Vince Neil to headline ‘family-freindly’ festival

“The Tybee Island Pirate Festival offers world-class entertainment with Vince Neil and family-friendly activities throughout the weekend at one of the liveliest celebrations along the coast.”

Hmnn. ‘Family-friendly’ and Vince Neil are not usually two things that go together but …. sure will be lively.

Here’s the press release:

Mötley Crüe Frontman Vince Neil to Headline Tybee Island Pirate Festival,
Event to Offer Swashbuckling Fun October 4-7

Swashbucklers of all ages will converge on Tybee Island, Georgia, an island paradise located just 20 minutes east of historic Savannah, for the 8th Annual Tybee Island Pirate Festival on October 4-7, 2012.

Mötley Crüe lead singer Vince Neil will be the headliner at a live concert on Saturday, October 6 at 7 p.m. Best known for his work on legendary Mötley Crüe albums like Shout at the Devil and Girls, Girls, Girls, Neil will perform a variety of Mötley Crüe hits at his Tybee Island Pirate Festival performance, much to the delight of attendees. Since the band’s founding in 1981, Mötley Crüe has sold more than 80 million albums worldwide.

The festivities will kick off with the coronation at the King and Queen at the Buccaneer’s Ball at the Crab Shack on Thursday, October 4. Friday evening entertainment will include live music by the Jimmy Buffett tribute band A1A, pirate performers, street performers, magicians, puppeteers, weaponry demonstrations and more. Eric and Susan Scites of Faire Wynds Historical Entertainment will demonstrate fire-eating and perform acts of magic throughout the weekend.

Additional highlights for the 2012 Tybee Island Pirate Festival include The Pirate Victory Parade, Scallywags Costume Contest, Little Matey’s Cove, Thieves Market and the new Pirate Pub with live music.

Every Columbus Day weekend, Tybee Island transforms into a lively pirate village, celebrating the colorful seafaring history that defines the Georgia coast.

“We invite everyone to get in touch with their inner pirate at this popular annual event,” said Lindsay Fruchtl, director of marketing for the Tybee Island Tourism Council. “The Tybee Island Pirate Festival offers world-class entertainment with Vince Neil and family-friendly activities throughout the weekend at one of the liveliest celebrations along the coast.”

The Tybee Island Pirate Fest originally began in 2005, attracting pirate enthusiasts from across the country. All 2012 Pirate Festival events will be held at the South Beach parking lot located at Tybrisa Street on Tybee Island, Georgia.

Organized by the Tybee Island Tourism Council, the Pirate Festival will showcase the best of Tybee Island, from award-winning restaurants to six miles of sandy beaches. Visitors are invited to escape the ordinary, if only for a weekend!

Pirate Festival Weekend Passes are $20 through August 31 and $22 after August 31. Children 12 and under are admitted free of charge. Weekend Passes may be purchased in advance at.

For more information about the 2012 Tybee Island Pirate Festival please call 912.786.5444, or visit www.tybeepiratefest.com.

Sunflower Dead groups experienced musicians

Jamie Teissere, guitarist of defunct metal band Droid, has announced the launch of his new project, SUNFLOWER DEAD. After multiple U.S. tours with bands such as Korn, Evanescence, Five Finger Death Punch and Hell Yeah supporting Droid’s debut on Munky from Korn’s Emotional Syphon Recordings, the guitarist was by no means ready to quit the music game after Droid’s sudden demise.

Wasting no time, he assembled a new outfit consisting of Michael (vocals, piano, accordion), Jaboo (guitar) formerly of Two Hit Creeper, Luis Gascon (bass) touring member of Buckethead, and Jimmy Schultz (drums) touring drummer of In This Moment.

The group dubbed themselves SUNFLOWER DEAD and went into Temple Studios (owned by Raymond Herrera of Fear Factory and B Real of Cyrpress Hill) with Christian Olde Wolbers (Fear Factory) to produce their 11- track self-titled debut record, set to release on August 21, 2012 with Bloody Bat Records LLC. Co-produced and mixed by Jeremy Blair (Guns N’ Roses, DevilDriver) at Temple and House of Blues Studios, and mastered by Robert Hadley (Korn) at The Mastering Lab.

“SUNFLOWER DEAD are a refreshing sound with a great vocal range, not like your average current metal/rock band,” commented producer Christian Olde Wolbers. “This is just the debut, but SUNFLOWER DEAD have tremendous potential to break in a bigger market and they have proved it with this strong debut.”

“This album is fucking dope,” added co-producer Jeremy Blair. “This band came in with the record they wanted to make and it was a pleasure to help them accomplish their goal without any outside negative influences. The songs, the playing, and hooks are sick. I believe this record will be huge.”

SUNFLOWER DEAD plans to release a new music video for the single ‘Make Me Drown’ in the coming months.

For more information on SUNFLOWER DEAD, please visit these websites:

www.sunflowerdead.com

Lars Ulrich as Dutch documentarian Joris Ivens

No one would have guessed back in 1981 that Lars Ulrich, a dorky metalhead from Denmark who formed a small band named Metallica, would one day play a significant character in a major cable network movie. In HBO’s biopic Hemingway & Gellhorn, Ulrich gets the opportunity to play Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens.

It’s no coincidence that girlfriend, Danish beauty/actress Connie Nielsen, had been cast in the movie. She probably got Lars the gig. Nonetheless, the drummer does a pretty good job. At first he doesn’t say much and walks aimlessly through the camera shots. But when the camera does center on Lars, he really does an admirable job.

The movie itself is absolutely horrible — stylistically schizophrenic,  a cartoonish approach to an era of Ernest Hemingway’s life. Nicole Kidman plays Martha Gellhorn opposite Clive Owen’s Hemingway. Not their best work. It’s not their fault that the script turns them into nothing more than caricatures. The truth is, with its sweeping, campy vision centered around the Spanish Civil War, it would have made more sense to turn this work into a Broadway musical, or a Baz Luhrmann film.

Practically the entire cast comes out as a casualty. Ironically, it’s the non-thespian, Lars Ulrich, that comes out okay. Not bad for a kid who survived his first cross-country, Metallica club tour on the likes of nasty bologna sandwiches and substandard beer.

Death Wolf to enter studio soon

According to Century Media Records, DEATH WOLF (led by Morgan of MARDUK) has entered the Endarker Studio in Östergötland, Sweden to begin recording their currently untitled second album, which is set to be released via Blooddawn Productions/Century Media Records in late summer 2012. More details about this upcoming album will be announced soon.

Vintage interview with Sebastian Bach posted on main Powerline site

An interview of Sebastian Back from the Powerline’s newsstand edition back in March 1990 is posted on the main Powerline site: www.powerlinemag.com

Here’s a little snippet:

“You know what I think about? I think about all the teachers and people that tried to tell me what to do with my life. And I said ‘f*ck you.’ And now I’m doing what they want to do. And their daughters are in line to f*ckin buy my album. All these f*ckin’ assholes who told me I could never do anything — screw you! I’m f*ckin’ doing it!”

Click here to read the entire Powerline interview/article

If Megadeth burps, it’s news

Sometimes it seems Megadeth can burp and it will be reported as news on most Metal news sites.

Today, the legendary Blabbermouth reported that bassist Dave Ellefson felt welcome upon returning to the band. Seems a bit obvious, no? Of course he was! He was invited back!

They pulled the quote from an interview with Lambgoat.com:

Ellefson: Interestingly enough, when I came back it was not walking on eggshells. It was actually very open arms, hugs, big smiles. Just, “Man, let’s go out and do this. Let’s blow everybody’s minds!” And it’s still that, which is great, because I get to bring a new perspective to Dave from the outside in. And Dave can also continue to bring a new perspective to me because of all the years that he has been running MEGADETH during my time away.

It was a good interview but it seems that everyone is waiting for controversial things to be said about Mustaine. What he thinks, what he does … will he explode?! But this is not the Mustaine of the 80s or even the 90s anymore. Mustaine may say some controversial things here and there but he’s a pretty stable individual nowadays. He’s not going to wring your neck if you meet him. And there is a high probability that there will be no news about him wringing necks or having a nervous breakdown in the near future.

In other words, time to relax on reporting Megadeth news.

James Hetfield defends Metallica’s role in ‘Lulu’

Anytime an artist starts coming up with excuses for an album they were a part of … well, it doesn’t hold promise for the reputation of that album.

In a recent interview with The Pulse Of Radio, Metallica’s frontman James Hetfield defended his role in the “Lulu’ project with Lou Reed. In fact, Hetfield claimed that he had no interest in learning the storyline of “Lulu” and simply followed Reed’s lead.

“We saw his vision through him. I didn’t want to look at the play, I didn’t want to read anything, look at the movies, ‘Pandora’s Box’, or read any of the books. I wanted to just feel it through Lou because he basically digested all of that information and it seemed pretty convoluted. There was about three or four different versions of it, and he put together his modern poet version of it.”

That doesn’t exactly sound like a ringing endorsement.

Lou Reed and Metallica

According to Blabbermouth, the two plays that “Lulu” is based on are called “Earth Spirit” and “Pandora’s Box”. The latter was made into a silent movie in 1929.

The collaboration between METALLICA and Reed was sparked by their performance together of Reed’s “Sweet Jane” and “White Light/White Heat” at the 25th anniversary of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame at Madison Square Garden in October of 2009.

The songs were all written by Reed with extensive arrangement contributions by METALLICA.

Only two songs on the album are under five minutes in length, while two are more than 11 minutes long and the closing cut, “Junior Dad”, clocks in at 19 minutes.

Reed and METALLICA will perform selections from the album on several European TV programs but has yet to announce any live dates or U.S. appearances.

Scorpions to release re-recorded classic songs on album

On November 4, SCORPIONS will release an album called Comeblack, which will be a collection of re-recorded versions of the band’s classics songs. It will be on CD and on double vinyl.

And the track listing of re-recordings:

01. Rhythm Of Love
02. No One Like You
03. The Zoo
04. Rock You Like A Hurricane
05. Blackout
06. Still Loving You
07. Wind Of Change

Covers:

08. Tainted Love (GLORIA JONES)
09. Children Of The Revolution (T. REX)
10. Across The Universe (THE BEATLES)
11. Tin Soldier (SMALL FACES)
12. All Day And All Of The Night (THE KINKS)
13. Ruby Tuesday (THE ROLLING STONES)

Check out audio samples of the entire record at Amazon.de.

It’s interesting to listen to but is it necessary? Maybe as b-sides but an entire album? Guess is their last album before they retire.

One thing they will not retire, it seems, are those outrageous camera poses when they take a group photo.

Japanese metal DIR EN GREY release 8th album

Japanese metal band DIR EN GREY will release their 8th studio album DUM SPIRO SPERO Tuesday, August 2 on The End Records, the follow-up to 2008’s UROBOROS which garnered overwhelming support as the strongest and the maddest record resonating across the globe. In our time when heavy rock music has become diversified, the band’s deep and extensive, unique perspective is once again borderless, uncategorized. DUM SPIRO SPERO–which encapsulates the band’s present—will not only secure tremendous support from the hard core fans, but will surely gain recognition from heavy rock fans including guitar enthusiasts and Western-music-obsessed music fans.

When asked how the new album compares to past work, guitarist KAORU said DUM SPIRO SPERO offers “something more savage from a deeper world which is completely different from any of our past works.”

There are 14 tracks including “Hageshisa To, Kono Mune No Naka De Karamitsuita Shakunetsu No Yami” (featured on the Saw 3D soundtrack) and the singles, “LOTUS” and “DIFFERENT SENSE.”

“These songs are definitely some of the highlights of the album,” says KAORU, “but they are actually the most catchy and easy-listening songs on this album. Can you even imagine what our other songs are like?”

“LOTUS” and its corresponding video was released earlier this year and–as with all DIR EN GREY videos–features powerful, thought-provoking imagery and shots of the band’s emotive live performance. Click Here To View Video For “Lotus”.

DIR EN GREY–vocalist KYO, guitarists KAORU and DIE, bassist TOSHIYA and drummer SHINYA–recently filmed their follow-up video for “DIFFERENT SENSE” which further pushes the societal envelope. The intense composition incorporates various snippets of Japanese anime, news clips, performance scenes and an underlining message of sea creatures and scientific experiments. Their music is inspired by sorrow, pain and anger either personally experienced or witnessed in others, and DIR EN GREY strives to maintain this theme in their videos. The video for “DIFFERENT SENSE” will be released soon; for now, a .30 second preview of the song can be heard now here.

The themes from the new album also happen to directly coincide with the recent turmoil in their native Japan. Bassist TOSHIYA explains, “We live in a world where we don’t know what is the truth and what we should believe in. We just wanted to put some hope into the music we created.” KAORU continues, “And, the title is what we can say to the world as the people of Japan.” The title translates to the Latin phrase, “While I breathe, I hope.”

With DUM SPIRO SPERO, the band is releasing the standard CD, a double vinyl LP (both featuring the same 14 tracks) and a deluxe CD which will feature two bonus tracks (see track listing below). Also available will be the Limited Edition Bundle, which includes the deluxe version of the CD (with the 2 bonus tracks), the double vinyl LP, digital download of full album, an exclusive t-shirt design and an autographed poster (while supplies last). This Limited Edition Bundle is available for pre-sale here.

With the combination of world-noted engineers–Tue Madsen and Alan Douches–and the individuality of a Japanese born-and bred-band, this album will no doubt be the determining punch for DIR EN GREY.

Tracklisting for DUM SPIRO SPERO:

1. Kyoukotsu No Nari
2. THE BLOSSOMING BEELZEBUB
3. DIFFERENT SENSE
4. AMON
5. “Yokusou Ni DREAMBOX” Aruiwa Seijuku No Rinen To Tsumetai Ame
6. Juuyoku
7. Shitataru Mourou
8. LOTUS
9. DIABOLOS
10. Akatsuki
11. DECAYED CROW
12. Hageshisa To, Kono Mune No Naka De Karamitsuita Shakunetsu No Yami
13. VANITAS
14. Ruten No Tou

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks:

1. RASETSUKOKU
2. AMON (Symphonic Ver.)

More about DIR EN GREY:
DIR EN GREY has conquered the Japanese rock scene with lyrics that convey sorrow, darkness and anger in modern society. The band has received international critical acclaim for their masterful translation of the lyrics to their dramatic and at times shocking stage show, which includes self-mutilation with bloodshed. Originally a “visual-kei” band, which emphasized their appearance, the band’s intensity and maturing sound have helped them create a loyal following across the globe as they moved away from the genre. While singing mostly in Japanese, KYO, via his expressive voice, is able to transition effortlessly from a deep growl to theatrical vocals that transcend language barriers. The Los Angeles Times wrote that “Kyo is a staggering vocalist” and “has stockpiled an extreme range of vocal inflections, from a guttural mutter to a tonsil-ripping scream–no electronic effects needed” (2/21/07).

Dave Mustaine interview on Goldmine

By Patrick Prince

 

Dave Mustaine, Megadeth’s leader and founder, has come a long way from where he was at when “Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?” came out (1986). Much of it has been recorded in the press, or in his autobiography, “Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir.” Now, 25 years later, he celebrates the release of “Peace Sells …” anniversary edition — remastered and expanded to include two CD and digital audio packages, a deluxe five CD and three LP box set (which includes a previously unreleased 1987 concert from the band’s first world tour) — on July 12 by Capitol/EMI.

The deluxe box set also includes previously unreleased and rare mixes of the album’s tracks, as well as an 20-page book, plus 8”x10” photos and reproductions of vintage Megadeth memorabilia. The cover of the box uses a new, unique process of lenticular 3D which reinterprets the original cover, creating the illusion of Megadeth’s Vic Rattlehead character jumping out of the art.

Not only that but you get liner note praise from none other than Metallica’s Lars Ulrich: “Whether you heard this record for the first time in 1986, or you hear this record for the first time today or tomorrow, ‘Peace Sells …’ is a great heavy metal album,” writes Lars Ulrich in his liner notes for the new edition.  “Nothing more, nothing less.  It has stood the test of time.  And will continue to do so.”

Read the interview: Dave Mustaine at ‘Peace’ in his career | Goldmine Magazine