Music
System of a Down Have Returned for Special Shows!
Grammy-winning band System of a Down have announced their first US shows since 2015. This string of special dates kick off October 13th at the Glen Helen Amphitheater in San Bernardino, CA, and include a headline performance at the Aftershock Festival. The shows, which follow last year’s sold-out European tour, are listed below and ticket information can be found here.
System of a Down’s last U.S. show was at The Forum in Los Angeles during 2015’s “Wake Up The Souls” tour.
Don’t miss System of a Down live:
Oct 13 – San Bernardino, CA – Glen Helen Amphitheater
Oct 14 – Sacramento, CA – Aftershock Festival
Oct 16 – Phoenix, AZ – Talking Stick Resort Arena
Oct 17 – San Diego, CA – Valley View Casino Center
Oct 19 – Las Vegas, NV – T-Mobile Arena
Since their arrival in 1998, System of a Down (vocalist Serj Tankian, guitarist/vocalist Daron Malakian, bassist Shavo Odadjian, drummer John Dolmayan) has released 5 studio albums, sold over 31 million copies worldwide, had three No. 1 debuts on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart, garnered a Grammy win and amassed a global following whose members numbers in the tens of millions. They’ve written and recorded 7 top 10 radio hits, 2 of which were chart-topping No. 1’s (2002’s “Aerials” and 2005’s “Hypnotize”). In 2005 System of a Down released both Mezmerize and Hypnotize in two installments as a dual album in a single year. Each debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 and on charts around the world, achieving the rare feat of having two No. 1 albums in the same calendar year. “B.Y.O.B.” (Bring Your Own Bombs) was the first single released from Mezmerize and earned the band a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance.
Synthwave outfit GUNSHIP has released a new official music video this morning for their cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” featured on the soundtrack to Corin Hardy’s (The Nun, The Hallow) supernatural horror film Whistle.
To bring it full circle, Corin Hardy directs the music video himself, incorporating previously unseen footage from Whistle. More specifically, the new music video features an extended sequence from the film.
This collaboration builds on GUNSHIP’s longstanding relationship with Hardy, who previously contributed vocals to the band’s track “Cthulhu.”
“Working with Corin is a total dream,” said GUNSHIP. “He’s an old friend who we bonded with over our love for cinema and music, and we were honored to have our song featured in the film. After the Whistle premiere, we were chatting over a pint, and he told us about a beautiful pseudo ‘one shot’ sequence he was heartbroken to lose in the final film. We suggested resurrecting it and using it as a music video. Corin got it immediately, and the result is perfect. It’s heartbreaking, haunting and pure 80s noir soaked.”
Corin Hardy added: “I wanted Whistle to feel like a horror movie I might have watched around the late 1980s, alongside films like A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Lost Boys, and The Breakfast Club. Films steeped in teen-angst and heightened feelings. Music was such a huge part of creating the romance of those cinematic worlds. Gunship’s synth-drenched cover of Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’ was always top of my list. Their unique heart-on-your-sleeve sound was the perfect choice for a key moment in the movie. To come together post-release and create this extended music video is simply the cherry on top. Dan, Al & Al (Gunship) have provided the film a real companion piece in the world of Whistle… it makes me want my MTV again!”
It’s a fitting collaboration, as music serves a narrative purpose in Whistle. Music, the director told Bloody Disgusting, was a means of immersing viewers in this world and its characters’ perspectives. Hardy even touched on this particular track: “So in a way, the music you’ll listen to is effectively what Chrys is listening to, which is her dad’s record collection. Then there are other songs like the Gunship track, which is a Cyndi Lauper cover, which is more like Rel’s [Sky Yang] music. It comes in when we have a sequence in Rel’s romantic heartbreak moment. So yeah, I made a character list of who might be listening to what.”
Whistle sees a misfit group of unwitting high school students confronted with mortality when they blow a cursed Aztec Death Whistle, setting a terrifying chain of events in motion.
Dafne Keen (Logan, “The Acolyte“), Sophie Nélisse (“Yellowjackets”), Sky Yang (Rebel Moon), Jhaleil Swaby (“Supergirl”), Ali Skovbye (Grizzly Night, “Firefly Lane”), Percy Hynes White (“Wednesday”), Michelle Fairley (“Game of Thrones”), and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead).
The supernatural teen horror movie is available to stream on Shudder now.