KISS Preview New TV Show With Webisode

AMC have launched a series of webisodes to introduce the owners, players and coaches of the team ahead of the series premiere on Tuesday, August 12 at 9/8c.

"We are thrilled to partner with AMC in bringing our show to the viewing public," says Stanley. "Anyone who knows Gene and I know we have never played by the rules. This opportunity to see the making of our team of rebels, the LA KISS, from behind the scenes will once again show everyone that we play to win."

Watch the webisode here.

Anthrax's Frank Bello Reveals Final Words With Cliff Burton

The bands were touring Europe together in September 1986 and the bass players had developed a light-hearted ritual at the end of each day - which took on an emotional meaning following the tragedy in Sweden.

Bello tells Loudwire: "After our show and Metallica's show we'd go to catering and get something to eat for the bus. We'd all sit down, have coffee and talk about the show. Cliff and I would do that, and the last thing we'd say to each other jokingly was, 'Maybe I'll see you tomorrow,' 'Maybe I will.'

"I started it the last night Cliff was alive. I said, 'Hey, Cliff - maybe I'll see you tomorrow.' And as he's leaving the room the last thing he says is, 'Maybe I will.'"

Stream the video here.

Foo Fighters Making Big Announcement

At this point, we know Foo Fighters have a new album coming. It is expected in November, in fact. We also know that there will be an HBO series chronicling the creation of their 8th studio LP, and it will make its premiere on October 17, titled Sonic Highways.

The most obvious speculation for what will be announced will be the album title and release date. But, it could also be a fall tour. The release timeframe would also make sense with corresponding radio station Christmas events, but those announcements usually come way later. More on this story.

AC/DC Classic Gets Unusual Makeover

"Thunderstruck" has been part of Steve 'N' Seagulls' live set for years, but now is the very first time that the group has released an online video for the track.

Watch the clip, where you can see the band make use of a tractor and various pieces of farm equipment to compliment their banjos and accordions and create a unique version of the track, here.

Protest The Hero Release Mist Mini-Movie

Guitarist Luke Hoskin says the video concept arose after they decided to arrange a tour of the island province in order to film it - but it took two visits to complete the job. "It felt more like a carnival than a tour," he recalls. "Our motorcade invaded gas stations and rest stops along the way. When we were done, though, it felt like something was missing. We felt like we'd left out the most beautiful part of the island - the island itself! So we returned. And we made sure to capture some of our favourite spots in the St. John's area.

"It was an amazing feeling to make a video about the place you love the most. I'm constantly reminded of the friendships we have made there, and am ever thankful for the reception we have experienced. There's something truly magnetic about this place - don't go unless you plan on returning many times."

Watch the video here.

Walter Trout's Desire To Play Again Helping Liver Transplant Recovery

He expects to spend the rest of the year recuperating after his heavy lifestyle brought him close to death ahead of a nine-hour operation in May. Speaking from a rehabilitation centre in Omaha, Trout tells OC Weekly: "My son brought in a guitar here the other day, and I can barely press the strings. I don't have the muscles in my arms and fingers.

"But I'm going to do my best to get back out there and keep playing. It's what sustains me; it nourishes me and heals me spiritually to get up and play to people, feel that guitar in my arms and play it." More on this story.

Slash Discusses Upcoming Club Shows On Ask Slash & Myles

The guitarist will play shows at The Troubadour (Sep 23), The Roxy (Sep 25) and The Whisky (Sep 26) as he promotes the September 16th release of his third solo album, "World On Fire."

The follow-up to 2012's "Apocalyptic Love" once again sees Slash working with his touring band, Myles Kennedy And The Conspirators, and producer Michael Baskette.

The group is currently on the road across North America with Aerosmith as part of the Let Rock Rule tour, which wraps up September 9 in Clarkston, Michigan.

Watch the video here.

King 810 Release War Outside Video

War Outside is taken from King 810's upcoming album Memoirs Of A Murderer, which will be released later this month. The band are currently out on the Mayhem tour in the US and will launch their very first UK dates in September.

The band were embroiled in controversy earlier this year when singer David Gunn and bassist Gene Gill were charged with assault in the US, causing them to miss a scheduled appearance at Download festival.

Gunn had his charges dropped, but Gill still has a case to answer. Watch the video here.

Motorhead Had To Adjust To Time Off Due To Lemmy's Illness

Dee tells Arte Concert: "We have not had any time off, really, until this last year. It's very strange, actually, to have so much time off, so, yes, it was a bit awkward.

"But no problem. I started a little project that I call Nordic Beast with a couple of guys from the band Europe and my old bass player from King Diamond, and a singer, �ge Sten Nilsen. More on this story.

Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner Looks Back At Misery

What sort of expectations were on the band after the success of "Runaway Train?" Uhh�write another song like that one, pretty much. I was like, I already wrote that one. I think some of the material I wrote for Let Your Dim Light Shine is some of the best material I've ever written, and none of it ended up on the record because they just-I didn't really understand at all what the hell was going on but, in retrospect maybe it's completely obvious, or maybe I was just stupid or na�ve or something. I had no idea what the f-k we were doing. But they signed us because we knew what we were doing.

It came time to make the follow-up record to that, they were like, "Blah blah blah, Butch Vig wants to work with you now�" Actually I'd known Butch Vig for quite a long time but�I guess the point is I wanted to expand in a way that nobody understood. So I was writing all this really, really good material in the natural direction I was going. I wasn't really terribly aware of like, 'Oh, there's these expectations happening.' But with Let Your Dim Light Shine, the weirdest thing about it is there's this like, heavy stuff going on. And those were chosen because Alice in Chains and bands like that were selling records. I made songs like that too, but I wrote like, I don't know, 60 songs for that record.

So I ended up with "Misery" and "I Did My Best" and I think that those were the songs they were looking for apparently. Personally, songs like "String of Pearls" were more like the direction I was trying to go, and I don't know, I wrote some really interesting songs for that record that nobody gave a s-t about and were like, what the hell was that? Even the guy who was my champion over there, who signed me to the label, who was like 21 at the time, he was in tune with what I was doing but I think he got fired over it. The label was just like, [affects K-Tel commercial announcer's voice] "More smash hits! What the f-k is this?"

The songs that got cut from it that you really liked, are those ever gonna see the light of day or have they surfaced?: Umm�no, I've pretty much completely lost track of them. They're recorded on a cassette tape somewhere�I don't know where they are anymore.

Was "Misery" taking the piss out of the popularity of grunge at the time?: Well, now I like to introduce it as about the great state of Missouri. "They say Mi-ssouri�" [laughs] Whatever, you know. I was in Vancouver and I was in a music store and the Stanley Cup was happening, the Canucks were up, I was staying at a hotel. I needed to get some s-t to write with so I went to a music store and I didn't even know what I wanted. So I rented a keyboard, a cassette 4-track, a microphone and two other things. So I started playing the piano and the first thing I started playing was that. I don't even know where it came from, I guess I was lonely. Can't remember what, but somebody was telling me something about that song yesterday. And now on this tour, Art from Everclear likes to come out and sing on it. And yeah, I think I was totally making fun of the whole f-king sad-sack songwriting s-t. "Frustrated incorporated," that whole thing was hilarious. I almost had Mike Judge make a video for it. More.

Singled Out: Kix's Love Me With Your Top Down

This song came out of a title that a co-writer friend of mine, Kent Scofield and I had been toying with off and on for a few months while KIX was working on demos for the new record. I don't always start writing a song with a title but somehow this one sort of started out that way. We emailed and texted back and forth with different iterations of a title and whatever thin rock and roll plot we could gain a little lyrical inspiration from. We just decided to get together one day to write this song and work on the bridge to another song we were working on, I think we got excited about "Top Down" and have not revisited the other song yet. Anyhow Kent had a guitar riff that we worked on and turned it into the main riff of the song. I pulled the drumbeat together and programmed it. I tried several and I wanted to make sure that the beat lent some sense of urgency and attitude to the main riff which we were pretty sure would be the chorus as well so that's how the drum part ended up being snare-centric. We put the intro together with the single kick beat, we knew that was a strong part. I came up with the verse guitar parts and the chorus endings that worked with the skeleton title we had. We knew the last line of the chorus would be "Love Me With Your Top Down" so I came up with something that led into the riff that you hear under the title. We didn't have a bridge idea so I came up with the basic chord progression and we didn't do much else with it at that point other than just knowing it was the bridge placeholder and guitar solo. We used the very first thing I played for that part and put a different beat under it for some contrast. Kent put a blistering guitar solo down just for fun and we called it a day. Thanks to modern technology, we didn't get to actually see each other again to finish the song, we basically finished the lyrics over email. I'm the kind of songwriter where I need some time alone with a song I'm working on with another writer to allow my own ideas to become clearer and actually sort them out to see what works best.

Having the arrangement solid, the drumbeat down, we started batting around lyrics over email. Kent had a couple of rhyme pairs that sounded like a good start and we talked about how the song could be about a convertible car. But realistically we talked about how great it was back in the day when girls used to wear tube tops in the summer. And more specifically what a great moment it always was to just pop a tube top straight down to reveal the glory of the female form on your way to more interesting activities. Talk about a gateway drug! So we worked the lyrics to play both sides of the coin, tube top and convertible top. Either way, both are enjoyed best in the down position.

I took what we thought were the final lyrics for the verses and choruses and sang all the melodies on the fly, it really came together quite naturally and I remember really thinking hard about making sure I sang stuff that was right in Steve's wheelhouse. I was definitely thinking of him and his vocal attitude the whole time. Not that I can execute anywhere near the way he can, but the inspiration for the style was there. He really liked it and sang what I meant to sing! The real difficult part for me was the "get in my back seat and�" it was too high for me to sing in anything but falsetto but I knew it would be a great moment for Steve in the chorus. Some of the lyrics didn't fit with some of the melodic rhythmic motives I was gravitating towards so I reworked a few lyrics on the fly. I like the way the lyrics came out, clever, not too obscene depending on the listener perspective, and just the right flavor for a summer rock song.

Being pretty happy with everything so far I decided to send what we had to our producer Taylor Rhodes to see if he had an idea to make the bridge better. He's also the kind of songwriter that needs some alone time with a song! He loved the song right away and so he came up with a different feel with the slides for the bridge chord progression we had, plus the whole Rosie lyrical tie-in, which I thought was brilliant. He made the whole bridge section just work. He also put the whoa-whoas in the choruses and in the intro, and who doesn't love whoa-whoas! Taylor really put a ton of frosting on the cake for this song. Funny thing is he actually thought I played the guitar solo on it and he came up with the thematic solo you hear Ronnie tearing up on the final version. It really was a much better fit. Taylor has such a great sense of overall feel for a song. I remember when we were putting the main riff together and writing the intro, I knew it was a perfect song for Ronnie and his Les Paul and that's exactly what the song ended up being, a great showcase for Ronnie's unique sound and terrific guitar playing. When you talk about truly great rhythm players, Ronnie Younkins and Pete Townshend absolutely belong in the same sentence!

I don't think we made changes when the band recorded it in the studio. It's pretty much what was on the demo. The label had been talking about making the title track the first single, but I think after they heard the final version of "Top Down" and after the radio people heard it and raved about it, they thought it was a no-brainer first single for the record. It was a pretty good song to start with but with Ronnie, Brian, Jimmy and Steve all putting their unique stamp on it, they turned it into a truly great KIX song that we are all pretty proud of. I wish we could still do music videos and they were still important like they were in the old days - so many visual possibilities with this track!

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!

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