Crobot and Finger Eleven in the hardDriveRadio studios yesterday! Crobot performed “Nowhere To Hide” and “Legend of the Spaceborne Killer” and we got two brand new songs from Finger Eleven, “Not Gonna Be Afraid” and “Wolves and Doors.” Listened to the entire F11 album before the interview, Five Crooked Lines, due out Jul 31 and it is really a spectacular record. Produced by Rival Sons’ producer David Cobb, the album is one that deserves a listen from front to back. So many of us these days buy or listen to music for one song. I understand that-we’ve been burned by the high price of a cd and the lack of good quality music over the years. But this one, I gotta tell ya, especially to the more sophisticated listener, you will love the merging of old and new sounds here. Definitely a hardDrive recommendation!
And Crobot last night opening for Anthrax and Volbeat at the Hammerstein Ballroom, they killed it! I am really happy watching them grow as a band and as performers. Right on, boys!
In the news today, Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell is launching a new solo acoustic tour and $1 from each ticket purchased goes to the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation to raise money for homeless and poverty-stricken children, and to help them overcome abuse and neglect. The fall tour is in support of his upcoming solo album, Higher Truth, due Sep 18th. The trek begins on Sep 20th in Los Angeles, winding down on Nov 2nd in Austin, TX.See the itinerary in Road Rage.
Add one more reason why Tool music isn’t completed. Yesterday, I saw a posting Maynard Keenan had about achieving his purple belt is jiu jitsu. Today comes news he’s had a hip replacement, according a post by the singer on his Facebook page. Keenan posted a photo of himself already standing after the operation, writing, “Didn’t want to freak anyone out. Wanted to wait until out of the woods. Years of foot stomping left me with no cushion in my right hip. Full replacement yesterday. Walking today.” The 51-year-old Keenan, who was recently presented with a purple belt in jiu jitsu, added: “12 weeks, back on the mat to work toward the brown belt.” Keenan recently told Punchdrink.com a new disc from his music-and-cabaret act Puscifer is nearing completion for a tentative fall release, although he did not elaborate with any further details. Meanwhile, work has been progressing somewhat more consistently on the long-awaited new Tool record. Guitarist Adam Jones revealed in March the band had finally settled a multi-level lawsuit that had dragged on for eight years and set back its recording and touring plans. Jones also revealed an undisclosed member of the band faced a “really scary do-or-die, serious illness” not long ago. The band is now reportedly working at a faster pace on music for its first new studio set since 2006’s 10,000 Days. See Maynard in the hospital here.
Pulse of Radio reporting Buckcherry will release its seventh studio album, titled Rock ‘N’ Roll, on Aug 21st through the band’s own F-Bomb Records. A new single called “Bring It On Back” has been posted online, along with an accompanying video. Singer Josh Todd said in a statement, “There’s been so much talk about how rock ‘n’ roll is dead and all of this bulls**t. The funny thing is, that’s been going on since we put out our first record in 1999. We wanted to call the new album Rock ‘N’ Roll because this is what we’ve been doing our whole lives.”
Todd told us a while back he and founding guitarist Keith Nelson have always just wanted to make music they liked: “When we started out, I remember Keith and I just saying that we had gotten to a point where just, like, we just wanted to make music that we were excited about. It was just all about, like, ‘Let’s just go and enjoy ourselves.’ And we still have that philosophy today, you know, like we don’t want to overthink it and we don’t want to chase radio, you know, we just want to make the music that means something to us. And if it’s real to us, it’s gonna be real to everybody else.” Todd said that “Bring It On Back” is about racing, adding, “When I’m not on the road, I race Go-Karts for my hobby . . . I had a driver named Kurt Busch in mind when I wrote the lyrics. They call him ‘The Outlaw,’ and he’s a badass. It captures that intensity of racing and the mentality. I love it.” Rock ‘N’ Roll follows up the 2013 album Confessions and the 2014 six-song EP F***.
In brief: Royal Blood have added three new dates for the fall. See Road Rage.
Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne have purchased a fabulous English-style estate in Beverly Hills for $10 million. Life is good. I love the place. My kind of abode!
In This Moment will appear in the upcoming season two premiere of TNT‘s crime series, Murder In The First. The episode will air on Monday, June 8th. Singer Maria Brink can be glimpsed briefly in a new teaser posted online. In This Moment is currently on a headlining tour that brings it to Pharr, Texas on Wednesday (June 3rd). (The PRP)
Hellyeahguitarist Tom Maxwell broken his foot in three places and will not be able to participate in the rest of the band’s European tour. Drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott stated, “We will carry on, with (Hellyeah’s other guitarist) Chris Brady holding down the guitar force. Tom will rejoin us for (Rockstar Energy) Mayhem (Festival this summer).” Hellyeah is on the road behind its fourth album, Blood For Blood. (Blabbermouth)
Happy 51st today to Slayer guitarist Kerry King!