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Last week, Elise at Reign in Blonde wrote a piece entitled “TOP 5 SONGS I WOULD PROBABLY USE AS MY STRIPPER SONG.”
Improbably enough, this led to a stoned think-session where I came up with a list of the top five songs I would probably use as my own stripper song. ‘Cause I know you all wanna see me strip so badly.
Okay, here we go:
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.
That would be free. Duh.
“Behind the Sun,” which until now has been streaming only on the band’s MySpace page, is now avail for download at no cost whatsoever. Go here and scroll down the page to get the track. It is truly righteous.
“Behind the Sun” will appear on LC’s latest, The Chair in the Doorway, which drops September 15 on Megaforce.
-AR
Three cheers for lame broadcasting jokes!
Seriously, though: this cover art suggests all kind of interesting things about the theme of the album. Is the chair metaphorical? Is mass media itself the chair? Fascinating that the dude and the chair themselves are without color (or colour, as the case may be). Living Colour tend to write lyrics that go beyond the whole “woe is me” bellyaching thing, so you know there was some purpose and thought put into this beyond “Oh, that looks cool.”
The Chair in the Doorway comes out September 15 on Megaforce. I cannot fucking wait.
If you haven’t done so already, check out an excellent new track from the album, “Behind the Sun,” on LC’s MySpace page.
-AR
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.
Let’s cut the bullshit: there’s gonna be a new Living Colour album, The Chair in the Doorway, released September 15 on Megaforce Records.
A new Living Colour album is always good news, and this is now officially one of both mine and Vince’s most heavily anticipated albums of the year. Get very, very excited.
Here the band doing “Desperate People” off their debut album, Vivid.
Have I mentioned how much I FUCKING LOVE THIS BAND?!?!
-AR
Is Twitter the new Facebook (if Facebook was, in fact, the new MySpace)? MetalSucks isn’t gonna wait to find out, and has now officially joined 2008 by signing up for Twitter (follow us!). In case you’re over the age of 20 and not yet hip to Twitter, Twitter is a social networking site that’s basically just the “status update” section of Facebook with everything else stripped away. Users can update their profiles with short messages and links with quick updates about what they’re currently doing (140 characters or less), from a web interface or from their mobile phone. Musicians have begun dabbling in the world of Twitter, and, naturally, this provides loads of entertainment for us.
Aside from the obvious humor inherent in a bunch of br00tal metal dudes doing something that’s called a “Tweet,” some notable metal musicians are already ensconced in the world of Twitter. And what’s cool about it is that you know, at least until marketing department heads become hip to it, that you’re getting a direct link to the actual person. When Vernon Reid Tweets about the guy that designed his custom pedalboard, you know it’s him. When Fred Durst Tweets about a tattoo of Frankenstein he’s getting… uh, you know it’s him, for better or worse. Let’s look at what some notable quotables in the metal world are saying on Twitter:
Of the MetalSucks Mansion inhabitants only Gary Suarez was (reportedly) man enough to attend the shit-hot Dillinger Escape Plan ticket (w/ new drummer!) at The Studio room of NYC’s Webster Hall on Saturday night, part of a brief 3-date East Coast DEP jaunt. While I was happily sleeping off the sedative effects of a 10-course outdoor Snow BBQ (that brisket… holy fuck!!), the video warriors of Metal Injection snuck in a hand-held video camera and captured 5 songs, among them a cover of hometown heroes Living Colour’s now-classic “Cult of Personality.” Unlike previous DEP cover experiments that sailed right over the heads of Warped Tour attendees not even born by the time F.U.C.K. came out let alone 1984, the hipper and older NYC audience lapped that shit right out of Greg Puciato’s bodyglove. Watch as the band tears the house down and Ben Weinman rips through Vernon Reid’s metal-jazz-gasm solo like Vince Neil through a new pair of jeans.
-VN
Headbanger’s Blog tipped us to the fact that video of Living Colour’s entire November 1 show at the Paradiso in Amsterdam can now be streamed for free (below). It’s not nearly as cool as the experience of seeing Living Colour live, but in case you’ve never had that opportunity (or, more likely, wasted that opportunity), this is the second best thing.
Seriously, this band rules, and I can’t say enough good shit about them. Check it out… it’s good for your health.
-AR
The Phillies won the World Series, it’s Halloween, and we have a U.S. presidential election coming up in less than a week. But what’s happening in metal is obviously way more important:
Happy Halloween, mofos.
Seriously, I think I can safely speak for both Vince and myself when I say that Living Colour are one of our top five desert island bands of any genre. Everything about Living Colour rules. We’ve seen them live a bunch of times, and with one very notable exception, they’ve killed live each and every time. I’d bitch that they’re not an arena rock-level band when so many of their lesser peers are, but, honestly, I’m kinda happy that I can still go see them play smaller venues. Because Living Colour shows are like aural blowjobs.
The band has a new concert DVD coming out on November 11. Filmed in Paris, it’s titled – wait for it – The Paris Concert. Below, check out a clip of “Go Away,” which might be one of my favorite album openers of all time.
Fuck. Yes.
-AR
Rocklahoma, the three FIVE day hair metal festival in Pryor, Oklahoma, kicks off its second annual event tomorrow. Hard to believe it’s been a year since last year’s massively successful event, but it has, and this year’s lineup is even more extensive than the last.
Pretty much every hair band ever — both those still on the touring circuit and a bunch of recent reunions — are playing. This year’s headliners are Queensryche, Warrant, Triumph, Bret Michaels and Ratt. Even bands that were peripheral but related to the ’80s hair scene have joined in the party, such as Extreme, Living Colour, Jackyl and Armored Saint. There are also two sidestages with a smattering of lower-level national and regional bands, though the Rocklahoma website makes this info hard to find.
Apparrently 100,000 people attended last year’s event; this seems crazy to me, but I guess it speaks to this music’s longevity. New MetalSucks columnist Michael S. Robinson plans to write a piece about this topic later in the week.
Any of our readers going to Rocklahoma? I know at least one person who is SUPER psyched!
-VN
Last night I heard the “new” Vader album, XXV, for the first time. In case you’re not hip to this release, it’s the Polish death metal masters’ 25th anniversary album, and is basically a greatest hits compilation – except that all the songs have been re-recorded with the band’s current line-up. Which, naturally, means that late drummer Krzysztof “Doc” Raczkowski appears nowhere on the album (or, at least, not in the audio content – I still don’t have a copy of the DVD which will accompany the disc’s release).
Of course, Vader aren’t the first band to embark upon such an endeavor. Living Colour, Twisted Sister, and even The Sex Pistols have all re-recorded some of their old songs for purpose of being able to license them without having to share the wealth with their former record labels, which is a brutal, and brutally honest, reason to re-visit your old catalogue. Dave Mustaine re-recorded “A Tout Le Monde” as a duet with Cristina Scabbia just last year; Anthrax re-recorded a bunch of old Joey Belladonna tunes with John Bush for their Greater of Two Evils* collection; hell, Dimmu Borgir re-recorded their entire album Stormblast because they were so unhappy with the original, and as I understand it, it’s only by the grace of God that we don’t have Appetite for Destruction 2000, featuring Axl Rose’s “revamped” GN’R in place of the original (although a half of a re-recorded “Sweet Child O’Mine” does roll over the closing credits of the Adam Sandler vehicle Big Daddy).
What, one has to wonder, is the point of re-recording all the band’s old songs?
Anyone checked out Living Colour’s official website recently?
-AR
Living Colour is an awesome band, and all things considered I think history has shined quite favorably upon their legacy. But their sense of fashion in the early days was, well… interesting. This clip of them playing “Middle Man” at Poppark Rotterdam in 1988 begs the question; which member had the worst pants? Corey’s got some sort of stone-washed army fatigue thing going on, and though Muzz’s black tights may be the least offensiv, the fact that he’s wearing a cape keeps him in the running. And Vernon’s neon yellow pants — where do you even GET pants like that?
-VN
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Thanks to a semi-anonymous tipster / MetalSucks commenter close to the Living Colour camp, we’ve been made aware that the band has video of them performing “Cult of Persnality” from their recently released live DVD on their official MySpace page. One thing immediately apparent from the video — reposted below — is that Corey Glover can fucking SING his balls off (no disrespect to the other band members, all of whom are tremendously talented as well). He nails every note with barely any effort; and it’s the last song of the night to boot!
Compare this to a clip of Massachusetts metalcore outfit All That Remains performing the song “Six” which is also from a live DVD, which came out last week. Frontman Phil Labonte growls through the screaming parts just fine (as if this requires massive talent), but when he gets to the singing parts… oy vey. Dude should take a lesson from Corey Glover, or else undergo a reverse-Michael Jackson operation to make himself black.
“Cult of Personality” below, and All That Remains’ “Six” after the jump:
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According to a recent post on Living Colour’s official MySpace blog, Living Colour are the latest to follow the Twisted Sister model of re-recording their old hits for licensing purposes. Sure, Guitar Hero III publisher Activision could’ve licensed the tune from LC’s old label Sony, who presumably owns the master recording of “Cult” — but they’d have to pay a fortune, and the band likely wouldn’t see much of it. Instead, why not just have the band re-record the tune and pay them directly? Activision spends less, and the band gets more; everyone wins (except Sony).
Ed Stasium produced the new version of the track (Ron Saint Germain produced the original), which includes a typically head-dizzying number of notes per second in a brand new Vernon Reid solo. Please note that Axl and I will be unable to fill our blog-posting duties for a week while we attempt to master the solo on the “Expert” level.
Listen to the new version of “Cult of Personality” on Living Colour’s MySpace page.
-VN
Apparently someone in the Living Colour camp reads MetalSucks. A couple of hours after we posted that an unofficial news piece reported the band was writing for a new album, a commenter by the name of “LC” commented simply “They are writing!” with a link to the band’s official MySpace. The band’s MySpace had a new blog entry posted just a few minutes prior, reading:
(a little note from Dennis from the Living Colour yahoo group : Sacred Ground)
Bal : Speaking of which: any chance of a record within say six months?
Dennis : “… To answer your question; I don’t think there’ll be be a record in six months… the writing’s underway (it’s going well), Corey will be doing JCS [Ed: the Jesus Christ Superstar production which singer Corey Glover has been starring in] again starting Dec., I think…”
Ye ask and ye shall receive. So while a new LC album seems a ways off, it’s in the works. Let’s hope for a 2008 release.
-VN
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
