Category Archives: music

music

Brock speaks out on Randy Blythe manslaughter controversy in Prague…

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Lamb of God frontman, Randy Blythe, has been arrested in Prague, which is the Capital of the Czech Republic. He was arrested for an incident back in 2010 during a concert where he is accused of an onstage altercation with a fan, in which later, the fan died of injuries. He was charged for manslaughter. He is now out on bail.

Of course, fans of Lamb of God, try to stick up for Randy. Claiming it was for self defense. The fan jumped on the stage when he wasn’t welcomed. All that stuff, blah blah blah blah. Okay, here is my honest thoughts on this story…

While I’m a fan of Lamb of God myself. I have their first two albums, and even saw them in concert when they opened for Metallica a few years back, I would have to agree with the manslaughter charge and Randy should be investigated. Before you get pissed, here’s why. Fans getting killed at concerts is nothing new. It’s been happening for years. Especially at metal concerts. Metal concerts can get worse, with the aggressive mosh pits and all. There are a lot of fans in facebook and other places online saying, that the fan got what he deserved ’cause he jumped on the stage where he didn’t belong. I mean, really? People jump on stages at concerts all the time, it happens. Usually when that stuff happens, the security will walk them off to the side of the stage, not throw them off. Why do fans jump on the stage? A lot of reasons: 1) To get a closer look at the rock stars. 2) They like to jump off the stage and into the crowd themselves. The list can keep going, but those two are the big reasons.

You see, you can’t always side with the rock stars on these things. I mean, what if they start it, sometimes you know? Rock stars can get a little aggressive and excited on stage, that sometimes they can get into a destructive mode and they want to start acting tough. Yes, the fan may have been drunk or on drugs that night and he was acting way out of line but there are better ways to handle things. Watching the video below, Randy wasn’t alone on throwing the fan off the stage. He got help with a huge man on the video, which looks to be a bodyguard or security or something.

I’m pretty sure Randy himself is feeling pretty horrible about this. I’m sure he even feels bad about the fan and his family/friends. I’m sure Randy didn’t mean what he did, ’cause he is a performer and even rock stars can make mistakes too. They’re not perfect, just like we aren’t. No matter what you think of the fan, he did not deserve it. Think about the family and friends. We don’t know how the whole thing happened, we weren’t there, so you can’t immediately call, Randy, an innocent man. Just because you’re a fan, doesn’t mean you have to be on his side. Like I said before, I’m a fan of Lamb of God, I love their music, but I think it’s wrong that Randy did this. He should have handled it better. All fans deserve to be treated safely at concerts, no matter how rough they can get. The fan was a human being and he was young. He didn’t deserve that. Just wait for the trial and then we can judge.

Kev

music

Congrats to the Flaming Lips, that’s awesome!

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No matter what you think of the Flaming Lips, love ’em or hate ’em, they are one of the most hardest working bands around. The Flaming Lips broke the world record, performing 8 different concerts during a 24 hour period, beating rapper Jay-Z. I love the Flaming Lips, always have. Wayne Coyne is an excellent songwriter, and live performer. He may not have the greatest singing voice, but that’s what I like about him. I said it before, I like singers who don’t take their talent seriously and they just sing for the love of it. I wish I could see them live in concert myself.

More on the story, here.

Kev

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Metallica’s “Orion Music + More” Fest…very surprisingly successful and very positive experience all around!

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Whenever a huge metal festival happens, people would start worrying about things. People would worry about deaths, fighting in the audience or worse concert riots. Thankfully none of that happened at Metallica’s “Orion Fest + More”. The Fest was clearly about the music. All the fans there were there to see Metallica, but some of the Metallica fans did stick around to check out the other bands on the Festival though. I didn’t see any of the bands on the Festival except I did caught Lucero, yesterday, which I actually liked them.

Tonight’s Metallica set, they played the Black Album in it’s entirety. This time, they played right through the full album, song after song. Metallica still proves that they can do speed metal and they can still do it well. People are upset with them because they went alternative rock in the early 2000’s. Changing their genre completely. You see, I still like their alternative rock “St. Anger/Load/Reload” sound ’cause I admired the band wanting to move away from speed metal to do something different. Bands change and evolve. I like that.

The reason Metallica went back to speed metal at Orion fest ’cause it was a tribute to Cliff Burton. It’s what Cliff would have wanted, so they gave it to him. At the end of tonight’s set, there was a fan out in the audience holding up a very large poster of Cliff Burton, so Lars, walks out to the stage ramp to get a closer look at it, which was a pretty heartbreaking and sad moment. Metallica still loves Cliff, even to this day. The festival was all about Cliff really. I’m sure Cliff would have loved the festival himself if he was still alive today.

While Metallica killed it again tonight, I wish they would change up their ending to their sets. They keep playing the same encore songs, ending it with “Seek and Destroy” every concert. “Seek and Destroy”, is an amazing song, but it doesn’t always have to be the end song of a concert. Change it up some, boys! Metallica really are great live performers. They don’t fake anything with their playing. James doesn’t lip sync, he can really sing. I can tell ’cause they play the same songs differently each night. Different tempo, different feeling. Sometimes better than the night before.

The question we all have to ask is, what is their next new album is going to sound like? The follow up to “Death Magnetic”? Will, they finally redeem themselves and go back to speed metal like the fans wanted? While “Death Magnetic” was mostly speed metal, they still had quite a few songs on the record that were still, “Load/Reload” sounding. I’m hoping they’ll go back to thrash for their next album, but I doubt it. That’s the tough part about songwriting. You just play whatever comes out of you, doesn’t matter the genre. That’s one thing that fans don’t understand about music and songwriting. Your mind is like a radio, ya know? A songwriter hears original songs in his/her head all the time, and musicians write the songs to get it out of them. I’m sure fans want to see them go back to the genre they are known for but it’s all about the songwriting inspiration. Sometimes they can’t help writing out of the speed metal genre. That’s what being an artist is all about. And that’s another reason why I respect Metallica.

Kev

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Brock reviews Metallica’s “Ride the Lightning” set at Orion Festival last night…

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Last night, I watched the live broadcast of Metallica’s thunderous set at Orion Festival on youtube. They played every single song from the “Ride the Lightning”, album like advertised! The album isn’t that long, it only has 8 songs on the album, so they had to mix in other hits from their other albums during their set. Last night’s set was a monster! WOW! Makes me wish I was at the show. Last night, was all old school Metallica, throughout their entire set. They played mostly their older material from “Kill ‘Em All”, “Lightning”, “And Justice For All” and of course, a few songs from the “Black Album”. This was by far, the best live performance I’ve seen by the guys.

At first, I was a little skeptical of Orion fest, but after watching some of it on youtube, the Fest actually looks kind of cool. Of course, Metallica’s set got the largest crowd more than any other band ’cause they’re Metallica. I didn’t watch any other bands on the Orion Fest, but I did catch Lucero which they are actually pretty decent.

On with Metallica, this is what everyone wants to see them as. Speed metal kings, and last night was all speed metal all the way through. They didn’t play anything from “St. Anger”, “Load/Reload”, “Death Magnetic” or, “Lulu”. Maybe they will play some of the newer stuff for tonight’s set but last night, it was a celebration of their 30 year career, most definitely. I respect Metallica for a lot of reasons. For one, they are the best live performers out there, and they know how to interact with the crowd onstage better than any other band. You can clearly tell, that Metallica really love their fans. After the set got over with, the band stuck around for a while, giving the audience in the front row high fives, throwing guitar picks out in the crowd, and Lars was throwing drum sticks into the crowd as well. It shows that they are really good guys.

Orion Fest, is a pretty successful Festival so far. I see them doing it again next year. Metallica deserves their own festival. Ozzy Osbourne created Ozzfest back in the day, which was a hit Festival. Perry Ferrell created Lollapalooza which that Festival is now legendary. Megadeth created “Gigantour”, which is also a hit.

The whole point of “Orion Fest & More”, is that Metallica wants to express themselves more to their fans. They want to show people what they do other than music. For example, James Hetfield loves cars and motorcycles, so he put on his own car and motorcycle show there. Lars Ulrich, is a big fan of Hollywood movies, so he put up his own Hollywood tent showing some of his favorite films, handpicked by the man himself. Kirk Hammett loves horror fiction, so he put up his own horror museum, called, “Kirk’s Crypt”, displaying all of his horror memorabilia and merchandise. As for Rob Trujillo, he reveals that he loves surfing so he uses the fest to show off his love for surfing and for him to go out surfing himself, of course. Rob also has a passion for skateboarding and there’s a little section at the fest where fans can skateboard at the skateboard ramp.

There are also all kinds of other museums and fun things to see and do. Kind of makes me wish I bought tickets to that Festival and went myself.

No matter what you think of Metallica, they are the kings of metal. I respect their history, their legacy they created, plus, I dig all of their music. You’re not a true Metallica fan if you just like their speed metal stuff only and not enjoy their new material. To be a true Metallica die hard, you MUST LIKE ALL OF THEIR MUSIC. Including the, “St. Anger/Load/Reload” stuff, which I do enjoy as well. These guys are monster songwriters. They are a big influence on my own songwriting as well.

Seeing Metallica for the first time myself live during the “Death Magnetic” tour a few years ago, meant a lot to me. I hope to see them live again.

Kev

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Want to watch Metallica perform at Orion Fest? Watch it on Youtube Fuse channel…

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Metallica’s Orion Fest is this weekend and tonight Metallica will be performing the “Ride the Lightning” album in it’s entirety, tomorrow night will be the “Black Album”. Since I’m a die hard Metallica fan, I’ll be watching both nights. I’ll only be watching Orion just for Metallica, not the other bands.

Watch it here, if you’re interested, that is.

Kev

Books, music

Book Review: Dee Snider, “Shut Up and Give Me The Mic”

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Today, I just finished reading Dee Snider’s rock memoir, “Shut Up and Give Me the Mic”. You see, the 80’s hair metal band, Twisted Sister, was a huge inspiration for me. When I was a kid, I would play their vinyl album, “Stay Hungry”, pretty religiously. Yep, I was pretty addicted to that album. Dee Snider’s look and image, the long curly hair, makeup, and weird looking costume. That look is very cool. That look on the album cover of “Stay Hungry”, is what made me want to get the album and what made me want to get into the band, Twisted Sister. Every time, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” or, “I Wanna Rock” played on MTV back in the day, I would crank it up, sing along with it and play air guitar. I truly believe that was the beginning of my love for rock music. It started from there. That’s how big Twisted Sister was back in the day.

If you think Dee Snider, was into drugs, alcohol, hard partying and fucking multiple women. Think again. He did none of those things. Most rock memoirs are about sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. Dee Snider’s book is not. If you’re expecting to read about sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll in this book, then move along. This book strictly focus’s on Dee’s life and music career. The main focus of this book is to tell the true story of how he created the rock character we all loved and has been inspired by. His famous look in the photo below:

The book also focuses on how he created the two iconic hit songs everyone knows, “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, and “I Wanna Rock”.

In the book, he explained how he got into music and how he joined, Twisted Sister. Dee didn’t form the band himself, he joined them. Twisted Sister, was Jay Jay French’s band. Dee just wrote all the songs and sang them. He explained that the Dee Snider image we all know, didn’t happen right away. It happened pretty slowly. Dee had different costumes before the one we all know. His wife, Suzette, is a costume designer and she was the one who created the image for him. Everything about Dee’s life and the career of Twisted Sister is in there. He also talked a lot about family life and how he met Suzette and married her. Things like that. Even Twisted Sister’s career slump after the “Stay Hungry” album was all in there too. I was actually pretty surprised on how intelligent Dee Snider is. He’s also pretty comical and told a lot of funny stories. There will be a few parts in there that will get you laughing out loud for no reason.

The part that grabbed me the most about the book was the part about Dee’s battle against the PMRC. As you can see in that link, Dee testified in that court battle, to defend Twisted Sister’s music ’cause Tipper Gore accused the band of promoting violence and obscene things. John Denver and Frank Zappa both tried to help defend the 1st Amendment in music too. While these three guys tried their best to destroy the PMRC, they lost the battle of course. Which is why we still see those, “Parental Advisory” warnings on albums even to this day. I agree that there is nothing violent about Twisted Sister’s music at all. Their music has always been positive, and family friendly, yet they’re always getting wrongfully accused of promoting violence, drugs, etc. The song, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” is about venting out your frustrations. I don’t see anything in the lyrics about beating people up.

Other than that, this was an entertaining read. Dee says he plans on writing a sequel to this book, so that should be good too. This book focused on the past of his career. I’m sure the sequel will focus on the present time of his career (like the Twisted Sister reunion, the Christmas album, Celebrity Apprentice, etc.). I’ve read a lot of rock memoirs, but I think this is one of the best ones I’ve ever read. Like Dee Snider or not, he is a heavy metal pioneer. He was the one who started the 80’s hair metal trend. This was a great read. Check it out.

Kev

EDIT TO ADD: While we’re on the subject of Twisted Sister, they deserve an induction into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame too.

music

Report: Rush’s, Alex Lifeson, finally responds about getting snubbed from the Hall of Fame…

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Do you think the guys in the band, Rush, are upset about getting ignored by the Hall of Fame constantly? Nope. Think again. The band seems pretty cool with it. Alex Lifeson, spoke his thoughts about it to Rollingstone magazine, and he says, the band simply doesn’t care. He says, the band was honored more awards that are more meaningful than the Hall Of Fame.

If the band ever get nominated, the band wouldn’t turn down an induction, ’cause simply put, they don’t want to be rude (like Axl Rose).

Read Alex’s thoughts, here.

I’m sure Rush would make their way into the Hall of Fame. If not? Who cares is right! Their legacy is bigger than the Hall of Fame, so who needs ’em? Rush rules. Always loved them myself! I saw them in concert one year too.

Kev

music

Report: Radiohead cancels Downsview Park concert in Toronto due to stage collapse, killing 1 and injuring a few others…

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Radiohead, was schedule to perform at Downsview Park tonight in Toronto, Canada, but the band were forced to cancel the concert due to a stage collapsing, which killed one person and injured a few others. The band themselves made the announcement on facebook/twitter, saying fans who bought tickets will get refunds and fans were told not to travel to the show.

While I’m sure, this is angering a lot of Radiohead fans, the band did a good move here, so I’m siding with them. Human lives are more important than music, so Radiohead had no choice but to cancel the gig for good, ’cause it’s for the best. I mean, this could have been Radiohead performing on stage. What if Radiohead were rehearsing before the show? It could have happened to them instead. Plus, they had to cancel the show out of respect for the person that died. Radiohead is just being professional about this.

This is just even more proof that outdoor concerts can be very very dangerous. This is pretty tragic, and I’m sure the guys in Radiohead are scared themselves.

More on the story, here.

Kev

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Cool Video: Alice Cooper covers Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” at Bonnaroo…

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Here is Alice Cooper and his band covering, Lady Gaga’s, “Born This Way”. They don’t call Alice Cooper a shock rocker for nothing. The man is always unpredictable at his live performances.

Some may find this a bit silly, but no matter what you think about Lady Gaga’s music, she is rock n’ roll. She’s a rock musician even though, she has a lot of electronica and pop in her songs. Any rock band can cover her music, and this is proof of it. Honestly, Alice’s version is better than the original and he just made it his own song. I’m sure Gaga herself is flattered he did it.

I’m a huge fan of Gaga and not ashamed of it either. She already has a fourth album in the works, and looking forward to that.

Kev