The Great Rock News Report 09.17.08

Posted by Daniel Wilcox on 09.17.2008

Chester Bennington solo project in the works, Radiohead working on new album, Bruce Dickinson is the man, Metallica top charts all over the world, plus info on new albums from The Killers, Fall Out Boy, The Who, Disturbed and more!

Intro

Wow, a rare slow news week. That means I've had to entertain myself by coming up with another new format. Welcome to the latest Great Rock News Report!

The buzz from Death Magnetic has finally died down and I'm glad it has, as it has allowed me to go and check out some of the other great releases this month. Cold War Kids release their sophomore album next week, and The Airborne Toxic Event's debut finally gets a UK release next week too. And what with the new Mogwai and TV On The Radio records still waiting to get a listen from me, September is proving to be a great month for music.

The next "big" music month is November, with new Fall Out Boy, Hinder and Nickelback sets on the way!

We've got plenty to get through though, so let's waste no more time and get on to the Great Rock News Report!


Unfortunately, we have to start off with some sad news; Rick Wright passed away on Monday at the age of 65. Wright was the keyboardist of Pink Floyd as well as a solo artist. Wright wrote some of the bands most memorable songs, including one of my personal favourites Great Gig In The Sky. He died following a short battle with cancer. Best wishes to family, friends and fans. A great loss. RIP.


To the surprise of no-one, John Lennon might have been gay, or at least, bisexual, because according to a new biography, The Beatles star wanted to have sex with bandmate Paul McCartney as well as his own mother. Both McCartney and Yoko Ono are supposedly outraged by this, which to me is more likely to mean that this book is telling the truth. Not that I care. Speaking of bisexuals though…

Because so many of you enjoyed the revelation that Fall Out Boy bassist and media whore Pete Wentz wears his wife's clothes, here's some more Wentz news! Wentz revealed last week that he once took part in a game of Russian Roulette and "pulled a trigger on a gun aimed at [him]self." Quite what this has to do with music, I'm not sure, but I am sure that there is a healthy contingent of readers out there who are pretty disappointed that Wentz survived the game. Wentz-followers will also already know that Wentz attempted suicide back in 2005. Personally, I blame those women's size 0 jeans Ashlee lends him.

And for those interested in the band's upcoming new album Folie a Deux, check out the album cover below…


Marvellous. Hey look, news about actual music! Radiohead will begin working on the follow up to In Rainbows once they've completed their current touring schedule. I have to say, I think most Radiohead material is incredibly overrated, none more so than In Rainbows, which seemingly got a ton of praise for the whole "pay what you want" thing.

Sticking with the overrated theme, The Killers have revealed that their new album will be released in late November and is titled Day and Age. The first single, Human, will go to radio next month. There are about a handful of Killers tracks that are worth hearing in their whole back catalogue; the majority of their albums is filler and I expect the same from Day and Age. Shame really, because I think they could do better if they tried.

There's good news and bad news for fans of Linkin Park; the follow up to last year's Minutes to Midnight won't be coming for at least another year, apparently, as the band are taking a break after 18 months of touring. The good is that frontman Chester Bennington will release his debut solo album in early 2009. Chester describes his solo work as "very moody, very dark and melodic." Lots of random screaming then? I can only hope that any comparisons to his main band will be saying this sounds more like their first two albums than the radio-friendly Minutes to Midnight. I am a big fan of Chester's voice though so I do have high hopes for this one. And while we're on the subject of side projects, Clint Lowery of Sevendust entered the studio last week to start work on his. The project will be finished by the end of October with no release date currently set.

The Who have announced that they will release a double-disc DVD of one of their landmark 1970s performances. The Who: At Kilburn 1977 is due out in the US on November 18 and features footage from the legendary rock band's performance at the Gaumont State Theatre in North London on December 15, 1977. he Kilburn gig featured the band's classic line-up of Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon performing many of their hits, including 'Baba O'Riley' and 'My Generation'. The DVD also includes footage from the band's 1969 London Coliseum performance, bonus tracks and the first-ever full live recording of their rock opera 'Tommy'.

Disturbed will release a new live album, Live & Indestructible, on September 30 exclusively via iTunes. More details will be made available soon. This may be worth checking out, though I have never had the opportunity to see Disturbed live. Readers, are they any good?

In a pretty nice if not music-related news story, Iron Maiden singer and professional pilot Bruce Dickinson put his flying skills to good use over the weekend after the collapse of XL airways left 221 British tourists stranded in Egypt. Dickinson, a pilot for charter airline company Astraeus, was called to emergency duty to pick up the tourists. "I was just doing my job. I was called out like a lot of other pilots to help and I was obviously happy to do that," said Dickinson, according to Rolling Stone. After saving the stranded Brits, Dickinson was called again five hours later to pick up tourists stuck on the Greek island of Kos. Go on, Brucie!

Changing gears a bit, let's talk chart positions. As one would expect with the upcoming release of Black Ice on the horizon, everyone in Australia is going out and buying old AC/DC albums. The band AC/DC have six albums in the Top 50 this week which combined sold a total of 7396 units.

Positions were:

30. TNT (1354 units)
31. Highway To Hell (1347 units)
33. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1274 units)
35. Who Made Who (1238 units)
36. The Razors Edge (1227 units)
50. Stiff Upper Lip (955 units)

On the DVD chart the band has the number 1, 3 and 27 spots.

No Bull: Live At The Plaza De Toros De Las Ventas, Madrid sold 3,144 units. Stiff Upper Lip – Live sold 1179 units and Plug Me In sold 400 units.

Crazy. Staying away from the States for the moment, rock took over the UK Charts this week as Metallica's Death Magnetic beat out our latest indie darlings Glasvegas to claim the top spot on the album chart while Kings of Leon topped the singles chart with Sex On Fire, taken from their new album Only By The Night. Sex On Fire ended Katy Perry's 5-week reign at the top with I Kissed A Girl.

For those wondering, the new Kings of Leon album is the definition of mediocre. What happened to this band?

And while at the time of writing it is not official, Metallica claimed the top spot atop the Billboard Album Chart, shifting approximately 500,000 copies of Death Magnetic.

Week In Reviews

• Brittany checks in with her review of The Block, by New Kids on the Block. (4.5)
  
• Marsicano reviews Iced Earth's The Crucible of Man: Something Wicked Pt. 2 (7.5)
  
• Dan Haggerty takes a look at Whitechapel's new album, This Is Exile (6.5)
  
• The big release of the past week was of course Metallica's Death Magnetic. Check out Jeff Modzelewski's review (9.0) here and my own review (9.5) here.

Outro

And unfortunately, that's all we have time for today, kids. Be sure to check out all the reviews, columns and features going on around the music zone and come back next week for more Great Rock News!