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Ethan Miller, Getty Images Twisted Sister made headlines last month with talk that they were planning to take legal action against the owner of a Minneapolis food truck over usage of their band name, but guitarist and a manager Jay Jay French says there really wasn’t much of a choice in taking action. The band sent a cease-and-desist letter to the owner of the Twisted Sister House of Hunger food truck, and owner Wesley Kaake told local station WCCO-TV that in researching the matter, he discovered that there were at least six other businesses who also received similar letters from the band. In response to the backlash, French told Blabbermouth , “I get how stories like these appear like David vs. Goliath. I also get how easy it is to take cheap shots at my band because of our former image and the ’80s-era iconography. [But] the fact of the matter is that trademark law doesn’t give me a choice on who and what to defend. The law is very clear: either defend your trademark or lose rights to it.” The guitarist says over the years he’s had to take action against major companies like Six Flags, Urban Decay, and Harley-Davidson as well as some of the “mom and pop companies.” He adds, “The defense is almost always the same. They first claim that they never heard of the band and then they say that no one would confuse the two anyway. I have won every case. The unique juxtaposition of the words ‘Twisted’ and ‘Sister’ have never ever appeared in print prior to my band’s use of it. This was established in the Six Flags case.” French concludes, “The name is so unique, like Led Zeppelin, that any use would confuse the marketplace as either the product or service is owned or endorsed by us. Also, if I let one go, that just emboldens someone else with the rationale that ‘you didn’t bother them, so why go after me.’ I have heard this many times before.” The guitarist also states that he’s not opposed to the food truck using the name for their business so long as they legally license it from the band. He adds, “One hundred percent of the licensing money will go to the OUIF (Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation.” [button href=”http://loudwire.com/twisted-sister-pee-wees-big-adventure-cameo/” title=”Next: Twisted Sister – Musician Movie Cameos” align=”center”]
Matthew Simmons, Getty Images The Used will head up the 2013 Take Action Tour, and they’ll be squeezing a little extra life out of their ‘Vulnerable’ album by re-releasing it as a two-disc effort titled ‘Vulnerable II’ that coincides with the run. The Used will welcome We Came As Romans , Crown the Empire, and Mindflow for the tour, which launches Jan. 11 at the Las Vegas House of Blues. Like past Take Action treks, the tour has a charitable association. This year, proceeds from the trek will be directed to the It Gets Better Project, created to provide youths in the LGBT community with a positive outlook by showing the potential of what can happen by surviving the often difficult teen years. Ten percent of each ticket sold will be donated to It Gets Better and the annual charitable sponsor, Sub City. Tickets are on sale at the Take Action website . The Used’s Bert McCracken and Jeph Howard have created an “It Gets Better” video to help support the cause. The promo can be seen below. “It’s our privilege to work with such a lovely charity that does so much good in this confusing world,” says McCracken. “Pease check out itgetsbetter.org and we’ll see you at the Take Action Tour.” In addition, Hopeless Records will partner with Sub City to offer the ‘Take Action Compilation, Vol. 11,” which features tracks from The Used, Bad Religion, AWOLNATION, Falling in Reverse , Whitechapel and more. As with the tour, a portion of the proceeds from sale of the two-disc set will go to It Gets Better. As for The Used’s ‘Vulnerable II’ re-release, the album has now expanded to a two-disc set, with the second disc offering multiple remixes and acoustic versions of tracks from the original effort. It’s due in stores Jan. 22, and can be pre-ordered here . Watch The Used’s Bert McCracken and Jeph Howard’s “It Gets Better” Spot 2013 Take Action Tour Dates: 1/11 — Las Vegas, Nev. — House of Blues 1/12 — Salt Lake City, Utah — In The Venue 1/14 — Denver, Colo. — Summit 1/16 — Kansas City, Mo. — The Beaumont 1/17 — Minneapolis, Minn. — First Avenue 1/19 — Milwaukee, Wis. — The Rave 1/20 — Indianapolis, Ind. — Egyptian Room 1/22 — St. Louis, Mo. — The Pageant 1/23 — Chicago, Ill. — House of Blues 1/25 — Pittsburgh, Pa. — Stage AE 1/26 — Rochester, N.Y. — Water Street Music Hall 1/28 — Washington, D.C. — 9:30 Club 1/29 — Boston, Mass. — House of Blues 1/30 — Sayreville, N.J. — Starland Ballroom 2/1 — Hartford, Ct. — Webster Theatre 2/2 — Atlantic City, N.J. — House of Blues 2/4 — Atlanta, Ga. — Tabernacle 2/5 — Tampa, Fla. — Ritz Ybor 2/7 — Asheville, N.C. — Orange Peel 2/8 — Cincinnati, Ohio — Bogart’s 2/10 — Detroit, Mich. — Fillmore 2/11 — Cleveland, Ohio — House of Blues 2/13 — Tulsa, Okla. — Cain’s Ballroom 2/14 — Houston, Texas — House of Blues 2/16 — Austin, Texas — Emo’s East 2/17 — Dallas, Texas — House of Blues 2/19 — San Antonio, Texas — Backstage Live 2/20 — El Paso, Texas — Tricky Falls 2/22 — Albuquerque, N.M. — Sunshine Theatre 2/24 — Phoenix, Ariz. — Marquee Theatre 2/26 — San Francisco, Calif. — The Fillmore 2/27 — San Diego, Calif. — House of Blues 3/1 — Los Angeles, Calif. — The Wiltern The Used ‘Vulnerable II’ Track Listing Disc One 1. ‘Come Alive’ 2. ‘This Fire’ 3. ‘Hands and Faces’ 4. ‘Put Me Out’ 5. ‘Shine’ 6. ‘Now That You’re Dead’ 7. ‘Give Me Love’ 8. ‘Moving On’ 9. ‘Getting Over You’ 10. ‘Kiss It Goodbye’ / ‘Kinda Hectic’ (Interlude) 11. ‘Hurt No One’ 12. ‘Together Burning Bright’ Disc Two 1. ‘Surrender’ 2. ‘The Lonely’ 3. ‘Machine’ 4. ‘Disaster’ 5. ‘I Come Alive (Revolvr and Danny Mihai Remix) 6. ‘Hands and Faces’ (Bobby Alt Remix) 7. ‘Put Me Out’ (Kraddy Remix) 8. ‘I Come Alive’ (acoustic) 9. ‘Put Me Out’ (acoustic) 10. ‘Together Burning Bright’ (acoustic) [button href=”http://loudwire.com/the-used-discuss-new-album-vulnerable-intense-encounter-with-super-fan-more/” title=”Next: The Used Discuss ‘Vulnerable’ Album” align=”center”]
PearlJam.com Pearl Jam are one of the leaders when it comes to providing their fans with bootleg performances of their shows, but they intend on making the turnaround a little quicker and offering some special deals in the future. As such, they’ve launched what they’re calling the “Instant Classic” bootleg series. In late September, the group played one of their few shows this year in Missoula, Mont. as a show of support for Montana Senator Jon Tester’s re-election campaign. The Adams Center performance was the first time in seven years the group had played in Missoula, and it turned out to be such a high energy show that the band declared it “an instant classic.” As a result, they put a rush on making the performance available to their fans for a limited time at a special price. The period is currently underway and continues through Tuesday (Nov. 13) with fans being able to purchase the bootleg in MP3 format for $4.99. Most bootlegs retail for $9.99 at the group’s website . During this sale period, proceeds will be donated to the Poverello Center in Missoula. After Nov. 13, all formats (MP3, FLAC, FLAC-HD, and CD) of the show performance will be available at regular prices. Visit www.pearljam.com/goods to place your order. Pearl Jam are in the process of working on new music, though bassist Jeff Ament recently admitted that they are taking it at their own pace and that he doesn’t expect they’ll continue work on the disc until sometime early next year. He added that even though there are seven or eight songs recorded, “It’s still sort of a blank slate and that’s exciting.” No timetable has been set for delivery of the next album. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/best-grunge-bands/” title=”Next: 10 Best Grunge Bands” align=”center”]
Stephen Dunn, Getty Images There’s no doubt that Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea is definitely an avid basketball fan, and that his loyalties lie with his Los Angeles home teams. On Friday night, he won over numerous UCLA fans while donning a homemade t-shirt in support of suspended basketball star Shabazz Muhammad as he performed the national anthem. Donning a baby blue t-shirt that read “Free Shabazz Muhammad” written in black marker, the musician was greeted with a warm reception. Muhammad, one of the top ranked freshmen in the nation, was declared “indefinitely ineligible” by the NCAA just prior to the team’s first game as a result of alleged extra benefits received during his recruitment. Flea tweeted , “Free Shabazz Muhammad. NCAA is out of control. This is absurd.” According to Yahoo Sports , Flea’s shirt mirrored the thoughts of some of the team’s fans, as several students were noticed donning “Free Shabazz” shirts with the player’s likeness on the front. The shirt likely eased a few tensions for the bassist as well, as he took classes at UCLA’s crosstown rival USC a few years ago. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/red-hot-chili-peppers-flea-back-to-the-future-cameo/” title=”Next: Flea – Musician Movie Cameos” align=”center”]
Facebook: Kamelot Kamelot have had a busy year with touring North America, especially after a massive trek with Nightwish. Not to mention they’ve released their tenth studio album ‘Silverthorn,’ the first to feature the band’s new vocalist Tommy Karevik and they are currently on tour all over Europe in promotion for the new disc. While they were in the States we got the chance to speak with Kamelot guitarist Thomas Youngblood who looked back on their tour with Nightwish and talked about the band’s chemistry with the Agonist frontwoman Alyssa White-Gluz. He also expressed his enthusiasm about the release of ‘Silverthorn’ and Kamelot’s future as a whole. How would you describe the experience of touring with Nightwish? It was great. I think the musical styles of both bands complement each other really well even though we’re different from each other. We’ve been talking about doing a tour with them for a few years now so it’s cool to finally see it happen. It’s been great. You were at the show in New York and they all have been pretty packed and the fans love the combination. Alyssa White-Gluz of the Agonist joined you on stage and she’s offers vocals on the new record. How would you describe your relationship with her musically. Yeah, she’s been on my radar for a few years, we had the Agonist as one of the supporting bands on our last U.S. tour and I kind of knew about her before but on the tour we had her come out for a couple of shows and do ‘March of Mephisto’ with us — from then on it was just really cool chemistry between her and the band. When it was time to do the new album we had a spot on there that normally we probably would’ve had a guy do but I thought it was a cool twist to have a female growler. She kicked ass with the part and we shot the video for ‘Sacrimony’ and she’s also in the video so it’s been fun. It’s cool to see her in action when she comes onstage because she’s got this dominating presence which I think is really cool. ‘Silverthorn’ is the tenth studio album. What does the name of the record mean to you personally? Well the fact that we were able to make this record so quickly, we got this perfect blend of beauty and pain. The title ‘Silverthorn’ itself is a sort of a contradiction — the literal meaning is something that’s in the story but for us we just look at it as this strange and beautiful creation that we were able to achieve. This new record is a concept album –- do you find that there are any particular challenges with a concept album that are different from creating a non-concept album? Definitely, you have to stick within the storylines –- for example lyrically if you want to write stars and it has nothing to do with the story, it’s more open and easier to do a non-concept album. With a concept record you have to stay with the story, it wasn’t a massive challenge in terms of inspiration; things just seemed to fall right into place from the very beginning. I don’t know if we will do another concept record or not but with this one everything went super smooth. We’re totally stoked about the record and we knew we had something special when we were about half way in the middle of this thing. The newest member, vocalist Tommy Karevik, was exceptional at the live show in New York. What does he bring to the band? I think when we knew we had to bring in a new person on vocals we wanted the opportunity to grow the band not just to maintain the band or survive. We wanted to look at this as an opportunity to make the band bigger — I think with Tommy we can do that. Not only is he an exceptional singer, he’s a great songwriter and he’s way ahead of what I thought he would be in terms of being a frontman. People who come out to shows will see that this guy is a force to be reckoned with. [Laughs] I can’t imagine a better choice, honestly. In the beginning when this whole thing started we were a little unsure of what the future might be but now we’re really excited about it. The members of the entire band — you have a couple of Europeans and Americans from different states. Do you find the international mix adds to the creativity of the band at all? It probably does somehow, everybody has different likes and tastes –- I think the most important thing is getting along, just having a similar sense of humor, having a similar sense of social skills like being polite but also having a good time. That whole kind of chemistry is the most important and that way when we go to create things we do it more as friends instead of just being colleagues or business partners -– I think that’s the key to the chemistry and the band’s future. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/nightwish-kamelot-bring-powerful-show-to-new-york-city/” title=”Next: Check Out Photos of Kamelot’s Stop in NYC” align=”center”]
YouTube Ozzy Osbourne ‘s ‘Crazy Train’ has become one of the great songs in metal history and as such, it’s also been one of the most covered tracks in the genre. The latest artist to take a stab at the song is Broadway veteran Rena Strober, who along with acclaimed cellist Tina Guo, serve up a more clean-cut version of the classic song. Strober and Guo both make appearances in the new video, which has been dubbed ‘Crazy Train: The Wizard of Ozzy.’ While the wholesome look of Strober in the clip may not be exactly what some would expect to match the song’s lyrical content, the singer no less delivers the track with a full voice and a hint of “crazy” in her eyes and smile. Meanwhile, Guo is ferociously awesome on the standup electric bass and the fury at which she’s attacking the instrument is embellished a bit by the shaky camera movements. Strober has enjoyed a solid run on the stage, appearing the Broadway version of ‘Les Miserables,’ staging her one-woman show ‘Spaghetti & Matzo Balls,’ and touring the country in a production of ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’ She’s also released her own album called ‘Finding Home.’ Guo has managed to meld both classical playing and a rock/metal fusion into her cello style. She’s worked primarily creating music for motion pictures, video games and television scores. Most recently, Guo has been the featured soloist on the electric cello for Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson ‘The Immortal’ World Tour. She was also featured as part of the Foo Fighters lineup for the Grammy Awards. As for Osbourne, he’s enjoyed a career as both a solo artist and member of Black Sabbath . He also was recently named President of Heavy Metal in a Loudwire election. Watch Rena Strober and Tina Guo’s Video for ‘Crazy Train’ [button href=”http://loudwire.com/ozzy-osbourne-little-nicky-cameo/” title=”Next: Ozzy Osbourne – Musician Movie Cameos” align=”center”]
Kevin Winter, Getty Images It’s great to jam out with your buddies, but you really find out a lot about a person when you spend every waking hour with them on the road and even the best of friends can start irritating each other. Luckily, Duff McKagan , who knows a thing or two about performing with some rather unique personalities, has offered a few tips for survival on the road in his latest Seattle Weekly column. McKagan, who has been part of combustible acts like Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver , says in introducing his 10-point list, “There is definitely an art to the dance that is being in a band. All kinds of crap can happen if band members let some of the following things go unattended. As an aside, it is healthy for a band’s creative juices to have a bit of a rub within the band. The release of tension onstage can be magical.” With that said, McKagan’s guide to surviving in a touring band is as follows: 1. Don’t be a dick. Yes. That simple. 2. Get used to having little to no personal space for weeks at a time. A tour bus or a van, and traveling through airports together, can be small enough, but add small backstage dressing rooms, rehearsal rooms, and studio control and you have the condition for someone in your band to blow their top. 3. Personal hygiene. (see #2) 4. Respect off-limits places. For example, when you draw the curtains to your bunk on the bus, no one should be allowed to f— with you. No punching in the dick, even. Each others’ girlfriends/wives/husbands/boyfriends are also off-limits. 5. Share everything. Clothes, chocolate, drugs, whatever. If it’s expendable, it is a “band” item. 6. Hug it out. Being in a band is the best place I can think of to be as up-front as possible. If you let something stew, it’ll grow into a mountain of nonsensical black mud in no time. 7. Read books and keep informed. The conversation can get old if you don’t have some good new topics to bring to the table. Gossip and c–k-talk only go so far. 8. Keep in touch with Mama Kin. Yes, definitely phone home and text as much as possible. It keeps one a bit sane, and leaves one with at least a modicum of a cornerstone. 9. Write a riff. Keep bringing fresh ideas to your band. 10. Don’t poo in the same room that someone else is eating in. Unless of course said eater gives the “poo OK.” If a “poo OK” is granted, you have a band that will NEVER break up! These days, McKagan has more control over how things play out as a touring member and leader of Duff McKagan’s Loaded . The bassist has also become a well-respected columnist, and an archive of his Seattle Weekly pieces can be viewed here . [button href=”http://loudwire.com/duff-mckagan-loaded-the-taking-film-10-vignettes/” title=”Next: Duff McKagan’s Loaded Unveil ‘The Taking’ Film in Vignettes” align=”center”]