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B Sides for 02/24/2015



Jimmy Page Reveals His Led Zeppelin Masterplan
(hennemusic) Jimmy Page reveals some of his masterplan when he first put together Led Zeppelin in 1968, in part three of his recent interview with Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell in Los Angeles.

"I knew at that time there was a big focus on guitar, so I wanted to make it a tour de force for the guitar," explains Page (transcribed by hennemusic). "So for my playing, it was going to be everything from acoustic through to electric, there's pedal steel on it - there's everything - I'm throwing everything on it to get all these guitar textures. So it goes from really rude bottleneck through to very sensitive acoustic. It was going to be a guitar tour de force but not at the expense of the other members - this was they key to it. Everyone needed to be really heard."

The guitarist joined Cornell for "An Evening With Jimmy Page" at the Ace Hotel Theater in November to discuss his photographic autobiography, "Jimmy Page By Jimmy Page", and his own history as a musician.

In part 1, Page discussed his early years and musical upbringing with host Cornell in front of a live audience, and in part 2 he spoke about how he came to join The Yardbirds. Watch the video here.

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Metal Musician Launches Petition Against Facebook Fees
(Classic Rock) The frontman of US metalcore outfit Illuminate Me has launched a petition asking Facebook to stop charging bands a fee for promoting their music. Chris Murray has started the campaign via Change.org as he says bands are being unfairly punished as they attempt to bolster their online presence.

He's paid Facebook close to $3000 to promote his band - but reckons the social media giant's "greed" is now unjustifiable. He says: "Facebook has raised its rates on bands and small businesses promoting themselves through their website several times over the last few years - asking to pay even more money to simply reach the audience the band or small business has already acquired.

"It's getting to a point where it's blatant greed and is unjustifiable. Bands like us for example, especially the unsigned ones, pay Facebook a hefty amount of money for an ad just to get potential new fans to visit our page.

"On top of that, now we must pay a large fee to talk to the fans already subscribed to our page. So we're paying double on a service that we heavily rely on." Read more here.

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Jimi Hendrix's Final Interview Animated
(Classic Rock) An audio clip of an interview with guitar icon Jimi Hendrix the week before he died has been released as part of an animated web series titled Blank On Blank. The conversation between the guitarist and UK journalist Keith Altham was recorded in September 1970 - just a few days before Hendrix died in London.

In the clip, he talks about money, his appearance, smashing up his equipment on stage and his thoughts on the way he'd like to have seen music and visuals combine in the future.

When questioned about being credited as giving birth to psychedelic music, he says: "The way I write is a clash between reality and fantasy. You have to use fantasy to show different sides of reality - that's how it can bend. I don't really round it off too good - it's almost naked. I just hate to be in one corner. I hate to be just a guitar player, or a songwriter, or a tap dancer."

And he also gives his thoughts on the music scene at the time, calling it "too heavy." He continues: "There's too many heavy songs out nowadays - music is getting too heavy, almost to the state of unbearable. I have this one little saying, 'When things get too heavy just call me helium - the lightest known gas to man.'

Check out the video here.

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In Flames React To Fan Backlash
(TeamRock Radio) In Flames have rejected complains from followers unhappy with their change in musical direction over the years. The Swedish outfit recently revealed how 11th album Siren Charms, launched last year, carried a heavy Van Halen influence.

That followed a rebalancing of influences with the departure of guitarist Jesper Stromblad in 2010 and the return of Niclas Engelin. Guitarist Bjorn Gelotte tells Noisecreep: "There's no way you can please everybody. There's no way you can listen to everybody. The only thing we know is what we like, the five of us in the band."

Frontman Anders Friden says: "We love our fans and we're so grateful that we can do what we do - travel the world and work with our hobby." But he adds: "We cannot listen to 1000 people - that would be an extremely confusing song," he says. "We are the ones who'll live with this album for ever, so we have to be happy with what we've done."

Watch the interview here.

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Black Star Riders Went Beyond Thin Lizzy On New Album
(Classic Rock) Black Star Riders frontman Ricky Warwick says he's happy with the balance he's achieved between being influenced by Phil Lynott and bringing in his Almighty spirit.

The Thin Lizzy offshoot set their own agenda by changing their name ahead of their debut album All Hell Breaks Loose. Follow-up The Killer Instinct is out today via Nuclear Blast.

Former Almighty vocalist Warwick tells Metal Forces: "I've been singing Phil's songs for almost five years now and I completely immersed myself in the role. When I was given the job I wanted to do it justice.

"I studied the man's lyrics, his poetry. I've learned so much from him - I think it's made me a better performer, a better writer and a better musician. That's part of who I am now."

While their first album was planned to sound more like Lizzy, Warwick believes there's less pressure now. "We'll always still have that vibe because of what we do," he says, "but I think we can try anything." Read more here.

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Soundgarden Perform 'Birth Ritual' For 1st Time In Two Decades
(Radio.com) More than 20 years ago, Soundgarden contributed the song "Birth Ritual" to the soundtrack for the movie Singles. Released right at the apex of their popularity, the song's chugging riffs and caterwauling vocals find the grunge outfit in peak form.

They briefly appeared in the movie to perform the song, but strangely it's been absent from their lives sets ever since then. That is, until now. Touring Australia as part of the Soundwave festival's lineup over the weekend, Soundgarden performed the song for the first time since 1992 in Adelaide and Melbourne.

No one would confuse this performance for a perfect representation of the song, but it's nonetheless an admirable effort considering that they haven't performed the song in more than two decades, and by the end they seem to have locked into the groove.

Check it out here.

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Black Crowes's Chris Robinson Was Not Close To Bandmate Brother
(Classic Rock) Former Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson says he and guitarist Rich never shared a spirit of brotherly love during their 25 years with the band. Instead, he suggests, the Crowes' success was the only reason they continued to communicate after the late 1980s.

The split was confirmed last month by guitarist Rich after drummer Steve Gorman had previously hinted they wouldn't be returning from hiatus to celebrate their quarter-century.

Now Chris tells HuffPost Live: "We never really had much of a relationship. You write some songs and that record sells six million copies, then you're supposed to keep going. Then there's family and there's responsibility and stuff."

But he continues: "I'm proud of the work. The Black Crowes gave me everything - the sheer, humble gift that a weird kid in Atlanta in the 80s could find his way through the world as an artist." Read more here.

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Buck & Evans Release 'Screaming' Video
(Classic Rock) Buck & Evans have released a video for their track Screaming - featuring stand-in AC/DC drummer Bob Richards. He's a member of the Welsh blues outfit who recorded an album live at Rockfield Studios last year. Screaming is the latest number to be launched.

Richards was called up by AC/DC in October to appear in two videos for 17th album Rock Or Bust, as a result of the continuing issues faced by drummer Phil Rudd.

Richards recently said: "I heard the songs an hour or so before we went on to the set to start filming. I played it over several times and did a bit of air-drumming to it. The band were fantastic - they made me so welcome and we had a great time shooting."

Rudd has been replaced by Chris Slade for the band's world tour. Watch the video here.

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John Bush Has Lost Touch With Former Anthrax Bandmate
(Classic Rock) Former Anthrax frontman John Bush says he's saddened that he's lost contact with drummer Charlie Benante. He remains in touch with guitarist Scott Ian, but hasn't spoken to Benante in several years - even though he says they used to be very close.

He fronted Anthrax from 1992 to 2005 then left when they attempted to regroup with classic-era frontman Joey Belladonna. When that failed they hired Dan Nelson but dismissed him in 2009. Bush returned to fill the gap until Belladonna's permanent return in 2010.

Bush tells Lucas H Gordon: "I haven't talked to Charlie in probably a couple of years, which is a little sad because I was close with him. But things got kind of weird. Maybe he doesn't want to talk or something. I'm cool - it's all good on my end." Read more here.

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Singled Out: Revolution Saints (Night Ranger/Journey/Whitesnake)
Revolution Saints, featuring Night Ranger's Jack Blades, Journey's Deen Castronovo and Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake), release their self-titled debut album today and to celebrate we asked Jack to tell us about the song "Turn Back Time". Here is the story:

The way the song "Turn Back Time" is laid out it just screamed for a duet from Deen and me. We were in Portland in the studio and Deen started singing the first verse on the song�kinda low for his voice but he put it down. I took the second half of the verse and kinda played around with the melody still keeping it within the realm of the song.

Well, Deeno took that as a big green light and ripped into the second verse and then the chorus after the blazing solo DA had just laid down�I'm thinking, oh great� these guys are firing on all eight cylinders what am I supposed to do now with a harmony on this wild last chorus that Deen just killed.

The producer Alessandro was in the control room trying to come up with some harmony note for the last chorus and I said to him just roll the song and hit record. He started to say something and I said "just roll it and record", all the while thinking to myself what the hell am I gonna sing????

The chorus came on and boom I just started answering Deen's awesome chorus lines with lines of my own�sorta like we were talking back and forth with each other, line for line, note for note.

When I was finished Alessandro just stopped the song, looked at Deen and Doug, and they all together threw the horns with both hands. Ale said "Perfecto". I said "what the hell did I sing?" He laughed and played it back.

We left it as it was; what both Deeno and I did on the first run through of the song�.didn't even try and sing it again. Now that's the way to record a vocal. I inspired Deen, Deeno inspired me and thankfully we didn't try to mess with it!!

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

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