Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2021 i Classic Rock

WELCOME I’ll never forget the first time I heard Foo Fighters on my favourite ‘classic rock’ radio station. It was the song Learn To Fly, and as the opening notes came through my distorted car speakers I glanced at the radio dial in shock and thought: “Classic rock? Foo Fighters?” Sandwiched between Foghat and the Doobie Brothers, I thought this must be some wicked prank by a rogue disc jockey on his last day of work, doing his best to exact revenge upon his unsuspecting, abusive superior. “Obviously a one off,” I thought. Nevertheless, it got me thinking. What exactly is ‘classic rock’? Is it a genre defined by a specific time, or style? Is it a measure of tone, or aesthetic? It’s difficult to interpret, but the term definitely…

Nate Mendel The Foos’ bassist since the beginning is also the singer, songwriter and guitarist with his own band, Lieutenant. Dave Grohl is pitching Medicine At Midnight as a Foo Fighters record you could dance to. As a bassist, that must have been music to your ears. I was like, yeah, I’m on board. With any band there’s always this push-pull between your musical history and trying to do something new and fresh. There’s always some element of: “Let’s try to do things different this time.” That’s what we tried to do here. Was the house you recorded the album in really haunted? Everybody’s got their own definition of what counts as haunted. I’m more of a sceptic. If I see a window slam on its own I’m like, the…

Taylor Hawkins It ain’t easy replacing a band’s original drummer. And also being the drummer in a shit-hot drummer’s band. When Dave pitched this record as the Foos’ Let’s Dance, what did you think? If anyone wanted to make a pure rock’n’roll record, it would be me. So I was a little hesitant at first. When Dave said: “Let’s make a tape loop,” I was mortified – I’m a drummer. But then I thought: “Well, that’s what Queen did on The Game.” I was still a little on edge about it: “Is it too modern? Too dancey?” Then my wife heard it and she was like: “No, dude, this is a fucking fun record.” Where did you meet Dave for the first time? I met him at this [LA radio…

Hagar: Farewell Van Halen Tour Was Being Planned “It would’ve been a dream come true,” says Sammy. Sammy Hagar has confirmed that Van Halen were lining up a tour featuring all three lead singers they’ve had – David Lee Roth, Hagar himself and Extreme’s Gary Cherone, – plus returning bassist Michael Anthony before the intervention of Edward Van Halen’s declining health. The idea of a final stadium tour had been broached by VH bassist Wolfgang Van Halen following the death of his father in October. “It [the tour] was totally on my radar,” Hagar told broadcaster Eddie Trunk. “No one had confirmed any of it, but it was obviously what was gonna happen.” Roth and Hagar sharing a stage again would have been interesting, given their tempestuous relationship. “I wouldn’t…

Q&A Jaren Johnston The Cadillac Three frontman on their new album, odd gifts from Billy Gibbons, religion, and writing 200 songs a year. Words: Polly Glass “Me and Chris [Shifflett] are pretty good friends,” Jaren Johnston says of his band The Cadillac Three’s connection to one of our guest editors. “And we met Dave [Grohl] and Taylor [Hawkins] a while ago. We’re huge fans, and Dave was a huge influence on me, starting off as a drummer.” On one level Johnston is a true southern child – all trucker caps, Jack Daniel’s and the most spectacularly country-fried accent in Tennessee. But there are other ‘versions’ of him. There’s the boy who grew up on funk, rock, grunge, southern Baptist music and more. The guy who’ll just as likely listen to…

FOUR TO THE FLOOR They’re smart, they don’t like to repeat themselves and they describe history as “rose-coloured”. Meet Parquet Courts, Brooklyn’s maverick heirs to the Velvet Underground throne. Words: Max Bell EBRU YILDIZ/PRESS Late November 2020. New York City is in lockdown. The President from Queens has gone rogue following an election that gripped the world, and Brooklyn-based band Parquet Courts are on tenterhooks. Thanksgiving? Not so much. Singer and guitarist Andrew Savage assesses the mood. “America is palpably fragile,” he says. “It’s like we’re down with the sinister overlords. I’ve been out cycling in the city and Long Island. It feels strange.” Boundary-melting rockers Parquet Courts formed in 2010, and prior to the paralysing events of 2020 had been on the road for much of the time since.…

Kicks outta The Jam Channelling his carefree youth and working with a songwriting partner licking the wounds of divorce, Stone Gossard has put together a side project to rival his day job in the mighty Pearl Jam. “This band,” he says of Painted Shield, “is some serious assassins.” Words: Henry Yates DANNY CLINCH/PRESS “The power of love is always gonna be more compelling to me than the one-dimensionality of anger.” Stone Gossard The man peering into the webcam doesn’t look like an over-achiever. The four-day stubble, the slightly bleary eyes behind thick-framed glasses – along with the comfy sofa and the yawning dog… none of these hint at Stone Gossard’s career-long habit of spinning plates. “I’m definitely not a workaholic,” he says. The 54-year-old’s résumé says otherwise, though. From 90s…

REVIEWS Goblin Zombi – Dawn Of The Dead: The Complete Original Motion Picture Soundtrack SECOND SIGHT FILMS It lives! Italian prog impresarios give the zombies something to get their teeth into. Basically Black Friday 2020: The Movie, Goblin’s Dawn Of The Dead is widely acclaimed as a consumerist satire, rendered even more prescient in a pandemic, characterised by the cynical political juggling act between death and shopping. It’s also renowned among zombiephiles for its soundtrack by Italian prog-rock instrumentalists Goblin, first released in ’78 and now included in a Dawn Of The Dead box set in its full 17-track form, including alternative takes that only came out in 2018. It might not be the soundtrack you’re thinking of, however; George E Romero’s cut of the film relied on incidental stock…

LIVE! Architects London Royal Albert Hall Machine-gun riffs and bleeding passion strafe with precision. Even this far down the line in a career spanning eight studio albums over 14 years, there are those still struggling to define Architects’ music. Is it metalcore? Math metal? Something else? Which is all a bit of a waste of time when what they really are is intense. And tonight they ramp up that intensity to searing levels. Having risen from their Brighton origins to sell out such prestigious venues in the capital as the 10,000-capacity Alexandra Palace, tonight the quintet notch up another milestone with this performance in the sumptuous environs of the Royal Albert Hall. With the esteemed venue devoid of the moshers and headbangers usually at the heart of their shows, Architects…

The Dirty Knobs Los Angeles The Troubador Former Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers man launches his new band’s album. It’s billed as a launch party for The Dirty Knobs’ debut, Wreckless Abandon, but Mike Campbell begins with a howling bottleneck solo on his Stratocaster before launching into The Animals‘ I’m Crying, which is not on the album. Indeed, he stresses first that tonight is a benefit for America’s NIVA (National Independent Venue Association) emergency relief fund. By the end of the one-hour set they will have played just over half the album – starting with Southern Boy (on a cream Gibson Firebird bearing a Johnny Winter signature), and ending with the wham-bam pairing of Sugar and Loaded Gun. But as effortlessly as they rock, The Dirty Knobs show their class…

REVIEWS Blackberry Smoke Atlanta Tabernacle Theatre Southern-fried livestream. If Blackberry Smoke have been beaten down by 2020, you’d never know it from this performance. Perhaps it helps that it’s their fourth livestream this year, and that they’re back on home turf, playing their eighth annual Holiday Homecoming show in Atlanta’s ornate Tabernacle Theatre – this time, without an audience. Tonight they play their 2012 album The Whippoorwill in full alongside other songs, taking the show to nearly two hours but it flies by. Led by the wryly funny Charlie Starr, whose full-throated drawl doesn’t falter, the five core band members are joined by guitarist Benji Shanks, percussionist Preston Holcomb, and two glorious-voiced backing singers whose supercharged enthusiasm is infectious. And no wonder: it’s hard not to have your spirits raised…

Pat Smear The guitarist is on his second stint with the Foos, having rejoined the band in 2005. Who sends up the Bat Signal when it’s time to make a new Foo Fighters record? Here’s what always happens. We’ll do a long-ass tour, we’ll all be exhausted, we’ll say something ridiculous like we’ll take a year off. Then a month later Dave will send a text going: “Hey, I’ve got some riffs and bits and pieces…” And he’ll send you a dozen songs. Like: “Oh shit, he’s inspired.” That’s how this one started. You started out as a member of original LA punk band The Germs in the seventies. What was it like being in the middle of that scene? What made it so great was that there was no…

HIGH HOPES the DIRT Kills Birds Intent on “making music that sounds and feels sincere”, their gutsy modern take on alt.rock is deservedly turning heads. KILL BIRDS: MICHELLE LAINE There’s a moment on Kills Birds’ incendiary self-titled debut when vocalist Nina Ljeti has to stop and catch her breath. Having just bellowed herself hoarse as Volcano – just one of the album’s many standout tracks – reaches its spiky crescendo, it’s about as close as you can get to one of the band’s frenetic live shows when listening at home. Combining the hungry anthemia of Pixies and Sonic Youth’s cerebral art-punk cool, the LA quartet’s sound is all blazing energy and jagged angles. They’ve caused a buzz with their modern take on 80s and 90s alt (no surprise, perhaps, that…

WELCOME BACK The Empty Hearts The American supergroup return with their second album of classy pop-rock, and big-name guests. THE EMPTY HEARTS: ROB SHANAHAN/PRESS Combining vintage rock’n’roll chops, stylish sixties sensibilities and a timeless melodic power-pop sheen, American supergroup the Empty Hearts return with a class-dripping second album The Second Album. With a line-up comprised of Elliot Easton (The Cars, guitar), Clem Burke (Blondie, drums), Wally Palmar (The Romantics, guitar and vocals) and Andy Babiuk (The Chesterfield Kings, bass) here’s a garage-rock combo with reputation to spare – and, as Clem Burke reveals, friends in high places. Other than an affinity for classically constructed beat music, what brought the four of you together? Andy used to work in a guitar shop that everyone would pass through on their travels and…

WELCOME BACK Lonely The Brave Guitarist Mark Trotter on mental health, tomahawks and the fight back from the brink. LONELY THE BRAVE:CARLA MUNDY/PRESS Seven years ago, talking to Classic Rock Lonely The Brave guitarist Mark Trotter joked about a nightmare career trajectory where the Cambridge band’s records “fell on their arse” and the band members “murdered each other”. Well, not quite. But between industry burnings and the recent departure of their singer David Jakes due to mental health issues, it’s hardly been plain sailing. Fortunately, with the arrival of singer Jack Bennett and the epic shimmer-fuzz of third album The Hope List, things are looking decidedly rosier for the band. The Hope List didn’t have an easy birth. Not at all. I guess a lot of bands would’ve given up…

BOB MOULD THE GOSPEL ACCORDIND TO BOB MOULD The internet has gone off the rails. He has a problem with hypocrites. Being a musician is a luxury. Getting older brings its rewards… These are among the things that shape his world view. Interview: Emma Johnston BLAKE LITTLE/PRESS With his venerated alt.rock bands Hüsker Dü and Sugar as well as his solo material, Bob Mould’s influence has stretched far and wide. Always one to wear his heart on his sleeve, lyrically speaking, he’s not one to shy away from the big subjects, as his most recent album Blue Hearts proves. A spectacular piece of work, it lashes out at the political right wing, social prejudice and evangelical hypocrisy. Chatting from his San Francisco home, in the week when the US election…

HAPPY CHICHESTER ALMOST FAMOUS To those in the know, Happy Chichester is one of the most underrated songwriters of his generation, and he almost joined the Foos. We tracked down the cult hero from Columbus, Ohio. Words: Henry Yates If the walls of Ohio’s most disreputable rock clubs could talk, they’d tell the legend of Happy Chichester. Going by the numbers, The Black Keys might be the Midwest state’s favourite sons. But Chichester is its most intriguing riddle. To those that know – a circle of trust chaired by Dave Grohl – the man with the eyepatch is a peerless master of melody, a genius multi-instrumentalist and mulcher of genres, responsible for much of modern rock’s sunken treasure. It doesn’t hurt his mythology, either, that Chichester has never played ball…

REVIEWS BEST OF THE REST Other new releases out this month. Crazy Arm Dark Hands, Thunderbolts XTRA MILE This genre-oblivious Devon octet infuse infectious irresistibility with punk energy, political bite, cinematic dynamism, Tex-Mex-ed Morricone Americana and a near-prog complexity. Staggeringly ambitious. 9/10 Green Druid At The Maw Of Ruin EARACHE Soul-crushing doom from Denver that makes Sleep seem positively perky. Five lengthy pieces that mirror the side effects of mixing Mogadons with peyote, and the world’s least/most likely Portishead cover. 7/10 Half Japanese Crazy Hearts FIRE Was perpetually alt-er-than-alt outsider’s outsider Jad Fair actually a genius all along? This lush nineteenth album from today’s five-piece Halves retains naive charm while delivering occasional brilliance. 8/10 Black Paisley Rambler BLACK PAISLEY AB Recharged by a revamped line-up, veteran Swede-rock traditionalists Black Paisley…

REVIEWS Peter Gabriel Live reissues REAL WORLD Gabriel’s sensational live journey, from monkey man to tech-rock Merlin. Peter Gabriel has treated the live arena as situationist theatre as much as musical performance. Over 45 solo years, he’s utilised drama, daring and cutting-edge technology to expand the possibilities of the live spectacular, and that development is captured on these four live reissues. You can’t hear the stagecraft, but it dictates the tones. 1983’s brilliantly scrappy Plays Live (9/10), leaning heavily on the post-punk and global experiments of Gabriel’s fantastic self-titled albums of 1980 and 1982, bristles with fractured psychological mania and arcane moods. He scampers excitedly through the pop tracks (Shock The Monkey, I Don’t Remember, effervescent synthpop rarity I Go Swimming), highlights global political concerns (San Jacinto, Biko), or sets…

Cats In Space Wolverhampton KK’s Steel Mill The pomp-rockers have still got seven lives left. Streamed on the same day that Cats In Space unveil their fourth album, Atlantis, this ticketed, full-production show serves as a warm welcome to the band’s third lead singer, Damien Edwards. If the speedy exit of Mark Pascall presented cause for concern, then just like the quality revealed on Atlantis, the newbie’s performance behind closed doors in Wolverhampton eradicates doubt of any kind. He was apparently born to deliver the sextet’s nostalgic catnip for the human ear. Edwards is equally at home on the Sweet-flavoured bubblegum anthem Revolution as he is on the slower, more intricate schmaltz of I Fell Out Of Love With Rock ‘N’ Roll. Oddly, however, despite the significance of the day,…

LIVE! MoPOP Founders Award 2020 Honouring Alice In Chains Seattle Museum Of Pop Culture All-star celebration of the grunge legends on their 30th anniversary. The Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle is an architecturally stunning non-profit museum and creative hub set up by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. It has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, so this hometown tribute to Alice In Chains doubles up as a modern-day telethon (the band cooing over Jimi Hendrix’s guitar, goofing around with treasures swiped from horror movies and playing with the studio equipment to encourage donations from viewers). As honourees, they’re met with a parade of familiar faces doffing their caps and sharing their memories, from Eddie Vedder and Tom Morello to Sammy Hagar and, incongruously, Robert Downey Jr. But, on the…

Fish Aberdeen The Lemon Tree A Fish In The Lemon Tree audio stream captures covid-scuppered Weltschmerz tour. A bit of a poignant gig, this. A warm up in March for what should have been the beginning of Fish’s touring activity throughout 2020, it’s ended up being the only show he’s performed this year, before the pandemic scuppered everything. It’s available now for free via Soundcloud and YouTube, and the option is there to donate via JustGiving to support Fish’s presently unemployed band and crew. Sounding a bit rough and grizzled around the edges, Fish is nevertheless on good form here, working through a set built around latest album Weltschmerz, and including a couple of tunes from Marillion’s Script For A Jester’s Tear. According to Fish’s own notes, a handful of…

Chris Shiflett The guitarist/vocalist joined the Foos in ’99. And no, he didn’t turn down a Guns N’ Roses audition to do so. When Dave Grohl told you that with the new album he wanted to make a Foo Fighters record that got people dancing, what did you think? Well it’s not like we sit down and Dave goes: “I wanna make a dance record.” I would love to pretend everything’s this big, planned-out thing, but it’s not. It’s more like he said: “I’ve been listening to a lot of [Bowie’s album] Let’s Dance, and the feel of that record oozes into what we do.” Was the house in which you recorded theMedicine At Midnight album really haunted? I’m not a big believer in ghost stories, but I will say…

Rami Jaffee The keyboard player was the last to become a member of the band – after a 14-year probation with them. You went to the same school that Slash and the Red Hot Chili Peppers went to, Fairfax High. Does every kid who goes there end up in a band? I was playing the Sunset Strip and all these wacky goth clubs while I was still in school. My first band, Daisy Chamber, were getting demo deals, but nothing panned out. By college I was like: “Fuck this, I’ve been doing it for six years.” During high school it was definitely: “Come on, where’s my fucking record deal?!” You were the last one to join the Foo Fighters, in 2005. Yeah. And I finally became a full-time member in…

the DIRT RIP Thank you and good night. Tony Hooper September 14, 1939 – November 18, 2020 Stawbs frontman Dave Cousins has paid tribute to the folk-rockers’ co-founding guitarist, who passed away following an operation for oral cancer several months ago. Hooper was 81 years old. He was with the British group from 1964 to 1972 and 1983 to 1993. “Without Tony there would have been no Strawberry Hill Boys – no Strawbs!” said Cousins. Hal Ketchum April 9, 1953 – November 23, 2020 Celebrated country musician and singer Hal Ketchum has died at the age 67 as a result of complications from dementia. Born in New York, Ketchum moved to Nashville following the release of his first album, 1989’s Threadbare Alibis. He retired from touring in 2018 after being…

HIGH HOPES the DIRT Bad Nerves Garage-rock pace and power-pop melodies collide, and the results can be infectious. Bobby Nerves is an adrenaline junkie. A high-speed drummer in previous bands, and having grown up singing in a Bowie-loving household in Colchester, the Bad Nerves frontman spent years feeling torn between a love of catchy power-pop melodies and the fast-paced heaviness offered by punk and rock. It was only when his current band Bad Nerves assembled that he decided to combine the two. “I used to think: “Right, I’ve got to write songs that are three and half minutes’,” he tells us. “I’d gotten a bit disillusioned. I’d started to think maybe I’m just shit at this. But this was the first time I stopped worrying about all that. I just…

THE WALKER BROTHERS THE PAIN & THE GLORY For a short period in the 60s, the Walker Brothers were superstars: bigger than The Beatles, idolised and frantically mobbed by hysterical screaming girl fans – but unbearable for their main singer, who ultimately was chased out of the spotlight into new, enigmatic realms. Words: Rob Hughes Forget The Beatles. By the spring of 1966 it was all about the Walker Brothers. Shrieking fans followed them everywhere. Shows were abandoned right from the start, with hysterical crowds intent on grabbing whatever souvenirs they could. “As soon as the three of us began playing our instruments, the girls ran on to the stage and attacked us, ripping our clothes and hair, knocking us over, pulling out cables and wreaking havoc everywhere,” recalled John…

THE HARD STUFF ALBUMS Cardiacs Easy to hate, with their at times unfathomable music, but for fans of the weird and wonderful there was nothing else like them. AVALON/PHOTOSHOT One mark of a truly great band is the ability to inspire overwhelming adoration. Very few bands really achieve it. But Cardiacs did. If you’re a fan, there is a very high likelihood that Cardiacs are your absolute favourite band of all. On the other hand, their wild, intricate and gleefully deranged music might also make others want to run screaming from the room. They were that kind of band. Formed in 1977 (initially as Cardiac Arrest) and led by the unparalleled wonky genius of the late, great Tim Smith, Cardiacs were the ultimate underground band: zealously supported and loved by…

Volbeat Live From Cologne Volbeat light up the Lanxess Arena (shot in 2019). These Danes are so comfortable in front of this huge audience, part of the Rewind, Replay, Rebound tour, as they blaze through their 22-song performance. From opener Leviathan to main set closer Last Day Under The Sun (both from the aforementioned Rewind album), the band scarcely interrupt the rhythmic flow of their irrepressible rock’n’roll. Even when the pace is slowed for something like When We Were Kids, the intensity never lets up. There are notable moments where the stakes are raised to enticing highs. It happens, for example, when frontman Michael Poulsen exhorts everyone to channel the spirit of Johnny Cash for a brief singalong snippet from Ring Of Fire. It happens again when Danko Jones joins…

The Soundtrack Of My Life Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr on the records, artists and gigs that are of lasting significance to him Interview: Hannah May Kilroy CHARLIE STARR: JOBY SESSIONS Guitarist and vocalist Charlie Starr has led Atlanta’s Blackberry Smoke for two decades now, blazing the trail for a new wave of southern rock. His childhood was soundtracked by bluegrass, country and gospel, and he has an unyielding love for the Rolling Stones. THE FIRST MUSIC I REMEMBER HEARING My dad playing bluegrass on guitar. I was around four or five. I was completely fascinated with the stories in these songs, particularly one called the Wreck Of The Old 97, about a train engineer that died. THE FIRST SONG I PERFORMED LIVE Probably a Black Sabbath song, Iron Man or War Pigs,…