Pulse – Rock Music News

Although these days Smashing Pumpkins music is regarded as a genre unto itself, Billy Corgan recalled a time when the music world struggled to figure out where his songs fit. During an online chat with Rick Beato, Corgan remembered, "At the time when (Gish) came out in 1991, all the reviews were (saying we sounded) like throwback psych, hippie crap, jam band, Grateful Dead. I think it was so not what people thought music would be that they just grasped at comparisons. I mean, there's reviews that were like, 'They sound like a cross between R.E.M., the Black Crowes, and Jimi Hendrix' -- it didn't even make sense. Like, the DNA splices they would put together to try to describe our music was so off."

He went on to say, "There was also the whole thing of playing solos, which was verboten in alternative circles at the time, you weren't supposed to play solos. And if you even think of Kurt (Cobain) on Nirvana (songs), he would play ironic solos, but they weren't real guitar solos. . . (Soundgarden's) Kim Thayil would play solos, but they weren't solos played by people who were necessarily trying to play like Richie Blackmore. I was trying to play Ritchie Blackmore. My father was a guitar player, so I came from that route of, like, if you're gonna play a solo, you better play a good solo."

Not too long ago, Billy Corgan told us what he believes his music and music of the Pumpkins' generation will be remembered for: "As much as the music of the late-'60s was about a flowering consciousness, the music of the early-'90s was about a flowering of reality, and kind of calling America out for the phony, kinda shiny object that it is. And that's it. We just shattered it to pieces. Nobody knew how to pick up their own pieces, including ourselves, and we're still dealing with that. But there's an arc of energy there between 1989 and 1994 that's unmistakable."

Smashing Pumpkins' next show is set for March 4th at "The World Is A Vampire" festival in Mexico City, Mexico.

Just in time for the holidays, Coldplay has lent their name to a charity. A limited edition of Swiss watches bearing their name and co-designed by the band's Chris Martin are on sale now. It's part of a campaign from the non-profit organization, Love Button Global Movement that helps promote kindness.

A few of the watches that were personally signed by Martin, have been set aside for auction. The others sell for $695.

TL;DR:

• Coldplay has teamed with the non-profit, Love Button Global Movement.
• Chris Martin helped designed watches that are now on sale for $695.

Disturbed's David Draiman has opened up about his trademark double labret claw piercings. During an interview Revolver, he was asked about when he first got the sense to remove his piercings. He said, "There were two things I did once I quit my job. Once I knew that we had a record deal coming, I shaved my head and I did the double labret. And yeah, I just wanted to do something that was original that nobody else had."

When asked how his parents reacted to the extra two holes in his face, he said, "It took them a while before they saw it … and my mom cried. They were not happy."

As it turns out, Draiman‘s parents weren't too excited by his career choices to begin was, as Draiman himself shared the following about their thoughts on his rock star dreams before the release of the band's 5x multi-platinum debut album "The Sickness."

Fall Out Boy have been sending their fans cryptic postcards entitled "Pink Seashell Beach." According to NME, the postcard contains the message, "I saw you in a bright clear field. Hurricane heat in my head. The kind of pain you feel to get good in the end. Inscribed like stone and faded by the rain: ‘Give up what you love give up what you love before it does you in…'"

The band also launched a website, sendingmylovefrompinkseashellbeach.com, which also contained the strapline "Take pleasure in the details". There, Fall Out Boy have invited fans to "join us for a tiny sneak peak into our world", and those who click a button reading "Do not open before Christmas" open up a form where they can fill in their details, presumably for some kind of mailing list.

During a recent radio interview, Ozzy Osbourne revealed that he is still fighting to walk six months after having spinal surgery. He revealed that his inability to get around on stage may affects his 2023 tour.

Ozzy, who is also dealing with Parkinson's disease, told Yahoo News, "It is so f*cking tough because, I mean, I want to be out there. I want to be doing it. This f*cking surgery this guy did. F*cking hell, you have no idea."

He continued, "The thing is my head is all right, my creativity is OK, my singing OK but I just can't f*cking walk much now."

He went on, "I can't begin to tell you how f*cking frustrating life has become. It is amazing how you go along in life and one stupid thing can screw everything up for a long time. I have never been ill this long in my life."

Ozzy is slated to start his No More Tours 2 tour in May 2023.

Rage Against The Machine bassist Tim Commerford has revealed that he has been privately battling prostate cancer this year. During an interview with Spin, Tim revealed that he underwent surgery to remove his prostate two months before the band reuniting on tour.

He said, "I've been dealing with some pretty serious sh*t. Right before I was about to go on tour with Rage, I had my prostate removed, and I have prostate cancer. I've been someone that's taken a lot of pride in being in shape and taking care of myself. But it's something where either you're either lucky or not."

He continued, "You can find yourself in a situation like I'm in where it's like, f*ck, my whole life changed. With everything that happens to me now, I wonder, am I feeling this way because I have cancer? Am I losing my hair because I have cancer? Whatever it is, it makes me wonder if it's happening because I have cancer."

He went on to discuss the surgery, saying, "The suffering part of it, the physical suffering after the surgery, I've never felt pain quite like that. I have metal plates in my head and cadaver parts in my body. I've done a lot of damage through sports and mountain biking and this sort of thing and I've always felt like I had a really high tolerance for pain, and that sh*t brought me to my knees."

Blink-182 announced that they are getting their very own set of Funko Pop figures called Pixelated Runners, which was inspired by scenes from their 1999 video for "What's My Age Again?"

The band tweeted, "‘Pixelated Runners' @OriginalFunko launches at 8am PST, Tuesday December 13.2022 at @HotTopic and @shopbompa."

The dolls included figures of members Tom DeLonge, Travis Barker and Mark Hoppus with all of their tattoos in place across the chest and torso. The lower half of the Funko pop dolls are fully pixelated to cover their private area.

Fans are raving over the new fan extraction of Metallica's latest single -- "Lux AEterna." The new track, which has already made its way into the Top 10 of Billboard's Hot Trending Tracks and the YouTube Music Charts, can now be dissected by fans wishing to hear Lars Ulrich's intricate drum work in isolation.

Loudwire reported, "YouTube user Abunchoftrash isolated Ulrich's 'Lux AEterna' tracks using the app Moises, an AI-powered tool for musicians that lets users remove vocals and isolate instruments in a song. It also lets them play a song at any key or speed."

"Lux AEterna" will be featured on Metallica's upcoming album, 72 Seasons, which is set to drop on April 14th.

Bono is bringing his Stories Of Surrender musical book tour back to New York City next spring. As it stands now the U2 frontman, who is promoting his memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, has rolled out a total of eight dates at Manhattan's Beacon Theatre.

Earlier this fall Bono promoted his book and musical theatre chats in New York City, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Nashville, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Across the Atlantic, Bono hit London and Manchester, England; Glasgow, Scotland; Dublin, Ireland; Berlin, Germany; Paris, France; and Madrid, Spain.

Bono has been one of the leaders in the rock community to raise awareness of the devastating role poverty plays on shaping global matters: "It's hard to make this a popular cause. It's hard to make it 'pop,' y'know, and I guess that's what my job is, 'cause pop is often -- sadly often -- the oxygen of politics. Didn't John and Robert Kennedy come to Harvard? Isn't equality a son-of-a-bitch to follow through on? Isn't 'love thy neighbor' in the global village so inconvenient? God writes us these lines, but we have to sing them, and take them to the top of the charts. But it's not what the radio is playing, is it? I know."

JUST ANNOUNCED: Bono's "Stories Of Surrender" Beacon Theatre performances (subject to change):

April 16, 17, 21, 22, 26, 28, 29 - New York, NY - Beacon Theatre
May 3 - New York, NY - Beacon Theatre

Kiss has announced the band's final UK gigs for this June as part of their ongoing "End Of The Road" tour. Five of the six of the dates will take place in major hubs in Britain -- with the tour wrapping in Glasgow, Scotland, with NME reported tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. GMT this Friday, December 16th.

The band said in a statement about their final go 'round:

All that we have built and all that we have conquered over the past four decades could never have happened without the millions of people worldwide who've filled clubs, arenas and stadiums over those years.

This will be the ultimate celebration for those who've seen us and a last chance for those who haven't. KISS Army, we're saying goodbye on our final tour with our biggest show yet and we'll go out the same way we came in. . . Unapologetic and Unstoppable.

Gene Simmons, who's been a songwriter for well over 50 years, told us that style will never trump substance when it comes down to the art of crafting a song, explaining that the groove and the melody need to be there before any of the bells and whistles: "At the end of the day, you're going to be judged by -- and I'm not the judge or jury, by any chance -- of the people, for the people, by the people. It's less about being in a punk band, 'cause other than the (Sex) Pistols and (the) Clash, there ain't no other punk bands. I know, we talk about the Misfits. . . but we're talking about successful bands."

JUST ANNOUNCED: Kiss UK tour dates (subject to change):

June 3 - Plymouth, England - Home Park
June 5 - Birmingham, England - Resorts World Arena
June 6 - Newcastle, England - Utilita Arena
July 7 - Manchester, England - AO Arena
July 8 - Glasgow, Scotland - OVO Hydro

Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic recalled the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards when he tossed his bass into the air -- only to have it slam back down onto his head. While chatting with Bass Player magazine, Novoselic recalled, "Oh, that was mega! We started playing this song and my amp just didn't work. So I thought, 'I'm gonna do this bass toss and walk off'. Well, the bass got caught in the TV lights, and then boom! It fell on my head. So I storm off stage, and these paramedics come and take a look at me and put a bandage on and I had to sign all these release forms so I'm not gonna sue anybody. It was in front of 200 million people, right?"

Novoselic went on to recall the on-site medics tending to his head wound: "So I'm all annoyed, right, and I'm like 'What the hell!' and behind them there is this amazing fellow, with a glass of champagne. It's Brian May! Just standing there politely. He says, 'Here you are, my good man' and he hands me this glass of champagne. I was like 'You're Brian May! How are you?' and he said, 'More importantly, how are you?' Moments later Dave Grohl burst in. He'd been looking all over for me, only to find me enjoying a calm glass of bubbly with Mr. May."

Krist Novoselic recently looked back at Nirvana's 1991 breakthrough set, Nevermind, which revolutionized rock for a new generation: "Well, it was a phenomenon. I think a lot of it was timing as what was going on in the music business. And a lot of the Sunset Strip hair bands were past their prime and people were ready for something new. And I think Nirvana always tried to be sincere."

Pop Evil has announced that they will be hitting the road next year to support their new album Skeletons. The tour will kick off on St. Patrick's Day in Michigan and will make stops in Jersey City, NJ, Tampa Florida, Atlanta, Georgia before wrapping in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Check out the tour dates below:

03/17 - Sault St. Marie, MI - Kewadin Casino
03/18 - Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre
03/19 - Pittsburgh, PA - Jergel's
03/21 - Lititz, PA - Mickey's Black Box
03/23 - Worcester, MA - The Palladium
03/24 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun - Wolf Den
03/25 - Waterloo, NY - Del Lago Casino
03/26 - Jersey City, NJ - White Eagle Hall
03/28 - Virginia Beach, VA - Elevation27
03/30 - Tampa, FL - Hard Rock Event Center
03/31 - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
04/01 - Charlotte, NC - The Underground
04/02 - Nashville, TN - Basement East
04/04 - Oklahoma City, OK - Tower Theatre
04/05 - Dallas, TX - Echo Lounge & Music Hall
04/07 - Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre
04/08 - Tempe, AZ - The Marquee Theater
04/10 - Santa Ana, CA - The Observatory OC
04/11 - Sacramento, CA - Ace of Spades
04/12 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues
04/14 - Las Vegas, NV - House of Blues
04/15 - Grand Junction, CO - Mesa Theatre
04/16 - Denver, CO - Gothic Theatre
04/18 - Lincoln, NE - Bourbon Theatre
04/19 - Kansas City, MO - The Truman
04/21 - Pittsburg, KS - Kansas Crossing Casino
04/22 - Chicago, IL - Concord Music Hall
04/23 - Milwaukee, WI - The Rave

Tool has announced it's first ever collectible statue, which is inspired by their 2006 album 10,000.

The band announced the statue on social media, called it a "maquette," which is described as "a model for a larger piece of sculpture, created in order to visualize how it might look and to work out approaches and materials for how it might be made."

The statue will be made available on Friday (December 16th).

Papa Roach dropped the official music video for the title track of their latest album, "Ego Trip" on Friday (December 9th).

The band described the Bryson Roatch-directed "Ego Trip" clip on YouTube, writing, "We visited the legendary House Of Vans in Mexico City earlier this year and invited fans to come get crazy with us on a day off to film the video for the title song on the 'Ego Trip' album. The energy was truly inspiring to everyone! Thank you, Mexico. We love you! Viva La Cucaracha."

On Thursday (Dec. 8) Aerosmith canceled the final two dates of their Las Vegas residency due to Steven Tyler's undisclosed illness. One of the shows was only hours away, while the other one was scheduled for the upcoming weekend.

The band's statement read that the decision was made "on the advice of doctors."

A similar announcement was made earlier this week, when they canceled 2 other shows. According to Billboard, at time of press, a spokesperson for the band could not be reached for comment on Tyler's diagnosis.

Earlier this summer, Aerosmith canceled some concerts while Tyler entered a treatment program for his struggle with drug addiction. He had relapsed after using pain meds following foot surgery.

TL;DR:

The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie have announced a 2023 tour. The trek will kick off in September 2023 and will make stops in Portland, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Las Vegas before wrapping in Los Angeles.

Check out the tour dates below:

09-08 Portland, ME - Cross Insurance Arena
09-09 Kingston, RI - The Ryan Center
09-10 New Haven, CT - Westville Music Bowl
09-12 Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall
09-13 Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall
09-14 Washington, D.C. - Merriweather Post Pavilion
09-17 Detroit, MI - Meadow Brook Amphitheater
09-20 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden
09-21 Philadelphia, PA - The Mann Center
09-24 Minneapolis, MN - Armory
09-26 Denver, CO - Mission Ballroom
09-27 Denver, CO - Mission Ballroom
10-03 Phoenix, AZ - Arizona Financial Theatre
10-04 Las Vegas, NV - The Chelsea Ballroom at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
10-07 Seattle, WA - Climate Pledge Arena
10-10 Berkeley, CA - Greek Theatre - UC Berkeley
10-13 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl

Tool's Danny Carey is due in court next week over alleged assault in connection with his arrest last year at Kansas City International Airport. According to Fox 4, Carey has a hearing in municipal court scheduled for December 15th.

Carey was arrested on December 12th, 2021 for an alleged assault at the airport. TMZ posted a video of the incident, where Carey can be heard berating the officers and telling the person filming him to "videotape all of this." The musician kept asking one of the officers, "Who did I assault?" and exclaiming, "I just want to get the f*ck out of here." At the end of the video, two officers could be seen pushing Carey against a glass wall outside the airport, with one officer ordering Carey not to get too close to them. The officers then put cuffs on Carey's wrists, with one officer telling the drummer to "quit resisting now."

Spencer Elden, the man who covered Nirvana's Nevermind album has filed an appeal to the album cover lawsuit. Back in September, the suit-- which was bought on by Elden, who was seeking damages over the cover art, was dismissed by a U.S. District Court Judge for the third and final time.

According to Loudwire, in his original suit, Elden -- who was just four months when the photo was used for the Nirvana album cover, cited that the "unlawful conduct" used to create the photo had caused him "permanent harm," calling the usage of the photo child pornography.

Spin reported that in the new court docs, Elden's lawyers have claiming that the judge presiding ruled in error concerning the statute of limitations on the case because the harm suffered to Elden from the photo is ongoing. They also cited Masha's Law which allows child pornography victims to seek monetary damages into adulthood.

Machine Gun Kelly's ex-girlfriend Sommer Ray reportedly crashed a party this week that he was playing at and sat across the dance floor from his fiancée, Megan Fox.

According to Page Six, the couple seemingly didn't interact with Ray, who spent the evening dancing with friends.

The two dated in 2020 before his relationship with Fox was public. In March of last year, the social media star claimed that her relationship with the Texas native overlapped with his romance with Megan Fox.

TL;DR:

Machine Gun Kelly's ex-girlfriend Sommer Ray reportedly crashed a party this week that he was playing at.

She sat across the dance floor from his fiancée, Megan Fox

Bush has just rolled out 20 winter 2023 headlining dates, in support of its latest album, The Art Of Survival. Special guests Jerry Cantrell, Candlebox, and Silverson Pickups will alternate as the tour's opening acts. The trek kicks off on January 28th at Reno, Nevada's Grand Theatre at The Grand Sierra Resort and winds down on February 26th at The Parent in St Louis, Missouri.

Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale told us that he continues to challenge himself when it comes to making music: "To me it's just the challenge of making a record and being in music and, like all of us, desiring to be current and relevant to ourselves. Y'know, you have to challenge yourself. Y'know, if you're 21, you write a different thing than if you're 31 and so forth."

JUST ANNOUNCED: Bush tour dates (subject to change):

January 28 - Reno, NV - Grand Theatre at The Grand Sierra Resort (with Jerry Cantrell)
January 29 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Palladium (with Jerry Cantrell)
January 31 - Anaheim, CA - City National Grove of Anaheim
February 1 - Phoenix, AZ- The Van Buren
February 3 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Complex
February 4 - Denver, CO - Fillmore Auditorium
February 6 - Minneapolis, MN - Fillmore Minneapolis
February 7 - Kansas City, MO - The Midland Theatre
February 9 - Toronto, ON - HISTORY
February 10 - Cleveland, OH - MGM Northfield Park
February 11 - Waterloo, NY -the Vine - del Lago Casino Resort
February 14 - Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall at Fenway (with Candlebox)
February 15 - Washington, D.C. - The Anthem (with Candlebox)
February 17 - Atlantic City, NJ - Ocean Casino Resort (with Candlebox)
February 18 - New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom (with Candlebox)
February 20 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
February 22 - Louisville, KY - The Louisville Palace
February 24 - Battle Creek, MI - FireKeepers Casino
February 25 - Chicago, IL - Salt Shed (with Silverson Pickups)
February 26 - St Louis, MO - The Pageant

James Hetfield makes no bones about channeling his inner demons for Metallica's new music. Blabbermouth transcribed Hetfield talking in a new promo video about the band's new album, 72 Seasons -- which drops on April 14th -- where he shed light on the album's sometimes extremely dark inspiration.

Hetfield revealed, "There's been a lot of darkness in my life and in our career and things that have happened with us, but always having a sense of hope, always having the light that is in that darkness. . . Without darkness, there is no light, and being able to focus a little more on the light in life instead of how it used to be and how horrible it is."

He went on to say, "There's a lot of good things going on in life -- focusing on that instead, and it helps to balance out my life. And there's no one meaning to it -- everyone has some sense of hope or light in their life, and, obviously, music is mine."

A while back James Hetfield told us that upon entering alcohol rehabilitation, he learned that anger can be a good thing. "You can handle anger and use anger in a positive sense. I felt I can take anger and be assertive with it. It also helps me protect, like, if something's going wrong you can protect your family. I mean there's a lot of good uses for anger that I never saw before. This is all new to me, and if it's completely 101 for most people, that's fine, but for me this is pretty profound."

Red Hot Chili Peppers' video for the title track to the band's 1999 Californication album has surpassed the one billion mark on YouTube. The track, which has been certified five-times platinum, hit Number One on Billboard's Alternative Airplay and Mainstream Rock charts, and peaked at Number 69 on the Billboard Hot 100 when it was released as the album's fourth single back in June 2000.

Loudwire reported: "The original video, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, placed the band's members inside a fictional video game that found each musician on his own California-based adventure. The video itself became so beloved that earlier this year video game developer Miguel Camps Orteza actually created a video game based off the music video in which the player can play as one of the four band members through multiple levels."

Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith told us that "Californication" was the perfect combination of Anthony Kiedis and John Frusciante's talents: "Anthony actually had the melody and lyrics before we had the music, and it's usually the opposite. Usually we come up with the music and he comes up with the melody and lyrics to it. So, he had this thing and the words and everything. We had some music to it but it just was kind of boring and long. And about two weeks before we were supposed to go into the studio, John just took the words home and he came back the next day with this really simple guitar line, completely different than how we were playing it before. He had the guitar line and I think he had the chorus part. It was a completely different song."

Motionless In White cancelled their appearance last night (Tuesday, December 6th) at the Tucson Convention Center in Tucson, Arizona after vocalist Chris "Motionless" Cerulli came down with "an upper respiratory infection." Motionless In White's tourmates, including Ice Nine Kills, Black Veil Brides and Atreyu went ahead with the concert as scheduled.

Chris released the following statement via social media, saying, "Dear Arizona MIW fans. It kills me to have to do this, but unfortunately, we will not be performing at tonight's show in Tucson." He continued, "I have been fighting an upper respiratory infection for a few days now, and as I learned at last nights show, I am physically unable to perform, and I need to let my body rest and recover. BVB, INK, and ATREYU will all still be performing tonight as scheduled." He added, "Thank you for understanding. I am very sorry, but we will find a way to make it up to you."