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The line-up for this year’s Mayhem Fest wasn’t s’posedta be announced ’til tomorrow, but Blabbermouth has posted it so I guess it’s go time. There are supposed to be more bands announced — I know of at least one group who are definitely doing this tour and aren’t on this list — but for now, here are the bands playing, and my thoughts on those bands (UPDATED with tour dates):
Hey, remember a couple of weeks ago when Schmucky Erna from Godsuck called Scott Stapp from Suck* a “faggot,” and then called a guy who likes Stapp’s band a “faggot?” Well, he’s apologized. Sort of. But not really.
Here’s the first part of the apology:
“I would like to send my sincerest apologies to the members of Creed, Scott Stapp and any of our fans that I may have offended for an insulting and disrespectful comment I had made towards Scott Stapp and Creed at a show Godsmack recently played in Connecticut at Mohegan Sun. I have no excuses whatsoever.”
Okay, that’s not the best apology ever, but at least it’s on-topic. Maybe add a comment about you realize now that only children use slurs against homosexuals as an insult, and we can put all this nonsense behind us, right?
Except that’s not what Erna does in the next part of his apology. Instead, he shifts the blame back to Scott Stapp:
Seriously, if you haven’t read Vince’s epic story about how MetalSucks Maniac “whiskey” won last week’s last week’s photo caption contest, you need to go read it now. It’s pretty amazing. Whiskey’s mom even left a comment! We like to think of MetalSucks as something the whole fucking family can enjoy together, so that warmed the cockles of our collective heart.
Here’s some other fun stuff that happened this week:
Next week is CMJ here in New York! If you’re in the area and looking for some awesome metal, check out our handy guide to all the festivities — including not one but TWO showcases sponsored by MetalSucks. We’re not gonna lie — we are going to be very hungover and tired next week. But that just means we’ll be crankier than usual. We’ll still be here with lots of debuts, interviews, and other assorted nonsense. Bring your mom! It’ll be fun.
-AR
It feels wrong to root for someone at the Special Olympics; I mean, all the kids are trying so hard, so no matter who the victor is, everybody wins, y’know? And that kind of how I feel about Sully Erna going out of his way to insult Scott Stapp, and people who like Creed. I appreciate the effort, but I can’t take a side.
So. Blabbermouth, correctly assessing the intelligence and vocabulary skills of your average Godsmack and/or Creed fan, explains that Erna “used a derogatory term for a homosexual male to describe Creed singer Scott Stapp” during a concert at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut this past weekend. (Actually, “faggot” might be that rare multi-syllabic word that Godsmack and Creed fans all know, but I appreciate Blabbermouth’s efforts to keep the playing field even.) Apparently, Erna wanted all the fans to mosh during the band’s final song, and I guess for some reason he decided referencing Creed was the best way to motivate the crowd, telling them that if they didn’t make a big enough ruckus, he would tell subsequent audiences who came to the tour “that Mohegan Sun had a bunch of fucking dead-ass pussies on the fucking floor and maybe you should be going to see a Creed show or some shit like that.” Then, spotting a fan who I guess likes Godsmack AND Creed (holy shit am I glad I’m not friends what that guy), Erna taunted him, “You’re flipping me off? What, you like Creed? You like Scott Stapp? He’s a faggot. Faggot.”
I could say that Alice in Chains’ Unplugged album is my favorite Unplugged album, but that wouldn’t be saying much. Higher praise comes from a declaration just as truthful: It’s one my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, live albums of all time, and possibly the only example of a live album I actually listen to more frequently than the band’s studio catalog. That’s not a knock on AiC’s studio albums, which are obviously brilliant; but their Unplugged performance is painfully beautiful and haunting, and made even more so by the fact that it was the last time Staley performed before he passed away. An Alice in Chains fan can ask for no greater farewell.
And I’d wager that Sully Erna agrees with me. Every time I write about how badly Godsuck wanna be Alice in Chains, some smart-ass defender of awful music comes around and argues that Erna and company sound nothing like AiC, despite the fact that Erna’s moose rock vocals obviously owe a huge debt to Staley, and that “Godsmack” is the title of an AiC song, and that, oh yeah, Godsuck started out as an AiC cover band. So, clearly, my comparison is completely wrong-headed and unfounded.
In all fairness, the Erna solo track in the below video, “Sinner’s Prayer,” sounds nothing like Alice in Chains; instead it just sounds pretentious and self-important. (Are these idiots literally singing the phrase “mumbo jumbo?” This feels like the gang from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia trying to compete in an African folk song competition. Not helping is that there isn’t a single minority face on that stage.) But the set seems so clearly modled on the one AiC used for Unplugged that it’s hard for me to believe it’s just a coincidence — I mean, even the lighting scheme is the same. The only discernable difference is that Erna’s set has twinkly lights in addition to all the candles. If you told me that Erna was deliberately trying to duplicate some of the Alice Unplugged magic, I would not be at all surprised.
Erna’s solo album is called blah blah blah and is blah blah blah who cares.
And here’s some of Alice in Chains’ Unplugged to wash the bad taste out of your mouth:
One of New Year’s resolutions, next to start exercising (actually doing that one) and get Sacha the Death Metal Puppy a trainer so he stops terrorizing the Mansion (don’t seem to be actually doing that one), was not to write about the new Godsuck album. For all of you who seem to enjoy making fun of Limp Bizkit and Korn as much as we do, there’s all a contingent of you who want us to spend more time writing about good bands and less time smack talkin’ the bad, so I thought I’d give that a shot; also, I don’t mind making sacrifices for you, our loyal readers, but I really can’t see myself laying on my death bed thinking “Man, I wish I’d heard the new Godsuck song in 2010 at least once.”
But now there’s this rumor that Godsuck’s new single, “Cryin’ Like a Bitch,” is actually about Nikki Sixx. So of course, I had to investigate.
Let’s say you’re Sully Erna. You’re the lead singer of a God awful band but you basically won the lottery, since there are enough ree-rees in the world to buy your music and make you a gajillionaire. How do you celebrate? Dineyland? Hookers n’ blow? How about you pull a Vince Neil?
So. Erna has reached a settlement with a 27 year old girl, Lindsay Taylor, and her parents, Elaine and Jeffrey, following a 2007 car accident that left Taylor with “a severe traumatic brain injury.” Erna, who left the accident unscathed, rammed the Taylor’s with his Hummer, and while he’s blaming the crash on another driver and – I shit you not – the design of the road, that hasn’t stopped him from agreeing to pay $3.3 million dollars, plus thousands of dollars a month in additional fees. Here’s the complete breakdown of what Erna will pay, according to The Eagle-Tribune:
This is a story about a band I don’t care about getting involved in some drama with a band I haven’t cared about in at least fifteen years. But it’s still kinda amusing, so I’m posting it.
Thanks to MetalSucks reader TTQuick for forwarding me the following press release, which is, to put it mildly, absolutely hilarious:
“While his Godsmack pals are off doing Another Animal, Sully Erna is quietly working on a solo record. The singer tells Billboard.com, ‘It’s gonna be nothing like rock music. It’s gonna be very Native American tribal rhythms mixed with these Middle Eastern bluesy kind of vocals.’”
I have three problems with the above paragraph:
I could lie and tell you I’ll never listen to the Sully Erna Experiment at all, but I probably will. So that I make fun of it on this site.
See? So much to look forward to in 2008!
-AR
