Gooood morning Radicals! We’re back in full effect, shaken off the hangovers and ready to rock with you! Let’s kick things off with some fresh music news in DIRT!
Update- Final vocals tracked MONTHS ago. Then U.S.-UK-Euro run w #APC. If Tool all inst are tracked, long process of Mixing now. Meanwhile write/film/track w @puscifer for #puscifer2020 & troll the band FBs with wine posts. #funnyshit #whileyouwerewhiningiwasworking
— Maynard J Keenan (@mjkeenan) January 4, 2019
Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan has completed recording his vocals for the band’s long-awaited new album. The singer took to his Twitter account on Friday (January 4th) to write, “Update- Final vocals tracked MONTHS ago. Then U.S.-UK-Euro run (with A Perfect Circle). If Tool all (instruments) are tracked, long process of mixing now. Meanwhile write/film/track w @puscifer for #puscifer2020 & troll the band FBs with wine posts . . . #whileyouwerewhiningiwasworking.”
Tool officially entered the studio last March to begin recording its first full-length album since 2006’s 10,000 Days. While there were scattered updates informing fans of guitarist Adam Jones, bassist Justin Chancellor and drummer Danny Carey laying down their parts, very little has been reported about Keenan’s work.
In fact, Keenan publicly called out his bandmates during a show last May in Wisconsin, asking them to finish recording their parts for the band’s new disc so that he could record his and finally complete the LP. Keenan said from the stage, “Eventually you wonderful people are going to run out of f**king patience. So I beg you, Danny, Adam and Justin, please finish your parts so I can finish mine.”
Tool has begun booking festival dates in May and June of this year, so it’s likely that the band intends to finish mixing and mastering the new disc in order to get it out to the public to coincide with its live schedule.
A new study has determined that Shinedown was the hardest touring rock band of 2018. The figures were compiled by Norman Records, which crunched the numbers based on the 1,000 most popular artists on live event app Songkick throughout November and December.
The results showed that Shinedown led the metal/alternative category by playing 136 shows in 2018 and traveling 47,470 miles in the process. They were closely followed by P.O.D. and Bullet For My Valentine, while artists including Asking Alexandria, Stone Sour, Judas Priest and Marilyn Manson were also in the top 10.
Singer Brent Smith told us a while back that the road is where Shinedown is at its best: “I think everybody that knows Shinedown is basically aware of what this band is, is that we are a touring band and that’s really where, in a lot of ways, our strengths lie. That’s who we are. We’re blessed to be able to be on the road as much as we are, we hopefully, you know, in our mindset, write songs that people want to hear, and we just love to tour.”
The rock/indie/alternative category was topped by Escape The Fate with 131 gigs played and 81,539 miles traveled. Others on that list included Portugal. The Man, Milky Chance, Alt-J, Dashboard Confessional and, strangely, Foreigner. It’s not clear how or why the artists were divided into the different categories.
The study also found that rock and metal acts were the hardest touring genres last year, with hip-hop, electronic, singer-songwriter and dance rounding out the top six.
Slipknot and Stone Sour vocalist Corey Taylor was asked in a recent interview with RadioVegas.Rocks whether he would ever consider crossing over to country music. Taylor responded, “Absolutely not. And it’s not to say that I couldn’t write stuff like that. My interest would be more singer-songwriter kind of vibe, like Squeeze or something like that. Or — and I’ve actually been thinking about doing something like this — putting together a quartet or a quintet and doing a jazz album, like a dark jazz album, (and) recording it live in a room.”
Taylor continued, “It won’t sell s**t. It would really just be for my own f**king personal collection . . . I love jazz. A lot of people don’t realize that — I listen to a lot of ’40s and ’50s jazz. And there is this, the haunting stuff that (Billie) Holiday would do, the older stuff that Charlie Parker would do, when he was really f**ked up — that would be the stuff that I would be closer to.”
The singer revealed that he’s got “jazzy versions” of some songs he’s previously recorded with both Slipknot and Stone Sour that he would like to try and capture, adding, “Probably something like (Slipknot’s) ‘Prosthetics,’ I think would be really, really cool. And then ‘Bother’ — I’ve got a really cool jazzy version of ‘Bother’ that could be really cool.”
Taylor has told us in the past that a solo album would show a different side of his personality: “You don’t always have to be bummed to make music, and that was kind of the point of doing a solo album, was to show both kind of versions of it and say, ‘Look, this is me too.’ I really want to get to the point where I show all sides of that. I mean, if Mick Jagger and Robert Plant can do solo stuff, why can’t I? I think there are a lot of people out there that would appreciate it.”
Taylor and Stone Sour recently completed the touring cycle for their sixth album, Hydrograd. This past October, Slipknot released a new song called “All Out Life,” which will appear on the group’s upcoming sixth studio effort, due out this summer.
Bring Me The Horizon singer Oli Sykes has hinted in a new interview with Kerrang! magazine that the band’s upcoming album Amo “doesn’t sound like what we’ve done before,” adding that fans are going to have to give the disc a few spins to fully absorb what it’s all about.
Sykes explained, “I know some people didn’t like (2015 LP) That’s The Spirit . . . and there’s a lot of poppier stuff on this album, too, but there’s also a lot of experimentation and vibe and atmosphere, which has a darker tone in places.”
He continued, “As a fan I’d be excited about this album. It’s definitely gonna take a few listens, not because you won’t like it at first, but because the songs have got so much going on. They’re a lot deeper than anything we’ve ever written before.”
Bring Me The Horizon released a new song called “Medicine” last week, along with an accompanying music video. It follows “Mantra,” which has reached Number Seven on the rock radio chart. Amo will be released on January 25th, with the group kicking off a North American tour on January 23rd in Nashville.
The official video for “Rock The Rock,” the first new song from Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose in 10 years, is now available online. The track was featured in the TV show New Looney Tunes, which airs on the Boomerang cable channel.
The episode, which premiered on December 24th, featured Rose as a character. In his scene, he teamed up with Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and the other Looney Tunes characters to play loud enough to destroy an asteroid before it could hit the Earth, with the Looney Tunes gang as his backing band. The group then proceeded to play “Rock The Rock,” ultimately blowing up the asteroid and saving the world.
“Rock The Rock” is the first new recording from Rose since the last Guns N’ Roses album, 2008’s Chinese Democracy. However, it appears that Rose did not contribute to the writing of the song, which is registered on BMI as having been written by Joshua Funk and Rob Janas.
Funk is an Emmy-nominated composer who has written music for Comedy Central’s Key & Peele, New Looney Tunes, Scooby Doo: Shaggy’s Showdown, Teachers and others.
Marilyn Manson turned 50 on Saturday (January 5th) and celebrated with a birthday party at Madame Siam in Los Angeles, surrounded by a large turnout of friends. Video footage showed a crowded but not completely out of control bash, with Manson looking a little emotional as his friends sang “Happy Birthday” to him.
My father made this as a jeweler in the 70s. It is the ONLY thing /inheritance I have from him. It was in the back that was stolen out of my driveway. Please help me get it back. I am devastated and heartbroken. #santamonica #2005redtoyotaavalon pic.twitter.com/OZuPhSzl4U
— Perry Farrell (@perryfarrell) January 4, 2019
Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell is “devastated and heartbroken” after thieves made off with his luggage, which contained a piece of jewelry that had belonged to Farrell’s late father.
Farrell posted a photo of the item on Twitter, writing, “My father made this as a jeweler in the 70s. It is the ONLY thing /inheritance I have from him. It was in the bag that was stolen out of my driveway. Please help me get it back. I am devastated and heartbroken.”
Farrell’s wife, Etty, tweeted about the theft on Thursday (January 3rd), writing, “As we were moving the heavier pieces of luggages into our house after coming home from our Aspen holiday, we left Perry’s carry-on, an Alexander McQueen, on the ledge next to the gate. It wasn’t there when we went back for it. 2005 red Toyota Avalon.”
Etty’s tweet included what appears to be surveillance video of the incident. A red car can be seen pulling up to the Farrells’ driveway and a woman exits the vehicle from the passenger side. She walks up to where Perry’s bag was placed and picks it up before running back to her car. The incident took place in Santa Monica, California.
Finally, we’d like to wish a Happy Birthday to Five Finger Death Punch singer Ivan Moody, as well as Black Veil Brides guitarist Jinxx! Have a great day one and all!
