Man, after seeing some of the Cohen testimony today and wondering if just maybe the Government shouldn’t seem shadier than an episode of Ozark, it was nice to get the some feel good ‘aww yeah’ feels from iconic funky hard rockers Living Colour after spending most of the day feeling generally pretty darn bleak. The brilliant act will be hitting the UK to wow crowds very soon! Still one of the all time greatest rock bands and tremendously good live, if you are anywhere near these dates you gotta go. Great support acts as well! Check the announcement below.
We’re excited to announce Vivid 30th celebration shows in the UK in July 2019 w/ special guests Wayward Sons + Jared Nichols James
I’m a late eighties and super early 90’s kid for the most part at heart – some 80’s new wave and 00’s Deftones type stuff aside. Today I was revisiting Living Colour‘s excellent Time’s Up release, perhaps my favorite of their records. It so captured various rising sounds of an era. People forget the band worked with everyone from Don Byron to Mick Jagger to Little Richard and were so much more than an easy to pigeonhole hard rock band. They went 2x platinum with Vivid and have other great records but to me Time’s Up is kind of their Incesticide – full of characteristic examples of their range and some popular cuts for die hard fans but overshadowed by other records.
With the exception of Soulside (who never broke into mainstream conversations) and mighty Bad Brains, who laid the groundwork but didn’t get their full due until much later despite influencing everyone from Jane’s Addiction to Scream and Nirvana, there was really nothing that sounded at all like rowdier Living Colour except some of the rhythm tracks on Appetite For Destruction or, again, some of the frenetic early funk-a-fied alt rock of Jane’s, Faith No More or RHCP. That sort of funky side has all but been whitewashed out of a lot of indie rock and punk these days but the freak flag is still flown by, say, Stephen Bruner/Thundercat or a lesser known band like Joey Eppard’s 3, for example. Plus, it is always awesome to see black men owning rock n roll as a genre since they are the ones who really created it first. I saw Corey Glover live at O+ Festival in my city of Kingston a year or so back and the fluidity of his vocals even now was astounding.
Living Colour’s best material reminds us of a time when bands were unafraid to be themselves and find different, but like minded peers, each band thus becoming underscored as special for their similarities and unique qualities. Seattle grunge was also very much like that. Seeing the Living Colour version of “Blow Up The Outside World” really moved me. The band do their own interpretation but the love is so strong for the material, the moment they are sharing with fans and for the departed Cornell. The best covers are usually when a band does their own caring but unique take, from Moby’s take on “New Dawn Fades” to Dax Riggs’ Leonard Cohen covers to Macy Gray’s jazzy version of a Metallica song . Heck, Robert Trujillo quoted “Black Hole Sun” in a section of a patented Metallica-style bass solo to nod to Soundgarden and the world’s huge loss, for example.
Soundgarden were so special because they wore their Sab and Beatles influences and didn’t pretend they were God’s gift sent from a void without giving credit, but they forged a unique sound from the clay of their roots. I wish more bands today still cared enough to try to do that.
There is something about this Living Colour version of a not as obvious choice like “Outshined” though that brings the immediacy of the loss and also the bittersweet but beautiful nature of this life we are all in to a head. The crowd singing along so strongly to a lesser known hit should move even the staunchest black metal snob or blog hipster with a heart of entitled stone. Please watch it and remember that music can make us all family.
“Breathing Lightning,” the first official track from Anthrax‘s upcoming album For All Kings due out February 26 (Megaforce/North America), goes to radio today. The band’s Frank Bello, Charlie Benante and Scott Ian talk about the writing and recording of the song in this new video clip HERE.
“Breathing Lightning” and the track “Evil Twin” will be available at indie retail beginning January 15 as a download card included in each box of the band’s fully customized, limited-edition full, 52-card deck playing cards. On February 26, the card will enable the holder to download the entire album.
Posted by longhairedpoet on Friday, November 6, 2015 at 10:02 AM (PST)
Arizona punk rockers Doll Skin have signed to Megaforce imprint EMP Records.
EMP records was founded by Megadeth bassist David Ellefson.
In Your Face was released in North America on October 30 and will drop in Europe on December 18. The European release will be released by EMP in conjunction with Cargo Records.
Check out the “Family of Strangers” video, Doll Skin tour dates and the In Your Face tracklist here.
“I’m hoping as a culture we can be better than to stoop to rap feuds. It’s all of us against idiots like the Westboro Baptist Church. Let’s not let the tiny difference between Grind and Thrash get in the way of that.” – Jason Lekberg (Vocals)
IKILLYA are a band really on point with their press kit, drive and pro but genuine and simultaneously self-invested but scene supportive methods. Talented vocalist and industry navigator Jason Lekberg has some serious knowledge he drops in this interview and I’d recommend all metal fans, bands or industry types read and heed his words in regards to goals, artist development and persistence BELOW.
Posted by longhairedpoet on Friday, May 30, 2014 at 2:23 PM (PST)
New York City death metallers IKILLYA have been playing metal since 2005 and released their debut album back in 2011.
With kind of a deathcore feel, a brand new album released last month, and a signing to Megaforce Records, IKILLYA are thrashing and bashing their way onto the scene.
You can download IKILLYA’s debut effort Recon to get pummeled to here.
We’ve been getting requests for more hard rock lately and so here are some live shots of the band Fuel. You probably remember their emotional hit “Hemorrhage (In My Hands)” or that Brett Scallions sang with The Doors for awhile. Well, Brett is a great front man for what he does. It may not be metal but it is certainly hard rock and heck, they even had Ken from Candiria playing with them for awhile and he is like the best drummer in experimental metal so…whatever! I just found out they have a new album on Megaforce as well, so that’s pretty crazy. It’s called Puppet Strings and the reconstituted band has been touring it. Catharina Christiana got us some shots at a recent Poughkeepsie show.
The gnarliest punk album of the year just dropped. Love Is A Lie, Filth Is Eternal from Filth Is Eternal (formerly F'd and B'd) reminds us that there was a time when Seattle bands were considered dangerous, when Mudhoney might jump on your face and half the roster of Sub Pop didn't look like even Starbucks wasn't gentrified enough for their tepid, pale faced indie rock bullshit. Filth Is Eternal plays an explosive blend of go for the throat, not a moment wasted punk n' roll married to Sonic Youth flirting dissonance and with tones ugly enough to make Fudge Tunnel blush and The Bronx seem like Captain & Tennille. Fronted by an actual snarling wild animal over some of the best riffs and beats you have ever heard.
This record reminds me of a show I played in 1997 with my old band Fuse where I got wasted on unclean tapline Rolling Rocks and bottom shelf whiskey after getting a tattoo and ended up rolling on a country bar floor half nude and bleeding and smearing black grime and tattoo inky residue and blood everywhere, waking up the next day feeling kind of aroused and ready to fight literally anything but also half dead. Sirhan Sirhan is gonna get out of jail and be all stoked to enter polite society and this shit will play and it will retrigger a hypnotic trance and make dude go all Winter Soldier on some dudes.
If your band doesn't bang as hard as the ending of "The Dog", just quit now.
