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Thursday, Apr 19 2018

Julian Woolsey


God morning Radicals! Here’s a fresh dose of music news:

Stone Sour has shared a trailer for its upcoming EP, Hydrograd Acoustic Sessions. The set will be released this Saturday, April 21st and sold in independent record stores around the country as part of that day’s Record Store Day festivities. The disc will contain acoustic renditions of “Song #3,” “Mercy,” “Rose Red Violent Blue” and “The Witness Trees,” all songs from the band’s latest LP, Hydrograd.

Singer Corey Taylor told us that he writes most of the band’s songs on acoustic guitar: “A lot of people know that I write a lot of stuff acoustically. Like whether it’s ‘Through Glass’ or even something like, you know, the title track, ‘Hydrograd.’ I write it all on an acoustic and then, you know, I try it out on an electric and then see if it works.”

Stone Sour will kick off a spring headlining tour on May 1st in Atlanta, with support on select dates from Palaye Royale, The Bronx and ’68. The trek will be preceded by appearances at Florida’s Welcome To Rockville and Fort Rock festivals the last weekend of April. The month-long run will mark the return of guitarist Josh Rand, who last performed with the group in January before he entered treatment for alcohol and Xanax dependency. Hydrograd came out last June and features the rock radio hits “Song #3” and “Rose Red Violent Blue.”

 

Pearl Jam announced on Wednesday, April 18th that its sold-out show at Missoula, Montana’s Washington-Grizzly Stadium on August 13th will be an official Rock2Vote event. Pearl Jam bassist and Montana native Jeff Ament said, “The band is super excited to come to Missoula and help energize the voters as we believe it’s a critical time in our democracy. Every vote is important. We’ll be doing what we do, supporting the issues we believe in, and we want our fans to join us by voting and participating in the election and coming to a big rock show at Washington-Griz Stadium.”

Ament added, “From Big Sandy to Browning and Butte to Baker, the band and I believe that every voice and every vote matters.” The band will work with Rock2Vote to ensure that all Montanans are represented through grassroots organizing and mobilization ahead of the 2018 elections.

Pearl Jam is also partnering with four progressive non-profit organizations to help turn out voters, including Forward Montana, Montana Native Vote, Montana Conservation Voters and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana. In addition to the Montana gig, Pearl Jam is playing two shows each in Seattle, Chicago and Boston, starting in August, as well as 13 European dates during June and July. A new album is supposedly on the way this fall.

A Perfect Circle‘s ban on mobile phones and other devices that could be used to film the band’s live show could not defeat fans at last weekend’s Coachella Festival in Indio, California. During the band’s set this past weekend, either the crowd was too big or festival organizers just didn’t enforce the group’s policy. As a result, the band’s entire set was filmed and posted online — although it has since been taken down.

Guitarist Billy Howerdel admitted that at some point the band cannot completely control the situation when it comes to people using their phones or cameras: “We have our security staff, they interface with local security and the local law enforcement, and it’s left to their discretion at the end of the day. There’s only so much, I guess, you can ask them, how sophisticated they can be in trying to be sensitive to somebody paying money to come experience something and then breaking the rule or whatever, you know.”

The show also marked one of A Perfect Circle’s first performances with Failure’s Greg Edwards on guitar, who is subbing for James Iha while the latter does the Smashing Pumpkins reunion.

Most of the set list of the Coachella show was taken from A Perfect Circle’s new album, Eat The Elephant, which arrives tomorrow. The act played just one song from its 2000 debut, Mer De Noms. The last APC studio effort, a covers collection titled eMOTive, came out in 2004. A Perfect Circle plays this weekend in Las Vegas and at the second weekend of Coachella before beginning a North American tour in mid-May.

Velvet Revolver guitarist Dave Kushner recently revealed on the Fueled By Death podcast that the band actually did hire a new vocalist for a brief time after parting ways with Scott Weiland in 2008. That vocalist was Los Angeles-based musician Franky Perez, whose involvement with the band was not widely known at the time. Perez gave a statement to Loudwire this week about his time in the group, saying, “Dave Kushner is a close friend, everything he said in regard to me is true and actually vindicating. Before his interview no one even knew I had been considered, not to mention hired.”

He continued, “With that said, there were also a lot of factors unrelated to me as to why it didn’t work out. Look, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it wasn’t tough. Getting that gig with Velvet Revolver was gonna be life changing, but what’s crazy is that losing it was even more so. It opened doors and introduced me to people that I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise . . . I came to terms with the fact that I wasn’t the right guy for Velvet Revolver years ago. Sadly, the ‘right guy’ isn’t with us anymore. Scott was one of a kind.”

Perez sang at one point for System Of A Down offshoot Scars On Broadway and has spent the last three years as the vocalist for Apocalyptica, while also singing with Kings Of Chaos, Steve Stevens and Royal Machines.

Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum spoke a while back about working with Perez: “We worked with him for a while, and we really love Franky, and just didn’t go all the way with it. It wasn’t anything against him, he’s still an amazing singer, writer, and everything. It just did not completely click.”

Kushner also confirmed that Velvet Revolver demoed eight songs with Stone Sour and Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor, although it’s unlikely those will ever surface. Kushner also shed some light on the dismissal of Scott Weiland, saying that Weiland was separating himself from the rest of the band and spending money on unnecessary luxury items like limosines. Kushner explained, “We fired him, we thought we could replace him. And obviously, we couldn’t. We could never find anyone that was on that level or someone that was equally as awesome in a different way.”

Velvet Revolver released two albums with Scott Weiland singing, but never found a new vocalist or made any more LPs. Slash launched a solo career in 2010, with him and Duff McKagan reuniting with Guns N’ Roses in 2016.

Dig this, or no? YouTube user Danilo Vicari has posted a clip in which he added guitar tracks to the music of Royal Blood, which is created solely on bass and drums. Some of the featured tunes include “Figure It Out,” “Ten Tonne Skeleton,” “Out Of The Black” and more. Royal Blood released its second full-length album, How Did We Get So Dark?, last June. The disc contains the Top 10 rock hits “Lights Out” and “I Only Lie When I Love You.” Thanks Ultimate Guitar!

Finally, we’d like to wish a Happy Birthday to Killswitch Engage bassist Mike D’Antonio and legendary Producer Bob Rock!