Good morning Radicals! I’m very excited to have Three Days Grace stopping by the studios today! In the meantime, here’s some music news for ya:
Pearl Jam dedicated the first-ever concert performance of its new song “Can’t Deny Me” to the survivors of the Parkland, Florida school shooting and the students who participated in Wednesday’s (March 14th) National School Walkout. Performing at the Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile, singer Eddie Vedder told the crowd in Spanish, “This is dedicated to the incredible students in Florida, and the United States, who survived a terrible tragedy. We will all be protesting tomorrow throughout the United States.”
Vedder also paid tribute to one of the most vocal students to emerge from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tragedy, saying, “We support you all, and Emma Gonzalez, we love you. We’d like to play this for them, and us.”
The show in Chile kicked off a string of South American gigs for Pearl Jam and was their first concert since August 2016, not including a brief performance at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last April. It was also the band’s first show since the death of their close friend and — for Vedder and drummer Matt Cameron — bandmate Chris Cornell, who took his own life last May.
Vedder acknowledged the late singer by saying, “This one’s for Chris,” before the band broke into “Come Back” from its self-titled 2006 album. “Can’t Deny Me” was released last weekend and is Pearl Jam’s first new song in five years. The band has confirmed it’s from an upcoming album, its first since 2013’s Lightning Bolt. A release date has yet to be unveiled.
Slipknot percussionist M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan is among the performers newly confirmed for this year’s Montebello Rockfest, which will be held in Montebello, Quebec from June 14th through the 16th. Details of what he will be doing at the festival have not been revealed. Crahan has been exhibiting his artwork recently, but it’s unclear whether he will do something similar at the festival or perform.
Other acts appearing at the festival include Prophets Of Rage, Weezer, Five Finger Death Punch, Godsmack, Jimmy Eat World, Stone Temple Pilots, Sum 41
Crahan has performed outside Slipknot with side projects in the past, including To My Surprise and Dirty Little Rabbits. He is also a photographer and made his debut as a film director in 2016 with the movie Officer Downe.
Crahan has said in the past that he has other things he wants to do once his run in Slipknot is over: “I’m leaving on a high note, and when I’m go, that’s it, and it’s bye-bye time. And I’m not gonna be some ancient relic that comes out with wrinkles because I’m broke, and try to recapture something that I let go. When I’m gone, I’m gone. I’m not old by any means but I want a little solitude, I want a little peace. I want to write books. I want to make movies. I have a lot of other dreams besides Slipknot.” Slipknot has been working on new material with tentative plans to return to the studio and release a new LP in 2019
Rob Zombie has started production on his next movie and confirmed on social media that the project, titled 3 From Hell, is a sequel to his 2005 horror hit The Devil’s Rejects. The film, which started shooting on Tuesday (March 13th), is said to continue the story of the Firefly clan — Sid Haig as Captain Spaulding, Bill Moseley as Otis and Sheri Moon Zombie as Baby — whom we saw go down in a torrent of bullets at the end of the first film.
Although Zombie does map out his films in advance, he told us that you can only plan so much before you start shooting: “The hardest thing is, until the moment you’re gonna shoot, that’ll be the first time you’ve ever been on set, that set, with your actors in wardrobe, with a camera, you know. So sometimes things just look different. You know, you can visualize in your head, like, ‘Well, this, that and the other thing,’ but you get in there and you’re like, ‘Wow, now that we’re all here and I see you in that wardrobe against that backdrop, it’s very different.’”
It’s not clear whether Zombie plans to resurrect the Firefly trio from the dead in some kind of supernatural fashion in the new film or has found a way to explain that they survived the original movie’s climactic shootout.
The Devil’s Rejects is widely considered Zombie’s best film. It’s a semi-sequel to his directorial debut, 2003’s House Of 1,000 Corpses, which introduced the Firefly family.
There’s no word yet on a release date or distribution plan for 3 From Hell.
Meanwhile, Zombie and Marilyn Manson will co-headline the “Twins Of Evil: The Second Coming Tour” this summer, starting July 11th in Detroit and wrapping up on August 29th in Irvine, California. Zombie also plans to release a solo career-spanning vinyl box set — including a new live album — on March 30th and is working on a new studio LP fo release this year.
Finally a slew of birthdays to celebrate today: Joseph “Mr.” Hahn, DJ for Linkin Park, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, Mark McGrath, lead singer for Sugar Ray and the legendary Dee Snider of Twisted Sister! Congrats!
