Given the fact that Stone Sour and Papa Roach both have successful new albums out and are currently embarking on a co-headlining tour around the world could make you do a double take when you look at your calendar. Don’t worry, it is in fact 2013 and not 2003. At Club Nokia, in downtown Los Angeles on February 13, it was blatantly evident that great music is not limited by the fads and phases of popular culture no matter what the calendar says. Both these bands work hard, play well, write great music and have done so consistently for over ten years. Sometimes it seems that not enough attention is given to the bands that don’t burn out on drugs, have tantrums and break up.
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By Colette Claire Posted in Reviews, Show Reviews Papa Roach, Stone Sour
Just back from their European tour and currently embarking on the American leg, Hatebeed is super pumped. Not just because being angrily upbeat is what they do, but also because their latest album The Divinity of Purpose has just been released to very positive reviews from critics and fans. Hatebreed always puts 100% blood, sweat and tears into what they do, but this new effort really has the prefect balance of the brutality that people expect and the creative innovation that keeps it fresh. mxdwn’s Colette Claire caught up with guitarist Frank Novinec just as the US tour started to discuss the bands current success and what’s coming next.
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By Colette Claire Posted in Features Colette Claire, Frank Novinec, Hatebreed, Jamie Jasta, Put it to the torch, The divinity of purpose
45 Grave is known for being one of the innovators of goth-industrial, yet until very recently, the band’s catalog boasted of only one studio album and a couple of singles. Pick Your Poison was recently released by Dinah Cancer and a whole new lineup that’s she’s spent a lot of blood, sweat and tears putting together. She’s tried her best to pick up where 45 Grave left off, ignoring the 20-year lapse and enthusiastically moving forward. I had the opportunity during the recent Sunset Strip Music Festival to chat with her about it.
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By Colette Claire Posted in Features 45 Grave, Colette Claire, Dinah Cancer, Frank agnew, Sunset Strip Music Festival
Earlier this year, Dead Sara came out of the wood work and took radio by storm with their single “Weatherman.” A gritty, catchy Blind Mellon meets Janis Joplin tune that exhibits the band’s energy and song writing skills beautifully. Just after Sunset Strip Music Festival I caught up with Dead Sara’s Emily Armstrong to talk about their “overnight” success a bit. Read more…
By Colette Claire Posted in Features Colette Claire, Courtney Love, Dead Sara, Emily Armstrong
Devin Townsend just wrote possibly the most upbeat record of his career and he’s damn excited about it. Tossing aside any worries of being rejected from the “heavy metal chess club” as he calls it, Townsend did exactly what he does best: write whatever comes into his mind and do it to the fullest extent possible. This time though it wasn’t contemplating the existential fate of the world, it was contemplating that life isn’t always so bad, the universe is awesome, and maybe we should finally go mow that lawn.
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By Colette Claire Posted in Features Colette Claire, devin townsend, Devin Townsend Project, Strapping Young Lad
The Sunset Strip Music Festival, which started as a cluster of shows at the clubs on the strip in 2008, has grown by leaps and bounds into a full fledged, much anticipated yearly event like Bonnaroo or Coachella minus the camping. The 5th annual SSMF took place between August 16th and 18th and as in years past, it featured many different musical acts on various stages spanning different genres, including Marilyn Manson, Bad Religion, Offspring and Black Label Society. Each year the SSMF chooses a different icon of the strip to honor, and in one of its most appropriate choices yet, The Doors were picked as this year’s honorees. The Doors were the early pioneers of the whole Sunset Strip concert experience so this seemed long over due.
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By Colette Claire Posted in Reviews, Show Reviews Bad Religion, black lable society, Colette Claire, Dead Sara, dexter holland, greg graffin, Marilyn Manson, ray manzerik, robby krieger, Sunset Strip Music Festival, The Doors, the offspring, Zakk Wylde
Swedish band Ghost, the opener for this tour, has been generating a lot of buzz in the metal community, so much so that the venue was almost completely full when they played. Not only is this rare for an opening band, but the venue’s doors opened right before they hit the stage. So at a time when people are usually trickling in and getting situated, the crowd was already seated and watching with rapt attention. It’s no wonder since Ghost has so much mystery surrounding them and they write damn good songs. They practically came out of nowhere with a 3 track demo in 2010 and their first full length album, Opus Eponymous, in 2011. Read more…
By Colette Claire Posted in Features, Reviews, Show Reviews Colette Claire, ghost, Mastodon, Mikael Åkerfeldt, Opeth, Ronnie James Dio
Black Francis, or Frank Black, or whatever you’d like to call the former Pixies front man, has been friends with singer/songwriter Reid Paley for a long time. Ever since the Pixies opened up for his band The Five back in the ’80s. After many years of touring together and the occasional songwriting collaboration, the two have finally decided to make an entire record together, simply titled Paley & Francis. With these two legendary songwriters playing guitar and swapping vocal duties, it would be hard to believe this album could disappoint. Reid Paley was cool enough to take sometime out of his day to tell us a bit about it. Read more…
By Colette Claire Posted in Features Colette Claire, Paley and Francis, Reid Paley
Mark Heylmun, lead guitarist for Suicide Silence, took time out of his busy schedule of writing, playing, and partying while dressed up like Jesus to talk to us about the writing process of their new album The Black Crown and the filming of the trippy and violent video for its first single “You Only Live Once.” Read more…
By Colette Claire Posted in Features Colette Claire, Mark Heylmun, Suicide Silence
Phil Demmel has been the lead guitarist of Machine Head for the last 9 years. He joined them after his previous band Vio-Lence broke up; Vio-Lence being the band that he and Rob Flynn, Machine Head’s lead singer and guitarist, formed together as teenagers. Robb went on to form Machine Head in 1992 and Phil joined them in 2003, proof that the two were destined to make music together in whatever form it takes. We were lucky enough to have a chat with Phil in the midst of the madness that is the Rock Star Mayhem Festival where Machine Head participated in the rather innovative idea of sharing the opening slot on the main stage with Trivium and In Flames. Read more…
By Colette Claire Posted in Features Colette Claire, Machine Head, Mayhem Fest, Phil Demmel, Robb Flynn, Vio-Lence
