IMHO: Radio stations who start playing all holiday music after Halloween should be spanked! Just sayin’!
It’s rare when Bloomberg.com is talking about a hard rock band, right, but that’s exactly what happened the other day! The Pulse Of Radio and Blabbermouth are reporting lyrics from the Five Finger Death Punch song “Wash It All Away” have been used to criticize the United States in an op-ed essay written by a top aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin. In the piece, penned by Putin adviser Vladislav Surkov for the state-run news channel RT, Surkov writes, “The line ‘Done with all your hypocrisy’ sounds like a prophecy, a verdict, and as the motto of a new era.”
According to The Moscow Times, Surkov linked the 2016 presidential election that led to U.S. president Donald Trump‘s victory and an ongoing sexual harassment scandal in the U.S. with a widespread desire among Americans to “wash it all away.” He quoted the song a second time, writing that a “strong hand” will lead the confused crowds from “all of the chaos and all of the lies.”
Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory responded to news reports of his group’s lyrics being used in Surkov’s editorial by first noting that the band happens to be touring Russia at the moment, then speaking fondly of the group’s Russian fans. He added, “I can tell you, between the people there is NO hate, there is NO cold war here. So let’s NOT make one.” He continued, “I grew up on this side of the Iron Curtain in communism . . . so I have ACTUAL memories of the cold war. Even back then, though we were told by the communist media that America was the ‘enemy,’ nobody, and I mean nobody sane, actually believed that.”
Bathory, who came to the U.S. from Hungary, told us not long ago that he’s a strong proponent of the capitalist system: “I came to this country without speaking English and I didn’t have anything, and here I’m sitting with you, doing this interview today. So I have the right to say, like, hey, you know, doesn’t matter what circumstance you were born in, you have a shot in this system. The capitalist system will give you a fair shot.”
Five Finger Death Punch has confirmed a Dec 1st release date for its greatest hits collection, A Decade Of Destruction, and has released one of two new tracks included on the album, a song called “Trouble.” The hits collection and an already completed new studio album are part of a deal to settle a legal dispute and close out the band’s contract with its label, Prospect Park. The new studio LP will be released in spring 2018.
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has said in a new interview that he is not opposed to one day touring the world as a hologram. Speaking at the 92Y cultural center in Manhattan on Nov 5th, Ulrich defended the idea of using technology to put any artist who ever lived back onstage years or decades from now. Ulrich explained, “If the primary objective of a concert is to bring people together and share an experience, why do you need Lars Ulrich or James Hetfield there? Or Kirk Hammett or Robert Trujillo? If you’ve got the music, you’ve got the equipment, you’ve got the lights, you’ve got the video, there’s gotta be some version . . . where artificial intelligence plays into all this.” Asked point blank if he would like a hologram of himself to still be touring a century from now, Ulrich replied, “If it can be done in some way where it’s cool and it’s not just some f**king weird cash-in or whatever, but if it there was a way to do it in a meaningful way . . . I believe the basic human need is to connect to other human beings — that’s what we all strive for in any way possible. So if there’s a way that that could be, 100 years from now, 50 years from now, and I’m a hologram, fine with me. It’s fine with me.“
Ulrich has told us before that, Metallica’s main objective is doing the best it can to entertain its fans: “The main thing really is just the fans. How do you communicate with your fans, how do you get the music to the fans, how do you offer your fans the best Metallica experience that you can?”
Ulrich lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, the technology heart of the United States, where he said the conversation is “primarily about, when people look into the future, it’s about artificial intelligence, and it’s about how you adapt AI into everything that we know on a daily basis.”
A Tupac Shakur hologram performed with Snoop Dogg at Coachella in 2012, while Cirque Du Soleil brought a holographic version of Michael Jackson to the stage. More recently, it was announced that a hologram of late heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio would embark on a world tour in December, backed by members of his old band.
Metallica just completed a run of European dates last week and will pick up again after a break next Feb 1st in Lisbon, Portugal. And check out the video above of Metallica last week as part of the Band Together For The Bay Area! (Thanks Blabbermouth and The Pulse Of Radio.)
Aw bummer. Original Faith No More frontman Chuck Mosley has died at the age of 57, according to multiple media reports. A statement issued by his family said, “After a long period of sobriety, Charles Henry Mosley III lost his life, on November 9th, 2017, due to the disease of addiction. We’re sharing the manner in which he passed, in the hopes that it might serve as a warning or wake up call or beacon to anyone else struggling to fight for sobriety. He is survived by long-term partner Pip Logan, two daughters, Erica and Sophie and his grandson Wolfgang Logan Mosley. The family will be accepting donations for funeral expenses. Details to follow when arranged.”
Mosley sang on Faith No More’s first two albums, 1985’s We Care a Lot and 1987’s Introduce Yourself. He was fired from the band and replaced by Mike Patton, who remains the group’s singer to this day.
Mosley subsequently sued his former bandmates over ownership rights and they eventually settled out of court. Years later, he reconciled with Faith No More, reuniting with them onstage in 2010 and making further live appearances with the group in 2015 and 2016. Following his initial departure from Faith No More, Mosley briefly fronted Bad Brains and launched a series of solo projects, including the funk metal band Cement.
Faith No More issued a statement on Mosley in which the band members said the following:
“It’s with a heavy, heavy heart we acknowledge the passing of our friend and bandmate, Chuck Mosley. He was a reckless and caterwauling force of energy who delivered with conviction and helped set us on a track of uniqueness and originality that would not have developed the way it had had he not been a part.
“How fortunate we are to have been able to perform with him last year in a reunion style when we re-released our very first record. His enthusiasm, his sense of humor, his style and his bravado will be missed by so many. We were a family, an odd and dysfunctional family, and we’ll be forever grateful for the time we shared with Chuck.” (Thanks The Pulse Of Radio and Consequence Of Sound.)
Pearl Jam is contributing a new song called “Obey The Law Of The Heart” to the soundtrack of an upcoming film called Basmati Blues. Written by guitarist Stone Gossard, and performed by Pearl Jam with Sain Zahoor and Priya Darshini, it’s the band’s first new song since the release of its 2013 LP Lightning Bolt. Basmati Bluesis an independent musical romantic comedy film starring Academy Award winner Brie Larson, Scott Bakula and Donald Sutherland.
The band has posted a preview of the track online. The film just opened in Sweden but currently does not have a North American release date. Although there have been rumors that the band is working on a new album, Pearl Jam has not indicated when or if it will return to the studio.
Guitarist Stone Gossard told us a while back that the band never sets out with a predetermined goal for a new LP: “It’s very difficult to set out to do something and achieve it, as opposed to just each song, try to make it as good as you can. We set out more like, we’re gonna make a record and we know we’re gonna — everyone’s gonna write some songs, and we’re gonna try to do the best for each of those songs and then we’re gonna see what we’ve got at the end and figure out how to put ’em together, you know. It’s much less planned than you would imagine.”
The group took most of 2017 off, getting together only to perform at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last April. A documentary chronicling the group’s two-night August 2016 stand at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, titled Let’s Play Two, came out in late September. (Alternative Nation and The Pulse Of Radio.)
Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose has paid tribute to legendary string arranger Paul Buckmaster, who died on Nov 7th at age 71. Buckmaster, who worked on orchestral arrangements for G N’R’s 2008 studio album Chinese Democracy, was renowned for working with Elton John, the Rolling Stone, David Bowie and many others. Rose wrote on Twitter, “Very sorry to hear of Mr. Paul Buckmaster’s passing. I feel very fortunate to have met him n’ have his involvement in GNR. My deepest condolences to his friends, fans n’ loved ones.” In other news, Guns N’ Roses welcomed ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons to the stage on Friday (Nov 10th) in Houston for a run through “Patience.” (Blabbermouth)
