Music News

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

Aerosmith took the stage at New York’s Hard Rock Café on Friday, not to play music, but to announce the launch of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, the latest installment of the massively popular game and the first to be built around a single band.

“It feels weird to be up here without a guitar,” quipped guitarist Joe Perry, who later posed with the small plastic axe that comes with the game. Guests at the Hard Rock got a chance to try out the new edition, which includes hits like “Love in an Elevator” and “Dream On,” as well as more obscure tracks like “Combination” and songs by artists Aerosmith has played with, including Run DMC and Joan Jett.

The band also talked about returning to the studio to work on their first album since 2004’s Honkin’ on Bobo. “I’m interested to get back in the studio — I feel rejuvenated,” says Perry, who is recovering from a leg injury. “Some time in the late summer, early fall we’ll get back in there and start putting it together.” And maybe release it on a future version of Guitar Hero? “Why not? That’s a great way to do it.”

- Evan Serpick, RollingStone.com

Axl Rose’s "Chinese Democracy" Tirade: Sebastian Bach Tells All

In light of the Guns n’ Roses leak last week — nine tracks that may or may not be the near-final version of "Chinese Democracy" — Rolling Stone dialed up Axl Rose pal and collaborator Sebastian Bach to gain some insight into where Rose now stands with the extremely delayed LP (for the full story, see the next issue). For now, here’s Bach recalling what happened the time he suggested Rose just put out "Democracy":

"There’s only a couple of times he’s ever gotten mad at me. One of them was when I let Ron Jeremy in his dressing room. He didn’t like that at all. ‘Why the f**k did you let Ron Jeremy in my dressing room?’ I was like, dude, he was begging. That wasn’t a good time for me. Axl goes from zero to 60 faster than any hemi engine, I’ll tell you that. When we were first hanging out in 2006, we were just standing around a bunch of people. I go, ‘Axl, do you think you might get the record out? It would be a great time, now that we’re on tour and everything.’ He goes, ‘Oh. Great! Everybody! Sebastian has a great idea here, man. Guess what? Sebastian, should I put out a record? Maybe it would be a good idea for me to put out a f**king record! Hey everybody, listen to this! I never thought of that! That never came to me! Oh, great idea, dude.’ I felt like Fred Flintstone in Mr. Slate’s office.

"Another thing that I don’t know you’ll ever see is a Axl Rose reality show. When I see that s**t, I laugh. Here’s the only other time that he got made at me. I had just finished shooting Supergroup for VH1. It was on TV in America while we were gallivanting across Europe. We had a beautiful dinner at some incredible Italian restaurant. We are sitting there and I go, ‘Dude, I just shot this reality show for VH1 and they paid me this amount of money, man. It was f**king easy. It was only like two weeks. It was hilarious. Axl, if they paid me this amount of money, they’d pay you like a million bucks for 10 days of some s**t.’ He’s looking at me with this look on his face and he’s all quiet and he goes, ‘Sebastian, you don’t understand.’ I go, ‘What?’ He goes, ‘I will pay VH1 $2 million to leave me the f**k alone!‘ I would bet my life you won’t be seeing the Axl Rose reality TV show.

AC/DC Goes Wal-Mart Only

AC/DC announced last week that their latest album, due in the fall, will be released exclusively through Wal-Mart, Rolling Stone Magazine reports. This decision and announcement follows the footsteps of Journey's latest album which was released on June 3rd -- also exclusively through the retail giant.

The announcement is said to have shocked music stores throughout the country, perhaps leaving many feeling snubbed by the Aussies. However, this trend of record release is growing and AC/DC now joins the ranks of Garth Brooks, the Eagles and, again, Journey who have all released through Wal-Mart only. The album is still-untitled and is the first since 2000's Stiff Upper Lip.

-Brooke Turpin, 107.7 The Bone

BBC Vault Opens For EMI

Bring on the B-Sides! According to Rolling Stone Magazine, the label EMI has struck a deal with broadcasting giant BBC and has been granted access to thousands of hours of video, radio and audio recordings of previously unreleased material. This means that the public could be viewing and hearing extremely rare material from music giants like Pink Floyd, David Bowie and Queen. It is unclear how EMI will distribute the material;  the label could release it digitally or include tracks or videos on future releases of the artists. The deal between EMI and BBC will only include artists that are under contract with the label, but that will surely make for great material.

- Brooke Turpin, 107.7 The Bone

Pearl Jam Bootlegs

(6/11/2008)  Pearl Jam has rolled out their plan to distribute their live concert bootlegs from their U.S. tour, kicking off tonight in West Palm Beach, Florida. As in years past, Pearl Jam will sell MP3 and FLACs of the complete concert two weeks after the show on their website at http://www.pearljam.com/.

This time around, though, the band will also allow fans to purchase physical CDs of the concerts which will ship within three weeks of the show date. And “by request from fans who are increasingly accessing their music via their mobile phones,” Pearl Jam will also select three highlights from each concerts and make them available through Verizon’s VCast system. One of the three songs from each concert will be a free download, with fans given the option to purchase the remaining tracks. The songs can then be used as ringtones, ringback songs or just for listening purposes.

- Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone

Metallica Play Intimate Los Angeles Benefit Show, Plus James Hetfield Reveals Latest Album News (5/15)

Metallica got extra loud in their first live set in a year on Wednesday, headlining a benefit concert in Los Angeles for Flea’s music school for kids, the Silverlake Conservatory. That meant no ballads and no new songs from the band’s upcoming Rick Rubin-produced album. Instead, for nearly two hours at the Wiltern Theater, Metallica erupted with big sludgy riffs and epic speed metal going all the way back to the early Eighties.

“Now that’s a beautiful sound right there,” singer James Hetfield told the crowd, responding to the cheers from 2,000 fans who had paid $300 (or $500 for VIP seats) for a rare chance to see the band in a smaller venue. “It’s great to be playing live again.”

New songs from the upcoming album would just have to wait until the fall. Meanwhile, there were no special effects, but just four guys rocking out onstage, from the intense riffs and beats of “Fuel” to the heavy gloom of “Sad But True.” Lars Ulrich stood while pounding the drums during “Ecstasy of Gold” and some fans dared to crowd-surf in the old art deco theater during “Master of Puppets,” despite warnings at the door. They couldn’t help themselves.

Near the end of the night, Flea joined Metallica on bass for the insanely fast “Fight Fire With Fire,” a speed metal classic from 1984. It was enough to inspire Hetfield to step back and flash the devil’s horns with both hands at Flea and his band, just like any other fan.

Hours before Metallica’s set, Flea was downstairs warming up on bass and watching a silent TV screen showing the NBA playoff game between Boston and Cleveland. Ulrich was talking to TV reporters nearby and Hetfield was in a great mood and ready to reveal just a few things to Rolling Stone about the new album.

When you guys are about to get back in action, is there a certain anticipation, or just business as usual?
We have a tendency to rehearse way too much. So we’ll book two weeks of rehearsal and probably rehearse about five days and then fuck around the last week, and say “We’re good.” And then we’ll end up playing some of the new songs because we’re all hepped up on them right now. Most of that goes away. We have some of the nightmares that maybe other musicians have: the nightmare of I can’t find the dressing room, the guys are playing a song I’ve never heard in my life, my guitar cord’s not long enough and I can’t make it up to the microphone, the guitar neck is made of rubber — your normal dreams. But after we rehearse the dreams go away, and I feel a little more confident.

What brought you to this benefit?
We’ve been asked a couple of years. This is an extremely worthwhile cause. Music is disappearing in schools. It’s got to be somewhere, especially these days, where music is taken for granted. It’s nice to have a place where you’re able to do that. Music has absolutely saved my life.

Did you know Flea?
The name is somewhat memorable. When you hear someone named Flea, you go “What? He must jump a lot.” I’ve been a Peppers fan for a long, long time. I considered them a little more psycho. I never got to see them in the early days.

You guys came up in the same time, but in totally different scenes.
Very different. Back then we liked hearing different styles of music. They weren’t heavy, but they were extreme, and I was into pretty much anything extreme.

Does the new Metallica album have a title yet?
It’s got a title and we’re still playing with it to see if we like it. But I guess the album’s done. It’s still got to be mixed. All the singing, all the recording is pretty much done. And we’re pleased with it.

Was it an unusually long process this time?
It doesn’t seem that way, but at the rate we’re going, the next one will take four years. I don’t particularly like taking that long. There’s a few things that I know could make it shorter, but other band members disagree, so we do our best with a compromise.

After the last one, and the trauma captured in the Some Kind of Monster documentary, this one should have been a breeze.
Yeah, exactly. It was a breeze as far as material. This is where the disagreement comes in. We had too many songs. Let’s write 10 good ones. This riff’s not good enough? Say goodbye to it. Let’s have the discipline to wave goodbye. That doesn’t apply here. We’re craftsman: We can take an OK song and make it good, but if it’s not great, it doesn’t make the record. But we see it through to the end. We’re whittling it down to 10 or 11 now.

What brought you to Rick Rubin?
It was time to get a fresh set of ears. Bob Rock has done amazing stuff with us. It got a little comfortable. Maybe the fire wasn’t there as much, in our viewpoint. Bob is a great person, a great friend. I feel extremely safe and comfortable with him, and maybe that wasn’t what we needed to feel on this. We needed to argue a bit. We needed to get shaken up a little bit. That’s what the mission was.

Did you always agree with what Rubin had to say?
Definitely not. But I was very willing to look at it and try it. If he’s suggesting it, there’s a reason behind it. And most times it was better, sometimes it was not. We like to be open, but there are times when we just know we’re right and it’s as simple as that. It wasn’t head-butting like in the past, but there was some negotiating going on.

What was the idea behind making this album?
The direction is embracing our past in the now. We know what we know. It’s hard to erase that. But to strip it down again, and get back to why we’re doing this? Why did we write songs that way? The template was Master of Puppets and the strength of that record. How can we do that now?

You still see that album as a high mark for the band?
Oh definitely, no doubt about that. Hopefully this will be another one. We feel this record is really good, especially after St. Anger. It was very one-dimensional and abusive to the listener. That was the anger coming out. And if you weren’t feeling that, it didn’t feel so good. But this one is a lot more moody. We a lot of things I think make a diverse and interesting record.

Doing any of that tonight?
We’re not playing any of the new stuff. I don’t think this is the place. This is a benefit for Flea’s thing. We don’t want to grandstand with anything else here. There will be a time for that.

- by Steve Appleford, Rolling Stone