Many thanks to Sick Puppies and all of the fans from around the world who took part in last night’s live chat on the hardDriveRadio APP to talk about the upcoming hardDrive Live Tour and more! So many of you showed up to ask the band anything (I liked the question “What would you do with $10 while shopping at a truck stop or Walmart?” LOL) Anyhow, look for our next live chat with Alex Varkatzas of Atreyu and Howard Jones of Devil You Know. Coming up Tuesday, Mar 15. We’ll have a time for you soon! Don’t have the app? For shame! Download it for free!
And if you missed yesterday’s big announcement of the hardDrive Live Tour, Sick Puppies and Red Sun Rising lead the 2016 HardDrive Live tour, which kicks off on April 22nd in Houston. Also joining the lineup is Stitched Up Heart, Hudson and Smashing Satellites. Tickets, plus VIP packages for Sick Puppies, will be available starting Friday (March 4th) at 10:00 a.m. local time via www.ticketmaster.com, www.sickpuppies.com, and www.harddrivelivetour.com.
This will be Sick Puppies’ first full tour with new singer/guitarist Bryan Scott, and drummer Mark Goodwin said they can’t wait to introduce the new lineup: “We’re super-stoked that we’re gonna be playing the HardDrive tour. It’s gonna be our first tour with Bryan and we’re like super looking forward to it, super-stoked to be headlining it and get back out there, because I think that was the biggest thing for me and Em (Emma Anzai, bass), you know, after finding Bryan and the success we had there, it was just like, you know, when are we gonna tour, you know? ‘Cause that’s the history of this band, that’s what we do, you know. And yeah, we’re just stoked that the HardDrive Tour is gonna be the first one back.”
www.harddrivelivetour.com
The Pulse Of Radio says Foo Fighters will make what’s being billed as “an official band announcement” on tonight (Mar 2nd) via their Twitter account. A message posted at the band’s Twitter feed late last night (Mar 1st) said simply, “Official band announcement tomorrow night. Stay tuned.”
A report from the New York Post‘s “Page Six” on Monday cited an unnamed source saying there was “tension” between Foos frontman Dave Grohl and drummer Taylor Hawkins over Grohl’s alleged plans to launch a solo career — which may have begun with his performance at the Oscars on Sunday (Feb 28th). The “Page Six” source said, “The band is billing it as a ‘break,’ but it’s totally Dave going solo and Taylor is pissed about it.” Another source, however, said any reports of band tension are “completely untrue.” A rep for Foo Fighters declined to comment on Grohl’s plans to Entertainment Weekly, but called reports about the band breaking up “utterly ridiculous.”
Grohl said that Foo Fighters were going on hiatus for a while following the conclusion late last year of the touring cycle behind its 2014 album Sonic Highways.
Taylor Hawkins told Billboard in February the Foos have “nothing on the books” for this year and that he plans to focus on his cover band, Chevy Metal. Grohl told EW last summer breaking up was not an option for the Foos, explaining, “The band is more than a musical group. It’s a family and it’s become a way of life with us. We love each other . . . We’re not breaking up anytime soon, that would be like your grandparents getting a divorce. Too weird.”
We’ll just have to wait ‘n see what the news is tonight.
In other Dave news, The Pulse Of Radio reporting a previously unreleased alternate mix of Nirvana’s “Marigold” was uncovered this week by Alternative Nation, featuring Dave Grohl on lead vocals. The track was written by Grohl and originally released under the pseudonym Late! in 1992 on an album called Pocketwatch. The track later resurfaced in 1993 as a B-side to “Heart-Shaped Box” with Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic joining Grohl on the song.
In the newly discovered version, Grohl handles vocals, guitar and drums, while Novoselic plays bass and Kera Schaley handles cello. It was recorded in February of 1993 at Pachyderm Recording Studio in Minnesota.
Foo Fighters have also performed the tune live over the years, with a concert recording showing up on the Skin & Bones live album. Along with “Marigold,” a rare January 1994 Grohl interview, one of his last while in Nirvana, has also recently surfaced, along with a recording of Cobain performing “Dumb” on KAOS Radio in 1990. Grohl, Novoselic, Nirvana/Foos guitarist Pat Smear and Beck recently covered David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World” at Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammy party a couple of weeks ago. This was the first time the surviving Nirvana members performed together since their 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, and the first time they covered “The Man Who Sold The World” since Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994.
Highly Suspect are such an interesting band. I am sorry I won’t be in town to see them this weekend. Check out their new video for “Serotonia.” The tune is the latest track from the band’s 2015 sophomore album, Mister Asylum. The clip focuses on singer Johnny Stevens as he switches locations between a crumbling, abandoned home, a wintery snow scene and a parched desert landscape. Stevens told Noisey the song was inspired by his recent move from his home of five years in Brooklyn to Los Angeles. The winter scenes were filmed on Stevens’ Brooklyn rooftop during a recent blizzard, while the desert sequences were shot in Joshua Tree, CA. The band started their career on Cape Cod!
Stevens explained, “I’ve spent the past five years living in Bed-Stuy, N.Y. and I will always consider Brooklyn a home base, but more recently I’ve been spending all of my free time in Los Angeles. It’s so new to me, strange; hopeful . . . I’m leaving my twenties and I want to head towards the sun so to speak. Done a lot of growing in this past year and all I’ve learned is that there is so much more to learn.” Stevens told us he always enjoys hearing how fans respond to the band’s lyrics: “You know, some people have some really touching answers. This music is really helping some people go through similar situations which, you know, that’s pretty rewarding. For me it’s kind of like, I want to get these lyrics out and off my chest and off my mind. It’s my own therapy. But to know that it can help other people that are going through hard times — that’s pretty wild, you know.” Highly Suspect is touring. Tonight, they’re in Baltimore.
Gotta dash. Have a great day and tell your friends about the hardDrive Live Tour!