Those who are enduring the awful floods in states like Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia, and those who are in the line of fire in California, thoughts and prayers go out. Mother Nature needs to even out her wrath!….RockStar Energy Uproar kicks off today in Scranton, PA, the Carnival of Madness is this weekend in Asbury Park, and there’s so much great music to see and discover! And for those of you who are hardDriveRadio Radicals, we’ve got something great coming on Monday, so if you are not already registered, I invite you to do so on the home page!….Speaking of Uproar, Jane’s Addiction posted a new tune at RollingStone.com called “Another Soulmate.” It’s a rollicking little number that is really catchy and nice to see the band is back! Looking forward to seeing Uproar next Friday for myself in Holmdel, NJ. Alice In Chains and Jane’s Addiction co-headline the fourth annual Rockstar Energy Uproar Festival, which kicks off on today (and winds down on September 15th in Irvine, CA.) Other acts on the bill include Walking Papers — featuring Duff McKagan — Middle Class Rut, Beware of Darkness, New Politics, Danko Jones, Coheed And Cambria, Circa Survive, Chuck Shaffer Picture Show and a local Battle of the Bands winner in each market. When I asked Alice In Chains drummer Sean Kinney about the stage show the band was bringing out for this tour, he joked, “We’re gonna bring all the cliche rock gags for the first time. Dancing girls, confetti, fire . . . no, we’re not gonna (laughs) do any of that. We’ll play our songs and we’re gonna bring some video and we’re gonna — it’s gonna be a good show, man. Jane’s is a great band, Duff’s band’s on there, the Walking Papers. It’s a long, all-day fest for people, so that’s cool.” …I am hearing the lyric video from Korn is coming and a tour could be ready to announce on Monday as well. Keep checking in! Also check out the video of the acoustic performance from P.O.D. doing “Beautiful” over on the hardDrive chanNel on YouTube. And got more things in store when we (I know, finally) start to post full in-studio interviews for you to check out. So bookmark the site and visit often because you never know what you can find here…..Usually when you take a picture with a rock star, you post it on your Facebook. This week, David Draiman and Device both posted the picture they took with ME! (They called me “legendary.” HA! That’s what happens when you’ve been around as long as I have) I was shocked to see in my FB messages: “David Draiman posted a picture of you.” WHAT?!!!! LOL Awesome…..Listening to the Alter Bridge album Mark Tremonti had his people send to me and I gotta tell ya, it is outstanding! The level of complexity of the music this time around, not to mention the aggressive heaviness, it’s awesome! The band really outdid themselves. m..m/ …..Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell will launch a solo acoustic tour of North America this fall, starting on October 15th in San Diego and wrapping up six weeks later on November 30th in Atlantic City. Named Songbook like his first solo trek in 2011, the shows will find Cornell drawing material from all stages of his career — including the first-ever acoustic performances of tracks from Soundgarden’s recent album, King Animal. See Road Rage for the dates…..Pulse of Radio reports Avenged Sevenfold has continued its ongoing relationship with game publisher Activision by contributing a song to the final pack of downloadable content for the wildly successful game Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The final content pack, called Apocalypse, will be available on the Xbox Live online entertainment network from Microsoft on August 27th. Among its features will be a Zombies experience called “Origins,” which will include the brand new Avenged Sevenfold track “Shepherd Of Fire” from the band’s upcoming album Hail To The King. A7X debuted a song called “Carry On” last year on the soundtrack of Call Of Duty: Black Ops II, with the band also appearing as characters during the game’s closing credits to perform it. Singer M. Shadows told us about the work involved in turning Avenged Sevenfold into video game avatars: “We had two full days of motion capture, so the band went in there, put on silly outfits and we danced around and pretended like we were playing in front of an audience. Hopefully none of those pictures will leak. But we did that, and then we went in there and for vocals I had to sit there and put my head in this vise, and they did motion capture of me singing the words a bunch of times. Between acting and pretending that you’re playing onstage when there’s nobody there, it was a pretty fun experience.” (Check out the final result here.) Call Of Duty: Black Ops II arrived in stores last November and sold in record-breaking numbers. Hail To The King, Avenged Sevenfold’s sixth album and the follow-up to 2010’s chart-topping Nightmare, is out on the 27th as well…..Monday, Lou Brutus will interview Scar The Martyr’s Joey Jordison and singer Henry Derek. Heard their first radio track, “Soul Disintegration.” It’s very cool!…..And last, but not least, got this off of Loudwire: Not too long ago ago, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello said he wasn’t sure if the band would ever perform again. And although a lot can happen between now and then, the L.A. Rising concert that they organized and performed at in 2012 will return next year. A new post on the L.A. Rising Facebook page says, “Plans for L.A. Rising 2014 are underway. August 2014 may seem distant, but the road to L.A. Rising will not be barren. More info to come…” Last year’s show at the L.A. Coliseum featured Rage Against the Machine, Muse, Rise Against, Lauryn Hill, Immortal Technique and El Gran Silencio. Hope does spring eternal. Have a great weekend!
