MUSIC NEWS
Footage by Kenny Howell
Catch them live: The quintet — Matt, 26; his brother Brad (guitarist), 28; Lincoln Parish (guitar), 19; Daniel Tichenor (bass), 29; and Jared Champion (drummer), 28 — brings its gritty, frenetic sound to the Stone Temple Pilots’ tour starting Aug. 10.
Modest beginnings: Growing up in a Pentecostal household, the Shultz brothers were allowed to listen to gospel music only. But their father, a freight truck driver, was once a musician and occasionally would play a Joe Walsh or Pink Floyd album for the kids.
Dumpster diving: The family lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Bowling Green, Ky., so it wasn’t easy to slip music past their mother. But that didn’t stop them from trying. “We found a drum kit in a dumpster and dragged it into our apartment,” Matt Shultz says. “We used coat hangers as drumsticks.” Brad bought his first guitar from a neighborhood kid for $20. “The back had fallen off, so we duct-taped it on,” his brother says.
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When the thrash godfathers Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax all joined together on the Sonisphere stage in Sofia, Bulgaria last month, who wasn’t thinking we might be just a little bit closer to a full fledged Big Four tour in the States. With news of Anthrax joining the second leg of the American Carnage Tour alongside of Slayer and Megadeth, that day hopefully is around the corner.
The second leg kicks off on Sept. 24 in Dallas, Texas and runs for 20 dates, where Megadeath will continue playing their ‘Rust in Peace’ set list and Slayer will play the groundbreaking ‘Seasons in the Abyss’ album straight through. Anthrax recently was reunited with frontman Joey Belladonna.
As for a full Big Four tour, almost everyone seems to say the same thing: It’s up to Metallica.
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The Flaming Lips may be the longest-running band to perform during the week of concerts being held in celebration of SPIN’s 25th anniversary — presented in partnership with ZYNC from American Express — but the Black Keys, who headlined Terminal 5 Wednesday night in Manhattan, have the deepest musical roots.
In a 90-plus minute set featuring a big greasy handful of songs found on the latest album, Brothers, from Akron, Ohio’s favorite sons (sorry, LeBron), drummer Patrick Carney and guitarist Dan Auerbach gave a lesson on the enduring power of the blues, sending the sold-out crowd into near-delirium with their seemingly endless, endlessly entertaining variations on simply sinister chord patterns and brawny shuffle rhythms.
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Linkin Park will exclusively preview the first single from their upcoming album “A Thousand Suns,” which is out Sept. 14, via a trailer for the upcoming videogame “Medal of Honor.”
The preview will be offered one day before the single, “The Catalyst,” is scheduled to hit radio and other outlets. Linkin Park’s Joe Hahn also directed the video clip, which includes a mix of gameplay footage and live-action footage of actors playing as soldiers. The full trailer goes live Aug. 1 at medalofhonor.com/linkinpark. In the meantime, watch a sneak peek gameplay trailer above.
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Though hot acts such as Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber are having no trouble filling venues, several high-profile tours — including the Jonas Brothers, Lilith Fair and American Idols Live — have canceled, postponed or reshuffled dates in recent weeks as budget-conscious concertgoers think twice before spending their money.
Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni says preliminary numbers from the concert trade publication’s midyear report on the 100 top touring acts show a 20% drop in gross revenue and total ticket sales from Jan. 1 through June 30 compared with the same period in 2009. Meanwhile, average ticket prices are now below $60, compared with $64.61 last year. Final numbers are expected later this week.
“There’s still a strong appetite for live music if you have the right attraction,” Bongiovanni says. “It’s wrong to say the sky is falling and business is horrible, but I don’t think we are seeing anything that we shouldn’t have expected.”
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“It was a wonderful moment,” says The Gracious Few’s chief protagonist, guitarist, and co songwriter Chad Taylor of a particular late winters 2010 day in Sausalito California. “As I loosened the grip on my guitar after that final take, I knew the past was exactly that. It can’t come back to haunt me. It can only influence me and our future as a band. Primarily because we’ve all already been there.” Typically Taylor would be back in his home state of Pennsylvania at this time of year, perhaps even shoveling snow, but most likely thinking about his feature film company or other varied business interests, certainly not music. But in that moment warmth came over him as the strings still resonated, “I looked into the control room, and the guys, and thought this very nearly didn’t happen.”
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