Alternative Music
GENE SIMMONS Explains KISS’s Las Vegas Residency Cancelation
KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons has told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that there are plans for the band to reschedule band’s second Las Vegas residency after the shows were canceled in October. “Definitely, oh definitely,” he said. “Our original plan was to come in just before New Year’s, but it was just too busy,” Simmons said. “When I came into town and joined my friend Dave Grohl [and FOO FIGHTERS] onstage [on December 4], that same night you could see George Strait at T-Mobile Arena, literally across the street. You go down the street and you can see many more artists. I mean, it’s packed. There are more artists per square inch in a city that never sleeps than anyplace on the planet.” Simmons added that he would like to revisit t...
Don McLean Announces “American Pie” 50th Anniversary Tour
Don McLean is celebrating the 50th anniversary of his career-defining hit, “American Pie,” as well as the album of the same name, with a 2022 world tour. “After spending the past 18 months at home, I am thrilled to be getting back on the road with my band,” McLean said in a statement. “2022 marks the 50th anniversary from when American Pie landed at the #1 spot on the Billboard chart and we will be celebrating on tour all year long. We will be performing all the songs from the American Pie album plus many of the other hits that fans will be expecting to hear.” The tour itinerary is exactly what you might expect from a 76-year-old who can play wherever he wants. He opens with a three-night stand in Honolulu, Hawaii, before spending five days on the Rock Legends Cruise through the Carib...
The Pretty Reckless and Shinedown Team Up for 2022 Tour
The Pretty Reckless are a band that loves to play live, so it’s been hard for them to stay off the road. Now, Taylor Momsen and company have announced their first run of tour dates since 2017, a spring US outing supporting Shinedown. Prior to linking up with Shinedown, The Pretty Reckless will perform two sold-out headlining gigs at the new venue Brooklyn Made on March 22nd and 23rd. From there, TPR and Shinedown will kick off a 24-date tour on April 1st in Spokane, Washington, with Diamante serving as opening act. Tickets are available starting December 17th via Ticketmaster, with a pre-sale kicking off on Tuesday, December 14th (pre-sale code: BELLS). Advertisement Related Video Shinedown, meanwhile, will precede the spring trek with a previously announced month-long winter North America...
10 K-Pop Acts That Dominated 2021
The 2021 edition of our Annual Report continues with a spotlight on some of the best and brightest acts in K-pop. As the year winds down, stay tuned for more awards, lists, and articles about the best music, film, and TV of 2021. You can find it all in one place here. 2021 was another major year for K-pop. What was once a niche corner of the music industry has transformed into a formidable sub-genre in recent years, in part because of its depth and diversity of sound. There’s something for everyone under the K-pop umbrella — the catch-all label refers to South Korean groups (boy and girl alike) and soloists who incorporate a mix of standard-raising production, choreography, and packaging. The music itself pulls from so many different sounds that listeners drawn to rap are able to debate sp...
Spider-Man: No Way Home Review: A Daring Narrative Feat With a Lot to Say About the Web-Slinger
The Pitch: It’s very very hard to make specific references to much of what happens in Spider-Man: No Way Home without spoilers. But at one point, while discussing the memory spell that Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has agreed to perform for Peter Parker (Tom Holland), Peter voices his concern over his beloved MJ (Zendaya) forgetting that he’s Spider-Man. Doctor Strange then points out that if MJ is only Peter’s girlfriend because he’s Spider-Man, then what does that say about their relationship? It’s perhaps the smartest thing Doctor Strange says in the entire movie, and evaluating No Way Home leads to a similar dilemma. What director Jon Watts and writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers have done with this film is an unprecedented piece of corporate-produced art. But attempting to ...
EVANESCENCE And HALESTORM Postpone Last Five Shows Of U.S. Tour Due To Multiple COVID-19 Cases
EVANESCENCE has postponed the remaining five shows on its U.S. tour with HALESTORM due to multiple COVID-19 cases within the touring party. The concerts in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Camden, Newark, and Worcester, which were originally scheduled to take place this week, will now happen at the end of January. EVANESCENCE singer Amy Lee said: “We’ve done everything we could to try and make it work, but with multiple positive COVID tests in our touring party, it just wouldn’t be right to continue the show schedule as is. “All the bands and crew have been so diligent with every precaution to keep this from happening but this virus is a real bitch! We are all vaccinated and nobody’s symptoms are severe, we are very grateful for that. “This tour has been an unfor...
MASTODON’s BILL KELLIHER Picks JOHNNY RAMONE As His ‘Rock God’
MASTODON‘s Bill Kelliher was the featured guest on BBC‘s “The Rock Show With Johnnie Walker” during the “Rock God” segment. Bill picked RAMONES guitarist Johnny Ramone and stated about his choice (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “When I was a young kid, all my friends and I used to listen to lots of VAN HALEN and the SCORPIONS and ZZ TOP, and we looked up to all those guitarists, but I could never play that stuff. But when I heard Johnny Ramone, I realized that, ‘Wow, this guy is only playing one chord, a power chord.’ And I soon realized that everybody was doing it wrong; everybody was trying to be Eddie Van Halen whereas I said, ‘I wanna be a songwriter. If Johnny Ramone can write two hundred songs with the same three power...
Watch FOZZY Fans Sing CHRIS JERICHO’s Parts At London Concert
FOZZY held what was being billed as the “Ultimate Fozzy Fan Fest” Sunday night (December 12) at the O2 Academy Islington in London, England. The final show of the band’s U.K. tour started with a world-exclusive premiere listening party of FOZZY‘s upcoming album, “Boombox”. The LP isn’t due out until April 15, 2022, but fans got a chance to hear all 12 new songs for the first time ever in a live setting with the bandmembers themselves. Then FOZZY singer Chris Jericho hosted a question-and-answer session with questions submitted by fans. Fans were invited to come up with their best questions and present them at FOZZY‘s merch booth, along with their names and where they were from (pen and paper will be provided) and Jericho chose the best ones f...
GUNS N’ ROSES: 30th-Anniversary Deluxe Reissue Of ‘Use Your Illusion’ Due Next Summer
GUNS N’ ROSES is putting together a deluxe reissue of the “Use Your Illusion” albums for a tentative summer 2022 release. Slash shared the news of the set’s arrival during an interview with Biff Bam Pop! editor-in-chief Andy Burns. Speaking about the fact that the “Use Your Illusion” reissue won’t be out to coincide with 30th anniversary of the LPs’ original release, the GUNS guitarist said said: “It got delayed by the pandemic but it is coming out, I think this summer. There’s a bunch of cool live stuff on it — a couple shows. The Ritz [in New York City] from the ’90s, like early ’90s, and a show that we did in Las Vegas back in 1989, I think it was. And it’s actually the show that I met my ex-wife at, so I was ...
Evanescence Postpone Remaining Shows with Halestorm Due to COVID-19 Cases within Touring Party
The last five shows of Evanescence’s co-headlining tour with Halestorm have been postponed due to multiple COVID-19 cases within Evanescence’s touring party. The shows affected include Cincinnati, Ohio; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Newark, New Jersey; Camden, New Jersey, and Worcester, Massachusetts. All have been rescheduled for January. Current ticket-holders can hold on to their tickets for the new dates, while new buyers can purchase tickets via Ticketmaster. Advertisement Related Video The two bands first announced the postponement of Sunday night’s show via social media, but today Evanescence issued a press release announcing that all the remaining shows on the US outing would be pushed to next month. Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee issued the following statement: “We’ve done everything ...
Lil Uzi Vert: “My Insurance Tried to Cut Me Off” over Diamond Forehead Piercing
To Lil Uzi Vert’s apparent surprise, having a $24 million diamond implanted in your forehead comes with some drawbacks. In an appearance on the Scuffed podcast, the rapper said that after he got the gaudy piercing, “My insurance tried to cut me off.” Speaking to a roundtable of Twitch streamers, the rapper motioned to his currently sparkle-free forehead, saying, “This is actually the back post of it.” He had once again removed the stone, explaining that, “It was pretty heavy, it was like ripping my forehead, so I had to let it re-heal.” Whether or not he decides to implant it once again, the process has already been draining. “I had to really get all my shit together,” he said. “My insurance tried to cut me off, they were like, ‘This kid’s trying to kill himself.’ ...
Video Surfaces of Tool Drummer Danny Carey’s Arrest
Earlier today, we reported that Danny Carey was arrested on Sunday night (December 12th) for an alleged assault at the Kansas City airport. Now, video of his arrest has surfaced, showing the Tool drummer getting into it with the officers. Unfortunately, the video is not a good look for Carey, who berates the officers and tells the person filming him to “videotape all of this.” The drummer, wearing a Kansas City Chiefs jersey (and perhaps attending the NFL team’s home game against the Raiders earlier that day), keeps asking one of the officers, “Who did I assault?” and exclaiming, “I just want to get the f**k out of here.” The footage then cuts to two officers pinning him against a glass wall outside the airport, with one officer ordering Carey not to get too close to them. The officers the...
