The second installation to Green Day's trilogy of new albums, "Dos" will be released on Nov 13.
Featuring 13 tracks that Rolling Stone magazine says rock hard and fast, "Dos" is the follow-up to "Uno" which was released in September. The album can be streamed here for a limited time.
I haven't heard it yet to see if it differs drastically from "Uno" which was reminiscent of band's earlier work unlike the epic sound and political nature of American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown.
Following "Dos," Green Day will release the final album in the trilogy, "Tre" on Dec 11, 2012.
As previously reported, the release date for "Tre" was brought forward from January 2013 previously after the band cancelled their remaining shows for this year and postponed its planned shows for early 2012 as frontman Billie Joe Armstrong continues his rehabilitation for substance abuse.
It's the week for online streaming. Besides the Deftones, Soundgarden has made their new album, King Animal, available for streaming in its entirety here . The first track of the album is aptly titled, Been Away Too Long.
King Animal is the Seattle quartet's first studio album in 16 years following the band's breakup a year after the release of 1996' Down On The Upside.
Post-breakup, several band members, most notably frontman, Chris Cornell, and drummer, Matt Cameron, were involved in several projects. Cornell released a solo album and formed the supergroup, Audioslave, with Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine (RAGM).
Cameron, on the hand, joined fellow Seattle grunge rockers, Pearl Jam, on the latter's Yield tour and subsequently became a full-time member of the band (and still is).
Other members, lead guitarist Kim Thayil and bassist, Ben Shepard, were also involved in several projects although none of those projects achieved as much fame as Audioslave or Cameron's work in Pearl Jam.
Nonetheless, after years of dismissing away rumours of a reunion, the band got back together in 2010 and released a new compilation album, Telephantasm: A Retrospective later that year.
Earlier this year, Soundgarden released Live To Rise on the soundtrack for the Avengers. King Animal, which is set to be released on Nov 13 (same day as Koi No Yokan by the Deftones), will be the band's seventh studio album.
I haven't checked the details yet but Soundgarden will soon embark on a tour (they are currently playing a handful of shows in the US) in support of King Animal.
What won't happen, much to my dismay, will be a co-headlining tour with Pearl Jam, where Cameron would handle the drums for both bands.
King Animal Album Cover (Photo Credit: Soundgardenworld.com)
The Deftones' seventh studio album, Koi No Yokan, is available for streaming in its entirety here . The album is slated to be released on Nov 13. According to an interview between the band's frontman, Chino Moreno, and Rolling Stone, the new album will defer from its previous effort, Diamond Eyes.
"Diamond Eyes was capturing lightning in a bottle. We had just come together, had a
lot of constraints in terms of time, so we're just banging things out. This time, we had a little more chance to experiment and just play," said Moreno.
Update: I've just listened to it and it sounds awesome. Definitely different from Diamond Eyes, this sounds like Deftones at their best again. I'm usually not a fan of streaming new albums online as I believe they
take away the novelty of purchasing a new record.
But in the age of
iTunes, it probably makes a lot of sense (marketing-wise) to allow fans
to preview your album online and then direct them to the iTunes store to purchase their favourite tracks. And after one listen, I'll say that, contrary to popular belief, the album format is far from dead. This is an album that needs to be heard in its entirety.
Green Day has cancelled the band's remaining tour dates for 2012 and postponed its shows in January and February of 2013 as Billie Joe Armstrong continues his recovery from substance abuse.
In addition, Green Day has brought forward the release of "Tre," the third installment of its trilogy of new albums, to Dec 11, 2012 from Jan 15, 2013.
The band's bassist, Mike Dirnt, said in a statement on Green Day's official Facebook page that the band's main concern at the moment is Armstrong's well-being.
"We are happy to say that Billie Joe is doing
well, and we want to thank you all for the outpouring of support and
well wishes that we have received, and we can’t wait to see you all
again soon," he said.
Green Day drummer, Tre Cool, added: "“We feel bad we have to delay our tour, so to make up for it we want to give our fans the music earlier than we had planned. If we couldn’t be there to play it for you live, the least we could do was give you the next best thing."
As mentioned above, "Tre" will be Green Day's third album to be released this year following "Uno," which was released on Sept 25, and "Dos," which will be released on Nov 13.
Check out the trailer for "Dos" below:
Armstrong made headlines in September, prior to the release of "Uno," when he threw a fit and stormed off stage at the iHeart Radio Music Festival after incorrectly thinking that the band's set had been cut short by the show's promoter (it hadn't but what were they doing at show which had Usher after them?).
A few days later, and after an apology, the band announced that Armstrong had committed himself to rehab for substance abuse.
All bands begin as cover bands and the songs they cover are generally an indication of their influences. Well, as it turns out, there are quite a number of rock and metal acts out there who were closet fans of 80's pop music judging by the number of Top 40 hits that have been covered by rock bands.
The following list has some of the most famous pop songs that have been given a 'rock' makeover:
10. Disturbed - Shout
Disturbed's breakthrough album, The Sickness, may forever be associated with David Draiman's trademark animal scream in the hit song, Down With The Sickness, but the band's debut album also featured Shout by Tears For Fears. Interestingly enough, Disturbed isn't the only rock band to have covered this song. According to Wikipedia, it's also been covered by a German death metal band and a Japanese rock band.
9. Nonpoint - In The Air
Phil Collins' 1981 hit, In The Air, remains one of his most famous ever songs and in 2005, Florida metal band, Nonpoint, featured a cover of the song in their sixth album, To The Pain. The song became the theme song for Miami Vice which starred Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell. On a side note, this isn't the only song by Collins that's been covered by a metal act. Read on to find out who else has covered the former Genesis drummer.
8. Quietdrive - Time After Time
Alternative rockers, Quietdrive, are apparently one of 120 acts that have covered Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time. The Minnesota-based band released their cover of Lauper's 1986 classic in their debut album, When All That's Left Is You, in 2006. Their cover gained nationwide airplay in the US and also made it into the Top 40s. Lesson? If you want to breakthrough to the mainstream, cover a mainstream hit.
7. Korn - Word Up
In 2004, Korn released Greatest Hits, Volume 1 which featured a cover of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall (which made sense) and Cameo's Word Up! (didn't make sense). Who knew these headbangers were secretly into funk? The cover marks a significant departure from the band's typical style and the video that supported the single features the faces of each member of the band superimposed on a dog.
One of the band's guitar players, Brian "Head" Welch, wasn't exactly thrilled with the concept and included it as one of the factors that made him leave the band (the other factor is that he found God which the rest of the band, obviously, hadn't).
6. Marilyn Manson - Tainted Love
It is a little known fact that the song Tainted Love was originally recorded in 1965 but spent years in obscurity until it was remade and released by Soft Cell in 1981. Then came Marilyn Manson in 2001 who made cover of the song for the soundtrack for Not Another Teen Movie. This wasn't the first time Manson had covered a pop song as you'll later see in this list. The video features the cast of Not Another Teen Movie as well as Joey Jordison of Slipknot.
5. Limp Bizkit - Faith
Next to Phil Collins, George Michael is probably the only other pop star whose music has been remade more than once by rock acts. Limp Bizkit's debut album, Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$, featured Michael's 1987 hit, Faith. The song was released as the second singly of Bizkit's debut album and became the band's breakthrough to rock radio. The band's guitarist, Wes Borland, has previously claimed that Michael hated the Bizkit version.
4. Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal
In 2001, Alien Ant Farm covered Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal in their second album, Anthology. The band's remake gained massive airplay and made it to number one on the Billboard modern rock charts and was a number one single in Australia. Unfortunately for the band, it remains their biggest hit to-date.
3. Disturbed - Land Of Confusion
While Disturbed's debut album featured a cover of Tears for Fears' Shout, their third studio album, Ten Thousand Fists, featured a remake of Land of Confusion by Genesis. Ten Thousand Fists was viewed as a political/ anti-George W. Bush album which makes Land Of Confusion fit in perfectly well with the rest of theme of the album (Land of Confusion was largely seen as an anti-Cold War song).
2. Seether - Careless Whisper
If Limp Bizkit's cover of Faith seemed weird, this one took the cake. South African post-grunge rockers, Seether, remade Michael's most famous song, Careless Whisper, in the band's fourth studio album, Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces. But bizzare as it may seem, the band's remake received plenty of radio airplay introduced Michael's classic to a new generation, albeit in a much rockier way.
1. Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These)
In 1995, Marilyn Manson released a cover of the Eurythmics' 1983 hit single, Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These) on the former's second album, Smells Like Children. Unlike many other remakes, Manson's cover of the song bares very little similarity with the original, with the exception of the opening riff (which was played on a guitar instead of a synthesizer on a significantly slower tempo) and the lyrics.
In fact, even the lyrics were modified by Manson who added the lines, "I wanna use you and abuse you/I wanna know what's inside you" and "I'm gonna use you and abuse you/ I'm gonna know what's inside you." The single helped propel Manson into the mainstream and still remains a staple of his live shows.
Trent Reznor's new band, How to Destroy Angels, have released a new single online from the band's upcoming EP, An Omen. Click here to check out "Keep it Together."
An Omen is the band's second EP and is set to be released on Nov 13, 2012. The band's first self-titled EP was released in June 2010. How to Destroy Angels features Reznor's wife, Mariqueen Maandig as well as Atticus Ross.
Ross has been working with Reznor since Nine Inch Nails' 2005 album With Teeth. More recently, the duo scored the soundtrack for the Social Network and the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
With the various projects Reznor's currently involved in (he says How To Destroy Angels will release a full-length album next year), it remains to be seen when we'll see something new from Nine Inch Nails.
Here's a cool video of Metallica rehearsing Orion and playing Seek and Destory live at their Aug 27 show in Vancouver courtesy of metallica.com and their official YouTube page. Part of the concert was filmed for the band's upcoming 3D movie although I'm not sure if this entire video will make it into the movie.
Note: the guys say some pretty funny things about the Canadian flag during the pre-show group huddle. Enjoy!
Here's some disappointing news. The Foo Fighters have officially announced that they will be taking an indefinite break from recording and touring. After 18 years and seven studio albums, the band's founder and frontman, Dave Grohl, said in a note to fans on Facebook that he wasn't sure when the band would be playing again.
"It feels strange to say that, but it's a good
thing for all of us to go away for a while. It's one of the reasons
we're still here," he said.
The band has recently completed a tour in support of its 2011 Grammy-winning album, Wasting Light, which saw the band reuniting with guitarist Pat Smear, who last played with the band on The Color and the Shape in 1997, and producer, Butch Vig, who produced Grohl's other famous band, Nirvana. It was also the only album out of the band's entire catalog to feature Grohl's former bandmate from Nirvana, Kris Novoselic.
It's a pity that the Foo Fighters have decided to take a hiatus although i don't expect Grohl to remain quiet (if there's a workaholic in rock music, it's him).
Despite releasing seven albums with the Foo Fighters over the last 18 years, Grohl's somehow managed the time to record an album with Queens of the Stone Age, form a supergroup called Them Vultures with John Paul Jones and Josh Homme, and release a heavy metal album under the moniker, Probot.
And let's not forget the fact that he's played drums on albums by Nine Inch Nails to Slash over the course of those 18 years. One thing's for sure, Grohl won't stay under the radar for too long. Here's Grohl's entire note to his fans from the Foo Fighters official Facebook page:
"Hey everyone...
Dave here. Just
wanted to write and thank you all again from the bottom of my heart for
another incredible year. (Our 18th, to be exact!) We truly never could
have done any of this without you...
Never in my wildest
dreams did I think Foo Fighters would make it this far. I never thought
we COULD make it this far, to be honest. There were times when I didn't
think the band would survive. There were times when I wanted to give
up. But... I can't give up this band. And I never will. Because it's not
just a band to me. It's my life. It's my family. It's my world.
Yes... I was serious. I'm not sure when the Foo Fighters are going
to play again. It feels strange to say that, but it's a good thing for
all of us to go away for a while. It's one of the reasons we're still
here. Make sense? I never want to NOT be in this band. So, sometimes
it's good to just... put it back in the garage for a while...
But, no gold watches or vacations just yet... I'll be focusing all of
my energy on finishing up my Sound City documentary film and album for
worldwide release in the very near future. A year in the making, it
could be the biggest, most important project I've ever worked on. Get
ready... it's coming.
Me, Taylor, Nate, Pat, Chris, and Rami... I'm sure we'll all see you out there... somewhere...
Avenged Sevenfold have released a new single, Carry On, for the soundtrack of Call of Duty: Black Ops II.
The single is now available for purchase on iTunes and can be heard below. There's no news yet if Carry On will be featured on the band's follow-up to 2010's Nightmare, which has been certified gold.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II is set to be released on Nov 13, 2012. Besides Avenged Sevenfold, other notable artists on the game's soundtrack includes Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor who will provide the theme song for the game.
Deftones have released the cover artwork for the band's upcoming album, Koi No Yokan, which is scheduled to go on sale on Nov 13. In addition to the cover art, you can stream the first single of the album, Tempest, on the band's official webpage.
Koi No Yokan is the band's seventh studio album and comes just over two years after the release of Diamond Eyes. Initial reports seem to indicate that Koi No Yokan will feature a different direction from the Sacramento-quintet's previous efforts while vocalist, Chino Moreno, has been quoted in interviews as saying the album will carry "an end of the world" theme.
Check out this interview with Moreno and bassist, Sergio Vega here on what fans can expect from Koi No Yokan.
