Samir Hussein, Getty Images These days, it seems as if you haven’t truly arrived until you’ve been awarded your very own SiriusXM show — so congratulations to Pearl Jam ‘s Eddie Vedder , who will kick off his brand new satellite radio series tomorrow (Dec. 5). Descriptively dubbed ‘The Eddie Vedder Radio Show,’ Vedder’s new program will air on SiriusXM’s Pearl Jam Radio channel, and is being presented in what the network is calling a “limited run.” According to a press release, episodes will find Vedder spinning “many of his all-time favorite songs, from early punk rock influences to unreleased material from his personal archives.” “Eddie has been the voice of a generation and a voice with a conscience and we are happy to have him take up residence here to do his own show,” said SiriusXM president and COO in a prepared announcement. “Eddie’s record collection could tell some stories all by itself, let alone with Eddie at the helm; we know our listeners will enjoy hearing this one.” The report comes amid a flurry of Pearl Jam news, including word that the band is deep into preparations for its next album, the follow-up to 2009′s ‘Backspacer’ although according to bassist Jeff Ament , there aren’t any concrete plans for 2013. While they take their time working on new material, it’s nice to know Vedder will be using his spare time to keep entertaining the fans. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/eddie-vedder-dave-grohl-12-12-12-hurricane-sandy-relief-show-madison-square-garden/” title=”Next: Eddie Vedder to Play 12-12-12 Benefit Show in NYC” align=”center”]
Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com Avenged Sevenfold are huge video game fans, so it was a no-brainer for the band when they were approached to do something special for the newly-released ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II’ game. Not only did they contribute the song ‘ Carry On ‘ to the soundtrack, the band — in their animated form — turn up at the end to perform the track with ‘Black Ops” two main characters. Singer M. Shadows told USA Today , “They said they wanted the song to be uplifting and they wanted it to add some levity to the game.” He adds, “[The game has] a very dark ending. They want you to have a certain feeling inside and they really wanted to have a feeling to uplift people at the end of the game and make you laugh.” The levity comes from the fact that the game’s longtime adversaries, Raul Menendez and Sgt. Frank Woods, manage to put aside their differences to join the band during the performance. Shadows explains, “‘Carry On’ was more like these guys coming together at the end and being buddies after they have pretty much killed each others’ families. I’m proud of it and I think it’s fun and it’s actually just really cool to be in a ‘Call of Duty’ game.” Of ‘Carry On,’ the vocalist says, “It was all about making a song that was up-tempo, something that had some cool little chord changes and key changes in there that gives the song a little bit of a life and we made it so the characters can rock out.” Shadows, an avid gamer, admits that having ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II’ out is a bit of a distraction, but he’s fully committed to wrapping up the band’s next studio album . He explains, “I write about eight hours a day, five days a week and then play games the rest of the night and hang out with my son. Fans don’t need to be worried that I am just playing ‘Call of Duty’ [all the time].” [button href=”http://loudwire.com/avenged-sevenfold-m-shadows-squashes-rumor-the-rev-cameo-call-of-duty-black-ops-2/” title=”Next: M. Shadows Discusses The Rev ‘Call of Duty’ Cameo Rumor” align=”center”]
Roadrunner Swedish progressive metal masters Opeth have the technical abilities to play almost any metal song ever written. During a tour stop in Germany, the band recently performed two legendary tracks, one of which is perhaps the world’s easiest metal song to play, mostly because it’s only two-seconds long. Opeth frontman Mikael Akerfeldt began to introduce the cover that group had planned on playing, ‘Solitude’ by Black Sabbath , but started to speak about how they had also covered Napalm Death ‘s ‘You Suffer’ in the past. After some cheers from the audience, Opeth performed ‘You Suffer’ in its two-second entirety for the exhilarated audience. Akerfeldt then went on to introduce ‘Solitude,’ a song that Opeth had played in the past. “Opeth, back in the day, in the early ’90s, we used to play this song. Back then I was really into making good-sounding rehearsal tapes, basically not proper studio demos, but you just have a tape recorder in the rehearsal room and record your band practice. And they had to be perfect, there couldn’t be any noise prior to the song or after the song, it had to be like a proper recording. I was very anal about that kind of thing.” He continues, “This song, we recorded and the drummer at the time had a cymbal on the drumstick, and it sounded perfect but in the end, he dropped the cymbal, [makes crashing noise] so I had to do it again. So don’t drop the f—ing cymbal.” Both Sabbath and Opeth fans are sure to appreciate this cover, as it’s masterfully pulled off by Akerfeldt and the boys. Opeth Perform Napalm Death’s ‘You Suffer’ and Black Sabbath’s ‘Solitude’ Live
Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com We recently published Part 1 of our interview with Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler, in which he went in-depth about frontman Randy Blythe’s incarceration in the Czech Republic this past summer and legal issues related to the incident. Now, in Part 2 of our interview, Adler discusses Lamb of God’s most recent disc ‘Resolution,’ as well as plans for the band’s next album. Lamb of God are currently on tour with In Flames, Hatebreed and Sylosis. Check out our review and photo gallery of NYC show here . The trek continues through a Dec. 16 show in Seattle. For ticket info, click here . Without further ado, here’s Part 2 of our interview with Lamb of God’s Chris Adler: After all the band went through this past summer, it must be a good feeling to get out and promote your latest album ‘Resolution’ again. I know it came out back in January, but can you take us back to the recording process of the disc and how it differed from past albums? Well, you’re right, it is very exciting to get out and tour. This [is] actually our first [full] U.S. tour since the album came out. We were supposed to be doing something this summer but obviously that got derailed a bit, so yeah we still have some work to do on [promoting] the record and we’re pretty excited about it. But going into the process, the biggest difference was our willingness to try different things. I think on previous albums, we’ve always had a specific kind of direction that we wanted to go in, like on ‘Sacrament’ we really wanted to embrace the songwriting and we weren’t afraid of studio ideas that the producer had … But when we did ‘Wrath,’ it went back to being a raw, aggressive, 100-miles-per-hour band. Our challenge coming into [‘Resolution’] was to somehow outdo ourselves and find a way for the band to evolve and go in different directions that we haven’t done before. Meanwhile, [we were] keeping note of the things that had worked well for us as a band — not just trying to replicate the hits or whatever but finding those interesting moments on the B-sides of those records that we could kind of explore further now that we’ve had done what we wanted to do as a metal band. So now, what can we do as far as pushing ourselves as songwriters and as a band? So, coming into it, that meant that ideas weren’t immediately popping out like they did before — like the orchestra and the opera singer on ‘King Me’ or Randy’s vocal delivery on some of the songs, letting him kind of sing instead of just scream. [We were] trying to find a more dynamic approach … in these songs to make them have more impact and build a more dynamic picture. Are there any songs in particular on ‘Resolution’ that you most enjoy playing live? I think that ‘The Undertow’ is probably one of my favorite ones to play live … When we started in the band in the ’90s, we were really influenced by a lot of the crossover bands, like S.O.D. and stuff like that. I think ‘The Undertow,’ while it’s certainly a technically proficient song, it encompasses of that idea of real strong punk rock energy mixed with the kind of speed metal proficiency, and that’s always been one of our favorite things to mix those two things up. So that’s a lot of fun to play live. Of course, ‘Desolation,’ the second track on the album that starts with the little drum solos, I may be a little biased but that’s a lot of fun for me to rock out to every night. And ‘Ghost Walking’ … has got an interesting little acoustic intro that kind of sets it apart … and has a really good groove to it. So, those are probably my three favorites right now. Randy has mentioned that he was inspired to write lyrics while he was in the Czech prison, and I was wondering if that will serve as motivation to hit the studio sooner than planned for the next album? It’s really going to depend. It’s like you said, Randy let us all know as well that he did some writing while he was there, and both Mark [Morton] and Willie [Adler], the guitar players, have let me know at different times that they’ve been working on a couple of different things, too. So I think that together, the elements are there for us when we do decide to go back in, at least a good starting point for us. But, this is all contingent on what happens in getting there. Obviously, we feel like Randy is innocent and justice will prevail. But we really don’t know what’s going to happen and the worst-case scenario there is that he’s locked up for 10 years. So, that would certainly put a damper on any studio or touring plans. But right now I think the focus is … to support this record [‘Resolution’], which we’re all very proud of, to get out and to do as much work as we can. The plan was originally to tour until the end of 2013 and to begin the writing process for another record in 2014. Assuming things go well with Randy, hopefully that plan plays out by the time we get there in 2014. With this process behind closed doors already starting, we’re going to have some good ammunition to get it going. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/lamb-of-god-chris-adler-talks-u-s-tour-randy-blythe-incarceration-dimebag-darrell-more/” title=”Part 1: Chris Adler Talks Randy Blythe, U.S. Tour + MOre” align=”center”]
EMI Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris dropped his debut solo album ‘British Lion’ earlier this year. He released a video for ‘This is My God’ in October, and now he and his band have unleashed another music video, this time for the track ‘Us Against the World.’ Described by Harris as less of a solo project and more of a side project, the legendary bassist wrote the entire album with vocalist Richard Taylor. Guitarist and keyboardist David Hawkins also contributed to the majority of the material for ‘British Lion,’ with a numerous amount other unofficial musicians lending their talents to the album. The video for ‘Us Against the World’ is pretty low-budget, especially compared to Iron Maiden’s latest music video for ‘The Final Frontier’ in 2010, which looks like it cost as much as an entire independent film. ‘Us Against the World’ introduces new fans to the members of Harris’ band, giving the musicians, especially Taylor, a large amount of screen time. Apart from the simple nature of the video, it features the band playing in a dark room with small rays of light shining through, reminiscent of Korn’s landmark video for ‘Freak on a Leash.’ Check out Steve Harris’ new vid for ‘Us Against the World.’ Steve Harris, ‘Us Against the World’
Samir Hussein / Theo Wargo, Getty Images Rockers are getting into the giving spirit and generously donating their time to victims of October’s devastating Superstorm Sandy. Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl , as well as Bon Jovi, have been added to the lineup for the 12-12-12 concert, which will benefit the Robin Hood Relief Fund’s efforts for victims of Hurricane Sandy. The one-night-only show will take place at Madison Square Garden, the “World’s Most Famous Arena,” in New York City on Dec. 12. Grohl and Vedder join a spectacular lineup that includes previously announced performers like Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Kanye West, the Who, Roger Waters, Alicia Keys and more. Even more artists will be announced for this multi-genre bill, which features rock, pop and hip-hop acts. Tickets go onsale on Monday, Dec. 3, at 12PM ET. The 12-12-12 show is helping the community and the nation come together to provide support to the Tri-State area, which was battered and bruised by the storm’s winds, rain and power. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/best-grunge-bands/” title=”Next: 10 Best Grunge Bands” align=”center”]
Kevin Winter, Getty Images Puddle of Mudd ‘s Wes Scantlin is breathing a little easier, as TMZ reports that the public intoxication charge against him for a JetBlue airline incident has been dropped. The rocker was arrested in September in Austin, Texas for alleged public intoxication after fighting with an airline attendant who refused to serve him alcohol. The argument was significant enough that the Los Angeles-bound plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Austin. According to reports, the judge in the case ruled that there was “insufficient evidence” to prosecute the singer. The vocalist claimed that he was sober at the time of the argument. The Puddle of Mudd singer could have faced jail time had the charge stood, as he was previously charged with cocaine possession in June, but remained free as part of a plea deal so long as he stayed out of trouble for 18 months. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/puddle-of-mudd-control-top-21st-century-hard-rock-songs/” title=”Next: Puddle of Mudd – Top 21st Century Hard Rock Songs” align=”center”]