Knotfest Iowa is upon us. Today the globally renowned event has revealed its 2024 lineup including the hometown return of Slipknot, the festival's headliner and founders. With a unique set drawing heavily from their 1999 debut, Slipknot will celebrate 25 years of the self-titled album along with their fans, in the band's birthplace of Iowa.
Slipknot are bigger than ever. Those who witnessed those early days could justifiably have thought the band would never last this long - most artists that debut with such a burning intensity and a complete disregard for the existing paradigm, cannot last. But Slipknot's unapologetic ferocity spoke to an entire generation, and quicker than anyone outside the band expected, they were also speaking FOR that generation. Now generations in, Slipknot's message, songs and art resonate even more powerfully. This is where it all began. (continue)
System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian has announced he'll officially release his new single and video "A.F. Day" on Friday, May 17 via Gibson Records and he has shared a teaser for the track.
"A.F. Day" which will also appear on Serj's forthcoming EP titled FOUNDATIONS--due Fall 2024--fits right into the singer-songwriter's canon and his ability to dive straight into longstanding cultural issues and thoughts that have smoldered to the top of our daily reality demanding to be acknowledged. The vital and raw anthem drives "Twice sorrowed by mistake for the color of my step seems too dry. The Ruby of the north is red yet it's green for the blind consent of our time. Another Day Another Day Another Day Another Day. Another F***ing Day Another F***ing Day Another F***ing Day Another F***ing Day. Medieval educators locking horns at the playground at 5, Real live police crime shows. Submission of the population at large. The blind man cannot see all the marchers on the opposite side." (continue)
Kaleo have announced their North American "Payback Tour," which will see the group headlining amphitheaters across the continent through the fall. The newly announced dates kick off at Hayden Homes Amphitheatre in Bend, OR on August 25th and run through the middle of October.
The upcoming run will feature support from Chance Pe-a, Hembree and Larkin Poe on select dates with additional support to be announced in the coming weeks. Ticket presales for the newly announced dates begin tomorrow, Tuesday, April 30th at 10am local time, with general on-sale starting this Friday, May 3rd at 10am local. (continue)
Cullman, AL rockers Shallow Side have released their new single "Filters". It is the band's first collaboration and they were excited to have Elias Soriano of NONPOINT not only help create parts of the song but be a part of the music video.
"Filters" is likely the heaviest song in Shallow Side's catalog, and with a brutally blistering bridge piece by NONPOINT's Elias Soriano, it should come as no surprise. This song embodies the essence of what the band wanted to achieve in a new album, both lyrically and compositionally. (continue)
Kings Of Thrash announce their long-awaited "Anarchy in the UK" tour with special guests Andry and Hellgrimm. The tour is set to kick off October 24, 2024 and run through November 02, 2024. This highly anticipated tour will feature none other than Grammy Award Winning Bassist David Ellefson and guitarist Jeff Young, drummer Fred Aching and vocalist/guitarist Chaz Leon.
The tour promises an electrifying experience for fans as Kings Of Thrash makes its debut in the United Kingdom, paying homage to the birthplace of heavy metal. This tour holds special significance as it coincides with the 30th anniversary of the groundbreaking album "Youthanasia," platinum (USA) and gold (UK) a milestone in Ellefson's illustrious career. (continue)
William Shatner, beloved Star Trek actor and real-life space traveler, proudly presents his newest musical project, an ingenious, infectious and thoroughly entertaining album, Where Will The Animals Sleep? - Songs For Kids And Other Living Things!
This 13-song project unites the talents of Shatner with longtime guitarist for They Might Be Giants, Dan Miller, and award-winning YA novelist Robert Sharenow, who together create a menagerie of characters drawn from the animal kingdom who sing and dance and share their stories on this whimsical and educational release. Mr. Shatner declares, "This is a children's album but I think children of all ages will be intrigued and entranced at the songs that are on this album!" (continue)
The 40th anniversary of Rush's "Grace Under Pressure" album is being celebrated with a Medium Rare episode by the syndicated radio show In The Studio With Redbeard: The Stories Behind History's Greatest Rock Bands that features a classic interview with late drummer Neil Peart.
When revisiting the Rush April 1984 release Grace Under Pressure, I had to double-check the math. Could Grace Under Pressure, in my mind that mid-period transitional album for the Toronto-based trio, really have been their tenth studio album in as many years? In hindsight, that kind of prolific output seems herculean, but it certainly did not diminish Rush's appeal. However, Grace Under Pressure and its predecessor, 1982's Signals, were not without controversy for the band's longtime fans."We weren't ready to throw all of our abilities away," explained Neil Peart, Rush's peerless drummer and consummate lyricist, to me on the opening night of the Grace Under Pressure 1984 tour. "There was a school of minimalism that grew up in the late Seventies that tempted a lot of musicians toward it, and they just threw away everything they'd learned. And we were not ready to do that, but we WERE certainly ready to change it and present it in other ways, so that the music we are making now still continues to progress. And in a purely technical sense, our instinctive ability to handle it is so much more refined now." (read more)
British alt-Americana troubadour Holly Lerski just released her new album "Sweet Decline" and to celebrate we asked her to tell us about the song "Nepenthe". Here is the story:
Nepenthe is a potion Homer talks of in "The Odyssey." Translated, it literally means "the one that chases away sorrow." It also happens to be a restaurant set up on a hill in Big Sur, California and the final destination on the first US road trip I took back in 2019. I'd heard the Beatniks used to hang out there in the 1950s - Kerouac had written about it in his book "Big Sur," too - so it was an essential part of my trip; a pilgrimage of sorts. (continue)
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