Good morning Radicals! Here’s the latest music news for you!
Nothing More will hit the road early next year and is taking current rock chart-toppers Badflower along with them. The 2019 tour begins on February 21st in Phoenix and wraps up a little over a month later on March 23rd in San Antonio, Texas. Also on the bill are Of Mice And Men and Palisades.
Pre-sale tickets for the run are available now, with general admission tickets going on sale Friday (October 12th). You cansee the full list of dates on the Road Rage page.
Nothing More is still touring behind its 2017 release The Stories We Tell Ourselves, which features the Top 10 rock singles “Go To War,” “Do You Really Want It?” and “Just Say When.” Badflower, meanwhile, has been lodged in recent weeks at the very top of the rock chart with the single “Ghost.” The band has been working on its first full-length album, although a release date and title have yet to be announced.
Stone Sour, Weezer and Rage Against The Machine are just a few of the acts who will be providing exclusive items for Record Store Day’s Black Friday event this year. In what is now a tradition, the organizers of Record Store Day will hold a satellite event on Black Friday (November 23rd). Though the day doesn’t offer the number of releases as the main event in April, there are still some exclusive, limited-edition releases to be hand.
Stone Sour’s Corey Taylor told us a while back that he remembers a time when going to the record store to buy a new album was a big deal: “It used to be albums were something you looked forward to. You counted down those days. And now kids can just hit a button and it’s like, ‘I have it.’ You know, there’s nothing special about it anymore.”
A remastered version of Stone Sour’s self-titled debut album is being release on limited edition vinyl for Black Friday. The effort will also include a live CD recorded in 2002 and will be limited to 2,500 copies. Meanwhile, Weezer will release a special edition of its cover of Toto’s “Africa.” The limited-edition 10-inch picture disc will be cut in the shape of Africa and only 3,000 copies will be pressed.
Rage Against the Machine is making Live & Rare, a 1997 collection of live and demo takes, available on vinyl for the first time ever. The collection itself was previously only available in Japan and is limited to 5,000 copies. Garbage will release a brand new single called “Destroying Angels,” backed with a live-in-the-studio cover of David Bowie’s “Starman.” The 3,000-copy limited edition will be the first and only physical release of the song.
Other artists contributing rare and limited releases to the Black Friday event include A Perfect Circle, Hozier, Guns N’ Roses, Stone Temple Pilots, the Breeders, Cheap Trick, Collective Soul, Iggy and the Stooges, Talking Heads, The Flaming Lips and Ben Stiller‘s high school punk band Capital Punishment, who are releasing an EP of their first new music in 35 years.
Alter Bridge and Tremonti guitarist Mark Tremonti said in a new interview on the Jamey Jasta Show podcast that both his current bands have not been able to reach the same large audiences as his previous act, Creed, because neither band has landed a massive hit like that group did during its heyday.
Tremonti explained, “One massive song and you’ve got your foot in the door . . . Both Alter Bridge and Tremonti, we haven’t had that one song. We’ve had all the songs that our fans love and all albums that our fans love, but we don’t have a big hit song.” He added, “So when you’re getting your haircut it’s like, ‘So what do you do for a living?’ ‘I’m a musician.’ ‘Really? What song?’ ‘Ah, you wouldn’t know it (laughs).’”
Tremonti also said he’s cautious about releasing a track that is too “ballad-y” because it will give the wrong impression, citing a song called “Take You With Me” on the new Tremonti album, A Dying Machine. He said, “I told the record label, ‘If I put it on the record, to begin with, and then it’s the first single for the record that I’m very proud of and it skews everything because everybody thinks it’s a pop record, I’m gonna be pissed.’”
Mark told us how he separates the songs he writes for Alter Bridge, whose frontman is Myles Kennedy, and those he pens for Tremonti, in which he sings lead: “You know, Myles is a big tenor singer and I’m a baritone-y kind of guy and that’s what helps me make the stuff sound different. But when the stuff’s on the table for me, between Alter Bridge and Tremonti I just take what’s best at the moment and run with it.”
Tremonti’s solo band has been on the road recently behind A Dying Machine, while Alter Bridge is scheduled to return to the studio next spring.
Metallica‘s September 8th concert at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks, North Dakota broke records for ticket revenue and other sales. The event, which drew nearly 17,000 fans, earned the highest-grossing ticket sales in the building’s history, according to general manager Anna Rosburg. It also broke highest-grossing records for food, beverage and merchandise sales, as well as partnership revenues for one show since the Alerus opened in February 2001. Country star George Strait holds the record for highest attendance, having drawn about 19,500 for a February 2013 performance.
Finally, we’d like to wish a Happy Birthday today to Matt Brandyberry of From Ashes To New, and the incredible Lzzy Hale of Halestorm! Huzzah!