04.15.05 (RockAndMetal.com) 2005 is shaping up to be a busy year for MICHELLE SHOCKED, who will release a new trilogy of albums via her own Mighty Sound Records label on June 7th. The two-time Grammy nominee presents the threesome, which continue the "American Trilogy" concept of her first three Mercury albums, in a very unique way. The new albums, entitled "Don't Ask Don't Tell," "Mexican Standoff" and "Got No Strings" chronicle a tumultuous time of life, including her recent divorce. However, this isn't to imply that the songs are bitter. In fact, to the contrary, they're executed with humor, imagination, irony and empowerment -- and in voices most have never heard from MICHELLE SHOCKED. There's Rock and after-hours Blues and Hardcore Punk and twang shading her sly lyrics. First, there are three main things you need to know about MICHELLE SHOCKED. Number one, she possesses an outsized ambition. Number two, she abhors unfinished business. Number three, she has a thing for the number 3. These factors play into the new trilogy of albums, each recorded simultaneously during a sustained burst of unrivalled creativity from December 2004 to January 2005, with each one hewing to a particular stylistic concept. Just as audaciously, she's releasing the three albums simultaneously. Most artists wouldn't even conceive of such an undertaking, let alone see it through - but MICHELLE SHOCKED isn't just any other artist. Dancing to the beat of her own wild heart and soul, she nimbly negotiates the tightrope that stretches between here and heaven, and does it all by working without a net. The trilogy is hardly a new concept to this single-minded artist. After all, she started her recording career with three stylistically different distinct albums in "Short Sharp Shocked" (1988), "Captain Swing" (1989) and "Arkansas Traveler" (1992). Together, the latter three albums defined her wide-open milieu that encompassed everything from Rock, Country, Blues, Folk and Swing to all manners of indigenous American music. If she'd had her way, MICHELLE SHOCKED would've... [full story]
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04.15.05 (RockAndMetal.com) Seattle Metallers NEVERMORE recently completed the recording process for their upcoming new album, "This Godless Endeavor," at Backstage Studios in England with producer Andy Sneap (Arch Enemy, Killswitch Engage, Opeth). The new offering is currently set for a summer release, and marks NEVERMORE's first recording with former TESTAMENT guitarist Steve Smyth. To support "This Godless Endeavor," the band will embark on massive six-week Summer festival tour, dubbed "The Gigantour," alongside MEGADETH, DREAM THEATER, FEAR FACTORY and THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN in late July. NEVERMORE vocalist Warrel Dane conveys his thoughts on the band's new album and upcoming tour: "We have completed the recording process for 'This Godless Endeavor' and Andy Sneap will finish mixing and mastering the record this week. It was a great experience working with Andy again, and he has really outdone himself on this record. We are also really psyched up for 'Gigantour.' It's great to part of a tour that is focused on musicianship instead of current trends. This summer is going to be great." In other NEVERMORE news, the new version of the group's 2003 album, "Enemies Of Reality," remixed by Sneap, is now available. It has since been repackaged with altered cover artwork, two promotional video clips in 'Enemies Of Reality' and 'I, Voyager,' and a live video of the title track performed at Germany's Wacken Open Air festival this past Summer. The remixed version of "Enemies Of Reality" thus replaces the existing version of the album in stores. Fans who have already purchased the record and want to hear the new edition can special order it from the CenturyMedia.com web shop, where the CD itself is being sold individually (i.e., without jewel case and artwork) for just $5.00 including shipping. The disc is being mailed in a plain CD sleeve, along with with a link to a special website containing the downloadable revised artwork being included in customer order confirmation e-mails.
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04.14.05 (RockAndMetal.com) Here's a new band update from Irish Rockers THE REVS: "Hello gentlemen and ladies (you want equal rights - you got it!) Sorry for not being in touch recently, but we have been so busy listening to our own album and praising ourselves that we haven't had time for much else. Im sure some of yez have read hot press and the the indo and are of the opinion that we just might well be onto something... Well, let me reassure you that good publicity is easily bought these days and we have photographs of magazine editors in very uncompromising positions. All the hype is in fact bollocks... We were never in Sweden, we just recorded a few songs onto a 1984 Sony ghetto blaster in an old shed down in Roscommon. They all sound like 'Turning Japanese.' So do you believe the media or the band? I feel just like Lars Ulrich. Nah, actually im afraid to say the hype is true -- how mundane. Yes, yes, it seems we are staring fame in the face. Ahh, the boredom of it all. Luxury sportscars, supermodels, VIP fundraising events, eventually a coked up suicide by Micky D... Why cant things just stay like they are? Whelans on May the 11th will be mental, so bring a crash helmet. We have to continue our new street sport 'Rugball' afterwards on Wexford Street... For anyone who missed the Rathfarnham gig, the rules of this revolutionary new sport are simple: One, drink untill you dont feel too much pain (physical, not emotional). Two, try and get the ball. Three, try to distinguish who is actually on your team. And four, whoever is holding onto the ball when the cops arrive is the winner. Oh O.K., back to music: Have you noticed every article about us these days contains the words 'Franz Ferdinand'? Well, we have decided to use this to our advantage in the UK... We are now speaking with a pseudo-Glasgow accent, and we are changing our name from 'The Revs' to 'Winston Churchill.' We have an appointment with Duran Duran's old hairdresser in a fortnight, so expect huge NME interest. Thanks for all your support, new single out in June, hope you like it as much as we do." - Rory
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04.14.05 (RockAndMetal.com) GOREROTTED have announced the coming release of their new album, "A New Dawn For The Dead," by Metal Blade Records on June 13th. Their third full length album, "A New Dawn For The Dead" demonstrates a subtle-but-welcome turning point for the band. GOREROTTED vocalist/bassist Wilson elaborates: "This album is a new chapter for us. Its still has the same Gorerotted humor and extreme grooves, but it's developed and grown into something eviler and uglier than ever!" Lyrics have followed this new path with subjects ranging from murder to voodoo and from psychotic violence to alcohol and drug abuse. After one and a half years touring in support of their last effort, "Only Tools and Corpses," GOREROTTED have condensed the ferocity and the atmosphere of their live performance into a more complex creation. "For the first time we used our live sound engineer and a new studio for recording and its complemented our vision nicely," added Wilson. "A New Dawn For The Dead" was recorded at Aexxys-Art Studios in Schwandorf, Germany, and was engineered there by Markus Roedl, mixed by Stephan Fimmers (Necrophagist) and mastered by Tim Turan (Status Quo, Marilyn Manson, Emperor, Discharge) at Turan Audio. Artwork for the album is also being handled by infamous UK artist Mick Kenny. The limited edition release of "A New Dawn For The Dead" will feature a bonus DVD featuring live tracks taken from the Summer Breeze open air festival, the promotional video for the song 'Only Tools And Corpses,' and some other cool extras. GOREROTTED guitarist Tim (Fluffy) says, "The live tracks from Summer Breeze are really cool. We had a huge stage and a great audience! Theres no fancy edits so you get to see a 'real' Gorerotted show complete with drunken fuck-ups and Ben Goreskin and Wilson talking utter shit. I hope people enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed playing it!" The album is also slated to be released in a limited amount of 500 copies as a picture disc.
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04.13.05 (RockAndMetal.com) The new album from chameleon-like Rockers TRANSCENDENCE, entitled "Nothing Is Cohesive," will see its official release on Tuesday, April 26th via TMG Records. A bold and beautiful collection of post-modern Garage rockers and lush Seventies-style piano ballads that the band recorded in their garage studio just may be their best effort to date. And that says a lot coming from this very prolific and experimental group that features the impassioned vocals of Ed Hale and the guitar histrionics of Fernando Perdomo. "Nothing Is Cohesive" is TRANSCENDENCE's third studio album, and it's raw, unrefined, and surges with a musical sensuality that is breathtaking at times. It mixes a variety of Classic and Modern Rock styles in a surprisingly cohesive listen for how far out the band was willing to travel in their sonic explorations to achieve something completely different from last year's "Sleep With You." "In Transcendence, you have a group of five hyperactive, obsessive, and insane guys with severe cases of ADD and an extreme passion for music, all running around trying to make sense of everything they are listening to and each wanting to create their own personal artistic statements," says TRANSCENDENCE lead singer Ed Hale. "The chances of that translating into any two albums sounding remotely similar is going to be pretty slim," Hale further explaining the wide variety of musical boundaries the band has covered in their three releases for TMG Records since 2002's eclectic world-music-meets-modern-rock debut, "Rise And Shine." TRANSCENDENCE are a tight knit collective of some of the most notable musicians from the Miami and New York music scenes. The band was started by Ed Hale, who had already made a name for himself as part of the legendary BROKEN SPECTACLES in the mid-nineties and released a few solo albums, and drummer Ricardo Mazzi (Tereso, Prole, Fuse) through their shared interest in World Music. They also happened to share a passion of early Seventies Rock and Pop, which prompted the infamous guitar virtuoso Fernando Perdomo... [full story]
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04.13.05 (RockAndMetal.com) MORTIIS are set to release their new single, 'Decadent & Desperate,' on April 25th. The single, taken from last years critically acclaimed album album "The Grudge," will be released in two 7" Vinyl and one CD Digipack formats, which will contain various exclusive bonus tracks and remixes. The CD version will feature 'Decadent & Desperate' along with a new previously unreleased song entitled 'Underdog' and 'Gibber' (Gibbering Idiot Remix). Each vinyl format will come in different art poster bags. A video for 'Decadent & Desperate' was recently completed in the UK, with film and video director Adam Mason (Million Dead, Sikth, Winnebago Deal), and is based on a dream sequence where MORTIIS becomes a split personality and finds himself in a Victorian nightmare with members of the band, portrayed as his tormentors. Filming took place last month over two nights in sub zero temperatures at a formerly used British RAF base near Cambridge in the UK. The shoot went off without a hitch, apart from the local constabulary dispatching a helicopter and patrol cars to see what all the commotion was about. With their curiosity satisfied the police withdrew, leaving the bemused band and crew to complete the shoot. Meanwhile, work is still continuing on "Soul In A Hole,' an upcoming live DVD which was recorded at the London show on last years "Unlimited Grudge" European tour and is set for release next month. MORTIIS will be supporting the release of 'Decadent & Desperate' with a 12-date headlining tour of the UK with NFD, featuring members of Goth legends FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM, and UK Industrial noisemakers Panic DHH in support. Lastly, MORTIIS' "The Grudge" was selected this week by the Norwegian Culture Council to be made available for listening to the public in all the libraries in Norway for free. The Norwegian Culture Council selects a few recordings each year which best reflect and promote Norwegian Music and Culture, and this year selected "The Grudge," which will begin to appear in all of Norway's public libraries during the coming weeks.
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04.12.05 (AP) MICK FLEETWOOD sometimes has to lean over at the dinner table and concentrate on what somebody is saying a few feet away. The 57-year-old drummer for FLEETWOOD MAC and THE MICK FLEETWOOD BAND said his partial hearing loss is why he became involved in Monday's experimental "quiet" Rock concert at The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in which about 100 people took part, with mixed results. The concert featured the Rock band EAGLES OF DEATH METAL, which first played two songs without any amplification. The audience, listening through miniature radio receivers, reacted mostly with smiles to the adjustable sound. The band then followed with three amplified songs on speakers, as it normally performs. Many in the crowd jumped up, dancing and waving their arms. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, based in Rockville, Maryland, measured the unamplified sound at 62 decibels, which is considered to be at a normal level. However, the amplified sound was measured at exactly twice the latter ar 124 decibels, which they said is relatively equivalent to the volume of a jet engine. MICK FLEETWOOD, a 1998 inductee into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, said many Rock musicians now wear ear protection or monitor their music electronically, but he questioned whether quiet concerts would catch on. "Who's to say? Could you see 18,000 people someday listening to Pink Floyd on headphones? Maybe, with a weird magic wand," he said. "What I'd hope this does is make the point that you can wear ear protection, such as earplugs, at concerts and still enjoy the concert." Ben Schreckengost, 21, a former member of a Rock band, said the quiet concert didn't impress him much. "I would think live is better," he said. "I like to sing along. You don't feel the bass and the drum the other way." Meanwhile, Yulia Kokhan, 26, enjoyed the muted tones: "I don't like loud," she said. MICK FLEETWOOD also mentioned that FLEETWOOD MAC, a band dating all the way back to the 1960s, will likely do another live tour in 2006.

04.12.05 (RockAndMetal.com) The video for the song 'Norra El Norra,' the second clip from ORPHANED LAND's current album "Mabool" is now finished, and can be seen in its entirety by clicking on the "Watch" link below. ORPHANED LAND vocalist Kobi Farhi explains the making of the video and how they filmed it: "We had decided to make a video out of existing live footage. I guess someone loves us up there because the next day we had a message waiting in our forum from an unknown director. He said he'd seen the 'Ocean Land' video clip and that he would be willing to produce the 'Norra El Norra' clip free of charge!!! We started preparing to shoot the video immediately. I first chose the cast, choosing some of my best friends (they had to run all day long, the poor bastards: I think they quit smoking because of us). Then we chose the 3 locations: Tsedek Fort (the band playing), the old city of Jaffa (the chase scene), and actually in my home (before the birth scene). It was a great experience and I think the result is excellent!" ORPHANED LAND, who recently was added to PARADISE LOST's upcoming European tour, will be playing the following live dates with the latter in May: 05/02 Berlin, Germany [Columbia Club] • 05/03 Copenhagen, Denmark [The Rock] • 05/04 Gothenburg, Sweden [Karen] • 05/05 Oslo, Norway [Rockefeller] • 05/06 Stockholm, Sweden [Klubben] • 05/08 Hamburg, Germany [Markthalle] • 05/09 Koln, Germany [Live Music Hall] • 05/10 Bochum, Germany [Zeche] • 05/11 Nurnberg, Germany [Hirsch] • 05/13 Lodz, Poland [Dekrompesja] • 05/14 Waschau, Poland [Stodola] • 05/16 Wiesbaden, Germany [Schlachthof] • 05/17 Stuttgart, Germany [Longhorn] • 05/18 Munchen, Germany [New Backstage] • 05/20 Vevey, CH [Rocking Chair] • 05/21 Winterthur, CH [Salzhaus] • 05/22 Prague, CZ [Abaton] • 05/24 Belgrade, Yugoslavia [SKC] • 05/25 Zagreb, Hungary [Boogaloo Club] • 05/29 Montpellier, France [Rockstore] • 05/31 Madrid, Spain [Sala Arena]
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04.11.05 (RockAndMetal.com) THE CASBAH CLUB are back. With a new line-up, the four strong band are already working in new material ready for their UK tour in May. Bruce Watson and Mark Brzezicki were one half of one of Scotland's finest Rock bands, BIG COUNTRY. Bruce Foxton was a founding member of THE JAM, while Simon Townshend (brother of Pete Townshend) has for the last nine years been a member of THE WHO. It was THE JAM that originally gave BIG COUNTRY their first break on the British live circuit, asking them to open at their five night stint at Wembley Arena back in 1982. So it's fitting that 2004 saw it all come full circle with the guys finally working together. "When we initially set out with The Casbah Club, it was always going to be amatter of dipping our toes in the water", says Watson, "and Simon -- who we wanted to work with in the first place -- said he thought we would make a brilliant band if we turned up the guitars. Mark, Simon and I have jammed and spoken about working together for years, but other commitments have gotten in the way. We just want to go back to basics with a classic rock line up of guitars, bass and drums." This they did with an experimental line up consisting of Watson, Foxton, Brzezicki, Josh Phillips and JJ Gilmour, playing 17 gigs and recording one of them live - which resulted in the acclaimed "Eastworld" CD-Rom. THE CASBAH CLUB now have a stable line-up and plans to go into the studio to record a new album later this Summer. Tour Dates: 05/12 Edinburgh [Exchange] • 05/13 Aberdeen [Lemon Tree] • 05/14 Glasgow [Renfrew Ferry] • 05/16 Hartlepool [Studio] • 05/17 Ashton-Under-Lyne [Witchwood] • 05/18 Hull [Springhead] • 05/20 Workington [Carnegie] • 05/21 Bradford [Rio] • 05/23 Southampton [Brook] • 05/24 Tunbridge Wells [High Rocks] • 05/26 Plymouth [Cooperage] • 05/27 Stourbridge [Rock Cafe] • 05/28 Corby [Willow Arts Centre] • 05/30 Kingston [Peel] • 05/31 Southend-On-Sea [Riga] • 06/01 Oxford [Zodiac]

04.11.05 (RockAndMetal.com) ILL NINO are currently in the studio recording their third album. The band's A&R Rep checks in with the following update: "I can tell you that the guys have recorded fifteen songs, 12-13 of which will end up on the finished album. And while every band always tells you that their next batch of material is going to be way heavier than the previous LP -- Los Ninos mean it! At this point, just drums and rhythm guitars are done and already you can hear the whole thing becoming waaaay more bombastic, The two fairly dead-on references the guys are making are Slayer and The Mars Volta. Sheer brutality melded with real Latin jams ala Santana at their peak. The whole studio vibe is down and dirty this time. While drums were done at a studio in upstate New York, the Ill Nino guys (with producer Eddie Wohl and trusty engineer Dan Korneff, who are both helming the record with drummer Dave Chavarri co-producing) have set up shop at the band's practice space in Union City, New Jersey, where bassist Laz Pina's brother owns a full-blown recording studio! It's probably the most "real" approach to making a record the band could have possibly taken. The lunch special at the Spanish restaurant is still four bucks a plate and cigarettes are well, too expensive! Vocals start this week and already, you can tell Cris Machado has taken a big step up both as a singer and lyricist. As much as the music has matured , the same is more than true of Cris' side of things. Rather than go on and on trying to explain, suffice to say you'll hear soon enough. Really, Ill Nino elpee numero tres is really the product of a lot of soul searching. It's the sound of Ill Nino simply being Ill Nino! As brutal and melodic as a band can possibly be. Remember, this is a band with legitimate heavy roots (shit, Jorge from Merauder was their original singer!) and a sound that's instantly identifiable. There's no chasing of trends going on here. No aspirations other than simply writing the best songs the band can -- which means bruisers and anthems with plenty of bloody spice and bloodier sonic salsa!"
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[Music News: 04.04.05 - 04.10.05]
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