Jimmy Page Announces Plans to Start New Band

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page seems to finally be realizing that a Led Zeppelin reunion is most likely never going to happen. That being said, he has announced that he would like to start a brand new band that would play music from his career as a whole; not just Led Zeppelin.

Recently Page was asked by NME if the recent remaster releases of Led Zeppelin albums Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of the Holy had made him want to reform the band once more, to which Page said:

"I don't think it looks as though that's a possibility or on the cards, so there's not much more I can say about that. I'm not going to give a detail-by-detail account of what one person says or another person says. All I can say is it doesn't look likely, does it?"

The most exciting part of the interview was Page mentioning his desire to put a brand new band together.

"If I was to play again, it would be with musicians that would be… some of the names might be new to you. I haven't put them together yet, but I'm going to do that next year. If I went out to play, I would play material that spanned everything from my recording career right back to my very, very early days with The Yardbirds. There would certainly be some new material in there as well."

In addition to that, Page went into detail about his intense love for playing live:

"I love playing live, I really do. Live concerts are always an interesting challenge because it means you can always change things as you're playing every night. You can make it even more of an adventure. I would play all of the things I'm known to play — instrumental versions of Dazed And Confused, etcetera, etcetera…"

Hopefully Page follows through with this desire to play and puts together a kick-ass band. He could probably put together quite the super group of well known musicians, but honestly it would probably be way cooler to bring some relatively unknown talent up to the forefront of rock music. Personally, I think Jay Buchanan of the band Rival Sons would make an EXCELLENT front man for such a group. What do you guys think?

Black Sabbath To Do One More Album and a Final Tour

It would seem that heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath aren't done quite yet. After the success of their most recent album 13, they have decided to do one more album and one final world tour before calling it a day.

Seems that while they were working together on their most recent endeavor there was better creativity and personal dynamics between the group than ever before. Singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, and bassist Geezer Butler have decided to harness this positive energy to make at least one more album before gracefully bowing out.

In an interview with Classic Rock Magazine Osbourne said:

“The whole Sabbath experience this time around was great. We all made friends, we didn’t f— around, we all knew that we had a job to do, and we did it. It was a lot of fun. So we’re going to do one more album, and a final tour. Once the dust settled after the last tour, we started discussing the idea, because we were getting asked about it all the time. I said to Sharon, ‘What’s going on? Because if there’s no more Sabbath I want to get on with my own thing again,’ and she came back and said ‘Let me look into it.’ Three weeks later I asked her about it again, and she said, ‘Oh, I still have to talk to so and so … ‘ and I said, ‘Sharon, I ain’t f—ing 21 anymore; if we’re going to do it, I want to do it before I’m 70! Time isn’t on our side!’ So she made the call and came back and said, ‘Yeah, the record company wants another album.’ I believe [producer] Rick Rubin is going to do it with us again.”

Osbourne does not know for certain when all of this will come to fruition, but he did say, “It’ll be sooner rather than later. Obviously a lot of it is coming down to Tony’s health, he’s obviously got his cancer treatment. But we’ll get onto it next year. I don’t know if we’ll be writing in England or L.A., but I’ll fly to the f—ing moon for it if I have to!”

It would be great to have a new Black Sabbath album soon. 13 was pretty good, but personally now that they are staying together for one more album I'd like to see them progress a bit more and be a bit more creative rather than just trying to recapture the old sound that they had during their 70's heyday. Hopefully Iommi won't be departing from the land of the living any time soon either. How cool would it be to record an album on the moon, though? Sounds like something Black Sabbath would do.

AC/DC Tease New Song "Play Ball" in TBS Postseason TV Ad

Not too long ago hard rockers AC/DC decided to give fans a small taste of their upcoming album Rock or Bust by letting TBS use a short clip of one of the songs from the album Play Ball in their postseason TV ad.

Originally there was only a 30 second clip of the song, but then shortly after a minute long version of the commercial with more of the song was released. You can only hear so much of the song seeing as the primary focus of the commercial is on the content it is promoting rather than the backing music it is using to make it more exciting to the viewers.

Play Ball so far sounds genuinely AC/DC. However, that is to be expected seeing as AC/DC hasn't really changed their formula much over the years. Then again, do they really need to? They are one of the few bands that can get away with using the exact same sound for years and years due to their notoriety, image, and legacy for making some of the best hard rocking music the world has ever heard.

Rock or Bust is reported to hit the shelves on December 2nd of this year. It will be the first to not feature founding member rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young, who has left the band via retirement due to his failing health. Stepping in is his nephew Steven Young. Hopefully he does his rock legend of an uncle some justice.

The Who Release New Single "Be Lucky"

For the first time in about a decade, British Invasion legends The Who have put out a brand new song! While not yet available for sale, you can listen to it on YouTube.

The single Be Lucky will be featured on a new Who compilation disc called The Who Hits 50! that will be hitting stores on October 27th. This isn't the first time that The Who have put on new material to some of the many compilation discs they have out there, but it's always great to hear something new from the creative genius that is Who guitarist Pete Townshend.

The single and album are also preceding the beginning of a U.K. tour that will act as "the beginning of a long goodbye". According to an interview with Rolling Stone, Who singer Roger Daltrey says “We intend to go on doing music until we drop, but we have to be realistic about our age. The touring is incredibly grinding on the body and we have to draw a line in the sand somewhere. This will be the last old-fashioned, big tour.”

Hopefully The Who don't completely bow out for quite some time. Though their age definitely shows, it by no means makes them any less of fantastic musicians and performers. In the mean time, The Who are still supposedly working on a brand new full length album; which would be their first full album since 2006 release Endless Wire. No word has been spoken about it for some time, but I can't imagine that they would just give up on it.

Throwback Thursday: Waking the Fallen, by Avenged Sevenfold

In 2003 a band named Avenged Sevenfold (A7X for short) were starting to make themselves noticed on the scene with their own brand of modern heavy metal, especially when they released their second album Waking the Fallen. Influenced by many classic metal and punk bands they have over the years sold millions of albums and sold out many concerts with their own take on a beloved musical genre. Though A7X wouldn't become the insanely popular band they are today until their next album City of Evil which was released in 2005, this was their jumping point to get there.

As far as I'm concerned Waking the Fallen is when A7X really started developing their trademark sound with the abundance of dual-harmony guitar solos, speedy drum rhythms, deep gutsy riffs, and pacing that takes you on one hell of a wild ride from start to finish. While still retaining a lot of the element of screaming vocals from their first album Sounding the Seventh Trumpet they also brought in more melodic vocals than had been present previously in order for the album to be more marketable and also to sound more like their favorite bands at the time.

Anyone who has been a fan of Avenged Sevenfold for some time knows of Unholy Confessions. It is one of the few older songs that they still play at their live shows. The song kicks in with a tasty speedy guitar riff from lead guitarist Synyster Gates, but what makes this song really come alive is the impeccable switching between screaming and melodic vocal styles by singer M. Shadows. Another thing I can praise the Unholy Confessions for is how much variety there is in it in terms of rhythm, melody, and pacing. At some points the verses almost have a slight funk vibe while the rest of the song gets heavy and rocking.

However, my absolute FAVORITE Avenged Sevenfold song of all time comes from Waking the Fallen, which is Chapter Four. This song tells the story of Cain and Abel in such a dark and powerful way. This song has everything I love about A7X in it. It has brilliant dual harmonized guitar solos, vocal melodies in the chorus so orgasmic that at some points I swear I'm having a real eargasm, and an overall intensity that does NOT let up till the song is over. Chapter Four is where I honestly feel Avenged Sevenfold became the band we know and love today.

Waking the Fallen is without a doubt my favorite A7X album. The balance of their old style and the more commercialized style they went into is absolutely perfect. I love most of what they have done after it as well, but I feel that in this album they were still staying true enough to their roots while also making themselves a little more accessible to people who may not have given them a chance otherwise. It is a definite must have for any A7X fan and even any fan of modern or classic heavy metal.

Waking the Fallen, by Avenged Sevenfold receives 5 out of 5 stars.

Track List:

1. Waking the Fallen
2. Unholy Confessions
3. Chapter Four
4. Remenissions
5. Desecrate Through Reverence
6. Eternal Rest
7. Second Heartbeat
8. Radiant Eclipse
9. I Won't See You Tonight (Part 1)
10. I Won't See You Tonight (Part 2)
11. Clairvoyant Disease
12. And All Things Will End

Buy the album on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Waking-Fallen-Avenged-Sevenfold/dp/B0000AGWJ7/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1411707507&sr=8-2&keywords=Waking+the+Fallen

Journey Warns Fans of Ticket Scam

It would seem lately that there are scammers out there online that are trying to sell fake Journey tickets to unsuspecting fans. If you have tickets to see them between now and the end of this year, you're S.O.L.

A recent Facebook post from the band says:

“Attention CAUTION fans: Someone is selling tickets that are phony and a rip off. WE ARE DONE WITH OUR TOUR … THIS IS NOT REAL.”

The situation gets a bit bizarre, however. Apparently the tour being promoted is something called Journeys Noise Tour which is being sponsored by a clothing company with bands like I Killed the Prom Queen, Ghosttown, Marmozets and Nightmares (none of which I have heard of). It would definitely be confusing to anyone in the market for tickets to the event itself or to actually see Journey.

That being said, Journey is currently off tour for the rest of the year as they currently finished one up not all that long ago. They plan to start a new tour next year with guests like Tower of Power and Steve Miller Band. Hopefully all of this misunderstanding gets cleared up soon. Maybe Journeys needs to figure out a better way to promote their tour so that this doesn't happen again. Who knows? Maybe they can get actual Journey to play for them?

Pink Floyd Reveal Cover Art, Track Listing, and Other Details of New Album

 (Album cover for Endless River, by Pink Floyd)

Prog-rock pioneers Pink Floyd have been in the news recently having announced their first studio album in 20 years which will be titled The Endless River. The band has mentioned some details such as how it will feature recordings from Division Bell sessions including ones from the late Rick Wright (Pink Floyd's keyboardist who died in 2008) along with augmentation overdubs from guitarist David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason. However, now even more details have been made public.

The Endless River has revealed to be 18 tracks (all of which are listed below). Also, the cover which will be used has been made public. According to an interview with Uncut the band says that there will be some organ work Wright did in 1969 with a real atmospheric tone to it.

Gilmour has also gone on further to say about the album, “The Endless River has as its starting point the music that came from the 1993 ‘Division Bell’ sessions. We listened to over 20 hours of the three of us playing together and selected the music we wanted to work on for the new album. Over the last year we’ve added new parts, re-recorded others and generally harnessed studio technology to make a 21st century Pink Floyd album. With Rick gone, and with him the chance of ever doing it again, it feels right that these revisited and reworked tracks should be made available as part of our repertoire.”

The Endless River is said by Pink Floyd to have an abundance of  “mellifluous keyboards, jazz-tinged drums, musique concrete, ethereal vocals, and distinctive, emotional lead guitar" while also being a “return to the creative principles of Echoes, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, and Animals". It will be due out November 10th.

 Looks like everything short of actually releasing any of the tracks from the album has been done. After all the boasting and hype Pink Floyd has done for this I'm wondering what it will actually sound like. I'm getting the impression that The Endless River isn't really the type of album that would have a promotional single released for it given that the majority of it is instrumental with more of an ambient overtone to it. I kind of like the cover. It seems like a fitting tribute to their fallen brother. That being said, we have to wait another month and a half for what will probably be Pink Floyd's final release of new studio material. I'm stoked. How about you?

Track Listing:

1. Things Left Unsaid
2. It’s What We Do
3. Ebb and Flow
4. Sum
5. Skins
6. Unsung
7. Anisina
8. The Lost Art of Conversation
9. On Noodle Street
10. Night Light
11. Allons-y (1)
12. Autumn’68
13. Allons-y (2)
14. Talkin’ Hawkin
15. Calling
16. Eyes to Pearls
17. Surfacing
18. Louder Than Words