Wow! So much happening! It’s an exciting time! First off, we are preparing for our 10th anniversary of hardDrive XL with Lou Brutus! Can’t actually believe it’s been 10 years since I went into the boss’ office and suggested the idea. Pretty freakin’ cool! We’ll be doing things a little differently and we hope you love the little tweaks. Same music, same excellent Lou Brutus, just better!
Alice In Chains have been working on new music according to bassist Mike Inez, who was seen in an interview with Framus & Warwick on Blabbermouth. The band is working on their 6th studio album, as Mike said, “Today I’m leaving this studio and going to another studio, and I’m gonna make a bunch of racket . . . we’re hard at work. We’re always doing something — I mean, it’s just what we do. We just play, and usually everything else will come together.“
Inez added, “Being in the studio for twenty hours a day isn’t fun, but it’s a great job. But we try to make that our clubhouse and separate that from the business, kind of . . . Today is actually our first day, and I’m already late, ’cause I’m here talking to you (laughs), so it shows you how professional we still are.”
Inez also talked about how Alice In Chains used to record years ago, “There’s been albums, say, like ‘Jar Of Flies,’ where we were in between tours, so we wrote and recorded and mixed and mastered that album in ten days . . . I kind of miss those days. We don’t do records like that anymore. I wish more people did records like that.”
The new Alice In Chains album will follow up 2013’s The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, which featured the rock radio hits “Stone” and “Hollow.” The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here was the band’s second disc with singer William DuVall, who joined in 2006 following the death of Layne Staley.
This pose is hurting my back…
Blabbermouth is also reporting Metallica frontman James Hetfield has admitted that making fans wait eight years for the band’s latest album was “a mistake.” Last year’s Hardwired… To Self-Destruct marked the band‘s first release since their 2011 collaboration with Lou Reed, Lulu, and their first album of new, original material since 2008’s Death Magnetic. In the meantime, Metallica toured the world relentlessly, even logging a 2013 Antarctica stop that made them the first band to play all seven continents. They also dropped the artsy concert film “Through The Never,” which reportedly cost $32 million and made less than $4 million at the box office.
Speaking to The Straits Times, Hetfield said that perhaps waiting so long to make the new album “was a mistake” and reassured fans that “it won’t be” another eight years before a follow-up effort sees the light of day.
The ‘tallica frontman also offered his views on remaining relevant — and even being invited to play this year’s Grammy Awards (CBS-TV Feb 12)— in an industrial climate that is thriving on the past. “Music comes in trends and what not, but we haven’t gone anywhere,” he said. “If we’re still popular enough to play the Grammys, that’s cool.
He added he didn’t put much thought into how Metallica managed to stay on top when so many of their peers have fallen by the wayside or lost their mojo. “I don’t want to figure it out. What we have to offer is honesty and we love what we do. We’re writing songs we want to hear and that’s important. We’re not trying to recreate something that worked before or try a different genre or do some other crazy thing that’s not us.”
Drummer Lars Ulrich recently told Apple Music’s Beats 1 that making Hardwired… To Self-Destruct was “such a good experience” that he was willing to predict that it was not going to take another eight years for the next record to arrive. The album was released Nov 18th. Meanwhile, Metallica has shows booked in Denmark, Mexico and South America over the next three months, but has yet to unveil its full 2017 tour plans, including its first North American tour in eight years. But that info will be revealed soon!
Currently, the band’s sole North American date so far is May 21 at the Rock On The Range festival in Columbus, OH.
And this week, my phone will be ringing with interview with Troy Sanders from Mastodon to talk about their upcoming new music! And Tuesday, I will dash away from the movers in my apartment to an interview in the office with Nickelback brothers Chad and Mike Kroeger. Have a great day!