End of June, ALREADY?!! What the heck? Slow down, summer, slow down!
Emailed with Jacoby Shaddix from Papa Roach yesterday. The band’s over in Europe. I was happy to see the press release regarding a successful Rise Above Fest for Seether, which included the efforts of P-Roach, Godsmack, Slash and others who performed and raised $50,000 from general ticket purchases, T-shirt sales, VIP ticket packages and and beverage sale. The money will go to SAVE.org (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education).to raise awareness of suicide prevention and mental health issues. The show was in Bangor, ME back on May 9th.
Meanwhile, the Papa Roach frontman said in a new interview with Finnish outlet Radio Nova the best way for rock fans to support new and established artists would be to continue buying albums. Shaddix explained, “The best thing you can do as a fan for your favorite bands is to buy their music. Because what it does is it sends a message to the industry who’s killing it . . . if all the rock kids are, and all the punk kids are, filesharing, the industry looks at it and goes, ‘Oh, rock and metal just doesn’t mean s**t anymore. Only pop does, because the people are buying that.’”
Shaddix added, “They did a study on Spotify, and they found that metal music and rock music are the most popular forms of music on Spotify . . . it’s still a very popular style of music. It’s just the industry doesn’t see it as that, because it’s not the genre that sells the most records. So it’s pretty interesting.”
Papa Roach guitarist Jerry Horton told us he has nothing against pop music as long as it’s done well: “You kind of have to look at pop as something that’s, at this point in time it’s kind of just candy, you know. It’s just, okay it might taste good but it’s not good for you and it goes away after a couple of seconds. I would love to see pop stuff like Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall — yeah, it’s pop, but there’s so much musicianship in records like that. At least it’s done in a way that’s not just so simple and bland.”
Speaking of pop rock, I just can’t get t his song out of my head! The Struts, “Could Have Been Me.” I interviewed the lead singer yesterday, Luke Spiller at his home in Bristol, England. What a cool dude. The band is super excited to be coming to the states for the first time in August. They’ve got a bunch of events they’ll be doing including Jimmy Kimmel Live! I know, you’re thinking, that is so not a song for hardDrive, but listen to it again. It’s like Freddie Mercury reincarnated! He’d be proud of these guys! Just a great summer song, if you ask me! Crank it!
Pulse Of Radio reporting Disturbed singer David Draiman says he’s “done with social media” after battling with Twitter trolls who have harassed and baited him about his sometimes-controversial views regarding Israel and its ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. Draiman has had frequent heated exchanges with followers on Twitter, some of whom believe that Israel is not blameless in the ongoing conflict with Palestinians.
Draiman, the son of Israelis and the grandson of Holocaust survivors, spent much of the last few months linking to articles by conservative and pro-Israel blogs and has often used his fame to speak out against anti-Semitism. This led to frequent heated exchanges with his followers on Twitter, some of whom believe that Israel is not blameless in the ongoing conflict with Palestinians.
But the vocalist has has now deleted his @davidmdraiman Twitter account, explaining to a Minnesota radio station, 93X, “I’m done with social media, personally. And it had nothing to do with the (upcoming Disturbed) record. It happened to be coincidental, but it had nothing to do with the record.” He continued, “Social media has become a playground for trolls, a playground for these people who prey on one another. You can’t get anything decent done on there anymore; you just open yourself up to constant attack. And I’m just done with it. I’m done with it.”
While he has been outspoken on Twitter and elsewhere, Draiman told us a while back that he prefers keeping his views out of his concert performances: “When you speak to people, all you can do is speak from your heart. And there’s certain things that will detract from the energy of a concert experience, that you don’t want to speak about in that forum, and there are certain things that will help energize a concert experience, that can certainly be tied to political issues.“
In other news, Disturbed’s music video for “The Vengeful One,” already has over one MILLION views! That’s ONE MILLION views! In like, what, two days? Congrats!
Nickelback is still doing it best to keep its latest album in the spotlight even though the band had to quit touring earlier this week. Just out from the band’s 2014 release, No Fixed Address, is the new single and video, “Get ‘Em Up.” The clip follows two friends who plot a bank robbery only for things to not go exactly as planned, The video even has a cliffhanger ending that could be continued in future clips. Singer Chad Kroeger told Loudwire, “I’ve always wanted to write a song about a bank robbery. If I couldn’t be involved in a bank robbery, I gotta write a good one. My band members still haven’t figured out that this is a metaphor from an instance early on in my life.”
Earlier this week, Nickelback was forced to cancel all the dates on the second leg of the band’s 2015 North American tour, due to frontman Chad Kroeger being diagnosed with an operable cyst on his voice box. Kroeger will undergo surgery in three weeks following vocal rest ordered by doctors. Ticket refunds will be available at the point of purchase. If all goes well, Nickelback will return to the road on September 30th to kick off a European tour in Finland. The band is expected to return to North America in 2016.
Aw, come on! It’s at least worth a PARTY!!!!! Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich said in a new interview he doesn’t think the band is going to commemorate its 35th anniversary in 2016. Speaking with Billboard, Ulrich explained, “In 2011 we celebrated our 30th with a week’s worth of concerts in San Francisco for our fan club. But you’ve got to be careful. You don’t wave the flag continuously for old laurels, things you’ve done way in your past.” He added, “It’s tricky to find the right balance between looking into the future and celebrating the past. As active as we’ve been over the years, you can find a celebration in almost anything. So we kind of shy away from doing too much of that.” The band’s star-studded 30th anniversary gigs in December 2011 included appearances from former bassist Jason Newsted, Gary Rossington, Rob Halford, Jerry Cantrell, Kid Rock,Lou Reed, Glenn Danzig, Ozzy Osbourne and Dave Mustaine.
Metallica currently has 10 dates on its calendar between now and mid-September, including this year’s edition of Lollapalooza, which will take place at Grant Park in Chicago, on Juy 31st, Aug 1st and Aug 2nd. The band has reportedly been working on its 10th studio album, which will follow up 2008’s Death Magnetic.
Man, I got invited and I didn’t go. Dang! Didn’t know Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day would be there last night! Norah Jones and Billie Joe did a show at the Bowery Electric, a tiny venue on the lower East Side (or LES as we New Yorkers call it.) My friend books the bands there and manages the venue. The two had recorded a record together, the Everly Brothers tribute album, Foreverly, and performed it in its entirety. The pair released the album, a remake of the Everly Brothers’ 1958 roots record Songs Our Daddy Taught Us, in 2013 but never toured together behind it. I was also invited to Long Island to see Starset perform at a planetarium out there. Was strapped to my desk til 8 last night. 🙁 Paulie Walnuts went, so hopefully he got some cool shots for our socials!
And finally today, The Daily Show fans can rejoice! Jon Stewart will be getting a special send-off from Comedy Central before his final episode of the popular show on world politics. The network will launch “Your Month of Zen” offering a stream of every episode that Jon has hosted. His first broadcast was on Jan 11th, 1999 and his final episode will be on Aug 6th.