It’s time for some fresh Music ews in Dirt!
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has announced Play, a two-part documentary that ends with him performing a new solo 23-minute song on seven different instruments. Grohl created the project, which arrives on August 10th, to showcase “the rewards and challenges of dedicating ones life to playing and mastering a musical instrument.”
Grohl said, “Watching my kids start to play music and learn to sing or play drums, it brings me back to the time when I was their age listening to albums, learning from listening . . . and when I take my kids to the place where they take their lessons, I see these rooms full of children that are really pushing themselves to figure this out.”
He added, “Even now, as a 49-year-old man, I’m still trying to figure it out . . . it’s not something that you ever truly master. You’re always chasing the next challenge, and you’re always trying to find a way to improve on what you’ve learned.”
Grohl performed the entire 23-minute instrumental on one instrument at a time and then merged the videos of each take to create a seven-piece one-man band. The first part of Play focuses on the behind-the-scenes preparation for the performance, which is unveiled in the second part.
The film is intercut with young musicians from the Join The Band music school in the San Fernando Valley practicing their craft. The film hits streaming services on the 10th, with a limited edition vinyl version to follow on September 28th. Both are available to preorder now.
Green Day drummer Tre Cool and his wife Sara have shared that they’re expecting their first child together. The couple, who wed in 2014, posted the announcement on Instagram via a series of black and white videos in which they hold up signs that say, “We have some exciting news to share with you. We are having a baby.” As the last sign falls, Sara turns sideways to reveal her baby bump profile.
Cool, whose real name is Frank Edwin Wright III, has a daughter named Ramona and a son named Frankito from a previous relationship.
Green Day have been inactive for most of the year, with frontman Billie Joe Armstrong devoting some time to his other band, The Longshot. But late last month, Cool posted a photo of himself in the studio with his bandmates and an accompanying picture of a set list with the entirety of the Dookie album on it, leading to speculation that the band might head out on a tour to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the band’s 1994 commercial breakthrough.
The band currently has nothing on its live schedule after completing the touring cycle for its 12th studio effort, 2016’s Revolution Radio.
In This Moment guitarist Chris Howorth has told Guitar Interactive magazine that the band will tentatively enter the studio in February 2019 to begin recording its next album. Speaking about the band’s songwriting process, Howorth said, “The last two records we’ve done, we kind of went in with nothing — maybe a couple of ideas, or three or four little ideas, but really not much . . . With this next album we’re getting ready to do, we’re actually working on stuff now so that we have more when we go in — just so that there’s a little less pressure.”
Singer Maria Brink told us a while back that she doesn’t like to put any labels on In This Moment’s music: “I think that it’s important when you’re doing music, I’ve come to learn, to just let go of, ‘What kind of genre of music is this?’ and ‘What is this?’ and ‘Is this acceptable?’ and ‘Is this okay to incorporate these two things?’ Where to me, it’s just music and I just look at it as, ‘Does this feel good? Does this sound good?’ and that’s it. And not have to put all these, I guess, labels on it.”
The band’s next LP will follow up 2017’s Ritual, which included a collaboration with Judas Priest‘s Rob Halford and an eerie cover of Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight.” Brink told El Paso radio station KLAQ that there is a good chance the follow-up effort will see the band tackling yet another classic song.
In This Moment just launched a second leg of its all-female-fronted tour with Halestorm and other acts, with the trek next stopping in Asbury Park, New Jersey on Monday (August 6th). A third leg begins on November 16th in Norfolk, Virginia and run through December 16th, when they close out in St. Petersburg, Florida.
System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian confirmed in an interview with Forbes that the band has been stalled in its attempts to record a follow-up to its 2005 Mezmerize and Hypnotize albums. Tankian said, “It is what it is. The new music thing, there’s a lot of press going back and forth and I recently made a statement online, on Facebook, explaining the whole hiatus and took responsibility for it.”
System guitarist Daron Malakian accused Tankian in an interview last month of not wanting to record, with Tankian responding that creative and financial issues with Malakian led to the stalemate. In a message on Facebook, Tankian wrote that Malakian wanted to control System’s creative process, take more of the publishing money and be the only band member to speak to the press. Tankian remarked, “As we couldn’t see eye to eye on all these points, we decided to put aside the idea of a record altogether for the time being.”
Tankian told Forbes that the creative process has to “be organic” and “feel right in every way,” adding, “There’s no law that says a band should be together for a million years and have a million records. Actually, if you look over the years as a musicologist or a fan of music would, in any way, it’s probably regressive thinking.”
As for continuing to perform live with the band, which has some shows coming up this fall, Tankian explained, “We really enjoy it. That’s the thing, over all these years, maybe we’re better friends because we haven’t made a record in 12 years . . . Over the years, touring here and there, a month here, two months, we’ve become better friends and closer with each other because of it.”
Tankian has toured with System Of A Down over the past few years but has concentrated on solo work, soundtracks and other musical projects. Malakian, meanwhile, issued a new album last month called Dictator from his recently revived side project, Scars On Broadway.
Despite his efforts to portray himself as a down-home, country boy man of the people, Kid Rock did not exactly grow up in a trailer park as he hinted in his 1998 song “Cowboy.” Rock’s childhood home, a five-bedroom 5,660-square-foot mansion on a five-and-a-half acre estate, is up for sale now.
The house was built in 1972 when Rock was one year old. Among its many amenities, it boasts a five-car garage, partly finished walkout basement, guest house, three-stall horse barn, tennis court and a pool, all renovated and sitting on a panoramic parcel of land.
The house has been put up for $600,000 and is being offered in “as is” condition. It’s located in the Macomb County area of Michigan, a more rural enclave adjacent to the Detroit metropolitan area and a more conservative part of the state.
Although his own father was the wealthy owner of multiple car dealerships, Rock once told us that he wanted to instill the value of money in his own now-grown son: “I tell my son, I’m like, you know, ‘Make no mistake, you know, I’ve made a lot of money and I know your friends all tell you I’m rich — and I am. You’re not. If I cut you a check right now that’d be doing you a disservice. You’ve got to go out and take hold of this world and go through some of the hardships and try and find your way and, you know, pay your own bills, your cellphone, your car, get an apartment and, you know, get yourself started, and I’m your biggest fan.’”
Kid Rock’s latest studio album, Sweet Southern Sugar, was released last year. He begins a new two-month tour this Friday (August 3rd) in Bangor, Maine.
Hellyeah posted a photo on social media Wednesday (August 1st) that seems to suggest the band is moving ahead with its new studio album. The band had been recording the LP before drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott died this past June, with reports suggesting that Abbott completed his drum tracks before his death. Now the band posted a untitled picture of producer Kevin Churko behind the board in the studio.
Alice In Chains‘ hometown major league baseball team, the Seattle Mariners, will hold an official “Alice In Chains Night” on Monday, August 20th. That night will find the Mariners facing off against the Houston Astros at Safeco Field in Seattle. The event is likely to be similar to the San Francisco Giants’ annual “Metallica Night,” with members of the band in attendance to perform the national anthem, throw out the opening pitch and more. The new Alice In Chains album, Rainier Fog, will arrive later that week on August 24th.
That’s Dirt, go have a great day! BAM!
