Wake Up, Time To Rock 02.18.06
Posted by Tollah on 02.18.2006
Tool, Van Halen, Audioslave, Judas Priest, new Guns N' Roses tracks and more!!
Hey T-Fanz, welcome to my Saturday News Report! Are you ready to get your paraphrase on? I sure as hell am!!
News
Prog-metal maniacs Tool are set to tour Europe this summer, including appearances at Austria's Nova Rock and Belgium's Rock Werchter festivals. A rough translation of "Werchter" to English is "feet". Rock Feet? Those crazy Belgians! Tool's schedule is shaping up to look something like this:
Apr. 30 - Indio, CA - Coachella Festival
Jun. 2-3 - GER - Rock am Ring
Jun. 3-4 - GER - Rock im Park
Jun. 3-5 - Landgraaf, NETH - Pinkpop Festival
Jun. 15-17 - Pannonia Fields II, AUT - Nova Rock Festival
Jun. 16-18 - Interlaken, SWI - Greenfield Festival
Jun. 19 - Milan, ITA - Forum
Jun. 21 - Rome, ITA - Centrale Del Tennis Foro Italico
Jun. 22 - Bologna, ITA - Land Rover Arena
Jun. 29 - Roskilde, DEN - Roskilde Festival
Jun. 29 – Jul. 2 - Werchter, BEL - Rock Werchter Festival
July 4-8 - Kristiansand, NOR - Quart Festival
Aug. 25-27 Reading, UK - Reading Festival
In related news, Tool's follow-up to Lateralus was mastered by infamous vampire Bob Ludwig on January 31st and is expected to be released in April or May of this year. Anticipation is strong for the new CD, probably tentatively titled "Paruvius Distunct" or something equally weird, as Tool's previous albums have all been of increasing quality and 2001's Lateralus is regarded by many to be one of the best metal releases of the last decade.
CBS Entertainment have denied rumours that Van Halen will be the featured band on the next season of their pathetic "Rock Star" show. Last season featured useless old Aussie pop band INXS picking boy band reject "JD Fortune" as their new lead singer. Thank God Van Halen have too much integrity to go this route. Eddie is probably laughing his arse off at these rumours, which were fueled by recent baseless David Lee Roth speculation on his radio show. Fingers crossed that they go with another crappy band who I can laugh at.
In other Van Halen news, Roth is still angling for a re-union. His basic reasons are credibility and money. One would think doing it for the money would cancel out the credibility. Roth's logic is that no-one will take anything either party does seriously until a re-union tour is done and out of the way. He then goes onto insult Eddie. Oh well, no-one ever said DLR is a genius.
In recent interviews featuring Judas Priest members KK Downing and Glenn Tipton, both have stated that the legendary metal act are looking to drastically change their set list in upcoming tours. When asked what songs fans were asking to hear, guitarist Tipton cited "Rapid Fire", Rock Hard, Ride Free", "Steeler" and "Jawbreaker" as examples. He also stated that the band can 'unfortunately' play every song from every album, and that some of the songs from latest release Angel of Retribution have still yet to be included in live sets. It should be an interesting time for die-hard Priest fans. Tipton also stated that the band are busy writing their next album, about which he stated "it is important for us to show our fans Angel of Retribution was not a one-off."
Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx has posted a message on his online diary detailing the beginning of their latest tour. Accourding to bassist Sixx, the Crue's frontman Vince Neil was "hit in the face by some asshole with a cup of piss". This comes shortly after an incident where the band's drummer, Tommy Lee, was assaulted at a Superbowl party. People sure do like beating up Motley Crue members. The band are set to start recording a new album on May 1st.
A high quality, full-length demo version of a track from Guns N' Roses' upcoming album, Chinese Democracy, has been leaked on the Internet. The song is called "I.R.S.". I've heard it and it's reasonably rocking and very catchy, although I don't like the drums and some of the NiN influenced electronic sounds. Axl sounds much better than he did at the VMAs a few years back. Not GnR's best, sounds like it woulda been a filler track on the Use Your Illusion albums. There's another track called "Better" that has been leaked too, though it isn't full length. The start is weird but at about 30 seconds it starts to rock.. again it has some electronic sounds that I'm not a big fan of. You can find the songs on the forums of My GnR.
In other Gunners news, there's an interview here with the writer of upcoming unofficial GnR biography "Guns N' Roses: The Band That Time Forgot". There's some interesting stuff in their regarding trying to reach current and ex-band members for interviews (including Axl), and some of the new songs.
A 90-second clip from the new single "I'm American" from Queensryche's upcoming album, Operation: Mindcrime II, has been posted online at this location. I don't like it much at all. The chorus sounds crappy. The tracklisting for the album (with songwriter credits) looks like this:
01. Freiheit Ouvertüre (1:36) (Jackson/Slater/Stone)
02. Convict (0:08)
03. I'm American (2:53) (Slater/Stone/Tate)
04. One Foot In Hell (4:13) (Slater/Stone/Tate)
05. Hostage (4:30) (Jackson/Tate/Wilton)
06. The Hands (4:37) (Slater/Tate/Wilton)
07. Speed Of Light (3:12) (Slater/Stone/Tate)
08. Signs Say Go (3:17) (Slater/Stone/Tate)
09. Re-arrange You (3:11) (Slater/Stone/Tate)
10. The Chase (3:10) (Slater/Stone/Tate)
11. Murderer? (4:34) (Slater/Tate/Wilton)
12. Circles (2:59) (Jackson/Slater/Tate)
13. If I Could Change It All (4:28) (Slater/Stone/Tate)
14. An Intentional Confrontation (2:32) (Slater/Stone/Tate)
15. A Junkie's Blues (3:42) (Slater/Stone/Tate)
16. Fear City Slide (4:58) (Slater/Stone/Tate)
17. All The Promises (5:11) (Slater/Stone/Tate)
Tom Morello of Audioslave has told Rolling Stone that the follow-up to last year's Out of Exile is about half-way done. A new album already. Audioslave are on a roll. I have a good feeling that it'll be another killer CD, too. It's been reported that the album will be released in June, although that is still up in the air.
Alice Cooper has been announced for this year's Sweden Rock Festival. Other bands appearing include Bonfire, Celtic Frost, Deep Purple, Dragonforce, Easy Action, Journey, Metal Church, Stryper, The Sweet, Venom, W.A.S.P. and Whitesnake. Holy fucking shit. I wish I lived in Sweden. That's gotta be the best festival lineup of the year.
Perth Concert Watch
A few exciting new concerts have been announced for all the Perthmeisters out there! Keep your eye on these hot sluts.
Rock-It (Ft. Silverchair, Grinspoon, Shihad, Cog, Faker, Hot Lies, Snowman) - March 19th - Joondalup Arena
The Darkness - April 4th - Metro City
Snoop Dogg - April 4th - Burswood Dome
Opeth - April 20th - Capitol
T-Reccomended Album of the Week: Prince - The Gold Experience
Listen up kids. This is, in my opinion, Prince's best album. It's just downright fun from start to finish. The tracks are so creative and varied, from the rap "P Control" to the space-rock of "Endorphinmachine".. and they're just the first two tracks! Of course everyone will have heard "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World", and the epic "Gold". Other standouts include "Shy", "Shhh" and the brilliant "I Hate U". Prince is on the top of his game lyrically and talks about sex most of the time. One gem that stands out is "I wanna do you after school like some homework", but there are so many great lines here that you really have to listen to the whole album. This is one of the best ever.
T-Mail
I got a couple of emails after waffling on about the Smashing Pumpkins last week. First one from Ryan Rollins:
First things first: what the hell? The Pumpkins are the most underrated band of their era. If Kurt "ow, my skull" Cobain hadn't of axed himself everyone would be blowing the Pumpkins legacy instead of Nirvana. Better songwriting, better guitarplaying, etc, etc, etc. Other great bands have returned with more than servicable offerings (The Stones, Duran Duran, U2, Depeche Mode) so why couldn't the Pumpkins make a good record? Fact of the matter is that each Pumpkins album is unique so everyone who became familiar with them during the Mellon Collie era whines and bitches when their new albums don't sound exactly the same. Secondly, you ought not to be bashing Melissa Auf Du Mar's (it's german, not fake) analysis of the music world right now when you've obviously no idea what you're talking about. Music in the 80s was much more than hair metal and a resurgence would constitute a whole hell of a lot more than the Darkness. The retro music trend is prevalent in the new wave revival in indy rock. Bands like Bloc Party, Chromeo, Postal Service, and several more have gained popularity through emulation of The Cure, The Smiths, Devo, you name it. This new wave style of dance rock is popular in college towns all over the country and just part of a larger revival of 80s attitudes and culture, good and bad.
Including Duran Duran, U2 and Depeche Mode in your list of 'great bands' does nothing to help your argument here. I am just not a big fan of the pumpkins. They had a good sound with that wall of heavy guitars, but that was about it. Billy Corgan is perhaps the weakest rock vocalist of all time. He sounds like a kid. His lyrics are, for the most part, pretentious twaddle.
Yeah you're right about all those crappy indie bands. I just try to ignore the whole thing. Dance rock is one of the worst kinds of rock. It's down there with nu-metal, industrial and punk.
Hi,
I am gonna be polite with you, because I believe some of my fellow Montrealers might not be as kind. Melissa Auf Der Marr is the daughter of a great journalist named Nick Auf Der Marr, who has an alley named after him in Montreal. For years that man was one of the only links between the french and english communities of Montreal. So that name, which might sound stupid, I'll admit, is very real and has a big meaning here in Quebec.
That said, have a nice day.
Thanks Alexandre Menard, if that is your real name.
Plugs
Jared McGuckin makes fun of Trent Reznor and gets a load of email for it. Hey, let me try!
Trent Reznor's MySpace Poetry Corner
Reflection Tourniquet
Your humble nihlist ground draws nigh
Fell through the surface
Suffering
Suffering
Waiting for your God
His patience arrives on me
Her vagina solemn
Can you call it? Say you're mine forever
You are corrupt, like my father.
Brandon writes a really good article on 411's best and most controversial band, Guns N' Roses.
