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[Interview] Sevendust’s Lajon Witherspoon Talks ‘Black Out The Sun’, Touring, And Racism In Metal

Tomorrow marks the release of melodic hard rock band Sevendust’s ninth studio album Black Out The Sun, which is the followup to 2010’s Cold Day Memory. In anticipation of this release, we got the opportunity to do a one-on-one chat with singer Lajon Witherspoon to discuss the album, touring with Coal Chamber, Lacuna Coil, and Candlelight Red, the 1999 show with Metallica in Detroit, and more. We also got to ask if Witherspoon had ever encountered any racism during their career as well as Lajon’s love of horror. You can check it all out below

Make sure to pre-order your copy of Black Out The Sun on iTunes. READ MORE

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New Kid Rock Song “Detroit, Michigan” Is Just Awful

Being that I’m a born and raised Southeast Michigan boy, I’m all for support and love for Detroit. Those of you out of ‘The Mitten’ can make jokes about the D, but it’s honestly on the rise and incredible things are happening there every day. If you want to make fun of a Michigan city, mock Flint. That place is terrifying. I’d rather walk through Detroit at night than Flint during the day. No joke.

All of this leads up to the new Kid Rock song “Detroit, Michigan”, which lyrically aims to give praise to The Motor City. While I can commend Rock for shooting some love, did he have to do it with such an awful, awful song? The vocal harmonies sound like they’re out of tune, the Motown feel is so forced and simple, and, overall, it’s just a boring, groan-inducing track.

The song comes from Rock’s upcoming album Rebel Soul, which comes out Nov. 19th. You can listen to “Detroit, Michigan” as well as read the lyrics below. READ MORE

Kid Rock To Play Show With Detroit Symphony Orchestra

 Kid Rock To Play Show With Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Joe Corrigan/Getty Images (source)
I’m finding myself more and more impressed with Kid Rock and his attitudes toward music, the music industry, and local commitment. Last year, there was this article which spoke of Rock’s anger towards ticket fees as well as beer and t-shirt prices at concerts. Now, Kid Rock has announced that he will be teaming up with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for a benefit concert for the DSO. The goal is to raise $1 million for the beleaguered outfit.
Rock stated, “I’m a musician, I care about the field. My love’s for all music. I don’t go to the orchestra, I don’t know that I’ve ever been to the DSO. But I know that people do, and it’s a part of our culture and our history and our city, and it’s another cornerstone that makes our city great. To see that fall by the wayside, knowing I can do something about it, wasn’t something I was comfortable with.”

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Kid Rock Is Officially A Badass Now (Pun Kinda Intended)

When I was a freshman in high school, Bawitdaba was one of the biggest songs at the end of the year. Seriously, everyone had that damn song playing on their Discman (going old school here folks). So, naturally, I listened to Kid Rock to understand what the big deal was. Regardless of how I feel about his music (I think he needs to get back to rockin’ and quit all the countryin’), Kid Rock has come out with some ideas regarding the concert experience in general that I think we can all agree with, including nixing ticket convenience fees and slashing merch prices! Check it all out after the jump.

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Retro Review: Going To ’84 To Check Out Metallica’s ‘Ride The Lightning’

Sure, I could’ve chosen to do ‘Master Of Puppets’, but what’s the fun there? That album has been pored over and loved since its release. I wanted to do ‘Ride The Lightning’ for a couple of reasons. First of all, some of my favorite Metallica tracks are on here. Second of all, the album was released when I was a month old, so I feel a strange connection with it. So, join me readers, as we head back to 1984 to check out Metallica’s sophomore album. 
 Retro Review: Going To 84 To Check Out Metallicas Ride The Lightning

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Nikki Sixx Talks Steven Tyler/Kid Rock American Idol Spat

Nikki Sixx has recently come out and spoken about the war of words going on between Kid Rock and Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) regarding Tyler judging American Idol. Below is what Nikki Sixx had to say about the situation or you can listen to the audio.

“So we were talking, god what was it last week, about Steven Tyler being on American Idol and I’d said I’d talked to Steven and he’d said that I really saw the perspective the way that was his idea for doing it. Kid Rock was blasting him pretty hard and, you know, I don’t have a problem with Kid Rock. I know him. I get what he’s trying to do, he’s trying to say American Idol is cheesy…but the whole point of Steven Tyler being on American Idol is to not make it cheesy. It’s to have a real artist on there. Steven knows how to dress, so he has style; he knows how to design sets; he knows how to write songs obviously; he plays instruments; he’s one of the greatest singers and one of the greatest front men of all time. So who’s better to judge somebody and give them advise or maybe say they don’t have it than Steven? There should be more Steven Tyler’s on there. So when I talked to Steven about that, we were talking about how he has the ability to find the next Jimi Hendrix, the next Janis Joplin, the next Kid Rock. This is a positive thing for music. This is a pipeline that we usually don’t have. When I was growing up, the only way I could get turned on to Aerosmith’s music was through Circus Magazine or Cream Magazine and if you were really lucky and the snobs over at Rolling Stone decided to put you on the cover and do an article on you, you might find out about a rock band there, but usually it wasn’t real rock bands they would cover. So on my radio show, if I really like a band I can pump it out there and get a lot of people to hear it, and Steven can do the same on American Idol. We’re really happy about where we’re at in our lives and that we’re doing things differently than just using print media and the internet. Doing stuff with TV and radio, that to me is smart. Kid Rock bashing him feels to me that he’s just really trying to get attention. I do know this – Steven is doing a forward-thinking really cool thing.”

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Methods Of Mayhem To Debut ‘Time Bomb’ Video Tonight

‘Time Bomb’, the brand new video from Tommy Lee and his Methods Of Mayhem will make its premiere tonight, Tuesday, September 7th, on NBC’s Extra!  Tune in at 7:00PM in New York City and Los Angeles, check local listings for times in other cities.  The video features Tommy Lee starring in numerous fast-paced vignettes coupled with futuristic visual effects and is a stunning optical companion to the ferociously catchy song.  Log on to www.extratv.com or www.tommylee.tv after 7:30PM, EST/4:30PM, PST to view the video in its entirety.  ’Time Bomb’ is currently heating up at radio at the Active and Modern Rock formats.
 
Methods Of Mayhem’s new album A Public Disservice Announcement will be released on Tuesday, September 21st via Roadrunner/Loud & Proud Records and features Lee collaborating with the world.  Lee and his team, including producer Scott Humphrey, singer-guitarist J3 and others, wrote and recorded the songs for the album, then made the core components of each available for download on www.thepublicrecord.com to anyone who wished to add their playing or otherwise re-interpret the music however they saw fit. The song files were made available on The Public Record on October 5th, 2009. By the end of the submission period in February, 2010, the page was viewed over 1 million times and over 10,000 submissions were uploaded.  Lee listened to every single submission that was uploaded, chose the best, and integrated the actual audio tracks into the album’s final cuts.  Every musician whose part was used is credited and thanked on the album…and those who made the cut will find out for the first time on Tuesday, September 21st when the album is released!

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New Methods of Mayhem Album Announced: Features Collaborations From Around The World

Tommy Lee has rocked every continent multiple times, sold millions of records with Motley Crue and on his own, done everything a musician dreams of doing, except he’s never made a record with the entire world.  The new Methods Of Mayhem album, now entitled A Public Disservice Annoucement, is set for release on September 21st and features Tommy Lee collaborating with the world.  Lee commented, “When I founded Methods in 1999, the whole purpose of the band was to be all over the place.  In keeping with that, this Methods isn’t anything like the last one. There’s no hip hop and there’s no roster of guest stars. This time, it’s me, my band, and the world.”  Please see below for the track listing for A Public Disservice Annoucement.
 
Tommy Lee and his team, including producer Scott Humphrey, singer-guitarist J3 and others, wrote and recorded the songs for the new album, then made the core components of each  available for download on www.thepublicrecord.com to anyone who wished to add their playing or otherwise re-interpret the music however they saw fit. Lee listened to every single submission that was uploaded, chose the best, and integrated the actual audio tracks into the album’s final cuts.  Every single musician whose part was used is credited and thanked on the album. 

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