Happy Friday! We’re only a few days out from Halloween now, so you better have your costume!
Linkin Park vocalist Mike Shinoda spoke to The News & Observer about his appearance in a PSA for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, where he appeared alongside the widow of his bandmate, Chester Bennington. The spot aired recently during the premiere episode of ABC’s new drama A Million Little Things.
Asked if doing the spot helped with his grief at all, Shinoda responded, “Oh, I don’t do that for me at all. That show was created by a friend of mine, who had a friend who had died from suicide . . . he had decided to give up a minute of the show’s runtime to run a PSA for the Suicide Hotline, which tells you where his heart is at. He’s trying to do the right thing. When he decided to do the PSA, he talked to me and Talinda (Bennington) about it, and we’re happy to be a part of it.”
Shinoda described himself as “a member of a club I never wanted to be a part of.” His bandmate Chester committed suicide in July 2017 at the age of 41. Linkin Park headlined an all-star tribute concert for Chester exactly a year ago on Saturday (October 27th) in Los Angeles but has not announced any future plans for recording or touring.
Shinoda recently told the Orange County Register that he will head into the studio with a few different artists after he completes his currently scheduled run of solo shows in December. The singer released his new solo album, Post Traumatic, in June.
Guitarist Tom Morello has once again confirmed that there is “great” unreleased music from his previous band Audioslave — which featured late Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell — that will eventually see the light of day. Speaking with British outlet Kerrang!, Morello said, “There’s not a lot, but there is unreleased Audioslave material, which is pretty great, and it will come out at some point. I don’t know when.”
Asked about the song “Sleight Of Hand,” which Audioslave played live but never released, Morello replied, “It was gonna be the first single for (Audioslave’s third and final studio LP, 2006’s) Revelations, but then (bassist Tim Commerford) really hated it, ’cause he thought it sounded like a Danzig song, which is weird. And then he yelled ‘F**k you!’ a lot to the head of the label. Next thing you know, we just said, ‘Let’s not put it on the record, ’cause we’re about to get dropped.’”
Morello added, “That one will see the light of day. There’s some other jams too — there’s some other real good jams — but I don’t know when (they will surface). (There are) no plans for that.”
Morello told us last year that unreleased Audioslave music existed but he didn’t know what would happen with it: “You know, we recorded music for Audioslave records, and then we recorded more songs than made those records, and I’m certain at some point it will come out but there’s no plans for it. We had talked about it when, you know, Chris was alive and we thought at some point there will be the right time to put it out. Now I don’t know that there’s ever a right time to put it out, but there’s no reason that it shouldn’t come out at some point.”
Cornell, Morello, Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk played together in Audioslave from 2002 to 2007, recording three studio albums and a live LP. The band reunited for a brief set in January 2017 at an event protesting the inauguration of Donald Trump. Morello later said that he and Cornell had discussed doing more Audioslave shows before the latter’s death in May of that year.
The audiobook version of a new memoir by the surviving members of the Beastie Boys will feature a lengthy list of celebrity guest readers. The Beastie Boys Book comes out Tuesday (October 30th) and narrators will include musicians such as Elvis Costello, Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, Snoop Dogg, Rev Run of Run-DMC, Chuck D, Nas, Jeff Tweedy and Bette Midler, along with Beastie Boys Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz and Mike “Mike D” Diamond.
But that’s not all. Other readers from the world of film and TV will include Steve Buscemi, Rosie Perez, Amy Poehler, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph, Chloe Sevigny and Jon Stewart, along with cameos from Ben Stiller, NY1’s famed Pat Kiernan, Wanda Sykes and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
The comprehensive, long-in-the-works Beastie Boys Book chronicles the history of the iconic group. The 600-page physical edition contains a comic book, a Roy Choy cookbook, maps, mixtape playlists and guest contributors.
Recently, excerpts from the book revealed some embarrassing moments from the band’s career, including their decision to fire their first drummer Kate Schellenbach for being a girl, the truly awful original title to their 1986 debut album Licensed To Ill, and the fact that they’re still spending money to store a giant hydraulic penis.
Goth-rock veterans AFI have released a new photo of the band that is missing singer Davey Havok. In the frontman’s place, the pic shows a distinctive shadow shape where Havok would presumably stand — a “cut-out” silhouette of Havok rather than the musician himself.
AFI fans have predictably gone into a frenzy of speculation about what the photo means, ranging from Havok leaving the band to the arrival of new music that will somehow tie into the mysterious image.
AFI’s latest LP was their 2017 self-titled effort, also know as The Blood Album. It was the 10th studio album from the influential group that formed back in 1991 and went on to release popular alternative LPs such as Black Sails In The Sunset, Sing The Sorrow and Decemberunderground.
Havok’s also dabbled in side projects such as the electronic-oriented Blaqk Audio with AFI guitarist Jade Puget, the more aggressive Xtrmst and the modern pop act Dreamcar, which featured Havok singing alongside the instrumental members of No Doubt.
Both Puget and bassist Hunter Burgan stated in 2017 interviews that the band intended to start writing its next album before the end of that year.
Trivium frontman Matt Heafy has left the band’s current North American headlining tour to be at home with his wife, who is pregnant with twins. Fill-ins for Heafy on the last week of the trek will include former Killswitch Engage vocalist Howard Jones and Avatar frontman Johannes Eckerström. Heafy said online, “I just had to fly back unexpectedly home to Orlando. As you know, my wife and I are expecting twins, and as you also know (with) pregnancy, there are no definitive answers on when things are happening. Especially when it’s two.”
That’s a wrap, have a great weekend!
