First DIRT post of the new year! Hello Radicals, welcome to 2018!
First off, we’ve got a surprise from A Perfect Circle! After a (always) cryptic tweet from Maynard on Sunday, the band posted a new song “Disillusioned” to YouTube. The band has been hard at work on a new album since last year, and will release a limited edition 10-inch vinyl with current single “The Doomed” and “Disillusioned” on March 9th. You can check the new song right here:
Speaking of new music, Breaking Benjamin has posted a 30 second tease for a new song “Red Cold River.” The song will include a new video as well. The song will arrive this Friday, January 5th, and will be on the new album “Ember.” Keep an eye on the BB facebook page this Friday! They’ll also hit the road with Avenged Sevenfold and Bullet for my Valentine on January 12th.
It’s a shame that this even needs to be said, but the Hollywood Forever Cemetery has sent a letter to the widow of Chris Cornell, stating that fans are not allowed to video their visit to the singers grave. The cemetery has stated that fans asked to stop filming will “be treated kindly,” and that for the most part, fans are “always respectful of his space and leave sweet gifts and notes.” Chris’ wife Vicky has published the letter for all of Cornell’s fans, so they may continue to visit the grave while remaining respectful.
Before he joined Korn as their permanent drummer in 2007, Ray Luzier spent eight years behind the kit in Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth‘s solo band. Asked about his memories of playing with Roth, Luzier told the Working Drummer podcast, “I love the guy to death, and he taught me so much about the entertainment business — not just being a drummer, but being a performer in a band.”
Luzier continued, “He was, like, ‘Luzier, people pay good money to see you. Don’t just sit back there like you’re waiting for the bus. Give ’em a show.’ He would say stuff like that. He would always give me little pointers here and there. He’s the one that kind of got me more into the visual aspect of playing. And people do watch the drummer.”
Luzier got the gig with Roth in 1997, saying that he asked the singer if he wanted Luzier to play the drum parts for Van Halen songs and his own solo tracks exactly like they sounded on the records.
Luzier recalled, “Dave was really cool. He says, ‘Hey, man, of course honor the record and the parts, but I want Ray Luzier in the band.’ And that’s a really flattering thing, because I have some friends out there who are playing arenas right now that have to play exactly note for note like the record . . . So that was pretty cool of Dave, letting me do what I want.”
Lou Brutus with Alice In Chains
Alice In Chains guitarist and singer Jerry Cantrell revealed in an interview with Let There Be Talk that just one other vocalist auditioned for the band when it regrouped in 2006 with William DuVall on vocals, following the death of original singer Layne Staley four years earlier. Cantrell recalled, “I think Mike (Inez, bass) and Sean (Kinney, drums) had invited Vinnie (Dombroski) down from Sponge to jam with us. He came down and messed around on a couple of tunes . . . but we didn’t really meld together as far as it sounding or feeling right, then William came in, and bam there he was.”
DuVall had previously played in a band called Comes With The Fall that acted as Cantrell’s solo backing group when he toured behind his LP Degradation Trip in 2002.
Cantrell told us a while back that Staley was a tough act to follow: “Layne was a very unique, one-of-a-kind guy. There’s, like, a handful of those guys in music, for every generation, that are that unique and that hard to cop, but a lot of people try (laughs). But there’s a lot of people that feel the weight of what that guy brought to music and have been influenced by it.”
Cantrell said about DuVall’s entry into the band, “There’s no replacing Layne. William doesn’t sound anything like Layne, but he operated with me in a similar fashion that Layne and I used to operate writing wise and vocal wise. That’s a hallmark of the band that has to be there for this band to continue, he fit in really well.”
Alice In Chains has cut two studio albums, 2009’s Black Gives Way To Blue and 2013’s The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, since returning to the scene in 2006, and has a new studio album and live work on its agenda for 2018.
That’s the DIRT! Now go out there and grab the brass ring!
