Well, this happened over the weekend! As part of the Global Citizen Festival, Metallica performed a brief set and this morning, will appear on a certain satellite radio host’s show. (Cool hardDrive connection: The guy who will engineer today’s Howard Stern performance is a former hardDrive associate producer!)
In addition to Metallica’s set, The Pulse Of Radio reported Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and Coldplay’s Chris Martin teamed up for a three-song set on Saturday (Sept 24th) at the Global Citizen Festival in New York City’s Central Park. The two singers played Pearl Jam’s “Nothingman,” Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” and Patti Smith’s “People Have The Power.” Other performers at the fifth edition of the annual event, which promotes efforts to end global poverty, included Metallica, Kendrick Lamar, Usher, Demi Lovato and others.
In related ‘tallica news, the band revealed on Saturday they will perform tomorrow night at Webster Hall here in the city. Proceeds will benefit City Harvest Food‘s program. Tix are $25 for Metallica fan club members only. More on that Wednesday!
In international Metalllica news, they will be opening the new Royal Arena in Copenhagen on Feb 03 and 05, 2017.
Well, wish I could get the photo to post, but Pulse also reporting the rumor about Sean Yseult being the new touring bassist for Ghost is incorrect. The real one is Megan Thomas from the NY based, all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band, Lez Zeppelin. It was given away by a photo posted online by a fan from a recent Ghost signing reveals that the new bassist has a distinctive “X” tattoo on her right middle finger — which matches a tattoo that Thomas has on the exact same finger.
As with all the members of the band, the new member’s identity has not been divulged and she is just one of the five Nameless Ghouls behind singer Papa Emeritus III.
Since none of the musicians in the band are ever identified, personnel changes in the group have gone unannounced. It is believed, however, that the lineup has changed a few times over the years.
The five-song Popestar EP features covers of songs from bands like Echo & The Bunnymen and Eurythmics along with a new original tune called “Square Hammer.”
Corey Taylor and Lou Brutus
Corey “Jalapeno Throat” Taylor told Matt Pinfield Stone Sour has written and demoed 18 new songs for its sixth studio album, with plans to hit the studio in Jan and release the album by mid-2017. Taylor said about the new music, “It is some of the best material we’ve ever written. It is so good, and it is such a great amalgam of all of these different styles that we just absolutely love. It’s got a little bit of the heavy, like we like to do, but it’s also way more hard rock — way more rock ‘n’ roll and hard rock than heavy. I mean, there’s even a little bit of punk in there.”
Taylor also confirmed that the yet-to-be-titled effort will be the band’s first with bassist Johnny Chow and guitarist Christian Martucci, who initially joined Stone Sour on its last touring cycle. The recording sessions for the album will take place at Sphere Studios in Los Angeles, with Taylor explaining, “We’re gonna record it the old-fashioned way. We’re gonna get us all in the room. We’re gonna record it together; we’re gonna have that energy bouncing off of each other. It’s gonna be a modern throwback, let’s put it that way, and it’s gonna destroy people.”
Taylor told us a while back that Stone Sour never takes it for granted that its audience will still be there when the band starts working again: “You get one shot, and if you botch it, you’re f***ed. We’re the kind of band that we don’t take anything for granted. We’re willing to work for it, and we’re willing to work hard for it, and people just better get the hell out of our way.“
Stone Sour’s last full set of new material was the House Of Gold And Bones double album, which was released in two parts in 2012 and 2013. The band also released two EPs of cover songs in the last couple of years, Meanwhile In Burbank… and Straight Out Of Burbank.
From Pulse Of Radio, Saturday (Sep 24th) marked the 25th anniversary of the release of Nirvana‘s Nevermind. The band’s second full-length album was its first for a major label, Geffen Records, and within months of its release it became perhaps the most important rock album of its era. It propelled alternative music into the mainstream, created a cultural anthem in the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” ushered in a new wave of rock bands and helped to anoint the band’s reluctant frontman, Kurt Cobain, as the spokesperson for an entire generation until his suicide in 1994.
Nirvana and Nevermind were crucial in bringing mainstream attention to both the Seattle music scene and alternative music in general. Nevermind producer Butch Vig recalled going to a Nirvana gig just before the album came out and knowing that something was happening: “They played a show in Chicago at the Metro and we got to the gig and there was a massive line around the block and there was this insane buzz in the air. And they walked onstage and the crowd was screaming — it was like Beatlemania, I was kind of freaking out. There were people like crying and just freaking out in the audience, and that was the first time I realized that the record was gonna take on a life of its own.”
In an interview with the Associated Press on the album’s 20th anniversary, Vig, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl — who now leads Foo Fighters — looked back at the making of the album that changed their lives. Novoselic was asked about the effect the album’s success had on the trio. He replied, “It was shocking to be famous. I bought a house to deal with it. Then, of course, there was Kurt, who was thrust into being the spokesman of a generation. That was hard for him.”
Grohl discussed the importance of Nevermind in his life, saying, “It was a specific, exciting time in my life. Personally, my life is split by the release of that album. My entire life is pre-Nevermind and post-Nevermind. When it came out, my whole world was changed forever.”
Vig discussed how the music scene has changed in the two decades since Nevermind came out, saying, “With information moving so fast, the whole world has A.D.D. You only grab onto something for a second before you discard it. When Nevermind happened, it was still a slower time. That record really took off from a grass roots level.”
Grohl said about the impact that Nevermind had on culture, “I think that album came out at a time when a lot of kids didn’t have anything to believe in and Nirvana was entirely real.”
Almost four months after its release, Nevermind hit Number One on the Billboard album chart, turning the “grunge” genre into a phenomenon. Just 46,000 copies of Nevermind were shipped to record stores when it came out. The record debuted on the Billboard album chart at Number 144 and hit Number One on Jan 11th, 1992.
Nevermind was eventually certified Diamond in the U.S. for sales of more than 10 million copies. It has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
EIGHT MYTHS ABOUT NEVERMIND (from Spin magazine)
Spin magazine published a list of eight myths about Nevermind in 2011, and then let Nirvana historian Charles R. Cross reveal the real story. They are:
1. Nevermind was Kurt Cobain’s first choice for the album’s title: Not true. His first idea for the title was Sheep. The band finally decided on Nevermind in late 1990.
2. Nevermind was recorded in 1991: Most of the album was made in 1991, beginning in April. But the band’s first album sessions took place in April 1990 at Vig’s studio in Madison, WI. Five of the eight songs recorded there ended up on Nevermind, although they were re-recorded when Dave Grohl joined the band.
3. Dave Grohl is the only drummer on Nevermind: When the band recorded in Madison in 1990, Chad Channing was still the drummer. His performance on the song “Polly” made it to the final album, although he isn’t credited.
4. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was written about a deodorant: Cobain’s friend, Bikini Kill frontwoman Kathleen Hanna, did indeed write “Kurt smells like Teen Spirit” on Cobain’s bedroom wall, which is where the song title came from. But Cobain didn’t know there was an actual Teen Spirit deodorant until after the album came out.
5. Nirvana made a cassette demo of “Teen Spirit” to prove they had a hit: There is a rehearsal tape of “Teen Spirit” that was recorded on a boombox, but the band had no idea it had a potential smash on its hands. The band recorded that and many other songs on the boombox so that they wouldn’t forget how to play them.
6. Nevermind was written about drugs: There are references to drugs throughout the album, but that’s not what the entire disc was about. Plus Cobain’s full-scale drug addiction didn’t start until after the album was recorded. Most of the record was written about his friends, neighbors, or girlfriends.
7. The cover shot of the naked baby chasing the dollar bill in the pool was Cobain’s idea: Cobain wanted something more graphic for the cover — a shot of a baby’s head emerging from its mother’s vagina in a pool. Not surprisingly, that idea ended up not being used.
8. Cobain became instantly rich thanks to Nevermind: Most of the album’s sales came in 1992, and with record companies notoriously slow in paying royalties, Cobain made just under $30,000 in 1991, most of it from touring. In fact, after he returned home from recording the album, he found himself evicted from his apartment.
Incredibly, September 24th, 1991 also saw the release of Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the band’s commercial breakthrough and one of the seminal alternative rock records of the early 1990s. The band’s fifth studio effort, it was their first for Warner Bros. Records after the semi-successful Mother’s Milk came out in 1989. But Blood Sugar Sex Magik took the Peppers to an entirely new level of success which they’ve enjoyed ever since.
Blood Sugar Sex Magik reached Number Three on the Billboard album chart, going on to sell seven million copies in the U.S. and 13 million worldwide.
The disc yielded four major hit singles, including “Give It Away,” “Under the Bridge,” “Breaking the Girl” and “Suck My Kiss.” The record was the first of six Chili Peppers albums produced by Rick Rubin, who the band was hesitant to work with at first because of his association with “negative” bands like Slayer and Danzig.
Kiedis told us many years back what the band enjoyed about working with Rubin: “The best way to describe Rick as a producer would be if Baron Von Munchausen were to ejaculate the Red Hot Chili Peppers onto a chess board. As the players of that board, Rick Rubin would be the perfect chess player. He’s very intelligent, very emotionally in tune with hardcore soulful music. He knows how to extrapolate the best and most relaxed natural performance of a band without changing them.“
Blood Sugar Sex Magik was recorded at Rubin’s 10-bedroom mansion in the Hollywood Hills, marking the first time Rubin produced a record there after having a studio installed. Drummer Chad Smith, unlike the other three band members, refused to live at the house because it was reputedly haunted.
Busy week. Preparing for Sonic Boom, so 25 interviews need to be written! If you have any questions for the bands, especially Avenged Sevenfold, Disturbed, Korn, Breaking Benjamin and Chevelle….send me to me! And Sully Erna of Godsmack is dropping by on Wednesday to talk about his new album Hometown Life. Very different look at our friend and his musical direction he’s taken on this record.
Let’s leave you with this! New music from Alter Bridge from their forthcoming The Last Hero album. My favorite tune, “Poison in Your Veins.” Find the CD out Oct 07th!
Happy 42 today to Sheri Moon Zombie!