Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. Who ever came up with this myth is like, ok, I’m going to say it, ridiculous! I mean, if groundhogs are so smart they can predict the future, then why do so many end up as roadkill?
Gonna start today off with news about my pal Lzzy Hale! Halestorm has just announced a new tour with Lita Ford and Dorothy in tow. (See it in the Road Rage section.) It kicks off on April 1st in Reading, PA and extends through late May, with the last confirmed date so far on May 21st in Schaghticoke, NY. Halestorm’s itinerary will also include stops at a number of festivals and summer radio concerts as well as two dates with Rob Zombie on May 18th and 19th.
Halestorm singer Lzzy Hale said, “This is a tour I’ve wanted to put together for a long time. Not just a package with every band featuring a girl — that’s been done a million times. This tour is a different breed, showcasing loud, powerful female voices. Every frontwoman here holds her own both on and off the stage, and has fought more than her share of the good fight. This isn’t your sister’s woman music fest!” Hale added that she was “honored to have the legendary Lita Ford on this run.”
Hale spoke with us a while back about the challenges of being a female musician in a genre that until recently was largely dominated by men: “My view of it really is to make sure that you’re good at what you do, and so that when people actually want to look beyond the centerfold (laughs), that you’re actually good and you have something to back it up. I think that most of us are really trying to push the envelope and, you know, make sure that we’re musicians first and that the sex is just kind of the icing on the cake.”
Meanwhile, Halestorm just posted this music video for their new single, “Mayhem,” coming later this month!
Bullet For My Valentine posted a statement regarding a temporary drummer for their current run with Asking Alexandria. Seems Michael “Moose” Thomas is going to be a first time daddy and he has decided to take a few months off. Filling in for him on Bullet’s current tour, which kicks off tonight in San Diego, will be Jason Bowold from Pitchshifter & Axewound.
The Smashing Pumpkins will reteam again with founding drummer Jimmy Chamberlin for a 2016 edition of the band’s “In Plainsong” tour, which made a brief debut in spring 2015 and featured the band playing a set of Pumpkins classic in a half-acoustic, half-electric interpretation. Joining Chamberlin and frontman William Corgan on the tour will be longtime guitarist Jeff Schroeder.
Chamberlin rejoined the lineup last summer for a co-headlining run with Marilyn Manson, although he said at the time that he no further plans to stay with the group beyond that. The only original member of the group invited back for its 2007 reunion after breaking up seven years earlier, he quit again in 2009 before coming back last year.
The 2016 “In Plainsong” jaunt will kick off on March 22nd in Portland, OR, ending a little under a month later on April 20th in Houston. Tickets go on sale this Friday (Feb 5th). Following the end of the tour, the Smashing Pumpkins will head back to the studio to record the follow-up to 2014’s Monuments To An Elegy, with Chamberlin possibly participating in that as well. We’ll have the tour dates posted in Road Rage.
Blabbermouth has reported Avatar performed a new song, “For The Swarm,” during their show in Dallas on Saturday night. It is the first thing they’ve revealed from their new Sylvia Massy produced album that will be out later this year. The album was recorded in three studios throughout Europe with all of the music being made in the aptly named Castle Studios in Röhrsdorf, Germany. Finnvox Studios in Helsinki, Finland and Spinroad Studios in Lindome, Sweden. I personally am very happy for the band since I had a bit of a hand in putting them together with Ms Massy. Can’t wait to hear the first single, which we should be hearing very soon!
RADIO GONG 97.1
Speaking of Europe, our Nuremberg, Germany hardDrive station, Gong 97.1 is embarking on an awesome promotion. Their quest is the make the “Longest Rock Song Of All Time“! Bands! Check this link out for more info. (Scroll down for English.)
Happy 5-0 today to Robert Deleo of Stone Temple Pilots!