Good morning Radicals! Well, the day of the introverts has arrived.. most places are shut down as “Social Distancing” becomes the new norm during this pandemic. Fortunately, hardDrive is still on the radio to keep you company. As for the rest of the music world, most live shows are postponed until things get better.
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Rage Against The Machine has postponed the first leg of its previously announced reunion tour in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The band, which has not played live since 2011, said in a statement, “Due to the current outbreak and ban on public gatherings, we are postponing the first part of our tour (March 26th – May 20th) with Run The Jewels. The safety and health of those who come to our shows is of the utmost importance to us.”
The reunited quartet was supposed to play its first shows back together later this month at several cities along or near the Mexican border. Instead, they will now launch the trek on May 23rd at the Boston Calling festival.
All previously purchased tickets will be honored at the rescheduled dates, which will be announced soon.
Record Store Day 2020, originally scheduled for Saturday, April 18th, has been postponed to June 20th in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Record Store Day organizers announced the postponement on Friday (March 13th), writing, “We’ve decided that the best of all possible moves is to change the date of Record Store Day this year to Saturday, June 20. We think this gives stores around the world the best chance to have a profitable, successful Record Store Day, while taking into consideration the recommendations of doctors, scientists, the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control, and the need to be good citizens of both local and worldwide communities.”
The statement added, “We’re working with all of our partners and our stores to make this change as smooth as possible for everyone who participates in Record Store Day: customers, record stores, artists, labels and more.”
Record Store Day joins a growing list of music-related events, including festivals and tours, that have been postponed or canceled as the virus continues its spread around the world.
Other tours and festivals that announced their postponement either in North America or abroad over the past few days include Coachella, Rage Against The Machine, My Chemical Romance, Evanescence, Alice In Chains frontman William DuVall, Killswitch Engage, Alice Cooper, Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, I Prevail, Deftones and Lollapalooza Argentina and Chile, the latter two featuring Guns N’ Roses.
While many concert tours and festivals are being canceled or postponed as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Tool is apparently taking a more measured approach.
Although promoter Live Nation has announced that it is “pausing” all major tours, Tool is taking a “day by day” approach to staying on the road.
The band wrote on Facebook, “We are continuing to monitor the evolving situation with Coronavirus and are in continual conversations with local promoters and venues. The health of our fans, bandmates, crew members and all of those that work in and around the venues is what we are focused on.”
The last two dates of Tool’s current North American leg — on Saturday (March 14th) in Boise, Idaho and Monday (March 16th) in Salt Lake City — were postponed at the request of city officials.
But the next leg, which begins on April 16th in Miami, is still on for now, with the band writing, “We are taking a day-to-day approach so please continue to monitor our website (Toolband.com) and social media channels for updates.”
Tool is also scheduled to headline the final night of Sonic Temple in Columbus, Ohio in place of Metallica on May 17th. That festival remains in place for now.
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne will guest star on ABC-TV’s The Conners. The show’s Facebook account posted a photo of the Osbournes posing at the show’s diner with a pair of menus. The caption on the photo reads, “Look who’s coming to Lanford this Tuesday!”
The episode, titled “Beards, Thrupples and Robots,” will air this Tuesday (March 17th) at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT, but there was no hint as to how Ozzy and Sharon will play into the episode. Star Sara Gilbert was a longtime co-panelist with Sharon on CBS-TV’s The Talk, which may have led to the Osbournes’ appearance.
The Osbournes are no strangers to TV, of course: they did four seasons of the reality show The Osbournes in the early 2000s, while more recently Ozzy has appeared on the travel series Ozzy And Jack’s World Detour with his son Jack.
The Prince of Darkness told us a while back that he’s done TV more for his family than himself: “You’re not gonna see me doing a f***in’ game show, I promise you. I don’t like doing TV, but you know, it’s a family concern so I suppose I have to pull up for the family once in a while.”
Ozzy recently released his first solo album in a decade, titled Ordinary Man, although his ongoing health issues are still keeping him off the road for now.
Volbeat‘s “Die To Live” has topped Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Songs airplay chart, making it the Danish/American band’s eighth Number One on the survey. That sets a new record for Volbeat, who were tied at seven with Irish act U2 for the most chart-toppers by an act based outside of North America since the chart debuted in 1981.
With its total of eight Mainstream Rock Number Ones, Volbeat now share that spot on the list with Five Finger Death Punch, Foo Fighters, Linkin Park and Nickelback. Shinedown and Three Days Grace lead the total tally with 15 chart-toppers each.
“Die To Live” is taken from Volbeat’s seventh album, Rewind, Replay, Rebound, which was released last August. Volbeat’s first Number One was 2010’s “Heaven Nor Hell,” which was followed by “Still Counting,” “The Hangman’s Body Count,” “Lola Montez,” “The Devil’s Bleeding Crown,” “Black Rose” and last year’s “Last Day Under The Sun.”
Frontman Michael Poulsen told us how the band’s singles get chosen for the U.S. market: “The singles that get plucked here in the U.S. is not always the same singles that get plucked in Europe. We have an American team, you know, American management who are really good at figuring out what they think is the right songs here in America, and we will always be very surprised, like ‘What?’ So we trust them. So they pick out the songs, they think it’s the right songs for the American media and, you know, so far they’ve been right.”
Volbeat is supposed to begin a North American tour on April 4th in Tempe, Arizona, but the current pandemic situation is likely to impact the trek. The band wrote, “While we do not yet have a definitive answer we wanted to let you know that we are diligently working around the clock with the promoters and venues to make sure that any impacted show will be rescheduled.”
Soundgarden and the estate of late rapper Tupac Shakur have pulled out of a class action suit against Universal Music Group over alleged damages sustained in a 2008 vault fire.
The notice of voluntary dismissal was filed Friday (March 13th) and states that the two parties “hereby dismiss without prejudice their individual claims, and withdraw as a putative class representative.” But the notice also states, “These two plaintiffs reserve their rights to proceed in this matter as absent class members.”
Lawyers on both sides had no comment on the matter. Just two of the original five plaintiffs, Steve Earle and the estate of Tom Petty, are left on the lawsuit. A fifth, Hole, left last August after being assured that none of the band’s master recordings were destroyed.
Soundgarden was previously informed in 2015 that it had lost some stereo master recordings related to its 1991 album Badmotorfinger in the fire.
The 2008 fire at a vault on the Universal Studios lot reportedly destroyed thousands of recordings, including original master tapes from scores of classic artists.
Finally, we want to wish a Happy Birthday to Wolfgang Van Halen! The son of Eddie Van Halen, he currently plays in his fathers band, as well as formerly playing in Mark Tremonti’s band. He’s quite the accomplised player! Happy birthday Wolfie!
