thePULSE
REM
R.E.M. will release a brand-new double live album, entitled R.E.M. Live At The Olympia on October 27th, 2009 via Warner Bros. Records. The two-CD set, produced by Jacknife Lee, features 39 songs that capture the best moments from the band’s 2007 “working rehearsals” at Dublin’s fabled Olympia club where singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, and bassist Mike Mills tested out new songs for R.E.M.’s 2008 studio album Accelerate.
The material was tested were five nights before fired-up, capacity crowds comprised of fan-club members, friends, family, and fans from all over the world who were privy to R.E.M.’s so-called “experiment in terror,” as guitarist Peter Buck puts it. “We were just trying to do something we hadn’t done before,” Buck says, “which meant there was no relaxing during the set. Every second we were playing something we didn’t know all that well. Which was kind of good — there were all kinds of terror elements going on during that show.”
This release gives fans a chance to hear different incarnations of the songs before they were recorded in their final Accelerate versions, including “Man-Sized Wreath” and an early version of “Supernatural Superserious” under its original title “Disguised.” The band has included two bonus songs; “On The Fly” and “Staring Down The Barrel Of The Middle Distance,” that were not included on Accelerate. In addition, the package features many early R.E.M. favorites from the albums Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, and Life’s Rich Pageant.
Live At The Olympia will be released in several configurations including the double-CD, featuring 39 tracks, as well as a CD + DVD, which includes concert and backstage footage shot by noted French filmmakers Vincent Moon and Jeremiah who shot all the footage that R.E.M. posted on its various websites connected to Accelerate last year.
www.remdublin.com and www.remhq.com
BACKSTREET BOYS
Backstreet Boys are very proud to announce the release of their new album, This is Us. Set for an Oct. 6th release on Jive Records, This is Us is the seventh studio album from this groundbreaking and chart topping group that redefined the modern musical landscape, ushering in a chapter of pop culture that commandeered the world’s radio airwaves, broke music and concert sales records, and launched a new generation of teen idols. Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell and AJ McLean collaborated with a powerhouse suite of producers and songwriters on This is Us that included T-Pain, Max Martin, RedOne, Soulshock and Karlin, Jim Jonsin and Claude Kelly. The end result is an indelible and finely crafted R&B and pop album from four talented musicians who love what they do and who maintain the rare relevance in an industry that often disposes of pop acts.
The 11 songs that make up This is Us are the sounds of four skilled singers with a similar vision, who have dealt with the trials and tribulations that accompany fame at an early age and who came out as one of the most successful groups of all time. From the undeniable dance floor ready lead single “Straight Through My Heart” to the reflective soar of “Bigger,” from the hook crazy “Bye Bye Love” to the romantic yearning of “She’s A Dream,” This is Us shows that the “boys” have grown remarkably as songwriters and gives us songs that, as past albums have, will make millions smile.
“We’re really excited to release this new album and know that our fans are excited too. We worked with a group of amazing artists and producers that we’ve never worked with before, exploring new sounds and territory and know the final product turned out incredible” says Carter.
Over the last 12 years, the Backstreet Boys have sold more than 76 million albums worldwide, have scored a dozen Top 40 hits and charted in the Top Ten in nearly every country making them one of the most successful groups of all time.
Backstreet Boys plan on spending the second half of 2009 and all of 2010 on the road. A full North American headlining tour will be announced shortly.
www.backstreetboys.com, www.thebackstreetboys.com, www.myspace.com/backstreetboys, www.youtube.com/bsbofficial, twitter.com/backstreetboys
RAMMSTEIN
Rammstein released “Pussy,” with B-side “Rammlied,” on Sept. 22 as the first single from their forthcoming album due out Oct. 20 via Universal Music Germany. The single, available exclusively via iTunes, is the first new music to come from the Berlin-based band in over four years. Having sold three million albums in the U.S. alone (and over 14 million worldwide), anticipation for the new album, whose title has been a closely guarded secret, is high with rumors running rampant worldwide as to the theme and contents of the new release.
A post on from the band’s website this morning heralded the news of the first available music via the “Pussy” single: “Carried by a gigantic wave of testosterone, Rammstein unsheathes its sword and presents what makes man an animal. So start your engines. With pedal to the metal on the Autobahn of German clichés, where homage is paid to the hand-to-hand battle between the sexes with words like Bratwurst, Blitzkrieg, and Mercedes-Benz … to destinations abroad, past Heidi with her burgers and away from the German Fräuleinwunder.” An accompanying video was directed by Jonas Åkerlund,; premiere information coming soon.
Pre-production for the new album was done at Castle Beesenstedt in eastern Germany’s Halle/Saale while the bulk of the recording was done in late 2008 at Northern California’s Sonoma Mountain Studio. As with the band’s previous releases, the new album was mixed and mastered by Jacob Hellner in Stockholm.
www.rammstein.de, www.myspace.com/rammstein
LYNCH MOB
Frontiers Records is excited to announce the worldwide release on October 13of the Lynch Mob come-back studio album entitled Smoke and Mirrors.
After 17 long years, singer Oni Logan and guitar wizard George Lynch found their way back together and again show their amazing abilities in some killer new hard rock songs.
“I would say this new record…is the record we should have put out as a follow up to ‘Wicked Sensation’…better late then never I guess,” said Lynch.
Lynch Mob was formed by Lynch, one of the few genuine guitar heroes of substance to emerge from the Los Angeles scene, after Dokken split up in 1989. The band’s first album, “Wicked Sensation,” went on to sell over 500,000 units in the US and featured the talents of singer Oni Logan, Anthony Esposito on bass, and another former Dokken member, Mick Brown, on drums. After a tour in support of Queensryche, Logan opted out, with Robert Mason taking his place on the follow up self-titled release. Lynch and Brown eventually returned to Dokken, releasing two studio albums until he left again in late 1997, putting together a several new incarnations of Lynch Mob and exploring new sounds with different projects.
However, Logan and Lynch found themselves again in a studio in the summer of ’07. “We weren’t sure what was going to happen,” Lynch said, “but as soon as I heard what Oni was coming up with just off the top of his head, I knew the old chemistry was still there. So we spent many months writing. The first batch of songs had almost a Southern rock feel to them and there was quite a bit of acoustic and slide work on those. They also had a genuine ’70s vibe. These first songs had elements reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac, Zeppelin, Black Crowes, Stones, and it was all very bluesy. We lived with those songs for a while then went in and did a second round of collaboration. We had tightened up as a band after touring over the summer and we consciously wrote the newer material with the ‘Wicked Sensation’ record in mind. So we updated the earlier songs a little and wrote a few more ‘adventurous’ tracks and went in to start recording.”
Joining the new line-up are bassist Marco Mendoza (Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy) and drummer Scott Coogan (Brides of Destruction, Ace Frehley). More than a band, this team is guaranteed to create one of the most explosive shows you can ever experience and shines big time on the brand new recording, which is set to bring back Lynch Mob on the map of the most exciting hard rock bands around! “Marco Mendoza is a gift from heaven,” Lynch said. “How they figured out how to stuff all that talent and goodness into one person I’ll never know. They must have made a mistake at the factory! Then there’s Scott Coogan on drums….baby of the band. He’s very solid, very ‘Bonhamesque.'”
The Smoke and Mirrors track listing includes: “21st Century Man,” “Smoke and Mirrors,” “Lucky Man,” “My Kind of Healer,” “Time Keepers,” “Revolution Hero,” “Let the Music Be Your Master,” “The Fascist,” “Where Do You Sleep at Night?,” “Madly Backwards,” “We Will Remain,” “Before I Close My Eyes,” and “Mansions in the Sky” (Bonus Track).
Lynch Mob are ready to embark on a world tour in the fall 2009 to follow up on the successful performance at the Rocklahoma 2008 and to promote Smoke and Mirrors. “We have been expecting to go out in a support situation with a bigger act in the fall of ’09 to coincide with the release of ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ and were also expecting to visit Europe, as well,” Lynch said. “It’s been way too long since I’ve played Europe and we need to tour there extensively…last time Lynch Mob toured Europe was with Queensryche and I think that was 1991!”
Get back to real rock with Lynch Mob’s new album Smoke and Mirrors!
www.georgelynch.com, www.myspace.com/lynchmobrocks
AUGURY
Ready to embark on their first tour of North America (with Dutch death metallers God Dethroned, New York’s Abigail Williams, and Ohio’s Woe Of Tyrants) in support of their Nuclear Blast debut, Fragmentary Evidence, members of Montreal’s Augury checked in from their rehearsal space in their hometown of Montreal:
“It’ll be exciting to spread our music to a larger audience in America,” said guitarist Mathieu Marcotte. “Even though we have never played there yet, we have a lot of fans who are waiting to see us live. The challenge is the same wherever you’re playing: to put out your best every night while having fun.”
Drummer Antoine Baril added, “There are so many great cities that I’ve always been dreaming to visit and it’s even better to know that we will play a show in each one of them. My biggest challenge is to get better and better as a musician at each show and spread energy to the crowd to share the endless passion I have for this music we play.”
“What we expect is a spiral of colliding human bodies, rotating as a single mass, yielding all that energy,” said vocalist & guitarist Patrick Loisel. “In the end, it’ll be like Godzilla trampled your town!”
In addition to pledging multiple updates during the tour and answering all fan e-mails, Augury’s self-described “archive freak” (Baril) will be uploading video footage from the tour onto the band’s MySpace site, so visit Augury online at www.myspace.com/Augury & www.Augurymetal.com ~ And then catch them at The Palladium on Oct. 17.
HEATHENFEST
Heathen sects from across Europe will be converging on North America for the first annual Heathenfest tour! Switzerland’s Eluveitie, the world’s heaviest Celtic tinged folk-metal band in existence, will be headlining the event with direct support coming from label mates Belphegor, Austria’s most feared S&M-loving blasphemers. Support will come from Scotland’s own Pirate metal sensations Alestorm, Finland’s female fronted folk-metal troupe Kivimetsan Druidi, and Norwegian black n’ rollers Vreid.
Eluveitie (www.eluveitie.ch & www.myspace.com/eluveitie) mastermind Chrigel Glanzmann commented, “After our last planned US tour appearance was cancelled we were just as disappointed as our fans were. We promised to immediately start looking for a worthy replacement tour and so here it is! To us, it already seems far too long since we toured the US and Canada. We definitely haven’t forgotten the warm welcome we received there! So we’re more than happy and enthused to ‘set sail’ westwards once again! All the more we have some excellent bands joining us, which we’ve had the pleasure to share the stage with before in Europe! And not at least we’re eager as hell to cudgel the American metalheads with some brand new songs! I’m sure this tour will kick ass, devastate and definitely be a flagrantly HEATHEN feast!”
“We will of course play songs from our latest acoustic release Evocation I but we’ll also play some songs from our upcoming album which is fully metal again. This tour will be the first time ever that we’ll play those brand new songs live! Next week we’ll enter the studio to start recording the new album, which should come out in early 2010.”
Join Heathenfest at The Palladium on November 3.
TERMANOLOGY
Less than a year after the release his official debut, Politics As Usual, Termanology returns with Time Machine (Hood Politics VI), released on Sept. 22 through his own ST. Records. It’s been a busy year for Termanology. Since the September 2008 release of his well-received debut, which featured production by DJ Premier, Hi-Tek and Pete Rock, Term has toured extensively. He opened for Method Man and Redman on the nationwide Still High Tour and headlined his own 2009 European Tour.
Time Machine falls somewhere between an album and a mixtape. It features production by Don Cannon, DJ Premier, The Alchemist and Large Professor. Joell Ortiz, Lil’ Fame and Sheek Louch make guest appearances. Termanology will also be touring extensively in support of Time Machine.
Term was raised in the post-industrial, predominantly Latino city of Lawrence, MA. The half-white, half-Puerto Rican MC transitioned from silly freestyles at age nine to full-fledged records by 15. Constantly traveling between Boston and New York in pursuit of his dream, Termanology released his first 12-inch in 2002. Through his alliance with influential mixtape DJ (and fellow Massachusetts native) Statik Selektah, Term began earning the respect of Boston’s Hip-Hop scene with several highly acclaimed 12″ singles. At the onset of 2006, Term’s big break came when DJ Premier blessed him with one of his signature, scratch-laden beats. “Watch How It Go Down” instantly became an underground classic and Termanology appeared on Hip-Hop’s international radar. The conscious hood anthem garnered the earnest MC tons of praise, landing him in The Source’s “Unsigned Hype” and XXL’s “Show and Prove” columns. On September 30, 2008, he released his debut album, Politics As Usual, to critical acclaim.
www.myspace.com/therealtermanology
AIR
Internationally revered French electronic pop duo AIR (Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin) will release their fifth studio album, Love 2, on Oct. 6th, the follow-up to 2007’s acclaimed Pocket Symphony, and the first production to spring to life from their very own state-of-the-art recording facility Atlas Studio.
Nestled in the leafy backstreets of northern Paris, Atlas provided a creative haven for the band to produce these twelve new songs, recording and producing for the first time entirely by themselves. These recording sessions again saw the band handling all vocal duties and cemented their association with LA-based drummer/percussionist Joey Waronker, who had previously joined them for their intimate, three-man “Close up” tour of south-east Asia in the Fall of 2008. Stéphane “Alf” Briat, a long-time fixture of the Paris music scene, whose work with AIR dates back to some of their earliest material, came on board for the final mixdown at Atlas.
AIR’s 1998 debut album Moon Safari struck a unanimously harmonious chord with music lovers around the globe and has since become an electronic pop classic. Since then AIR have enjoyed many career-defining moments and accolades, both at home and abroad, and have written, produced and collaborated on a breathtaking array of music projects.
With 5.5 million worldwide album sales to their credit, the band has become de facto ambassadors of modern French pop, whose fans are drawn back to each new musical adventure by their inventive arrangements, and a playful yet unpredictable palette of sounds and songcraft.
AIR will set out on a European tour in early 2010 starting at the legendary Casino de Paris in their hometown and will then embark on North American dates during the Spring.
Love 2 tracklisting:
01. Do The Joy
02. Love
03. So Light Is Her Footfall
04. Be A Bee
05. Missing The Light Of The Day
06. Tropical Disease
07. Heaven’s Light
08. Night Hunter
09. Sing Sang Sung
10. Eat My Beat
11. You Can Tell It To Everybody
12. African Velvet
HATEBREED
Metal-Hardcore juggernauts Hatebreed have re-entered the studio to begin work on its long awaited new studio album, slated for a fall 2009 release. Hatebreed’s follow up to 2006’s Supremacy will be released on E1 Music in North America and Roadrunner in all other territories. The new album will be self-titled and is shaping up to be one of the band’s most ferocious albums ever.
Frontman Jamey Jasta comments, “I can’t wait to work with E1 Music and Roadrunner International on this release — E1 did a great job with our Live Dominance DVD and our recent covers album. We’re so pumped to give them both our new studio album!”
The announcement of the band’s new album is also part of E1’s continuing / expanding relationship with the group after its initial first 2 releases together, including the #1 charting Billboard DVD Live Dominance and the recently released covers album For The Lions.
Scott Givens, E1 Music’s VP of Metal says, “E1Entertainment is proud to be the home of Hatebreed in North America. I speak for everyone here when I say we are 100% committed to putting every resource we have behind the new record. Jamey Jasta is part of our E1 family and we are looking forward to continuing to work with him on all of his endeavors both now and in the future.”
Wally van Middendorp, with Roadrunner International, adds, “After having released their last two studio albums on Roadrunner internationally, it is an honor to work again with Hatebreed, a band that is on top of its musical league.”
The new album will be once again produced by Zeuss and will feature the return of original guitar player Wayne Lozinak (who recently replaced departed guitarist Sean Martin) alongside core members Chris Beattie (bass), Matt Byrne (drums), Frank “3 Gun” Novinec (Guitar) and singer Jamey Jasta,
Says Jasta, “The record is mean as hell, fans of American metal and east coast hardcore will be very pleased and maybe even somewhat surprised.”
To date, Hatebreed has sold over 1 million albums in the U.S. alone and toured the world with the likes of Slayer, Slipknot, System of The Down, Lamb of God, Korn, Killswitch Engage, Disturbed, Black Sabbath and much more.
Hatebreed comes to The Palladium on Saturday, Dec. 19.
www.myspace.com/hatebreed, www.hatebreed.com and twitter.com/hatebreed.
TIM McGRAW
This fall, Curb Records will release Southern Voice, Tim McGraw’s first studio album in two and a half years. Recorded in Nashville with his longtime producer Byron Gallimore (Faith Hill, Sugarland, Phil Vassar), Southern Voice is the follow-up to Let It Go, which debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 in April of 2007. McGraw will support his new album with an extensive tour in 2010.
The album’s lead single, “It’s A Business Doing Pleasure With You,” is written by Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger and singer-songwriter Brett James (who has penned numerous hits including “Jesus, Take the Wheel” for Carrie Underwood).
As Southern Voice reflects, McGraw is a self-made man with more interest in where he’s going than where he’s been. His restless instincts have led him down roads seldom traveled by his contemporaries and the new album finds him pushing the boundaries of his artistry once more ~ with characteristic honesty, grit and soul.
McGraw has sold over 40 million units and dominated the charts with 30 #1 singles. He’s won three GRAMMY®s, 14 Academy of Country Music Awards, 11 Country Music Association Awards, 10 American Music Awards, three People’s Choice Awards and numerous other awards. His concert tours consistently rank at #1 and he and wife Faith Hill hold the record for the best selling consecutive multi-year tour in North America in country music history for their “Soul2Soul Tour” outings in 2006 and 2007.
His multi-faceted career also encompasses film, television and books. He co-stars with Sandra Bullock in the upcoming film “The Blind Side,” scheduled for release on November 20.
