Category — Drum Recordings

Usually I’m really on top of reporting leaks, especially for big name bands. This time however I’m a few days late, not just because I didn’t know but because I don’t really care that much. Maybe my mind will change once I get to listen to the whole album, but after hearing “Cyanide” and new single “The Day That Never Comes” I just wasn’t really that psyched to hear the rest of the album.

While I cannot legally link to the leaked album, I can direct you to Stereogum’s post about the leak which includes several youtube links compiled in one place.

From what I’ve heard so far, Lars Tama drums are sounding pretty good, as is his drumming…it is the weak and recycled songwriting that ruins the album for me, even though there are some killer riffs. Check out “Unforgiven III” to see what I mean.

Radiohead concluded the first leg of their current North American tour supporting “In Rainbows” last night in Santa Barbara.

The band’s set from the Santa Barbara Bowl is available in streaming form at radiohead.tv. Well worth checking out. Have a great labor day weekend!

As has been reported on many sites, Metallica has released the first single from “Death Magnetic” entitled “The Day That Never Comes.” Now the band has made available a new track “My Apocalypse” via Metallica.com.

While a lot of people accused the band of ripping off their earlier material on “The Day That Never Comes” it still is probably better than anything they’ve released since 1991. This new track features more heavy riffing and fast beats as well as some great solos from Kirk Hammett, but for some reason I just can’t get past Hetfield’s vocals. Just not my style at this point, but the song definitely has the feel of classic Metallica.

Lars’ has been using the same Tama kits he usually does from what I’ve seen. He’s either using other snare drums or did something to his signature models. The sound is a lot better than the pongy-ness of the “St. Anger” snare sound.

A lot has been written about Metallica’s upcoming album “Death Magnetic”, now the albums first single has been made available to radio and is also streaming at the band’s MySpace page and website.

“The Day That Never Comes” is pretty much what you would expect from Metallica at this point, meaning it is derivative of their earlier material. This was the point I guess, seeing as though so much press had come out with the band stating that they were attempting to write new material more in line with their early albums.

The end result, at least this particular song, is a straight up rip-off of older material (particularly “One”) and some Black Album/Load-era sounds. Structure-wise there are A LOT of similarities to “One” and Lars Ulrich’s drumming isn’t particularly impressive.

This song is world’s better than any of the bands “St. Anger” material, but most music is. This is only one song on a 10-song album, so we’ll see. Listen to the track here…

Metallica: “The Day That Never Comes”

Wilco are gearing up to record their seventh album. This comes as exciting news for Wilco fans, but after debuting new songs during their headlining Lollapalooza set, its probably not much of a surprise.

I’m not a huge fan of Wilco myself, but their drummer Glenn Kotche is amazing. If you haven’t heard his drumming, check it out. His playing at times is very unconventional and his use of different accessories on his drum kit adds a lot of depth to Wilco’s music.

Regarding the band’s new music & album, Jeff Tweedy had this to say…

“we will allow ourselves a little bit more leeway in terms of sculpting the sound in the studio and doing overdubs and using the studio as another instrument. Last time around, it was more of a document.”

Source.

Not too long ago a few tracks from Guns N’ Roses, 14 years in-the-making album “Chinese Democracy” leaked online. This led to rumors of whether or not the album would finally come out. The “Chinese Democracy” album, up to this point, has basically become a huge joke. Now though, there are some signs that it may finally see an actual release, maybe even an exclusive one. According to Billboard.com…

“But some concrete signs are finally emerging that the album’s release could be imminent. That’s because, according to sources, negotiations are underway for “Chinese Democracy” to come out as an exclusive at one of the big boxes — either Wal-Mart or Best Buy. Negotiations are also ongoing to have conventional record company distribution, another source says.”

Kind of fitting that they’d do a Wal-Mart exclusive huh? It’s like they’re making a huge joke sundae and putting the Wal-Mart cherry on top. None of the people Billboard tried to reach for comment were available, including the band’s management company, their label Interscope, or any of their reps.

This album features drumming work from both studio great Josh Freese, (who was a part of the project for around 2 years before leaving to play with A Perfect Circle) and also Brain, both of whom are DW Drums endorsers. Hopefully at some point we can hear their work on the album, even though I can’t stand Guns N’ Roses.

Source.

Metallica has been making headlines everywhere recently, leading up to the release of their new album. This time though, the band has played one of their new songs live at Ozzfest in Dallas, TX. The song, titled “Cyanide” is not their new album’s first single.

A full live performance video of the song can be found over at YouTube. The song definitely harks back to the bands “Ride The Lightning” and “Master of Puppets” classic years. Although I don’t believe it’s on the same level as the bands classic material, its worlds better than “St.Anger” and in my opinion even the bands “Load” and “Re-Load” era output.

Lars has got plenty of tricky drum parts in there, classical guitars and fast, aggressive sections. Check the song out for yourself. The one thing I think is lacking is the vocals, ever since the bands Black Album days, James Hetfield’s voice has never recovered from when he blew it out. Anyway, judge for yourself.

Sigur Ros is not usually thought of by their drummer, but I really like the band and the atmospherics they create. Fairly recently the band played a live set at NYC’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and it was recorded by CurrentTV and is now available online for your viewing pleasure.

Museum’s are not usually thought of as ideal places to have a loud rock band play but the sound on the recordings is great. The whole video is around 45 minutes and well worth watching if you like this band.

Sigur Ros Live @ MOMA.

Set List:

01 “svefn-g-englar”
02 “glosoli”
03 “se lest”
04 “ny batteri”
05 “vid spilum endalaust”
06 “hoppipolla”
07 “med blodnasir”
08 “vidrar vel til loftarasa”
09 “saeglopur”
10 “inni mer syngur vitleysingur”
11 “olsen olsen”
12 “hafsol”
13 “gobbledigook”
—-
14 iceland national anthem
15 “popplagid”

Best Buy has obtained exclusive rights to sell the new Police Live DVD/CD “Certifiable” due out October 7th.

“The set was filmed last December in Buenos Aires. It will be available as a 2 DVD/2 CD set, a single disc Blu-ray/2 CD combo and in a triple vinyl configuration with an MP3 download.

Drummer Stewart Copeland previously told Billboard.com the DVD would feature a behind-the-scenes documentary shot by his son Jordan.”

This is great news for any Stewart Copeland/Police fans out there. I actually saw the reunited Police back in 2007 and they were great as ever, specifically Stewart Copeland with his signature Tama drums and usual vast array of cymbals. His playing was just as tight live in 2007 as it is on some of the Police’ most famous recordings. For more info and a tracklist, click below.

Source.

This Sunday (8/3) Japanese stoner rock band Boris is going to be playing the Echoplex here in LA and opening for them is Torche. For those of you who haven’t heard this band they are worth checking out.

The band is from Miami and has been around since 2005. They’ve toured with the likes of Isis, Mogwai, Jesu, The Sword and Stinking Lizaveta. They also have just released a new record entitled “Meanderthal” which has been getting great reviews and is a solid well rounded record. This is a good band for people who like stoner rock and heavy music but are sick of it all sounding so similar. Torche incorporate more melody in their songs and less screaming in the vocals than most bands in the same scene.

I’m not sure what kind of drum kit he plays, but drummer Rick Smith is fast, does a ton of flams and is very solid. For more information, tour dates and music check out the Torche MySpace page.