Full Moon tonight, peeps! You’ve been warned.
Bill Kelliher, Troy Sanders, Brent Hinds and Brann Dailor = Mastodon!
Congrats to Mastodon and Warner Bros Records on the huge first week for the band! Mastodon‘s seventh studio album, Emperor Of Sand, debuted at Number Seven on the Billboard 200 album chart this week, selling 43,000 copies in its first week of release. This is the Atlanta-based heavy rockers’ third Top 10 album, following 2014’s Once More ‘Round The Sun and 2011’s The Hunter, which bowed at Numbers Six and 10 respectively. Emperor Of Sand also bowed at Number One on the Top Album Sales chart.
Bassist Troy Sanders told us the band couldn’t be more pleased with the CD’s early buzz: “I mean, we’re excited that we’re able to keep doing this, so we’re very glad that the four of us are still enjoying making music together after 17 years. As always, we’re extremely proud of everything that we put together, so it’s just another Mastodon record that we feel is solid, and we’re just fortunate to be able to still do it.”
Emperor Of Sand features the Number Eight rock radio single “Show Yourself.” Mastodon kicks off a spring U.S. headline tour in support of Emperor Of Sand on Friday (Apr 14th) in Missoula, MT, with support from Eagles Of Death Metal and Russian Circles. The tour also includes stops at several festivals, including Carolina Rebellion on May 5th. Each pair of tickets purchased online for Mastodon — excluding festival dates and a May 6th gig in Philadelphia — includes a choice of a physical or digital copy of Emperor Of Sand that can be redeemed on the set’s release date.
I am looking forward to sitting down with Maria Brink later this month at Fort Rock in Ft Myers! I understand new music has been recorded in Las Vegas with producer Kevin Churko and is about ready to be released in the coming weeks! The Pulse Of Radio reporting In This Moment has completed work on the follow-up to 2014’s Black Widow album and is planning a tentative summer release for the disc. Guitarist Chris Howorth told Cutter’s Rockcast a first single will likely arrive around Apr 21st, adding that the album is “different and cool and I think it’s a different step for us but that I think our fans are really gonna like.”
Howorth said about the new CD’s direction, “Stylistically, I think we went a little bit more raw, you know — like, not so much campiness like ‘Sex Metal Barbie’. Not that there was anything wrong with that — we’re always trying to experiment and do something different — but it’s more serious, I guess, and a little more stripped down.”
In This Moment singer Maria Brink told us a while back why expressing herself through music is important: “For me it’s perfect because it’s an outlet. It’s like, I don’t even know where I would be or what I — I’d probably be some kind of psychopath maniac if I couldn’t release all of this. It’s almost like therapy and I mean, it all comes out into the album and just pours onto everybody else. But people, you know, seem to relate and identify too, because everybody has something, you know, that they go through or can identify with.”
In This Moment kicked off a new North American tour, dubbed the “Half God Half Devil” trek, this past Friday (Apr 7th) in Milwaukee with Motionless In White, Avatar and Gemini Syndrome. The road trip stops in Omaha, NE today (Apr 11th) and continues until May 6th, where it ends at the Carolina Rebellion festival.
Foo Fighters are among the artists contributing either new, rare or unreleased material to a project benefiting Planned Parenthood. According to Rolling Stone, the tracks will be released digitally in the coming weeks, followed by a compilation seven-inch vinyl box set. Other artists slated to donate music are Bon Iver, Björk, St. Vincent, Sleater-Kinney, John Legend, Feist, Mary J. Blige, Common, Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, Chvrches and others. Each single will feature unique artwork created by a variety of artists. 100 percent of all proceeds will go to Planned Parenthood.
A promotional clip starring Legend, St. Vincent — a.k.a. Annie Clark and Zach Galifianakis has been released.
Foos frontman Dave Grohl told us a while back that the Foos are very careful about who or what they throw their support behind: “We’ve never used this band as, like, a political vehicle. But when we go out and do something like support a candidate or support a cause, you know, we do that as human beings first. It wouldn’t necessarily be as the Foo Fighters, it would be as four American citizens.”
A statement about the project said, “Lawmakers with extreme views are working hard to shut down Planned Parenthood. If they succeed, millions of Americans will lose access to basic health services, including STD testing and treatment, birth control, and life-saving cancer screenings. Seven-Inches for Planned Parenthood is a response to this threat.”
Finally today, Blabbermouth reporting according to TMZ, Five Finger Death Punch has filed a new lawsuit against its longtime record label Prospect Park, calling the company a “sinking ship” which is drowning in debt. Saying they are probably the only profitable band on the Prospect Park roster, the band has accused the label of “cooking up a bogus lawsuit last year to keep the band recording … while it shopped the label,” according to the tabloid site. Five Finger Death Punch wants a judge to release them from their contract with Prospect Park, and to order the label to more than a million dollars in damages.
Prospect Park tells TMZ the real issue is the band still hasn’t delivered the album “required under the recording contract and expected by their fans.” The label sued the group a year ago for breach of contract, alleging that the band wanted to rush the recording of a new album without proper creative input from the label and in order to “cash in” before the anticipated “downfall” of singer Ivan Moody, who was revealed at the time to be in rehab. In addition, Prospect Park wanted more time to promote 2015’s Got Your Six release, and asked the band to provide just two new songs for a greatest-hits collection in the interim.
But the group allegedly rejected that plan, insisting instead on recording a new full-length album. According to Prospect Park‘s original lawsuit, Five Finger Death Punch‘s four-album contract prohibits the band from beginning to record a new effort until at least nine months have passed since the release of the previous one.
The label said in its lawsuit that it wants to “prevent the band from disregarding the health and safety of a bandmate and destroying itself.” In addition to its concern over Moody‘s well-being, the label alleged in the suit that “radio has told Prospect Park that the ‘sound’ of FFDP is getting stale, requiring greater creative input” in the recording of its next album. (Sorry, but that’s BS…..editor’s note.)
In May 2016, Five Finger Death Punch announced it had signed a new North American recording deal with the BMG-owned rock label Rise Records. Expect fireworks on this situation very soon, kids!
And now, to start your day, how about some Metallica from Mexico City!
Enjoy!