Gemini Syndrome stopped by the hardDrive studios yesterday and performed 3 acoustic tunes, “Stardust,” “Mourning Star” and “Basement.” They were GREAT! Had a great chat with Aaron, Rich, Mike, Brian and A.P. Please get out to see them if they are coming to your town, especially you guys in Peoria and Kokomo. The band is donating proceeds from their merch stand to the victims of the tornadoes in those regions and I love them for that. Check out their album, Lux, one of my favs of the year…. Pulse of Radio reports Seether frontman Shaun Morgan has posted a tribute online to late South African leader Nelson Mandela, who died last week at the age of 95. Seether was formed in South Africa, with both Morgan and bassist Dale Stewart native to the country. While many musicians commented on Mandela’s death, Morgan wrote from the perspective of a young person who was there when Mandela was released from prison after 27 years. Morgan wrote, “I can remember the moment I watched Nelson Mandela walk out of prison after his 27 years of incarceration. I was sitting in my uncle’s house, surrounded by family, and I was transfixed by a monumental moment in history that I couldn’t even fathom at the time. I was privileged to be witnessing history and the transformation of the country I had grown up in. I was watching my world change and I had no idea what was in store for me.” He added, “Suddenly, all the ‘Whites Only’ signs on the beaches I’d been to as a kid started disappearing! . . . No longer were the whites of South Africa being handed the prime real estate of the beaches, or indeed, the country in general. Change was in the f***ing wind!” Morgan went on to discuss going to school with black children for the first time, before saying, “Nelson Mandela changed my life, and changed the country I call home. He was an amazing man that achieved more than I could ever hope to. We, as South Africans, can never even begin to explain how much we loved this man . . . He was a symbol of strength and unity, and he was the best f***ing South African to ever live. I hope that I can be a tenth of the man he was. God, I’d settle for a hundredth.” Morgan concluded, “Rest in peace, Madiba. Thank you for the way you changed my life. Thank you for the lessons I learned from you. Thank you. Thank you. There is a void in this world that will never be filled.” Seether is writing their next and fifth studio album, set for early in 2014….I talk about this in Dirt tonight on the XL. Avenged Sevenfold is getting ready to release both an animated series and a mobile game based around the band’s recently issued sixth album, Hail To The King. The series will consist of six episodes and will be available on Machimina’s HappyHour channel on YouTube starting Dec 15th. The series will serve as a prologue and back story for the group’s mobile game, Hail To The King: Deathbat, with singer M. Shadows saying, “We felt this was the best way to tell the story and give you all an idea about the type of game we are creating.” The Hail To The King series was directed by Jon Schnepp, producer of the Adult Swim animated show Metalocalypse. Both the series and game tell the story of Avenged Sevenfold’s fictional mascot, the Deathbat. The game will debut sometime in early 2014. Shadows said about it, “We wanted to bring the story of the Deathbat to life and allow you to control its destiny. While the game stands on its own in terms of the story and game play, we still wanted to add in some extras for our fans.” The band recorded seven brand new songs for the game, which will also include 16 pieces of never-before-seen artwork from all the group’s albums that players can unlock. Here’s a snippet….Metallica posted a video of their “Freeze ‘Em All” show in Antarctica they did on Sunday. The show marks a milestone for the band, having performed on all seven continents in 2013. (Can you name all seven?) Check it out here…Tool singer Maynard James Keenan recently took some time out of his schedule to help train high school wrestlers for a tournament. Keenan, a member of Mason County Central High School’s 1982 class, aided 16 wrestlers from the school to prepare for the Optimist Tournament in Scottville, MI, working alongside his one-time teammate and now the team coach, Jim Allen. Keenan said, “Jim and I wrestled together and I knew that he would give the kids the type of work ethic and pride that we grew up with. I knew they would have the drive under Jim’s leadership.” In addition, Keenan actually paid for all 16 team members to attend an Olivet College wrestling camp and was also joined during the training by his father, Mike Keenan, who used to coach the team himself. (Mason County Press/Pulse of Radio)….My friends in Alter Bridge have announced the first segment of their tour for April and May. It kicks off on Apr 14th in Dallas and I’m guessing ends at one of the larger U.S. festivals in May. We’re working on getting the band to come into the hardDrive studios in mid-Feb before they head out to Japan and Australia. Stay tuned….This is cool! Mastodon have picked Nick Raskulinecz to produce their next album they say will pick up where The Hunter left off. Can’t wait to see what they put down!…Gonna go play in the snow! See ya tomorrow!
