The Blurbs
Conflicting reports about Slipknot’s future
After Slipknot bassist Paul Gray unexpectedly died a couple months ago from a drug overdose, the obvious question on many people’s minds was whether the band would carry on in his absence or simply call it a day.
Well, now we have word from two of the band members themselves. However, it looks like they haven’t exactly talked to each other to get on the same wavelength.
Here’s what drummer Joey Jordison had to say, according to Blabbermouth:
“There WILL be another record, no matter what. We already have kind of a timeline…We kind of know when we’re going to start. It isn’t going to be too long.”
And here’s singer Corey Taylor’s take on the matter (again, thanks to Blabbermouth):
“It’s too soon right now, but we’re still talking, all of us are talking and everything’s good but we’ll see.”
That’s two drastically different responses to the same question, no? In the end, I think it’s inevitable that Slipknot will continue on as a band, but with Stone Sour and Murderdolls occupying some of the band members’ time right now, any new music probably won’t come until 2012.
-Sam
Generally when magazines or websites have contests designed to choose an unsigned band and provide them with some extra exposure, it’s just an excuse to run subtle advertising for some company, and the band tends to be either thoroughly mediocre at best or downright crappy at worst.
That’s not the case with Iron Thrones, who recently won the Scion No Label Needed Contest that was hosted by MetalInsider.net. Sure, the contest was an attempt to sell more cars from Scion’s perspective, but that’s fine with me because the winner, for once, is actually pretty good.
As the winners of this contest, Iron Thrones not only got their new 6-song EP, The Wretched Sun, recorded in a professional studio with a well-known producer, but they also met the guys in Shadows Fall in order to get career advice, took part in a professional photo shoot and subsequent press campaign, and received a new website redesign among many other things that bands signed to a big label probably take for granted.
M.I.A. really knows how to piss people off these days.
Most recently, the Sri Lankan rapper has managed to target both Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga — two powerful ladies who you probably shouldn’t be hating on; unless of course she’s just looking for some publicity.
Speaking of Lady Gaga, M.I.A. said, “Is it about numbers? About how much you’re selling? Is it truly the journey? Because Lady Gaga’s journey isn’t that difficult: to go from the fucking Upper East Side to a fucking performing arts school and onto a stage at the museum of fucking whatever. That journey’s about four miles.”
Yeah, it’s Lady Gaga’s journey that is making your album plummet 25 spots on the Billboard 200.
And then speaking of her encounter with Oprah, “Oprah seemed to be giving me the cold shoulder. She was dancing with Imaa. Imaa was always dancing with me, hugging and kissing me. Oprah seemed really pissed off with me.”
But hey, at least M.I.A. apologized for the fucking disaster of a show in New York City the other week. As a sign of her apology, she’ll come back to New York, after her tour, and perform a free concert.
Sorry for the language; it just seemed all too necessary.
Bruno Mars
It’s not every day that a well known producer and musician will throw some love out to an upcoming artist. We were pleased to see Bruno Mars tweet about our boy, Matt Beilis. Matt recently covered Bruno Mars’ new single, Just The Way You Are. Beilis posted his cover on YouTube and, sure enough, Bruno Mars noticed it. Bruno Mars tweeted,
Check out this dope cover of My New single.. Go get um Matt! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsL1eKJv7Qo
Catch the cover after the break. And if you haven’t done so already, why not pick up Matt’s new album on iTunes? Can’t Help But Wonder is selling like crazy. continue reading
Let me start this post with a story that has nothing to do with music.
One of the local sports radio talk show announcers where I live used to be a police chief, and he sometimes fills some time during the morning show by telling stories from his time on the beat (hey, you can’t talk about how crappy the Orioles are forever.) Just recently, he was talking about how he was patrolling the city one night when he came across a parked car and in the car he could see three young men and a head bobbing up and down in one of their laps. Well, I’m sure you can guess what was happening. Needless to say, he interrupted the proceedings and made everyone get out of the car. Now this chief recognized the prostitute, and he told her “Come on, just show them.” The kids had no idea what he was talking about. The chief insisted, so the prostitute pulled down her pants to reveal…well, a johnson. Two of the three kids looked absolutely horrified, but the chief couldn’t understand why the third kid was smiling uncontrollably. “What are you so happy about?” he asked. The kid replied, “I’m the only one who hadn’t gone yet.”
That’s all to preface the notion that the following song may very well have been made by that tranny:
-Sam
OK, so this is kind of a dual post. First and foremost to inform anyone who visits Suds about the awesomely talented Rolo Tomassi, and secondly (more importantly) to review their second album: Cosmology.
Having been active in some way or another for close to 5 years now, these guys have built up a solid fanbase and live reputation in the UK, famous particularly for their jarring, synth-infused rhythms and frontwoman Eva Spence’s ferocious roar. They’ve been tearing up venues up and down the country, including high-profile support slots with The Dillinger Escape Plan and slots at the big summer festivals. A worthy live reputation causes problems for a lot of bands. The main issue being the difficulty of capturing the raw passion of a live performance on record. Rolo Tomassi, however, have no such issues.
Their spazzed-out tech-metal meets dance sound is perfectly captured on Cosmology, which is a real relief considering just how easy it is to lose individual instruments and subtle arrangements amongst such a racket. Effortlessly switching back and forth from pummelling brutality to dreamy soundscapes, Rolo clearly have the musical tightrope walking down. The beauty of title track/closer ‘Cosmology’ sits easily alongside the discomforting lurch of ‘French Motel’, and both are high-points. Lead-off single ‘Party Wounds’ is an absolute killer, displaying the prodigious vocal talents of Eva Spence, who straddles the line between angelic choir soprano and feral beast with a confidence rarely seen in metal music. When you throw in the fact that she’s barely out of her teens, it’s quite a remarkable performance. Throw in brother James’s yelping, and it makes for a fine dual-delivery that gives the album’s heavier moments real variety.
As is the case with some of the more experimental works of art, Cosmology is at times a hit-and-miss affair. ‘French Motel’ is an impressive piece of music, but it manages to display both the strength and weakness of the band’s approach. One section sees the most unusual use of the synth amongst a discordant mess that really doesn’t add to proceedings – an example of how difficult Rolo can be to listen to at times – but that section precedes the brilliant use of the synth to emphasise the heavy riffs with a distorted effect, which absolutely pummels the ears. In fairness, those wrong turns are very few and far between. Rolo have polished their sound, focused their efforts, and produced an album which is a real step-up from mental debut ‘Hysterics’.
If you like your music difficult, dense and experimental, then this group of Sheffield youngsters will be right up your street. If you’re into hooks and melodies, steer clear if you don’t fancy a challenge. I like my music either way, and I enjoyed this album. Recommended.
Katy Perry’s ubiquitous summer mega-hit “California Gurls” has naturally led to many attempts at parody by the girls of this great nation’s other 49 states. It was inevitable, really. Of course, pretty much all of these parodies are sucktastic. Go ahead, go on YouTube and search for “[Insert your state name here] Gurls” and you’ll probably get some hits. I mean, for fuck’s sake, I found one for Wyoming. I’ve literally never met someone who is from Wyoming. I’ve never even met someone who’s been to Wyoming. Even the girl in that video is so ashamed that that’s where she’s from that she put on a video filter before taping.
If you want to make a compelling parody/cover, you’ve got to commit to it, ladies! Otherwise it’s just embarassing.
But the guys in Pennsylvania get it. In fact, they had me at “Pennsyltucky.”
-Sam
Sometimes a Tweet is all you need to really sum up a situation.
This comes from Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill, in reference to the band’s recent show in St. Louis:
“So sorry St. Louis. We had to bail, pigeons shitting in [bassist] Jared [Followill]’s mouth. Too unsanitary to continue….Don’t take it out on Jared, it’s the fucking venue’s fault. You may enjoy being shit on but we don’t. Sorry for all who traveled many miles.”
That really sucks for both the band and the fans. It’s too bad there weren’t any umbrella hats on hand that the guys could have strapped on to protect them from the fecal showers. I wonder if, in the future, the venue will consider doing what the Cincinnati Bengals considered when they had a similar problem a few years back.
-Sam
Matt Garfield is just a man with a keytar and a hankering for metal.
He’s also the one-man wrecking crew behind the band Mose Giganticus – handling all the songwriting, lyrics, vocals, drums, and synthesizers himself with a rotating cast of characters backing him up on guitar and bass both live and in the studio – kind of like Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails.
Gift Horse is the band’s major label debut on Relapse Records. The brand of metal that is put forth on this album is difficult to nail down. It should be no surprise that a keytarist liberally uses synthesizers and vocoder in his music, but Gift Horse isn’t industrial metal in the vein of, say, The Downward Spiral; nor is it anything like the recent bastardizations of synth in metal like The Devil Wears Prada or Attack Attack! (or any other group of kids wearing neon shirts and sporting girls’ haircuts while banging on a keyboard).
Whatever your thoughts are about Lady Gaga, I can’t see any rational human being siding against her in this particular instance.
You see, according to Rolling Stone, this past weekend Gaga had a show in St. Louis which was protested by the Westboro Baptist Church. If you don’t know who the WBC is, they are the people who picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard (with signs that said things like “AIDS Cures Fags”) along with multiple funerals of soldiers killed in action. They’ve picketed the funerals of Michael Jackson and Dio. They’ve protested outside the Holocaust Museum, calling the Holocaust “minuscule” and saying “Jews are the real Nazis.” A few years ago, after the Sichuan earthquake in China, they released a press release praying “for many more earthquakes to kill many more thousands of impudent and ungrateful Chinese Communists.” And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The Anti-Defamation League has classified this “church” as a hate group. And it’s sad to say that this group actually is a church because in reality it’s nothing more than the giant inbred family of Pastor Fred Phelps. And yet it still receives the tax exemption from our government.
Anyways, according to these worthless abominations, everything tragic that happens in the world is directly attributable to homosexuality. And Lady Gaga is well known for having a devout following of LGBT fans. So naturally, as the attention-starved whores that they are, the WBC showed up to her concert to call Gaga a “false prophetess” and warn that she and her “gender-confused, self loathing, tone deaf” fans are headed to hell.