With a band name so obscure it’s like they don’t want to be found, a mocking album title and featuring a musical parody of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Mr. Phylzzz (pronounced “Mr Flies”) demonstrate on their latest album Cancel Culture Club (Amphetamine Reptile Records), that they aren’t taking anything too seriously.
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Animals As Leaders started as a project by virtuoso guitarist Tosin Abasi, after his former label Prosthetic Records asked him to create a solo LP, following the end of his band Reflux. After taking a year out to study and immerse himself in his guitar playing, he put together the group who have now been releasing music for over a decade through to Parrhesia (Sumerian) their fifth album.
Heavy, yet groove-laden, Bloodywood brings to the world Rakshak (Self-Released). Bloodywood marries classic Bollywood strains with some serious riffage and wicked heavy metal. Everything about Rakshak is loud and in your face. The listener has a primal urge to hear and see Bloodywood live. Every track on Rakshak is gobsmackingly amazing.
Tough news for the annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee, as they have been forced to cancel this year’s event, citing flooding from heavy rains. Last year’s event was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The festival had already lost some featured performers such as Lana Del Ray, Janelle Monáe, and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, due to pandemic fears, but has set to host a lineup that still boasted Foo Fighters, Lizzo, Run The Jewels, Primus, Mastodon, Remiwolf, Tyler The Creator, Deadmaus Uncle Acid And the Deadbeats and many more. The festival, which was to celebrate 20 years this year, was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic and originally, they were not going to allow fans to roll their tickets over to a second year in 2022. Read a statement from the organizers about the cancelation and refunds here:
Shows and festivals are coming back, as we discuss nearly weekly here at Ghost Cult. Live Nation is often the scourge of concert goers since they service all of the tours and own many of the venues worldwide in the music business. To celebrate the return of live music and honestly, our social life, Live Nation are offering $20 “All-In” tickets for nearly 1,000 shows from tons of artists, such as Slipknot, Korn, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Alice Cooper, Rise Against, 311, Coheed and Cambria, Alanis Morissette, KISS, The Black Crowes, and more!
Danny Carey (TOOL), Les Claypool (Primus), Claudio Sanchez (Coheed And Cambria), Bill Kelliher (Mastodon), Stephen Brodsky (Mutoid Man, Cave In) and Jordan Olds (a.k.a. Gwarsenio Hall) have teamed up to record a quarantine cover version of RUSH’s “Anthem” as part of “Two Minutes To Late Night’s cover series. The video, which was edited by Drew Kaufman, can be seen below. RUSH drummer Neil Peart died at age 67 on January 7th after a three-year battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
The Sword’s triumphant live return from hiatus was scheduled to be with Primus this summer as part of their huge A Tribute To Kings US tour Due to the pandemic, it was postponed to next summer, 2021. The Sword then got creative and so was birthed the “Conquest Of Quarantine” lockdown session. Watch them perform “Children Of The Revolution” right now! Continue reading
Spring and Summer are the time for package tours to bloom and capture fans! A ton have been popping up in what was already shaping up to be a major year for tours in 2020 with Rage Against The Machine, Guns N Roses, Slipknot, Deftones & Gojira, Primus, Def Leppard/Motley Crue/Poison, Testament & The Black Dahlia Murder, Korn & Faith No More, Five Finger Death Punch & Megadeth and more! Dumb and Dumbest Episode #336 is streaming now and it’s all about Package Tour Madness! Dumb and Dumbest is hosted by Matt Bacon (Dropout Media, Ripple Music, Prophecy Productions), Publicist Curtis Dewar (Dewar PR) and Keith Chachkes (Ghost Cult/BDWE Media). In addition to the podcast, Matt, Curtis, and Keith all host The Music Marketing Challenges: low-cost, super high-value private training to bands and artists. And we just launched a Get hands-on practical experience to market your band like a pro today! DM Matt or Curtis at the links below for detailsContinue reading
The lights came up… and it was all over.
This has been the scenario for thousands of shows I have seen. Maybe 6,000 plus shows that I have attended or performed in since I was a small child. The final bow, thunderous applause, and the blinding lights of the house coming on, our shared experience ending as we gather ourselves to go to the bar, or home. Except this was different. This was the last time I would ever see Slayer. It was definitely hitting me, long before the final notes of ‘Angel of Death’ rang out and the final jets of pyro screamed across the top of the band in a way that would excite Beavis and Butthead to no end. Continue reading