Farmikos, the new L.A. band featuring former Ozzy Osbourne and David Lee Roth guitarist Joe Holmes and vocalist Robbie Locke (ex-Laidlaw), have announced a tentative February 2014 release for their eponymous digital debut EP. New in-studio video teasers for the songs Scapegoat and Spoon and Sun have been posted on the band’s Youtube Channel.
Recorded at the Mouse House in Pasadena, the EP also features guest contributions from Holmes’ former Ozzy Osbourne bandmate, bassist Robert Trujillo, and drummer Brooks Wackerman. States Holmes, “We’ve got these five songs to kick things off and will be finishing another five when Robbie comes back to L.A. in January to lay down vocals for another EP we’re planning for summer 2014.”
The EP’s track listing reads as follows:
1. Scapegoat
2. Kings of Dust
3. Sound of My Gun
4. Exit Stencils
5. Spoon and Sun
In addition to Scapegoat and Spoon and Sun, footage of Holmes tracking guitar for the song “Exit Stencils” can be viewed below.
Ruben Mosqueda of Metal Titans spoke with Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson about is autobiography, Criticisms for Super Collider and the songs that Megadeth have excluded from their live sets. Excerpts from the interview appear below.
MetalTitans: What’s the length of time that you worked on [your autobiography] My Life with Deth?
David Ellefson: When we started the book it was summer of 2010. That’s when Joel McIver approached me about doing it. We got started on pretty quickly on it while I was in Europe on tour. I didn’t know what the book was going to look like to be honest because all of my harrowing darks dark days are all behind me. That was like 25 years ago! (laughs) Traditionally these type of celebrity books are a crash and burn tell all pull the covers back book. It’s not my style to do that. That’s not the legacy that I want for my life for something like that to be out there forever. The other thing is that ‘those’ thing were so many years ago and I’ve worked through them. I have a much different life today.
The whole process took about three years close to three and a half actually from the time we started our first interview to the day the book hit shelves. I had written a book years ago in 1997 and that was about a three year process as well. So I was already familiar with the publishing time for printed material. Joel because he’s written so many books in the past that he knew how to direct me; he knew what the readers want to know. He is very knowledgeable in the Megadeth history so he knew what stuff to get into and what was not as important. Joel was a great coach and guide throughout this process.
MetalTitans: Super Collider [has] received some very ‘critical’ reviews by fans and press a like. I think the consensus has been that this ranks at the bottom of the Megadeth catalog alongside Risk. What’s your take on that?
David Ellefson: We’re aware of the comments for sure because they’re on our own website or our Megadeth Facebook page! (laughs) My personal thought is that the next record will be much different. We go through these phases. Dave made three records when I wasn’t in the band and a couple of them quite good I might add. They were good records because they were really good ‘metal’ records. That’s what fans want to hear; because Megadeth has this 30 year career we have more than just one style in our cache. Fans have discovered us at various times throughout our journey; there are fans became fans when they heard Risk, that’s when they go into rock ‘n’ roll and they bought their record at to them that is their debut Megadeth record. I have learned not to criticize our own work simply because there are nay sayers out there and the fact that every record has significance to different people.
Having said that the first thing that people heard from the record was track Super Collider which is a very mainstream, commercial song. I think had they heard Kingmaker first for instance the reaction would have been much different. The first impression is more often than not the most lasting impression. When you hear a song that sounds like Megadeth right out the gate you say ‘awesome man!’ When you hear a song that you have to listen to several times, analyze it and get your mind around it the first impression may not make you want to dig right into out of the gate. I get that. I’m a fan. I used to buy KISS records as a kid and Cheap Trick records. I remember some records I got it right out the gate and there were records where I’d say ‘what the heck is this?’ It wasn’t what I was expecting. Some records take one listen, other take three or four listens other more. I think for me ‘Super Collider’ is one of those records.
MetalTitans: Is there a particular song or songs that are off limits in the Megadeth catalog? Dave Mustaine has gone on record to say that he would not be performing The Conjuring anymore. In addition Megadeth have dropped Anarchy in the U.K. from the set after the formation.
David Ellefson: (long pause) Yeah, there’s some song that because of Dave’s faith convictions he just doesn’t want to sing them. The very first line in Anarchy in the U.K. is ‘I am an anti-christ’ He’s said ‘I’m not an anti-christ why would I sing that lyric?’ I stand by him on that—fair enough; The Conjuring which he did write there’s a line in a prayer that says ‘lead me not into temptation.’ If you don’t know the prayer look it up. It doesn’t say ‘Lead me out of temptation’ rather ‘lead me into it.’ People change there’s a time in Dave’s life when he felt that—he doesn’t anymore. The fact that he stood up and had the conviction about it and laid it on the line was pretty admirable. I have news for you we’d play The Conjuring and it would go over fans’ heads. They were like ‘what song is that?’ They didn’t say a thing until we said we weren’t playing it anymore and then the eight people on some website started crying foul! (laughs) We heard stuff like ‘dude they aren’t metal anymore!’ They didn’t care when we played it and now they want to be all controversial.
Jason Miller of The Vinyl District spoke with guitarist Richie Kozten (Winery Dogs, Solo Artist, Poison, Mr. Big) about. Selections from the interview appear below.
TVD: Being that you are originally from Pennsylvania, what were you listening to when you were growing up—were you into Cinderella?
Kotzen: (Laughing) Yes, only Cinderella specifically over and over—no, wait—and Britny Fox. Actually I love Tom Keifer; I think he’s awesome. But when I was living back there, way before Cinderella, I was really just a fan of the records I heard in my house. My mom was into all the classic rock stuff like, you know, Stones, Beatles, The Who, Janis Joplin….She saw all those acts when they came out to play. My dad was kind of an R&B guy; he listened to Percy Sledge and Stevie Wonder records.
So, I was kind of getting hit from both sides, and then once I started writing songs and playing out, I was a rock guy with a love for Soul and R&B. I left there pretty quick, though. I played around in my cover band from the time I was 15 to 17 and then I got signed to a label that was based in San Francisco called Shrapnel Records. I went to San Francisco and made my first record with them, and that was pretty much the beginning of my career.
TVD: You were recently on That Metal Show, and Eddie Trunk spoke of you as one of the most underrated guitarists. What was the experience like?
Kotzen: Well, first of all, I love Eddie Trunk. He’s been a real good friend to me over the years and very supportive of whatever I’m doing musically. So playing on the show was cool although there was—you’re opening a door for me to talk about something that I been dying to talk about. It’s something that only a guitar player can understand—how horrifying a situation like this can be. I had just come off the road. I was somewhere in Latin America, and I get there, we do a sound check, and I was having a real hell of a time trying to get a sound out of the amp they provided for me.
No matter what I tried to play, it wouldn’t work, and any time I tried to play something remotely fast, the notes wouldn’t track. Everything sounded screwed up, and I didn’t know what was going on, so it forced me to play real simple stuff, a couple of chords or whatever. The thing that really messed with my head was that Eddie told me before the show, “make sure you shred, I want you to play some shredding stuff on the show,” and I said cool. So, I go and play, and I can’t play anything fast because the notes won’t track. I didn’t know what happened until after the first break I looked at my guitar, and I see that the pickup had fallen inside the body cavity instead of a quarter of an inch or so away from the strings; it was buried.
So, I couldn’t use the bridge pickup at all. It was a total disaster. We did the whole episode that way because I didn’t want to stop and say hey, man, my guitar is screwed. So, I thought whatever, I’ll deal with it, I’ll play some chords and do some wacky stuff. Then on the second episode we shot, which ended up airing first funny enough, I sat there….It took me about 20 minutes to deal with it, and I was able to fix the guitar. So, you’ll notice that I sound like a completely different guitar player between the two episodes. I was so frustrated that happened. It bothered me so much, but I was thinking, you know what, I’m never going to watch it, I’m not going to watch myself, so forget about it.
TVD: Over the years with 20-plus records under your belt, where is the most usual place you’ve heard your music?
Kotzen: The most unusual place I’ve heard my music? I don’t know about that. I can tell you one of the most unusual things that I’ve seen. There is a Ritchie Kotzen cover band on YouTube that someone showed me. It’s a couple of Japanese guys, and they were trying to dress up like me and play my songs; that was kind of unusual.
Want to attend a taping of That Metal show‘s 13th season filming in New York City? Well here’s how you can.
To get tickets email: ThatMetalShow@gothamcasting.com. Your email MUST include the following:
1. Your legal name.
2. Your age, please note YOU MUST BE 18 YEARS OR OLDER TO ATTEND A TAPING OF THAT METAL SHOW!
3. A recent picture of yourself.
4. A working phone number where you can be reached.
5. A valid mailing address.
6. The name and age of any guests you’d like to bring and by the way, THEY MUST BE 18 YEARS OR OLDER TO ATTEND A TAPING OF THAT METAL SHOW TOO!
In the “Subject” field of your email please include the number of tickets you’re requesting and the date of the show you wish to attend. Example: “2 tickets 1/14”
The show will be shooting in front of a live audience every Tuesday night for that Saturday’s show.
Greg Prato of Songfacts spoke with former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted. Excerpts from the interview appear below.
Songfacts: Who would you say are some of your all-time favorite songwriters?
Jason: Well, metal-wise, heroes like Black Sabbath – Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, that kind of thing. And Rush as songwriters. Even like Derek St. Holmes from the Ted Nugent Band, great songwriter and great lyricist, melodies and lyrics. That’s my original teacher pile, when I was 12, 14, 16 years old, my original teachers.
And as I’ve gone through time I have a lot of respect for the guys of Muse, who have fantastic songwriting abilities. Kings of Leon, great songwriting abilities. Lady Gaga, great songwriting ability as far as melody and lyrics go. I’m not so much about her band’s boom-boom computerized stuff, but as far as lyrical melody, fantastic.
There’s quite a few. I like Mastodon – I like the honesty of their songwriting, the rawness, the ugliness, but still with a little bit of sense of humor in the vibe within the lyric and within the songwriting. I like that a lot: when they don’t take it too serious. That’s very important.
The Slayer guys, I love what they’ve put together. Of course, Metallica has done some really cool shit. Voivod’s done some amazing arrangements. Gov’t Mule has done some amazing arrangements – Warren Haynes, very good songwriter. Zakk Wylde, great songwriter. There are a lot of people out there that I have respect for in that way.
Songfacts: I remember reading an old interview with you and you said that you were a big fan of also the old stuff from Motown, as well.
Jason: Oh my God, yes. Anything with James Jamerson on bass, there’s no way you could do any wrong with that, because those are the records that I wore the grooves out of first as a young man, like a lot of people of my generation. But definitely the Motown thing had a lot to do with inspiring me with the bass-dominated arrangements.
Songfacts: I’m surprised more metal musicians don’t go back and study those old albums by the Motown artists.
Jason: I was fortunate enough to be brought up in Michigan, so there was a lot of that music being played all the time on the radio and in my household by my older brothers. Now that I go back and analyze it, I think it played such a giant part in me gravitating towards the bass in general, and maybe the aptitude of songwriting and what sounds good, like what the flow is.
It’s all about the flow. It’s all about the feel and the toe tappin’ without you having to think about it, and that’s what that music was king of. It was infectious. You had to tap your toe to that music.
Songfacts: One of my favorite songs from when you were a member of Metallica was Blackened, which is a song that you co-wrote. What do you remember about your contribution to that song, as far as writing it?
Jason: That was a very special time in my life. This was when James [Hetfield] and I were first becoming friends. He was someone I looked up to greatly before I joined the band – we all did. Anybody in any other bands, even the guys in the bands around us, even Exodus and Violence, we all looked up to James. He was just a special gifted person, still is.
So we were getting to be friends and we’d stay over at each other’s house or apartments, and we’d take care of each other’s animals when we went on vacations and these kind of things, got to be pals.
We were in my one-bedroom apartment. I had my little four-track Tascam set up in the corner of the bedroom, and we were jamming on our guitars, just playing through some riffs. And I played that Blackened riff, and he goes, “Dude, what is that?” Because it was really pretty crazy. The original thing is a very fast alternating thing. Man, it’s pretty tricky, actually. I mean, the one that ended up on the record is pretty tricky, too, but the original one is really tricky.
He picked up on that and we recorded that bit. And he goes, “Let’s build it to this, and build it to this.” It was a moment. I was actually composing a song with James from Metallica and he was approving my riffs and saying, “This is going to be a Metallica song.” That was a big, big moment for me. We had already been on tour together, and so I had a giant Damage Inc. tour poster on my bedroom wall right above my little station where I had my speakers and my little four-track and the two or three guitars in my collection.
And there we were, I could paint that picture for you very plainly. It was a very, very big moment for me, because I was getting approved from The Man to have my first chance on having one of my compositions on a Metallica record. So that was a very special time.
Songfacts: This year is the 25th anniversary of the release of the Justice album. I’m sure a lot of fans were hoping, that Metallica was going to put out the album again as a reissue and bring up the bass. Would you like to see that happen as a possible reissue?
Jason: It’s their band and if they decide to do that, that’s all good with me. You know, over time there’s been so much hubbub over this thing and people make so much out of it, but whatever it is that they make out of the blend of the whole thing, to me the album is perfect. Kill ‘Em All isn’t perfect, but it’s perfect. And Van Halen I isn’t perfect, but it’s perfect. …And Justice For All isn’t perfect, but it’s perfect. Because it captured that time for those people.
And going back and changing things and doing “the Sharon Osbourne thing” [replacing previous musicians’ recordings with newer ones, as evidenced a few years ago with reissues of Ozzy’s Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman], going back and re-recording albums that were already classics, I’m just not sure about all that stuff.
So if they decide to do a remaster and they bring up the bass frequencies or the low end frequencies and all that, right on, man. Send me a copy and I’ll blast it just like anybody else, just like a fan of Metallica. But for what it is, it does just fine. It still sells a lot of copies every day and I’m pretty happy with the outcome of the whole thing, actually.
Considering what I knew about playing bass guitar at that time, I’m not surprised it’s as low as it is, really.
Songfacts: I recently interviewed Michael Gilbert from the band Flotsam and Jetsam, and he mentioned that he’d like to work with you again. Would you ever entertain the thought of maybe doing some shows or a new album with Flotsam and Jetsam at some point?
Jason: Well, I wrote a few songs for their new record, Ugly Noise. I gave them the title for the album and lyrics for the main song and all that kind of stuff. That’s all my stuff, so I contributed to the last one. They have actually asked me this week to play on the No Place for Disgrace re-recording, and now we’re in the same territory of the last question again. I don’t believe, really, in that kind of thing, going back and re-recording stuff. It just doesn’t seem right. It seems like stepping backwards to me, and I want to move forward.
I was up until 5 o’clock this morning working on a new song that Mike Mushok and I have together, and I really think we have something with this one. So I have enough of my own stuff going on and I’m moving forward with new material.
So bless them for going back and doing No Place, and that’s all good. But I won’t be taking a part in any of that. I’ll always be a supporter of Flotsam and Jetsam, but I’m not going to be in their band or anything like that.
Farmikos, the new L.A. band featuring former Ozzy Osbourne and David Lee Roth guitarist Joe Holmes and vocalist Robbie Locke (ex-Laidlaw), have announced a tentative February 2014 release for their eponymous digital debut EP. New in-studio video teasers for the songs Scapegoat and Spoon and Sun have been posted on the band’s Youtube Channel.
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