Halloween Weekis here! Love this time of year! The leaves are changing, there’s a nip in the air and we all have to figure out what we are gonna be on Halloween! My go to costume? Pumpkin shadow. I put a small gourd sized pumpkin on my index finger while wearing all black clothing. I am the shadow of the pumpkin! (No, you’re saying?) Well, be listening for Halloween themed interviews this week on hardDrive XL with Lou Brutus and the 19th annual Halloween Hootenanny on the World Famous hardDrive this weekend!
Brent Smith and Zach Myers of Shinedown will launch yet another leg of their acoustic tour starting Dec 4 in Destin, FL. Find all the dates in the Road Rage section of the website. Here’s a taste.
The Pulse Of Radio reports Saturday (Oct 24th) marked the 15th anniversary of Hybrid Theory, the debut album from Southern Californians Linkin Park. The disc was a massive success when it was released in October 2000, moving more than four million copies over the course of its first year in stores and eventually becoming the highest selling debut of the 2000s. Hybrid Theory is now certified Diamond by the MPAA for sales of more than 10 million copies.
We asked guitarist Brad Delson if the band ever imagined what its success would mean to them: “Well, when we made Hybrid Theory, we certainly never expected it to be such a huge commercial success. Not only did it, you know, connect with people in such a massive way at the time, but it still resonates. It’s really surreal and it’s certainly a privilege for us to be able to continue to share not only those songs but songs that we’ve made throughout our whole career with such a dedicated and loyal fan base.”
OH NO! Poor Jim Root (who will be featured this weekend on hardDrive’s Halloween Hootenanny!) Pulse reports a guitar belonging to the Slipknot axeman was allegedly stolen last Thursday night (Oct 22nd) from the band’s jam room at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, OR while the group was on stage. The thief made off with a custom satin silver Fender, leading the guitarist to write on Instagram: “F**king thieves. Nothing worse.”
Root’s longtime girlfriend, Lacuna Coil singer Cristina Scabbia, also posted a message on her Instagram urging fans to “keep an eye around the city and Internet and help us find (Jim’s) guitar and whoever stole it (or simply take it back)!” She added, “If you’re a real fan, I can understand you want to have something that belongs to your idol . . . But that’s the wrong way to do it and it is depriving another person of something that might mean memories.” Scabbia implored whoever took the guitar to “please take it back or send me a private message! We can all do something stupid and taking it back is what can bring a lot of honor back to you.” (Note: You can also email me here at hardDrive via the interact link on the home page if you have info leading to the recovery of the guitar.)
Slipknot completed its latest North American tour on Sunday (October 25th) with a headlining performance at the band’s second annual Knotfest, held in San Bernardino, CA.
In other Slipknot-related news, former drummer Joey Jordison has completed work on a new studio album with singer Kalen Chase, who has toured with Korn as a backing vocalist and percussionist. It is not clear at the moment if the new album is the sophomore effort from Scar The Martyr, Jordison’s last side project that released a self-titled debut CD in 2013. Singer Henry Derek Bonner quit Scar The Martyr in April 2014 due to “personal differences, artistic direction and a slew of business decisions that I cannot simply ignore.”
Chris Cornell has added a string of acoustic shows for Russia, Europe, Scandinavia and Israel commencing in late March through early May to promote his Higher Truth solo album. Hit chriscornell.com for more!
Also from Pulse, The Beastie Boys will be the subject of an upcoming musical titled Licensed To Ill, after the trio’s 1986 debut album. According to Diffuser, the play will incorporate live music and DJs to tell the story of how Mike “Mike D” Diamond, Adam “MCA” Yauch and Adam “King Ad-Rock” Horovitz rose to fame.
The show’s synopsis reads, “Join Mike D, MCA and Ad-Rock — the Beastie Boys — as they go from teenage punk rockers to international rapping legends. Using a mix of live music and DJ-ing, we travel through time from the hiphoppers of late ’80s New York to the early ’90s gangsters of LA — all the way to the total globalization of hiphop.” The synopsis adds the “loud, crazy show” is “not for the easily offended.”
Licensed To Ill will run from Nov 23rd to Dec 12th at Camden People’s Theater in London. Surviving Beastie Boys members Diamond and Horovitz are apparently aware of the show, although they are not involved in its production. Producer Simon Maeder told Pitchfork, “Whilst we have ensured the Beastie Boys are fully appraised of our plans for the show, this is an unauthorized production based on the Beastie Boys story.”
According to a press release received, Tool singer Maynard James Keenan‘s band Puscifer is now is streaming its third studio album, Money Shot, in full at Pandora. It arrives a week in advance of its Oct 30th release date. A seven-minute behind-the-scenes video on the making of the album has also been posted online. Keenan described the album as “kind of a culmination of all the things I’ve been exposed to and inspired by over the years.” And here’s the “Money Shot” music video.
Blabbermouth reports today on these two items:
- Alice In Chains singer William DuVall performed in Davenport, Iowa Friday night (October 23rd) at a campaign event for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. DuVall sang Tom Petty‘s “I Won’t Back Down” and Bruce Springsteen‘s “Born In The USA.” During his performance he said, “For quite a while now, I’ve had to listen to a lot of mean-spirited talk from people who do not agree with us, saying they want their country back. But, of course, by ‘back,’ they mean ‘backwards.’ The thing is, I don’t wanna go backwards.”
- Staind frontman Aaron Lewis performed a new song called “I Lost It All” on October 22nd at Brewster Street Icehouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, with the performance posted online by a fan. Lewis is currently working on the follow-up to his first full-length country album, 2012’sThe Road. Lewis described his new material as “more good old fashioned traditional country — something that I feel like the country genre needs desperately.”