Updated Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Has Steven Tyler Quit Aerosmith?
Steven Tyler set the rumor mill churning last week when he told Classic Rock magazine that he plans to start "working on the brand of myself – Brand Tyler." He also cryptically stated, "Once the band hit the final note and I walk off stage – then I’ll tell you the whole story," implying that there was friction in the Aerosmith camp. Now it looks like there is a major miscommunication problem as well, since guitarist Joe Perry told the Las Vegas Sun that, "Steven quit as far as I can tell." He continued, "I don’t know anymore than you do about it. I got off the plane two nights ago. I saw online that Steven said that he was going to leave the band. I don't know for how long, indefinitely or whatever. Other than that, I don’t know."
Perry also claimed that Tyler is notorious for not returning phone calls, leaving him clueless about Tyler's intentions. "That’s one thing I’ve learned to live with. I try to overlook it. I like to pick my battles," he explained. "Frankly, the last few months I’ve been wanting not to rock the boat. I don’t want him canceling any more gigs. We really wanted to do these last four. We just didn’t want to call him out or anything and get him anymore pissed off, for whatever reason. So we just let things lie. So we did the gigs and, like I said, I got off the plane and saw this online. That's how I know about it."
Much of Aerosmith's recent world tour was canceled in August after Tyler fell off the stage at a Sturgis, SD and broke his shoulder. The band members were unhappy to be sidelined, but Aerosmith salvaged the final leg of the tour, including two shows in Hawaii and one Sunday at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Perry said right now, he simply hopes to keep his band together.
"Right now I'm adjusting to how we're going to go on. Aerosmith is such a powerful band, I mean it’s like a steam locomotive. You just can’t disregard 40 years of four guys who play together as well as they do," he told the Sun. "We’re just trying to – at least I am – trying to figure out what direction the band should take. As far as replacing Steve, it’s not just about that, it’s also four guys that play extremely well together, and I’m not going to see that go to waste. I really don’t know what path it’s going to take at this point, but we’ll probably find somebody else that will sing in those spots where we need a singer and then we’ll be able to move the Aerosmith up a notch, move the vibe up a notch."
Guitarist Brad Whitford also insinuated that Aerosmith would be open to making music with another singer, as he told Classic Rock, "Nobody could replace Steven or imitate him – he's one of a kind. But if somebody was willing to do it and the chemistry was right, why not?" However, bassist Tom Hamilton dismissed that report to the Boston Herald and said he hopes things can be worked out between all parties. He noted that when the band does a new record, it "pretty much would have to be" with Tyler at the helm. "I guess we’ve got to wait until he’s not mad at us," Hamilton told the Herald. "There's still a lot of love left but for some reason he’s not very happy with the rest of us. Maybe he's just too used to people jumping to his agenda."
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Foo Fighters Film VH1 Storytellers
Foo Fighters have filmed an episode of VH1 Storytellers that will air on November 27. At the taping, the band shared lengthy anecdotes between renditions of 13 songs. The final song was "Everlong," which appears on the group's new Greatest Hits album in both electric and acoustic forms. "I honestly think that if it weren't for this song we probably wouldn't still be here because it opened up so many doors for us, melodically, dynamically," Dave Grohl told the audience, according to Reuters. |
Josh Homme Talks Them Crooked Vultures
As many of us eagerly await the debut album from Them Crooked Vultures, frontman Josh Homme told the website Antiquiet.com that the effort will be self-titled, and that is will be released by the end of the year. He also noted that it's going to come out on Interscope Records in the states and Sony BMG internationally. Homme explained that it was actually drummer Dave Grohl who put together his dream team of Homme on guitars and vocals and John Paul Jones on bass, even though the two had never met before.
"Dave mentioned this idea, and we’re always looking for a chance to do stuff together," Homme told Antiquiet. "So he said, 'You know what, maybe I should ask John Paul Jones!' And I was like, 'That’d be awesome. And I’ll ask The President. And we can put it all together.' And then all of a sudden he starts sending me e-mails of correspondence between him and Jones... I hadn’t played guitar for five months, and I was gonna maybe take a break for a second, for my first time in a long time. But then [Dave] has his birthday party at Medieval Times, and of course he sat us right next to each other. That was the blind date. But he sat in the next row behind us, looking over. But you know, I think it’s fairly common to meet someone from Zeppelin at Medieval Times."
Homme added that the trio came together pretty quickly after that initial meeting, and they wrote an abundance of songs for the album.
"We just finished figuring out what songs we’re going to put on it, which took a little bit of time," Homme said. "We couldn’t decide what [we wanted] to do. Do you make a triple album? An EP? How many songs is too much? I tend to think that even if you’ve got a bunch of good songs, maybe you should err on the side of brevity, and keep it tight. But we really enjoy lots of songs, so we couldn’t decide."
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AC/DC Rarities Box Set Details
AC/DC has rolled out all the juicy details of their new three-CD/two-DVD/one-LP rarities box set, which comes housed in an actual working guitar amp. The comprehensive collection of the band's studio and live rarities will all be remastered. Disc one collects AC/DC’s studio rarities, many on CD for the first time. These are all of the songs that the band recorded throughout their career that appeared on Australian-only LP releases, movie soundtracks, 7" and 12" single releases, and CD "tour editions." CDs 2 and 3 collect the band’s live rarities from singles, CD pros, compilations and other oddities.
The two DVDs pick up where the original Family Jewels DVDs left off in 1991. Family Jewels Disc Three begins with "Big Gun," the theme song to the motion picture Last Action Hero. It also boasts all three music videos from the Ballbreaker album, three from Stiff Upper Lip and the most recent clips for "Rock N Roll Train" and "Anything Goes" from Black Ice. The other DVD is a live show from Munich, Germany in 2003.
Furthermore, fans will get the 12 unique studio rarities from CD 1 presented on 180 gram audiophile vinyl, mastered specifically for LP, and a 164-page coffee table book of photos, press releases, tour itineraries, tour books, test pressing labels, advertisements and more. Other bits of memorabilia are included as well, but what makes this box set truly unique is that you can actually play it! The 12"x12"x4" exterior box is designed to resemble a vintage AC/DC guitar amp with the original logo that was spray-painted onto the rear of Angus and Malcolm Young's speaker cabinets in 1975. The “head” of the amp has a handle that lifts the top off to reveal the contents housed within, and the head is also a working guitar amp. Fans can check it out in detail at acdcbacktracks.com.
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New Zombie CD Coming In Nov.
Rob Zombie's fourth solo album, Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls and the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool, will be released on November 17 via Geffen Records. In a new post Monday on MySpace, Zombie wrote, "Pretty soon the CD will be dead. All you will have left is digital downloads. So before we say goodbye to the almighty CD I thought I would give it a big send off. I love being able to get great artists involved on my CD artwork and this time is the best yet. Since this may be the last true CD I make I thought I would gather three of the top artists around [Alex Horley, David Hartman and Dan Brereton] to contribute some killer new Zombie art for the booklet." |
Foo Fighters Release Greatest Hits Tracklist
The tracklist for the upcoming Foo Fighters greatest hits album, simply titled Greatest Hits, has been announced. The disc features almost all of the band's hits ("Everlong," "Learn To Fly," "Best Of You") but omits early single "I'll Stick Around" and a few others. Two new songs, "Wheels" and "Word Forward," appear on the compilation. A deluxe edition of Greatest Hits (due out November 3) will be released with a bonus DVD of music videos and live footage, along with a 28-page booklet. |
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