Had a great weekend in Pittsburgh, PA! Ya know, when you live in a city where you have two baseball teams, you don’t get that awesome sense of community and team spirit when your team goes into the MLB playoffs. But being in the Steel City and seeing the hometown pride, the black and gold, and GO BUCS and Pirate flags waving from firehouses and cars, and everywhere you look, someone has on a Pirates t-shirt or cap, you can’t help but get on to the bandwagon! Let’s Go Bucs! (P.S. That is a Pirates hat Fieldy from Korn has on in the “Never Never” video. BTW: Korn’s new album drops tomorrow and they’re this week’s Featured Artist of the Week on the XL!)…..I dunno about you, but I really have Pearl Jam fever. This new Lightning Bolt album is bringing me back into the PJ camp big time. There are some more rockin’ tracks on the record, and I know this tour is gonna be a sell out everywhere. Check out this teaser spot for the tune “Let the Records Play.” Meanwhile, the band will launch a pop-up store in NYC (and I imagine in some other large cities around the country) on release day, Oct 15th. Keep an eye on www.pearljam.com for more surprises….Meanwhile, another of Seattle’s finest, Soundgarden, is currently on a break after touring for the better part of a year behind its 2012 reunion album, King Animal, but several members of the band are already thinking about full-length studio effort number seven, according to Classic Rock. Asked what kind of evolution might take place on the next Soundgarden disc, drummer Matt Cameron told O2 Academy, “We have a way of writing and playing together — the evolution might have already happened. I think we’d like to make a record that’s more rock, that has more bite and more guitars.” (Matt is also in Pearl Jam.) Guitarist Kim Thayil added, “We don’t have a plan, but we have a desire and interest in a new album.” Thayil also said there’s less pressure to deliver these days, explaining, “Record companies aren’t as demanding — they don’t have the leverage they used to have.” (Note: Oh they are demanding, they just are afraid to demand anything from you guys for fear of toppling the apple cart! LOL)….OK, it appears to be official! Despite what Lars Ulrich has said in the press lately, Metallica frontman James Hetfield has acknowledged in a new interview with the Detroit News the band will probably not begin working in earnest on a new album until next spring. The singer/guitarist explained, “We want to make a record, that’s what we do best and that’s what we’ve gotta do in springtime. We’ve got skeleton bones that we’re starting to lay out to make something out of it, but there’s a lot of work ahead of us that we’re really excited about doing. And that will be next year.” Meanwhile, Lars did tell a San Francisco radio station two weeks ago the band has something coming up in December that will surprise fans, calling it “another frontier . . . which we’re very excited about.” Robert Trujillo emphatically told me there was talk of touring next year with the stage they used in the movie Metallica: Through the Never. So I dunno what to believe! LOL…..Pulse of Radio also reports on this story. And I know this guy and he REALLY can be so full of it. Sometimes people need to shut up! According to Kiss bass player Gene Simmons in a new interview with Team Rock Radio, the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain does not deserve his status as a rock “icon.” Simmons proclaimed that virtually no superstar rock artists have emerged on the scene for nearly three decades. He explained, “Now from 1984 until today which is over thirty years I think, name one superstar that’s bigger than their music, and not just somebody that’s recorded one or two records, but another Queen or another AC/DC? Just name one.” He added, “Kurt Cobain — no, that’s one or two records, that’s not enough. Amy Winehouse — that’s one or two records, that’s not enough. What, just because you died that makes you an icon? No, no. There aren’t any.” Simmons said in the same interview, “There won’t be another Beatles or another Prince or another Kiss because there isn’t that support system. There are no record companies because kids have decided they can download and file share and bypass paying the artists what they rightfully should be getting.” Simmons issued a challenge to name 100 iconic superstars from the years between 1958 and 1983 before listing some on his own: “Let me see — Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Who. And through the ’70s — Aerosmith, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, on and on.” Gene, you are such a bozo! I can name Metallica, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Foo Fighters, Korn, Five Finger Death Punch, Black Sabbath, Linkin Park, Rush, Stone Temple Pilots, Judas Priest and probably another 20 if I had time this morning. Super stars are in the eyes of the fans, not you, Gene! This guys needs to shut up and stop trying to suck money out of people’s pockets! I’ve known this band since the 70’s and Gene is the biggest blowhard I’ve ever met. Retire, will ya?……The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Neil Young will perform at a benefit on Wednesday, Oct 30th in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, the school founded by Chili Peppers bassist Flea. Proceeds from the evening, which will be hosted by Flea and Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis, will contribute to the Conservatory’s goal of purchasing a permanent facility and expanding its scholarship program as it heads into its 13th year of existence…Celebrating a birthday today, Thom Yorke of Radiohead is 45 and Simon Cowell of American Idol and X Factor is 54.
