Basslines and Protest Signs is Brett Callwood’s column looking at the intersection of music and politics. This week talks about gun violence in America and the attempt to place blame on video games, TV shows, movies, and music.
Female-fronted power metal quintet Huntress recently wrapped up a tour with metal titans Testament, Killswitch Engage, and Lamb of God, who they’ll be heading to Europe with in the new year. Frontwoman Jill Janus plays hardball and is certainly one of the boys. Classically trained and positively wicked, Janus sat down for some girltalk with idobi writer Alex Rudisill at one of their final dates with such a legendary lineup.
If The Black Parade was My Chemical Romance’s take on the 1970’s over the top opera rock concept album, then Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys is the band’s attempt at recreating the 1980’s synth laden rock and roll.
Fabled Michigan rock band Pop Evil has signed with Universal Republic Records and released Lipstick On A Mirror today. The album has been re-mixed and re-mastered, with a brand new song, “Rolling Stone,” and a riveting acoustic rendition of their signature song “100 In A 55,” which is already gaining traction online, even before its official release to multiple radio formats. In support of the release, Pop Evil will sweep the nation on a two month long tour supporting Judas Priest and Whitesnake beginning July 5th in Wallingford, Conn. Led by larger-than-life frontman Leigh Kakaty, the band is already the… Read more »
He had one of the biggest opening sales weeks of 2008, and now, Lil Wayne is the year’s most-nominated Grammy contender. Wayne and his latest LP, “Tha Carter III,” lead the pack with a total of eight nominations, while one of the year’s other biggest sellers, Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends,” garnered seven nods. Jay-Z, Ne-Yo and Kanye West each earned six nods, while Alison Krauss, John Mayer, Robert Plant, Radiohead and Jazmine Sullivan received five each. Adele is up for four – including Best New Artist – as are Lupe Fiasco and T.I. The… Read more »
Kasabian Rock’s back pages are littered with tall tales and weird stories about murder and mayhem. Everyone’s heard the one about the woman murdered while the Ohio Players recorded “Love Rollercoaster,” her blood-curdling scream inadvertently making it into the final mix; of Charles Manson’s dalliances with the Beach Boys; or the backwards messages in Judas Priest songs that made middle-American teenagers kill themselves. Well, here’s another one – while recording their self-titled debut in a rural farmhouse, U.K. electro-rock troupe Kasabian whiled away their evenings of pastoral isolation with bloody killing sprees. True story. Well, sort of. “There were shitloads… Read more »
British heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath will reunite for the first time since 2001 for Ozzfest, which begins July 10 in Hartford, Conn., a spokeswoman for the annual road show said on Tuesday. Ozzfest co-founder and headliner Ozzy Osbourne will revisit such hard rocking classics as “War Pigs” and “Paranoid” along with guitarist Tony Iommi and bass player Geezer Butler. But original drummer Bill Ward will be replaced by Mike Bordin, who backs Osbourne on his solo gigs. Along with three-quarters of the original Black Sabbath, Ozzfest will also feature four-fifths of the original Judas Priest, and such acts as… Read more »
Ozzy Osbourne may be famous for biting a head off a bat, but he’ll never bite the hand that feeds him-that is, his fans. Chomping at the bit to get back onstage again since his near-fatal ATV crash late last year, the Prince of F-king Darkness has confirmed plans to headline this summer’s Ozzfest, the monstrously successful heavy metal touring festival he founded in 1996, Billboard.com reports. Details are still sketchy but the bill is also said to include such other headbangers as Slayer, shock-rockers Slipknot and enduring British metal mavens Judas Priest, who recently reunited with vocalist Rob Halford… Read more »
Works by Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and George Harrison are among the major catalog titles slated to be released in the first quarter of 2004. On Feb. 24, Universal Music Enterprises (UME) will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the British Invasion with a multi-disc set on the Hip-O label. UME will also begin a year-long, multi-title campaign feting rock’n’roll’s birth. Rhino delivers “Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath,” an eight-CD set collecting each album issued by the band’s original lineup (plus a bonus DVD) in March. On March 9, Sony catalog division Legacy will honor metal gods Judas Priest… Read more »
Zakk Wylde tasted instant success when he became Ozzy Osbourne’s guitar player at age 20, but now he’s steadily coming out of his mentor’s shadow to ride the resurgence of heavy metal as a band leader. His group, Black Label Society, has been building a dedicated following around the United States, releasing four studio albums of aggressive guitars and raw vocals. The band’s first DVD, “Boozed, Broozed & Broken-Boned,” a performance filmed in Detroit last year, reached No. 3 on Billboard magazine’s music video chart in late August, behind Led Zeppelin and the Eagles. “With Black Label I get to… Read more »