Author Archives: Alex

Devolved lose guitarist. Awww.

I’m not gonna pretend I care, nor am I gonna pretend I’ve actually heard of Devolved, but apparently they lost their old guitar player. Here’s a statement issued by drummer John Sankey:

“After the recording of the last Devolved album, Oblivion, guitarist Brett Noordin took some time off back in our homeland of Australia and will not be returning to Los Angeles to continue as part of Devolved. It is an amicable decision and I wish Brett all the best with any future musical endeavors. His involvement with the band and dedication over the years is greatly valued.“

Oh… Okay… You wouldn’t happen to have a replacement for him, would you?

“I have since been working on brand new Devolved material with guitarist Mark Hawkins from Florida-based band Robots Pulling Levers. Mark is an exceptional guitar player who definitely enables us to take the band’s sound far beyond anything we have done before. “

Full article here.

Cool. Well I guess that settles it.

When filmmakers who like Metallica aren’t rich

I stumbled across this short film recently… I’m not gonna lie, it’s not exactly Citizen Kane, but what I found fascinating was the intro music. It was weird and offbeat, yet very familiar. It took me a while to realize it’s a ‘lawsuit-safe’ version of Metallica‘s ‘The Thing That Should Not Be.’

Then I noticed the character’s Metallica shirt, which means it’s not accidental. In fact, at one point in the film you can hear the original track being played on that CD player, which means they wrote/made the film with the song in mind, even used it, but then probably had to switch it for legal reasons.

Here, have a listen:

Fans of Conan may know the bit he does where his band plays a famous song differently, to ‘avoid legal action.’ That is, of course, meant to be a joke. But it actually does happen, even on major TV shows… When you don’t have the rights (or the money to buy the rights) of a certain song, you either find a band who will cover it for you using slightly different notes, or if the song is famous enough, you might actually find that ‘lawsuit-proof’ cover already, you just have to buy it. Soundtrack sites list these songs as “In the style of Metallica” or something similar.

But this does raise an interesting point… Why don’t labels allow their music to be used in non-profit work? I understand that a movie or a TV show makes a lot of money, thus it’s only fair to pay for the music. I also understand your song is your property, so I’m not saying everyone should just distribute their music for free… I’m just saying, if I was in a band, I’d have no problem with student films or YouTube clips using my music. As long as it’s not making a profit, who cares? If anything, fans of that short film might actually check out more of my music.

I understand trying to fight piracy, but I don’t understand discouraging people from using your music if they’re doing it just for the sake of the art. Back to the short film above, I’m willing to bet the filmmaker had Metallica’s song in mind the whole time, but had to change it for festivals and other events. It’s a bit sad when the song that inspires you can’t be used unless you can fork out the big bucks.

Silly me, trying to understand labels and their greed.

New band alert: King Carnage

Patrick Brown (on the right) of Trillion Red has a new project. It’s called King Carnage and Patrick teamed up with Sasha Horn of Novembers Doom.

The project is described as ‘Aggressive New Heavy Crust Death’ which sounds a bit like a metal pizza topping, if you ask me.

Apparently material is being written as we speak, and the record itself will probably come out next year. I guess if you’re a fan of Trillion Red or Novembers Doom, this will excite you. If you’re like me, and none of these names ring any bells, then I guess I’ve just wasted a few minutes of your life — which is awesome!

In some unrelated news, I just deep fried some baloney the other day… I mean, it’s not bad, but it does have a weird taste. Maybe I should stick to just regular chicken or something.

Funny Mötley Crüe bassist is funny

Whenever Nikki Sixx talks about ‘being heavy,’ I always assume he’s talking about his weight gain, followed by some bullshit excuse of how he got fat for a role. I guess I’m wrong this time, cause he’s actually talking about heavy music… Mötley Crüe and heavy music, now that’s something I’d pay good money not to see.

“My idea for a record is… We can’t depend upon radio or anything else to sell records, so I think we should depend upon what really juices us, and for me right now, I would love to make an extremely heavy, non-commercial record — more like a Shout At The Devil type of a record.“

Watch full interview after the jump.

Oh yeah, cause Shout At The Devil was an amazingly heavy album. God forbid should you return to such death metal roots.

So yeah, Nikki, we appreciate your passion for heavy music (or rather, trying to make heavy music), but the only thing heavy related to you was when your weight crushed that fan whose head you jumped on.

Metallica + Lou Reed = Lulu

Blabbermouth has more info on the Lou Reed/Metallica collaborations, and if you thought the project seemed pointless until now, wait till you hear this.

Apparently it’s called Lulu, which is inspired by some plays from a German expressionist writer. I’ll be honest, I didn’t read the whole thing because my interest in this is zero. But they have 10 songs together and as we told you earlier, it will be released on October 31 everywhere and a day later in the U.S.

I’m not gonna lie, I will check it out and probably review it, but Metallica and German plays seem like an odd couple. It’s probably more of a LOLLOL than a Lulu, am I right? High five! But yeah, I guess we’ll see soon enough.

In the meantime, I got my HD porn here to keep me busy, so wish me luck.

[ photo credit: Metallica.com ]