Category — Music News

Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” album hit stores Friday and a lot of buzz is still swirling around about it. I came across something I think a lot of drummers will be interested in.

Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame, as well as Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, interviewed Metallica about their new album “Death Magnetic” and some of the songs were broadcast for the first time during the event. Luckily, it is on YouTube currently and features info about the band’s songwriting process and the general theme of the album.

Let it be known that Dave Grohl should seriously consider getting his own radio show. He is a pretty funny guy, as most people know, but he is pretty hilarious asking Metallica all kinds of questions. You can tell these guys have a mutual respect for one another and Dave Grohl even states that he has been a hardcore Metallica fan since 1984.

A week ago, Lars Ulrich commented on Metallica’s long-anticipated new album, Death Magnetic, being released early via a French record store and leaking to the internet within hours. This week, he gives a little more in an exclusive interview with the drum magazine, Rhythm, which you can read in its entirety in the October 2008 issue. However, in the meantime, (or for those of us who know we are too lazy to ever pick up a real-life magazine) Music Rader gives us a few interesting tidbits to read. Ulrich speaks about working with producer Rick Rubin and how “his whole thing was: ‘We’re not going into the studio until the songs are written. We’re not recording until you can play these songs with your fuckin’ hands tied behind your backs, upside-down, while you’re sleeping…So the studio is not a place of creativity, it’s a place of execution.”

Wow that’s a novel idea, isn’t it? Wish more bands would stick to that philosophy.

I can’t honestly say I’ve heard the new album yet, but something else I think I will appreciate on the new record is that the drums don’t have too many effects. Ulrich mentions that Rubin “likes stuff to be in your face and to sound as organic and natural as possible” and I agree. I want to be able to sit down with the record and feel like the drummer is sitting across from me…a feeling I get when I listen to my 180g copy of In Utero (thanks to Steve Albini). I just find it surprising that someone who has also worked the Dixie Chicks and Justin Timberlake doesn’t want “big fat samples on them and all that shit.” But hopefully Mr. Rubin knows what he’s doing when it comes to saving careers, even if Pitchfork doesn’t seem to think so. After all, if he can do it for Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond, why not Metallica?

Good luck, boys. I’m waiting till Friday to grab your album.

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.

Bumbershoot went down this past weekend in Seattle, WA and pitchforkmedia.com has some great photos and coverage up. They have some great shots of Stone Temple Pilots, T.I, Final Fantasy, Beck, Sons & Daughters and many more.

Also, I had planned on attending one of The Melvins shows at The Troubadour this past weekend, except the shows were canceled. No explanation has been given aside from the statement that the shows were canceled “due to illness.” I plan on going to one of the rescheduled dates and getting some video footage of Dale Crover and The Melvins awesome 2-in-1 kit up here.

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.

The Outside Lands music festival took place this past weekend in San Francisco and while I was not present to review it PitchforkMedia was, of course. They have some great photo’s up of Radiohead with their high-tech LED light show, Beck, Wilco and Tom Petty, among others.

The festival boasted a pretty good lineup of major headline acts and smaller but well-known indie acts such as; Broken Social Scene, Drive-By Truckers, Andrew Bird, The Walkmen, Devandra Benhart and more.

Outside Lands Festival Pictures.

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.

In a joint effort with the ‘Iraq Veterans Against the War and Tent State University’ Rage Against The Machine will be playing a free show at the Denver Coliseum on August 27th during the Democratic National Convention. According to Billboard.com…

“The performance is part of the Tent State Music Festival to End the War, and will alsp feature Flobots, the Coup, State Radio and Wayne Kramer.

Tickets will be given away for free by lottery. Fans can sign up by presenting a photo ID at Cuernavaca Park at the university’s campus starting Aug. 24 through Aug. 26 from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The all-ages event is set to begin at 11 a.m. Rage has also scheduled a performance for Sept. 3 in Minneapolis, during the same week the Republican National Convention is rolling into town”

The band itself has not given any interviews or issued any statements regarding either shows at this point. I personally think the free show idea is a great way to promote the cause and a great way for the bands fans to get involved. These shows are also significant because they mark two of the bands only true headline concerts that are not huge festivals. Could this be a sign that the band may go into the studio? It’s possible, and I would definitely like to hear some new Rage and new Brad Wilk drum beats.

I have been trying to find out the specifics of the drum kit Brad Wilk is currently playing on tour with Rage but all I can find is information on his 1992-2000 Rage kit and his Audioslave kit which was a Gretsch with Paiste Cymbals. I assume this is his most recent setup. If anyone knows more about, please let me know.