MUSIC NEWS

Heavy D, the “Overweight Lover” of hip-hop’s golden age, is dead at 44. The news broke over Twitter this afternoon, when Grandmaster Flash posted, “I was just told Heavy D passed away.” Dream Hampton, a hip-hop journalist close to the rapper, confirmed the news to SPIN, and TMZ provided additional details, reporting the rapper was brought to a Los Angeles hospital at 12 p.m. today and pronounced dead an hour later.

Heavy D, born Dwight Arrington Myers, a native of “Money-earnin’ Mount Vernon,” New York, is best known for a series of consistently topnotch albums from the late ’80s to the early ’90s that seamlessly mixed hip-hop with pop aspirations, reaching an apex with the Top 20 single “Now That We Found Love” in 1991. His “chunky but funky” persona, cushiony delivery, and high-velocity flow earned five Top 40 albums and memorable guest appearances on albums by both Michael and Janet Jackson. More recently, Heavy performed on television for the first time in many years, closing out the 2011 B.E.T. Awards with a medley of his classic hits. Earlier this morning, he appeared on Radio 1Xtra and spoke to Tim Westwood about the performance, saying that he practiced eight hours a day for six weeks and almost vomited from nervousness.

Heavy was a marvel at mixing the wholesome and the credible, which was integral to his own success, as well as that of the seminal new jack swing and hip-hop hub Uptown Records, for which he recorded.

To read the complete article visit SPIN

Death Angel will be joining thrash titans Anthrax and Testament, who haven’t toured together in more than a decade. All bands are set to hit the U.S. beginning Friday, October 14. Get more news and quotes from the bands here. The coast-to-coast trek will figure to decimate more than two dozen cities over a five-week period, with both Anthrax and Death Angel debuting brand new material from their new albums.

For more information visit Death Angel

For videos of the show visit us on YouTube

For photos of the show visit us at Flickr

Soul-crushing words nobody ever expected or wanted to hear: the future of Sonic Youth appears to be in doubt. Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore announced their separation on Friday night, after 27 years of marriage. The band has a few upcoming November gigs in South America; it’s officially “uncertain” if the band will continue after that. But they should. Oh, how they should.

The first time I heard Sonic Youth play “Eric’s Trip” was October 1988, in Boston. They were previewing material from their forthcoming Daydream Nation, which meant we were all hearing these wondrous songs – “Teenage Riot,” “Hey Joni,” “‘Cross the Breeze” – for the first time. At the end, during “Silver Rocket,” Moore got furious with his equipment and threw his guitar down. (It didn’t break; it bounced off the stage and back up at his face, which made the moment startling. Never saw a guy fail to smash his guitar before.)

The last time I heard them play “Eric’s Trip” was just 2 months ago, at Brooklyn’s Williamsburg Waterfront, their only U.S. show of 2011. Any punk angst was long gone from the song – angst is for kiddies – replaced by intense curiosity, always a tougher emotion to translate into music, but always the emotion Sonic Youth has expressed better than anyone. Lee Ranaldo raved with a mix of bafflement and wonder: “The sky is blue…the sky is the deepest purest blue I’ve ever seen…and points on the globe are just…points on the globe!”

To read the complete interview visit ROLLING STONE.

KORN
TEAM WITH SKRILLEX, FEED ME, EXCISION, 12^TH PLANET, NOISIA,
DOWNLINK AND KILL THE NOISE FOR THEIR NEW ALBUM
‘THE PATH OF TOTALITY’ DUE OUT ON DECEMBER 6

VENUES ANNOUNCED FOR BALLROOM “P.O.T.” TOUR

EACH DATE TO FEATURE UNIQUE MIX OF ROCK AND DUBSTEP
WITH LIVE PERFORMANCE BY KORN AND DOPE D.O.D.
PLUS DJ SETS BY DATSIK AND DOWNLINK

Leave it to a band like KORN to continue to reinvent itself two decades and ten albums deep into its career.  THE PATH OF TOTALITY—due out December 6 on Roadrunner Records—is an experimental album which finds KORN shifting gears and exploring new territory with some of the most important emerging producers on the electronic music scene today.

For THE PATH OF TOTALITY and its corresponding “P.O.T.” ballroom tour this November, the band will change course again by collaborating with the likes of leading U.S., U.K. and Dutch dubstep trailblazers Skrillex, Feed Me, Excision,Datsik, Noisia, Kill the Noise and 12th Planet on record as well as on stage.  Expect something completely new, yet utterly and definitively KORN.

The band’s first offering from the album “Get Up!” with Skrillex was the surprise Top 10 rock hit of the summer, the buzz of which started in April in Coachella‘s Sahara tent when Jonathan and Munky joined Skrillex on stage for a show-stealing unannounced performance of the song. Check out the track at:  http://tinyurl.com/3q3rmqa.  Now KORNhas unleashed “Narcissistic Cannibal,” another creation with Skrillex and Kill the Noise at www.korn.com.

Other tracks on THE PATH OF TOTALITY include “Kill Mercy Within” and “Let’s Go” with untouchable Dutch production trio Noisia, Excision tracks “My Wall” and “Illuminati” with Downlink and “Way Too Far” per American dubstep pioneer 12th Planet.  Deep bass turns come courtesy of the one and only Feed Me on “Bleeding Out.”

Look for KORN to kick off the first leg of their “Path of Totality (P.O.T.)” tour on November 3 at the House of Blues in Boston.  The band will perform material from the new album as well as tracks from their extensive catalog.   On each date, they will be supported by dubstep DJs Datsik and Downlink, as well as a live set by young upstart Dutch Dub-rockers Dope D.O.D. for an unforgettable, one-of-a-kind musical experience unlike any other KORN tour.

Dates for KORN’s “P.O.T.” tour are:

*More dates and specific venue information to be announced shortly.

Duff McKagan (VELVET REVOLVER, GUNS N’ ROSES, DUFF MCKAGAN’S LOADED) took part in a book-signing event on Wednesday, October 5 at the Bookends in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Video footage from his appearance can be seen below.

Duff’s new book, “It’s So Easy (And Other Lies)”,
arrived on October 4 via Touchstone Books (formerly Touchstone Fireside), a division of Simon & Schuster. The first 80 pages of the book can be read at this location.

In this raw, utterly candid memoir, McKagan, the rock legend and founding member of rock supergroups GUNS N’ ROSES and VELVET REVOLVER, shares his story of excess, angst, struggle and triumph. “It’s So Easy” details Duff’s rise to the pinnacle of fame and fortune, his struggles with alcoholism and drug addiction, his personal crash and burn, his phoenix-like transformation via a unique path to sobriety, and his success as a savvy business investor and loving husband and father.

In a voice that is as honest as it is indelibly his own, Duff — one of rock’s smartest and most articulate personalities — takes readers on his harrowing journey through the dark heart of one of the most notorious bands in rock-and-roll history and out the other side.

To read the complete article visit BLABBERMOUTH and to read an excerpt visit SCRIBD.