Category — Music News

The Oya Festival happened last weekend in Norway, and while it seems like the US has enough festivals, we never get ones with these kind of lineups. Lots of cool bands played, with lots of great drummers. This was the 10th year of the festival, which has a capacity of around 20,000 people, relativly small for most festivals. Still, lots of people came out to see Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, No Age, Isis, Sigur Ros, Mogwai and many many more.

The Oya Festival is renown for having a great setup so that barely any bleed-through occurs from stage to stage and they do a good job of showcasing up-and-coming Scandinavian acts while still having international ones. Pitchfork Media has some exclusive photo’s and coverage of the festival worth checking out.

Every time I see stuff like this I just shake my head. The reason being that the European festivals seem to always have better lineups than we get here in the US, at least more in line with my taste anyway. Hopefully this will change in the coming years as US festivals evolve and grow.

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.

A little while ago I posted about Velet Revolver searching for a new singer, the band was rumored to be considering that guy from Spacehog. Today it has been revealed that this is untrue and that the search is still on.

“Bassist Duff McKagan tells Billboard.com that although Velvet Revolver did play with Langdon and that “he’s f*cking awesome, at this point I’d have to say no” on him becoming the new singer.

“We just have to make sure it’s the right guy,” he says, adding that Weiland’s angry departure from the band this spring has brought him closer to group members Slash, Matt Sorum and Dave Kushner. “Karmically, we deserve the right guy. It’s a tough thing, man. We make a pretty big noise.”

Personally I think the band should just give it up, but then again I’m not a fan. I think drummer Matt Sorum is good and it’d be cool to see him use his talents and awesome DW Drums with some different players, rather than to keep continuing on with the same guys from Guns N’ Roses. We’ll see what happens I guess.

Source.

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.

Rage Against The Machine have announced a headline show at The Target Center in Minneapolis, MN on September 3rd. This is noteworthy because the band hasn’t played any solo headlining shows besides festivals and because its during the same time period as The Republican National Convention, happening in the same city from September 1st - 4th.

There is some controversy being brought up over this, with some saying that the band is looking for a conflict. Whatever the case may be, and regardless of what i think of this band at this point in time, I’ve heard they are still good live. Brad Wilk is an amazing drummer, he’s definitely a master of just straight-up 4/4 grooves. Hopefully nothing too insane happens on September 3rd.

Source.

A lot of festivals are happening this summer, and arguably one of the biggest besides Bonnaroo and Coachella is Chicago’s Lollapalooza. The festival was a traveling one in the 90’s which was again ressurected in 2003 with corporate sponsors. This year marked the festivals first sell-out since its residency in Chicago. The festival featured many performers this year and the two big headliners were Nine Inch Nails (w/Josh Freese) and Kanye West.

“Across the field, the setting sun turned the sky pink and gray as Nine Inch Nails pounded out the opening bars of “March of the Pigs” through a haze of smoke. Gripping the microphone tight in an all-black outfit, frontman Trent Reznor growled through “1,000,000,” from the new album “The Slip,” which was given away as a free download this spring.”

“Let’s f*cking do this,” he exclaimed prior to the mega-hit “Closer,” one of several highlights in a set that also included “Hurt” and “In This Twilight,” which was lit by strobes. The whole experience felt like the polar opposite of the laid-back set presented by Wilco on the same stage last night.”

Sounds like a great show, I might try to catch the band here in LA at the Forum in October.

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.

*(Yes, the above photo is actually Matt Sorum in the 80’s with Guns N’ Roses…wow…).

Remember Velvet Revolver? That band that was basically Guns N’ Roses with Scott Weiland on vocals? Yea, they are still around and after he recently left the band via angry blog posts the band is now continuing on with a search for a new singer. Supposedly a lot of problems arose between Weiland and the rest of the band particularly drummer Matt Sorum.

I am kind of surprised that the search for the bands new singer isn’t a reality TV show. Anyway, rumors are flying that the guy who used to be married to Liv Tyler, and also used to sing for that band Spacehog is in the running.

According to Hollywood Insider…

“They all got along great,” says an insider. “It was really a refreshing change for the band.” Velvet Revolver’s management couldn’t confirm that an offer had been made, and would only say that they’re still auditioning prospective singers. But an RCA source says that Langdon is “definitely in the mix.”

Wow…just…wow, is all I have to say.

Now in it’s 16th year the Montreal Drum Fest will be held October 24th, 25th and 26th. This year’s edition of the festival features an impressive lineup of great drummers.

“Headliners are: Legend Lenny White (Innovation, Istanbul, Vic Firth, Remo), Simon Phillips (Zildjian, Tama, Pro-Mark, Remo),  Morgan Agren & the Mats/Morgan Band (DW, Sabian, Vic Firth), The Yamaha Groove Hour with Canadian drummers Paul Brochu, Mark Kelso and Larnell Lewis, Wolfgang Haffner (Meinl), Johnny Rabb (Roland) and Tommy Clufetos (Sonor, Sabian).”

For more information about the festival, visit Montreal Drum Fest online.