30 Years of Hopeless Records
Last week, I had a great conversation with Ian Harrison, General Manager of Hopeless Records, and label founder Louis Posen. We talked about Avenged Sevenfold, All Time Low, Thrice, Book Your Own F’n Life, Fat Mike, major labels, film school, and why Bloomberg dubbed Louis “The Paul Newman of Punk Rock.” Hopeless celebrates its 30th anniversary this year with an August 24th event at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and an October stop at the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas. You can listen to the podcast version at Stream N' Destroy or read the slightly edited transcript
PANTERA Set First Avenue Club Show
PANTERA will play an intimate show at First Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The long-running club was featured in the classic film Purple Rain, starring one of Minneapolis' most famous residents, the late Prince. The special performance will take place on Thursday, August 15, the night before the band opens for METALLICA at U.S. Bank Stadium. The reconstituted band features classic line-up members Philip H. Anselmo and Rex Brown alongside Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante and Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde. First Avenue announced the show on X (formerly Twitter). Rex asked me to write a story in the Vulgar Display of
AVENGED SEVENFOLD Throwback Show
AVENGED SEVENFOLD will play a special Orange County club show for their diehard fan club in October, celebrating two of their classic albums. Billed as the opening band for long-running hardcore act Death By Stereo, A7X will perform songs from their "new albums" Waking the Fallen (2003) and City of Evil (2005) at the Observatory in Santa Ana, California, on October 25, 2024. Tickets are $25 and are only available to members of the band's Web3, forward-thinking, NFT-driven Deatbats Club. City of Evil was the band's first album for Warner and produced the MTV TRL hit "Bat Country." Get information
Week of August 12, 2024
Birthday wishes to Jonathan King (Shelter Music Group), Dino Kourelis (FM Music Management), and Libby Coffey (Prime PR Group) (August 13); Nadia Teichmann (Welcome to Horrorwood), Steven Kleisath (Further Seems Forever), Curtis Peoples, Matt Baird (Spoken), Bret Bair (Live Nation) (August 14), Alex Shelnutt (A Day To Remember), and SuChin Pak (ex-MTV News) (August 15).
SUBLIME On Stern
SUBLIME, now featuring 29-year-old Jakob Nowell in place of his late father, Bradley, performed four songs on The Howard Stern Show. Rolling Stone premiered a clip of "Santeria" exclusively today. "Santeria" appears on the band's self-titled third studio album, released in 1996 and certified 5x platinum by the RIAA in 1999. The entire performance will hit YouTube tomorrow.
In Conversation with PISTOLS AT DAWN
PISTOLS AT DAWN quickly made a name for themselves on tours with Alter Bridge and Mammoth WVH, Fozzy, and Ugly Kid Joe and with their 2023 debut album, Ascension. The band’s blend of arena rock bombast and postmodern melody earned accolades from American Songwriter and Brave Words, among others. The hard-driving hard rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, kicked things up another notch with the addition of new vocalist Jonathan Sookdew Sing, a massive talent from the small South American country Suriname who moved to Miami, Florida in 2013 to build a career in music. Sing brought bassist Gabriel Cuevas with
BLUE ÖYSTER CULT Classic Now 6x Platinum
Blue Öyster Cult's 1976 hit "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was just certified 6x platinum by the RIAA this week. The enduring staple of the Classic Rock format appeared on the band's Agents of Fortune album. Two other BÖC songs earned new certifications this week, as well: "Burnin' for You" (from 1981's Fire of Unknown Origin ) and "Godzilla" (from 1977's Spectres) are now double-platinum and platinum, respectively. In related news, I managed to compose this entire post without making a hacky "more cowbell" joke. A few years ago, I had Buck Dharma on my Metallica podcast, Speak N' Destroy.
CHURCH OF LAZLO Moves To 98.9 The Rock
Longtime Kansas City, Missouri afternoon show The Church of Lazlo (with Lazlo, Slimfast, and Snowcone) moved to KQRC (98.9 The Rock) effective today, Thursday, August 8, 2024. The shift from the show's longtime home, KRBZ (ALT 96.5), comes as Audacy flips ALT 96.5 to sports. The Fan takes over 96.5 at 6 am CT on August 15.
In Conversation with MARK TREMONTI
Mark Tremonti never slows down, from the recent Creed reunion and Alter Bridge albums to the brand new single, "Just Too Much," from the forthcoming sixth Tremonti album, The End Will Show Us How (due January 10th, 2025). Mark and I caught up about his multiple bands, home studio, giant spiders, pinball machines, philanthropy, and his ongoing Mark Tremonti Sings Frank Sinatra performances. RYAN J. DOWNEY: When inspiration strikes, how do you know which band you’ll park it with? MARK TREMONTI: The only time I park something for a specific band is if it's for the Tremonti band because
Week of August 05, 2024
Happy Birthday wishes to "Metal" Maria Ferrero (Adrenaline PR) (August 05); Tim Tournier (Janus Music Management), Savannah Boyd (Other People Records), Jimmy Hubbard (photographer), Ben Orum (All Shall Perish) (August 06); Kyle Borman (Bordur Coach), Troy Glessner (producer), Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed) (August 07); Michael Keene (The Faceless) (August 08); Tyler “Telle” Smith (The Word Alive), Scott Mellinger (Zao) (August 09); Ross Halfin (photographer) (August 11).
