Oh happy day! I stayed up to watch the Foo Fighters on the Late Show with David Letterman last night. (Russell Brand, sorry but is that act getting old or is it me?) I love the Foos. And I loved that they performed “War Pigs” with Zac Brown. Dave Letterman did an interview with Dave Grohl and I was not aware the lyrics written for each song were taken directly from conversations Grohl had with the various iconic musical personalities from each of the 8 cities where they recorded their Sonic Highways album. I also think it was cool the documentary was made in conjunction with Letterman’s WorldWide Pants production company! AH, now we see what’s in play here! But I can tell you to be listening closely to Friday’s hardDrive XL with Lou Brutus! Just saying. Foo Fighters ARE the Featured Artist of the Week after all, aren’t they? And this just in from HBO: The highly anticipated new HBO series Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways debuts on Friday, Oct 17 at 11:00pm (EST). Have you set your DVR yet??? In celebration of the premiere, HBO will collaborate with Facebook to present “Foo Fighters Sonic Highways: Live from The Cubby Bear,” a live stream of the Foo Fighters premiere party concert, which will be made available to fans in the U.S. on the HBO Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/hbo. Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear will take the stage at Chicago’s The Cubby Bear at midnight (EST) on Friday, Oct 17 immediately following a screening of the premiere episode. The show will feature the first ever in-concert performance of the new single “Something from Nothing” from the band’s forthcoming album, also titled Sonic Highways (out November 10 on Roswell/RCA). Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways is an unprecedented eight-part documentary series that digs deep into the heart and soul of America’s musical identity. Directed by Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, each one-hour episode is devoted to a different American musical landmark, chronicling the history, cultural environment and people that define each city’s unique musical identity. The premiere episode takes place in Chicago and prominently features The Cubby Bear, a small club with huge personal significance to Grohl, who saw his first punk rock show at the venue – an event that set him on his life’s path. Fans located in Chicago can attend the concert by purchasing tickets online at http://itsh.bo/FFChicago beginning tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct 15 at 10:00am (CST). A two-ticket limit per customer will be strictly enforced and attendees must be 21+. All tickets will be held at will-call and are non-transferable. Ticket holders and their guests must check in at the same time, present government-issued photo ID and immediately enter the venue. Doors open at 8:30pm (CST). For fans who won’t have the opportunity to attend or catch the live stream of the concert, an archived version of the event will be made available on certain HBO platforms at a later date. (Be still my beating heart!)…..Man, I wish someone invited me to see this seminar. I think I would’ve enjoyed it. Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich took part in a roundtable discussion about music and branding last month at the Billboard studio in New York City. (Watch some of it here and here.) While a few comments from Ulrich have surfaced online already, video footage of the discussion has now been posted online. The talk found Ulrich seated alongside a diverse group of participants, including the head of sports and entertainment marketing for JP Morgan Chase and an exec from the ad agency that helped created the Budweiser Made In America festival, as well as a manager for Fall Out Boy and a rep from Atlantic Records who has put together brand deals for many Atlantic artists with corporate partners. Ulrich was asked about the deal the band made with Coke Zero that involved the brand sponsoring the group’s performance in Antarctica, the first ever by a major musical act. Ulrich said, “You have to look at Coke Zero and you may feel OK about getting in bed with that. So we did this thing for Coke Zero that helped facilitate that particular (event) in Antarctica, but it was primarily a campaign for Latin America. That doesn’t mean that we would get in bed with Coke Zero in the United States.” The drummer also sang the praises of U2‘s recent deal with Apple that enabled the Irish group to put its new album on all 500 million iTunes accounts, saying, “It’s 2014 and anybody who thinks outside the box, or attempts in any way, shape or form, to break the status quo in the world of music, should be applauded.” The region-specific Coke Zero event aside, Metallica has shied away from marketing partnerships with corporate brands in the past. The band is currently at work on its 10th studio album, which will tentatively be released sometime next year….I love Joe Perry from Aerosmith didn’t forget about the video channel V66 in Boston where I once worked from 1985-1986. He mentioned us in an interview he did about his new book: Rock: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith. He was actually talking about MTV, but I loved the mention.“I can remember ridin’ on a plane — a shuttle back from New York – and J.J. Jackson was sittin’ next to me; the DJ from Boston at (W)BCN, and he said, ‘We’re starting a station called ‘MTV’ and it’s gonna be nothing but music videos.’ And he said, ‘And with this cable, we can, y’know, get a station and every city will probably have their own station and in the early days, that’s how it was. I mean there was V66 here in Boston and a lot of popular DJ’s ended up being VJ’s. So, he was one of the initial wave of people that established MTV.” It was a special time and we were honestly BETTER than MTV! LOL…..OK Slipknot is at it again! Another new song has been posted! “Sarcastrophe.” Listen!!!!…..According to Blabbermouth, Papa Roach‘s guitarist Jerry Horton was interviewed by Bring The Noise where he discussed the making the band’s new Kevin Churko produced album F.E.A.R., due Jan 27th. “We went in with the idea of doing a heavy record, but we just can’t keep our focus on one thing, we have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) when it comes to that, so we just went where the music took us, and we’re really happy with how it came out.” Asked what the most positive things are about being within a scene that just keeps on going and churning out music, Horton said: “It’s crazy, because rock has kind of gone through cycles of popularity, and a couple of years ago, electronic music just made a huge wave and there was a little bit of worry that rock wasn’t going to be as popular as it was, but it’s not going anywhere, y’know? We came up in a scene that was called ‘nu metal’ and a lot of those bands aren’t around anymore. It went on into garage rock and then it was emo, but, basically, I think we’re definitely fortunate to still be around particularly when a lot of bands have come and gone. But, like I said, we thoroughly enjoy it and that has pretty big role in a band’s longevity. We’re definitely humbled once in a while and I think that helps things too. Right now we’re just setting up a new record and we’re just getting out there and working as hard as we can and trying to make as many fans as we can.” Long Live ROCK! I think I might have to check in with those boys for an interview for the show. Looking forward to hearing their new stuff!…..Bring Me The Horizon has sent me a new song they recorded called “Drown.” It won’t be out til Dec 7th, but we will have it for you on hardDrive very soon. I feel very honored they only sent it to a couple of people and hardDriveRadio was one of the places. I love those guys and am really bummed I have had to cancel my trip to London in December when they play their biggest show to date at Wembley Arena on my damn birthday no less. (Medical procedure preventing the trip…to say I am upset about this is an understatement!)…..Madonna’s daughter Lourdes turns 18 today.