Good morning Radicals! Here’s what’s up in music news today:
Metallica is streaming a remastered version of the band’s cover of ’70s British metal trio Budgie‘s “Crash Course In Brain Surgery.” The track is from the next Metallica reissue, a deluxe edition of the group’s 1987 covers collection The $5.98 EP – Garage Days Re-Revisited. The package will be available in stores on April 13th in time to celebrate Record Store Day. The long-out-of-print EP included five songs that were later released as a part of the Garage, Inc. double album, but this release brings them back in the original format.
The remastered EP will not only be released as a CD and download, but also as several vinyl versions including a picture disc, as well as a cassette, and in long-deleted packaging known as a longbox. All Metallica.com pre-orders will receive an instant download of the remastered version of “The Wait,” originally recorded by Killing Joke.
The set also includes Metallica versions of Diamond Head‘s “Helpless,” Holocaust‘s “The Small Hours” and medley of the Misfits‘ “Last Caress” and “Green Hell.” The EP also marked the recording debut with the group of bassist Jason Newsted, who replaced the late Cliff Burton in the fall of 1986 and stayed with the band until 2001. Bassist Robert Trujillo took over in 2002.
Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo played an intimate solo concert on Monday night (April 9th) at Chicago’s Beat Kitchen. The 27-song set was packed with Weezer hits and rarities as well as covers of songs from artists like Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins, Pixies and even classic rock staples REO Speedwagon, whose “Can’t Fight This Feeling” was Cuomo’s opening number.
Other covers that popped up throughout the set included “Today” and “1979” from the Smashing Pumpkins, the Pixies classic “Where Is My Mind?” plus Green Day hits “When I Come Around” and “Basket Case.” Referring to the frontmen of both the Pumpkins and Green Day, Cuomo told the audience, “Both the Billies are so awesome.”
Among the many Weezer gems sprinkled throughout the show were “Say It Ain’t So,” “Buddy Holly,” “Tired of Sex,” “Island in the Sun” and “El Scorcho.” The night also featured the live debut of “(Girl We Got A) Good Thing,” taken from Weezer’s self-titled 2016 “White Album,” as well as Cuomo’s new solo tune, “Medicine For Melancholy,” which he released last month. Weezer is expected to release its new “Black Album” on May 25th. The band will kick off a co-headlining summer tour with Pixies on June 23rd in Tampa, Florida.
The Reelz cable network was recently filming Autopsy: The Last Hours Of Chris Cornell at Shepherd’s Bush Hall in England, where the program recreated Soundgarden‘s and singer Chris Cornell‘s last show at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. It was also revealed that British actor and singer Paul Ayres is portraying the late vocalist, who took his own life just a few hours after that concert last May 18th.
The cast also includes Andrew Shire as bassist Ben Shepherd, Patrick Holly as drummer Matt Cameron and Ben Sura as guitarist Kim Thayil. Autopsy: The Last Hours Of… is a documentary-style TV series that investigates the tragic, controversial and sudden deaths of celebrities. The series debuted in 2014 on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom and was later broadcast in the United States by Reelz.
The series has done episodes on James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Muhammad Ali, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Andy Warhol, Andy Kaufman, Farrah Fawcett, Johnny Cash, George Harrison, George Michael, Mary Tyler Moore, James Gandolfini and others. It is unknown when the Chris Cornell episode will air.
Cornell was found dead in his Detroit hotel room just a short time after Soundgarden completed its show on the night of May 18th. The singer committed suicide by hanging himself from a bathroom door.
Hey y’all,
I quit Beartooth today to focus more on my life and my art. I love all the dudes in our band and crew like family and there was no ill will at all.
Thank y’all for loving me through this chapter of my life, and encouraging me to love myself.
I’ll be back? pic.twitter.com/j4t0MyXQRR
— Taylor Lumley (@tlums) April 10, 2018
Beartooth guitarist Taylor Lumley has announced his exit from the band in a brief statement via his social media. Lumley wrote, “I quit Beartooth today to focus more on my life and my art. I love all the dudes in our band and crew like family and there was no ill will at all. Thank y’all for loving me through this chapter of my life, and encouraging me to love myself. I’ll be back?”
The band offered its own statement on the matter, writing, “Our close friend and brother Taylor Lumley has decided to leave Beartooth in order to focus his energy on other creative endeavors. We wish him love, success, and happiness in his journey — and we know you all will too. Thanks for sticking with us in this transitional period. We’ll have some new tunes for you guys ASAP!”
Lumley had the second longest tenure in Beartooth, joining in 2013 not long after singer Caleb Shomo founded the band. He played in the band during the tour cycle for 2014’s debut LP, Disgusting, and appeared on 2016’s sophomore effort, Aggressive. The latter album featured the breakthrough singles “Hated” and “Sick Of Me.”
A replacement for Lumley has yet to be announced. Beartooth isn’t scheduled to return to the road until July when the band will play a handful of Warped Tour dates.
Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro is spearheading a concert in Los Angeles next week called “Above Ground,” which is aimed at raising awareness of suicide prevention and mental health issues. The April 16th event will feature appearances from Stone Sour‘s Corey Taylor, Courtney Love, A Perfect Circle‘s Billy Howerdel, Dave Kushner of Velvet Revolver, Billy Idol and his guitarist Steve Stevens, Jerry Harrison from Talking Heads and more.
In an interview with Yahoo!, Navarro spoke about the “massive impact” that the suicides of Linkin Park‘s Chester Bennington and Soundgarden‘s Chris Cornell had on him.
Navarro said, “We have lost a lot of friends this year, due to mental health issues . . . I can’t sit here and say what they did and didn’t have, and what caused them to do what they did. But I would say that going to Chris Cornell’s funeral and seeing Chester Bennington sing a beautiful song for his friend, and then (Chester) taking his life a month later, really had a massive impact on me.”
Navarro added, “I couldn’t help but be brought back to the times when I had felt that lonely, that desperate, that suicidal, and I just want to change the playing field and let people know that there are options out there.” The show will feature full performances of two classic albums: the Velvet Underground‘s 1967 debut, The Velvet Underground & Nico, and Adam & the Ants‘ 1980 album, Kings Of The Wild Frontier. The concert will take place at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles, with the profits being donated to MusiCares, a charity of the Recording Academy.
That’s a wrap! Gotta go talk with Sevendust and Underoath today! Have a great one!
