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Monday, Jun 10, 2019

Julian Woolsey


Good morning Radicals! Hope you all had a lovely weekend! Let’s take a look at the news in the world of rock and roll:

 

Slipknot kicked off the first European leg of its world tour on Friday (June 6th) with a 18-song set at the Rockfest Festival, held at the Hyvinkää Airfield in Finland. This was the band’s first full-length show since Knotfest in Japan in November 2016, although they returned to live action last month with a two-song set on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Singer Corey Taylor told us a while back that with the kind of live show Slipknot puts on, there’s always the risk of something going wrong: “When you get something like, you know, the big production going on, there’s so many things that could go wrong that it’s out of your hands, you know? So there’s definitely a level of tension. But about halfway through the show, you know, everything’s starting to go well, you know, you start to slowly relax. People really don’t understand all the things — it’s such a living entity, the show is.”

The set featured Slipknot’s two newest songs, “All Out Life” and “Unsainted,” alongside selections from the rest of their catalog that included five cuts from their self-titled album, three from .5: The Gray Chapter, three off Iowa, three taken from Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses and two from All Hope Is Gone.

Drummer Jay Weinberg thanked the Finnish audience on Twitter after the show, while sharing a video clip shot from behind his drum kit. He said the crowd set the bar “ridiculously high for the rest of the world.”

The group’s sixth studio album, We Are Not Your Kind, will arrive on August 9th. The North American Knotfest Roadshow tour will launch on July 26th and hit some 29 cities.

Former Five Finger Death Punch drummer Jeremy Spencer was recently sworn in as a Reserve Police Officer of the Rockport, Indiana Police Department by the city’s mayor, Gay Ann Harney.

Chief of Police Jason Overfield said Spencer passed the Pre-Basic course of the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy and welcomed him to the department. Rockport is the county seat of Spencer County in southwest Indiana and Spencer grew up in neighboring Warrick County, where he graduated from Boonville High School in 1991.

Spencer, a resident of Las Vegas, said: “It’s an honor to be able to come back to this area when I can and serve the community as a reserve police officer and help out my brothers.”

The 46-year-old Spencer announced his departure from Five Finger Death Punch last December after undergoing two surgeries. He said at the time, “The rigorous physical wear and tear has worn down my body to the point where I feel I can no longer deliver a performance you great fans deserve and one that brings me satisfaction and joy.”

The band recently confirmed that Charlie “The Engine” Engen is laying down the drum tracks for the band’s eighth LP, due later in the year. Engen made his live debut with Five Finger Death Punch last fall.

Muse frontman Matt Bellamy has officially announced his purchase of Manson Guitar Works, becoming the majority shareholder of the company that has made custom signature guitars from him for the better part of the past two decades.

Bellamy stated in a press release, “I’m excited to be taking ownership of Manson Guitar Works and developing its potential in the future. Having played Manson Guitars since I was able to co-design my first custom guitar, I have the best insight into the products.”

The announcement added that instrument maker and namesake Hugh Manson will remain at the company as a consultant.

Bellamy recently upgraded his custom Manson by having a plug-in synthesizer, the Arturia Prophet V, built directly into the instrument. Bellamy opted for the upgrade so he could perform a track called “The Dark Side” on the group’s current tour without having to rely on a computer.

Muse is on the road in Europe behind its eighth studio album, Simulation Theory, which features extensive use of synthesizers.

Nine Inch Nails main man Trent Reznor is reportedly suing the landlords of his rental property after claiming that initial poor construction of the home with subpar materials led to even more issues after repairs were made.

According to the lawsuit, Reznor claims the builders used cheap materials in order to construct the home quickly. Back in January, the musician reportedly had to evacuate the house after an electrical fire was caused by mold growing inside the walls.

Reznor says that once he was told by the owners that the mold had been removed and that he could move back in, the house was still a mess with sections of it closed off. The singer also cited sewage leaks and flooding that occurred during his stay at the residence.

Reznor says that the landlords are refusing to refund his security deposit, do not want to compensate his hotel stay during the repairs and haven’t reimbursed him for some of his rent.

Next up for Reznor and musical partner Atticus Ross are the scores for two highly anticipated movies: director Trey Edward Shults’ musical drama Waves and Joe Wright’s fall thriller The Woman In The Window. The duo are also handling the music for Damon Lindelof’s upcoming Watchmen series on HBO.

 

Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee has fired back at Hole singer Courtney Love after she called the Crue’s recently released biopic, The Dirt, the “dumbest Netflix film ever.”

In a new question-and-answer session with Interview magazine, Love recounted a day when she had three girlfriend over for massages, saying, “We watched the dumbest Netflix film ever called The Dirt. It’s so stupid and vile about women, and just f**king dumb.”

She continued, “We all got our bodies worked on and watched this white rapper named Machine Gun Kelly (who plays Lee), and we just made jokes. I was like, ‘When’s Ozzy gonna snort the ant?’ Then, within seconds, he snorted the ant. Then the Nikki Sixx character was like, ‘I have a new girlfriend. She’s sweet. She’s wonderful.’ I was like, ‘And her name is heroin.’ Two seconds later: ‘Her name is heroin.’”

After news of Love’s comments went viral, Lee took to Twitter to slam the musician and actress, writing, “Hey @Courtney When’s your movie coming out? Oh wait…. Never!!!!!” Love has actually acted in several movies, while her relationship with her late husband Kurt Cobain has been at the center of at least two documentaries.

While seemingly a hit with fans, The Dirt currently has a 39% critic score from 66 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, the online review aggregation service. Fans on the same site have given the film a 95% audience score from 6,334 reviews.

That’s a wrap for today, we’ll see you tonight on hardDrive XL!