Category : LATEST NEWS

SLAYER DRUMMER PAUL BOSTAPH ON LATE GUITARIST JEFF HANNEMAN, “I REALLY LOVED THE DUDE”

Gary Graff of Billboard reports:

Joining Slayer for a second time has been a different kind of reign for drummer Paul Bostaph.

When Bostaph first replaced founding drummer Dave Lombardo in 1992, the group had completed its first decade and released its first five albums. “It was very intimidating,” Bostaph tells Billboard. But there was a big difference, “The Internet did not exist. There was no social media. If people didn’t like (the switch) we weren’t hearing about it all the time. We only heard through word of mouth, and I just had to go out and deliver to shut everybody up.”

Not so this time around, however. “People are pretty brutal with their opinions sometimes, so I guess you have to have thicker skin now,” says Bostaph, who began his second tenure with Slayer in 2013, after an acrimonious schism with Lombardo, who’d returned and replaced Bostaph in 2001. “At least I had been with the band for 10 years when I left, so I had equal tenure as the drummer at that point. I have a history of recording and touring with the band, so I think that’s actually helped win people over — again.”

Bostaph did not have to win over his bandmates, particularly the late Jeff Hanneman — who fellow guitarist Kerry King has said mandated Bostaph’s return before Hanneman died in May of 2013 of alcohol-related cirrhosis — and King himself, who immediately began recording tracks with Bostaph for the upcoming Repentless.

…”When I came back I fully expected to start working with Jeff,” the drummer says. “Jeff was part of the decision-making process of bringing me back. Kerry and I got to work and I assumed I’d see (Hanneman) sooner or later, probably sooner. But he passed away a couple weeks after I rejoined the band, which was devastating. I really loved the dude. As great as a songwriter as he was, he was also a great guy. When we go on stage every night I think of Jeff because we play a lot of his songs.”

Read more at Billboard.

Slayer is currently on Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival (see dates below) and be onboard Motorhead’s Motorboat when it sets sail on September 28th out of Miami.

Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival remaining dates:

July:

3 Ak-Chin Pavillion, Phoenix, AZ
4 Isleta Amphitheatre, Albuquerque, NM
5 Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Denver, CO
7 Harrah’s Council Bluffs, Council Bluffs, IA
8 Eagles Ballroom, Milwaukee, WI
10 Klipsch Music Theatre, Indianapolis, IN
11 DTE Energy Amphitheatre, Detroit, MI
12 First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Chicago, IL
15 TD Echo Beach, Toronto, ON CANADA
17 Susquehanna Bank Arts Center, Camden, NJ
18 First Niagara Bank Amphitheater, Pittsburgh, PA
19 Xfinity Theatre, Hartford, CT
21 PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ
22 Erie Insurance Arena, Erie, PA
24 Jiffy Lube Live, Bristow, VA
25 Xfinity Center, Boston, MA
26 Nikon Theatre at Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY
28 Orange Peel, Asheville, NC*
29 Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood, Atlanta, GA
31 Alamo City Music Hall, San Antonio, TX

August:

1 Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Houston, TX
2 Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas, TX

source: billboard.com

AEROSMITH BASSIST TOM HAMILTON DISCUSSES “TOYS IN THE ATTIC,” HIS HEALTH AND VISUAL ART

Greg Prato of the Long Island Pulse spoke with Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton. Portions of the interview appear below.

Long Island Pulse: Forty years later, how do you view Toys in the Attic?

Tom Hamilton: That one was really a moment of inspiration for us. Our second album, Get Your Wings, we were under a lot of pressure from the label because they weren’t happy with how our first album [Aerosmith] did. So, we got to that project and made a better album. When it came time to do Toys in the Attic, I think we all really wanted to step up and make a statement. The band was really getting good and our producer, Jack Douglas, was someone that we had a lot of faith in—he was becoming a great producer. Everybody just really wanted to go and kick ass. If you look at the changes between Get Your Wings and Toys in the Attic, you can see how much better we were at making records and writing songs.

Pulse: How are you doing with your throat cancer?

TH: Good. My doctor thought I was pretty much done with the cancer that I had in ’06 and then it came back a few years later. I was faced with losing my way of life…if not my life. But there’s a guy here in Boston that Adele referred to [Steven Zeitels], who does novel surgeries and was able to do a procedure that got the cancer out of my throat without having to ruin the rest of it. I just saw him the other day and he said, “You beat this one. You can keep coming to see me if you want, but I don’t think you need to worry about this cancer coming back.” I said, “I’ll come back to see you every six months from here until eternity, if it’s alright with you!”

Pulse: This is also Pulse’s Art & Music issue. Do you collect art?

TH: I do have some nice artwork that my wife and I have accumulated over the years. One of the first things we bought was from some dealer on Central Park West. We were in our twenties and had no idea what we were doing. We were just referred to this guy by a friend, who said, “They have a Georgia O’Keeffe.” So we have a little watercolor by Georgia O’Keeffe. With just a few gestures, she created something that when you first look at it, it seems abstract, but then you realize exactly what it is. It’s a picture of a woman bending down to pick up a flower.

Read more at the Long Island Pulse.

source: lipulse.com

SOME INTERESTING FACTS YOU MAY NOT HAVE KNOWN ABOUT RUSH

Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone reports:

For years, Rush had an uneasy relationship with an oft-skeptical rock press. So fans got to know the band members’ diverse personalities largely from live shows, tour books, videos and drummer Neil Peart’s own prose. But as the band proved this month in their first-ever Rolling Stone cover story, they’re great profile subjects in a classic rock & roll mode, more than willing to get candid and irreverent. Here are some highlights more from their cover-story:

There’s a reason there are few, if any, unreleased songs from Rush’s studio sessions:

“That’s not how we’ve ever worked,” says Alex Lifeson. “The album is what it is. ‘We’re going to do eight songs. So let’s do those eight songs and concentrate on them and devote all of our time to them.’ Why would you write 20 songs and pick the 12 best? Does that mean that the other eight are just bullshit? You were wasting your time!”

Rush sometimes make up songs about crew members in their soundchecks:

“I provide the lyrics,” says Lifeson. “We had one that was great a few tours ago, actually quite a while ago, called Sex Boy. And it was this kind of cheesy, Euro-trash, electronic music.”

Lifeson originally planned to give a real speech instead of his infamous “blah blah blah” moment at Rush’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction:

“I was going over my written speech on the way over,” says Lifeson, “and thinking, ‘My brain doesn’t remember anything. It’s going to be awful. Might as well get up and just go blah blah blah. Oh! Wait a second!’ We were sitting at our tables and everyone else was doing their thing, and I told my wife. I didn’t tell anybody else, And Quincy Jones got up and gave his speech, which was a very long speech, but sincere. She leaned over to me during that speech and said, “And you’re going to go, ‘blah blah blah?'” And I said, ‘Stop it, you’re making me nervous!’ When we were walking up on stage, that was really when I committed to it. I thought, “Ok, I’m going to do it. This could be terrible. But I’m going to do it.” I think it was OK. I don’t know. I’m glad I did it, though. It’s the fucking Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! You should be irreverent, rather than thank your lawyer and your accountant and all that bullshit.”

While Rush were recording 1989’s Presto, Peart announced that he was going to quit touring:

“It was still possible then to foster the illusion that you could make a living without touring,” says Peart. “So I came to the guys and I said, ‘You know what? Let’s make records, no touring, I’m done with all that.’ But then the more I thought about it, the true test of a musician and especially of a band is performing live. The band we are was made by live performance. We built our own relationship, we built our relationship with fans, we built our tightness, our chops, from touring. So after much wrestling in my own mind I came to the realization that if I’m going to call myself a musician, if I want us to be a vital band, then I’m going to have to perform live.”

Lifeson was disappointed after he spent some time listening to a college radio station recently:

“It was all this contemporary music geared for that audience, and it was so disappointing listening to it. Really weak songwriting, insipid vocals and productions. It was really discouraging. I was sorry to hear that. You’re waiting for something to happen, musically. You’re waiting for some great thing. Like every generation or every decade seemed to have that big thing that carried it through. There’s nothing now, at least in rock.”

Lee originally wanted to be a guitarist:

“I had this attitude that nobody chooses to be a bass player,” he says. “The rest of the band decides that you’re gonna be the bass player – and that’s how it was for me. I was playing guitar in a basement band and our bass player’s mother wouldn’t let him play in the band anymore, so we had no bass player. So they all looked at me and said, you play bass. I said, well I don’t have a bass. They said, well go ask your mother if she’ll lend you some money. My mom loaned me 30 bucks, I worked it off in her variety store on Saturdays and I bought my Canora bass and that’s how it started for me. And then I fell in love with the idea of being a bass player ’cause nobody wanted to be a bass player.”

Read more at Rolling Stone.

source: rollingstone.com

EDDIE TRUNK, ALONG WITH JAKE E. LEE AND WARREN DEMARTINI, WERE JUDGES AT THE ROCKBAR GUITAR PLAYER CONTEST WHICH TOOK PLACE ON JUNE 27TH

On June 27th, 2015 Rockbar opened its doors to some of the finest guitar players in the San Jose, California Bay area. Contestants got to show their talents on guitar and battle Satan Guitar Soul Collecting Fury for a grand prize of cool stuff and guitar glory celebrity rockers and guitar Gods were on hand to judge the guitar competition, lending there insight and expertise in all there respected areas.

The judging panel consisted:

1. Jake E. Lee Badlands, Red Dragon Cartel and Ozzy Osbourne.
2. Eddie Trunk That Metal Show.
3. Susan Cramer Owner of Rockbar Theater.
4. Warren DeMartini Ratt.
5. Craig Locicero SpiralArms and Forbidden
6. Erin Grupp Co-Owner of Rockbar Theater

Contestant had to prove there chops in front of the judges and then see if they can compete with Satan and his Demon band. In standard “Devil could care less style” Satan did everything he could to trip up the contestants by changing genres, speeds and styles on the fly.

Warren DeMartini was quoted saying “Putting guitar players to the test on different genres and the ability to jam and create on melodies on the move is something missing from todays playing, so it was great to see guitar players having to think on their feet”

Those guitarist able to make through the maze of shredding go on to the head to head competition with Satan. Till finally the winner is crowned and Satan lays down his guitar and walks off stage in defeat!

Jake E Lee was on hand to say “ I was looking for guitar players to not just get up there and play fast but to hold that one note with feeling, conviction and vibrato”

As guitar players hit the stage to prove themselves it became more evident that the talent on the stage of the local Bay area guitar players was in high form and the judges has there work cut out for them.

Eddie Trunk noted that the “Demon Rock Off at Rockbar was a great showcase for emerging guitar talent. It was competitive while also supportive and encouraging to the various players and a hell of a lot of fun! Great event in a great venue that I was proud to be a part of”.

50 contestants entered and over the course of the night were widdled down to one!!! Bobby Connally was crowned the VICTOR!! Able to hold his own through 15 different genre changes thrown at him as well as on his own solo performances!!

Rockbartheater plans on hosting another Demon Rock Off event this January 2016. Guitar players get practicing…

ORIGINAL BLACK SABBATH MEMBER BILL WARD HAS REGRETS OVER “IRON MAN’S” BASS DRUM SOUND

Estranged Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward says he never stops listening back to his recorded work – and wishes he could improve certain aspects. The most famous example, he says, is Black Sabbath’s Iron Man, from 1970 album Paranoid.

Ward, who released his solo album Accountable Beasts in April, says he still frets over the final product whenever he hits the studio.

Ward tells LA Radio Sessions, “I like to be really sure that we’ve got everything. Did we do it right? Have we got everything? Does it sound okay? Once I feel like I’ve reached that place, I don’t have any problem with letting it go.

However, it is true to say that I still am listening to mixes. Probably the most famous one is the bass-drum sound on Iron Man. I’m still not happy with the f–king bass-drum sound. But, I let it go. I have let it go. But it’s, like, that bass-drum sound, I wanted it to be so much bigger and better.”

additional source: classicrock.teamrock.com

GEOFF TATE’S OPERATION: MINDCRIME TO RELEASE THEIR DEBUT ALBUM IN SEPTEMBER, SONG SAMPLES POSTED ONLINE

Operation: Mindcrime, Geoff Tate’s version of Queensryche, is proud to announce their upcoming debut album, The Key, on September 18th. To hear a sampling of four songs from the album, watch a trailer below:

The first full song from the album will be released in the coming weeks.

Geoff Tate’s Operation: Mindcrime features band members:

Kelly Gray on guitars (Queensrÿche)
Scott Moughton on guitars
John Moyer on bass (Disturbed, Adrenaline Mob)
Randy Gane on keyboards
Simon Wright on drums (AC/DC, Ronnie James Dio)
Brian Tichy on Drums (Whitesnake/David Coverdale, Billy Idol)
With special appearances from David Ellefson (Megadeth), Mark Daily, and Scott Mercado.