Rock News Wednesday, December 26, 2018

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Drummer Jeremy Spencer exits Five Finger Death Punch  (TAKEN FROM CONSEQUENCEOFSOUND.COM)

Drummer Jeremy Spencer is parting ways with Five Finger Death Punch after 14 years in the band, it was announced today (December 18th). The stickman, who sat out the band’s most recent tour to recover from back surgery, is now leaving the FFDP permanently, saying he unable to physically continue as a member of the hit-making rock act.

“This decision has been weighing on me for months; and now the time has finally come,” explained Spencer in a statement. “I started to play when I was 6 years old, and I feel fortunate that my body has provided me with several decades of doing what I love most: drumming. However, the rigorous physical wear and tear has got me to the point where I feel I can no longer deliver a performance that brings me satisfaction and joy.”

FOZZY’s CHRIS JERICHO: ‘It’s Our Mission To Destroy IRON MAIDEN’ At Next Summer’s Concert In Los Angeles (TAKEN FROM BLABBERMOUTH.NET)

FOZZY's CHRIS JERICHO: 'It's Our Mission To Destroy IRON MAIDEN' At Next Summer's Concert In Los Angeles

FOZZY frontman Chris Jericho says that it will be his band’s “mission to destroy IRON MAIDEN” when the two groups share the stage in California next summer.

It was announced last month that Jericho and his bandmates will support the British heavy metal legends on September 14, 2019 at the Banc Of California Stadium in Los Angeles.

The Canadian-born WWE wrestling superstar, who has fronted FOZZY since the group’s inception nearly 20 years ago, spoke about the upcoming concert during a recent interview with Drew Dalby of the 104.9 The Wolf radio station.

Asked if it’s a “bigger deal” for him to play a headlining show in his former hometown of Winnipeg or to open for IRON MAIDEN in Los Angeles, Chris responded (see video below): “Both of them. Any time you play in front of your own audience, that’s easy — you put on a great show; people respond; everyone has a good time; it’s a very gratifying experience. When you’re opening for any band… Earlier on this tour, we did some shows with THREE DAYS GRACE, and there was a lot of people that maybe have never heard of FOZZY, or have heard of us but never heard us. Or maybe they have no idea: ‘Who the hell is this first band? I’m just gonna show up and drink beer,’ or whatever. So we have a different job. You have to impress those people. And so, at the end of the night, when they’re chanting ‘FOZZY!’ and giving you a standing ovation, and you’re the first of three bands, that’s incredible. Now, IRON MAIDEN is a whole different animal, because they’re notorious for having fans that don’t care about the opening band. I don’t think I’ve watched an opening band for IRON MAIDEN in 10 years; DREAM THEATER, I think, opened for them once, and I watched that. But they’re an institution, and there’s gonna be 20,000 people watching, but we’ll get ’em. And that’s gonna be very, very exciting too.”

He continued: “There’s never one show that means more than another. There’s different-size venues, there’s different situations, but when ‘Judas’ starts — we open with ‘Judas’ — it doesn’t matter. All that matters is if you’re entertaining 10 or 10,000; 200 or 20,000. Whatever it may be, every show counts, every show’s important and every show, it’s my responsibility — our responsibility — to make it great.”

Jericho went on to say that, while his respect for IRON MAIDEN runs deep, he and his bandmates will do their best to try to blow the headliners off the stage when the two groups cross paths in September.

“When we got the offer to do [the show], and then the poster came out, I stared at the poster for about 30 minutes,” he admitted. “‘Cause IRON MAIDEN‘s my favorite band and have been since 1984. I looked at the poster — ‘IRON MAIDEN with special guest FOZZY. L.A. Banc Of California Stadium.’ I just looked at it, like, ‘Wow! I can’t believe it.’ And then once I stopped looking at it, I had my moment, and I said, ‘Okay. Now it’s our mission to destroy IRON MAIDEN.’ Now, is it possible? I don’t know. But we played the ‘Kiss Kruise’ and we played at the same time KISS was playing — for whatever reason. Someone’s gotta play upstairs, and there must have been a hundred people, but I was, like, ‘You know what? I’m going to make sure that this is the best show these people see this whole cruise.’ And that’s what you have to think.”

Jericho added: “Are we gonna destroy IRON MAIDEN at their own show? I don’t know. But I do know that we’re gonna do everything in our power to have the best possible gig and we’re gonna leave an impression so that when we leave the stage, people go, ‘Holy shit! We didn’t expect that. That was amazing. That was great.’ And people will go — and this is what happens every time — ‘IRON MAIDEN was awesome. I loved it. But you know what? FOZZY — I never expected that.’ And that’s how you build [a fanbase].”

FOZZY‘s latest album, “Judas”, came out in October 2017 via Century Media. The production duties on the disc were handled by Johnny Andrews, who co-wrote FOZZY‘s “Lights Go Out”track back in 2014 and has written songs with the likes of ALL THAT REMAINSTHREE DAYS GRACE and HALESTORM in the past.

Jericho recently told WDHA-FM 105.5 FM that FOZZY will re-team with Andrews for its next album.

The story behind Disease by Beartooth (STORY FROM LOUDERSOUND.COM)

Beartooth

They say travel broadens the mind, but it’s also a killer way to stoke the creative fires. In November 2017, Beartooth’s Caleb Shomo embarked on a solo, global journey to make the band’s third album Disease. Over several weeks, the frontman hopped between New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo, soaking up the energy and bright lights and drawing inspiration from the unfamiliar.

The trip was a leap into the unknown, pushing him resolutely out of his comfort zone, namely the Ohio basement where he had always written the band’s music. Furthermore, it marked the first time he had recorded a Beartooth album in a proper, bells and whistles studio. It’s an experience the vocalist describes today, back at home and taking a break from mixing B-sides to chat with Hammer, as “nerve-wracking.”

“I wanted to get a different vibe on this record,” he explains, recalling the moment his label, Red Bull Records, suggested sticking him on a plane and packing him off across the world, along with a videographer to record the process for social media. “Obviously writing at home is very comfortable and very safe. I love writing in my basement, but I had this opportunity and access to some incredible studios throughout the world. I chose LA and New York City just because I really love spending time there, but I rarely get to. And then Tokyo was this whole different animal. There was this rock bar that I’d been to with Crossfaith before; I went for a drink and the bartender started asking what I do. I told him who I was and he was like, ‘Cool. My friend is DJ’ing down the road, do you want to go?’ So we went and it was just the craziest thing I’d ever seen, 400-500 people packed into this little club all just dancing and going ballistic.”

Caleb will freely admit that Disease is the most difficult record he’s ever made – but the challenge wasn’t just limited to a change of scenery. As with Beartooth’s previous albums, 2014’s Disgusting and 2016’s Aggressive, he wrote every track, recorded vocals, guitars, bass and drums, and produced the album, alongside executive producer Nick Raskulinecz (Alice In Chains, Korn, Deftones). However, in order to create the raw, nervy tension that roars throughout Disease, he headed to Blackbird studio in Nashville, renowned for its huge collection of vintage gear, choosing to record everything for real with minimal digital interference. It wasn’t long until he wondered whether he’d bitten off more than he could chew.

“I hadn’t tracked drums in forever. I’d gone into some of these studios and was playing for a while, and I was like, ‘Jesus Christ, I am not as tight as I need to be,’” he admits. “Same with guitar. I got beat down and it put me in my place. The amps would be buzzing too much and I was like, ‘Fuck me, I can’t fix this afterwards, I need to fix it now.’ It was definitely more of an analogue, raw process, how people would make records 20 years ago. It meant I had to perform and really play way better than I have on the other records. I really think I stepped up to the challenge at the end of the day, but it took me a while to get in the headspace.”

Fans are only just reaping the aural rewards of Caleb’s efforts, but the truth is the seeds for Disease were sown years before Caleb landed at his first stop, NYC. The last time Hammer caught up with the band, it was mid-2017 and Beartooth were in the midst of a USA tour. All seemed well: they were still on a massive high following debut Disgusting (an album which Caleb states was “exactly what I’d wanted to make”), and playing sold-out shows off the back of 2016’s follow-up Aggressive. And yet, behind the scenes, cracks were beginning to show. Caleb alluded to a period of depression that had taken hold while on the road, but only now does he reveal just how far down that downward spiral he had fallen.

A few months prior in Europe, the mental health problems that had plagued him since he was seven years old had slowly started to creep back in. One night in Finland in December 2016, in the peak of the polar winter, he suddenly realised his demons were right back in the room with him. “This culmination of shit really hit me at once, kind of like a train,” he remembers. “It was really late at night, I couldn’t sleep and it truly was the first time I’d felt suicidal since… God knows how long. I was like, ‘Holy shit I gotta figure this out and I got to deal with this.’ I don’t want that to ever be in my mind as an option again.”

Right there, in the most desperate of moments, the concept for Disease came to him; the importance of acknowledging the black dog and confronting it head-on. Two months later, he was in the studio recording the album’s title track, a song which includes the lyric: ‘If I fall again, will it be the end?’ Clearly, however painful and frightening, that despair had sparked a light bulb of reflection and self-realisation, resulting in some of Beartooth’s darkest lyrics to date.

“I realised I’m always going to deal with these feelings,” he explains. “They just do not go away, no matter what I do. It’s all about learning to manage them. Disease is me being done with ignoring and going to those places in my mind that I hate to go to, in the hope I can figure out more about myself. I felt very lost after the last record cycle. I’m not trying to hate on my own record, but it felt like that whole process was so fucking fast. I enjoy Aggressive, but I think there were some things that slipped through the cracks in the recording process. I had just come off two years plus of touring and went straight into the studio. I didn’t really have a minute to breathe.”

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The phrase ‘travel to find yourself’ is the ultimate cliché, but it’s somewhat true for Caleb – when we ask him what he’s learnt about himself during his travel experience, his answer is emphatic. “I just need to be OK with who I am as a person and accept all the things that make me fucked up,” he replies. “I am a person that is unsure and a person who is unhappy a lot of the time.”

On the other hand, despite the challenges he’s faced, today Beartooth’s founding father is incredibly positive and excited for what the future holds. “Whatever it takes for us to get more pyro onstage, that’s what I want!” he laughs. “We did a show with pyro on our last record cycle and now I’m addicted to it. Look at Parkway Drive, the most kick-ass show ever. I feel like ours would be a lot less organised, though – just pyro everywhere. There would be bottles of lighter fluid and we’d just light each other up and run around until someone puts us out with an extinguisher.”

Jokes aside, though, there’s no mistaking the pride in Caleb’s voice when he talks about Disease. “I set out to do something very specific and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to pull it off,” he admits. “The record ended up being exactly what I wanted. Now that might not mean it’s a masterpiece to the rest of the world, but to me, it’s the best record I can make at the moment. I don’t think I have anything else in the tank – this is everything I’ve fucking got.”

Watch Green Day Cover Nirvana Classic, Did They Butcher It?

  

The Coverups (which is basically Green Day under another name as a cover band, with Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt) covered Nirvana’s “Drain You” in Albany on December 19th at The Ivy Room. Billie Joe Armstrong said, “It’s all fun and games, but when it comes to your own generation…it’s a little weirder.” Many YouTube commenters praised the performance, but lotku commented that Billie Joe Armstrong butchered a key part, “Billie forgot the scream.” Lavender Llama responded, “I feel like anywhere from the 90s to 2005, Billie would’ve done the scream pretty well lol.” Scott Bryant commented, “Billie should front the next Nirvana reunion.”

Admiral Needa wrote on YouTube about the show, “On the show’s flyer, it said ‘Dress Up!’ so many attendees wore holiday costumes and festive attire, including the band! Admission was only $17, and with it, we also got a raffle ticket. Several prizes were raffled off, including the festive holiday hats that Mike, Billie Joe and Chris wore during the show, and a rare compilation vinyl from Fuel, Thumper, Monsula and Filth. The biggest prize, however, was their black 1992 Cadillac limousine that the band previously used to travel to all the Coverups shows. Mike: “And it’s totally smoggable” lol.

The winners, coincidentally, were Lani Torres and Summer Gerbing, co-owners of the Ivy Room! For the previous show at The Uptown in Oakland, the band teased the crowd into thinking they were giving away their limo, only to then give away a Bird Scooter, lol.

The Ivy Room is a bar and music venue which has a capacity of only 196 people and there were ~125 friends and family in attendance. The previous 5 Coverups shows were held in Albany at the Ivy Room, Thee Parkside in San Francisco and The Uptown in Oakland.

The Coverups, Billie Joe, Mike Dirnt, Jason White, Bill Schneider and Chris Dugan, all hung out after the show, talking and taking pictures with friends, family and fans. For ‘American Girl’, Jason Beebout of Samiam, a punk band from Berkeley, California, sang the lead vocals. For ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’, Michelle Gonzalez of Spitboy and Kamala and the Karnivores joined them on the vocals and played the tambourine. And for the final couple songs of Corrupted Morals, Billie Joe sang the lead vocals and played guitar on ‘In the End’ and ‘Be All You Can Be’, which was included on the soundtrack to the documentary Turn It Around: Story of East Bay Punk.

Many of the fans recognized each other from previous Green Day concerts. However, because the Ivy Room could only allow in fans 21 years old and over, some fans could not make it.

Mike Dirnt: Could I get a real beer? lol (they previously were all drinking non-alcoholic Clausthalers)”

Setlist:
1. A Million Miles Away (The Plimsouls cover)
2. I Wanna Be Sedated (Ramones cover)
3. Don’t Change (INXS cover)
4. I Fought the Law (The Crickets cover)
5. Father Christmas (The Kinks cover)
6. Where Eagles Dare (Misfits cover)
7. Born to Lose (The Heartbreakers cover)
8. Bastards of Young (The Replacements cover)
9. I Will Dare (The Replacements cover)
10. American Girl (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers cover) (with Jason Beebout)
11. Summer of ’69 (Bryan Adams cover)
12. All the Young Dudes (David Bowie cover)
13. Should I Stay or Should I Go (The Clash cover) (with Michelle Gonzalez)
14. Neat Neat Neat (The Damned cover)
15. Sheena Is a Punk Rocker (Ramones cover)
16. Dancing With Myself (Generation X cover)
17. Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie cover)
18. Drain You (Nirvana cover)
19. Suffragette City (David Bowie cover)
20. Happy (The Rolling Stones cover)
21. Surrender (Cheap Trick cover)
22. Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin cover)
23. My Sharona (The Knack cover)
24. Run Run Rudolph (Chuck Berry cover)
25. Jumpin’ Jack Flash (The Rolling Stones cover)
26. (What’s So Funny ’bout) Peace, Love and Understanding (Brinsley Schwarz cover)

 

AVENGED SEVENFOLD TALKS MAD HATTER