"We're beyond excited to announce that music from every singleMETALLICA album is now streaming on Spotify!
"In our never-ending quest for total control of the way our music is presented, we always make it a point to be sure that we are offering you the very best service by partnering with ground-breaking technology companies. So with that said, we are extremely proud to be a part ofSpotify, who not only has a proven track record, but is by far the best streaming service.
"Spotify was launched in Sweden in 2008 and has grown into a massive world-wide service with on-demand access to over 20 million songs. You can create and manage all your play-lists, share them with your friends and add to them by importing MP3s you already own. Now you can also take Spotify with you through their new mobile app.
"We're always looking for more ways to get our music out to you, whether it's streaming live videos through our tour page on this site or offering downloads of live shows through LiveMetallica.com. Connecting withSpotify was the next logical step and we can't wait to see what the future brings!"
Back in 2000, METALLICA launched legal action against Napster, claiming that the pioneering music file-sharing service was illegally allowing users to download METALLICA tracks without paying royalties to the band. Although the case was settled out of court, 300,000 users were banned from Napster as a result and METALLICA's image took a tremendous beating in the eyes of music fans.
METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich, who was the main spokesperson forMETALLICA in the Napster battle, later admitted that he wished he had dealt with the situation differently.
METALLICA announced on November 30 that it has taken ownership of all the band's master recordings and long-form videos under a provision of the band's 1994 joint venture agreement with the Warner Music Group. According to that provision — almost unheard of for acts signed to major label contracts — all the masters reverted back to the band as of Friday. Frontman James Hetfield said in a statement, "We would like to thank everyone at the Warner Music Group for 28 years of a fantastic relationship, particularly since 1994 where we truly felt we had partners in every aspect of our business in North America."
The band has also revealed that it is launching its own label, calledBlackened Recordings, that will be the new home for all of their recordings and videos, as well as anything else that the band may come up with. All marketing and promotion will be handled by Blackened, with distribution through Rhino Entertainment in North America and theUniversal Music Group internationally. Drummer Lars Ulrich said, "Forming Blackened Recordings is the ultimate in independence, giving us 100 percent control and putting us in the driver's seat of our own creative destiny."
Ulrich told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that METALLICA was long past the point where the band needed a corporate record label to support it. "The great thing about being in a band like us is that we're in a position to bypass the record company," he said. "Basically record companies act like banks. And when you don't need the bank element of a record company, then you can kind of do it yourself."
METALLICA is also working on a 3D feature film for release next summer, as well as a new studio album that should surface in early 2014.
RANDY RHOADS' Mother Interviewed By His Brother
Kelle Rhoads, the brother of legendary OZZY OSBOURNE guitarist Randy Rhoads, conducted an interview with Randy and Kelle's 89-year-old mother, Delores Rhoads, a public school music teacher who founded the Musonia School Of Music in North Hollywood, California in 1948, forHailsWebzine.com. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below.
As previously reported, fans are invitied to celebrate Randy Rhoads' birthday with his family this week at Kathryn Rhoads D'Argenzio and her husband Richard D'Argenzio's wine-tasting room in Burbank, California.
The Randy Rhoads Birthday Tribute weekend starts Thursday, December 6 and ends Saturday, December 8 — open from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
This will be a weekend to remember for all fans and friends alike. You will get to meet the whole Rhoads family, taste the Randy Rhoads wine, and see personal memorabilia that has not been shown for public viewing.
The D'Argenzio winery has, for several years, produced a special wine in the name of Randy Rhoads with all proceeds of this wine going to fund the Randy Rhoads Foundation to assist kids in learning music.
A special note from Delores Rhoads, Kelle Rhoads and Kathryn Rhoads D'Argenzio: "The Rhoads family wishes to thank you all for all the heartfelt support and love for Randy. We also thank you for keeping his memory alive. Happy birthday to my loving son and our dear brother."
D'Argenzio Tasting Room
1204 W. Burbank Blvd
Burbank, CA 91506
818 846 8466
3 p.m. to 9 p.m.
In 1982, Rhoads, the then-lead guitarist for OZZY OSBOURNE, and two others were killed at Flying Baron Estates, just outside Leesburg, Florida, when their small plane struck Osbourne's tour bus, then crashed into a mansion.
SULLY ERNA Says GODSMACK Will Take 2013 Off
ARTISTdirect.com editor-in-chief Rick Florino recently conducted an interview with GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
ARTISTdirect.com: Do you feel like the "Avalon" box set is the best gateway into and overview of your world?
Sully: Yeah, I'm really happy with it. We all just stumbled onto this idea. The more I was doing solo activity, the more I was documenting. At first, we didn't even realize we were capturing what we had. We had a couple of friends, myself, and some of the band filming in the studio while we were recording the record. Later on, when we were trying to make something out of nothing, I handed this editor a big box of tapes and said, "Make some kind of cool, making-of thing." I didn't it was going to be for all of this. That's what triggered this whole thing. It went from finding this really cool making-of the album to tying into the whole theme of music for me. When I was going out on my solo shows, it had "an evening with,""Storytellers" vibe. I fell upon this idea of, "Wow, what a gift music really is." That started triggering all of this stuff. What I started to realize, just from sharing a bottle of wine with somebody, we'd be talking about music and theory and how music is just vibrations. It's just strings vibrating, and yet when they create different frequencies, it creates emotions in people — even without lyrics. You can hear a violin player play something and get teary-eyed. I thought, "This is heavy, man. That really is the power of music. It's a miracle." It's a universal language, and it's almost unexplained. From there, we'd film a live show. All of these different things became components for the box set. We kept building off of that. Once we had the idea of putting this together as a package, we started thinking, "What else can we include?" That's when we came up with the "Golden Ticket" concept. We wanted to personalize it so it's "Sully Ernaeverything." It's a little bit of a history of me and my life, from how I grew up to what my favorite t-shirts and incenses are. Plus, it's the making-of everything.
ARTISTdirect.com: Does the open the door to the next project?
Sully: Of course! I'm building towards branding my name and freeing up myself to do what I want to do without having a ceiling over my head. As much as I love GODSMACK and my boys in GODSMACK, it really is what it is. Over the years, we've tried to branch out and create songs like"Serenity" and "Shine Down". Even though our audience accepted it and they became successful singles on the radio, they weren't really crossover singles for us. They were kind of saying, "They're cool songs, but when are you guys going to play 'The Enemy' or 'Bad Religion'? Let's get back to the muscle!" [laughs] Over the years, we've identifiedGODSMACK to be a powerhouse rock band, which it should be, but there's also this other side of me. I can't keep it trapped inside. I have to explore it and release this other kind of music that I love playing. I also love sitting down at the piano with my daughter and creating music and playing acoustically. "Avalon" helped me branch out and allow more vulnerability and things like that. That creates an opportunity to not have a ceiling over my head whether it gets into acting, TV, film, and different things I'd like to pursue. I think it's going to open up that avenue for me. I heard an interview with [AEROSMITH's] Tom Hamilton, and he struck the nail right on the head for me. He said, "I realized music is always something I wanted to do with my life, but it's not everything I wanted to do with my life." I was like, "Boom, there it is right there. That's exactly how I feel. Music is one of those things I wanted to do my whole life, but I also realized that it's not everything I want to do." Even though I think I'll always be a musician and entertain in some way, I may want to tap into some other avenues and continue to brand myself rather than being pigeonholed into a certain genre of music.
ARTISTdirect.com: What's next with GODSMACK?
Sully: We're going to take some time away now because we just ran for the last two years. It's time for us to take a break and get away from the markets for a little bit so we don't overplay them. We're taking 2013 off. Maybe towards the end of the year or early 2014, we may start getting into the studio and writing. Now, we're going to lay low. We may pop up once in a while to do a radio festival or something. I'm going to take all of 2013 to focus on my solo stuff and see any doors I can open along the way.
ALICE IN CHAINS: New Song 'Hollow' To Make Its Online Debut In Two Weeks
ALICE IN CHAINS has issued the following update:
"Every day for the next 10 days, a new lyrical phrase from our brand new song'Hollow' will be posted at @aliceinchains on Instagram. We want you to create an image inspired by or featuring a single word or phrase from those lyrics. Next, share those photos on Instagram or Twitter tagging #HOLLOWAIC. On [December] 18, visit [this location] to see your photos and other fan photos from around the world, then hear and become 'Hollow'."
According to The Pulse Of Radio, ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist Jerry Cantrell has confirmed to Guitar World that the band has finished recording its fifth studio album and second without original vocalist Layne Staley. The new disc will follow up 2009's "Black Gives Way To Blue", which ended a 14-year gap between studio efforts for the group and featured singer/guitarist William DuVall. Cantrell said, "In my opinion, that record stood up to anything else we've put out in our career and this new one is right up there, as well."
ALICE IN CHAINS began working on new material in 2011, but the sessions for the album were delayed when Cantrell had to undergo shoulder surgery.
He said that the pressure in following up "Black Gives Way To Blue" was like "having to deal with the sophomore jinx for the second time in our career."
ALICE IN CHAINS all but faded from the scene after the release of its self-titled third album in 1995. Staley's death in 2002 seemed to seal the band's fate as well.
But Cantrell, drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Inez regrouped in 2006 with DuVall, first for several tours and then eventually to create new music.
Although no official release date has been confirmed yet for the new album, it is likely that the disc will make its debut in early 2013.
METALLICA's LARS ULRICH At SPOTIFY's New York City Press Conference; Video Available
METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich joined Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek and former Napster co-founder and current Spotify investor Sean Parker on stage at today's press conference in New York City to announce that Spotify has reached an agreement with METALLICA to make the band's entire music catalog available for streaming. Video footage of the entire event can be seen below (Note: Lars appears starting at around 36-minute mark.)
Back in 2000, METALLICA launched legal action against Napster, claiming that the pioneering music file-sharing service was illegally allowing users to download METALLICA tracks without paying royalties to the band. Although the case was settled out of court, 300,000 users were banned from Napster as a result and METALLICA's image took a tremendous beating in the eyes of music fans.
Ulrich, who was the main spokesperson for METALLICA in the Napsterbattle, later admitted that he wished he had dealt with the situation differently.
"Our manager told us that our [unreleased] song was playing on the radio,"Ulrich said, recalling the time he first heard about Napster. "I told him 'Maybe we should go over there and...'." He punched his hand three times with his fist.
"When [Parker] and I saw each other a few months ago," Ulrichcontinued, "We could see that we had been put down as adversaries. We realize we had much more in common and sitting down was long overdue... We were younger, maybe somewhat more ignorant. [Parker and I] sat down and had a heart to heart."
"It was never about money, it was about control," Ulrich said. "It was about being in your bubble and controlling the access. If Napster had approached us first and given us options, it might have been a little different. Instead, control was taken away from us. It turned into, 'If you fuck with us, we'll fuck with you.' … Instead of Napster versusMETALLICA, it became METALLICA versus its fans."
Ulrich praised Spotify for being easy to use and making it easier for fans to access music.
"When I was trying out Spotify for the first time, I was stunned at the ease of it," he said. "This was so easy and set up for the fans."
Spotify has 5 million paying customers and 20 million users overall worldwide.
SEVENDUST: New Album Artwork Unveiled
The cover artwork for SEVENDUST's ninth album, "Black Out The Sun", can be seen below. Due on March 26, 2013 via the band's 7Bros. Recordslabel (through Warner Music Group's Independent Label Group), the CD's first single, "Decay", will be sent to radio and available for download at online retail outlets January 22, 2013. The effort was recorded atArchitekt Music studios in Butler, New Jersey with engineer Mike Ferretti.
"The craziest thing about this record is finishing it in about a month," guitarist John Connolly told Revolver magazine. "We haven't done that since our debut album [1997's self-titled effort]. This is one of the fastest records we've ever made, but also one of the strongest — working off instinct mostly."
According to Connolly, SEVENDUST's forthcoming CD finds the band exploring "a darker vibe," but "there's still plenty of melody," he added. "The record fits right in with 'Animosity' [2002], 'Alpha' [2007], and our self-titled album. Lots of heavy stuff and some more mellow, moody songs as well It's a nice balance of what makes for the SEVENDUST sound."
Songtitles set to appear on the 12-track CD, which was produced by the bandmembers themselves, include "Mountain" and "Murder Bar". The latter was reportedly inspired by a Butler, New Jersey bar across from the hotel where SEVENDUST was staying while recording the new CD. Rumor had it the place was popular with many of New Jersey's murderers.
"It's a basic SEVENDUST record," guitarist Clint Lowery recently told"Source Of The Sound With Wendy Campbell". "There's nothing, like, too completely different than anything we've done before. It's got a darker vibe to it. We've got a good amount of the programming element in there. It's a lot of what we do — it's heavy and it's got its melodic element in it. So if you're a SEVENDUST fan, it's more along the lines of the second and third records we did — it's kind of like that. It's got a couple of throwback vibes to it. 'Animosity' and 'Home' [1999], if I can put those two records together, it would [sound similar to the new CD]."
SEVENDUST and LACUNA COIL will join forces for a U.S. tour in early 2013. The bands will head out on a 17-date run throughout the month of February. The trek kicks off on February 2 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Source: Blabbermouth.net
RHCP Drummer Chad Smith Says Side Project Bombastic Meatbats Is About “Taking Risks”
While the Red Hot Chili Peppers are on a well-deserved break, drummer Chad Smith has lined up a few dates at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City over the next few days to promote his side project, Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats. Smith says that the group’s latest release, a live record titled Live Meat and Potatoes, is a fair representation of what fans can expect to experience if they make it out to one of the shows.
“I think what’s captured on the Live Meat and Potatoes live record was a really typical night of what we do,” the drummer tells ABC News Radio. “It’s really about taking risks and changing it up and keep it exciting and that’s just what we do when we play and that’s what I wanna see when I go see a band, hear a band you know I like that, so that’s what we’re doing.”
Smith adds that fans can expect him to do more with the Meatbats and his other side project, Chickenfoot, in 2013. “I want to do things that are musically satisfying and also do things with people I enjoy playing with and are my friends,” he explains. “Both those are present with both [of] those groups. I see next year as, a little bit later in the year where I’ll have a little bit more flexibility in my schedule and I’ll be able to hopefully do more stuff with those groups.”
