Whoops.
Oh man. Did you ever forget you put a bottle of wine or beer in the freezer and then it exploded? Yeah, that was me. My BF is not happy right now.
‘Tallica
The Pulse Of Radio reporting Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich spoke to Citizens Of Humanity magazine (listen here) about the musical direction of the band’s long-awaited follow-up to 2008’s Death Magnetic, tentatively due in the fall. He said, “It definitely sounds like Metallica. It’s probably a little less frenetic than the last record. The last one (producer) Rick Rubin really encouraged us to for the first time be inspired by our past. It was the first time we sort of looked in the rearview mirror. This time around it’s a little bit of a different thing.”
Ulrich continued, “We’re not working with Rick, we’re working with the engineer from the last record, who’s producing, Greg Fidelman. So there’s some of the same production elements at play, but we’re expanding a little bit on the sonics. It’s probably a bit more of a diverse record than the last one. It’s exciting, but I don’t have quite the perspective yet.”
Ulrich also addressed the eight-year gap between studio albums, the longest of the band’s career, by saying, “I think what’s happened is our families and our domestic responsibilities are so important to us now, so we just have a new model. We’re sort of constantly doing something but never to the point of the needle going in the red, but Metallica really hasn’t sort of shut down since around 2005, and it’s a model that works for us.” He added, “We never work at 110 percent to the point where we drive ourselves nuts, but are sort of constantly working at two-thirds, you know — when we make the record we’re writing and we’re recording, but we’re doing it incrementally. There’s always stuff going on. It’s the way we like it. It keeps us engaged.”
Ulrich told us not long ago that Metallica no longer wants to devote large chunks of time to any one project: “You know, Metallica, in order for it to be true and pure and honest, has to be fun. And so the days of, you know, writing for a year and then recording for a year and then going on the road for three years — those kind of endlessly long cycles — they’re just behind us. I don’t think we have the stamina to do anything for those elongated periods of time any longer.”
Metallica worked on the new disc on and off over the past few years, in between other projects that included a series of short tours, a film, the restoration of some of their early albums and other projects. The band recently completed recording at its headquarters in San Rafael, CA and has now begun mixing the new disc, which is expected out before the end of the year or early next. I would suspect a single could come out later this summer, perhaps in time for their show in Minneapolis on Aug 20th.
This sucks. The Pulse of Radio also reporting a record store in Istanbul, Turkey hosting a Radiohead listening event was rocked by violence on Friday (Jun 17th) when a group of men stormed the shop and attacked the customers. The men, who witnesses said were carrying metal pipes and glass bottles, were reportedly angry that the patrons in the store were drinking alcohol and listening to music during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
The situation became violent and a Periscope video has surfaced online in which you can hear but not see the altercation. A man claiming to be one of the hosts of the event wrote on Reddit, “I was one of the hosts. I am the person that’s speaking in that video. I am the owner of that periscope account. They were determined to kill us. We were beaten by more than 20 men with pipes in their hands, beer bottles were broken on our heads. I don’t even know how we made it out. I will share the details later guys, just hoping that no one will die.”
It was later reported by Turkish news agencies that no one was seriously injured, though one person was reported to be bleeding from the head after being hit with a bottle. Other reports suggested that several people, including the Korean store owner and several women, had been hurt.
Radiohead issued a brief statement on Friday night (Jun 17th), saying, “Our hearts go out to those attacked tonight at Velvet IndieGround in Istanbul. We hope that someday we will be able to look back on such acts of violent intolerance as things of the ancient past. For now, we can only offer our fans in Istanbul our love and support.”
The event, dubbed Live From A Moon Shaped Pool, took place at record stores around the world and included an “exclusive day-long audio stream from the band,” along with competitions, “instructional artworks” and more. The global event commemorated Friday’s release of the new Radiohead album, A Moon Shaped Pool, in CD and vinyl editions, along with its streaming debut on Spotify.
The Black Key: Patrick Carney & Dan Auerbach
Pulse also reporting Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney has joined the list of musicians piling on YouTube and slamming the Google-owned streaming service for its artist royalty payouts. According to Billboard, Carney said in a series of tweets last Thursday (Jun 16th) artists aren’t getting paid the money they are due from YouTube due to unauthorized videos. He added any artist who is invested in a streaming service but doesn’t speak out for fair pay is a “sell out.”
Carney tweeted, “Give me five minutes on @youtube and I probably can find 250 songs that are available which the artist isn’t getting paid for. At least.” He continued, “A sell out in my book in 2016 is anyone that takes a share in a streaming company who also is an artist and doesn’t advocate for fair pay.” He did not mention any artists specifically by name, although a number have taken shares in the streaming service Tidal.
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails slammed YouTube over its royalty payments last week, saying they’re considerably less than those made by Spotify and Apple Music. Reznor also called out YouTube for allowing stolen content to be posted.
YouTube responded in a statement, “Today the revenue from fan uploaded content accounts for roughly 50 percent of the music industry’s YouTube revenue. Any assertion that this content is largely unlicensed is false. To date, we have paid out over $3 billion to the music industry — and that number is growing year on year.”
Lots of artists are speaking out daily. Five Finger Death Punch’s Zoltan Bathory has been very vocal of late, as well as Corey Taylor, who will be on the hotLine Wednesday. Stay tuned for more.
Happy for our friends in Islander. The band returns to the scene this summer with a new member in the lineup and a sophomore album titled Power Under Control. The disc is due out on Aug 5th and follows up 2014’s debut, Violence & Destruction. Only singer Mikey Carvajal remains from the original band, while among the new members is drummer Arin Ilejay, who was dismissed last year from Avenged Sevenfold after a four-year stint with that group.
Carvajal told us how Ilejay ended up in Islander: “When Islander did the Mayhem festival with Avenged Sevenfold a couple of years ago, me and Arin, we just became really close and we just kept in touch ever since. And we used to actually joke around, like, ‘Dude, it would be so funny if you came and played with us or filled in some shows for us. It was just kind of like a joke between friends, and then all of a sudden the opportunity actually came up for him to go out with us, and he joined the band and it’s just been great.“
Ilejay spoke with Rolling Stone about being ousted from Avenged Sevenfold and joining Islander, saying, “I was totally shocked and scared out of my mind when (Avenged guitarist) Synyster Gates called me to let me go. I was like, ‘Oh my God! My wife is about to have a baby. How am I going to support my family now?‘” He added he never felt like he was ever truly part of Avenged Sevenfold, saying, “I realized if I joined Islander I would have an opportunity to help write songs and build something, instead of being on the inside but, at the same time, really be on the outside the way I was with Avenged.”
A track from Power Under Control, titled “Darkness,” is online now. The first official single is called “Bad Guy.” The other members of Islander include former Korn guitar tech and Love And Death‘s J.R. Bareis on guitar and bassist Ezekiel Vasquez. Islander will play the Rock USA festival in Oshkosh, WI on Jul 16th.
Happy 43rd today to Chino Moreno of Deftones, Crosses, Team Sleep, Palms and a bunch more. And Happy 45th to Twiggy Ramierez, aka Jeordie White, of Marilyn Manson’s band.