Category — Albums

Rage Against The Machine frontman Zach De La Rocha is part of a new band/project with Jon Theodore, previously of The Mars Volta.

The band is called One Day As A Lion and is described as “a sonic reflection of the visceral tension between a picturesque fabricated cultural landscape, and the brutal socioeconomic realities it attempts to mask,”

Supposedly the record is an “exploration of kick and snare” which sounds really interesting. If this record turns out to be what I’m imagining (basically De La Rocha rapping over live drums with minimal instrumentation), this could be amazing.

Jon Theodore is a great drummer, as proven by his previous work in The Mars Volta. And I personally think this is cooler than getting a new Rage album. It comes out on July 22nd.

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Stereogum has a great article up about the possibility of a new Phish reunion. Better yet, they have a quite long editorial (rant), about the parallels between Metallica and Phish. You’re probably saying “wait a minute that does not make any sense at all…” and while you’re pretty much right, it’s kinda good.

“for Metallica it was a shredding Hammett, endless riffs, an eschewing of mainstream-rock song structures, and juvenile lyrics about death; for Phish it was a shredding Anastasio, endless arpeggios, an eschewing mainstream-rock song structures, and juvenile lyrics about nonsense.”

While the writer readily admits that the comparison fails on so many levels (and it definitely does), it is still worth a read just because it’s amusing.

Check it out.

I came across a piece a little while ago about Obama and what he has on his iPod. Here’s a sampling…

• The Rolling Stones (favorite song: “Gimme Shelter”)
• Stevie Wonder (Barack’s musical hero)
• Earth Wind & Fire
• Elton John
• Miles Davis
• John Coltrane
• Charlie Parker
• Bob Dylan (30 songs, including Blood On The Tracks)
• Bruce Springsteen

So we can see that the guy has taste, and kind of “drummer-taste” at that! He’s got Coltrane, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis on his iPod, among other cool stuff with excellent drumming!

“His favorite tune right now is Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm,” which works out because Dylan’s favorite presidential candidate right now is him. Says Obama: “I’ve got to say, having both Dylan and Bruce Springsteen say kind words about you is pretty remarkable. Those guys are icons.” He likes hip hop too, with some qualification:

“I am troubled sometimes by the misogyny and materialism of a lot of rap lyrics,” he said, “but I think the genius of the art form has shifted the culture and helped to desegregate music.”

Smart guy.

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System of a Down offshoot band Scars on Broadway are preparing to launch their first US headlining tour. The tour is to support the groups self-titled album, which will be released through Interscope Records on July 29th.

The band also has a new music video for their hit single “They Say” which was directed by Paul Minor (Muse, Queens of The Stone Age).

While I’m not a huge fan of either Serj Tankian’s solo material or Scars on Broadway, it can’t be denied that John Dolmayan is a monster drummer. His work in System of a Down shows more of his skill with his huge drum kits and wide array of cymbals as opposed to what I’ve heard so far from Scars on Broadway. I’m curious to see what kind of drumming he displays on Scars on Broadway’s debut album.

Check out tour cities, a clip from Scars on Broadway’s “They Say” video and more information here…

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While I kind of disagree with Pitchfork Media’s opinions, oh, 98% of the time and their choice of bands to cover…they do some cool things. I guess the site has gotten so big now that they have a lot of priority and access to all kinds of stuff.

Courtesy of “Pitchfork TV” check out Josh Freese totally killing his DW drums, on this live-in-studio footage, of NIN playing their new song “1,000,000″ off of their new album “The Slip.” Really cool…

NIN: Live-In-Studio Rehearsal

This is the first of 3 parts, so make sure to check out the other 2 when they become available.

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Seattle drone-rockers Earth at The Echo. To start off, I was pretty surprised to learn the show would be going on at The Echo and not a larger venue. Earth is one of those bands where you know they’re critically acclaimed, but you have no idea how big they really are. The band slowly took the stage, lead-man Dylan Carlson thanked the crowd and began.

The band’s set mainly consisted of songs from their recently released Southern Lord album “The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull” although not played in exact album running order. Highlights included “The Driver” and Rise To Glory” both of which showed how much the band’s sound has progressed from distorted drone metal to their current style.

The band’s chemistry on this night was evident. Band leader Dylan Carlson’s Telecaster was clean, crisp and piercing, laced with different kinds of delay, flange and various other effects. The guitar playing worked in tandem with Don Mcgreevy’s bass playing and Steve Moore’s keyboard, filling in any empty spaces. The results of which were beautiful soundscapes and dreamy passages. However, the real pulse of the band live was drummer Adrienne Davies. It appeared as if someone had put her into slow motion, as she drummed away on each song, keeping the beat of the song with her body. Her drumming definitely brought the whole experience together.

Opening band Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter were a great support choice. Sykes lyrics and singing were folky and trippy at the same time, and her band’s gentle twang perfectly set the stage for Earth to take the stage. I’d advise anyone who can to check out this tour.

Thanks to one of my blog readers…Matt, who commented yesterday, I learned that the new Slipknot track is already available for your listening pleasure online. (Thank you again Matt!)

Check out the full song here.

As I suspected, Joey Jordison does not disappoint on this new track. It features incredibly fast double-bass parts, the BPM is just insane, I’m not sure how fast…but it’s pretty amazing. He also plays a bunch of blast beats. The descriptions that have come out in the press are not far off, “Iowa” meets “Vol. 3 (the Subliminal Verses)” is definitely the sound on this track.

The production is thick and sounds a lot more metal, due to the band using Dave Fortman instead of Rick Rubin’s production team. I should also mention that Jordison has even got some slower groove based drum parts in the song as well. I’m pretty sure this album is going to please a lot of Slipknot/Joey Jordison fans.

Slipknot will be gearing up to release their new record this year, which now has a title.

“Slipknot’s fourth album has been christened “All Hope Is Gone” and will arrive Aug. 26 via Roadrunner. A first single and track list have yet to be announced.”

“We have made an album that will show the road behind, the road ahead, and where we are as men,” group member Corey Taylor says in a statement. “I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever made. And I challenge anyone to prove me wrong.”

Taylor previously described the new album to Billboard as a “very dark” cross between “Vol. 3″ and 2001’s “Iowa.” “It has so much power in it and yet there are so many great spots for melody,” he said. “It’s a controlled chaos that hits you right out of the gate.”

This album should also see Joey Jordison returning with some ridiculous, crazy and super fast beats being played on his awesome Pearl drum kits, I am sure. A lot of us drummers will be looking forward to it. As soon as any sound clips or samples become available, I’ll post them here.

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Around 2 weeks ago, listening parties were held for Metallica’s forthcoming, still untitled new album. Member’s of the music press were allowed in and permitted to write down their thoughts on the record, which a lot of people are calling a “return to form” and even praised, in various publications such as Kerrang! Metal Hammer and more.

The band, or the band’s management then instructed all of these publications/websites to take anything regarding Metallica’s new album down. This seemed to defeat the purpose of the listening parties and everyone wondered, why are Metallica retarded? Don’t they want people to get excited about their new album? Don’t they want coverage in the press?

Well now the band has responded, check it out here.

It turns out it was their management, who would’ve thunk it?

Drone-metal band OM have released a new live album via Southern Lord Records entitled “Om - Live at Jerusalem.” The album is limited to 3,000 copies pressed on 180 gram black vinyl.

The band had made the trek to Jerusalem in December of 2007, at that time, still with original drummer Chris Haikus, not current OM drummer Emil Amos. On the night this live album was recorded the band played for over 4 hours!

The live album includes essential OM tracks “Flight of The Eagle” and “Bhima’s Theme.” Bob Weston of Shellac fame handled the vinyl mastering process in the United States. The record is available through Southern Lord.