Had some great calls last night on my SiriusXM show. One of the reasons I love doing this show so much is it’s live nationwide and you never know what direction the conversation will take. We got on the topic of the pros and cons of casino shows from the fan and artist standpoint. Was interesting. Also had call ins from Ian Hill and Mike Portnoy. Ian said it is very possible Priest will make another album and continue as long as everyone is feeling good. Judging from what I saw in Vegas Saturday they have no reason to stop. Enter to win Priest tickets for NJ on this site in ET’s Box Office.
Portnoy discussed the current Winery Dogs tour and said it will continue through all of next year pretty much around the world. He reiterated that this band is the priority for all 3 guys and everything else just gets slotted in when there is time. Good news to hear and cool to see new fans discover this band each day. I’ll be with them in Ardmore OK this Friday and next Tuesday and Wednesday in Milwaukee. Hope to see you if coming to those shows. I will be selling books and merch prior to both shows in Milwaukee in the lobby at those shows. Come say hi, no purchase needed for that!
Headed to Dallas tomorrow. I’ll be in McKinney TX this Thursday at The Guitar Sanctuary. I was there a couple years ago. Really cool guitar store with a performance space in the back. Live music from Franzenstine and The Red Rockers (Hagar tribute). In between I’ll be doing Q&A, speaking and of course Stump The Trunk! Tickets and VIP Meet & Greet tickets on sale now. Link on the home page. Books and shirts also for sale. Music starts at 7, I start around 8. Friday I am in Ardmore OK hosting Winery Dogs. After party at 2 Frogs with Gilby Clarke. Saturday I am in Pompton Plains NJ with Don Jamieson. Jim was originally on this show but can’t make it now. Don will do stand up and I will do some Q&A and Stump. Hope you guys will join us in our home state. Info on all appearances and links on the home page.
Gigwise caught up with Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi at the Q Awards.
When asked what it was like seeing original drummer Bill Ward at the Ivor Novello awards? Iommi responded, “It was good, it was really nice to see Bill. We do stay in contact..It was a nice warm feeling.”
When asked if thought Ward would be joining the band on their The End tour? Iommi replied, “No, to be honest – I don’t know if that’s going to happen. But who knows? You never know.”
Just home from a great few days in Vegas. I saw Judas Priest Saturday night in Vegas. I’m out of town when they play NJ and didn’t want to miss one more show. The were GREAT! Truly truly sounded amazing! Halford was in top form, moving well now that has back issues have been resolved and looking great. Vocally he was amazing! Nailing Beyond The Realms Of Death, Victim Of Changes, and new additions to the set like Screaming For Vengeance, The Rage and Desert Plains! To me after Sabbath, Priest are the most important band in metal history. To see them still this good is very inspiring. Do not miss them if you have a chance. Also caught some of Mastodon live for the first time who played an hour set and were a great addition to the bill for some newer blood. Thanks to all the great fans I met in Vegas and it was great seeing all the Priest guys. Ian Hill is live on my SiriusXM show tonight 6:15PM ET on channel 39.
I also saw a new Rush tribute called “Hurry” that featured Brian Tichy, Brent Woods, James Lomenzo and Sebastian Bach at Vamp’d in Vegas Saturday night. Really fun band and a must see if you love Rush. Tichy is one of my favorite players and goes off on drums. J Lo and Woods nailed it, and Bach sang the hell out of his part of the set. This was their first official show and it will get better as they do more, but the packed house loved it. Thanks to Korie and both Danny’s at Vamp’d for the hospitality as always. Also was at their club Thursday night where I saw the new lineup of Sin City Sinners who were also really good and spent some time seeing my good friend Zach Throne and his band Metal Shop at Venetian. Great to see so much rock and metal around Vegas! Also huge thanks to Mandalay Bay where I had another great stay!
Live on the radio 6-10P ET tonight for TRUNK Nation on SiriusXM 39 to cover all of this and more. And don’t forget I’m in McKinney TX this Thursday and Ardmore OK this Friday and NJ this Saturday! Info on the home page. Go Mets, Go Giants!
The new fully authorized Scorpions documentary Forever and a Day is wrapping up its theatrical run and will come to DVD, Blu-ray, and digital platforms on November 27th (in German with English subtitles). The movie takes a look at the German hard-rock legends’ long career, while focusing on the band’s Final Sting trek, which initially was intended to be a farewell tour.
As the film shows, during the 2011-2012 tour, the band members were so energized by the response from fans that they decided to scrap their retirement plans. Founding Scorpions guitarist Rudolf Schenker says that if you watch Forever and a Day, you can see the veteran rockers come to the realization that they weren’t ready to call it quits.
Schenker explains, “Seeing all these old fans, the new fans coming, everything was sold out, and getting told by the fans what the music means for them, then we more and more” understood that the time wasn’t right for the band to retire.
Among the interesting career highlights covered in the movie is The Scorpions’ historic 1991 visit to the Kremlin in Moscow to meet Mikhail Gorbachev. The band presented the then-Soviet president with a gold record for its hit ballad “Wind of Change,” which celebrated the end of the Cold War.
Describing Wind of Change as “the soundtrack of the most peaceful revolution on Earth,” Schenker says The Scorpions’ visit with Gorbachev was “something very special” since they were the first, and possibly the only, Western band ever invited to the Kremlin. He adds that The Scorpions are still friendly with Gorbachev, who makes an appearance in Forever and a Day commenting about the group and the impact of Wind of Change.
The Scorpions recently wrapped up the 2015 U.S. leg of its 50th anniversary tour, which also is in support of their latest studio album, Return to Forever. With regard to the band’s future, longtime Scorpions guitarist Matthias Jabs says, “It doesn’t look like the end is near. You know, we keep ourselves open now. We tried the farewell tour, and we [called] it afterwards the ‘went well’ tour.”
The Scorpions will finish the year with a series of European dates in November and December, with more to come in February and March of 2016, including a run of shows in their homeland. Jabs says the band also plans to play more U.S. shows in May, and may visit South America and China as well. Check The-Scorpions.com for the group’s confirmed itinerary.
On November 20th, three decades after its October 30th, 1985 debut, Universal will release a special 30th anniversary edition of Anthrax’s classic Spreading The Disease, the band’s second studio album and the one that served as the then-budding thrash band’s breakthrough, and still considered one of the best thrash-metal records ever recorded.
“We wanted to do something special for our fans to celebrate the anniversary of Spreading the Disease,” said Anthrax’s Charlie Benante. “We took the idea to Universal a couple of years ago and have been very hands-on with them, creating this special, deluxe edition that we think our fans will really like.”
From the beginning, Benante has kept one of everything the band did – artwork, t-shirts, posters, and when the band was recording, he had the engineer run off a few tapes of the project’s basic tracks, alternate takes and alternate mixes, just to stockpile until the time came that they would be needed. Consequently, in addition to the original album’s nine tracks, the two-disc anniversary edition features previously unreleased bonus material including Joey Belladonna’s 1984 demo recording of the song Medusa, nine “rhythm tracks” from Anthrax recordings also done in 1984 – no vocals, no overdubs or “sweetening,” just drums, some guitar, a bit of bass, showing the songs in their naked, most basic form – and eight live songs from Anthrax’s 1987, first-ever concert in Japan, held at Tokyo’s Sun Plaza. “‘STD’ was our first real record on a major label,” said Benante. “We were on a roll with that album, and we wanted to perform those songs as close to the album versions as possible. I think the performances show the excitement of a young band that was on its way, so we wanted to have them on this reissue.”
Produced by Anthrax with Carl Canedy, the 44-minute Spreading the Disease marked the first Anthrax album to feature singer Belladonna and bassist Frank Bello (joining drummer Benante and guitarists Dan Spitz & Scott Ian), and set into motion the core elements that would become the essence of Anthrax. In addition, the album also introduced the Anthrax writing partnership of Benante and Ian (that eventually evolved into Benante, Ian and Bello).
For Bello, Spreading the Disease was his full-on album recording baptism. Only 18 at the time, he hadn’t yet fully realized his own style of playing, but over the course of the sessions, he developed it. “You can hear all of my influences on every song, Steve Harris, Geddy Lee, Geezer Butler, all of them.” Bello remembers that STD didn’t quite come of age until later on, but it was definitely “simmering.” “What we were doing was so fresh, so different – we had heavy songs with these great, melodic vocals – and eventually, people caught on and loved what we were doing. I think every song on ‘STD’ still stands up today.”
Spreading the Disease represented a turning point in rock. It came during a time when the landscape was transitioning from the “hair band scene” to a new composite of metal, punk and hardcore – thrash metal. The album was compelling and utterly fresh to the 1985 music fan with its speedy rhythms, savage riffs, blistering solos, punishing drum work and a killer melodic performance by Belladonna. Unlike the thrash bands sprouting up on the west coast that focused on speed, Anthrax’s focus was on catchiness, hooks, and a hot and sweaty, New York mosh sensibility. And it wasn’t just the music that was morphing, it was a whole new culture that was being birthed. And Anthrax, along with Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth – was right at its nucleus.
Spreading the Disease contains several Anthrax standouts: A.I.R., with its great riffs and abundance of melody, Madhouse, a testament to the band’s top-notch song-writing skills that showcased their grasp of melody, and Armed and Dangerous, a soulful ballad with its singalong chorus and spine-tingling performance by Belladonna. Aftershock is probably the album’s punkiest song with its blistering guitar solo, and the closer, Gung-Ho, with its out-and-out speed-kills blitzkrieg, is a superb piece of thrash metal.
“We didn’t know what we were doing, but we totally knew what we were doing,” said Ian. “I know that doesn’t make sense, but it’s where we were at, a bunch of 21 year-old kids making our major label debut on a shoestring budget with nothing but a dream and a bunch of songs that we thought killed. We were right and our dream came true. Thank you to all the fans that put this record and Anthrax on the map way back when and still support us today. Cheers my friends!”
Spreading the Disease 30th Anniversary Edition Track Listing:
Disc One:
A.I.R.
Lone Justice
Madhouse
S.S.D./Stand or Fall
The Enemy
Aftershock
Armed and Dangerous
Medusa
Gung-Ho
Medusa (Joey Belladonna demo)
Disc Two:
A.I.R. *
Metal Thrashing Mad *
The Enemy *
Madhouse *
Howling Furries *
Armed And Dangerous *
Gung-Ho *
Soldiers of Metal *
Lone Justice **
Gung-Ho **
Metal Thrashing Mad **
Raise Hell **
Stand Or Fall **
Aftershock **
Armed And Dangerous **
Madhouse **
The Enemy **
* Live at Sun Plaza (Tokyo) 1987
** Rhythm track tape, 1984
Def Leppard have released another track from their self titled album, due out October 30th through earMUSIC. Listen to Dangerous below.
Def Leppard also released a video for the song Let’s Go, watch it here.
The track listing for Def Leppard is as follows:
1. Let’s Go
2. Dangerous
3. Man Enough
4. We Belong
5. Invincible
6. Sea Of Love
7. Energized
8. All Time High
9. Battle Of My Own
10. Broke ‘N’ Brokenhearted
11. Forever Young
12. Last Dance
13. Wings Of An Angel
14. Blind Faith
