Guys, I have some really, really surprising, and upsetting, news to share. Maybe you should sit down for this one, ’cause it might be kinda hard to hear. But it’s gonna be okay. We’ll get through this together. I promise. Alright?

Are you sitting down? Okay. Good. Here we go.

Courtney Love has not been a very good mother to her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain.

Okay. It’s okay. I know it’s a shock. You can go ahead and cry if you need to.

See, in 2009, Frances Bean filed a restraining order against Courtney — yes, a a restraining order against her own mother. And, what’s worse, that restraining order not only restricted Love from coming near Frances Bean, but also from coming near Frances Bean’s grandmother or aunt (and for those of you playing along at home, yes, those are the same women whose finances Courtney was oh-so-concerned about back in November, when she accused Dave Grohl of being a greedy asshole who was taking money away from Kurt Cobain’s family), and, oh yeah, also from coming near the family dog. And why did the dog need protection? Well, according to newly released court documents:

Click to read more…

Here are two interesting bits of news outta Hollywood that you, as fans of heavy music, might find interesting:

• Dave Grohl is an executive producer on an in-development new half-hour comedy series for the FX network. The show, which is not currently titled, was created by, and will star, the comedia Dana Gould. According to Deadline, the series “centers on a rock band on the verge of mega-stardom who finds itself on the verge of breaking up and is forced to seek professional help in a last-ditch effort to stay together. Unfortunately, they end up with a misanthropic couple’s therapist from Agoura on the brink of divorce.” Which, uh, gee, kinda sounds like maybe the infamous Phil Towle was the inspiration for the show? In any case, Dana Gould is fucking hilarious, so I’m excited to see how this turns out.
• The Devil’s Knot, the non-documentary feature film about The West Memphis Three which is currently being put together by writer/director Atom Egoyan, has added Oscar winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, those shitty movies where Renée Zellweger worries that she may be too fat to find a man) to its cast. Also according to Deadline, “Firth will play Ron Lax, a private investigator who was the first pro bono supporter of the defendents as they headed to trial in 1993.” He joins the previously cast Reese Witherspoon, who also has an Academy Award on her mantle. I gotta say, this is shaping up to be a movie which, good or bad, is going to get a LOT of attention. Like, Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth? Holy shit, that’s a movie my mom would go see. And I know I’ve said this before, but that’s a good thing — the more people who know about The West Memphis Three’s ordeal, the more likely it is that no asshole will ever try to pull that shit again.

All signs pointed towards a new Probot record this year, whatwith recent news of Dave Grohl collaborating with such metal luminaries as Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy and Warren DeMartini and Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, but now it appears that’s not the case.

Taylor recently gave an interview to Artisan News Service at Zakk Wylde’s Celebrity Roast [above, via Metal Injection] in which he revealed that Grohl is working on a documentary about Sound City Studios — the legendary California studios where Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Slipknot and many others recorded groundbreaking albums — and he’s recording some kind of companion project on the original Sound City mixing console (now housed elsewhere) to go along with it.

It’s not quite a new Probot record but it still sounds pretty cool, yeah? The Grohl + Ratt combo in particular turns me on.

-VN

First came the news blip earlier this month that Dave Grohl was working on a new “project” with Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy and guitarist Warren “Tasty McTasterson” DeMartini. And now Noisecreep is reporting that Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor tweeted his excitement about having recently wrapped up a recording with Grohl, too.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on you… or something? My point being: the collabo with Ratt could’ve been anything, but the second announcement of Grohl teaming up with a prominent metal musician(s) this month would seem to indicate he’s working on something big, something metal. As the great Euclid deduced, a line can be drawn from just two known points, and this straight line points squarely at Probot.

Of course it’s entirely possible that Grohl is working on something else entirely. But I’m calling it right now: Probot’s second album! Having just wrapped up a massive Foo Fighters touring cycle, the timing would be perfect.

-VN

It’s almost as if Dave Grohl isn’t confident in his perennial “Coolest Rockstar on Earth” status and needs to keep finding ways to prove his coolness over and over again. Fortunately, he never fails.

Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy spilled the beans via his Twitter account yesterday that he and Ratt guitarist Warren DeMartini would be working with Sir Grohlness, then later clarified that’s it’a “Grohl song idea open to Ratt madness” for some kind of new project.Could this be the resurrection of Grohl’s metal side project Probot? Let’s hope! But either way, I’m completely bonered about the posibility of a Grohl + Ratt collabo; with some of the best rock songwriters of the ’80s and ’90s (and ’00s and ’10s!) working together, it’s all but assured of being fan-fucking-tastic.

In other Ratt-related news, check out a cover of “Round and Round” by Ryan Adams after the break:

Click to read more…

via Badass Digest

Dj Slashba — noun – 1. A temp. 2.  A fill-in, placeholder. 3. A pretender to the throne. 4. Someone who keeps an unlit cigarette dangling from lips. 5. A retard.

Props to our friend Nick for teaching us a new term.

Here’s some shit we did this week:

• We got a tour of the live rig used by Obscura’s Christian Muenzner.
• We debuted new music by Czar, and, thanks to our pals at Decibel, Agoraphobic Nosebleed.
• We spoke to Nader Sadek.
• We checked out the latest releases from Locrian, The Wounded Kings, and Astomatous.
• We examined Slayer’s tour rider.
• We wondered if this commercial will really help sell lingerie or not.
• We over-thought the latest ramblings of Courtney Love.
• We contemplated the most over-used words in extreme metal writing.
• We considered the music of Fallujah.
• By special request, Sergeant D. reviewed Carnifex’s Until I Feel Nothing.

Next week we have some very cool interviews, some very cool music premieres, and, oh yeah, we gorge ourselves on Turkey and celebrate ridding ourselves of that pesky little Native American nuisance. See ya then.

-AR

Yesterday, we saw video of Courtney Love flying off the handle when a fan held up a Kurt Cobain t-shirt during a recent performance; amongst other topics, her subsequent rant honed in on Dave Grohl, who, she seemed to claim, had been fired from Nirvana by Cobain. Later, as part of a kind-of-new-but-really-the-same rant, she said that “I don’t care what you listen to at home. But a guy takes money off my kid’s table… fuck him!” I wasn’t really clear what the hell she meant at the time, but a MetalSucks commenter named Chris asserted that “she was claiming Grohl is the one taking money off her kid’s table, which makes sense given the history of those two arguing over royalties and rights and whatnot.”

And bravo to Chris for apparently being fluent in Courtney, ’cause his assessment of the situation was absolutely correct. The PRP posted the below post-show interview with Love, in which she clarifies why she’s so pissed at Grohl. To hear her tell it, Grohl didn’t write any of Nirvana’s music (including the “drum riff” from “Smells Like Teen Spirit”), makes a shit ton of money from the Foo Fighters (which is not hard to believe) and is consequently not hurting for money (which is also not hard to believe) — and yet he continues to own a piece of Nirvana, and recently purchased an Aston Martin with his Nirvana, Inc. credit card (thus he is “taking money off my kid’s table”) while Cobain’s mother and sister suffer from poverty. Check it out below, and get my thoughts after the jump:

Click to read more…

Wowee wow wow wow. A reader calling himself Geddy Lee — whom I’m reasonably certain is not the dude from Rush — just e-mailed us the above clip of Courtney Love going apeshit at this past weekend’s SWU festival in Brazil. The cause of her outbreak is that someone in the crowd was holding up a photo of Kurt Cobain, at which point Courtney pretty much loses it and says:

“I don’t need to see a picture of Kurt, asshole, and I’m gonna have you fucking removed if you keep throwing that up. I’m not Kurt. I have to live with his fucking shit and his ghost and his kid every day. Throwing that up is stupid and rude, and I’m gonna beat the fuck out of you if you do it again. Y’know what? You weren’t fucking married to him, I fucking was. You didn’t fucking get kicked out of a band by him like Dave, he did. Go see the fucking Foo Fighters and do that shit.”

Then she storms off the stage with a final flip of the bird, and then eventually she comes back and adds, “I don’t care what you listen to at home. But a guy takes money off my kid’s table… fuck him!”

Now, I have a lot of thoughts on this matter, so I’m kinda just gonna ramble here. Please accept my most humble apologies.

Click to read more…

…Max Cavalera recently revealed during a radio interview (video above) that he’s working on his autobiography with British journalist Joel McIver, who has previously penned such metal-themed tomes as The Bloody Reign of Slayer and Justice for All: The Truth about Metallica. The forward will apparently be written by Dave Grohl, who collaborated with Cavalera as part of his Probot project back in ’04.

Click to read more…

Before we went to see them this past Monday night, Vince and I had already heard that the Foo Fighters were gonna be backing the legendary Roger Waters on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as part of “Pink Floyd Week.” So when the band suddenly broke into a rendition of “In the Flesh?” from The Wall towards the end of their show, we lept to our feet with excitement, ’cause we thought that maybe, just maybe, they were about to bring Mr. Waters himself out on stage to perform.

Alas, no such luck. Luckily, though, the performance they did do with Waters for Fallon is now online, and you can check it out below. Vince asked, “How does Grohl get to perform with every single one of his heroes?” But I suspect he already knew the answer: “Because he is fucking awesome.”

And while we’re on the topic of Grohl and the Foos, I mentioned earlier this week that the band did, indeed, have a very special guest at the show — Grohl’s old Nirvana bandmate, Krist Novoselic, who played the accordian for FF’s “These Days.” You can enjoy some fan-filmed footage of that performance after the jump!

Click to read more…

One of the highlights of yesterday evening’s aforementioned Foo Fighters show was a guest appearance by Dave Grohl’s former Nirvana bandmate, Krist Novoselic*, on the tune “These Days” from the Foos’ most recent offering, Wasting Light. Novoselic’s cameo was meant to help celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the release of Nevermind, which took place this past Saturday, and even though Novoselic actually played accordian (!), not bass, on the song, it was still a fun way to commemorate the event.

Also a fun way to commemorate the event: The Dillinger Escape Plan’s cover of “Territorial Pissings” from that seminal release. It’s part of a Kerrang!‘s Nevermind tribute, which, like that magazine’s Master of Puppets anniversary album in ’06 or Metal Hammer’s more recent ode to the Black Album, recreates the entire record, with a different band covering each song. Only in the case of the Nevermind thinger, DEP is the only group that I both a) am familiar with and b) am a fan of. So you can basically listen to this and ignore the rest.

The cover doesn’t take many liberties with the original, but such a ferocious, punk-y song is still extremely well-suited for Dillinger’s particular talents. Also, they took out that wobbly Buffalo Springfield bit at the beginning, which always irritated me on the original recording for some reason.

-AR

*It should go without saying that the name following the phrase “a guest appearance by Dave Grohl’s former Nirvana bandmate” would be Krist Novoselic. I mean, it’s not like they were gonna bring out the remains of Kurt Cobain and parade him around for our amusement, y’know?

[via The PRP]

In case you somehow still doubt that Dave Grohl rules…

Apparently the Westboro County Church, that bastion of all that is right in the world, decided to protest outside of a recent Foo Fighters concert in Kansas City, because, uh… I guess the Foo Fighters have a particularly large homosexual audience? I’m not saying that’s the case, I just can’t for the life of me figure out what made the Foo Fighters a special target for these lovable ragamuffins.

ANYWAY, the Foo Fighters decided that the best way to respond to the protest was to… well, just watch…

I wann give Dave Grohl a hug. Can someone please arrange that? I’ll be quick, I promise. Just one big bear hug and I’m done.

You can also check out a news report on this blessed event here.

-AR

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed us about this!

Remember a couple of years back, when we saw that video of Machine Head’s Robb Flynn rocking out at a Metallica concert while watching from the floor and not the VIP section or the side of the stage or wherever? Well, if the below footage of Dave Grohl doing likewise at a Soundgarden reunion show in Los Angeles this past July isn’t quite as cool, it’s really only because at no point does Grohl grab the camera and sing into it the way Flynn did.

It’s still pretty freakin’ awesome, though. Not only does Grohl clearly have legit love for the band, but it’s not even like he’s standing in the back — he’s right up front, getting crushed by all the other Soundgarden nerds. Seriously, I don’t know how you could not love this dude.

-AR

Thanks: Stefan Smiljanoski 

(click to watch the video)

We’ve got nothing for love but Dave Grohl ’round here. Grohl’s metal cred needs no introduction at this point, and the man can seemingly do no wrong even with his Foo Fighters day job; the Foo Fighters just straight up rock, and we’re sick of having to make excuses for liking them. No, the Foos aren’t metal, but they are damn good, and they’ve been remarkably consistent in writing excellent songs throughout the many years they’ve been a band. They also deliver hilarious videos time and time again, and the video trailer they just released for their upcoming North American arena (!) tour is no different.

The video stars all four Foos as their trucker alter-egos stopping for hot showers at a truck stop. Homo-erotic hilarity ensues. I’m not sure if dude ass-cheeks are technically NSFW, but consider yourself warned! This video is up close and intimate.

Watch the video at the Foo Fighters’ tour website or by clicking the screen cap above. You can bet yer hot buns Axl and I will be rocking out at the upcoming Meadowlands, NJ date — we’re not too tr00 for the Foo.

-VN

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (not really at all) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

We haven’t done one one of these all summer, but we came up with a fun one for this week:

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME AND PLAY ANY METAL BAND/MUSICIAN SOME OF THEIR MUSIC AND/OR SHOW THEM PHOTOS/VIDEOS OF THEMSELVES FROM THEIR FUTURE (OUR PRESENT), WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

Click to read more…

So, to review the ways in bass players let us down this week:

• Coheed and Cambria’s Michael Todd robbed a pharmacy.
• Nick Oliveri from Queens of the Stone Age/Kyuss held his girlfriend hostage in a four-hour standoff with a S.W.A.T. team.
• Jeroen Paul Thessling quit Obscura.

Dave Grohl has been known time and again to be part of the endangered species known as “The Cool Rockstar.” Dude is a household name and could probably buy and sell this website and everyone who reads it ten times over, but time and again he manages to convey one simple idea — that he is awesome.

Well, he’s done it again.

And now I’m just that much more excited to see Grohl and his Foo Fighters live in September. HIGH-FIVES!

-AR

Am I high or is it weird that in 2011 nobody touts the first two Skid Row records as mega-masterpieces? What has undermined lasting renown? Is it that those jams are too heavy for radio listeners and not aggro enough for metal fans? Did major line-up changes doom them to be written off (except for the three enduring singles)? Is it Sebastian Bach’s fault? Is the rest of the band too stubborn and unambitious? Really, has there been a more compelling, awesome, and fearless heavy rock record since? Help me figure this out?

To me, it’s not a problem per se that one-time Skid Row vocalist Sebastian Bach is a huge jackass. One, his all-time top ten singing chops justify extreme arrogance and render decency unnecessary; two, reality TV and morning radio has immunized us all to dunderheads of Bach’s type. So fans are over it, right? Yet it’s still possible that Bach’s exhausting bimbo-ism has quieted the global and unanimous mega-acclaim that Skid Row deserves. How?

Think about it: Is it not Bach-related acrimony among the members of Skid Row that hamstrings their legacy-building? No reunion tours, no massive retrospectives, no anniversary celebrations. No documentaries, no tribute albums, no peer buzz. It’s probably Bach’s spaztardation that makes these things impossible. Click to read more…

Of course when you set out to make a list like, say, the one we’re doing right now, of The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, you are bound to piss a lot of people off — that just comes with the job.

But I always find it hilarious HOW those people get pissed off. For example, this week I saw a lot of complaints that the guitar players we’ve been selecting aren’t “modern.” And I can’t believe we have to fucking define the word “modern” for some of you idiots, but apparently we do. So:

So… which one of you jackasses would like to call up Alex Skolnick or Vernon Reid or Adam Jones and let them know they’re antiquated and obsolete? ‘Cause I saw Testament and Living Colour and Tool live just last year, and I would not want to make that call. Just because those dudes have been playing this game for awhile doesn’t mean their best days are behind them.

My point simply being: I don’t care if you hate our choices. That’s fine. But at least try to hate our choices based on an argument that makes sense, y’know?

And on that note, here are other ways we entertained ourselves this week:

• We debuted new music from A Pale Horse Named Death and Oakhelm.
• We checked out the latest releases from From Exile, Godstopper, and Cruachan.
• We wondered which is better, old music or new music?
• We philosophized about Google’s new cloud service.
• We fretted that metal may soon be blamed for terrorism.
• We got excited about The Faceless’ new demo.
• We bemoaned the current state of In Flames.
• We wept because Dave Grohl is not going to be on the new Mastodon album after all.
• We enjoyed a vegetarian cooking lesson from a dude in corpse paint.
• We questioned the logic of the new Avenged Sevenfold video.

Next week we unveil numbers fifteen through eleven on our guitar player list; the average age of those five musicians is thirty-one, whereas the average age of this week’s selections was forty-two. So maybe you can go back to being upset because you think they suck, not because you think they’re too old to be “modern.”

-AR

Well, this news is a real boner-killer.

Last week we got all excited because the above photo of Dave Grohl in the studio with Mastodon appeared online, and, of course, all of our minds went right to “DAVE GROHL IS GONNA MAKE AN APPEARANCE ON THE NEW MASTODON ALBUM!”

Alas, it’s not to be, says Rocksound.tv, who got official word from Camp Mastodon that “the Foo Fighters frontman popped into the studio to say hello – and not to record on the new album.”

So that blows.

Bitch and moan that everything doesn’t go exactly the way we want it to with us in the comments section.

-AR

[via The PRP]