MANRAZE – FEATURING PHIL COLLEN (DEF LEPPARD) PAUL COOK (THE SEX PISTOLS) & SIMON LAFFY (GIRL) TO RELEASE “I SURRENDER” ON NOVEMBER 12TH

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Manraze, the London-based rock band formed by iconic Def Leppard lead guitarist Phil Collen, along with punk rock forerunner Paul Cook (Sex Pistols) on drums and Simon Laffy, rockin’ bass player of Collen’s former glam-band, Girl, will release their new EP, I Surrender, on November 12th.

I Surrender will be comprised of three songs, including the title track, which features background vocals by Debbi Blackwell-Cook, who also appears on All I Wanna Do, a newly-recorded version of the song which first appeared on the trio’s 2011 sophomore album punkfunkrootsrock.  The final track is Connected-Live from Shepherd’s Bush, a live studio performance from a studio podcast session, not previously released.

The first single, I Surrender, was nearly forgotten about, explains Collen, “The song is eight years old. It practically never got finished. I was on tour last year and started singing the chorus. Early this year, I re-did the guitars to Paul’s original demo drums. I did a vocal and Simon played new bass-lines.  Ger McDonnell then did a brilliant edit and mix on what we gave him. Debbi Blackwell-Cook supplied the wailing outro-vocals that you hear at the end of the song. We feel this is our best song yet.”

In the spring of 2011, the Manraze single I, Superbiker was the theme song for the feature documentary of the same name. Another Manraze song featuring Debbi Blackwell-Cook titled Take On The World was also released in conjunction with the film. Directed by Mark Sloper, and released solely in the UK, the documentary is an in-depth expose’ into the merciless world of competitive speed bike racing and a look at the men who have dedicated their entire existence to this incredibly dangerous, adrenaline-fueled sport.

Since the last album release, all three band members have kept busy.   Collen continues to hold down his ‘day-job’ as lead guitarist with Def Leppard, currently promoting their Def Leppard Viva! Hysteria concert live album and dvd release this month.  Cook has been working with Edwyn Collins, first on his 2013 album release Understated, and then touring with Collins playing live shows. Currently, Cook is also playing in Subway Sect with Vic Goddard touring and recording a new album. Laffy has taken his talents into another creative lane, having authored two novels in his ‘off-time’, Red Sunrise and Seed of Satan.  Both are historical fictions, set around epic events of the 20th century and are in the process of being published.

It all started in 2004, when Phil Collen, after 20+ years as lead guitarist for Def Leppard, decided to express himself via another creative outlet.  After a chance meeting on the street with Paul Cook, Manraze finally released their debut album Surreal through Universal Records in the summer of 2008 to rave reviews.  The group’s debut album was chocked full of rebellious in-your-face mantras (Turn it Up, This Is, Skin Crawl, Running Me Up) ranging from hardcore punk to dub.  They were seen as a cross between the Foo Fighters, Green Day, Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, and The Police. Manraze is a response to the ever changing climate of multi-faceted music and should be heralded for far more than just being a ‘rock band’.

 

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THE WINERY DOGS POST VIDEO FOR “TIME MACHINE” ONLINE

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Billboard is premiering the video for the Winery Dogs’ Time Machine. Watch it below.

“Lyrically, Time Machine explores the curse of vices and the desire to look into the past to discover the origin of these vices with the ultimate goal of a cure,” singer/guitarist Richie Kotzen said. “Believing in the notion that many of our bad habits are rooted in past life events.”

The Winery Dogs are a rock trio that consists of Kotzen (Poison, Mr. Big), bassist Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big) and drummer Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater). Time Machine is the new single off the band’s self-titled debut album, which was released in July on Loud & Proud Records and peaked at Number 27 on the Billboard 200.

source: billboard.com

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SAXON DRUMMER NIGEL GLOCKLER DISCUSSES TOURING IN AMERICA AND RENEWED INTEREST IN THE BAND

saxon2011 Ruben Mosqueda of Oregon Music News spoke with Saxon’s drummer Nigel Glockler. Portions of the interview appear below.

OMN: It’s been awhile since Saxon played a proper U.S. tour.

Glockler: We did about two weeks on the Call to Arms tour but you’re right. it’s been a while. We’ll be doing a month this time around. It’s great that we’ll get to play places like Portland this time around because we haven’t played there in years!

OMN: Saxon has to play all the hits but you’re also not afraid to mix it up with some new stuff. How hard is it to draft a set list for you?

Glockler: It’s a nightmare! (laughs) The more albums you release the more choices that you’ve got. We’re on tour obviously to promote the new album so we’ve got to play five to six new tracks and then everything else just has to fit around it you know? (laughs).

OMN: Obviously people who are metal fans are familiar with Saxon’s back catalog which includes classic records like Saxon, Denim & Leather and Wheels of Steel. You’ve been on a roll starting with 2004’s Lionheart and you returned for the follow-up album Inner Sanctum. Worldwide Saxon has kept the same level of popularity, but Stateside there’s been this renewed interest in Saxon.

Glockler: Yeah, I mean we can play in front of 70,000 people in Europe; obviously they all haven’t come out to see us, but we are headlining one of the stages and they are there watching us. I think the [renewed] interest has a bit to do with stronger material and a push by the label to be quite honest. I think there’s been a resurgence in traditional heavy rock–people have heard the ‘thrash and death’ or whatever you call it and they want the traditional stuff. We’re getting some really young kids at our festival appearances and they know all the words to the songs.

OMN: There’s an interesting parallel between Saxon and a band like Motorhead who haven’t been this huge, ‘blockbuster’ band like a Def Leppard or a Bon Jovi. Saxon and Motorhead have always been able to capture the youth.

Glockler: Yeah, basically their audience grows with them, doesn’t it? We’re attracting the kids all the time. We’re proud that we’ve able to achieve that–not a lot of bands from our area can say that.

OMN: You joined Saxon in 1981 and were in the band until about 1987. What led to your first departure from the band?

Glockler::Yeah, I’ve left a couple of times haven’t I!? (laughs) The first time I got fed up with management quite frankly. I got to the point that I hated what I was doing and I just wanted out. Then I got the gig drumming for GTR with Steve Howe I needed a break–I needed a change. That was it pure and simple. Then I came back 1989 and left in 1997 after Unleash the Beast tour. In the middle of that tour we went to South America we didn’t take our gear so I used a rental kit. I ripped a muscle between my arm and my shoulder. I kept playing and finished the rest of the tour. When I was playing it was fine but when I went to the hotel or the tour bus to lay down to sleep my back and my neck were in excruciating pain. I was like “My God what is going on?!” Eventually after the end of the tour I went to see my doctor and I was told that I had ripped a muscle and that I needed to stop playing for five to six months. That’s what happened. I’m all healed up now but I was away from the band for a while. I was still writing with them; I was doing everything, just not recording or touring with them. The break from drumming and touring made me fall in love with the drums again.

OMN: What’s your favorite thing about touring the United States?

Glockler: I love it over there. My wife is American. In fact my first wife was American as well. (laughs) I guess I have a thing for America I guess?! (laughs) I love it over there. People are great, they’re so polite, the fans are great and the music is incredible. I’ll tell you what I’m looking forward to in Portland, I was talking to my friend Dave McClain (Machine Head) and he was telling me that I really need to try Voodoo Doughnuts! (laughs).

Read more at Oregon Music News.

Saxon is currently on tour with Fozzy.

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METALLICA GUITARIST INSISTS THAT “LULU” IS “SOME OF THE BEST STUFF WE’VE EVER DONE”

Metallica2010pic2400pix Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammet insists that Lulu, their notorious 2011 collaboration album with musician Lou Reed, is one one the band’s best records.

The record was snubbed by all but three percent of Metallica’s fanbase, selling 15,000 copies during its first week of release compared to 490,000 for 2008′s Death Magnetic. Even their much-maligned 2003 album St. Anger sold 418,000 in its first week. Reed admitted he’d had death threats following the album’s release.

But Hammet tells The Verge, “I think Lulu is some of the best stuff we’ve ever done. The song Junior Dad moves me to tears. And working with Lou was such a cool, unique and special thing for us. Maybe it’s not for everyone. Maybe it’s a challenge for our fans. But for us – Lars, James, Rob and myself – we loved doing it and it was such a great experience. We look back at it very positively.”

Metallica have just released highly-anticipated concert movie Through The Never, and they’ve vowed to turn their attention to a new album early next year.

additional source: classicrockmagazine.com

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“THE BEST OF BUCKCHERRY” TO BE RELEASED ON OCTOBER 29TH

buckcherry400 On October 29th, Eleven Seven Music will release The Best Of Buckcherry.

The recording is the culmination of 15 years of non-stop hard work that has resulted in unprecedented success and has made Buckcherry the standard for the great American rock band.

Not many bands have been successful in merging punk grit, gutter attitude, honest-to-God storytelling and razor-sharp hooks and see the overwhelming success that Buckcherry has had throughout their careers. Somewhere between reaching gold status with their self-titled debut and achieving the status of an international platinum-selling phenomenon, Buckcherry has also supplanted themselves as pop icons with party radio hits that spread throughout their entire catalog.

The liner notes for The Best Of Buckcherry were written by renowned by radio personality and That Metal Show co-host Eddie Trunk.

The Best Of Buckcherry track listing:

1. Lit Up
2. For the Movies
3. Ridin’
4. Sorry
5. Next 2 You
6. Everything
7. Crazy Bitch
8. Rescue Me
9. Rose
10. All Night Long
11. Gluttony
12. Nothing Left But Tears

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SAMMY HAGAR SAYS THAT EDDIE VAN HALEN’S GUITAR PLAYING IS “NOT AS FLUENT AND VERSATILE” AS JOE SATRIANI’S

sammy hagarfriendscdcover Peter Hodgson of Gibson spoke with vocalist Sammy Hagar about his new solo album, Sammy Hagar & Friends and the playing styles of Eddie Van Halen and Joe Satriani. Portions of the interview appear below.

Gibson: You always hear “Sammy had so-and-so over to jam at his club in Cabo,” but most of us never get to see that. This album is like that experience being distilled into an album you can throw on in your house.
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Hagar: What I wanted this record to be was my life: my lifestyle now. Because in the past when I’ve went into the studio I’ve gone in with 15 or 20 songs and I’d record them all and pick the best ones. It was kinda like a business. And this record I wanted to be exactly who and what I am today. So the first thing I thought was, I want to write just lifestyle songs. So, I wrote Father Sun first, and then All We Need Is An Island. And then I thought, well, maybe I should call up some of my friends to play on this stuff. And little by little it dawned on me that I was making the record that I really wanted to make but I didn’t have a method of doing it. There was no manual to making a record that’s who you are. But then I realized what you just said: what I’ve been doing for the last ten years is going to Cabo San Lucas with different people all the time. I meet Toby down there, I meet the guys from the Grateful Dead down there, I meet Slash, Jerry Cantrell, guys from Metallica. They say “Hey, I’m going to Cabo, are you around?” And I’ll say “[Expletive], I’ll meet you down there.” I have a house, I just go down there and we play this kind of music. This is what we do. Chad Smith and I, we go down there and we play Going Down. We jam a lot of blues stuff, and this record is exactly who and what I am. It’s what I do.

Gibson: Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus is an interesting choice because even though it wasn’t originally recorded in a heavy blues style, you can unlock that from it.

Hagar: I’ve gotta tell you, as I studied that lick I went “That is a blues fricken’ lick.” For an electronic band, some bizarre alternative electronic band, that’s a badass blues lick. And I played it on guitar and said, “This is it.” And Neal Schon, the intro on that thing, the licks Neal’s playing, it’s in high gear. I can’t wait till the Depeche Mode guys hear it. I think when they hear it they’re going to say, “Sammy Hagar, that [expletive] rock and roll freak?” Haha. They’ve gotta like it. It’s a blues song and it’s a great lyric, a great deep, dark lyric. I can’t write lyrics like that. It’s too dark for me.

Gibson: I dunno, you got pretty dark on Van Halen’s Balance. When that album came out I was like “Is Sammy okay?”

Hagar: Yeah, you’re right, you’re right. That’s because it was a dark period! I knew that was the end of that rainbow, man!

Gibson: I’ve always wanted to ask you how you rank yourself as a guitarist. It takes balls to stand up there with Eddie Van Halen or Joe Satriani. I’ve been lucky to jam with Satriani and Vai, and to a certain point it’s intimidating but also at a certain point you’ve just got to tell yourself “Screw it, this is what I do.”

Hagar: I’m a little bit intimidated if we go too long, but in Chickenfoot and Van Halen I just put the guitar on and got a big cheer always, and then I’d burn for a little bit and then take it back off before I ran out of chops, y’know? I rate myself as a guy that can play, and I can express myself extremely well but only in one language. I can only play blues-based guitar. And when a guy like Joe steps up there, he can play. Once he finishes with my repertoire he can go into French, Spanish and Russian on the guitar! He’s just so versatile and fluent. Eddie’s not as fluent and versatile. Eddie’s got a style for himself and he’s very much in that pocket but Joe can play anything. He freaks me out. When Joe and I start to write together he’ll show me some chords and I’ll start singing, then I’ll pick up a guitar just mainly to figure a lick out: “What chord is that? What are you playing?” so I can know what notes I have to choose from to sing. Then he’ll go “That was a cool lick, what did you play?” and I’ll go “[Expletive], I don’t know!” I don’t get it. I just play.

Gibson: There were so many great guitar players to come out of the 80s where you knew they’d kind of fade away, but even early on it was apparent that we’d still be hearing about Joe Satriani in 40, 50 years.

Hagar: Oh Joe’s here to stay. I think he’s going to have a kind of Jeff Beck career. He’s going to have these little windows where he gets a little bump, a little more publicity, a little more recognition, and then he kinda just cruises along, then all of a sudden somebody’s gonna say “Wow, Joe Satriani’s the best guitar player in the world” and everybody gets hip again. He ain’t going nowhere. The thing that amazes me the most about Joe’s guitar playing over any other musician is he knows exactly what he’s playing and he can play it twice, three times exactly the same. He works his parts out but he does it really quick. It’s not like it takes him forever to come up with a part. He comes up with it, BAM, instantly, and he knows every note he’s playing and I don’t know how he does it. He’s too smart for his own good. But you’re a lucky man if you stood up and played next to Joe Satriani. What I do is, I learn. He immediately makes me better because it makes me aware of what I’m playing, because if I see him solo I think, “I don’t know what I’m doing.” So I start to think a little more, like “Oh I know why that note works.” So he just enlightens. He’s enlightening to play with. I don’t know if that works for you but that’s how it works for me.

Read the rest of the interview at Gibson.

Sammy Hagar & Friends is out now on Frontiers Records.

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