Happy Passover and Good Friday, indeed! Getting ready to head out of town for the Easter weekend to my lakeside retreat. Hope the snow’s melted, but I wanna say probably not!…..Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins in the hardDriveStudios yesterday. The band is in town doing press and appearances. This morning on Good Morning America, last night on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Look for a video interview with Mr Corgan soon…Tuesday night, mark it on your datebooks. 11 PM Eastern/10 Central/8 PM Pacific, LOU BRUTUS will be doing a live chat on the hardDriveRadio APP! Get in the Interact Live section now to get your questions in! Talk to him about being in the new book of photos Rob Fenn has taken following the steps of our pals Halestorm in “To Hale & Back.” Lou is on page 197! Ask him about his first concert. His hobbies. What time he wakes up! What’s the scariest thing he’s found in his couch. Who knows what he’ll reveal! Tuesday, April 7th! Get the new hardDriveRadio APP in the APP store or Google Play! And thanks if you already have downloaded it. It’s cool, right? You can stream the weekend edition of hardDrive as well as the nightly hardDrive XL with LOU BRUTUS! So get it, what are you waiting for?!!!!….Pulse Of Radio reporting this morning System Of A Down drummer John Dolmayan said in a conference call on Tuesday the band’s upcoming concert in Armenia — the first time System will ever perform in the ancestral country of its members — means more to the group than making a new album. Dolmayan explained why this was so: “This one, especially since it’s culminating in Armenia, it’s even more impactful for me as an Armenian and as a musician. This is more something that transcends music. This is more important than a next System of a Down album. This is something that is even bigger than the Armenian genocide itself. You know, this is a world issue and we want to help prevent what happened to the Armenians happening to other people.” The Armenian show will conclude a series of live dates around the world called the Wake Up The Souls tour. System is doing the tour to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, during which 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives at the hands of the Turkish government between 1915 and 1918. Turkey has officially denied that the atrocity took place ever since. The tour begins on Monday, April 6th in Inglewood, CA, and includes 14 dates in Europe and North and South America, culminating in Armenia in April 23rd, the day before the annual worldwide observation of the genocide. System went on hiatus in late 2006 but began touring intermittently again in 2011. As for the possibility of a new album, Dolmayan said, “We do want to get together after the tour to talk about writing, but who knows. Maybe things will happen on this tour that will inspire songs.” Let’s hope so!…..Slipknot had some fun on April Fool’s Day by launching a website for the “Slipknot Surrogate Program,” through which the band “will start the first round of artificial insemination to generate future band members.” A form is provided at the website for potential surrogates to fill out ahead of an interview with percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan on the group’s upcoming tour. The site may be a joke, but Crahan himself recently told BBC Radio One he could see Slipknot carrying on with all new members at some point. He explained, “Don’t be surprised one day, you know, (if) nobody in the band will be in the band. It’ll all just be new people. I’ll be 80 and there’ll be a whole Slipknot thing moving. I mean, we’ve got two new guys now, man. You never know — my son might take over. You never know.” Crahan told us he has other things he wants to do once his run in Slipknot is over: “I’m leaving on a high note, and when I’m go, that’s it, and it’s bye-bye time. And I’m not gonna be some ancient relic that comes out with wrinkles because I’m broke, and try to recapture something that I let go. When I’m gone, I’m gone. I’m not old by any means but I want a little solitude, I want a little peace. I want to write books. I want to make movies. I have a lot of other dreams besides Slipknot.” Slipknot’s two newest members are bassist Alessandro “Alex” Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg. They replaced the late Paul Gray and the fired Joey Jordison respectively. Slipknot has been touring in support of its latest album, .5: The Gray Chapter, which came out last October. The band will launch a spring U.S. trek on April 25th in Fort Myers, FL, ending on May 16th in Grand Rapids, MI, with more summer dates to follow in July and August … Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo told Rolling Stone in a new interview that the band is “having a blast” working on songs for its 10th studio album, adding, “We are being productive and having fun.” Asked if the new material is in the same vein as 2008’s Death Magnetic album, Trujillo said, “I can’t say that yet. I really can’t relate it to any album; I think every Metallica album is unique in its own way. What we’re doing is special and unique in its own way, but still keeping it heavy.” Trujillo continued, “For me as a listener, part of the journey I’m on with Metallica, there’s just a certain edge that needs to be there . . . I can tell you that what we’re doing sounds heavy, but again each album is its own little experience. So we’ll just have to wait and see.” Drummer Lars Ulrich recently told Rolling Stone the band has written close to 20 new songs for its long-awaited new album, and will get closer to entering the studio in the near future. Don’t expect an album til 2016, just in time for hardDrive‘s 20th anniversary!….. Happy Belated 27th Birthday to Arejay Hale of Halestorm, (should’ve know he was born on April Fool’s Day!) who got the audience’s best wishes as they sang “Happy Birthday” in German at the band’s stop in Frankfurt. What happened next, well, that was expected. Watch it here. Looking forward to seeing my Halestorm sister and brothers on Monday. as they head into the hardDriveRadio studios. Got QUESTIONS? Send them to me! Been listening to the new album, Into The Wild Life, and it is blowing me away at how awesome it is. So happy for the band. The new single will be “Amen” and a video is posted on the band’sFacebook page. They’ve also posted “I Am The Fire” and Yahoo Music is streaming the album now, so you can be listening too! Pre-order it now! …..30 Seconds To Mars has teamed up with Swedish fashion and lifestyle brand, Happy Plugs, to announce a new design of headphones dubbed Triad by Thirty Seconds to Mars. The buds come with three sets of ear tips for different fits, a remote control for music playback and a microphone for hands-free calls with your smartphone. Every package also comes with a golden ticket, giving you a chance to win a meet-and-greet with the band at one of their upcoming shows. 30 Seconds To Mars is currently on the road in Russia and Eastern Europe until next month, after which singer Jared Leto will begin shooting his role as the Joker in the upcoming DC Comics-based movie Suicide Squad. (Diffuser)…..Celebrating birthdays: Friday, Sebastian Bach of Skid Row is 47. Mike Ness of Social Distortion is 53, Eddie Murphy is 54. Saturday, Josh Todd of Buckcherry is 44, Adam Dutkiewicz of Killswitch Engage is 37 and Robert Downey, Jr is the Big 5-0. Sunday, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready is 49. Have a great weekend!
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