Pulse of Radio reports Seether has announced the details of its second Rise Above festival, which follows the 2012 inaugural edition and will now take place in Bangor, ME. The May 10th event will feature Seether and co-headliners Avenged Sevenfold, along with Motorhead, Hellyeah, Trivium, Kyng, Devour The Day, Black Stone Cherry and others. The event will raise money and awareness for SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education). Although the festival was not held last year, Seether frontman Shaun Morgan told us he wanted to bring it back: “I was pretty adamant from the start that I wanted to do it annually, but then, through different circumstances, we couldn’t get it together last year. But I think that what we’ve now found is we’ve found a venue that’s great and we’ve, you know, we’ve got the great lineup with Avenged Sevenfold obviously, Motorhead, Hellyeah, a couple of other bands. The first one we did was sort of, was slapped together quite quickly — it only took us about a month to organize it, and I think this time there’s a lot more thought being put into it.” The festival is named after Seether’s 2008 song “Rise Above This.” Morgan wrote the track for his brother, Gene, who committed suicide after a long battle with depression. The first festival, which was held over Labor Day weekend in 2012 in Gilford, NH, raised nearly $20,000 through ticket sales, an auction and limited edition T-shirt. Tickets for the 2014 Rise Above Festival go on sale Friday (Jan 31st). Listen for Shaun as our Featured Artst of the Week on hardDrive XL will be Seether in the coming weeks. We’ll also check in to see what’s up with their next record!…Rage Against The Machine and current E Street Band fill-in guitarist Tom Morello has paid tribute online to influential folk singer and political activist Pete Seeger, who died on Monday (Jan 27th) from natural causes at the age of 94. Seeger’s politically conscious songs were a major influence on artists ranging from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen to many more, including Morello, who said on Twitter, “RIP Pete Seeger. Absolutely the best that humans can aspire to be. A courageous, kind, fearless soul.” Morello also posted video from Seeger’s 90th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden in New York, where he said about the legendary musician, “Pete Seeger is a tremendous inspiration, not just for activist musicians but I believe for all Americans. He’s a shining example of someone who combines uncompromising activism with heart and soul and a generous spirit.” Find his tune “Turn Turn Turn” on YouTube by The Byrds. One of my favorite Seeger songs. (Note to you youngsters: He is NOT Bob Seger‘s dad!)….What will the Red Hot Chili Peppers perform when they take the stage during halftime at the Super Bowl this Sunday (February 2nd) alongside Bruno Mars? According to drummer Chad Smith, “We’re gonna play Led Zeppelin’s live version of ‘Dazed And Confused,” referring to the old blues number that Zeppelin used to stretch out to 30 minutes or more in concert. With 12 minutes to do their thing on Sunday, somehow we think Smith is joking (Thanks HenneMusic)….No new Metallica album til 2015, as reported yesterday. Here’s Lars Ulrich (with his gorgeous 29-yr old fiancé, model Jennifer Miller) on the Grammy Red Carpet….Happy 60th today to Handsome Dick Manitoba of The Dictators and Oprah Winfrey! And Happy 62nd to Tommy Ramone, former drummer for The Ramones!
