Awww yeah, music news for your 4/20 today! First off, new albums from A Perfect Circle “Eat the Elephant,” Black Stone Cherry “Family Tree” and From Ashes To New “The Future” are all out today!
Five Finger Death Punch has unveiled the new song “Sham Pain,” off the band’s long-awaited seventh studio album And Justice For None. The new song is the second of three brand new pre-order tracks and follows last week’s release, “Fake.” Fans can expect one more additional song to be revealed on May 4th, two weeks before the entire LP arrives on May 18th.
Guitarist Zoltan Bathory explained what “Sham Pain” is about, saying, “‘Sham Pain’ is a lyrical snapshot of probably the biggest, yet most chaotic year of this band’s career. Everyone has a different way of dealing with the moments when life hands them lemons…some complain and some make lemonade. Us, we pour gasoline on it and then hit it with a rocket launcher.”
The band recently shot a video for the tune which should arrive shortly. The release of And Justice For None was delayed for the better part of a year by a legal battle between Five Finger Death Punch and its now-former label, Prospect Park. Five Finger Death Punch will hit a handful of festivals and play around a dozen dates with Shinedown this spring, before launching a massive co-headlining run with Breaking Benjamin on July 16th in Seattle.
The members of Greta Van Fleet took time during a new interview with Rolling Stone to bemoan the current state of rock music and the way people experience it, with bassist Sam Kiszka saying, “There’s some fantastic music out there that’s new, that’s true to itself, well written. The problem is that it’s not being played on the radio, it’s not being played on these massive media formats. People ignore good music because it takes a little bit of extra brain power to listen to, but it’s so much more rewarding.”
Singer Josh Kiszka added, “The scary thing about listening to pop radio is that sometimes you don’t know if you’re listening to the same damn artist.” Guitarist Jake Kiszka continued, “I think the evolution of rock ‘n’ roll was cut off at some point. So it’s about taking it, going back to where it was, and evolving it forward again. I think that our generation needs to carry the tradition.”
Josh continued, “Rock and roll to us is liberation . . . But I don’t want people to hear me talking about rock and roll and think I mean the kind of s**t they’re putting out now.”
Jake was even more direct, saying, “All the modern music we were exposed to is stuff on the radio, and I can’t stomach that.”
Greta Van Fleet played in Michigan clubs for six years before rocketing to the top of the rock radio charts last year with “Highway Tune.” The track is taken from the Black Smoke Rising EP, which came out last April. Their latest single is “Safari Song.”
After issuing two EPs, the band is currently recording its full-length debut in Nashville and Detroit.
After playing the second round of the Coachella Festival this weekend, Greta Van Fleet will launch a spring tour on April 29th at the Welcome To Rockville festival in Jacksonville, Florida.
Foo Fighters kicked off the 2018 North American leg of its current world tour in classic style on Wednesday night, April 18th in Austin, Texas. Frontman Dave Grohl invited a Kiss fan — complete in band makeup — from the audience onto the stage to perform “Monkey Wrench.” Grohl told the fan, who he nicknamed “Kiss Guy,” “You ever done this before? It’s really fine.”
Grohl handed Kiss Guy his guitar, telling the crowd, “He brought his own f**king pick!” As the band broke into the song, Grohl appeared genuinely impressed with Kiss Guy, who made the most of his moment in the limelight. After spending much of the song exchanging expressions of amazement with his bandmates, the frontman ended the guest spot with an astonished, “Holy s**t!”
The Foos bring fans onstage regularly to jam with them, and brought a real Kiss guy — singer/guitarist Paul Stanley — to the stage in Los Angeles in January of 2015 to celebrate Grohl’s birthday with performances of “Detroit Rock City” and “Do You Love Me?”
Other highlights of Wednesday night’s tour opener included a cover of John Lennon‘s “Imagine,” only with the lyrics to Van Halen‘s “Jump,” and singer Luke Spiller of opening act The Struts coming out for a run through Queen’s “Under Pressure.”
Grohl told us a while back that the Foos love to play cover songs whenever they can: “Honestly, we are like the highest paid cover band in the world. Whether it’s ‘School’s Out,’ ‘Cinnamon Girl,’ ‘Under Pressure,’ ‘Stay With Me,’ ‘Let There Be Rock,’ ‘Tom Sawyer,’ ‘Detroit Rock City’ — I mean, like, we’ve got this big long list.”
The Foos are touring in support of their ninth studio album, 2017’s Concrete And Gold. The new trek will continue through the spring, summer and fall, with the last scheduled date on October 18th in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament has shared a video for “Safe In The Car,” the first song previewed from Ament’s upcoming third solo album, Heaven/Hell. The clip takes place entirely in car with Ament behind the wheel, while a series of natural disasters can be seen happening in his rearview mirror.
Ament told Rolling Stone about the video, “I was seeing Cormac McCarthy‘s The Road — you’re driving to the coast and you’re trying to get away from the nuclear winter and you have your dogs in the car and you’re just trying to escape this horrible apocalypse that just happened.”
Ament said he wanted the video to look like a “grindhouse” movie, adding, “It’s the world coming to an end and trying to have a sense of humor about it.” “Safe In The Car” features Ament on vocals and bass, his Pearl Jam bandmates Matt Cameron on drums and Mike McCready on guitar, plus Angel Olsen on additional vocals.
Heaven/Hell will be out on May 10th. Ament is the second Pearl Jam member to issue a solo effort in the past year, following Cameron’s solo debut, Cavedweller, in late 2017. Pearl Jam has been writing its 11th studio LP and is heading out on European and North American tour dates this spring and summer.
Remember, tomorrow is Record Store Day! Check out “the List” at RecordStoreDay.com and get some sweet vinyl music from your local record shop!
