Good morning Radicals! Here’s what’s happening in the world of rock and roll!
System Of A Down drummer John Dolmayan has taken notice of bands like Tool, Rage Against The Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers either reuniting or recording after long breaks while his band remains on the sidelines — and he thinks his band can do the same.
Dolmayan posted on Instagram, “Three of these bands can get out of their own way and work together for a common goal, maybe the fourth can as well. Perhaps it’s time to put all the bulls**t aside, check the massive egos at the door, and do together what none of us can do alone.”
His message was accompanied by an image showing four stickers arranged in a square, with three, Rage Against The Machine, Tool and the Chili Peppers right side up, and the fourth, System Of A Down, upside down.
System Of A Down has several shows booked in 2020 but has not recorded new music since 2005. While the four members insist they are all friends, they have been unable to see eye-to-eye on making new music — particularly singer Serj Tankian and guitarist Daron Malakian.
Malakian publicly accused Tankian in 2018 of being the only member who did not want to record. Tankian responded that Malakian wanted to control System’s creative process, take more of the publishing money and be the only band member to speak to the press. Despite the stalemate, System Of A Down will tour Europe next summer.
Slipknot has shared a new music video for the song “Nero Forte.” The clip, which was was filmed in late October, was once again directed by percussionist M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan, who is also the art director for the band and has directed many of its videos and concert DVDs/documentaries.
Crahan told us earlier this year that he loves thinking about fans watching a Slipknot video for the first time: “Do you know what my favorite thing in the world is? It’s when a kid comes home and he’s had a bad day, and his like bigger brother or like his best friend is sittin’ in his room and he’s like, ‘Dude, what are you doing in my house? I just got off work.’ And he’s like, ‘You don’t know?’ ‘What don’t I know?’ ‘Slipknot just put out a new video. You’re hours late, get ready.’ Boom, play the video. That’s my favorite thing.”
Guitarist Jim Root recently told Kerrang! magazine about the song, “This is a Clown song, which is amazing. This one is going to be great live . . . Obviously, Clown is a drummer and percussionist, but he’s also a songwriter — and he always has been. Now we’re able to collaborate as songwriters, and this is what we end up with.”
“Nero Forte” is taken from Slipknot’s latest album, We Are Not Your Kind, which came out in August.
Stone Temple Pilots will release their first all-acoustic album, titled Perdida, on February 7th, 2020 and the band intends to add extra musicians and strings to its live lineup when STP tours in support of the disc early next year.
Bassist Robert DeLeo confirmed the expansion of the live instrumentation on the Talkin’ Rock With Meltdown podcast, explaining, “I think it will really be cool to see this, live. We’re going to be adding a couple of other musicians and adding some strings and kind of making it a nice evening.”
The band used a number of offbeat instruments on the Perdida album as well, and DeLeo told us how they determined what to use: “It was just a matter of less is more, and letting that instrument, and all the instruments, kind of speak on their own. And that’s really what the intention was — to get the song to be as clear and as beautiful as possible with the accents of those instruments.”
Among the varied instruments that appear on Perdida are flute, alto saxophone, guitarrón, viola, cello and vintage keyboards.
STP will kick off the tour behind Perdida on February 5th in Vancouver. The first single is out now and called “Fare Thee Well.”
Motley Crue manager Allen Kovac admitted in an interview with Fox Business that “some of” the members of the band are working with trainers and nutritionists to get in shape for the band’s upcoming reunion tour. Kovac was referring to criticism of Crue singer Vince Neil for his supposed diminished singing ability and weight gain, as well as the health status of guitarist Mick Mars, who has been dealing with a chronic form of arthritis that led him to undergo a hip replacement.
Kovac explained, “Some of them are working with a trainer, some of them are working with a nutritionist to make themselves the best they can be. The greatest insecurity for an artist is: Is anyone going to care about my music? Is anyone going to buy a ticket? We were in November when the discussions were happening, and these guys were already into regimens of how they get ready for a tour.”
Speaking specifically about Neil, Kovac added, “Let’s see what Vince sings like and looks like when the tour goes out.”
Kovac also addressed why the band decided to scrap the contract all four members signed five years ago pledging never to tour again as Motley Crue following the completion of their 2014/2015 “farewell” trek. The manager said that the success of the Netflix biopic about the band, The Dirt, reactivated interest in the group among both its longtime followers and a new generation of fans.
Kovac remarked, “The most relevant statement is that global film, with a global internet and global streaming, is the future . . . So to me, managers and artists should move into 2020 and out of 1999, and so should record companies.”
“The Stadium Tour,” which also features Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett, will kick off on July 7th in Miami and hit 22 cities before winding down on September 5th in Los Angeles. According to Kovac, a third of the dates are already sold out, and six more shows will be announced soon.
Nirvana‘s iconic video for the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is closing in on a new milestone: one billion views on YouTube. At press time the clip has been viewed 992,872,169 times. The single made its radio debut on August 27th, 1991, with the video arriving a few weeks later on MTV. The clip appeared on YouTube for the first time in 2009.
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” was the opening cut and first single from Nirvana’s breakthrough second album, Nevermind, which went on to sell more than 30 million copies worldwide. The LP became one of the most successful and influential of all time.
Three Days Grace drummer Neil Sanderson told us that hard rock producer Howard Benson knew “Teen Spirit” was a game-changer: “Howard was, you know, working on this record which in his words was like the last hair band to be making a record kind of thing, and they kind of looked up and there was the video for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ up. So they kind of just were mesmerized by it, kind of stopped what they were doing and turned the volume up and listened to it. And then, you know, Howard turned around to these guys with perms and said, ‘We are so f***ed’ (laughs). That explained how defining that moment was when ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ came out.”
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” was the second most-watched video of the 1990s, following Guns N’ Roses‘ “November Rain.” That clip, the Guns video for “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and Linkin Park‘s video for “Numb” are among the other members of the elite billion-views club.
Lots of birthdays to celebrate today, including Sam Loeffler of Chevelle, Jeremy McKinnon of A Day To Remember, Neil Sanderson of Three Days Grace, and In This Moment singer Maria Brink! Crank it up and let ’em know!
