Goooooooood morning Radicals! Hope everyone had a kick-ass weekend! Yours truly spent it fighting a mountain (the mountain won) but we live to fight another day! Let’s look into what’s happening today in the world of rock and roll:
Guitarist John Frusciante performed with two of his Red Hot Chili Peppers bandmates for the first time since his return to the band was announced, during a memorial in Los Angeles on Saturday (February 8th) for Andrew Burkle, an aspiring film producer and son of billionaire Ron Burkle.
Frusciante performed with singer Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea, while Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins stood in for absent Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. The Chili Peppers members performed Iggy Pop’s “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and Gang Of Four’s “Not Great Men,” as well as their own “Give It Away.”
The event, organized by the Tony Hawk Foundation, also included a performance by Jane’s Addiction, which features ex-Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro. At one point, Frusciante also joined Jane’s Addiction on stage for a rendition of “Mountain Song.” It was Navarro who replaced Frusciante in the Chili Peppers after the latter’s first departure from the band in 1994.
Frusciante rejoined the Chili Peppers in December after the dismissal of Josh Klinghoffer, who had been in the band for 10 years.
Although the Chili Peppers had been writing music with Klinghoffer for their 12th studio album, Chad Smith recently revealed that the band have begun working on new material with Frusciante.
Five Finger Death Punch has shared a new lyric video for “Living The Dream,” another track from the band’s upcoming album F8. The lyrics by singer Ivan Moody reflect on the price of stardom and fame, channeling Superman, Captain America and Iron Man while describing being caught up as “part of the machine.”
Guitarist Zoltan Bathory told us that after the last few years Five Finger Death Punch must prove it’s stronger than ever: “We’ve been through a lot of events. We had band members going to rehab and barely surviving situations. So all that stuff, chaos, that tumult just led to this moment of, ‘Okay, here we are.’ Everybody’s sober, everybody’s ready to work and focused, and there’s a lot to say, a lot to prove. This is who we are today, after all those things.”
“Living The Dream” comes on the heels of two previous songs from F8, “Full Circle” and “Inside Out,” which is currently topping the rock radio airplay chart. F8 follows up 2017’s And Justice For None and is due out on February 28th.
Guitarist Jason Hook will sit out the remainder of the band’s European tour because he needs additional time to recover after having his gall bladder removed in December. The trek concludes on February 22nd in Bulgaria. The band recently announced the dates for a new spring North American tour that kicks off on April 8th in Sunrise, Florida.
Pearl Jam has shared a third video for the band’s new single “Dance Of The Clairvoyants,” with the clip being billed as the band’s “first official music video in seven years.”
Technically titled “Dance of the Clairvoyants (Mach III),” the new video follows a pair of earlier clips called “Mach I” and “Mach II.” While those clips featured a heavy emphasis on nature, the new video features the band itself performing the song against a revolving backdrop of stars, mountains, lightning and more.
“Dance of the Clairvoyants” is the lead single off Gigaton, Pearl Jam’s upcoming 11th studio album. A song called “River Cross” was also heard during a brief Super Bowl commercial last weekend. The group’s first LP since 2013’s Lightning Bolt is due out March 27th.
Bassist Jeff Ament told us a while back that the band is still eager to explore new sounds: “We wanted to be a band that could really dip our toes into a lot of different styles. And I think we’re there and we still know that there’s more that we could do. There’s still some areas that we can get into.”
In support of Gigaton, Pearl Jam will embark on a first leg of North American tour dates in March and April. The 16-date tour kicks off on March 18th in Toronto and wraps with a two-date stint in Oakland on April 18th and 19th.
A Tool fan has designed a Lego set based around the band that has a chance of becoming an actual Lego product if it earns enough support.
As part of the Lego Ideas initiative, an entrant who goes by the user name “blocksandmocs” has created a Lego set featuring figures of all four band members and an impressive stage setup complete with lighting, rigging, a Tool backdrop, and a spectacular drum set.
In a proposal, “blocksandmocs” wrote about the set, “This project is a tribute to the legendary rock band Tool. I was inspired from the recent fulfillment of a long anticipation . . . that Tool will release a new album. Tool have accompanied me throughout my life, as a meaningful and integral part in the soundtrack of my life, to this day and on.”
As of this posting, “blocksandmocs” has roughly 2,000 supporters. If an idea earns 10,000 supporters, the design is reviewed by Lego experts with the chance to have it manufactured and hit store shelves. Fans can go to the Lego Ideas site to help the project reach its goal.
Tool itself will kick off a tour of Australia and New Zealand on February 14th, and will return to the States for a handful of gigs in March. The band is supporting its Fear Inoculum album, which arrived last August.
https://t.co/pwr3j3xObb pic.twitter.com/o4i9Cce4Ax
— Amy Lee (@AmyLeeEV) February 6, 2020
Evanescence singer Amy Lee has spoken out about the current political climate for the first time in her career, and she’s gained at least one supporter — Halestorm frontperson Lzzy Hale.
In a series of remarks posted on Twitter, Lee opened up about her political views for the first time after the GOP-controlled Senate voted last Wednesday (February 5th) to acquit Donald Trump on both articles of impeachment without calling witnesses.
On Thursday (February 6th), Lee wrote that she couldn’t stand by and keep her mouth shut while her country’s freedom was being “taken away.” She explained “It isn’t about one story, one side, or one party vs. another. It is simply about right and wrong, what is acceptable and what’s not. This isn’t good enough for me and it isn’t good enough for any of us. We deserve better.”
Lee added that she would “not accept lying, cheating or bullying” from her government and she insisted that she “will never bow down to a dictator.”
On Friday (February 7th) Hale shared Lee’s statement and included the following brief message: “I stand with you Amy.” She added the hashtags #seekthetruth and #useyourvoice.
Halestorm and Evanescence are both at work on new albums.
Green Day has shared a music video for “Meet Me On The Roof,” a song from the band’s just released 13th LP, Father Of All Motherf**kers. The clip features Gaten Matarazzo from Stranger Things. The album came out Friday (February 7th) and Green Day stopped by the Ellen show that day to perform “Oh Yeah” and participate in a cooking demonstration along with Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart.
Static-X has unveiled the new song “Hollow,” featuring vocals by late frontman Wayne Static. In addition, the band has revealed that they will now release two new albums, instead of one. The first, Project Regeneration Volume 1, will arrive on May 29th, with the second to surface later in the year. Both will feature newly completed songs by the original band built mostly around previously unreleased vocal tracks from Wayne Static, who died in 2014.
Birthdays today are the one and only Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil, and the legend Cliff Burton of Metallica. Raise one today for your fallen brother!
