Good morning Radicals! Let’s kick off DIRT today with some new music! If you missed hardDrive XL last night, Lou had special guests I Prevail on to debut a brand new song “Breaking Down!”
They also released a heavier track “Bow Down,” and both songs will be on the upcoming “Trauma” album, which arrives on March 29th!
Late Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell‘s doctor has denied he had anything to do with the rocker’s tragic death in May 2017, claiming that Cornell was properly advised about the dangers of the anti-anxiety medication he was prescribed.
Dr. Robert Koblin responded to the lawsuit filed against him by Cornell’s widow Vicky last November. Vicky sued the doctor for malpractice, accusing him of over-prescribing drugs that eventually caused her husband to commit suicide. Vicky and her two children, also named in the suit, are seeking unspecified damages. Koblin is asking that the wrongful death suit be dismissed.
Koblin has responded that Chris was “well aware” of the risks associated with taking the anti-anxiety meds, and has claimed that he’s covered by a malpractice law that protects doctors when a death occurs as as result of a patient’s ongoing disease or condition. The doctor added that he did everything in his professional capacity to help the singer, but that Chris also asked “not to be informed” of all the risks associated with taking anti-anxiety medication.
Vicky claims in the suit that Koblin prescribed 940 doses of the anti-anxiety drug Lorazepam, a.k.a. Ativan, as well as Oxycodone during the last 20 months of Chris’s life, without examining him or doing anything else to determine if her husband was in danger. According to the suit, the use of Lorazepam, if not monitored, can increase the risk of suicide because it can impair the patient’s judgment.
Chris was pronounced dead in the early morning hours of May 18th, 2017 after being found unresponsive in his Detroit hotel room following a Soundgarden show. The 52-year-old had sedatives and an anxiety drug in his system, but died by hanging himself. According to the medical examiner, the drugs didn’t contribute to his death.
Lou Brutus with Disturbed
Disturbed singer David Draiman has dismissed the idea that rock is dead, saying that bands from the genre are “a dominant force on a global level.” With many pundits noting that hip-hop and pop have pulled ahead of rock in mainstream popularity, Draiman nevertheless insisted in an interview on Trunk Nation that rock is not dead.
He explained, “They’re gonna keep on singing that song and dance because it’s a headline that, for whatever reason, every once in a while sells. And people click on it and they wanna read about it, and they’re always so quick to proclaim rock dead. Even some of the gentlemen and ladies within our own genre are very quick to proclaim rock dead, and it’s absolutely the opposite.”
Draiman continued, “The irony is that if you look at touring exclusively within the rock world, we’re a dominant force on a global level. And in many territories — in fact, in most territories — we eclipse the other genres. But it’s just not one of those soundbites that seem to sell very well these days.”
Draiman’s bandmate, guitarist Dan Donegan, told us a while back that Disturbed never expected to be around as long as they’ve been: “I think ‘Down With The Sickness’ was like the seventh most downloaded song that was recorded in the ’90s. It was like in a list of like four Michael Jackson songs and Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and we were in the Top 10 of those songs. And I was just blown away by those statistics. Those are big numbers there. I mean, we’re just overwhelmed to think that we could go from a garage band in the south side of Chicago to selling a lot of albums and having a fan base and making a career out of it.”
Disturbed is currently on tour in support of its latest album, Evolution. The trek next stops in Worcester, Massachusetts on Wednesday (February 27th). Evolution, Disturbed’s seventh studio LP, came out last October and contains the rock radio singles “Are You Ready” and “A Reason To Fight.”
Three previously unreleased Green Day songs have been posted online. Called “Jennifer,” “Stay” and “Maybe Forever,” the newly unearthed tunes date back to the late 1980s and were recorded at a show on July 22nd, 1989 in Berkeley, California when the punk trio opened for Killdozer.
These are the only known live performances of the songs and were performed before the band had released its debut album, 1990’s 39/Smooth. None of the songs have ever surfaced as a studio recording. All three feature original drummer John Kiffmeyer.
“Jennifer” was often referred to as “Future Old Boy,” while “Stay” was thought for years by fans to be called “World Vs. World.” Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong wrote the latter song for a film.
Armstrong hinted to fans on Instagram in December that he was writing new Green Day songs but did not share any more details. The band kept a low profile for much of 2018, although they posted photos over the summer indicating that they had been rehearsing classic early albums like Dookie, Insomniac and Kerplunk! in full.
Bring Me The Horizon has announced a spring “Second Base” tour of North America that will feature 11 new headlining shows as well as a smattering of festival gigs. The jaunt will kick off on May 8th in Milwaukee and wrap up on May 18th in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning Friday (March 1st) at 10:00 a.m. local time at LiveNation.com.
The British act was forced to cancel the last two shows of its most recent U.S. tour earlier this month after singer Oli Sykes ruptured his right vocal cord. Concerts in Phoenix and Las Vegas were called off, with Sykes posting, “I’ve been told if I don’t rest (my voice) immediately, I’m in serious danger of doing permanent damage.”
Bring Me The Horizon has been touring in support of its latest LP, Amo, which landed at Number One on the U.K. album chart but failed to crack the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 survey when it arrived last month. The pop-oriented sound of the new disc has divided fans of the group’s earlier, heavier musical style.
ѕecond вaѕe тoυr + ѕpecιal gυeѕт @scarlxrd
preѕale ѕтarтѕ 2pм local тιмe тoday
paѕѕword: FALAAMOhttps://t.co/0xzuIyfUWX pic.twitter.com/yyig33HZUi— Bring Me The Horizon (@bmthofficial) February 26, 2019
Staind frontman Aaron Lewis praised Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst during a solo concert in Virginia Beach this past Friday (February 22nd). During the show, Lewis performed an acoustic rendition of Staind‘s “Epiphany,” after which he discussed the video for the song, which Durst directed.
Lewis recalled, “Fred spent like a million and a half dollars on that f**king video. Dumb s**t. There’s so many ways I could have spent that money…”
When a fan in the audience called out, “Fred‘s an a****le,” Lewis replied, “No, Fred‘s the whole reason I’m sitting in front of you tonight. And I gotta say that that at this point in my life I call Fred when I need like Dalai Lama advice, for real. Fred is f**king awesome, he really is. He blows my mind every f**king time I talk to him.”
Lewis continued, “Every time I hear someone yell something bad about Fred I want to just like screech to a halt and be like ‘What?’ That is the reason I’m here… (Without Fred) I’d have given it up a long time ago I think and I probably would have written songs that made my kids laugh and I would have been okay with that.”
Durst helped Staind get its big break more than 20 years ago when he got them signed to the Flip Records imprint. The band’s first LP for the label, 1999’s Dysfunction, put the nu metal quartet on the map.
Finally, we’d like to wish a Happy Birthday to Kyng frontman Eddie Velez and Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith! Have a great day!
Coming on the heels — pun intended — of the new Led Zeppelin Van sneakers are the new commemorative Eddie Van Halen high tops. The ’78 high tops are the sixth set in the EVH sneaker collection that features red, yellow, and white high tops, red low tops, and red slip-on shoes — all of which replicate the striped designs of Van Halen‘s ’70s and ’80s guitars. The new sneaker sells for $64.78.
According to the official EddieVanHalenStore.com website:
This commemorative shoe, the 1978 High Top, honoring the occasion of Eddie’s groundbreaking debut to the world stage with the release of the first Van Halen album, some 40 years ago.
Adding to the growing collection of footwear offered by the EVH brand, the 1978 High Tops are a black and white classic high-top sneaker. The outer side features a live photo of Eddie Van Halen playing guitar on the first world tour, and the inner side of the shoe has 1978 prominently displayed in a circular badge.
The Eddie Van Halen logo appears on both the tongue of the shoe and on the back sole, and the back panel features his signature white with black striped pattern.”
Van Halen fans wait with bated breath on news of a 2019 tour — possibly featuring Michael Anthony on bass. Although there’s been no announcement about the long-rumored road dates, there’s little doubt that Eddie Van Halen is cooking something up in his home studio. He told us a while back that most of Van Halen’s music stems from jam sessions with drummer and brother, drummer Alex Van Halen: [“What I do on any record is I basically lock myself up in the studio with my brother, and we jam, and whatever comes out is what we (laughs) use. And a lot of the stuff we, we don’t use, ’cause it’s not good (laughs). But the good stuff we keep, and we just carry on from there.”] SOUNDCUE (:14 OC: . . . on from there)
