Rock News

Flea Celebrates 50th Birthday with Red Hot Chili Peppers Concert in His Backyard



Yesterday, on Flea's 50th birthday, the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist opened up his backyard to celebrate the two most important elements of his musical career: the Peppers and the Silver Lake Conservatory, the Los Angeles music school he founded 11 years ago.
For Flea, uniting the two to raise funds for the school was the perfect way to commemorate his milestone. "For this to happen on my 50th birthday tonight is the best gift I could ever hope to receive," he told Rolling Stone before the show, which featured an intimate set by the Chili Peppers.
A devout believer in music education, Flea calls the conservatory "the best thing in my life" and has taught at the school during downtime from the Chili Peppers. "A big part of my life is music education because it changed my life – but arts, academics and athletics should all be equally treated in the school," he said. "There are all different kinds of kids and those three things are all vital towards the generation of kids coming up to be happy, productive good citizens... I always think of this one kid that I taught for a while, bounced around from foster home to foster home and institutions and was so troubled. I would go to see him in places where he lived in these institutions and it was rough, hard to come out of that. [But] he loved it and now he's at USC, thriving."
Flea was feeling especially thankful throughout the night, due in part to opening act Rancid. The punk band's singer, Tim Armstrong, is a supporter of the school and also attended it as a student. "Tim studied there, he took lessons there – he was taking flamenco or something," Flea said. "Tim's cool [and] those guys showed up. They played for us before, paid for everything, gave us all the merch, everything. Those guys are so generous – they're, like, walking the walk, dude."
Rancid stepped up even more last night with a 30-minute set that bridged the sit-down dinner with the concert portion of the evening. It included a surprise performance from Ben Harper, who turned his cover of "Hallelujah" into "Happy Birthday" while a giant birthday cake featuring a stand-up bass was brought out for Flea.
The evening included several other enticements, including an auction of two original pieces of art, one from Banksy and the other from Takashi Murakami; each net over $100,000. Around 10:30 p.m., the auction closed down, the food stopped and the main event that brought out celebrities from Owen Wilson and Ed Norton to Rick Rubin took place: the Chili Peppers played Flea's backyard.
Opening with "Can't Stop," the band used the intimate space to show off their more experimental elements, with a drum and bongo solo leading into I'm With You's "Monarchy of Roses" and Flea playing some jazzy basslines while seated during "Soul to Squeeze." The Chilis also did a sterling cover of Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" that featured superb harmonies – no coincidence, as Flea toldRolling Stone that his dream guest performer for the conservatory is Young.
As the benefit unfolded, the second presidential debate aired live, and Flea took the opportunity to stress how politicians should lend support to his causes. "The last thing that should happen is funding cut for education; it should be increased. We need to put more money towards education and anything else is abusive," he said backstage. "The most important thing to me with any politician is that they don't start wars, but education is a big part of that, too, because educated people are less likely to do stupid, violent things."
Before the Chili Peppers wrapped up with "By the Way," an emotional Flea thanked the crowd. "It's been kind of an overwhelming experience for me," he told them. "It feels really meaningful and poignant to have everybody come out and support."
Red Hot Chili Peppers setlist:
"Can't Stop"
"Snow (Hey Oh)"
"Monarchy of Roses"
"Soul to Squeeze"
"The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie"
"Right on Time"
"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"
"Give It Away"
"By the Way"



Source: Rollingstone.com


CLUTCH: New Album Title Revealed

Maryland rockers CLUTCH have set "Earth Rocker" as the title of their new studio album, due in March 2013 via the band's own Weathermaker Music label. The CD was produced by Machine (LAMB OF GOD, FOUR YEAR STRONG, FALL OUT BOY) and is described by the band's guitaristTim Sult as "the heaviest and fastest CLUTCH album to date."

In conjunction with the album's release, CLUTCH will embark on the"Earth Rocker" world tour beginning in the United Kingdom in January 2013. The North American trek will run from March 8 through April 20.

Fans can keep up on the progress of "Earth Rocker" studio sessions by visiting the newly launched www.earthrocker.com web site. Expect to see daily updates, including photos, videos from the studio, songtitle announcements and samples of new songs. 

Commented CLUTCH frontman Neil Fallon: "Last-minute overdubs are fun. Harmonicas, tambourines (yes, we use those), claps, the odd backing vocal. 

"Recording can be monotonous, so those unintended moments can be a lot of fun. It's kind of like kindergarten music class, but with beer. And sometimes the spontaneity of a last-ditch idea breathes a lot of life back into a song that we've been beating up for weeks on end. A looming deadline can be a great muse!"
 

He continued: "['Earth Rocker'] has a lot in common with 'Blast Tyrant'in that Machine's production techniques are really unique. [However] it differs from 'Blast Tyrant' and a lot of other CLUTCH records in that, overall, the songs are faster and concise." 

CLUTCH will take to the road on Halloween for a quick run of dates, including two stops in Flint, Michigan and two shows in Detroit, Michigan.MONSTRO will open these dates, with LIONIZE providing direct support. . 

In what has become an annual tradition, CLUTCH will play a string of holiday concerts this December. The dates kick off December 26 in Washington, D.C. and conclude with a special New Year's Eve performance in Worcester, Massachusetts at The Palladium. Support on these shows will come from MONDO GENERATOR, SAVIOURS and WINO.




ROB ZOMBIE Says 'Twins Of Evil' Tour With MARILYN MANSON Is 'Going Good'

Rob Zombie says that his tour with Marilyn Manson is "going good" desite the fact that the two co-headliners engaged in a war of words during Friday night's (October 12) stop in Detroit on the "Twins Of Evil"trek.

Just nine gigs into the 36-city tour, Manson accused Zombie of cutting his set short, with Manson telling the audience, "I'm going to kick [Zombie's] ass."

Zombie addressed the situation during his show, telling the crowd, "Some tours just don't go [expletive] together," adding that he was tired of Manson's "rock star [expletive]." He continued taking shots at Mansonwhile performing a cover of ALICE COOPER's classic "School's Out", dedicating the song to "the only real shock rocker there ever was, not some punk-ass bitch, Alice Cooper."

Zombie unleashed several other profanities at Manson from the stage, also calling him by his real first name, Brian.

Speaking to Tyson from the 98.7 The Gater radio station in West Palm Beach, Florida earlier today (Tuesday, October 16), Zombie downplayed the feud, saying, "Everything's fine. The tour's going good. We were in Ohio last night — it was great — and today we're in New York. And soon we'll be in Florida. So it's all good."

Two of Zombie's current band members, guitarist John 5 and drummerGinger Fish, were formerly members of the Manson act.

Zombie told The Pulse Of Radio that he thinks the right match-up on a tour can still be a good idea. "I did a couple of tours with Alice Cooper, we did these tours together, and there was such a great vibe, because the fans didn't really seem at war with each other."

Zombie took to his Facebook page on Saturday (October 13), writing, "Neither I nor anyone working for me made Manson cut his show short. It is a co-headliner and we both play the exact same set length every night. It is all very simple, but if one of us chooses to go on late for whatever reason, that time will have to come out of their set. That just the way it works, that is the way it always works. There is no evil plan going on. It is all complete nonsense."

Zombie followed that up later with a lengthier statement, calling the situation "fourth-grade-fight-after-school nonsense of which I have never dealt with on tour before. Co-headlining tours always go smooth because everything is cut 50/50 and I mean everything."
 

COHEED AND CAMBRIA's 'The Afterman: Ascension' Cracks U.S. Top 5



"The Afterman: Ascension", the new album from New York progressive rockers COHEED AND CAMBRIA, sold 49,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 5 on The Billboard 200 chart.

"The Afterman" is being released in two separate full-length volumes. The first volume, "The Afterman: Ascension", was made available on both physical and digital platforms in the U.S. on October 9 via Hundred Handed/Everything Evil, and distributed through Fontana/Ingrooves(available in Canada via Universal Music Canada). The second volume,"The Afterman: Descension", is due in February 2013. 

"The Afterman: Ascension" track listing:

01. The Hollow
02. Key Entity Extraction I: Domino The Destitute
03. The Afterman
04. Mothers Of Men
05. Goodnight, Fair Lady
06. Key Entity Extraction II: Hollywood The Cracked
07. Key Entity Extraction III: Vic The Butcher
08. Key Entity Extraction IV: Evagria The Faithful
09. Subtraction

A deluxe version of "The Afterman" includes a hardcover coffee-table book with expansive art by Heidi Taillefer and Nathan Spoor with collaborative written work from singer/creator Claudio Sanchez and writerPeter David that creates a song-by-song experience. 

The two records follow-up to 2010's "Year Of The Black Rainbow", and feature new bassist Zach Cooper and returning drummer Josh Eppard, who have replaced Michael Todd and Chris Pennie, respectively. 

The concept albums continue to be set in the band's alternate universe of"Heaven's Fence", which are part of their series titled "The Amory Wars". "The Amory Wars" is currently being developed by Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson of Leverage Productions for a live-action feature film. It follows the story of a superhuman dictator namedWilhelm Ryan, and a family that may have the ability to free the world from his control. 

"The Afterman" albums focus on a character named Sirius Amory, a scientist who discovers an energy force that can connect the universe's 78 planets together. 

COHEED AND CAMBRIA frontman Claudio Sanchez said of the album: "This is, without a doubt, the most honest record I've ever written. Though all the songs can be interpreted through our main character in the story, they were initially written in a very spontaneous manner. In the past, I've always had a predetermined idea of what the story was going to be when I approached the songs. With 'The Afterman' being a new story within 'The Amory Wars' arc, I allowed the events of my life to drive the concept, and therefore opened up the songwriting to a fuller degree." 

Source: Blabbermouth.net




Drummer Chad Smith Says RHCP Will Begin Working on Next Album in 2013

 

Dave Navarro's acting resume continues to grow.  In addition to hosting Spike’s tattoo competition show, Ink Master, the Jane’s Addiction guitarist is now set to flex his acting chops in a few upcoming episodes of the FX series Sons of Anarchy.
That's according to TVLine.com, which reports that Navarro will play a member of the Latino crime organization known as the Byz-Lats, who are involved with actor Jimmy Smits' character, Nero. You can expect to see Navarro pop up on the show sometime near the end of its current season.