Good morning Radicals! Here’s what’s happening in the world of rock and roll:
Loud Krazy Love, a documentary about the life of Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch, will premiere on Friday, December 14th at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime. A new trailer for the movie, which was directed by first-time feature filmmakers Trey Hill and Scott Mayo, has surfaced online as well.
Featuring exclusive access on tour and at home, as well as in-depth interviews with Welch, his family and his bandmates, Loud Krazy Love subverts the standard sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll narrative to explore Welch’s identity as a father and the complicated relationship he shares with his daughter Jennea.
Welch described the film to us in his own way a while back: “It’s a Head/Korn documentary. It’s a bigger budget thing, just about like how it all works, like us coming back together but also just behind-the-scenes types of things. Family, faith, Korn, life, you know, so that’s gonna be interesting.”
Welch quit Korn, which he co-founded, in 2005 to become a born-again Christian, kick a dangerous addiction to crystal meth and be a better father for his then seven-year-old daughter. He said, “The day Jennea was born was like the most euphoric, miraculous, unconditional love . . . But, I think deep down inside of me, I knew I was incapable of being what she needed and deserved.”
Production of the film covered four years and includes two decades worth of never-before-seen material from Welch, his family and Korn. Welch rejoined the band in 2013 and has played on its last two studio albums, with the group currently at work on its 13th studio LP.
Former Foo Fighters drummer William Goldsmith, who plays in the band Sunny Day Real Estate, posted a bizarre statement on Tuesday, December 4th that seemed to suggest that Foos frontman Dave Grohl has effectively held back the release of an album by the latter band. Goldsmith wrote on Facebook, “Recently by way of objective ears I have been reminded of the fact that the greatest Sunny Day Real Estate record ever made remains silenced, abandoned and buried within the murkiest depths of David Grohl’s sock drawer.”
In his post, since removed, Goldsmith shared five minutes worth of instrumentals that he alluded are from this “abandoned” album. He wrote, “It honestly feels like someone has taken a part of me as a human being and locked it in a closet . . . this music hasn’t just been taken away from me anymore — now it’s been taken away from my children.”
Goldsmith played with Foo Fighters from 1995 to 1997, but Grohl re-recorded all of his drum parts on 1997’s The Colour And The Shape without telling him — a turn of events that Goldsmith has remained upset about ever since. Meanwhile, Sunny Day bassist Nate Mendel joined the Foos at the same time as Goldsmith but remained in the lineup, becoming its longest serving member after Grohl himself.
When Mendel was reached for comment, he told Pitchfork, “There is no truth to this story.” Goldsmith himself later issued a clarification, saying, “To clarify — there are many ingredients that resulted in the abandonment of LP5. Ingredients that I had to put together myself and find out later on . . . The reference to Dave’s sock drawer meant (the Grohl-owned) Studio 606 which was where it was essentially left.”
Although Sunny Day Real Estate reunited in 2009 to tour and do some recording, nothing came out of those sessions except a song called “Lipton Witch” that was released as a seven-inch single in 2014. Both Mendel and Sunny Day frontman Jeremy Enigk confirmed in separate interviews that the recording sessions were largely a bust.
Nothing More has addressed the issue of mass shootings in its new music video for the song “Let ‘Em Burn.” The video portrays several shootings from past years, but bypasses the question of gun control for another approach. The band said in a statement, “We’re stuck in this mode where we fight over political problems instead of human solutions. More guns or less guns isn’t the question. The real question is, why are we killing each other?”
Singer Jonny Hawkins continued, “The ‘villain and victim’ narrative in media is so seared into our brains that we can’t see straight. We are blind to human solutions because our emotions have been glued to political problems, and it has paralyzed our progress.”
Hawkins continued, “Most of us know that mental health is the cause of mass shootings, yet we are obsessed with talking about the symptoms and gridlocking ourselves in political battles without proper action. It’s time to find solutions . . . It’s time to focus on mental health.”
“Let ‘Em Burn” is the latest single from Nothing More’s 2017 LP, The Stories We Tell Ourselves, which also features the Top 10 rock singles “Go To War,” “Do You Really Want It?” and “Just Say When.”
Nothing More is partnering with To Write Love On Her Arms to focus on mental health and will donate one dollar from every ticket purchased for its upcoming tour to the organization. The trek will launch on February 21st in Phoenix, with support from Of Mice & Men, Badflower and Palisades.
Concept art has surfaced from a proposed remake of The Blob that was going to be directed by Rob Zombie. The rocker and filmmaker first got involved with the project in 2009, around the time he was making Halloween II, but the film was eventually abandoned even though he began doing pre-production for it.
Now an artist named Alex Horley has shared early concept art for the project online. Zombie said at the time that he did not want to feature the traditional title monster — a growing blob of alien goo that absorbs every living thing it touches — and the art seems to reflect that, containing instead what appears to be mutated human zombies.
Zombie later explained why the project was never produced, saying, “I was dealing with people on the movie . . . but just as I went down the road further with the producers and the guys that owned the property, I didn’t feel good about the situation and I just walked away from it. My gut told me this was not a good place to be.”
Zombie is currently in post-production on his next movie, Three From Hell, a sequel to his 2007 film The Devil’s Rejects. He expects to release the film in 2019, along with a new and already completed studio album.
That’s a wrap! Have a great day everybody!
