All You Cannot Live Without 01.30.06: Now With Mailbag!

Posted by Ben Czajkowski on 01.30.2006

This week features some sweet news about Tool performing with Kanye West, the new Rob Zombie Album, and a deliciously, self-centered bit by Amy Lee. You NEED to read this.

Prelude to the Media

Well, motherfuckers, lemme just say this.

Pittsburgh is going to the fucking Superbowl in Dirty Detroit next Sunday. I'm finally happy to be a Pittsburgher again. What's really fucking annoying, though, is that every fucking restaurant and their mother is releasing some knock off of a "Big Ben Roethlesberger."

Of course the Stillers going to beat Seattle. This time we don't have Bam Morris and Neil O'Donnell. Anyone remember Superbowl XXX? That was just bad. Anyway, this week has been fucking slow, and I hate the world right now. But what else is new? I'm an angst-y, 20-year-old college student.

A new feature in this column this week: Mailbag! I got two emails, replying to last week's column. Thanks to everyone who thought about emailing me, but it's the effort that counts, so fuck you for not taking the effort. Do so this week. I'd love to hear from you. Emails are at the end.

My Sweet Little Bitches

Read everyone! Migraine won't let me copy/paste links correctly, and since I'm not using my laptop this week since it's in the shop, it's a bit of a hassle to navigate a keyboard I just cannot get used to.

This will be back to normal next week.

It's All Too Much to Look Up Yourself, So I've Done the Work for You

The Strokes – First Impressions of Earth (out now)
Chimaira – Chimaira (2 CD Special Edition) (out now)
Hed (pe) – Only In Amerika: Live, Raw and Uncensored (DVD) (out now)
Switched – Ghosts In The Machine (out now)
Switched – Subject To Change (out now)
Bleeding Through – The Truth (out now)
Underworld: Evolution – Soundtrack (out now)
Dragonforce – Inhuman Rampage (out now)
2006 Grammy Nominees – Various Artists (out now)
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones – The Hidden Land (out now)
P.O.D. – Testify (out now)
Yellowcard - Lights and Sounds (out now)
Jane's Addiction - The Best of Jane's Addiction (out now)
She Wants Revenge – She Wants Revenge (January 31st)
Train – For Me, It's You (January 31st)
David Lee Roth - The Best (January 31st)
In Flames – Come Clarity (February 3rd Europe, February 7th US)
Machine Head – Burn My Eyes Special Edition (February 7th)
Whitesnake – The Definitive Collection (February 7th)
My Chemical Romance - Life on the Murder Scene (February 7th)
Kittie - Never Again EP (February 7th)
Collective Soul – Home (DVD) (February 7th)
Sleepless In Seattle: The Birth of Grunge - Various Artists (February 7th)
Kid Rock – Live Mother Trucker (February 14th)
Metal's Dark Side – Hard and the Furious Volume 1 (DVD) (February 21st)
Various Artists - Black Days: Midwest Movement Tribute to Soundgarden (February 21st)
Loser – Nobody Knows (February 27th)
Mogwai - Mr. Beast (March 6th)
Taylor Hawkins and The Coattail Riders - Taylor Hawkins and The Coattail Riders (March 7th)
Boysetsfire – The Misery Index; Notes from the Plague Years (March 7th)
Mindless Self Indulgence – Straight to Video: The Remixes (March 7th)
Norma Jean – O' God the Aftermath (Re-release) (March 7th)
Katatonia – The Great Cold Distance (March 13th)
Type O Negative – Symphony For the Devil (DVD) (March 14th)
Faktion – Faktion (March 21st)
Hurt - Vol. 1 (March 21st)
From First to Last – Heroine (March 21st)
Silent Civilian - Rebirth of the Temple (March 21st)
Live - Songs from Black Mountain (March 21st)
Atreyu – A Deathgrip on Yesterday (March 28th)
Rob Zombie - Educated Horses (March 28th)
Queensryche – Operation: Mindcrime II (March 31st Europe, April 4th US)
Lacuna Coil – Karmacode (March 31st Europe, April 3rd UK, April 4th US)
Soil – True Self (April 4th)
NearLY – Reminder (April 11th)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium (May 8th UK, May 9th US)
Walls Of Jericho – Yet Untitled (July 25th)

The Low Down on the Underground

The best thing to ever come out of Alaska, 36 Crazyfists are putting the final touches on things. On a recent update, the band at this to say, "Things are rolling along as I'm in the last phase of this record and I cannot wait until you all get to hear it. Remember the first Deicide record? Its not like that at all...ha." Oh what promise that holds! Rest Inside the Flames drops later this spring.

For anyone who has been following this column since it's conception, you won't be shocked that I have Lacuna Coil news to pass along. Karmacode is set to be released through Century Media in the early part of spring. "Our Truth," the first single from the CD, will be available as a digipack featuring "Our Truth", "Swamped" (from Comalies), a remix of "Our Truth" and "Without a Reason", a song recorded during the Karmacode session but not put on the album. This will be out March 6th.

According to MTV, the next Rob Zombie album will be titled Educated Horses. Geffen Records will release it on March 28. In other news, more dates have been confirmed for Rob Zombie's upcoming North American tour with Lacuna Coil.

Educated Horses track listing:

01. Sawdust in the Blood
02. American Witch
03. Foxy, Foxy
04. Seventeen Year Locust
05. The Scorpion Sleeps
06. 100 Ways
07. Let It All Bleed Out
08. Death of it All
09. Ride
10. The Devil's Rejects
11. Lords of Salem

"Death of It All" will be acoustic.

Let more festival rumors begin! More talk surrounding Ozzfest, the band Hurt is the newest to be rumored to be featured on the 2006 tour. Hurt will be releasing their debut album, Vol. 1 through Capitol Records on March 21. Described as a mix between Metallica, Trivium and Nirvana, the band features singer/violinist/guitarist/arranger J. Loren and Evan Johns. I don't think they sound like any of the three. But fuckit, what do I know? "The Rapture," the first single, is currently being added to radio. You can listen to 'Rapture' here.

We do, apparently have a couple, actual confirmations. David Draiman (Disturbed) said in a recent radio interview that "It looks like at this point that we are confirmed for Ozzfest this summer, so that should be a good thing. It's looking like that's gonna happen, so..." The band will look to be joining Black Label Society. Oh how the mighty hath fallen.


Are They Still Out There or Did They Finally Overdose?

I'm only reporting this because this makes a piece of me, on the inside, cry ever so slightly. E-Town Concrete has announced their last ever show. It is set to take place on Saturday, May 20th at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ. They had a really cool song called "Mandibles" a few years ago. I used to secretly jam to it. In fact, I am right now.

The band that should have died after their lead singer kicked the bucket: Drowning Pool recently acquired the former front man from Soil Ryan McCombs. The band is slated to enter the studio later this year to work on a third waste of musical space.

I thought this was just fucking hilarious. I'm not even going to paraphrase it. If you want to read this behemoth, you fucking can. This comes straight from Cold's weblog on myspace:

Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee has posted the following message on the Evanescence message board:

"I know everyone is dying to hear what's going on, and it's been a little while since I've posted.

"There's some stuff I really shouldn't talk about right now, but I want you to know that the record is coming out beautifully. Through all of the scary and insane drama over the last six months, there has also been a lot of good — I feel like a new person.

"As most of you already know, Terry Balsamo, Evanescence/ex-Cold had a stroke in November. A small chunk of this recording process was spent in the neurology unit at ULCA. Every time he would wake up, all he could talk about was getting out of the hospital and playing guitar. He actually had us bring his polka-dot Randy Rhoads guitar to the hospital. It's funny — after being stuck on lyrics for a month on one song, I remember finally writing them at the foot of Terry's bed in intensive care. It's wild how life inspires you — again reminding me that we have no control over anything.

"It's been two months, and Terry has made miraculous progress. He is in the studio with us right now, and everything is going ahead as planned. We are certain that he will make a full recovery — he's too stubborn to settle for anything less. Meanwhile, we were (and are) going through firing our manager, and as you can see (all over the freaking Internet), that hasn't been very easy for us either. BUT it always hurts to break through to the other side — to make the changes you have to make to help yourself, and I already feel so good. Weird. I feel better than I have in years. I love my album, I love my band, and I'm grateful for our lives. This album is meaning more and more to me as we finish it. Most of it was written when we came into the studio, but much more has poured out through all of this, making it that much better — that much more passionate.

Alright, does anyone else see what the problem is with this update (other than she really is putting out a new record)? Any guesses? Okay, maybe it's just me, but I think it's a little bit fucked up that most of this was me-me-me-and-by-the-way-our-guitarist-had-a-stroke.-I-benefited-from-his-pain.-I'm-such-a sympathetic-person.-Mommy-why-won't-you-pay-attention-to-me. Alright, I'm done. The whore goes on to say that the album will wrap up soon, and will probably be out in August. She also sends her tainted love.

I have officially given up on music. Well, it looks like Daron Malakian (System of a Down) is going through with his side project after all. He's told Rollingstone.com that he is currently working on what he's calling "Scars on Broadway." He will fine time to warp his sick, little project, as System is taking some time off after shooting their video for the next single "Lonely Day." Says, Malakian, "I don't want to sit around, so I'm going to make an album," meaning he's going to destroy everything we hold near and dear in music: creativity and broadway.

And oh-my-fucking-God, Candlebox is doing a reunion tour! The original lineup will be embarking outward and onward starting in July. Dates and such will come later. Their third and final album, Happy Pills, was released in 1998.

Linkin Park has offered their fans an update. They say they have about 50 or so songs written for their upcoming release later this year. The drummer, Rob Bourdon, issued the following statement. Read the comments underneath. If you're a fan, you'll be outraged. If you're a hater, you'll be enthused. If you're like me, well, you'll think all these people who go on message boards and bash bands have a little too much free time.

From Blabbermouth:

Tool are one of the first three acts to be confirmed for this year's Roskilde Festival, set to take place June 29 – July 2 in Roskilde, Denmark. Also scheduled to appear are Franz Ferdinand and Kanye West. More acts will be announced soon.

It was previously reported by Norwegian national TV channel TV2 that Tool will play Norway's Quart festival in early July. Both the Roskilde and Quart performances are likely to be part of a European festival tour in the summer.

Tool are currently in the mixing stage on their new album and are reportedly looking at an April or May release for the disc, their first since 2001's "Lateralus". A video directed by guitarist Adam Jones is also said to be in the works, with members of the band preparing to embark on an an international press tour for the new effort. More information will be made available soon.

Let me just say, and I'm sure most of you agree, it's ABOUT FUCKING TIME! Jesus Christ. But Kanye West? Eh, I think Tool could be performing with someone a little more in the same genre.

Here's the Mail, It Never Fails, It Makes Me Wanna Wag My Tail

This week, loyal reader Matt K. writes:

Hey, I don't know how true this is, but the last I've heard is that Billy Corgan is going to put together a band of non-Pumpkins members and tour the country playing Smashing Pumpkins songs. Buckethead will supposedly serve as lead guitarist. Which would be awesome. I don't remember ever hearing about anyone from the original band being very interested in going back on tour. And Corgan's solo album sucked ass. So it makes pretty good sense to me. But it might just be a rumor.

First off, thanks, Matt, for writing. Your input and thoughts really do mean a lot to me. It lets me know that people are taking the time to read this and actually think I'm doing something useful. You kick fucking ass just for writing. Secondly, I could find nothing on your rumor, but I did find these rumors that are heavily circulating. Taking a small section:

Corgan remains friends with former Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, and is also in contact with the band's second bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur, having collaborated with her on her forthcoming second solo album.

You, my friend, can read the entire article this was from by clicking on this link. I could also swear that I saw somewhere that this rumor was confirmed, but I can't now, so I was probably imaging that aspect. It does look like the original band members may be getting back together.

Thanks, Matt! Keep reading and responding!

Second up, we have Laura, who writes:

Hey Ben,

In response to the rant in your 411 column, I wanted to share my point of view on cutting. The motive behind my experience with cutting and the cutter I loved, was based on inflicting pain, not relieving it. There were two reasons to cut. You cut when you were hurt (mentally, emotionally) to have a visible, tangible wound. No one notices inner turmoil unless it surfaces in the form of physical harm. So, in a way, it was a cry for attention...a call for help. The second reason to cut, was to feel. If, you didn't receive the help you needed by cutting the first time, a common response is to grow callous. Eventually, you numb yourself to everything. Once you begin to realize that you've gone too far, and that you do want to have some emotions, you start to look for ways to feel. Obviously good feelings weren't in abundance at the start of this cycle, and it's not likely that they'll POOF appear, so the only feelings that can realistically be attained are the ones that made you cut in the first place...hurt, distress, resentment, depression. At this point though, you're desperate just to feel anything, even those destructive emotions, so you take matters into your own hands, and cut some more, to feel the pain, to have the pain break your hardened-heart. Usually, it's only a matter of time before your original suffering overwhelms you again, and you cut again. It bounces back and forth, until eventually there is no time in between cuts...you know what's in store for you, you recognize the pattern, can't see any hope of it changing, and that's when cutting becomes suicide.
I hope this was at least a little informative, and thanks for tackling such a touchy subject in a public forum, it takes balls.

Laura, I hope you don't mind my posting this publicly, but I feel this is something that should be read and shared by everyone who comes across this column. You helped me to understand cutting from a different perspective and I cannot express enough how much it meant to me that you were willing to share this. I kind of feel like a douche now for ragging on it so much last week. I mean, I've been in such a depression before that I thought it would never get better, but it never occurred to me that cutting was to feel to such a degree. I feel like my response does what you shared no justice. So, you have my undying, eternal thanks.

This Band Earns the Benjamin Czajkowski Stamp of Approval (BCSA)

This week, the award goes to Shades of Fiction only I'm much too tired and my migraine is telling me that I'm not allowed to share why I think they kick fucking ass. So, you should check out their CD The Nurse with Amnesia. It takes #2 on my list of top rock albums for 2005. Probably no one reading this column has heard of them unless I've made them listen to ‘em.

The Stuff I Can't Put Down (Like Scott Weiland and His Heroin)

5. Katatonia – The Great Cold Distance
4. Screaming Monkey Boner – Process of Assimilation
3. Shades of Fiction – The Nurse with Amnesia
2. Sinch – Clearing the Channel
1. Underworld: Evolution – OST

It's A Problem to Just Quit, So I'll End With This

I apologized for the stifled column this week. I just haven't been sleeping all that great, so it's kind of hard to focus on 30,000 news sources to filter the best stuff. I promise to be back to par next week! Plus, Firefox doesn't really like to support this editor I use to post the column. So, I can't preview the article. Lovely. I really miss my fucking laptop. Until next time: peace, love, and buffalo chicken sammiches… –BC