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Q&A: The Decemberists’ Meloy on Metal, Musicals and Scary Jobs

Photo: Harrison/Getty Already renowned for their ambitious narratives and literary bent, Portland indie rock band the Decemberists have topped themselves with an hour-long story-album based on the themes of British folk songs. Detailing clover’d beds and crowing corn crakes, their Hazards Of Love is a massive swirl of ivy-covered imagery playing out as churning rock. Leader Colin Meloy conceived the album after a period of dabbling in records from British folk revival bands like Fairport Conven

Published: 2009-05-07 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Metallica Reveal “Guitar Hero” Track List

Metallica have revealed the track list for their upcoming Guitar Hero game, out on March 29th. The 28-song list combines the band’s greatest hits like “Enter Sandman” and “One” with fan favorites like “Battery” and “Dyers Eve.” Additionally, gamers can play the band’s new Death Magnetic in the full-game mode if they downloaded that album. Plus, GH: Metallica will also feature songs by artists like Bob Seger, Alice in Chains, Foo Fighters and new metal all-stars like Mastodon and the Sword. As reported in Rolling Stone’s preview of Guitar Hero: Metallica, the game features a storyline concocted by James Hetfield, with players starting the game as the band’s opening act before eventually becoming Metallica. The game also contains artwork from the band’s longtime collaborator Pushead and bonus features like live performances and behind-the-scenes footage. To see the entire Guitar Hero: Metallica track list, keep reading. Metallica songs: “All Nightmare Long” “Battery” “Creeping Death” “Disposable Heroes” “Dyers Eve” “Enter Sandman” “Fade To Black” “Fight Fire With Fire” “For Whom The Bell Tolls” “Frantic” “Fuel” “Hit The Lights” “King Nothing” “Master of Puppets” “Mercyful Fate (Medley)” “No Leaf Clover” “Nothing Else Matters” “One” “Orion” “Sad But True” “Seek And Destroy” “The Memory Remains” “The Shortest Straw” “The Thing That Should Not Be” “The Unforgiven” “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” “Wherever I May Roam” “Whiplash” Other artists: Alice In Chains – “No Excuses” Bob Seger – “Turn The Page” Corrosion of Conformity – “Albatross” Diamond Head – “Am I Evil?” Foo Fighters – “Stacked Actors” Judas Priest – “Hell Bent For Leather” Kyuss – “Demon Cleaner” Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Tuesdays Gone” Machine Head – “Beautiful Mourning” Mastodon – “Blood And Thunder” Mercyful Fate – “Evil” Michael Schenker Group – “Armed and Ready” Motorhead – “Ace of Spades” Queen – “Stone Cold Crazy” Samhain – “Mother of Mercy” Slayer – “War Ensemble” Social Distortion – “Mommy’s Little Monster” Sui

Published: 2009-01-26 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Judas Priest Prove Their Metal Mastery on Long Island

When two of the singers who most define the genre are in the house, calling a tour featuring Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and Motorhead the “Metal Masters Tour” doesn’t have even a hint of hyperbole. The ashen skies threatened to open at any moment at Long Island’s Jones Beach Theater on Sunday, but even though lightning crackled in the distance during Judas Priest’s night-closing set, the evening remained dry. The band only pulled out one song from this year’s Nostradamus, so the rest of the set was dedicated to the glory days of yore. Apart from the old standbys (”Breaking the Law,” “Metal Gods,” “Hell Bent for Leather”), the deeper cuts provided some of the evening’s finer moments, especially a thunderous rendition of “Dissident Aggressor” and “Hell Patrol,” an unjustly forgotten number from the Painkiller album. Though the ticket read “Heaven and Hell,” a Ronnie James Dio-fronted Black Sabbath is still Black Sabbath. Guitarist Tony Iommi appeared in great spirits, cracking a huge smile while carving out the jagged solo on “I” (some of those Dehumanizer tracks are a lot better than you may remember). Dio was in fantastic voice, sounding more like one-third of his alleged 66 years, especially on “Children of the Sea” and “Heaven and Hell,” the set’s closing number. As always, Motorhead was Motorhead, and that’s all it takes. From a breakneck “Going to Brazil” to “Killed By Death” and the unstoppable closing one-two punch of “Ace of Spades” and “Overkill,” Lemmy Kilmister’s gravel throat has retained every bit of its charm, and his band is still top-notch. The only downer of the evening is that the audience skewed so far towards the older side, as kids with heavy metal dreams would be well advised to sign up for an evening of education and learn from the best. [Photo: Getty]

Published: 2008-08-11 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Live Shows

Fricke’s Picks: Motorpsycho

“Suite: Little Lucid Moments,” the opening track on Little Lucid Moments (Rune Grammofon), by the Norwegian power trio Motorpsycho, is not little. It is a mini-album in itself, an improbable union over four parts and 21 minutes of Tool, Goo-era Sonic Youth and the ‘69 Yes: angular riffing, volcanic guitar-bass-drums debate and surprising pop-sheen vocal harmonies. The second section is well named — “A Hoof to the Head” — and the gripping tumult in the third stretch, “Hallucifuge (Hyperrealistically Speaking),” explains why Motorpsycho are established prog-metal stars abroad. Bassist-singer Bent Saether and guitarist-singer Hans Magnus Ryan started the band in 1989, taking the name from Russ Meyer’s 1965 biker-gang B movie and throwing caution to the arctic winds over a long discography of hard-rock indulgence, including the two-CD epics Trust Us (1998) and Black Hole/Blank Canvas (2006). Little Lucid Moments — a single disc, and Saether and Ryan’s first album with new drummer Kenneth Kapstad — is pith in comparison, but just barely. The finale, “The Alchemyst,” is a 12-minute whirl of power-pop clang and polyrhythmic jamming with a soft space choir landing at the end. You wouldn’t want it any shorter. [Photo: Anja Basma]

Published: 2008-06-04 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Fricke's Picks

"An End Has a Start (Deluxe Edition)" by Editors

Considering the British boys in Editors spent a large part of their debut's promotion time hell-bent on convincing listeners that they're not merely a Xerox copy of Interpol, it's curious that they're releasing their sophomore effort, An End Has a Start, a week after the New York band's Our Love to Admire. But while Interpol is now focused on cool detachment and fleeting threesomes, Editors newest is the embodiment of earnestness. Singer Tom Smith mopes his way through lyrics that wouldn't read out of place on a Hallmark card: "In the end all you can hope for is the love you felt to equal the pain you've gone through," the frontman emotes in "Bones," while "Push Your Head Towards the Air" sees Smith professing, "Now don't drown in your tears, babe, I will always be there." As for the music, despite the band's insistence that Joy Division is not an influence, their sound still plays like a not-wholly-unique variety of gloomy post-punk. Ultimately, the

Published: 2007-07-16 Provider: Artist Direct

Austrian Death Machine Christmas release

Austrian Death Machine - the Arnie-inspired side-project of As I Lay Dying frontman Tim L - have announced a Christmas release. The A Very Brutal Christmas EP will feature three tracks including a version of Jingle Bells, a cover of Judas Priest's Hell Bent For Leather, and the band's own Get To The Choppa. For more information on the band, and to hear tracks from their Metal Blade debut, CLICK HERE.

Published: 2008-11-20 Provider: Kerrang!

New Get Him Eat Him - "Red And Black Guitars"

Angular indie-rock quintet Get Him Eat Him are digitally releasing The Throat Is Bent EP today and later as a limited-edition CD via their website. After a couple full-lengths on Absolutely Kosher, it's the Providence-born New York-based band's last. The

Published: 2009-02-17 Provider: StereoGum Keywords: stereogum,indie,rock,mp3,blog

Al Qaeda’s Steel Band Mastermind

“FIVE members of a calypso band thrown off a flight after being mistaken for terrorists have won a £5,500 pay-out.” Aboard a Ryanair flight from Sardinia to London, members of the Caribbean Steel International Orchestra aroused suspicions among their fellow flyers. As the Mail notes: “One passenger claimed he was concerned that one of the musicians, who was blind, appeared to be reading a newspaper.” The story has a Dadaist bent. Better had the blind steel drum player been reading paper dated one day into the future, the front page carrying the legend “HAVE YOU SEEN THE BLIND DRUMMER? – Hunt for Al Qaeda’s Steel Band Mastermind”…

Published: 2008-02-06 Provider: Anorak

Independence Day

A disparate ensemble of heroes band together to defeat the alien invaders who are bent on exterminating mankind with formidable firepower.On July 2nd, communications systems worldwide are sent into chaos by a strange atmospheric interference. It is soon learned by the military that a number of enormous objects are on a collision course with Earth. At first thought to be meteors, they are later revealed to be gigantic spacecraft, piloted by a mysterious alien species. After attempts to communicate with the aliens go nowhere, David Levinson, an ex-scientist turned cable technician, discovers that the aliens are going to attack major points around the globe in less than a day. On July 3rd, the aliens all but obliterate New York, Los Angeles, and Washington. The survivors set out in convoys towards Area 51, a strange government testing ground where it is rumored the military has a captured alien spacecraft of their own. The survivors devise a plan to fight back against the enslaving aliens, and July 4th becomes the day humanity will fight for its freedom. July 4th is their Independence Day...View Trailer

Published: 2008-01-23 Provider: Movielink

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Redheaded young thing Alison Sudol is the voice, pen, and ivory-tinkling behind A Fine Frenzy -- in fact, she's the entire band. Not bad for a 22-year-old, albeit one born to drama teacher parents and who grew up near the center of it all in Los Angeles. The ethereal-voiced pianist is Fiona Apple with a gentler touch, Regina Spektor with a poppier bent, Tori Amos without all the faerie magic. Sudol, who name-checks influences as disparate as Coldplay, Louis Armstrong and Philip Glass, is on tour in North America through early November with Brandi Carlile (and she just wrapped a few dates opening for Rufus Wainwright). Catch her if you can, or pick up her debut One Cell in the Sea.

Published: 2007-10-01 Provider: GetTrio