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.”
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.
Gene Simmons’ son, Nick Simmons, wrote an article about his father for Vice magazine. Excerpts from the feature appear below.
Patton Oswalt has a routine about the first time he ever realized one of his parents was full of shit. “When you’re growing up, up to a certain point, no matter what an adult says it’s just gospel,” he says, “and then there’s that first thing where you go, ‘I think that’s fuckin’ bullshit.'” For most of us, I imagine, that moment happens early.
For me, it hit well into my teens. And the realization was a lot harder to swallow.
…This epiphany came to me in high school, when I started learning about drugs. My father prides himself (read: brags about it to anyone who asks) on never smoking, drinking, or getting high in his life—save for one incident when some “special” brownies were mistaken for… well, normal brownies.
He is still, to this day, profoundly anti-drug. Perhaps due to stressful encounters with drug addicts in the rock n’ roll scene of the 70s and 80s, he resents drug addicts as people. In his experience, they made his life, and his work, more difficult than they should have been.
…he does believe in harsh drug laws, and he has no sympathy for drug addicts. From talking at length with him about it, I know now that this often-misunderstood resentment is not a reaction to real, tragic, medical victims of drug addiction. He resents more the people they were when they made that first choice: the choice to do that first hit, plunge the first needle, to take the first snort. He cannot empathize with that first decision to gamble with what is, in his immigrant’s eyes, a life in the land of opportunity. He believes the responsibility lies with the drug addict for trying it first, knowing everything we know in this age of information. To take that risk is to forfeit his sympathies.
…It was during one of these situations that I realized that I disagreed with my father…I knew people who smoked pot. Most people I knew drank. But I could not bring myself to conclude, as he did, that any negative health impacts of those choices were deserved. Life is risk, after all. I realized that I don’t believe marijuana and alcohol should be treated the same as heroin and cigarettes.
…Whether you agree or disagree with my opinion on drug use is irrelevant—the larger point is that he taught me a more valuable lesson, in disagreement, than he had ever taught me when we agreed: that no belief is sacrosanct. He taught me, accidentally, that our heroes can be wrong…Once I caught sight of this chink in the armor, the rest fell away easily. He was no longer Superman to me.
Motor Sister, the band featuring Jim Wilson (Mother Superior), Scott Ian (Anthrax), Joey Vera (Armored Saint), John Tempesta (The Cult) and Ian’s wife Pearl Aday, have released a video for Beg Borrow Steal. Watch it below.
The group came about in 2013 as part of Ian’s 50th birthday celebrations. He wanted to jam some songs by one of his favorite bands, Mother Superior.
The collaboration led to them forming Motor Sister, who earlier this year released debut album Ride, which is made up of covers of Mother Superior tracks.
On recording the album Ian said, “We love Mother Superior, this kick-ass three-piece rock band from LA. They’ve been gone for about seven years. My birthday present to myself was, I cherry picked my 12 favorite Mother Superior songs, I put a band together, and we played a concert in the jam room in my house for 20 of our friends, who are really into Mother Superior. The vibe in the room was so good. We crushed it.”
To watch the video for the song Fork in the Road, click here. To learn more about the band and their album Ride, please go here.
Motor Sister will be playing at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco tomorrow (June 26th) and Motorhead’s Motorboat 2015 tour in September.
Ruben Mosqueda of Oregon Music News spoke with our very own Eddie Trunk. Excerpts from the interview appear below.
OMN: Who has been your biggest influence in getting you into rock radio?
Eddie Trunk: First and foremost I got into radio because I felt that hard rock and metal bands were being marginalized. I didn’t feel that their music was being given the proper attention or respect that it should have. My mission as soon as I got out of high school was change that.
As far as personal influences I don’t think I’ve had any aside from let’s say Howard Stern. I heard him back when he was on radio still playing music. I remember hearing him playing a song and coming out of the song he said something like “That was the new song by—- and I think that sucks! I was asked to play that by the station programmer.” I couldn’t believe that someone could be honest like that on radio? I’ll never forget hearing that. I also love his interview style and how he’s able to pull things out of people during an interview. I really respect that.
OMN: One of your pet peeves is the inability for some of your listeners to utilize Google and having them ask the most basic of things regarding whatever bands they are calling in about. What are some of your other pet peeves?
Eddie Trunk: Well certainly that is one of them. The biggest one is when people ask me about a band and they have no idea that the band never went away and that the band is still active making music and touring. The truth is that there are a lot of bands out there that are struggle. They are struggling to sell tickets and struggling to sell records. For example when someone comes up to me and asks “Eddie whatever happened with Tom Kiefer?” That makes me crazy because Tom’s been out touring for the past two years in support of his fantastic solo album. If you care about Tom Kiefer get online and find out more about what he’s doing. That’s something that’s always amazed me.
The other thing that really amazes me is the fact that people don’t know how That Metal Show works. People seem to think that I can make any artist magically appear on the show—they have this false sense that I control everything. People really think that I’m the beginning or end on whether something can happen or not. They don’t understand that I work for a network—they own it, they control it and they dictate it. While I do have a big role in the show at the end of the day I have a boss too. If it were up to me we’d be doing the show every day but that’s just not reality. As far as guest bookings go they have no idea how that works! I get it everyone wants to see their favorite band on there but it’s just not that simple.
OMN: Van Halen issued a Roth live record. They limited the amount of appearances to Ellen, Jimmy Kimmel and they just did The Billboard Awards. Kimmel was probably the best fit but the others were questionable. Stern was really pushing for Van Halen to come on his show which I feel would have been a brilliant move. The band sounds great on the album but Roth doesn’t sound that great. Roth sounds like he does at the present time though. What do you make of this whole Van Halen thing?
Eddie Trunk: They are extremely selective they will do one to two things. If you noticed the things they chose to do are extremely safe. On none of those platforms will they be asked a tough question. None of those platforms will they be asked about why they don’t work with Michael Anthony. On none of those platforms will they be asked about anything that is remotely controversial or meaty in anyway. They were all fluff pieces there’s nothing edgy about those appearances. Artists like Van Halen will do a major platform like that to go on and sell their album and get out. They don’t want to go on to a show where people are big fans and they will ask them tough questions.
There are bands like that; KISS is another band like that too. They’ll run anything that will ask them a question. They’ll go on CNN and sell their album even though that’s not where their fan base is. There are people like that are very sensitive and want to control everything and that’s just the way that it is.
OMN: There’s an influx in America of cruises and festival do you think they are getting to the point where they are becoming diluted? Do you foresee them not being so special in the near future?
Eddie Trunk: I think that’s a very, very, very valid concern. I really do. Not just cruises, but also the festivals in general. If you look at the festivals that just wrapped up most of them had about 80% of the same bands in the line-up. To me a festival used to be about “Oh my God, that’s a destination I have to get there. I have to be at that and I have to travel there.” Now festivals are practically in your backyard. At the present they are flourishing and that’s great. If people don’t watch out how they’re done and how many they do; they can get to the point of burn out and the economy won’t sustain it and it’ll fall by the wayside. The same with cruises; there’s some that are doing very well and there are others that will take a swing and fail.
“One band, two crowds, two countries—a tale of two cities indeed. From Germany’s Wacken Open Air Festival, one of the biggest metal festivals in the world and a city unto itself, to Japan and the stately Nippon Budokan, the most revered venue in Tokyo. Each has its own distinct personality.
Wacken is a success story beyond par, starting out humbly by two friends in a field in rural Germany and becoming one of the best organized and attended metal festivals… ever. We were most impressed by the facilities, security, backstage, camping… in fact the whole production was superb.
As was the crowd, an awesome sight from the stage, generating a palpable sense of occasion. In the sunset, we were treated to a great welcome from the sea of tattoos and black leather facing us.
Festival crowds are unique because most people are there for the occasion itself rather than for any particular band. For us that is always a welcome challenge and a chance to connect with many who may never have seen us before. But the real stars are all in the audience. Thank you, Wacken.
By way of contrast, the Budokan is a temple of peace (except for the infamous occasion when all the seating was destroyed). Made in Japan was partially recorded there and we’ve played there many times since. For such a large space, the acoustics are excellent; this special building never ceases to impress.
On this particular evening, we came in at the back door, climbed the cool, marble staircase and entered the familiar dressing room. Feeling like we’re the only people in the building, it’s hard to believe there’s even an audience out there.
But there is, young and old, sitting patiently or chatting quietly—the embodiment of civility. It’s almost like the respectful hush one might find in a cathedral. But they’re here to rock. And rock they do. They may be quiet while they’re waiting, but they are far from shy during the show. They gave us an unforgettable evening. Thank you, Tokyo.”
From the Setting Sun… (In Wacken) has been filmed by 9 HD cameras at Wacken Open Air Festival 2013. For the first time in Deep Purple’s history, the band will release a 3D version of their performance on Blu-ray, filmed at Wacken.
…To the Rising Sun (In Tokyo) has been filmed by 12 HD cameras at Nippon Budokan, Tokyo in April 2014.
The audio of both shows has been mixed in Hamburg, Germany by Eike Freese and Alex Dietz (Heaven Shall Burn) with the supervision of Roger Glover.
From the Setting Sun… (In Wacken) and …To The Rising Sun (In Tokyo) will be made available on 2CD+DVD, DVD, Blu-ray (Tokyo performance), and Blu-ray 3D (Wacken performance) on September 18th on earMUSIC.
, Scott Ian (Anthrax), Joey Vera (Armored Saint), John Tempesta (The Cult) and Ian's wife Pearl Aday, have released a video for Beg Borrow ... )
