Good morning Radicals! Let’s dig into the music news of the day:
Pearl Jam has shared “Dance Of The Clairvoyants,” the first single and video from its upcoming 11th album, Gigaton.
Bassist Jeff Ament said, “‘Dance’ was a perfect storm of experimentation and real collaboration, mixing up the instrumentation and building a great song, and Ed (Vedder) writing some of my favorite words yet, around Matt (Cameron)’s killer drum pattern. Did I mention Mike (McCready)’s insane guitar part and that Stone (Gossard) is playing bass on this one? We’ve opened some new doors creatively and that’s exciting.”
As for what the song is about, Ament told us a while back that he leaves interpreting the lyrics up to the listener: “Sometimes there’s something kind of magical and mystical about just forming your own idea on where the feeling’s coming from or where the words are coming from. Sometimes it can be this really crazy kind of dark place, and sometimes it can be a place that probably has nothing to do with, you know, what Eddie’s talking about or whatever. It’s your own story, you kind of formulate it into your own thing.”
About the album overall, Ament remarked, “I can’t tell you how proud I am about this group of songs. As you know, we took our time and that benefited us taking more chances.”
Gigaton arrives on March 27th and is the band’s first studio album since 2013’s Grammy-winning Lightning Bolt. In support of Gigaton, Pearl Jam will embark on its first leg of North American tour dates in March and April, kicking off on March 18th in Toronto.
Two of the festival season’s biggest events have unveiled their 2020 lineups. Wisconsin’s Rock USA will feature Slipknot, Limp Bizkit and Rob Zombie as the headliners for its 10th anniversary, scheduled for Ford Festival Park in Oshkosh on July 16th, 17th and 18th.
Other big names set to perform across the three stages are Halestorm, Ice Cube, Papa Roach, Chevelle, Anthrax, Avatar, Hellyeah, Bad Wolves, We Came As Romans, The Pretty Reckless, Fever 333, Of Mice & Men, Crobot, Hollywood Undead, Stitched Up Heart, All That Remains and more.
Tickets for Rock USA will go on sale to the general public next Wednesday (January 29th) at 4:00 p.m. CT via the Rock USA website.
Meanwhile, Slipknot is also set to headline Rocklahoma, which will happen on May 22nd, 23rd and 24th at Pryor Creek Music Festival Grounds in Pryor, Oklahoma, just outside of Tulsa.
Now in its 14th year, the three-day bill also includes Five Finger Death Punch, Papa Roach, Staind, Halestorm, Anthrax, I Prevail, Alter Bridge, Motionless In White, Hellyeah, Badflower, The Hu, Dirty Honey, Dinosaur Pile-Up, Bad Wolves and many more.
Rocklahoma passes go on sale at early bird pricing this Friday (January 24th at 10:00 a.m. CT at Rocklahoma.com, with prices going up on Friday (January 31st) at 5:00 p.m. CT. VIP packages and payment plan options are also available.
In This Moment will release its seventh studio album, titled Mother, on March 27th.The band has previewed the LP with a new song and video called “The In-Between.”
The disc was recorded at the Hideout Recording Studio in Las Vegas and features guest appearances from Halestorm‘s Lzzy Hale, The Pretty Reckless singer Taylor Momsen and DED‘s Joe Cotella.
In This Moment vocalist Maria Brink told us a while back that she doesn’t like to put labels on the band’s music: “I think that it’s important when you’re doing music, I’ve come to learn, to just let go of, ‘What kind of genre of music is this?’ and ‘What is this?’ and ‘Is this acceptable?’ and ‘Is this okay to incorporate these two things?’ Where to me, it’s just music and I just look at it as, ‘Does this feel good? Does this sound good?’ and that’s it. And not have to put all these, I guess, labels on it.”
In This Moment will head out on a spring 2020 headlining tour, dubbed “The In-Between Tour,” in support of the new LP. Support on the trek will come from Black Veil Brides, Ded and Raven Black. The jaunt kicks off on March 24th in Orlando, Florida.
Smashing Pumpkins frontman William Corgan has told Nashville’s 102.9 The Buzz in a new interview that he is hard at work on the band’s new studio album.
Asked about the status of the next Pumpkins LP, Corgan said, “It’s currently 21 songs. I’ve been working on it for over a year. It’s pretty different — in a good way, I think. Everybody that’s heard it likes it a lot, so that’s a good sign.”
The upcoming disc will be the follow-up to 2018’s Shiny And Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun., which was the first Pumpkins effort in over 18 years to feature founding members Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin and James Iha.
Corgan revealed that the Pumpkins will hit the road later this year, following their 2018 semi-reunion tour. Just one date is booked so far, on May 2nd at Atlanta’s Shaky Knees festival, but Corgan indicated that the band might have a “surprise” show happening as well.
Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash may have just lowered fan expectations for a new studio album from the band.
Asked in a new interview with Guitar.com for an update on new music from the group, Slash responded, “There’s been no definitive answer on anything and I’ll just keep to that. Stuff is happening, but there are no specifics.”
Slash elaborated, “More than anything, it’s because of the nature of the industry right now. It’s just like, how do you want to do this? I mean there’s material and there’s recording and there’s s**t going on, but we’re not really sure what we’re doing with it right now.”
Ever since Slash, singer Axl Rose and bassist Duff McKagan reunited in 2016, rumors have been circulating that new music from the band — the first to feature the three original members since 1993 — was in the works. The band itself has hinted at new music as well.
When Guitar.com pointed out to Slash that the music industry in 2020 is a lot different now than the last time Guns made a record, the guitarist said, “Yeah. And there’s a handful people who said, ‘Yeah, make a record and go old school.’ And there’s a handful of people that are, like, ‘We don’t even know what buying a record is any more.'”
Guns N’ Roses will next perform at the second Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest, set to take place January 30th through February 1st at American Airlines Arena in Miami. Guns will headline on January 31st.
That’s a wrap, now get back to work!
