Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge donned his Papa Emeritus IV frontman persona when he joined The Hellacopters on TV for a cover of a classic Rolling Stones hit.
Papa Emeritus IV teamed up with The Hellacopters for a performance of the Stone's "Sympathy For The Devil" on "Pa Sparet", a quiz show on the Swedish network SVT on Friday night (January 22nd).
Forge revealed last fall that he was planning to enter the studio this month to begin recording the next Ghost album. He told Sweden Rock Magazine, "The actual recording will last around six weeks and then there's two to three weeks of mixing and mastering.
"So sometime in March the record should be finished, but it won't be released until after the summer. As it looks now, knock on wood, we will then go on tour. We won't release an album until we know that we are actually going on tour. The album release will coincide with the start of a tour." Watch the television performance here.
(hennemusic) Royal Blood are streaming the title track to their forthcoming album, "Typhoons." The tune follows "Trouble's Coming" as the second preview to the third studio set from the UK duo of bassist/singer Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher.
Due April 30, the project sees the band make a conscious return to their roots, back when they had made music that was influenced by Daft Punk, Justice, and Philippe Zdar of Cassius, while also aiming for a back-to-basics approach featured on their 2014 self-titled debut.
"We sort of stumbled on this sound, and it was immediately fun to play," recalls Kerr. "That's what sparked the creativity on the new album, the chasing of that feeling. It's weird, though - if you think back to 'Figure it Out,' (from debut album) it kind of contains the embryo of this album. We realized that we didn't have to completely destroy what we'd created so far; we just had to shift it, change it. On paper, it's a small reinvention. But when you hear it, it sounds so fresh."
While Kerr and Thatcher produced most of the album themselves, the track "Boilermaker" was produced by Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, and Paul Epworth produced "Who Needs Friends" and contributed additional production to "Trouble's Coming."
"Typhoons" will be available in digital, black and colored vinyl, and CD formats; the official Royal Blood store offers a deluxe vinyl packaged with a bonus 7" single (featuring the extra track "Space") and an art print, and a picture disc.here.
Trapt drummer Michael Smith has announced that he has made the "bittersweet decision" to quit the band due to some ongoing issues that he says are primarily political.
Smith had this to say, "After playing drums for Trapt for the past couple years, I have decided to step down from the band. This is definitely a bittersweet decision. There have been some ongoing issues (primarily political) throughout 2020 that many of you may know about, others may not. If you're curious, it's just a google search away. I respect everyone's right to have an opinion on politics. But at the end of the day, I am a musician and my job is to play and create music. So that is what I plan on doing.
"As I still communicate and have great relationships with the guys in the band, I will only speak for myself. The stances taken, and publicity received as a result are not representative of myself. Not as an individual, nor fitting or aligned with my personal morals and beliefs. I do not agree with how certain things have been handled towards our fans and the music community who I have such an immense respect for.
"I would not be able to have a career in music and/or be fortunate enough to sustain my livelihood without the amazing support of everybody involved (from fans to venue staff, to musician peers, etc.) So thank you to those out there who have been a part of supporting and enabling me to use my gifts and talents, and allowing me to press forward in my musical journey.
"It has been one of the best periods in my life the past couple years. But when it comes down to it, I do not agree with a lot of things morally and the publicity the band has received, mainly this past year in 2020...It is time for me to move on and pursue other avenues and projects.
"A huge thank you to everyone who has supported my musical journey thus far..."
(hennemusic) Pink Floyd are sharing video of a 1972 performance of their classic 1968 instrumental, "Careful With That Axe, Eugene." The clip presents footage from a June 29, 1972 show at the UK's Brighton Dome, one of two shows at the venue which were added to the end of the initial tour of "The Dark Side Of The Moon" after the band experienced technical problems on opening night there six months earlier.
"Careful With That Axe, Eugene" originally appeared as the b-side to Pink Floyd's 1968 standalone single, "Point Me At The Sky"; live versions later appeared on the band's 1969 album, "Ummagumma", and the 1972 documentary "Live At Pompeii."
Pink Floyd recently swept top honors in the 2020 hennemusic Rock News Awards, where they captured the titles of Rock News Artist Of The Year and Rock News Story Of The Year in the 11th annual event. Watch the videohere.
(hennemusic) The Black Crowes are sharing their version of the John Lennon classic, "Jealous Guy", as featured on the upcoming series of expanded 30th anniversary editions of their 1990 debut, "Shake Your Money Maker."
The tune, which first appeared on Lennon's legendary 1971 album "Imagine", is among the previously-unreleased material from sessions for the group's first record that will be featured on the February 26 package.
The reissue has been expanded into multiple packages, including 4LP and 3CD Super Deluxe versions that include a remastered version of the original album; three never-before-heard studio recordings; 2 unreleased demos from the band's early incarnation as Mr. Crowe's Garden; B-sides and an unreleased 1990 concert recording in their hometown of Atlanta, GA.
A 2CD Deluxe version has the remastered album along with the unreleased studio songs, demos, and b-sides; there are also standard 1CD and 1LP versions with the remastered record, as well as streaming and digital options. Check out the cover and the original version of "Jealous Guy"here.
(hennemusic) Whitesnake are streaming a video for the 2021 remix of their 1984 classic, "Slow An' Easy", as featured on the upcoming collection, "The Blues Album."
The tune originally appeared on the band's "Slide It In" album, and was one of the songs from that set to establish the group as a rock radio staple in North America.
Due February 19, the project - which marks the third and final release in the band's "Red, White And Blues" trilogy - delivers remixed and remastered versions of the group's best blues-rock songs.
The set mixes hits and deep tracks that were originally released between 1984 and 2011 on six Whitesnake studio albums and singer David Coverdale's third solo record, "Into The Light."
"The Blues Album" will be available in multiple formats, including digitally and on CD and as a double-LP set pressed on 180-gram ocean blue vinyl. Watch the videohere.
(hennemusic) Heart singer Ann Wilson has released a new single entitled "Tender Heart." The ballad follows the rocker's recent cover of Steve Earle's 2004 track, "The Revolution Starts Now", which marked Wilson's first release since her 2018 solo album, "Immortal."
The song "came out of a personal struggle, but quickly evolved into a greater, more universal meaning," explains Wilson. "We as the human race are coming to realize realities we never dreamed we'd have to face - environmentally, culturally, financially, and health-wise. Humanity is coming to terms with uncomfortable, heartbreaking, terrifying truths.
"This song is for the soul whose heart is blindsided by reality, but is still soft and innocent. I hope people will identify with this song and feel they are not alone." Stream the songhere.
Son of the Velvet Rat have released a video for their song "Beautiful Disarray". The track comes from their forthcoming album "Solitary Company," which will be released on March 19th. Conqueroo sent over the following details:
Son of the Velvet Rat is the solo musical endeavor and masked identity of Georg Altziebler and his wife, Heike Binder. In 2013 the duo left their hometown of Graz, Austria for the endless highways of America, finally settling along the edge of California's Mojave Desert, in Joshua Tree.
From Paul Cullum's liner notes: Situated at the vanguard of Euro-Folk Noir, their songs build on the cabaret traditions of Old World masters like Georges Brassens, Jacques Brel and Fabrizio De André, now fused with the dark Old Testament prophecy and Kabbalistic visions conjured by New World visionaries Townes Van Zandt, Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan.
The result is like some exotic desert fruit - equal parts bruised pulp and scarified skin, set off against the crepuscular glow of the violet horizon or blood pooled on the desert floor - all delivered in what accidental fan Lucinda Williams calls Georg's "great sexy-gravelly voice," leavened by Heike's translucent harmonies, like roses circling a tattooed heart.
The album's title track opens with a faint sigh from the melodica before the band joins in. They're playing a slow march, treading gingerly. Everything is sparse - piano, organ, guitar, drums, double bass - all adding up to the restrained suggestion of a potential wall of sound while playing as little as possible. A half-minute in, the great Bob Furgo's violin takes over with a tune that's equally Irish folk and "La Vie en Rose," instantly placing us in that American/European world he used to evoke on those old Leonard Cohen records. "I'm the paintbrush, not the painter," Georg Altziebler sings softly, setting the tone for ten story-songs that appear to tell themselves without effort. "I am just the singer, not the song / All I really did was sing along," he deadpans. It's a neat play on an old cliché, using the familiar as an elegant entrance to an original vision.
"I'm gonna take Avalon to Landers Brew," Altziebler sings on "When the Lights Go Down," name-checking the road that leads to the bar where he and Heike have played many a show on a small semi-circular stage. We might be in a film noir ("Wash the blood away from your fingernails / Get rid of the gun on Sun Flower Trail") or in the middle of a climate change-induced apocalypse. For all of its local references, this is far too surreal to be a folk record. Rather, it inhabits "a secret parallel world behind the clouds," in the words of "Beautiful Disarray."
While their previous long-player Dorado took them to the Culver City, Calif. studio location of producer Joe Henry, the new album was recorded mainly in the very landscape referenced in the lyrics - inside the Red Barn at the end of a dirt track near Morongo Valley, Calif. - a place filled with lovingly restored vintage amps, keyboards and recording gear by its owner and the album's co-producer, Gar Robertson. Additional recording in Graz, Austria (by Fabio Schurischuster at Die Mischerei & Günther Kolman at Nasaomusic) seamlessly ties together the Old and New World visions that are intertwined at the core of the band.
Other lyrical scenes paint a picture of a Ferris Wheel spinning underground, or a couple gambling all their money at the roulette table on "11 & 9" (November 9th was the date of Heike and Georg's wedding anniversary). There's the midsummer night's magic of "The Waterlily & the Dragonfly" and a couple seen making love from the windows of New York City's Carlton Arms Hotel in the album's eerie title track. It all ends in the haunting "Remember Me," the story of an old fisherman left behind by his family.
Not many records manage to take the listener to so many places with such subtle tones and gestures. At Son of the Velvet Rat's California performances you'll see eccentric desert-dwellers mouthing their lyrics back at them. They have become an integral part of the Joshua Tree music scene, which holds this mysteriously charismatic couple of Austrian immigrants in increasingly high regard. On the evidence of Solitary Company, it's easy to see why. Watch the video here.
LA grunge-punk duo Tarah Who? just released a new single and video called "Swallow That Pill" and to celebrate we have asked Tarah Carpenter to tell us about the track. Here is the story:
After releasing 'Pantomath', I wanted to release something in the same vibe. People seemed to really enjoy the song and video so I thought "let's write another, fun, light one before going into the deep stuff!" I usually write when I am angry or sad, sometimes it is just sarcasm. 'Swallow That Pill' is about your everyday frustrations in life.
The situations or people you keep in your life, despite the fact that they make you feel horrible, or just bored. I don't really write metaphors, so I think that you can get the gist of the situation by reading the lyrics. They aren't any mysteries or read in between the lines here...The first verse is about an ex-co-worker of mine who I noticed was a really good employee, or at least as you would want them to be. Always on time, if we were slammed, she would offer extra time, even on weekends.. etc... But our bosses made fun of her, and when her contract was up, they did not want to renew it. She was crushed because she tried really hard. How many times, have we been in a situation of harassment, but we want the job, or we too young to know what we are supposed to do, or we are not even sure why we are uncomfortable, so we just stay quiet, but we know something is not right.. That is what the second verse is about.
One of my last jobs, my employer, on my second day, asked me to "turn" so that he could check if my pants were not too baggy, and then asked me to get tighter pants because they were a "classy" establishment. Disclaimer: I don't wear baggy pants.. but I needed the cash, so I just kept it to myself, but then I noticed that he was abusive, and harassing all of the girls. They had NO idea.
This is why this song is on the angrier side! This BS that we have to accept because at the moment, it feels like you don't have a choice!
Something that is sort of new a fun too, I am not sure if I came up with it because I was working on the song with a couple of glasses of wine, but there is a whole French section, that we can take as a bridge. On a sort of jazzy background music with Theremin ( for a little bit of humor), I am pretending to be a Parisian who is just really happy with her routine life that we call in Paris "Metro, boulot, dodo" which means "subway, work, sleep" and repeat.
The music video had to be really fast and we were really limited because of Covid. Erica Torres, a friend of ours shot it. We had a lot of fun. I thought "Ok here is what we are going to do: This song is about BREAKING the habit, and being frustrated so you want to BREAK S$%^ up! so let's just do that!" Luckily the break room was open, so we broke a lot of things for an hour and it turned out to be a lot more exhausting that I thought!
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself right here!
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