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Red Hot Chili Peppers Join Long List Of Bands That Almost Broke Up

Posted 6/27/11 11:18 am EST by in Breakups, red-hot-chili-peppers


flea

By Zachary Swickey

Flea, the rambunctious bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers has revealed through an interview with Spinner that he recently thought about quitting the band and leaving his tighty-whitey stage antics behind him.

He said he asked his compatriots for a two year sabbatical in order to regroup his thoughts. “We’ve been going really hard for a lot of years with small breaks here and there, but never a major break,” Flea said. “And I just felt like I wanted to take two years away just to really look and see if the band was something we should be doing.”

Flea attributes his friendship with lead singer Anthony Kiedis, which dates back to childhood, as an inspiration and big reason for his decision to continue making music. “I said, ‘Together let’s do this, let’s make this album, I love you, and let’s f**king rock.’ And as cliché as that might sound, I think for us as a band, and for he and I, both of us, we decided to do it.”

As most RHCP fans are already aware, the group plans on releasing their new album, I’m With You, on Aug. 30, their first with new ex-Warpaint guitarist Josh Klinghoffer – who replaces John Frusciante, who left the group in 2009.

The near-breakup experience of the Red Hot Chili Peppers seems to be a rite of passage that almost every band faces. Some almost breakup in between every album they create. Here are some more groups that claim they almost didn’t make it for a variety of different reasons. Read More...

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Happy Birthday, Corey Taylor!

Posted 12/8/10 2:00 pm EST by in Music


One of the best voices in metal officially becomes a year older today, as Corey Taylor (he of Slipknot and Stone Sour fame) celebrates his birthday on December 8. The multi-talented, sometimes-masked musician is now 37 years old, and he has come quite a long way from a childhood spent in Iowa.

After learning about rock music from his grandmother and graduating from Elvis licks to Black Sabbath riffage, Taylor helped form Stone Sour in 1992. The band put together some demo recordings and played a steady stream of gigs, but Taylor and bandmate Jim Root became more focused on a new project called Slipknot around 1997. Taylor put his own band on hiatus to focus on Slipknot, which ended up being a reasonable decision.

Though their sound was decidedly chaotic and wholly non-commercial, Slipknot quickly earned a reputation as an intense live act who were forging an entirely new sound in the metal arena. Their buzz caught the attention of record labels and producer Ross Robinson, who twiddled the knobs for the band's self-titled 1999 debut album. That record put the metal world on its ear, and by 2001 (when they released their sophomore effort Iowa to critical acclaim and commercial success), they were the most dominant force in heavy music.

Not unlike the Wu-Tang Clan, the members of Slipknot always took time out to step away from their main group and focus on personal projects. That lead Taylor back to Stone Sour, who put out their debut album in 2002 (a full decade after they initially formed). Stone Sour have proven to be just as big a commercial juggernaut as Slipknot, and it has allowed Taylor to explore all the various facets of his musical personality. In honor of Taylor's big day, check out the clip for Stone Sour's "Through Glass," a big single from the group's second album Come What(ever) May and one of the band's biggest hits.


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Lady Gaga Should Indulge Her Metal Obsession With Slayer, Mastodon, Slipknot

Posted 5/12/10 4:15 pm EST by in Music


Lady Gaga's music is an eclectic blend of high-octane sugar pop, funky post-modern R&B, borrowed European dance styles and a healthy dose of whatever-the-hell-she-feels-like. There is not, however, a great deal of metal that sneaks into Gaga's music, no matter how loud you crank up "Bad Romance." Of course, that didn't stop the Demonstration from recording a great metal version of that same song.

Gaga's taste also skews pretty heavy, as she has expressed her enthusiasm for Black Sabbath in the past, telling Ryan Seacrest that one of the highlights of her old burlesque show was a dance that was set to that band's "Black Sabbath" (which we still say must have been incredibly odd and difficult to pull off). While in Germany on tour, Gaga told reporters that she is also a big Metallica fan (she said that her only other trip to the venue where she was playing was to see the band, and that she wore "denim and leather").

So perhaps Gaga is more metal than meets the eye (or the ear). Perhaps it shouldn't be too shocking, as she is obsessed with death (she has even simulated her own death on stage, which is super metal), plays around with gender roles (not unlike Marilyn Manson, Judas Priest's Rob Halford or Cradle of Filth's Dani Filth) and rarely appears in public out of costume (like the dudes in Slipknot). Considering all the fake blood she spilled at last year's MTV Video Music Awards, it's perhaps a fair bet that she's into GWAR.

With that in mind, we ask the obvious question: What metal band should Lady Gaga join as a singer? Luckily, we took a look at what that might look like, and as the photos below prove, she makes a convincing frontdemon for any number of heavy acts, including Mastodon, Megadeth, Killswitch Engage and the heaviest of them all, Slayer.

(Click here for more metal bands fronted by Lady Gaga, including Metallica, Judas Priest, Slipknot and Black Sabbath!)

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Celebrate Passover With George Michael, Darius Rucker And Bad Brains

Posted 3/30/10 11:00 am EST by in Music


Monday evening (March 29) began the annual feast of Passover, a key event for Jewish people around the world. The holiday is set aside to commemorate the Hebrews' escape from enslavement in Egypt. (Secondarily, it also celebrates the onset of spring and the new harvest.) There are any number of traditions surrounding the holiday depending on where you are in the world and what particular brand of Judaism you practice, but it centers around the Passover seder, a traditional meal that is also used as a stage for retelling the Biblical story of Exodus.

As with any festive celebration (especially one that involves this much wine drinking), Passover needs a handful of tunes to get into the spirit of the day. Hence the following video playlist that focuses on the themes of the holiday and the story wrapped up in it. There's Good Charlotte's "Festival Song," two tracks about plagues (as the story goes, God sent 10 plagues to inflict the Pharaoh's people as a means of setting the Hebrews free) and plenty of songs about rising up to overcome adversity (like Bad Brains' "Rise" and Shadows Fall's "Still I Rise"). There's even Darius Rucker's "Exodus," just for good measure.

But Passover is essentially about freedom, which is why the playlist kicks off with George Michael's "Freedom," an ode to the importance of liberation and to helping the oppressed overcome.

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MTV News' Musical March Madness: The White Stripes Vs. Rise Against, Slipknot Vs. OK Go

Posted 3/22/10 3:15 pm EST by in Music


It's Musical March Madness! The sprawling bracket — both a parody and a tribute to the NCAA basketball tournament, masterminded by MTV News' James Montgomery — takes the 65 biggest names in rock, splits them up into four regions, assigns them seeds and puts them up against one another in a single-elimination series of match-ups in a winner-take-all contest. We're leaving it to you to decide an actual champ in this field of 65. Over the next few weeks, we will present a series of polls that will allow you to vote for the match-ups presented in MTV News' Band Bracketology. You vote for the winners, we'll keep advancing the seeds and, in the end, we'll have some sort of champion. What will the winner receive? Little more than our esteem (as well as that of the fans) and some Internet bragging rights.

Before we get into this batch of match-ups, it should be noted that the opening round battle between Green Day and Panic at the Disco is currently completely even. Voting will be open until tomorrow morning for that particular pairing, so it will probably take a buzzer-beating shot to win it for either side. In the meantime, here are two more games to weigh in on.

(4) The White Stripes vs. (13) Rise Against
Here's the problem with the White Stripes: They sort of don't exist at the moment. Still, their new documentary "Under Great White Northern Lights" is tremendous, and a great reminder that Jack White is a guitar-slinging monster no matter what the context is. Rise Against have spent a decade knocking out staggeringly great aggro punk tunes, and their last album (2008's Appeal to Reason) is one of the most underrated masterpieces of the last 10 years. Can they upset the Jack White juggernaut?

(5) Slipknot vs. (12) OK Go
A deep contrast of styles here. OK Go are riding high on the strength of their "This Too Shall Pass" video (over nine million views on YouTube) and their excellent new album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. Meanwhile, Slipknot have channeled their scary masks and end-of-days rhythmic metal into platinum sales and worldwide success. Are they loud enough to blow OK Go off the board?

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Prepare For Robert Pattinson's 'Remember Me' With Michael Jackson, T.I. And Slipknot

Posted 3/12/10 11:40 am EST by in Music


It's Friday, which means there will be a whole new slate of films hitting your local cinema. This weekend includes the Matt Damon action thriller "The Green Zone," the relationship comedy "She's Out of My League" and "Mother," the latest film from Bong Joon-ho, the Korean director of indie hits "The Host" and "Memories of Murder." But the flick grabbing the most headlines is "Remember Me," the first major role for "Twilight" star Robert Pattinson since he became America's most beloved undead blood sucker. The film also features "Lost" star Emilie de Ravin (finally doing something other than searching for her baby) as the object of Pattinson's affection and Chris Cooper as de Ravin's controlling father (he doesn't want her associating with the brooding, free-thinking Pattinson).

Like any trip to the local multiplex, "Remember Me" requires some appropriate music to get you into the mood. Memory is clearly a big deal among musicians, as there are dozens of songs that deal with remembering. Of course, there are some cornerstones, like Sarah McLachlan's immortal graduation and TV finale song "I Will Remember You" and the incarceration-can't-keep-me-down T.I. track "Remember Me." Plenty of these songs deal directly with relationships, like Jeff Buckley's "Forget Her," Poison's "I Won't Forget You" and Carrie Underwood's "Don't Forget to Remember Me." And in case you need a little more rage before going to see a Pattinson movie, there's always Slipknot's "Before I Forget" or Armor for Sleep's "Remember to Feel Real."

Michael Jackson's "Remember the Time" kicks things off, as it's a breezy, funky latter-day MJ track that is dedicated to carrying relationship memories with you. Also, it's a fantastically epic clip featuring cameos from Eddie Murphy, supermodel Iman and basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson (among others).

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Korn's Jonathan Davis Covering Lil Wayne's 'Got Money' Is The Opposite Of 'Funky'

Posted 9/18/08 9:15 am EST by in Korn, Lil Wayne


Korn's Jonathan Davis"Young funky little JD"? "Mr. Make It Rain on Them Hos"? "DJ show me love/ He say my name when the music stop"? Really?

I'm not saying Korn singer Jonathan Davis has never spent time in a strip club (he is married to a former porn actress, after all). And I'm not saying he's never worn fat chains and rained money down on Cheyenne while she worked the pole on the Cinnamon stage at Shotgun Willie's. Or that a DJ hasn't stopped the music when he rolled in with his Bakersfield crew.
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Slipknot Cancel European Dates After Drummer Breaks Ankle

Posted 8/20/08 3:24 pm EST by in metal, Slipknot, tour


SlipknotBy John Ochoa

It seems like a case of déjà vu for Slipknot.

In July, the metal band's DJ Sid Wilson broke both his heels when jumping off the stage during the launch of the Rockstar Energy Mayhem fest. Today, Slipknot announced that they have been forced to cancel their slots at the Leeds and Reading festivals, as well as their remaining European dates, after drummer Joey Jordison broke his ankle. No word on whether this, too, was the result of an energetic stage performance.

According to a statement posted on the band's MySpace page, "doctors have advised Joey to stay off his leg for four to six weeks to prevent further injury or permanent and more serious damage."

Read More...

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'Turn That Down!' Or The Persecution Of The Office Metalhead

Posted 8/8/08 9:58 am EST by in metal


MTV News Writer Chris HarrisWalk around the MTV News office on any given day, and you're bound to hear music, because, while we may be journalists, we're all music lovers first and foremost. It's what drew us all to the job, and it's just what we do. Often, I'll stroll past hip-hop editor Shaheem Reid's office, and he'll be cranking the latest mixtapes. Right next door, in rock writer James "Hollywood" Montgomery's office, he's almost always blasting Radiohead or the Hold Steady or whatever indie band everyone's talking about this week.

Me? I'm the metal writer, so I'm almost always listening to something loud, offensive and objectionable. Of course, those are adjectives other people use to describe the music I love. To my ears, it's smart, technically demanding music that takes an immense amount of talent to create. But that's just my opinion. Unfortunately, no one else — save my boss — appreciates heavy metal and hardcore, which makes working in the newsroom all the more ... well, I guess the word would be annoying.

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For The Record: Wilco, Amy Winehouse, Slipknot & More

Posted 7/14/08 10:52 am EST by in For The Record


· We've already heard Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama give props to Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and Bob Dylan. But Obama got all indie over the weekend, when he attended a Chicago fundraiser and tipped his hat to Wilco's Jeff Tweedy.

· There's no stopping it now. Jessica Simpson's country album is due out September 9. Now you can check out the barn-rocking video for the first single, "Come on Over."

· Black Eyed Peas rapper Taboo married Jaymie Dizon on Saturday in Pasadena, California. Among the guests were fellow Peas Will.I.Am and Apl.De.Ap, who served as groomsmen, and Fergie.
 
· Amy Winehouse's dad has said that the singer could suffer a "slow and painful" death from emphysema and that she will stop performing live shows "for the foreseeable future" to focus on her health. Mitch Winehouse said Amy's last performance for the time being will be September 6.

· Keyshia Cole, Ashanti, Raheem DeVaughn, Chrisette Michelle, Dwele, Lyfe Jennings, Bilal, Musiq Soulchild and Goapele have signed on to play select dates of the upcoming Heineken Red Star Soul Tour. The outing begins August 6 in Los Angeles and runs through an October 1 gig in New York.

· A 32-year-old man died in his tent during Scotland's T in the Park festival over the weekend. Friends found the man dead in his tent at the event, during which a 22-year-old man was also stabbed in the head and body by as-yet-unknown assailants.

· Slipknot fans are used to their favorite masked warriors injuring themselves during intense performances. So most probably won't be surprised to see DJ Sid Wilson (a.k.a. #0) scooting around in a wheelchair after breaking both his heels while jumping off the stage at the first show of the Rockstar Energy Mayhem festival last week.

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