Avenged Sevenfold (M Shadows, "Senator" Gates, Zacky Vengeance, and tardiness winner Johnny Christ) in the hardDrive studiosyesterday and we had a blast with them, as usual. Highlight: Johnny Christ's American flag lensed aviator sunglasses he got in Catalina Island which matched his red striped jacket. Stylist! But can the guy carry a tune....NOT! Very funny stuff. Anyhow, M Shadows told Lou Brutus how nervous the band has been getting out there to perform. Will they keep it together emotionally? (They get the jitters before going on stage anyhow, but without The Rev to be around to lighten everyone's mood, it seems everything has changed in more than the obvious ways.) Matt said there were so many signs for The Rev at the show they did last weekend in Montreal, he was having a hard time singing the lyrics to the songs while reading them to himself. Most said RIP Rev and words of encouragement for the band. The band said the fans have been incredible throughout this whole ordeal and are so grateful to them. Meanwhile, A7X is in line to possibly debut as the Number One album on the Billboard Charts next week. They are up against Eminem, so stay tuned. Can't wait to see their show in a couple of weeks at the opening night of the Uproar Tour! They plan to bring a major production out. And don't forget, tomorrow night at 10 PM ET, look for the band to stream their concert live from Syracuse, NY on www.ustream.com. The boys did a live chat there yesterday you can check out....Five Finger Death Punch will appear on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on August 17th (Tuesday). Look out for that!....Finger Eleven have been in NYC working on their new album, tentatively set for early October called "Life Turns Electric." The new single off it is "Living In A Dream." Hope to have James Black and the boys on the shows soon! ....The Smashing Pumpkins raised more than $80,000 at a sold-out benefit show in Chicago on Tuesday for Madina Lake bassist Matthew Leone. The money from the concert at the Windy City's famous Metro club will go to Leone's ongoing medical care. The Chicago-based musician was hospitalized with severe brain trauma last month after he intervened on the street to stop a woman from being abused by her husband and was himself beaten by the man....Birthdays this weekend: On Saturday, Happy 29th to M Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold, and Happy 39th to John 5 of Rob Zombie's band. On Sunday, Happy 42nd to Dan Donegan of Disturbed! (And Happy 47th to my buddy Coolio! Funky Cold Median indeed!) See ya Monday!
Thursday, Jul 29
Running behind today as the members of Avenged Sevenfold arrived at the office at 10, so I had to be here to welcome them! They'll be on with Lou Brutus on upcoming hardDrive and hardDrive XL shows! So great to see them. They are stoked about their new album which was released on Tuesday. They performed at the Mayhem show in Boston on Tuesday and over the weekend were on the Heavy MTL Festival in Montreal. Don't forget A7X, you can stream their show on Saturday in Syracuse, NY on uStream.com starting at 10 PM ET....I started getting teary as I began to watch the documentaries at www.oneloveforchi.com on the accident and all Chi Cheng and his family and friends have endured. Check it out. And please donate if you can....Slipknot's Joey Jordison said the band will not replace Paul Gray in the studio. His parts will be handled by Jim Root, Mick Thompson and Joey himself. Touring will be another deal, one they haven't even thought about yet. The good news is they are thinking about recording, but again, that won't happen til sometime next year. Saw Joey yesterday at RockStar Mayhem in Holmdel, NJ. Had to give him a hug. His set with Rob Zombie was off the freakin' hook! The show Zombie is putting on is one of the best set production and performances I have seen in a long long time! Only from the genius mind of Rob Zombie!!!! And of course, my boys Korn brought it! Their set design is tied in with their roots in Bakersfield-oil wells, rigs, and the like. It is spectacular. They only performed two new songs from their new record, "Oildale" and "Let The Guilt Go" in their set. I hope they put more in as time goes on....BTW: there is a special edition of Revolver mag on Avenged Sevenfold and The Rev on newsstands now. Check it out....Happy 57th to Geddy Lee of Rush.
Wednesday, Jul 28
On the Today Show, they are drinking coffee that costs $300 a pound!!!! Why is it so special? The beans from this coffee are ingested by monkeys and other animals who eat beans, and removed from their you-know-what after it's passed through their system. Then roasted and sold at a premium. Apparently, the enzymes in their systems does something to enhance the flavor of the coffee. Now, my question is.....who thought of this? That's SICKENING! .....Soundgarden is performing a club show on Aug 5th in Chicago at the Vic Theater. That's 3 days before their show at Lollapalooza. You can ONLY purchase a pair of tickets via the band's website: www.soundgardenworld.com. You have to register and if you are selected, you will receive an email with instructions of how to purchase the tix. This is so the scalpers won't rape the box office. You must be 18 or older to buy tix to this special show. Meanwhile, we are still waiting to see if we can get an interview with the guys. For some odd reason, they are playing it super low profile, but if anybody can get an interview, it's me! HA! .....Here's a good one. Ozzfest is offering a special package for those of you who feel compelled to get married at a rock festival. They're offering Unholy Matrimony Packages with 10 general admission pit tix, an ordained minister to give you your vows (you need to bring your own marriage license), an Ozzfest wedding cake & champagne toast, early entry to the venue, VIP lounge passes, specially designed tshirts, collectable posters, Sony earbuds and official Ozzfest guitar picks. REALLY???? See www.ozzfest.com ....Sully Erna of Godsmack has decided to release his solo album Sep 14 called "Avalon." Warning: it ain't a rock album. It has more of a tribal/acoustic/rhythmic/etherial vibe. Just so's ya know....Avenged Sevenfold are streaming their Jul 31st show in Syracuse, NY at 10 PM ET. Hit www.avengedsevenfold.com. Of course, the album came out yesterday and the band will hit the hardDrive studios tomorrow! Can't wait!....David Draiman of Disturbed stopped by yesterday. I am so jealous he's settled down in Austin, TX. It's a city I would like to retire to. Great weather, great people, great food and great music! And no state income tax! David told me the band will start rehearsals tomorrow in Chicago and their first show is Aug 13th at Sturgis, just prior to heading to Minneapolis to rehearse with their full stage production. The "toys" they are bringing on this tour, he said, are bigger and more outrageous than anything they've ever done (or any other band has done for that matter!!!) Looking forward to seeing the opening night of the RockStar Uproar Tour!!!....Congrats to Chevelle on their 10th year anniversary coming up later this fall. To celebrate, they'll perform two nights in their hometown of Chicago at the club where they first stared out and first went to to see bands perform. Oct 28-29 they'll perform a 10 song set each night at the Metro. And I'm guessing they'll record for a live version cd or DVD. Right on.....CNN was on hand at Rage Against the Machine's hometown show last Friday night in LA at the Palladium. Hit www.cnn.com to see interviews with the guys and some performance footage.....Stone Temple Pilots have announced new tour dates and I've got them in Road Rage for ya....Happy 34th to Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach!
Tuesday, Jul 27
Listening to a stream of the new Avenged Sevenfold. Actually to the track "Fiction," which Jimmy The Rev Sullivan sings and performs on. The turned it in 3 days before he died and told the band it was the last song he would write for this particular album. It's extremely eerie. "I know you'll find your own way when I'm not with you." Yipes. Giving me goosebumps. I can only imagine how hard that was for the band to record to. I would be crying like crazy! I like the album alot. Surprisingly, there are several slower, dare I say, sweet, songs on there. I think it shows a whole different side of the band, and the harder tracks are even harder than I remember. Mike Portnoy's drumming is outstanding, naturally. The big question remains, who will fill Jimmy's shoes going forward after this tour? These questions and more answered when the band arrives in the hardDrive studios on Thursday!....Today, our close, personal friend David Draiman of Disturbed stops by to talk about their fantastic new "Asylum" album! Can't wait to see him! Got any questions for either of these bands?? Please email me now via the link on the home page and if I get ones for Draiman before 2 PM ET today, I will incorporate into today's interview and you have til tomorrow afternoon to send some in for A7X!....Linkin Park have posted the track listing for "A Thousand Suns" on their website. Hit it: www.linkinpark.com .... Creed are planning on releasing an acoustic album in 2011....Hit YouTube to see Dave Grohl perform "Band on the Run" (Wings) for President Obama and Paul McCartney at the White House. The entire show will be aired tomorrow night on PBS at 8 PM ET. Check it out.....Bullet For My Valentine have announced their fall tour and I've posted in Road Rage. Also, Taddy Porter joins Slash on 8 dates. See those in the revised Slash itinerary....Here's more info on the new songs from Rob Zombie he plans to incude on the deluxe edition of "Hellbilly Deluxe 2" in Sep. "Devil's Hole Girls & The Big Revolution," "Everything is Boring," and "Michael," along with a revised version of "The Man Who Laughs."...Remember the band CrazyTown? They've reunited and will perform their first show in nearly 10 years on Aug 7th in San Bernardino, CA with Unwritten Law, (hed) pe and Dirty Heads....Happy 37th to Abe Cunningham of The Deftones. Happy 41st to Triple H and Happy 35th to A-Rod! Hit 600 already, will ya?!!!
Monday, Jul 26
Summer is going by too swiftly and I don't like it! Slow down, please!....Despite the blistering heat in Camden, NJ on Friday, our man Lou Brutus braved the temps and humidity for his "Backstage at RockStar Mayhem 2010" special edition of hardDrive and for hardDrive XL! The show will include interviews with Korn, Rob Zombie, Joey Jordison, Five Finger Death Punch, Atreyu and In This Moment. And he shared these tidbits o' news for us: Rob's tour with Alice Cooper & Murderdolls will kick off Sep 26th and run through early November. The new music Rob has been talking about that he's recording with his current touring band (including Joey Jordison) will be released as part of the "Hellbilly Deluxe 2" deluxe edition in Sep to coincide with the tour.....Five Finger Death Punch will record a new album in December, which follows their fall tour with a little ole band out of Boston (which hasn't been announced yet.) ....And Korn will also be on announcing what their plan is for the later winter/early spring later this year. (I know but I can't say...)....Avenged Sevenfold, who will be in the hardDrive studios on Thursday, performed their first show last night without Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan on drums. It was at the Heavy MTL festival in Montreal. Dream Theater's Mike Portnoy, Jimmy's favorite drummer and idol, is on the new Avenged Sevenfold album, which is out tomorrow, as well as this current tour. They'll perform on RockStar Mayhem tomorrow night in Mansfield, MA at the Comcast Ctr. Meanwhile, if you hit the Avenged Sevenfold Wikipedia site, my interview with the band back in May is cited! :) ...Another album out tomorrow is the self-titled evans blue cd with their new singer Chandler. Looking forward to hearing the full cd....And hardDrive also welcomes David Draiman of Disturbed to our studios tomorrow as well! Can't wait!...Happy 67th to the Rolling Stones' frontman, Mick Jagger. (I have a picture with him from the 70's talking to him about his recent root canal. Pretty funny. He was shocked I knew about it. Turned out, we had the same dentist!)
Friday, Jul 23
Pretty quiet on the western front today. Slow news day, my little droogies. But here's what I know. I know Godsmack is thisclose to announcing their fall tour. I've heard who one of the support acts might be and I think you will all be pretty happy with the announcement. Also I've heard about Disturbed's winter tour, at least what's in the mix for the early stages, and I am especially pleased with that bill. So once it's kosher to announce, you will be the first to know!....I spoke to Richard Patrick of Filter on the hotLine yesterday and he's so pumped about his new "The Trouble with Angels" cd, which will be out Aug 31. I also discovered Richie and his wife Tina welcomed their second child, a little boy named Ridley, last September! Congrats! Looking forward to seeing them when they come through NYC from Europe next month. Filter is currently doing some dates with Buckcherry. Speaking of Buckcherry, the first 20,000 copies of the new Buckcherry cd, "All Night Long," at Best Buy only will contain a bonus 6 song acoustic EP containing 5 brand new tunes and one previously recorded track done acoustically. The album will be in stores Aug 3. One thing you may not know is the Buckcherry album was originally going to be all acoustic songs, but once the juices started flowing in the studio, that all washed away. But you should take advantage of the bonus cd, if you buy your music at Best Buy. In case you hadn't heard, Buckcherry will join Nickelback and Three Days Grace this fall for a big ole U.S. tour....Crossfade will release their new album in October. Looking forward to that. Hit their My Space for more....Karnivool dates are posted in Road Rage. Glad to see the boys from Australia are back...Happy 45th today to Slash, who turns 45, and Happy 39th to Chad Gracey of Live & The Gracious Few....Have yourself a great weekend! Gonna HOT N' STEAMY here in the east. Be sure to listen to Lou Brutus tonight on hardDrive XL when he talks to guests Disturbed and Deftones. And this weekend's hardDrive has Lou and his guests Saving Abel, Sick Puppies, Since October and get ya Plugged In with evans blue! My weekend will consist of watching Korn's LIVE ENCOUNTER concert in the crop circle and the DVD that comes with the deluxe edition of "Korn 3-Remember Who You Are." Can't wait! See ya Monday!
Thursday, Jul 22
Lou Brutus is packing up and getting ready to interview the bands on the Rockstar Mayhem bill tomorrow in Camden, NJ! I am still jetlagged, so I am staying put! Listen for a "Backstage at Rockstar Mayhem" special edition of hardDrive weekend Aug 7-8....Today, I will be on the hardDrive hotLine with Filter frontman Richard Patrick. Gonna talk all about his new album, "The Trouble with Angels." Looking forward to catching up with my ole friend Richie....Congrats to Korn on their # 2 debut on the Bilboard Top 200 Album Chart of "Korn 3-Remember Who You Are." Waiting for my deluxe edition in the mail! HellYeah's "Stampede" came in at # 8. See Road Rage for new HellYeah dates! And Congrats are also in order for Metallica, whose "Death Magnetic" album has gone double platinum (that's 2million)....Disturbed's "Asylum" cd, due Aug 31, is available for pre-order now! Hit www.disturbed1.com to find out more! Their "Decade of Disturbed" DVD will be a bonus item in the package along with some live versions of songs and instructionals. Disturbed singer David Draiman will stop by the hardDrive studios on Tuesday! Look for the video on the site in a week or so....Speaking of guests in the hardDrive studios, Avenged Sevenfold drop by next Thursday to talk about their new album, "Nightmare," which hits stores on Tuesday! The place is gonna be hoppin'! ....Foo Fighters have locked down Butch Vig to produce their next record. Butch, who has produced previous albums for the Foos, has also working with The Pumpkins and Nirvana and is also a big time drummer for the band Garbage. The boys are in rehearsals now and plan to start demos next month with September as their in-studio plan....They were the "Gruesome Twosome" earlier this year, now Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie and Murderdolls will team up for a fall tour. Will it be the "Fearsome Threesome"? Maybe, but Joey Jordison will be on double duty for the 'Dolls and Zombie!.....Fieldy from Korn announced his side project with singer Q Unique and drummer Wuv from P.O.D. called Stillwell, whoare planning to release their debut album entitled "Surrounded by Liars." He's in talks with companies now and hopes to have it out by the new year. Stay tuned!
Wednesday, Jul 21
Hard to believe it was 30 years ago today AC/DC released "Back in Black"! That's probably longer than some of you out there have been ALIVE!!!!! ...Saw on Pulse of RadioSlipknot drummer Joey Jordison has said there will "absolutely" be another record from the band despite the death this past May of bassist Paul Gray. According to Blabbermouth, Jordison was asked during an interview with Fuse TV whether Slipknot would record again, to which he replied, "Absolutely. I just wanna thank all the fans for their support on my loss. But there will be another record for sure." He did not give any hints about when Slipknot would regroup, but it's not likely to be until 2012....Guns N' Roses, or as I like to call them, The Axl Rose Band, are going to close out the huge Rock N Rev Festival in Sturgis on Aug 13. The line up that night is sick! Alice in Chains, Rev Theory and Charm City Devils are also on the bill. I hope I can make it through the week! Not a fan of large crowds, this one is expecting a half a million attendees! All with really LOUD motorcycles!...So it appears the Big Four rumors could become reality. We heard Lars from Metallica talking about the fact the shows could happen in 2011 or 2012. This is on top of the other rumblings of a possible "The Wall" type of massive stage production Metallica will mount in only 10 cities, supposedly next year as well. We just hope we get to see that!....tool's Adam Jones and his collaborator Steve Niles released their comic book last week, "30 Days of Night-The X Files." Look for it at your local comic book shop or online and check out the cover at www.toolband.com .... I heard a new song yesterday from a band called The Drama Club, which includes Breaking Benjamin's Nick Coyle and I noticed the song writing credits were Nick and Benjamin Burnley. Apparently Ben also appears on the tune. Stay tuned for more....Helmet have set Sep 7th for the release of "Seeing Eye Dog," their new album, and a tour will launch on the 8th. Cool thing about this is for a limited time only, you can get an all-in-one price break for a concert ticket and the digital download. Check it all out at www.helmetmusic.com. I was bummed I couldn't connect with Page Hamilton at Rock on the Range this year. I saw their van but couldn't find the band and had to be somewhere else when they played the 3rd stage. Stay tuned and see Road Rage for the tour dates.
Tuesday, Jul 20
Creed have announced a killer contest to coincide with their "2010 Tour"! In association with Orphan motorcycles & Fret12 guitars, the band will give away a motorcycle & custom guitar valued at $80,000! They'll be used during a song in Creed's set called "Moment of Thunder," to honor the fallen brothers and sisters of the military. The contest ends in December, so hit www.creed2010.com now! ...Remember earlier this year when I was telling you to make sure to watch those Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary concerts? Well, if you still haven't, you can get the shows on DVD soon! It's definitely worth it to watch Metallica and Ozzy perform together....What?! Another Aerosmith mishap? This time Joe Perry was in a motorcycle accident. Come on, boys! You're NOT 30 anymore! Geez....Happy 63 to Carlos Santana, Happy 46th to Chris Cornell, Happy 44th to Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam, and Happy 34th to Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother. (My computer is going haywire today....gotta go see what the deal is!) Later!
Monday, Jul 19
Back in NYC and missing Espana! What a memorable time, especially being there when Spain won the World Cup! (Sorry Netherlands.) It was truly awesome there, but so fricking HOT! I was in awe of the work of Gaudi and Dali, how great the people and food is there. And now back in the Big Apple where it's gonna be hotter than it was in Barcelona! But the bummer was the amount of pickposckets in Barca! Geez! And so many young female robbers! A goup of 5 of them swarmed a friend of mine trying to get into his pockets and fanny pack. I felt like I was in slow motion watching them! But as soon as I yelled out "Pickpockets!", the ran out the closing subway doors (one of them got caught in the doors....served her well!) Glad to be back in NYC where the pickpockets aren't as light handed! LOL...OK, so lots of news to catch us up on. Korn's The Encounter live show from HD Net is on the net and you can watch it on My Space TV. I tried to catch it this morning, but want to watch it when I can devote the time. Looked pretty awesome! Meanwhile, Munky will appear on the debut album from a band out of Montreal called Deadly Apples....Avenged Sevenfold debuted their video for "Nightmare" on MTV on Saturday, and you can watch it on Blabbermouth or at mtv2.com. It's awesome and I assume it was directed by Wayne Isham. I loved that the opening scene is a tattoo of Jimmy and the final scene is his drum kit. Aw, Rev, we miss ya! You can catch the lyric video for the song at www.avengedsevenfold.com ....Stone Temple Pilots will appear on "The Tonight Show" (NBC) on Jul 29th. I just saw the video for "Between the Lines," which was filmed during their performance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" last month at the show I attended at the Gramercy Theater here in NYC. The music video was directed by photographer Chapman Baehler (who's married to a pal of mine!) Anyhow, check it out....Disturbed are streaming the title track from "Asylum" at www.disturbed1.com ...Stone Sour is streaming "Say You'll Haunt Me" at www.stonesour.com ....The Toadies are streaming "City of Hate" from their "Feeler" cd at www.thetoadies.com. Look for the album on Aug 10...I was aware back in April Alter Bridge was talking to Roadrunner Records and it turns out they have indeed signed the deal. Look for their album sometime in September. The band will be touring with Godsmack in March....Roadrunner has also signed a new band called Revoker, to be produced by Skindred lead singer Benji Webb....Carlos Santana is releasing a cd of cover songs on Sep 21 called "Guitar Heaven." The album featuers Chris Cornell on "Whole Lotta Love," Chester Bennington on "Riders on the Storm," Scott Weiland on "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" (a great Rolling Stones' song), Jacoby Shaddix on "Smoke on the Water," Gavin Rossdale of Bush on "Bang A Gong," Scott Stapp on "Fortunate Son," and much more! Sounds like some of these could make it onto the next Cover It Up special edition of hardDrive for Labor Day weekend!....Lifer, which includes 2 members of Breaking Benjamin, will perform an acoustic show on Aug 14 in Berwick, PA at Peppers Grille....Apocalyptica will tour next month with Dir En Grey. Now is it me, or is that just a really odd pairing????....Vinnie Paul of HellYeah is going to sell off some crazy items on eBay including one of his BBQ grills, a '93 Mitsubishi, some old toilets from his house in Las Vegas, and more. Speaking of Vinnie, his band Pantera is planning to reissue their "Cowboys From Hell" album in 3 forms. A 2-cd set, a 3-cd set and a box set. They will contain a never before released demo of "The Will To Survive." Look for that on Sep 14. And HellYeah is streaming "Stampede" right now on www.music.msn.com ....Sevendust, 10 Years and All That Remains are just a few of the bands on Woodshock, a 2-day metal festival to be held outside Columbus, OH at Thornville at Legend Valley Aug 13-14.
SPECIAL REPORT ON CHI CHENG OF THE DEFTONES
June 8, 2010: This report was seen on Blabbermouth dated Jun 8th. I am reprinting in it's entirety as it is very encouraging news about Chi and the call is out now for any and all fans to please donate what you can for his medical fund. Thank you.
At DEFTONES bassist Chi Cheng's routine checkup on May 19, 2010, it was apparent to Dr. Joseph Nguyen, who has followed his progress for the past eight months, that there was marked improvement. He wrote in his progress notes that Cheng was "showing signs of improved neuro function and improved alertness at this time. Increased response to verbal stimuli. Directed movement, with purpose, seen and observed." Amazing report for Cheng, who was involved in a car accident November 3, 2008 and spent much of the last 18 months in a semi-conscious state.
According to Cheng's sister Mae, Nguyen's reaction as soon as he walked into the room and saw her brother was profound. "When he came in, he took one look at Dai [Cheng] and was floored," she said. "He couldn't believe it. He saw a man waking up."
Dr. DeFina, chief scientific officer and founder of International Brain Research Foundation, along with Dr. Jonathan Fellus, director of Brain Injury Services at the Kessler Institute, got Cheng started on the groundbreaking protocol that applies already approved medications, electrical stimulation and nutraceuticals to the patient as a virtual cocktail that has had a dramatic impact on his patients. So dramatic that DeFina has an 84 percent success rate in waking up patients from minimally conscious states or vegetative state comas. The national average for patients emerging from these states is 3 to 7 percent.
DeFina and colleagues were recently featured on an episode of MTV's "True Life - I Have Traumatic Brain Injury". After the episode aired, DeFina told Gina Blackmore of One Love For Chi that all three of the TBI patients featured on the show, who are all able to walk and talk and continue to strive for improvement, had been like Cheng is now or worse when he had taken them on as patients.
This news is encouraging, but funds are greatly needed to ensure that Cheng can continue on his protocol. Gina Blackmore is determined to raise enough funds to not only keep Cheng in Dr. DeFina's care, but also to get him into one of the top medical facilities in the nation where he will be under the direct care of the doctors from IBRF. She has set a new goal of $500,000 in order to cover the $2,000-per-day cost of staying at the facility for 3-6 months or longer as well as transportation to the facility. It is a lofty goal but well worth the effort to bring Cheng back to his family and friends.
Along with Blackmore, Sonny Sandoval of the band P.O.D. and THE WHOSOEVERS have been a continuing force in fundraising and keeping Cheng on the minds of followers via Facebook. Together they have put a call out to not only friends and fans of Cheng but to bands local, national and international to help their fallen fellow musician with benefit concerts. All funds raised can be paid directly to The Chi Ling Cheng Special Needs Trust by clicking the donate button at www.oneloveforchi.com.
