K'Brocking Entertainment

Metallica have been teasing a big announcement well the band themselves revealed it today during a live webcast. They just announced their own festival called, “Orion Festival & More” which will take place on June 23 & 24th in Atlantic City, N.J. Ticket pricing will be $125 for two day pass, MetClubUltraPass for the good stuff will be $225.

See the band line-up for the Festival, here.

The band said it’s not just a metal festival, they want to have all genres of music as you can see. This is Metallica’s own festival.

Ozzy has his own music festival with Ozzfest. Dave Mustaine has his own festival with, Gigantour. Now it’s Metallica time to have their own festival.

While I love Metallica, I would have to be honest and say that this is big news? It’s disappointing. I kept thinking they were going to make their “3D” movie that they’ve been planning official, but nope.

I also think the ticket pricing are a bit overpriced. Dave Mustaine’s Gigantour tickets weren’t that high. Dave always kept the Gigantour pricing pretty affordable.

I’m predicting Metallica’s festival will probably bomb.

Kev

Many of you would know, that I am a die hard Metallica fan. There’s this all girl Metallica tribute band, called, Misstallica. If you local readers are interested, they’ll be playing a gig at Bogie’s  in Albany. I would love to go see them, but I don’t think I’ll be able to make it this week.

Misstallica’s been advertised over facebook and they got me curious. So I went looking for their youtube videos at their live shows, and wow. These girls actually fuckin’ rock, and I’m impressed!

Metallica songs are extremely hard to cover, especially their earlier stuff in the 80′s. The most complex Metallica album would have to be, “And Justice For All”,  and these girls nailed all of those songs, note for note. They’re pretty tight and they look fun to see live. Their singer & guitarist Gina Gleason, shreds some pretty good solos, she doesn’t just play rhythm guitar.

Someday, I would have to go out and see them next time they come around here. Who says girls can’t be into metal? I’m sure there are tons of Metallica tribute bands out there, but Misstallica’s, the best one I’ve heard. Enjoy these killer videos. Keep up the great work ladies!

Kev

Jimmy Page, Sammy Hagar, Lemmy, Kid Rock, Chris Jericho, Aerosmith, Tom Morello, Slash, etc. took the time to make a video blog congratulating Metallica on their 30th Annivesary. I’m sure all of these musicians were asked to be a part of the 30th Anniversary show at the Fillmore but they couldn’t make it.

Who knew that Jimmy Page is a huge Metallica fan?

Check out the cool videos, here.

Edit to add: It is kind of weird how Lou Reed doesn’t have a video up yet, and it’s also weird how he didn’t perform at the Fillmore? They didn’t want their LuLu project to overshadow their Annivesary concert, that could be the reason?

Kev

Over the weekend, Metallica had their 30th Anniversary concert at the Filmore in San Francisco, and they had a few surprises for the fans.

The videos below Metallica reunited with their former bandmate & bass player, Jason Newsted for the song, “Whiplash”. Metallica also jams with Ozzy & Geezer Butler for “Iron Man” and “Paranoid”.

Pretty cool. Congrats to Metallica on their 30th Anniversary. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they are the kings of metal whether you agree with it or not. I’m sure many fans would like to think they should have retired a long time ago, but sorry to say, Metallica isn’t going away anytime soon. I’m positive Metallica will be around for a long time, they’ll be together until they get old and die.

Kev

After all the negative feedback Lou Reed & Metallica have been getting for “Lulu”, everybody wants Metallica to release their true Metallica album. The follow up to “Death Magnetic”. Metallica is currently recording their next album, by themselves, with no collaborations.

When Metallica releases their next album, everybody will probably talk shit about that too. Everybody wants Metallica to do a true Metallica thrash metal album, but when they do, people will always find something to hate on them for. Like I said before, no matter what Metallica does in their music career, it makes them badguys.

Metallica tries their best to give what the fans want. They brought the speed metal genre back with “Death Magnetic”, because everyone’s been begging for it, after their flop with, “St. Anger”.

This is why I wish James Hetfield would write his own autobiography. He could write it as a way to defend Metallica, a book where he can clear everything of what the band did over the years. I wish he would write his own book ’cause it seems that most metal icons are writing memoirs these days.

When Metallica do release their follow up to “Death Magnetic”, don’t be surprised if they could stay away from the speed metal thing again. Keep in mind, that Metallica has always sounded different every album. I don’t think their next album will be another “Death Magnetic”, they will probably change their sound and style again. Metallica playing with Lou Reed, might change the way they play a little bit.

I’m interested in what they’re next album is going to sound like. Hopefully it will be heavy and thrashy. The point of this post is that they could piss everyone off again with their next album.

I’m a true Metallica fan ’cause I appreciate every album they do. Yes, I even like “Load”, “Reload”, and “St. Anger”. Metallica can’t please everyone. They’re still the kings no matter what you think of ‘em.

Kev

Whenever Metallica is brought up in a music discussion forum like facebook, blogs, message boards, etc. Metallica’s controversy with Napster years back is always brought up. Whenever I bring up a topic about Metallica in my facebook account, at least 1 person will bring up the Napster thing there too. Apparently, people have never gotten over Metallica who sued Napster in 2000.

Napster used to be a free downloading music software site. I used to use it myself before the software became payable. Do I blame Metallica for this that downloading music online isn’t free anymore? No. I don’t blame Metallica at all. Who is the real person that should be blamed on? Just blame the thief who stole their song “I Disappear” and leaked it on Napster before the single’s release date. He is the real bad guy there.

That is why Metallica was angry at Napster, because somebody leaked the “I Disappear” song to Napster early which is a song off the, “Mission Impossible II” soundtrack. They were angry about the file sharing on Napster, not because people were downloading the music.

I respect Metallica for what they did to Napster. It’s their music. They were just trying to protect their work. That’s what it was all about. I’ve explained it plenty of times in the past before, if you’re a band and if your music is copyrighted, you have complete control of it. You have the right to choose if you want other people using your music. If other people use your music without your permission, that gives you the right to sue.

Will you feel good about it if some idiot thief steals your music and leaks it to the internet before release date? No. That would piss you right off, I’m sure. That’s how Metallica felt. It was all about respecting the copyright and their work.

People think they can use other band’s music for free, all they want to, but bands work hard for what they do so deserve to get paid for their music. Don’t be a pirate. Support the artist and the industry by buying it. There are still a lot of pirates out there steal a lot of music, but I’d rather not do that. I like putting my money toward the artists that I like. I don’t mind buying the CD or downloading the music digitally.

I like to respect the artist and their copyright. You should too. That’s why Napster turned into a payable site, because it was you that was stealing and sharing stuff. It’s not the band’s fault at all. All they want to do is make music and release it for your listening pleasure. You’re just disrespecting the band by disrespecting their copyright. End of story.

Kev

Remember the Mini Band, which has band members of 8-10 year old kids covering Metallica’s, “Enter Sandman”? The video was becoming an internet sensation, getting a lot of hits, and Metallica, the band themselves, finally picked up on it. Here is the boys in Metallica themselves in their studio watching the video. Kirk Hammett’s kids even went in there and watched it with them.

I also loved it when Kirk kind of dissed the band a little bit and James defended them by saying, “They already are incredibly great, man”. What Kirk said was kind of rude and kind of a back handed way, of saying they suck, but James and Lars turned the feedback into a more positive direction.

Metallica enjoys other musicians covering their work. They made videos responding to other people’s work in youtube before, this wasn’t the first.

Kev

Brilliant response to negative critics about “Lulu”, Lou Reed himself said:

“I wouldn’t care what a critic said about anything, including a hamburger joint. There is no species of people I have less respect for.”

Read more, here.

There, take that, Lou Reed haters.

Kev

In this video by ArtisanNews, they did an interview with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich to discuss, “Lulu”. They respond to the negative feedback that the album have been getting by the longtime Metallica fans. Their response? They said this album shouldn’t be judged by normal Metallica standards. I think they mean, they don’t want fans looking at this record as a strictly Metallica album which people are confused on. I agree, this is not a Metallica album. It’s a Lou Reed album with Metallica being the backup band like I said before.

James also agreed to do this project because he said he wanted to try something new and different by not being the leading man or a front man for a change. It was an opportunity for James to put his songwriting duties aside and let someone else do the work. James has been the leading frontman for years and he wanted to step back from it for a little bit. That is also why he didn’t sing much on the record and was just considered a backup singer.

I also agree with them that it was an obvious collaboration. When they jammed together at the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame show, people should have seen that collaboration coming anyway.

I loved the “Lulu” album, and I’ll be getting it for my Ipod soon.

Kev

I don’t mean to write about this project again, but there’s something else I need to say to get off my chest. That’s the big problem with this “Lulu” album, that it’s mostly Lou’s spoken-word vocals that is getting trashed on. I think I just figured out what’s wrong here. I think it’s because that a lot of people aren’t really into this “Spoken word” genre. Ever listen to spoken word music? You mostly hear spoken word music with folk music, jazz, blues, etc. but you never hear “Spoken word” music with rock n’ roll or metal.

Gil Scot-Heron was a spoken word artist. Utah Phillips is another. You can add Henry Rollins to the list.There are plenty more.

People complain that’s Lou’s vocals all over the music ruins the album, and I ask, how? His lyrics maybe full of rage and anger, but he wanted to do that as to how Lulu felt through the plays. She was a prostitute who went through so much trouble, and Lou’s rants with the songs was his way of showing it. As long as people are complaining about his vocals, Lou certainly did a great job grabbing people’s attention. It was about emotion.

I understand the Lulu record, 100%. Not everyone hates the record, however, there are some that love it just as much as I do, that’s because they get it, and they are smart.

I don’t see how people don’t like the album. I honestly feel people didn’t even listen to the whole thing carefully. It also annoys me that people seems to have the same opinions on everything when I don’t have to be like that.

Lou’s the best storyteller, as long as he got everyone talking good or bad, the Lulu story still got a lot of attention that it deserved.

Kev