Oct022013October 2, 2013October 2, 2013NoCommentby dan

Building Bridges

Posted in music

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Recently Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti from Alter Bridge joined me on the show. We talked about the new album, their imminent UK arena tour, their joint solo for ‘Blackbird’ being voted ‘the best solo of all-time’, their ventures outside of the band (Myles is the vocalist in Slash’s current band, and Mark plays guitar for Creed, and has also recently released a solo record) and their take on the controversial issue of band ‘meet and greets’.

This last subject, in particular, has been covered in depth in Kerrang! Magazine lately, with Rou Reynolds of Enter Shikari (‘For a human to charge another human money to meet them is just wrong‘) and Oli Sykes from Bring Me The Horizon (‘Next USA tour! Oli Sykes special polaroid package! Take a photo with me! Special price! Absolutely no charge at all! Fucking cockstars‘) expressing particularly forthright views. With this in mind, I was keen to ask the band, who do offer such VIP ‘meet and greet’ packages, for their views on the subject.

You can listen again to the interview below, and the band’s new album, Fortress is out this week, and currently No. 3 in the iTunes chart. With any luck it should stay in the top 10 this weekend!


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Sep262013September 26, 2013September 26, 2013NoCommentby dan

Win Sonic Boom Six Tickets

Posted in music

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The incredible Sonic Boom Six are headlining Manchester’s Deaf Institute this Saturday as part of the #standforsomething Tour 2013. Also on the line-up are Save Your Breath and LTNT.

For your chance to win a pair of tickets to this unique one-off event, simply tweet me @DANHUDSON with the answer to the following question.

What is 6 x 6?

The deadline for submission is 12pm on Friday 27th September, and entries will be drawn at random!


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Sep212013September 21, 2013September 21, 20131Commentby dan

In Defence of Nu-Metal

Posted in music

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I know they’re trying to wind people up. I know I shouldn’t rise to it. i also know that plenty of publications print complete falsehoods on a regular basis, often followed by a minuscule apology when the damage has already been done.

But seriously, have you read this article by Lucy Jones of the NME?

http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/10-reasons-why-nu-metal-was-the-worst-genre-of-all-time

I understand that she doesn’t get ‘nu-metal’. A lot of people don’t. But there’s just so many poorly argued points in this article it beggars belief. To save boring you all to sleep, I’ve narrowed it down to a succinct Top 5.

1. Deftones have ALWAYS been high on festival line-ups, this is not just a recent thing. To claim a band as diverse as this is just ‘nu-metal’ and to discredit their longevity is lazy journalism.

2. The assumption that ‘rap + metal = crap’, by default, implies that Rage Against The Machine are ‘crap’. And I would seriously question any music critic who thinks that.

3. The Strokes did not ‘wash anything away’. I remember vividly Slipknot’s ‘Iowa’ beating The Strokes ‘Is This It’ to Number One in the same week, with 1/10 of their hype.

4. It is accepted by everyone, apart from it seems the NME, that the first rap/rock crossover was Aerosmith/Run DMC’s ‘Walk This Way’, not Anthrax/Public Enemy’s ‘Bring The Noise’ a year later.

5. The article resorts to petty insults about how a band looks to make its point.

However, the point, that REALLY gets my goat deserves a whole separate article. It’s Lucy’s throwaway comment that Limp Bizkit and System Of A Down are ‘sexist claptrap’. Yes, there’s an argument that Limp Bizkit are misogynistic and I accept that. But System Of A Down? Really?!?! I do worry in the wake of ‘Blurred Lines‘ that people can be accused of sexism without being questioned and it’s just taken as fact. But I cannot think of a single lyric, track, album, video, live performance or interview that SOAD have ever done which even has a touch of sexism to it. It is seriously unfair on the band, their fans, or the genre, for the NME to make such a bold statement without backing it up.

Anyway, I’m off to Break Stuff. Keep rollin’ baby, you know what time it is.

N.B I tweeted Lucy Jones last night and asked her to offer an example of System Of A Down’s sexism, at the time of writing I have received no reply.


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Sep142013September 14, 2013September 14, 2013NoCommentby dan

I want to see it all, never want to let it go

Posted in music

Rewind The Film

Manic Street Preachers – Rewind The Film (review)

Their last album, Postcards From A Young Man, was their ‘one last shot at mass communication’, and the subsequent ‘National Treasures‘ compilation and mammoth 02 Arena show marked the end of an era for the band.

With a new era beginning, it seems the Manic Street Preachers are free of such commercial concerns and, on this, their 12th album, have turned off the amps and mellowed out – a lot. Within seconds of listening to opener This Sullen Welsh Heart (featuring Lucy Rose on vocals) it’s obvious this is a Manics album like no other. This is an album about growing up, growing old mourning, self examination, nostalgia, loss and old age, and in places is a very unsettling listen. There are guest appearances from Richard Hawley (on the title track) and Cate Le Bon (4 Lonely Roads – incidentally, one of the only tracks to feature an electric guitar) but in both of these cases, James Dean Bradfield steps back and lets the guest vocalists take the spotlight. It seems that everything about this album is unconventional.

It’s not all introspective though. Show Me The Wonder is an uptempo, brass-filled homage to living life and seeing the beauty in everything, and the anti-Thatcher 30 Year War is the closest we get to the Manics of old (‘And the endless parade of old Etonian scum line the front benches‘). On the whole though, Rewind The Film is much more restrained than anything they’ve done before.

After trying everything from ‘mass communication’ (Postcards) ‘heavy metal Tamla Motown’ (Send Away The Tigers) to ‘elegaic pop’ (Lifeblood) in recent years, it is refreshing to see the band do something completely different, throw away any sort of Manics rulebook, and, now in their mid-forties, take a step back, and examine themselves in such a personal way. This album is not going to drastically change their live setlists but it is the Manics in fine form, and on this, their 12th album, as relevant as ever.


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Aug212013August 21, 2013August 21, 2013NoCommentby dan

Reading & Leeds 2013

Posted in music

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As mentioned earlier I’m heading to Leeds Festival this weekend. A Friday night spent at Kenwood House in London watching Suede means I’ll miss Nine Inch Nails, but there’s plenty else I’m raring to see.

If you’re heading down make sure you wake up early on Sunday (Friday at Reading) for Decade. They’re a five piece ‘post-hardcore’ band from Bath with hooks that will get stuck in your head for days. I’ve been playing them on the Kerrang! Chart for a couple of weeks now and they’re opening up proceedings on the Lock Up/Rock stage. Check out the video for ‘Never Enough’ below.

Also, there’s a handful of other great R&L warm-up gigs this week if you’ve been lucky enough to get tickets – primarily Green Day tonight at Brixton Academy (supported by the excellent, Frank Turner) and Bring Me The Horizon at, ahem, a tattoo parlour in London. The latter is so over-subscribed that even their PR guy told me he his only chance of getting tickets was by entering a competition! If you’re there, you have my envy.

See you at Leeds!


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Aug212013August 21, 2013August 21, 2013NoCommentby dan

The Day The Whole World Went Away

Posted in music

Nine Inch NailsNine Inch Nails, The Scala, 20/8/2013: Review

You don’t really need me to tell you how good this gig was – you know the story. Nine Inch Nails are an incredible live band. They possess a frontman capable of delving deep into his unconscious to deliver some of the most intense performances known to man. They boast an enormous back catalogue covering everything from metal, industrial, goth, disco, to glam, pop. dance and everything in between and they’re back after a six year hiatus with an album that promises a spectacular return to form, playing a TINY venue as a Reading and Leeds warm-up. Needless to say, tickets sold out in minutes and people were practically selling their mother to get in. All of that is patently obvious.

BUT what I didn’t see coming was an epic light show that wouldn’t look out of place in an arena, a brutal cover of David Bowie’s (NIN-esque) ‘I Believe In Americans‘, a surprisingly talkative Trent Reznor, a brutal moshpit for Terrible Lie, and (however many times you’ve seen it before, it never ceases to surprise) the sight of grown men crying to the dark balladry of Hurt that gets you every single time. Epic.

Of course, this was just a warm-up for the madness to come this weekend at Reading and Leeds Festival. Their previous performance, in 2007, was so captivating that frankly, The Smashing Pumpkins were blown off stage, and I certainly don’t envy Biffy Clyro this weekend. Unfortunately I’ll have to miss this, as I’m heading to Suede at Kenwood House on Friday, but I’m heading up to Leeds on Saturday and looking forward to checking out Frank Turner, Deaf Havana, Bring Me The Horizon, Twin Atlantic, Chase and Status and Eminem (in that order!).

(Re NIN, Cleverly I turned up 20 minutes before showtime which meant I was literally right at the back with no chance of moving, so the above pic is sadly the best I could do!)


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Aug172013August 17, 2013August 17, 20131Commentby dan

Cut my life into pieces…

Posted in clubbing, music

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In recent years I’ve really gone off rock clubs. Too often they really do take themselves seriously, and so, so many of them seem to insist on playing the same tracks in the same order every week and making the minimum effort possible. An awful lot are TERRIBLE at online and social media and therefore fail to create any sort of excitement or buzz about their night. This is particularly troublesome with weekly nights, since there are inevitably going to be weeks where it’s extremely difficult to get the punters through the door, and a lazy approach to proceedings is hardly going to help. Many are struggling and/or shutting down up and down the country against a difficult economic backdrop and frankly, I’m not surprised.

However, for a couple of years now I’ve been following the online buzz of semi-regular rock night Last Resort but for one reason or another never made it down until Last Resort 9 in June this year. I quickly concluded that it is by some distance the best rock club I’ve ever been to, for a variety of reasons not limited to the below..

1. It doesn’t even try and take itself seriously.
2. The music is largely rock emo, nu-metal and pop-punk from the early 00’s when most of the crowd were growing up.
3. There are regular social media updates on Facebook and Twitter, not just from the official accounts but from the promoters themselves, creating a buzz from months beforehand.
4. Every night is a separate ‘event’ to be treated as such. It’s only on a few times a year, which means it’s always rammed.
5. The music is amazing. Yes, it’s not to everyone’s tastes, and (bizarrely) not everyone wants to hear 8 Limp Bizkit tracks in a night BUT equally nobody is apparently afraid to drop a Katy Perry, a Rihanna track or even bloody Usher when the moment calls. And why should they be? In this day and age nobody wants to hang around with people who think they’re too good for pop music, especially after a few drinks!
6. There appears to be about 20 DJ’s. Presumably they are only playing a few tracks each, but it means there’s a great buzz around the decks.
7. It’s completely FREE and is bang in the centre of London.
8. Oh and everyone, without exception, is completely battered.

The next one is Last Resort 10 on Saturday 7th September it’s at The Star of Kings in Kings Cross, and it’s completely free!

In the meantime, get involved with the banter on Facebook and Twitter.


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Aug092013August 9, 2013August 9, 2013NoCommentby dan

‘You know how many sick trainers I own?’

Posted in music

Hacktivist

I’m not normally one to bang on about novelty cover versions, but I’m happy to make an exception in the case of UK grime / metal crossover act Hacktivist.

They’ve been bubbling under the surface for a few months now, and as you can see from the video, have been sending audiences into a frenzy this summer at Download and Germany’s Rock am Ring festival. They’ve been performing this cover of Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Paris in their sets for a while, and due to fan demand have released a video and free download:

They’re touring with Enter Shikari later in the year (whose cover of Insomnia by Faithless, incidentally, is well worth a listen..)

The climax of which will undoubtedly be the Vans Warped Tour show on November 17th at London’s Alexandra Palace alongside Rise Against, Billy Talent, Anberlin and many others. It’s also right by my flat, so I may well hold an afterparty. Watch this space 😉


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Aug052013August 5, 2013August 5, 2013NoCommentby dan

It’s moments like this where silence is golden

Posted in music

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Bring Me The Horizon have just released the video for ‘Go to Hell, for Heaven’s sake’

It basically shows them having an absolute whale of a time destroying Warped Tour over in the states.  Not that we didn’t know that was happening anyway.

It should also serve as a taster for their upcoming Reading and Leeds main stage performance, which HAS to be off the scale. Check it out below!


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Jul292013July 29, 2013July 31, 2013NoCommentby dan

‘You know how the saying goes… it’s the size of the fight in the dog…’

Posted in music

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I’ve been a fan of Five Finger Death Punch ever since I interviewed them at Download in 2009. If you are wondering what they sound like, the clue is indeed in the title, although as a mate recently came out with ‘possibly not as heavy as you think they’d be’ . This is presumably testament to the melodic vocals employed by the group, however there’s no denying the sheer force of some of the riffs on the new album The Wrong Side Of Heaven and The Righteous Sound Of Hell Volume 1.

The album features an amazing cover of LL Cool J’s Mama Said Knock You Out. I’m not generally one for ‘novelty’ covers by rock bands but this really works, the lyrics sounding considerably more menacing, and, ahem, more likely to knock you out than Mr Cool J. It’s actually quite surprising that nobody thought to do it before! Across the album there’s also cameos from Soulfly’s Max Cavalera, Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta, and this banger featuring Judas Priest’s Rob Halford.

Talking of Hatebreed, I’m excited about their upcoming tour which kicks off next week. Here in the South, they were originally set to be playing this year’s Hevy Fest in Folkestone which was then moved to Brixton Academy on account of problems with the site, and then ultimately cancelled. Luckily though, they’ve joined forces with headliners Killswitch Engage for a one-off date at London’s tiny Garage in Islington. It’s already sold out, but if you are lucky enough to have tickets, I’d get there early as they’re both playing headline length sets!


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