INCOMING: Streetlight Manifesto at The Riviera Sunday May 17th

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

VIA Our Friends at Streetlight Manifesto:

All of you non-East Coasters that kicked and screamed when we did October’s micro-tour will be happy that we set up a mini-tour just for you! 18 Show in 18 days, from Cleveland to Spokane! From May 14 to May 31! From La Jolla to Leo Carillo, and up to Pismo (sorry, we had to).

Tickets on sale NOW. As always, we will tell you right now: MOST OF THESE SHOWS WILL SELL OUT, SO PLEASE BUY YOUR TICKETS EARLY. Nowadays we tour when the stars align, so get it when it’s there to be gottened.

We’re so incredibly pumped for these shows! Support will come in the form of Dan Potthast on all shows except for the first three, where Kevin Seconds will play in his place. Also, Sycamore Smith will be on the entire damn tour! Huzzah!

Lovely poster art provided by the inimitable Zelda Devon (www.zeldadevon.com)!

See you guys at the shows!

5/14 Cleveland, OH
5/15 Pittsburgh, PA
5/16 Detroit, MI
5/17 Chicago, IL
5/18 Lawrence, KS
5/19 Denver, CO
5/20 Salt Lake City, UT
5/21 Las Vegas, NV
5/22 Phoenix, AZ
5/23 Los Angeles, CA
5/24 San Diego, CA
5/25 Anaheim, CA
5/26 San Francisco, CA
5/27 Portland, OR
5/28 Seattle, WA
5/29 Victoria, BC
5/30 Vancouver, BC
5/31 Spokane, WA

More Tickets Available for Sold Out Soundgarden Shows at The Riviera #liveshowshots

VIP Lounge backstage at Lollapalooza 2010

We had the great pleasure of scoring back stage press passes to see Soundgarden at Lollapalooza, since we were covering the fest and on several bands' guest lists.   It's a show I'll never forget and we make a point to see them every chance we get.   

VIP Lounge backstage at Lollapalooza 2010-Wolfmother & Soundgarden-The music was amazing & we were all lovin' the ice cold, minty neck wraps in the August heat!  ChiIL Mama, Du-Jay & Sagezilla pictured.

Check out our photo filled past Soundgarden coverage here.

Soundgarden is heading to Chicago during their Winter 2013 North American tour dates which include two-night engagements in New York City, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and, for the first time since the band reunited with their surprise show at the Showbox, Soundgarden will be playing two shows in their hometown of Seattle. 

This is the first North American tour for Soundgarden showcasing their new album, King Animal, released on November 13 via Loma Vista/Republic Records. The band has been headlining and playing to sold out crowds since they got back together over two years ago to critical acclaim. The New York Times said, "After 14 years between tours, Soundgarden was back in full force, its paradigm intact. This is one reunited band that can pick up right where it left off." 

With two Grammy® Awards and over 21 million records sold worldwide, Soundgarden redefined rock music for a whole generation and had a revolutionary impact on the course of musical history. At the dawn of 2010, the band, Chris Cornell, Matt Cameron, Kim Thayil and Ben Shepherd, announced a new beginning. In the last three years since Soundgarden has reunited, they released their first retrospective, Telephantasm, which was certified platinum, their first live album, Live on I-5, penned the end title song, "Live to Rise," for the feature film The Avengers which went to No.1 on Modern and Active Rock radio, and headlined sold-out shows and festivals around the world. Now, comes the band's first collection of new songs since the 1990's.

Soundgarden Winter 2013 Tour Dates 

Jan 18 Washington, DC @ DAR Constitution Hall 

Jan 19 Upper Darby, PA @ Tower Theatre 

Jan 20 Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre 

Jan 22 New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom 

Jan 23 New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom 

Jan 25 Toronto, ON @ Sound Academy 

Jan 26 Toronto, ON @ Sound Academy 

Jan 27 Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore 

Jan 29 Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theater 

Jan 30 Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theater 

Feb 1 Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles Ballroom 

Feb 2 Minneapolis, MN @ Orpheum Theatre 

Feb 6 Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 

Feb 7 Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theater 

Feb 8 Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theater 

Feb 10 Vancouver, BC @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre 

Feb 12 Oakland, CA @ Fox Theatre 

Feb 13 Oakland, CA @ Fox Theatre 

Feb 15 Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern 

Feb 16 Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern

MORE INFORMATION:

http://www.soundgardenworld.com

Dillinger Escape Plan at The Riv (pit photos) 11-11-11

For those on your holidaze good list, lookin' for some good metal, check out Dillinger Escape Plan (DEP).   They just came through town, opening for Mastodon, and worked their amps like a skate park.   Even the photographers in the pit were getting kicked in the head as the band members dove into the crowd repeatedly, and the fans reciprocated.   Their music is a lot of frenetic fun to see live, and their energy is contagious.   

Lambgoat.com says:

Taking cues from Deadguy, but adding its own jazz, technical, and violent flair, New Jersey's Dillinger Escape Plan (DEP) formed in early-1997.   Fans of technical metal, hardcore, a bit of jazz, Deadguy, and violence need not look any further.

Check out their Reverb Nation Page here.

Artist Summary
Genres: Metal / Mathcore/ Experimental
Label: Season of Mist / Party Smasher Inc, Relapse Records
Management: self-managed, for PR-, Big Machine Media

More About Dillinger Escape PlanAt first glance, Option Paralysis seems like a highly inappropriate title to describe the constantly evolving output of The Dillinger Escape Plan. But once you’re faced with the cumulative power and vision of guitarist Ben Weinman, vocalist Greg Puciato, bassist Liam Wilson, guitarist Jeff Tuttle and new drummer Billy Rymer, you’ll wonder—right after you pick yourself up off the floor—why more bands don’t achieve similar force-of-nature status.
 
“The title Option Paralysis represents being in a situation where you have so many choices you can’t decide, and end up being frozen,” says founding member Weinman about the mindset permeating the band’s fifth full-length album. “Back in the early days when I started to discover music, go to shows and find out about new bands, there were ‘filters’ from various circumstances – geography, economic status, etc - which deeply affected how a band sounded and what they stood for. 

Now, everyone is going through the same filter—namely computers and the internet—and everyone has the same circumstances: Everybody’s seeing the same thing for the first time at the very same time, simultaneously all over the world. That very system is negatively affecting art and has created a situation where everything is influencing itself and art is not based on struggle, personal scarcity or unique and personal inspiration. This cultural revolutions is a big part of what determines our mission. We’re not listening to any of the bands around us for some kind of input as to what we should sound like. At this point, we’re using our own accomplishments as a measurement of what we need to do next.”

From their early days in the late-’90s as short-haired Rutgers, New Jersey, college students delivering hyper-complex thrash to audiences of boorish long-haired surly metalheads, to performing with Nine Inch Nails on the pioneering electronic band’s farewell shows, the Dillinger Escape Plan have merely one prerogative: to go forward in ALL directions simultaneously. 

I was laughing to see the descriptions above in red.  On Thursday, I literally got a fortune cookie that said "You can't ride in all directions at one time."   It was very appropriate, as this season is extremely busy on all fronts and I've been finding myself double and even triple booked and having to make some tough choices.   Then the kids and I ended up fighting off some nasty virus and we ended up cancelling everything today, to hang out by the fire, watch movies and get well.   Option Paralysis indeed.   After seeing DEP open for Mastodon, however, I think if anyone could pull off going forward in ALL directions simultaneously, figuratively and literally, they could!

Their groundbreaking 1999 debut full-length, Calculating Infinity, is inarguably the essential technical-metal talisman for the 21st century, melding hardcore’s blinding rage with a musical vision that made most progressive-rock bands sound positively lazy by comparison. Irony Is A Dead Scene, the band’s 2002 collaboration with Mike Patton, maintained their patented extremity while exploring electronic textures. The 2004 follow-up, Miss Machine, (the first record to showcase frontman, Puciato) was a distillation of the band’s work thus far, while including jaw-dropping flirtations with mainstream metal (“Unretrofied”) that further enforced Dillinger’s desire—and ability—to take their music wherever the hell they wanted. 2007’s Ire Works had the band finding inspiration from underground glitch and breakcore electronica, as well as indigenous music genres, in a world seemingly overrun with metalcore bores and screamo trend-hoppers. The Dillinger Escape Plan’s unerring sweat equity has consistently found resonance with listeners on both sides of the stages the band trod upon.
 
Option Paralysis marks the beginning of another trajectory in the DEP mythology. After aligning themselves with the renowned Relapse label for most of their career, the band entered into a deal with the French label SEASON OF MIST to put out OPTION PARALYSIS, tagging their new PARTY SMASHER INC label. “We signed a pretty traditional record deal with them for one record,” explains Weinman. “What’s exciting is that Michael [Berberian, SOM label founder] is a really big music fan and has a great understanding of how we operate. He was totally aware of the possibilities and limitations of working with a band like us—he’s not expecting pop hits—and he’s been extremely enthusiastic to dive right in and make it work for everyone.”
 
Produced by Steve Evetts, Dillinger’s new music is positively abundant with possibilities. Drummer Billy Rymer, whom Weinman describes as “young and hungry,” now occupies the engine room that powers the band. Frontman, Puciato has always had a knack with a bellow that could make reciting a grocery list seem like an exhortation to open the mouth of Hell. But feeling some of the lyrics on Paralysis, you can’t positively determine if the singer is handing down indictments (“Farewell, Mona Lisa”) or feeling emotionally wounded. “This record is concept driven but there is still a very emotional and personal aspect to his lyrics,” says Weinman soberly. “He’s going through transitional stages in his life right now.” Nothing so eloquently supports that statement than the six and-a-half-minute “Widower,” where the band are joined by veteran David Bowie keyboardist Mike Garson for an aural excursion that incorporates piano-trio jazz, tender balladry and anthemic power. While there’s no shortage of DEP plasma-balls on Paralysis (“Room Full Of Eyes,” “Good Neighbor”), the band keep things fresh with the math-rock/free-jazz convergence of “I Wouldn’t If You Didn’t,” the electro-tweaked “Chinese Whispers” and the closing “Parasitic Twins.” The latter track sports lead vocals courtesy of guitarist Tuttle, as well as Beach Boys-styled harmonies and a major-key Weinman solo that’s more Clapton (ca. Derek And The Dominos) than calculus crush. Clearly, this is not your older brother’s Dillinger Escape Plan. “We’re just trying to make music we can be stimulated by,” says Weinman about the assorted directions and sonic vistas on Option Paralysis. “We consider ourselves songwriters, which is kind of odd when you consider the kind of band most would consider us.”

After years of deliberately challenging themselves, as well as the preconceived notions of critics and the strict genre-specific zealots of the world’s underground music scenes, the big question remains: What is the mission of the Dillinger Escape Plan? It’s a question Weinman addresses with equal parts melancholy, unwavering determination and humor. “I’ve been trying for a while to have someone explain that to me,” he says, laughing. “Seriously, Option Paralysis represents why we’re here and why we’re still making music. We started at a time when there wasn’t all this access to the larger world. Our only goal was to make a small dent in the scene that we were in. The fact we’ve made it this far and that we’re still relevant is really special to me. I feel that it is extremely important for bands like us to continue to represent the ethic and attitude that was present during a time that doesn't exist anymore."

“That,” he says, pausing to smile. “And I have to pay my mortgage somehow…”

Mastodon Rocks The Riv 11-11-11

Upcoming news from their official website Mastodon Rocks 

Mastodon nominated for a Grammy!

"Curl Of The Burl" has been nominated for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance! The Grammy Awards air on CBS on February 12th at 8/7c.  *This is especially cool (and amusing) since I just did a video interview with Red Fang, who opened for Mastodon in Chicago on 11-11-11, in which Red Fang told me-with straight faces-that they were nearly 100% guaranteed to win a Grammy themselves this year, and that they had the pawn shop already picked out where they'd take it!    Check out the full interview here on ChiIL Live Shows.   

 

Mastodon to release a split 7" with Feist

Mastodon will appear on a covers split 7" with Feist some time next year. According to Troy, ""The idea is for Mastodon to cover a Feist song and throw some hair and dirt on it. They're going to take a Mastodon song and pretty it up a little bit." Get more info here!

In early 2012, the band's off the the dark regions of northern Europe to warm the hearts of headbangers in Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.   Then they're off to Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Holland, and the U.K. before heading back mid February.

Check out their brand new release that just came out on 11-27-11.   Festive holiday colors even...    They've got vinyl collector options, CDs, DVDs, tusk steins, a freaky Hunter mask, and more on their merch page.

Despite a few fans who think they're leaning a bit too much toward the jam band side, they sounded excellent live and the majority of the packed house seemed to be loving the new material. 

Here's what the band's official biography says:

Mastodon have never really done anything the “conventional” way. The Atlanta-based band formulated their own brand of highly-skilled hard rock over a decade ago when others were rehashing 80s metal, and went on to mastermind a string of complex concept albums while much of the music world was centered on making digestible singles. The fact that Mastodon has received an outpouring of critical kudos along with public praise from respected icons from Metallica to The Melvins, The Flaming Lips and CeeLo Green and back, they’ve been humbled by the magnitude of appreciation. But rather than taking time to revel, they prefer to focus their attention on pushing musical boundaries even deeper by exploring their own creative process to the fullest.

The Hunter is yet another universe bending, high energy masterpiece from the band that helped shape hard rock for the 21st century with their previous albums: Remission, Leviathan, Blood Mountain and Crack the Skye. Though each consecutive album has transcended the one before it in terms of expectations, musical innovation and sales, The Hunter is the band’s most ambitious to date. Guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds, drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor, bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders and guitarist Bill Kelliher all continue to explore the outer limits of their own imaginations and as a result, deliver an album that stands apart -- even in Mastodon terms. While their last four CDs explored complex themes rooted in earth’s elements, The Hunter is more about following one’s free will than a particular storyline. “We’ve always had this umbrella or a theme that we’ve written everything under,” says Troy. “To us, it made sense as one cohesive story. This time, we freed ourselves up to try something new. It was really the next step for us, and I’m glad we took it.” 

That new-found spontaneity can be felt throughout The Hunter, from the melodic yet pummeling “Blasteroid” to the frenetic, muscled single “Curl the Burl.” The album is full of surprises—from melodic, close harmonies to downright demonic growls—but predictably, the musicianship is leagues beyond what anyone would expect to find on such a hard-hitting album. The Hunter is also the band’s most emotionally charged record to date, largely due to the difficult events that surrounded its making.

Tragically, Brent Hinds’ brother died of a heart attack in December of 2010 while on a hunting trip. Not long after, a friend of the bands died after a drawn out battle with cancer. “There were a lot of stressful things going on while we were making this record,” says Brann. “I wanted to ignore all the stress, which felt like it was threatening our band’s existence. We were kind of waiting to see where everything landed. But Brent didn’t want to sit and wallow in it. He wanted to do the exact opposite. So we started coming up with all these really triumphant moments for the record. It was like, fist up in the air.   And they dedicated the album to Hinds brother, an avid hunter.

The material for the record was largely written on the road when the band was touring with Alice in Chains, and was recorded between Los Angeles and Atlanta over a 6 week period earlier this year. Continuing their tradition of breaking tradition, Mastodon decided to team up with Mike Elizondo, a highly respected producer more synonymous with hip hop than metal. “After meeting him and hearing his ideas and unique perspective on our band we thought ‘This could be really interesting,”” says Brent. “We’re all about doing things that other people don’t, so let’s do an album with the guy who just worked with 50 Cent and Eminem. How crazy is that? We always try and embrace the unexpected.” And again, Mastodons penchant for taking risks paid off.

The Hunter is at once space age yet earthy, aggressive but thoughtful, articulate and guttural. The guitar work here is, of course, masterful as always, as is the band’s ability to flip musical directions on a dime. All of Mastodon contributed to writing the album, and Sanders is now singing on considerably more than on previous recordings (“I never thought I’d be one of the main vocalists . . . on any record,” he laughs.) Following some fine vocal performances on the last album Dailor’s role also as a contributing vocalist has become more prominent on The Hunter as well, adding even greater freedom to the sonic textures and overall expansiveness inherent of the new album.

As an example of the themes behind some of the new songs? They’re best described first hand by Brent and Brann:
Brann on “Curl of the Burl” : It’s about meth heads in the woods of West Virginia who look for certain types of knots in a tree. That would be the curl of the burl. They cut it out of the tree, drive it into town, sell it to furniture makers then go buy more meth. It’s like crackheads who steal copper from Lowes and sell it. We really couldn’t think of a better subject matter. It fascinated us.

Brent on “Blasteroid”: It was the name of a video game that was in the studio where we recorded. We thought it was hilarious—asteroids mixed with hemorrhoids. It had this crazy star that crapped out these asteroid looking thingees. So we mixed that ridiculous name with this sugary melody, then pushed it all up against, uh, somewhat aggressive lyrics. [Sings] ‘I wanna break some fucking glass, I wanna drink some fucking blood . . .’ Fun stuff.

Brann on “Stargasm”: It’s about having sex in space, or maybe not in space, just great sex where the orgasm brings you into space. When we sing ‘You’re on fire!,” I imagine swirling flames around these two people enjoying this sexual experience so good that they end up in outer space. Very Barbarella.

Brent on “The Sparrow”: It’s about Susie Polay our accountant’s wife, who passed away of stomach cancer when we were recording the album. Her motto was pursue happiness with diligence, and that motto became the lyrics to the song. It’s such a pretty song, and it’s so sorrowful as well. It’s in her memory and for her husband Robert, to pass on her inspiration to the listener.

One of the many ways in which Mastodon challenged itself on The Hunter was in simplifying their otherwise complex way of making music. In the past the band thrived on squeezing as much as possible in one space, and then making sense of it. With this record, they challenged themselves to pare back and let the songs breath on their own. The result is an album where sublime interludes prove just as powerful as dense layers of sound. “Our last album Crack The Skye, was such a deep, long record,” says Bill. “It was very heavy. We thought let’s make a spontaneous record based off music that comes off our fingertips in the moment. We didn’t over think it—like Hey, we gotta really dazzle the kids! It’s like let’s not over do it. Just let it fall naturally, and we did.”

By following their instincts, Mastodon has come up with the best record of their career. But then, should we really be all that surprised? Their slow-growing trajectory from flat-broke obscurity to the stages of Coachella, Europe’s Sonisphere and Bonnaroo which has presented Mastodon to an inordinately eclectic cross-section of music fans who have embraced the band as much as any audience who are more interested in the quality of the music rather then fall into the trappings of narrow-mined genre dwellers. This is the result of taking the road less traveled with nothing more than their instincts—and love of a good riff—to guide them. “We can never go in the studio saying we’re gonna make a heavy record because that’s what people expect,” says Brann. “Or a progressive record, because that’s what they want to hear. You can talk all day about what you’ll do artistically, but once you sit down and it starts coming out, you find out it’s not really in your control. Things move in the direction they move in -- much like life. It might not go the way you want, but that’s when great things come out that you had no idea were there. That’s when you tap the unexpected.”

Pay a visit to Mastodon Rocks for upcoming tour dates, songs, videos, etc.  Pay a visit to Mastodon Rocks for upcoming tour dates, songs, videos, etc.   Also, check out the Workhardened Site for a bunch of sweet art by Paul Romano, who did a bunch of their past album art.   He's been a long time friend of close friends of ours.