Finnish Bluegrass Band Covers Iron Maiden's 'The Trooper'

You have NEVER heard Iron Maiden like this before. People do all kinds of covers of famous songs in their bedrooms for YouTube all the time, but rarely does anything as radical as this happen. A Finnish bluegrass band has now put on YouTube their version of Iron Maiden's The Trooper.

The band is called Steve'n'Seagulls and this is not the first time they have given famous rock, pop, and metal tunes their bluegrass treatment. Their website includes covers of Mott the Hoople's All the Young Dudes, Michael Jackson's Thriller, and Slayer's Raining Blood to name a few among many others. Though their end products sound vastly different from the original versions of each song, each sounds unique while still being true to the original.

Though some long time Iron Maiden fans may not be too keen on accepting this new version, it may still bring the band's music to a new set of ears that may not have heard such music otherwise. Perhaps bands like Steve'n'Seagulls may actually bring bluegrass music back into a more mainstream light if such songs keep getting this kind of treatment.

To visit Steve'n'Seagulls' website go here:

http://stevenseagulls.com/musiikki/

ELO Makes Big Comeback!

After an extensive festival hiatus, the much adored and missed Electric Light Orchestra lead by Jeff Lynne will be breaking their silence and performing with a new line-up. This will be ELO's first time playing at a festival in nearly 30 years.

ELO is set to play along with Blondie, Chrissie Hynde, Billy Ocean, Paloma Faith, Gregory Porter, Bellowhead and Kacey Musgraves at the seventh annual 'Live in Hyde Park' festival put on by BBC Radio 2 which will be taking place on September 14th of this year. Lynne announced the surprise to everyone via Facebook saying, "I haven't performed live in quite some time, and I know the fans have asked for it a lot over the years. It's very exciting to come to Hyde Park with Radio 2 and do something this big, and I'm very much looking forward to playing my ELO songs for everyone."

Lynne has not yet announced who will be in his new line-up of Electric Light Orchestra. During the 2001 resurrection for the Zoom album and tour the only original member besides Lynne in the band was his long time writing partner multi-instrumentalist Richard Tandy. It is more than likely he will get all new musicians, but it is not completely out of the question for him to give a ring to former members Louis Clark and Mik Kaminski, who formed their own band The Orchestra which plays many old ELO songs.

If you can't make it to the event, there will be coverage of it available to watch on BBC Red Button, BBC iPlayer and the Radio 2 website. The Radio 2 site will be featuring backstage footage, acoustic sessions, as well as interviews from the event.

Queen Concedes Paul Rodgers Was Not a Good Fit

Back in 2004, world renowned rock band Queen announced that they would be joining with singer Paul Rodgers for a tour. This was considered quite unusual to many fans of both Queen and Rodgers. The group then not only did multiple tours together, but also released a live album Return of the Champions and a studio album of brand new work The Cosmos Rocks. Though the collaboration is over and has been for five years, the band is now preparing for a new summer tour with singer Adam Lambert taking the mic. In retrospect, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor concede that Rodgers may not have been the best fit for them.

Taylor recently said in an interview with the Toronto Sun, “Paul has one of the greatest rock voices but it’s more blues and soul orientated I would have thought. I would say, with all due respect to Paul, that Adam is more suited to a lot of our material and whereas we had great tours with Paul, I think Adam is more naturally at home with us.”

May concurred with Taylor by saying, “Yeah, I think the styles match more closely in a sense, but we had a great time with Paul no doubt about it and it kind of stretched it to a new place and I think a thoroughly good experience. But Adam is really, like us, he has many, many colors, so we can explore some of those strange excursions that Queen likes to.”

The tour with Lambert is set to get moving on June 19th at the United Center in Chicago, IL. Unfortunately, this may be one of Queen's last tours ever due to May and Taylor feeling their age creep up on them. May says, “We haven’t done it for a long time and I don’t know how long we’re going to be capable of doing this kind of thing. At the moment it is that feeling, yeah, ‘One last swing around, one last gallop,’ and we’ll see how it goes.”

“We haven’t done it for a long time and I don’t know how long we’re going to be capable of doing this kind of thing,” May continued. “At the moment it is that feeling, yeah, ‘One last swing around, one last gallop,’ and we’ll see how it goes.”

Read More: Queen Admit that the Paul Rodgers Era Didn't Really Work | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/queen-paul-rodgers-era/?trackback=tsmclip

Slash Releases Stream of New Single "World on Fire"

Earlier in the week, world renowned guitarist Slash released to Dutch radio station 3FM a short snippet of the title track from his upcoming album World on Fire. It was streamed from the station's website and soon after Slash's personal YouTube page. Today however, the full song has now been posted to the YouTube page in its entirety for streaming.

The song is very unmistakeably Slash. It practically has his name written all over it with the flashy bluesy hard rock guitar playing. It is very up-tempo and has many of the vocal harmonies that singer Myles Kennedy is known for doing. The style overall sounds fairly similar to the vibe of the previous album Apocalyptic Love that Slash and Co. put out back in 2012.

Produced by Michael "Elvis" Baskette and recorded at NRG Studios in Los Angeles and Paint it Black Studios in Orlando, World on Fire will feature 17 all new songs by Slash and his backing band Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. It will be dropping on September 15th. The single itself will be available for purchase on the 16th of this month.

Listen to "World on Fire" here:

Throwback Thursday: Back in Black: The Return of AC/DC

After the great deal of success that hard rock band AC/DC had with their 1979 Highway to Hell album, they had begun working on new material. However, things took an extremely unfortunate turn and their progress was briefly halted when on February 19th, 1980 lead singer Bon Scott's life was brought to a tragic early end when he succumbed to a terrible alcohol poisoning incident. When this happened the band was in mourning and considering calling it quits, but with insistence from Scott's parents they were convinced to find a new singer and carry on because it is what he would have wanted them to do. This lead them to find former Geordie singer Brian Johnson.

Soon enough, the band was Compass Point Studios with producer Mutt Lange recording new material with Johnson including some of the songs they had been working on with Scott. This would become one of the band's most famous and successful albums: Back in Black. The album features five of AC/DC's biggest hits: Back in Black, Shoot to Thrill, Hell's Bells, Rock n' Roll Ain't Noise Pollution, and You Shook Me All Night Long. Having so many commercial hits on one record is the main cause that to date Back in Black has sold over 50 million copies since its release on July 21, 1980, making it the second highest selling album of all time next to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album.

Though AC/DC's previous albums had been very hard rock based, Back in Black seemed to take things in an even heavier direction and also at times a bit darker. Johnson's high ranged screaming vocal style seemed to call for more of a punch than what the band had been doing. The band was more than able to pull through on this. One of the noticeable characteristics of Back in Black in contrast to AC/DC's albums with Scott is that many of them are a bit more of a walking pace with catchier hooks for the choruses whereas the old songs were often times a bit faster and more based on 50's rock song writing style.

This would be no Back in Black review if we didn't take a bit of time to examine the album's title track. The song starts off with a couple measures of hits on the hi-hat cymbals when BAM -you're hit right in the face with two guitars playing the beefy chords that make up the signature riff that many people have come to know and love over the years. The whole song maintains a pretty steady walking tempo, but it features some of Johnson's best vocal work as well as lead guitarist Angus Young's best soloing and rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young's best riffage. The whole track is non-stop in your face rock n' roll leaving no room for any further desire.

While also released as a single and played on the radio from time to time, one tune from Back in Black that deserves a little more attention is Rock n' Roll Ain't Noise Pollution. It starts off with just one guitar playing some finger picked electric blues and Johnson lighting up a cigarette and taking a puff or two. Johnson then starts the first of the vocals, which sound like him just shouting out to some guys on a fence. The song honestly does paint a really good musical picture of this kind of scene, especially when it goes into the meat and potatoes of the track itself. This track is a little more up-tempo than Back in Black and is also a bit bluesier. The lyrics themselves as in many of AC/DC's timeless tracks mainly talk about love of rock n' roll and how it will never die.

Though the circumstances surrounding the genesis of Back in Black are rather somber, it not only brought AC/DC back from the grave, but launched their career into a state of massive success that they had never seen before. It is what has ensured that the band will always be among the titans of rock n' roll and that no matter what rock n' roll will survive, yes it will.

Back in Black, by AC/DC receives 5 out of 5 stars.

Buy the album on Amazon:

 http://www.amazon.com/Back-Black-AC-DC/dp/B000089RV6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402634392&sr=8-1&keywords=AC%2FDC+Back+in+Black

Deep Purple Recording New Album

It has recently come to light according to lead singer Ian Gillan that Deep Purple are working on a brand new album. Given the amount of time the band has spent in between albums in recent years it is an unexpected but most welcome surprise to their fans because it has only been one year since they released their most recent album Now What?!.

In a recent interview with Rocksquare Gillan stated, “We have a studio in the Algarve where we’re working on new songs. In the evening we take a sip of good red wine and enjoy the tranquility. I’m woken up at dawn by a rooster in the neighborhood and I get up when it gets light. When it gets dark in the evening, I go to bed. It’s a no-frills life; but it’s a good life down here.”

Unfortunately Gillan has not given any insight or clues as to what kind of musical direction the band will be taking on this album, but he has assured the press that they will be taking the songs on the road for all to hear.

A couple of weeks ago, Gillan made a rather bold retort to those who were saying that he and the rest of Deep Purple are far too old to still be performing and making music. “We have been called old rockers, rock pensioners and dinosaurs. I mean, I have a thick skin I understand that, of course, if the young ones say: ‘Step aside, Grandpa! Die at last!’ I think to myself then stop: ‘F— you.’”

Paul McCartney to Postpone US Tour Dates Due to Doctor's Orders

Unfortunately it seems that former Beatle Paul McCartney is not completely out of the woods yet health-wise. Last month he contracted an unnamed virus which forced him to cancel a whole slew of tour dates in Japan and South Korea just before the tour was supposed to begin. McCartney was then kept in a Japanese hospital until he was deemed ok to leave.

However, this illness doesn't seem to be gone entirely and is forcing McCartney to postpone the first two weeks of his U.S. tour going on this summer called Out There. It was originally scheduled to take off on June 14th in Lubbock, TX.

In a recent press release McCartney said, “I’m sorry but it’s going to be a few more weeks before we get rocking in America again. I’m feeling great but taking my docs’ advice to take it easy for just a few more days. Look forward to seeing you all soon.”

Seven of the dates including the Lubbock, TX date have now been moved to October and the tour itself will get started instead on July 5th in Albany, NY. Below are the rescheduled tour dates.

Rescheduled Paul McCartney Tour Dates:

10/2 – Lubbock, TX
10/11 – New Orleans, LA
10/13 – Dallas, TX
10/15 – Atlanta, GA
10/16 – Nashville, TN
10/25 – Jacksonville, FL
10/28 – Louisville, KY

“I’m sorry but it’s going to be a few more weeks before we get rocking in America again,” he said in a press release. “I’m feeling great but taking my docs’ advice to take it easy for just a few more days. Look forward to seeing you all soon.”

Read More: Paul McCartney Postpones U.S. Tour Dates On Doctor’s Orders | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/paul-mccartney-postpones-us-tour/?trackback=tsmclip