KISS have announced that they will be returning to the road in North America this summer and fall for the newly expanded leg of their End Of The Road Farewell Tour.
The original trek was postponed due to the pandemic and the band is gearing up to honor the original dates with rescheduled shows, along with eight new stops.
The tour will be kicking off on August 18th in Mansfield, MA at the Xfinity Center and will conclude on October 9th in Tampa, FL at the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre.
"Time marched on but we couldn't. Now, the boots are on and we're hauling an extra year's worth of pyro, lights and spectacle. We Are Back!," the band said in the announcement. "We're pumped and can't wait to celebrate with our biggest, wildest and hottest show ever." See the dates here.
Acclaimed rockers MiGGs' original members have returned with their first new song and video in 15 years called "Harder Than It Has To Be" and to celebrate we asked Don Miggs (vocals, guitar) to tell us about the track. Here is the story:
The band releasing a new song wasn't really planned. In 2020 I was in the studio writing and recording a song for Candlebox with singer Kevin Martin. We needed a drummer for the project, so I called my MiGGs bandmate Jason Gianni. It went well so the idea of us making more music together seemed possible.
Every band creates a DNA. The trick is to recognize it and grow what is natural to what the band does well. MiGGS was at its' best when we meshed deceptively simple riffs with catchy melodies and a bit of lyrical weight. When I came up with the opening piece for "Harder Than It Has To Be" I knew it could only be a MiGGS track, so I reached out to the original guys from the Insomnia era of the band and the timing was right for a new collaboration.
The song tackles a bit of the way we were feeling during the Presidential transition and Covid- People trying to control things they couldn't, fighting over things that maybe weren't truly affecting their day to day lives and just making everything a bit "Harder Than It Has To Be. "
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself right here!
(hennemusic) The Foo Fighters will play a California club show this week ahead of their concert event re-opening Madison Square Garden to live music on June 20.
The band will perform in the Los Angeles area at Agoura Hills' Canyon Club on Tuesday, June 15 as part of the group's newly-announced 26th anniversary tour promoting their latest album, "Medicine At Midnight."
The Foo Fighters are among the artists who will be inducted into the 2021 edition of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame this fall; the band will be honored alongside Tina Turner, Todd Rundgren, The Go-Go's, Carole King and Jay-Z at the upcoming 36th annual Induction event in Cleveland, OH in October. Read morehere.
Wolfgang Van Halen recently spoke about some of the negative reaction that he faced when he took over for Michael Anthony in Van Halen when they reunited with David Lee Roth.
The multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and son of guitar legend Eddie Van Halen spoke with Spin about his brand new solo album released under the name Mammoth WVH.
During the chat he was asked about the negativity that he faced when he joined Van Halen for their reunion tour with Roth and explained that part of his reason for joining was to help his father who was dealing with issues at the time.
He said, ""Looking cynically on paper, as a kid replacing a longtime member, it's like...yeah, you should hate me. It's a lot more nuanced than that.
"It's not like my dad was like, 'F*** you, get out of here.' My dad wasn't going through a good time, and Mike was having a good time playing with [former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar].
"Sam wasn't in the band. Sure, it's a little dicey and complicated, but he really wasn't a part of it anymore. I completely understand that he wouldn't want to be around my dad when he was like that.
"It was never like I went to my dad and said [in a cagey movie villain voice] 'I should be playing bass.' At that point, I just wanted to keep my dad alive."
X Ambassadors have released a brand new single entitled "My Own Monster", which was produced by Andrew Wells (Young the Giant, Halsey, Fitz and the Tantrums).
The band is gearing up to release their third album later this year. Frontman Sam Nelson Harris had this to say about the new track, "It's a song about someone who has a voice inside their head.
There's something evil about the voice, but the person is attracted to that and ultimately decides, 'I'm going to embrace this awful thing, let it be my best friend and let it protect me. What could possibly happen?'" Stream the song here.
(hennemusic) Noel Gallagher performed three songs - including an Oasis classic - during a June 12 appearance on CBS This Morning's Saturday Sessions. The rocker was on hand to promote his newly-released greatest hits package, "Back The Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021)", a compilation that features two new songs alongside highlights from the first decade of his work with The High Flying Birds.
Gallagher famously quit Oasis in 2009 and launched his solo career in 2011, a path that saw him purposefully set out in a variety of musical directions.
"Well, I came out of a band with a very strong identity, a very famous band, a band that fans really, really loved, and I didn't want my solo career to be a sugar-free version of that...like 'Diet Oasis'", Gallagher tells interviewer Anthony Mason. "We were a stadium rock band, therefore I was writing stadium rock songs. And I was writing for another singer."
For the CBS appearance, Gallagher delivered his current single, "We're On Our Way Now", 2017's "Holy Mountain", and the Oasis smash, "Don't Look Back In Anger", a song that has an enduring legacy with fans.
Mason recounted details of a 2017 terrorist bombing in the singer's hometown of Manchester that left 22 dead and more than 1,000 injured, noting that a woman in the crowd at a memorial for the victims began singing the 1995 Oasis classic before others joined in.
"That's when it kind of hits you; people have taken it into their lives and it served a purpose that day," says Gallagher. "It's something I try not to think about because it will drive me mad of 'Why? What is it about that song.' I just put it down to something was in the air that night when I wrote it in Paris, it fell out of the sky. Thankfully it landed on my lap and not Bono's."
"What it's become is something that I could never, ever have imagined", he added. "I touched on something...I don't know what it is." Watch the videos and read morehere.
King Crimson have announced that they will be returning to the road next month to launch a brand new U.S. tour that will feature The Zappa Band as support on select dates.
The Music Is Our Friend Tour will be kicking off on July 22nd in Clearwater, FL at the Ruth Eckerd Hall and will run until September 11th when they will wrap things up in Washington, DC at The Anthem.
Robert Fripp had this to say, "The Crimson Beast Is in Go! Mode. Totally excellent news! Much hooraying! Glad times are here! The Crimson Beast Of Terror has woken from its enforced slumbering and is venturing out to stomp flat the psyches of innocents not yet experienced in the hammering onslaught of King Crimson's uncompromising pounding - bish! bish! bish! - before turning on a beat to jellify hearts with gut-wrenching passion and soul-squeezing epic unfoldings to remind us that we are all mere subjects in the unfolding drama of the universe's unfathomable mysteries while simultaneously rocking out and having a great time bopping about with Tony and Bobby and Gavin and Jakko and Mel and Pat and Jezza too." See the dates here.
Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy is keeping really busy of late working on a new double album and he also shared some details about a new docuseries called "Backstage Pass" that he is working on.
He spoke about both during a new interview with Vintage Rock Pod. He said of the new solo album, "So much time has passed since we started writing, Eric and I, my guitar player co-writer on most of my solos. It was so long ago and the record was done.
"We had the songs written like six months ago and that was a year process. So since then I've been writing like a fool and writing with him and all these new songs.
"So, I figured let's do a double record and give it all you got. Just go in there, lay it down and say here 'This is what happens in two years when you write tunes'. And they're way different. There there's such an ebb and flow. It goes all over the place this record.
"Our new bass player, Jerry Montana, he did time in 'Hell Yeah'. You know, he's a more of an aggressive writer / player. So these songs could be heavy, heavy, or they could be Ratt sounding, obviously, if I write them. But I'm trying to take them outside, I'm trying to do a lot of different things, you know, and it's going to be interesting because it's going to go all over the place, so good luck!"
He revealed plans for the docuseries when he was asked if fans can expect the album to be released early next year. He responded, "Yeah, it's been put off. We're going to try to get through this year. I've got some things to take care of with what the band Ratt's going to do and just on the move on other things, projects and trying to get this docu-series out.
"I have a show in production it's called Backstage Pass. The show is pretty much wanting to find out what legacy do I want to leave, and it will be visual, it will be a lot more involved.
"The history, Robin, Tawny, teenagers. I met them when they were teenagers. They lived together at a duplex down the street from my grandmother. No one knows this sh*t. So we've been friends for ages and Tawny too, you know." Listen to the full podcast episode here.
Santa Clarita, CA Pop-Punk trio Bluedive give the year 2020 the big f you with their song "2020", which comes from their recently released debut EP "Bittersweet".
Aidan Dixon (vocals, guitar) says of the song, "So basically, writing 2020 was like letting out a bunch of repressed frustration about the whole Covid thing."
The band formed amidst the pandemic and drummer Riff Gordon reflects, "Sebastian and I had played together in our high school jazz band so when he text and asked if I wanted to get together and play with him and Aidan I was happy to have a musical outlet after months of stay at home orders, the more we started to jam the more we realized the Covid shutdown afforded us the time to experiment with our music and figure out what we wanted Bluedive to be, that's where the name comes from, when things seem to be at their darkest we find a way to dive into something positive." Stream the song here.
Didi + Ping (multi-instrumentalist and experimental producer Kristian Wang) just released a new single called "Take Flight" and to celebrate we asked him to tell us about the track. Here is the story:
Ever since I was a kid, I've always wanted to fly - I think it's a phase a lot of us go through. I'd daydream all day of soaring through the sky as I stared at the birds dancing in the wind! There's an associated freedom with defying gravity.
I started recording 'Take Flight' about a year ago, but it was an on-and-off relationship. Normally I conceptualize before recording, so I'm guided through the process. But this time it was reversed - I started recording first, and only during the final stages was I able to discover what I was trying to say. It was enlightening, and at times, frustrating!
I wrote the piano melody first. I was watching an episode of Grand Designs with my girlfriend, and there was a soaring shot over the rolling hills of the English countryside. I don't know how, but the melody came in my head soon after. From there, I recorded the drums, bassline, and everything in between. Throughout the entire process, the song went through many names. At one point, it was going to be "Genesis." The song was uplifting and I thought it captured the 'beginning of things.' But then I found that title to be too much... It was too epic. The song felt 'light,' not necessarily 'grandiose.'
A few months went by. One day I was walking down the street and looked up to see two birds 'dancing' above. And that's where the name "Take Flight" came to me! I couldn't believe it took me this long! And looking back at that soaring shot in the episode, it was so obvious.
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself right here!
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