You like us, you REALLY like us! Thanks to everyone who hit our tour site, www.harddrivelivetour.com, to check out the HARDDRIVE LIVE FIVE line-up and purchase tix! We are so proud of this line-up and the reaction to the tour! Please help[ support our bands, too! Talk about them on FB, Tweet away and request their songs on your local stations! And don’t forget, it’s not too late to pre-order Bullet For My Valentine‘s Temper Temper album. See the links on the tour site too!….Loudwire reports Ozzy Osbourne and Linkin Park are both encouraging new bands out there to submit your music to a new program organized by the folks at the Grammys. Both acts have agreed to be curators for the new Grammy Amplifier competition. Osbourne recently tweeted, “Are there any undiscovered musicians in the house?,” urging those interested to take part in the Grammy Amplifier program. There’s a three-step process to the competition, with the musicians first uploading a Soundcloud file to the website, then alerting their social networks to get fans voting for the music. The votes are known as “amplifies” and those with the most “amplifies” will have their music then passed on to the Grammy Amplifier curators — Ozzy Osbourne, Linkin Park, RZA and Kelly Clarkson. The four artists will then give the “most amplified” acts a greater platform by promoting the music they choose on their own social networking sites. The competition is limited to legal residents of the 50 United States who are at least 13 years of age. Musicians who currently or in the past have enjoyed a Billboard Hot 100 song or received Gold, Platinum or Multi-Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America are not eligible. All entries must be submitted by Feb. 1. To get started and check out all of the rules, visit the GrammyAmplifier.com website. …Happy to hear this news! Blabbermouth reports FullOnDrums.com conducted an interview with Korn drummer Ray Luzier at this year’s NAMM (National Association Of Music Merchants) show, a massive music-products convention that took place Jan 24-27 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. Asked how often he changes his cymbal setup, Luzier replied: “We’re working on the new record right now with producer Don Gilmore (Linkin Park, Bullet For My Valentine, Lacuna Coil), and Don‘s got great ears. So he’ll make suggestions, like, ‘Hey, try this cymbal,’ Or ‘Try that.’ And I just bring everything I’ve got and I just let him go through it. And his ears are so great, because my band tunes down to Z flat. It’s so low, it’s like you’ve gotta have something matched with those frequencies.”
Korn’s latest album, The Path Of Totality, saw the band teaming up with dubstep producers and DJs to add a whole new electronic layer to their sound. The band’s guitarist, James “Munky” Shaffer, told the Phoenix New Times in an interview last October that while Korn’s sound will continue to evolve, it is unlikely that the band’s next CD will be like its predecessor. “I wouldn’t say it’s a 180[-degree turn] from the last album, but we’re definitely taking a different approach,” he said. “We’re not going with the dubstep style, but we are using a lot of interesting recording techniques.” Asked if the next album will be a bit heavier than The Path Of Totality, Munky said, “I think it will be. I think once Jonathan [Davis] puts vocals on it, it has…it’s more melodic and the guitars are more aggressive and much more in your face. I think what we did before was bold and took a lot of balls, in regards to the album devoted entirely to dubstep. To me it’s very much a Korn album, but I want to feature more guitar on this album, on the one we’re writing right now, we still have one foot in the electronic [style], not necessarily the dubstep [sound], and we still have a fresh approach on the guitar riffs with some melodic vocals. Jonathan is great at sort of delivering the aggressive lyrics and vocals.” Been emailing with Head. I can’t seem to drag it out of him if he will be in on the upcoming recording sessions. My heart tells me yes. Let’s see what happens……I forgot to give you the line-up of Welcome to Rockville in Jacksonville. FL! Alice in Chains, Limp Bizkit, Stone Sour, Three Days Grace, Papa Roach, Bullet For My Valentine, Halestorm, Asking Alexandria, All That Remains, In This Moment, Escape the Fate, Pop Evil, Otherwise, Young Guns and Gemini Syndrome will perform on Saturday, April 27th. Lynyrd Skynyrd, 3 Doors Down, Shinedown, Buckcherry, Hollywood Undead, Skillet, Steel Panther, Device, Filter, Motionless in White, Saving Abel, Thousand Foot Krutch, Nonpoint, Red, and Girl on Fire will perform on Sunday, April 28th. Man, I love the fact that three bands who started in Jacksonville will be on this bill: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Limp Bizkit and Shinedown. Cool stuff! Our hardDrive Live Five bands are included on this bill!…..Meanwhile, the fine folks at RockAccess unearthed this bit of info that will surely get MonstrO in trouble! The boys out of Georgia will open for Alice in Chains on some shows. I put them in Road Rage…..Happy 54th to an ole acquaintance in LA: Walking Dead producer & Shawshanl Redemption, The Green Mile & The Mist director Frank Darabont celebrates today!
