Sebastian Bach and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Corey Glover and, to a definitely lesser extent, Paul Stanley have all had some success doing theatrical musicals, be it on Broadway or elsewhere; now Dee Snider wants in on that action, and has joined the cast of Rock of Ages, the hit Broadway jukebox musical that incorporates 80′s music that is still remembered fondly by the bridge and tunnel crowd — e.g., Poison, Journey, etc. He’ll be in the show for eleven weeks, from October 11 through December 24.

And why not? Snider’s vocal talents were never on the level of guys like Glover and Bach, but live videos that I just watched on YouTube (like the one above) tell me that his voice is still in surprisingly good shape. Plus, he already dresses like Liza Manelli, so he’ll fit right in on The Great White Way.

And it’s a genius stroke on the part of the producers; the people who wanna see this show are definitely gonna know who Snider is, and be all the happier to buy a ticket to see him. It makes you wonder why no one thought of this sooner, or if anyone besides Snider was ever approached to be in the show.

Also, if Snider’s eight-shows-a-week (!) commitment to Rock in any way slows the production of Strangeland 2, than it can only be a good thing.

Meanwhile, it was just about a year ago that a Rock of Ages movie adaptation was announced, to be directed by Adam Shankman, the man behind such Cannes Film Festival Palme D’Or winners as Cheaper by the Dozen 2. But there’s been no news of that project since, so it’s either dead or stuck in development hell. Either way, the human race wins… for now.

-AR

In case there was any doubt, Living Colour are still one of the coolest bands on the planet.

Shortly before they were set to take the stage for a sold-out show in New Hampshire on Sunday night, they realized that vocalist Corey Glover had laryngitis, and couldn’t risk using his voice, lest he do serious damage and endanger the group’s upcoming European tour.

At this point, most bands probably would have cancelled, even if the venue was already full. But not Living Colour: according to Union Leader, they took the stage anyway, playing as a three-piece, and — apparently as a joke — invited fans to come up on stage and take Glover’s spot.

And guess what? Three fans — Nick David, Charles Davis and Dan Swanson — took them up on their offer:

“I’ve never heard of anything like it, not in my experience. It was like an open mic night, only with Living Colour as your backup musicians,” said [venue owner Scott] Hayward.

You may recall that Machine Head did something similar back in February; as in that instance, I’m sure Living Colour made these dudes’ lives. Hell, I can’t sing worth a shit, but I know all the words to every LC song and I probably would have jumped on stage given half a chance.

Here’s video of LC doing “Love Rears Its Ugly Head” with Nick David on vocals. He’s no Corey Glover, but then, who is?

Living Colour’s latest, The Chair in the Doorway, is out now on Megaforce.

-AR

Photo by Greg Aiello

On Friday night, Vince and I saw Living Colour live for what I think must have been the seventh or maybe eighth time. And it’s a testament to the abilities of this band that, in a day and age when so many groups are seemingly just going through the motions, we’ve really never seen the same Living Colour show twice. These dudes just seem to come from another time and place – an era when a live performance wasn’t about doing a note-for-note recreation of your albums so much as it was about creating a unique experience for the audience. In that regard, Living Colour still delivers in spades.

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Living Colour performing their new single,”Behind the Sun,” on WYNC’s Soundcheck this past Friday.

Getting to spend nearly an hour on the phone with Vernon Reid was another huge fanboy moment in my life. The band’s debut album, Vivid, was one the first cassettes (!) I ever purchased on my own, making Living Colour one of the first bands I ever listened to that weren’t introduced to me by my parents. Today, more than twenty years later, the band is releasing their fifth studio album, The Chair in the Doorway (Megaforce). The fact that it’s no less powerful or brilliant than Vivid made talking to Reid even more exciting, because my love of the music he and his band make isn’t at all rooted in nostalgia (read my review of the record here).

As you’ll see from the following transcript of our chat, Reid doesn’t exactly think in linear terms. There were definitely moments when I had thoughts such as “Why is he talking about Pokemon?”, for example. But he always comes back around to his original point, leading to many “Oooooohhhhh! I get it now!” moments in the conversation. And given the dude’s music, that makes perfect sense: while Living Colour is ostensibly a traditionalist hard rock band, they’re still constantly and thinking outside the box and trying to navigate unexplored terrain.

After the jump, check out Reid’s thoughts on the writing and recording of The Chair in the Doorway, the meaning of that album’s title, the joys of interacting with fans through the net, and more.

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On Thursday night Vince and I got to go see Living Colour perform their soon-to-be-released new album, The Chair in the Doorway, in its entirety, for an audience of maybe fifty people in a small rehearsal space in Brooklyn.

Needless to say, it was friggin’ awesome.

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I’m auto-setting this post to go up at 11:30 am, because I will not actually be in front of a computer at 11:30 am – I will be doing a phoner with Vernon Reid. Rarely do I get nervous about conducting interviews, but this is definitely one of those times when I’m right on the verge of just having a total fanboy moment.

A lot of my man-crush on Reid has to do with seeing Living Colour live. When this band wants to decimate a room, they will decimate it. You’re talking about four dudes who, against all odds, are still as energetic on-stage now as they were two decades ago, and who understand the concept that a concert can, and should, be more than just playing note-for-note renditions of their songs. I hesitate to call Living Colour a “jam band” because I don’t want you to get the impression that they’re Phish or whatever, but they do a lot of jamming on-stage, and because they’re all so incredibly, ridiculously, almost unfairly-to-other-bands talented, it’s always just as invigorating as watching them rip in to “Cult of Personality” or “Love Rears its Ugly Head.”

So. There’s a new LC album, The Chair in the Doorway, coming out September 15 on Megaforce. And a new LC album means a new LC tour.

I implore you – if you’ve never seen these cats live before, you must must must go. It really is just a mind-blowing experience. Seriously: they’re doing two shows here in NYC, and Vince and I fully plan to go to both of them. They’re that good.

Dates after the jump.

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Living Colour are streaming a new song, “Behind the Sun,” on their MySpace page. It’s our first sample of the new music that will appear on their forthcoming The Chair in the Doorway, which comes out September 15.

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In a press release announcing that Living Colour lead vocalist Corey Glover will take part in a public vocal performance workshop in New Jersey in November, this tidbit was also mentioned as an afterthought:

Corey is currently working on the new Living Colour album as well as writing and recording solo material for himself and his band Vice. Corey is also about to go out with the national tour of “Jesus Christ Superstar” (also starring Ted Neely — the”original” Jesus — in the title role) as “Judas”.

New Living Colour album?? This is the first we’ve heard of it, which would be the first since 2003′s underrated Collideøscope. We were aware of the release of a live DVD this past spring, as well as Corey’s involvement with Jesus Christ Superstar, but we haven’t heard anything about a new Living Colour disc. The band’s official website, official MySpace page, Wikipedia entry, and a slew of fan pages are all mum on the matter. Furthermore, the label that released Collideøscope is the now defunct label arm of Sanctuary, meaning the band is without a label home. If anyone has inside info, please share it with us by emailing news [at] metalsucks.net.

-VN