach is on tour at the moment in Europe and has spent the last few months on the road in support of Crooked Teeth, which was released on May 19th. The song “American Dreams” is currently Number Three on the rock radio chart.
ICYMI: Avenged Sevenfold announced their tour and released a cover of Pink Floyd‘s “Wish You Were Here.” They also will issue a deluxe version of its seventh studio album, The Stage, on Dec 15th. This new edition features seven additional studio songs plus four previously unreleased live tracks recorded during the band’s recent shows at the O2 Arena in London. Among the seven bonus tracks is a cover of the Pink Floyd classic “Wish You Were Here,” which was released on Friday (Oct 6th).
Singer M. Shadows said about the track, “I’ve always loved this song and though I felt it would be impossible to capture the somberness of the original, we approached it with another purpose. There’s a poignancy to the song that seems appropriate with everything going on in the world today. We put a bit of a modern twist on it to reintroduce it at a time when it might help capture what some of us are feeling.”
In addition to the LP’s 11 original cuts, the deluxe edition contains all the band’s recent covers, including the Mexican folk song “Malagueña Salerosa,” Mr. Bungle‘s “Retrovertigo,” Del Shannon‘s 1961 hit “Runaway,” the Beach Boys‘ 1966 hit “God Only Knows” and Avenged’s take on the Rolling Stones‘ “As Tears Go By.”
Also included are the original track “Dose” and live recordings of “The Stage” “Paradigm,” “Sunny Disposition” and “God Damn.” The CD and vinyl versions of the album will include a special lenticular cover. The deluxe edition is the latest chapter in an album cycle that began 12 months ago when Avenged Sevenfold became the first rock band to ever release an album with no advance promotion, surprising their fan base.
The group announced the LP’s arrival with a live-streamed performance on the rooftop of the Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood, CA Oct 27th, 2016. The band promised an “evolving” body of work with new songs added over the next year.
Avenged Sevenfold recently confirmed the details of an early 2018 North American headlining tour with Breaking Benjamin and Bullet For My Valentine. The trek will begin on Jan 12th in Nashville with shows booked so far through Feb 11th in Fargo, ND.
Finally today, The Pulse Of Radio and Blabbermouth reporting Black Sabbath has unveiled the details of the home video release for The End, the concert film which captured the legendary band’s farewell performance in its hometown of Birmingham, England last February. The Nov 17th release will arrive on Blu-ray, DVD and CD. A limited edition deluxe collector’s edition will include a 32-page book, a metal winged demon pin, a replica of the “The End” tour laminate and three guitar picks housed in a mirror board box.
Also featured on the CD will be The Angelic Sessions, an intimate live performance at Angelic Studios recorded in the days after the Birmingham shows. The session features the band playing a selection of their favorite songs not played on tour, including “The Wizard,” “Wicked World,” “Tomorrow’s Dream,” “Sweet Leaf” and “Changes.”
The concert performance features the entire final live show from Feb 4th, 2017, with the 16-song set including classics such as “War Pigs,” “Fairies Wear Boots,” “Into The Void,” “Iron Man,” “Snowblind” and “Paranoid.”
Ozzy Osbourne told us not long ago that he’s glad Sabbath has come full circle: “Black Sabbath has been through the mill over the years, but to come back and be friends with my buddies who I started off with all those years ago, it’s a closure for me, a chapter of my life which I can say, ‘Well, we came, we saw, we had a good time and now it’s over.’ I’m glad we ended up happy. Whatever axes we had to grind between us over the years, we got rid of all that and we’re friends again.“ (I wonder if Bill Ward would agree? Hmmmm.)
The End had a limited theatrical run last month and will make its cable premiere on Oct 28th via Showtime. The band decided to make this tour its last because guitarist Tony Iommi, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2012 and is currently in remission, can no longer travel for extended amounts of time.
Celebrating life today, Sharon Osbourne is 65! Sean Ono Lennon is 42 and Ministry’s Al Jourgensen is 59.