Alternative Rock
Sergio Vega Further Explains Deftones Exit, Details His New Project
Bassist Sergio Vega has opened up about his departure from Deftones, while also detailing his new musical project. Vega had effectively left the Deftones over a year ago, but only went public with the news in March. In a lengthy video statement, Vega explained that he never became an official member of the band and contract disagreements regarding his position in the group led to his exit. Vega was initially hired by Deftones to fill-in for Chi Cheng, who was in a coma following a 2008 car accident. He remained in the band following Cheng’s passing in 2013. Advertisement Related Video The bassist elaborated on the situation in a new interview with the Talk Toomey podcast (as transcribed by The PRP). As Vega tells it, cutting him into the official Deftones lineup would have affected the sha...
Smashing Pumpkins’ Jeff Schroeder: “We Finished That Big, Epic Album”
Today is one of the greatest days we’ve ever known, because Smashing Pumpkins’ next album isn’t too far away. Speaking recently on the Audio Ink Radio podcast, the band’s guitarist Jeff Schroeder revealed that they’ve finished their next LP. “We finished that big, epic album we were working on,” Schroeder told host Anne Erickson. Though he added that there’s “nothing I can give details on quite yet,” he had previously noted that the long-awaited project is the third in a years-spanning trilogy, following Smashing Pumpkins’ 1995 masterpiece Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and 2000’s Machina/The Machine of God. It shouldn’t come as too much of a shock that Smashing Pumpkins are still chipping away at new music, considering they’re about to embark on their “Rock Invasion 2 Tour” a...
Editors Add Blanck Mass to Lineup, Release New Single “Heart Attack”: Stream
Editors have promoted longtime collaborator Blanck Mass, aka English electronic producer Benjamin John Power, to a full-time band member and ushered in a new era with their first single in three years, “Heart Attack.” Guitarist and lead vocalist Tom Smith describes their latest offering as “a song of obsession, about losing yourself in someone; a love song, a morbid love song.” Though the subject is dour, there’s no denying the passion behind it as Smith unleashes the blistering refrain of “No one will love you more than I do/ I can promise you that.” The cinematic production’s collage of guitar syncopations, sweeping synths, and propulsive drums form a sheen around the band’s sharp-edged sound, and yet it doesn’t come across as an attempt at dulling it but rather a method to see the barbs...
Greta Van Fleet’s Josh Kiszka Acknowledges Appropriation of Indigenous Culture
Greta Van Fleet singer Josh Kiszka has acknowledged that he appropriated Indigenous culture in the past. The vocalist was the target of a recent hashtag campaign (#SpeakUpGVF) calling for him to address and remove a series of photos on his Instagram page showing him and his friends wearing Indigenous garments back in 2017. The mission statement of the #SpeakUpGVF campaign read, in part, “Indigenous fans and those practicing allyship have tried to contact Josh and ask him to remove the photos and address the cultural appropriation, but he continues to stay silent and the photos continue to stay up. Remaining silent on this is upsetting and is ignorant as it upholds racist ideologies that Indigenous cultures are simply a costume, when they are sacred, and not open for appropriation. Fans cre...
Arcade Fire to Join Saturday Night Live’s Five-Timers Club
Arcade Fire are returning to Studio 8H! On Saturday, NBC revealed the rock band will be back on Saturday Night Live for the May 7th episode opposite host Benedict Cumberbatch. It will mark Arcade Fire’s fifth time serving as the show’s musical guest since they made their SNL debut back in 2007. (Side note: is there an equivalent to the Five-Timers Club for musical guests? Do they get jackets, too?) This time, Win Butler and co. will be promoting their latest album WE, which drops on May 6th (the same day Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness opens in theaters). Advertisement Related Video This past weekend, Arcade Fire took the stage at Coachella, playing an emotional 13-song set dedicated to the people of Ukraine and Pearl Jam. Lizzo pulled double duty on the latest ep...
Coachella 2022: Billie Eilish Performs Gorillaz’s “Feel Good Inc.” with Damon Albarn
Billie Eilish’s Saturday night headlining performance at Coachella included a surprise appearance from Damon Albarn, who joined the young pop singer to perform Gorillaz’s classic “Feel Good Inc.” Albarn initially joined Eilish on stage to lend vocals to “Getting Older,” from Eilish’s sophomore album, Happier Than Ever. The two, along with De La Soul’s Posdnuos, then launched into a rousing version of “Feel Good Inc.” “[Damon] changed my life in a lot of ways, and changed my view of what music and art and creation could be,” Eilish told the crowd as she introduced Albarn. “My first favorite band ever was the Good, the Bad and the Queen when I was six years-old, and Blur changed the world, and Gorillaz changed the world, and this man is literally a genius, and that’s that.” Advertisement Rel...
Coachella 2022: Arcade Fire Dedicate Emotional Set to Ukraine Punk Bands, Pearl Jam
Arcade Fire treated Coachella to a surprise hour-long set at the Mojave Tent on Friday. The 13-song early evening performance included several songs from the band’s upcoming album WE, including: “The Lightning I,” “The Lightning II,” “Age of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole),” and “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid).” Arcade Fire re-started the latter song so that frontman Win Butler could recompose himself: “It’s been a hard couple fucking years,” Butler tearfully told the crowd. “We tell ourselves so much poison.” Elsewhere during their set, Butler dedicated the band’s performance of “The Suburbs” to the people of Ukraine. “Everyone in a punk rock band in the Ukraine right now,” he added. “I’m thinking about everybody who is dealing with the war right now.” Related Video Butler also shouted out C...
The Killers Kick Off “Imploding the Mirage Tour” with Raucous Hometown Gig in Vegas: Recap + Photos
It has been said there is nothing quite like a Killers show in Las Vegas, and that statement will echo three times over to sold-out crowds April 15th, 16th and 17th as the city’s unofficial “house band” launches the “Imploding The Mirage Tour” at The Chelsea in The Cosmopolitan. For Friday’s opening night, The Killers showed up with everything which has endeared them to their hometown crowd for more than two decades—a jumping, pumping, sing-along dance party for 3,200 brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends. Frontman Brandon Flowers, backed by drummer Ronnie Vannucci, Jr., and guitarist Dave Keuning delivered a 90-minute, soulful, thunderous, biographical musical journey, performing songs from six of the band’s seven studio albums. (Absent from the setlist, Wonderful Wonderful). Roundi...
Florence + the Machine Kick Off “Dance Fever Tour”: Video + Setlist
Florence + the Machine took the stage at O2 City Hall in Newcastle, UK on Friday night for their first full-band performance in three years. The concert marked the launch of the band’s expansive “Dance Fever Tour” in support of their upcoming album of the same name. As such, the 18-song setlist featured the debut four new songs: lead single “King,” “Heaven is Here,” “Free,” and “Girls Against God,” as well as the full band debut of “My Love.” Elsewhere on the setlist, Florence dusted off “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up),” “What the Water Gave Me,” and “Spectrum” for the first time in a half a decade, and performed a new version of “Never Let Me Go.” Florence Welch was also forced to restart “What Kind of Man” after forgetting the lyrics, and relied on the front row of the crowd to help he...
PUP Add Dates to 2022 North American Headlining Tour
PUP have added a run of fall dates to their ongoing North American headlining tour. The new round of tour stops begins September 6th in Grand Rapids, Michigan and runs throughout the month with stops in Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Atlanta, Baltimore, and more before wrapping September 25th in Burlington, Vermont. Currently, the punk rockers are making their way through the West. This weekend they’re set to perform at The Van Buren in Phoenix followed by shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Denver in the coming days. After finishing up this latest run of newly-announced dates, the band will also head overseas in October for the tour’s UK and European leg. Check out the latest list of dates below and get tickets via Ticketmaster. Related Video PUP’s tour is in support of their new album ...
Trixie Mattel Serves Up New Single “C’mon Loretta”: Stream
Game, set, match. Trixie Mattel has released her new single “C’mon Loretta” along with its charming tennis-themed music video. Watch it below. “You took the dizzy road to love/ All in, worse or for better/ Here we go again, c’mon Loretta,” Mattel sings on the buzzy ode to country great Loretta Lynn. “Singin’ songs ’bout runnin’ the show/ But your heart’ll never let him go.” Meanwhile, the campy visual finds the drag queen perfecting her serve in a game of tennis loosely inspired by Billie Jean King’s “Battle of the Sexes” match against Bobby Riggs in 1973 — though that famous exhibition didn’t quite end in death by a flaming overhead shot. Advertisement Related Video “I wanted this song to be a fun little ditty, like The Strokes-meets-the story of Loretta Lynn,” Mattel shared in a statemen...
Chino Moreno on Deftones’ Return to Touring: It’s “Going to Be Cathartic” to Scream and Sing Again
After two postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Deftones are finally set to kick off their North American tour with Gojira. Singer Chino Moreno expects the long-awaited excursion to be a cathartic experience after a couple of years off the road. The tour was originally scheduled for Summer 2020, then postponed to Summer 2021, and finally rescheduled for Spring 2022. The outing kicks off tonight (April 14th) in Portland, Oregon, and runs through a May 28th show in Minneapolis, with tickets available via Ticketmaster. Heavy Consequence recently caught up with Moreno to discuss his side project ††† (Crosses), but he also took some time to share his feelings about Deftones’ highly anticipated return to the stage. “I hate to say this, because it sounds very spoiled, but since I was 15-16 ...
