What do you get when you take the two most talented dudes in Sevendust and put them in a brand new band? Call Me No One, a new project set to begin recording their debut this month and release it this spring. No disrespect to Lajon Witherspoon, who’s a great vocalist and performer, but I never got the impression he was too involved in writing Sevendust’s music. John Connelly does his fair share of writing in 7D, but the Sonny Mayo era stands as proof that he’s not nearly as dynamic a songwriter as Clint. As for bassist Vince Hornsby, well, dude makes the stage faces of anyone I’ve ever seen, but songwriting contributions = unknown. It’s not exactly a secret that Clint and Morgan are the talent axis of Sevendust.
After years of waiting, Dark New Day fans finally got to hear the band’s second record, Hail Mary, this past August, along with an equally impressive B-sides collection. For those of us that had waited patiently the release of these two albums was heartily welcomed, but it also raised a number of questions: why’d it take so long, and why now? what went south with the record label? why do all of these songs sound so different?
There hasn’t been any press whatsoever surrounding Hail Mary‘s release — the band put it out quietly and independently through digital retailers (they’re on Amazon) — but bassist Corey Lowery, whose past bands also include Stuck Mojo and Stereomud, agreed to chat with me last week about all things Dark New Day. We also got to talking about Corey’s new band Eye Empire, an incredibly talented group who I cannot recommend enough to fans of Dark New Day and Sevendust.
Monday, January 10th, 2011 at 2:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
See what I did there?
ANYWAY, I’m sitting here listening to said new DevilDriver song (which is available for download here for the low low cost of giving up your e-mail address’ cherry) for the second time now, my thought is basically this: it’s a good song, and I wonder if anyone besides the DevilDriver faithful will care.
Monday, December 6th, 2010 at 4:30pm by Greg Weeks
So, I’m giving you guys an open invite to my place in Quincy, MA for tonight’s matchup between the Pats and the Jets. We’re playing cards, probably the re-release of NBA Jams, getting some Lynwood’s pizza, and enjoying ourselves. Don’t worry about finding my place; if I seepeople roaming my street with wings and team jerseys, then I’ll assume it’s because of this post and invite them on up.
Steelers-Ravens battled it out for first this week. More important than seeing who was going to be king of the AFC North was to see who was a better shower product. The Ravens’ Ray Lewis and his Old Spice body wash in one corner and the Steelers’ Troy Palmolive… Paramore… Pinkerton… whatever his name is, representing Head and Shoulders in the other. Polamalu takes this one just as he took the game. His late-in-the-game sack caused QB Joe Flacco to fumble, which, in turn, led to the game-winning touchdown. No worries though, Baltimore – you may have lost, but you did break Big Ben’s nose and nearly killed TE Heath Miller. Not too shabby.
Axl and I were listening to a couple of tracks from the new Sevendust record Cold Day Memory last night. The gist of our conversation was “It’s amazing how much of a difference one person can make in the music of this band.” That person, of course, would be Clint Lowery, and his presence — absent for the past three albums — can be felt from the very first note. What Clint adds to the songwriting and production table has been pretty well-documented but he’s also an extremely talented vocalist, and his re-introduction to Sevendust makes the vocals on the album a whole lot stronger, a return to that patented “three voice” sound. In this exclusive clip of the DVD that accompanies Cold Day Memory we get a look into the vocal recording process of all three men who sing — Clint, drummer Morgan Rose and lead vocalist Lajon Witherspoon — as well as interviews with all of the band members.
Check out the interview I did with Clint a few weeks ago about his role in the recording and production process of Cold Day Memory. And of course, pick the album up; it just came out yesterday.
Though Clint Lowery rejoined Sevendust two years ago, the group’s new album Cold Day Memory — out April 20th — will be the first Sevendust record to feature his writing contributions since 2004′s Butch Walker-produced affair Seasons. Most folks agree that the last three Lowery-less Sevendust records seemed to be missing something, an idea that Lowery acknowledges in our brief chat, but Lowery couldn’t be happier to be back writing new music with his brothers again.
I recently called up Clint to talk about the new album, the writing process, any pressure that he may be feeling now that he’s back in the band, what’s changed since the last time, and what he and the band were trying to accomplish with the new record.
This live footage of Morgan Rose filling in for the injured Tommy Lee on drums with Motley Crue this past weekend is really entertaining. I mean, you get to see Vince Neil, who still can’t remember all the words to his own songs / gets winded after about two lines, and that in itself is always funny. And you get to see Mick Mars, who despite his status as the walking dead can still wail out those solos pretty well. But best of all, you get to see Morgan Rose, one of the greatest drummers on the planet in terms of pure, raw talent, rock through a set of songs he hadn’t heard in years for which he had zero time to prepare.
It seems that Tommy Lee burned his hand and couldn’t play. There’s video floating around of Tommy coming out on stage at this show and explaining the situation to the audience; as usual, he sounds like a total idiot. So the band flew out Sevendust’s Morgan Rose from Atlanta last minute, day of the fucking show, to fill in on drums. I know what you’re thinking… Motley songs ain’t too complicated drum-wise and they just play all the hits anyway. VRONG. This is the Dr. Feelgood tour in which the band plays the entire album start to finish, deep cuts and all, plus the usual smattering of greatest hits. Rose comes out and fucking nails it all. I love how in these clips you can see Nikki Sixx communicating with Rose about when the changes happen in the song, or when to end, or when to begin. THAT is fucking pure musicianship that can’t be taught. You either have it or you don’t. And Rose most certainly has it.
Check out “Same ol’ Situation” below and “Dr. Feelgood” after the jump.
As a part of goth metal OGs Type O Negative, drummer Johnny Kelley’s talents are often overshadowed by the low end sultriness and antics of bassist/frontman/nude model Peter Steele. But his graceful stickwork has been holding the band together since 1995′s October Rust, and the string of Type O albums that have come out since have stood shoulder to shoulder with the band’s prior material. Along with being Danzig’s drummer, Kelly plays in Seventh Void, a stoner/trad metal outfit with Type O Negative guitarist Kenny Hickey. The latter band released their debut on Vinnie Paul’s Big Vin Records in April. In an interview with MetalSucks, Kelly discusses Type O Negative’s future, working with Glenn Danzig, and his thoughts on modern drummers.
Several weeks ago marked a momentous occasion: metalGF’s first ever metal show. The show in question was Sevendust at Irving Plaza; I figured what better introduction to the world of metal shows than one of the best live bands on the planet, even if not the most brutal? She had lots of fun, methinks, and made some funny observations (among them a fascination with mosh-pit culture).
After the show, metalgf remarked on drummer Morgan Rose — whom I’d told her to pay attention to because, ya know, he’s awesome — “He’s jewish, right? He has such a familiar face.” And this is a question I’ve myself often wondered. After the jump we take a look at this burning question and examine the physical evidence.
