Rocklahoma 2016 has announced it’s lineup for it’s 10th anniversary. Taking place at the Catch The Fever festival grounds in Pryor, OK from May 27th to 29th this year. The headline bands are Scorpions, Disturbed, Rob Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch, along with Megadeth, Chevelle, 3 Doors Down, Sixx:A.M., Collective Soul, Sebastian Bach, Bullet For My Valentine, Great White, Sevendust, P.O.D., HELLYEAH, Steel Panther, Pop Evil, Saint Asonia, Bang Tango, Last In Line, Thousand Foot Krutch, Texas Hippie Coalition, The Sword, Red Sun Rising, Hatebreed, DevilDriver, Mystery, Wilson, Avatar, Wild Throne, The Glorious Sons, Citizen Zero, Banshee, Nova Rex, Prophets Of Addiction, Beggars Jam, NiteRain, Freeway Mad, Midnite Sin, 3-D In Your Face, Teer, 5-Star Hooker, Dead Metal Society, Electro_Nomicon, Kore, Rozzik, Diamond Lane, Chaotic Resemblance, Project Terror, The Tip, NICNOS, Stolen Rhodes, Screaming For Silence, DREK, A Course Of Action, Lovebettie, BC and the Big Rig and more. Fan interested in attending can get specially priced Rocklahoma pre-sale tickets now with the password “ROK10”. Ticket prices go up when the public on sale begins, next Monday, Jan 18th at noon local time. http://bit.ly/ROK2016
ROCKLAHOMA 2016!!! Here we go! We can’t wait to celebrate America’s Biggest Memorial Day Party with you! Get your…
Upstate New York will be the site of the 2016 Rock `N Derby featuring three days of demolition derby action and killer bands. Sponsored by SLP Concerts and GameLoud , among the already announced lineup Five Finger Death Punch, Shinedown, Halestorm, Megadeth, Sixx: A.M., Lamb Of God, Clutch, Anthrax, Ghost, Wolfmother, Sevendust, Dokken, Trivium, Memphis May Fire, We Came As Romans, Scott Stapp (Creed), Pop Evil, Thy Art Is Murder, Currents, Wild Throne and 40 more bands TBD. In addition to the derby fun, there will be wrestling, camping and 24/7 food and vendors too. The festival takes place at Schaghticoke Fairgrounds – 69 Stillwater Bridge Rd, Schaghticoke, NY, near Albany and tickets are on sale now, with packages and VIP info detailed below:
Northern Invasion has expanded to two full days – Saturday, May 14 and Sunday, May 15, 2016 at Somerset Amphitheatre in Somerset, WI. The confirmed lineup includes:
Disturbed Rob Zombie Korn Shinedown Chevelle A Day To Remember Bring Me The Horizon Seether Lamb Of God Ghost Sixx:A.M. Pop Evil Clutch Sevendust Hellyeah P.O.D. BABYMETAL Black Stone Cherry Yelawolf Trivium Asking Alexandria Parkway Drive Saint Asonia Butcher Babies Turbowolf Red Sun Rising Beartooth Enter Shikari Aranda Lacey Sturm Avatar Monster Truck From Ashes To New The Glorious Sons Wild Throne Audiotopsy RavenEye City Of The Weak
Monster Energy Carolina Rebellion has been confirmed for May 6, 7 and 8, 2016 at Rock City Campgrounds at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, NC. Confirmed acts so far include:
Disturbed The Scorpions Rob Zombie ZZ Top Five Finger Death Punch Shinedown Deftones Lynyrd Skynyrd A Day To Remember 3 Doors Down Alice Cooper Bring Me The Horizon Cypress Hill Pennywise Lamb Of God Megadeth Ghost Sixx:A.M. Anthrax Collective Soul Clutch The Sword The Struts Asking Alexandria Yelawolf BABYMETAL Pop Evil Bullet For My Valentine P.O.D. Sevendust Hellyeah Between The Buried & Me Parkway Drive Black Stone Cherry Saint Asonia Trivium Escape The Fate August Burns Red Turbowolf Enter Shikari Sick Puppies Filter Candlebox Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown New Years Day Aranda Thousand Foot Krutch Red Sun Rising Texas Hippie Coalition Hands Like Houses Code Orange Failure Anthem Avatar Lacey Sturm The Glorious Sons From Ashes To New Wilson I Prevail Monster Truck Audiotopsy Wild Throne RavenEye
Portland riff rockers Red Fang have been powering through on the road and continuing to push their latest album Whales and Leeches. Their latest venture took them through Knotfest in Devore, CA where they were greeted with a swarm of fans for their early set time.
Being that it is a bit over two years since the release of their current album, they have stretched the lifespan of the release beyond where they had thought it could possible reach.
“It was October of 2013 when it came out so it’s about two years. This is the last tour we’re doing on it. We’re trying to play some smaller cities and cities we haven’t played in a long time. We wanted to get out with some of our favorite bands Whores and Wild Throne and take those guys out. We’ve been writing some new songs and we wanted to try some of those songs out on the tour. We didn’t play them today (Knotfest) because it was a shorter set, but on the rest of the tour we’re doing three to four new songs,” said bassist Aaron Beam, talking about where they stand today.
He talked playing Knotfest and how different it is playing an American festival versus the numbers of European festivals Red Fang had participated on over the years.
“Most of the people at Knotfest speak English! They speak English at most of the festivals in Europe too. I feel more comfortable speaking to the audience here and feeling like they understand me. Besides that, generally festivals are festivals and they’re pretty similar,” he said.
Photo Credit: Kaley Nelson
During their 2011 release Murder The Mountains, Red Fang took part on theRockstar Mayhem Festival tour across North America and played in front of crowds largely geared towards the younger, modern metalcore oriented audiences. Now fast forward to 2015, Beam talked about how playing Knotfest differs from back then.
“I think the lineup today was a bit more varied than Mayhem was the year that we did it. I know Mayhem changes up but the year we did it there was lots and lots of metalcore and more thrash bands. We were the only band that was a rock band. Today was good. It seemed like people were more locked in.”
“That’s it too. More people know about us now. Almost any time you go to see a band cold and you’ve never heard of them before, you’re not going to be thrashing around. You’re going to be paying attention and listening, especially when it’s something so different from everything else during the day.”
Recently, Red Fang has released a new seven inch single on Volcom Recordings with two covers – an Elvis Presley and the theme song for the popular 1980s television series Fraggle Rock, reinterpreted by the band.
“There’s two covers on the Volcom seven inch. There’s the Elvis cover which is only the lyrics are the same. The song is an old couple of riffs that we’ve never figured out how to turn it into a song before. Then there’s also a cover of a song from that TV show Fraggle Rock, which is similarly lyrics and an old song that I wrote from before Red Fang even existed that we modified and turned it into a track that worked with that vocal melody,” he explained.
Beam himself took part on the Teenage Time Killers’ record Teenage Time Killers: Greatest Hits Vol. 1 on a song titled “Your Empty Soul,” which he also involved Corrosion of Conformity drummer Reed Mullin. He talked about how he got involved in this project.
“It was actually through this guy Sean Cox, who’s a tech for the Foo Fighters. Several of the Foo Fighters crew live up in Portland. So Sean was helping us out with some guitar problems and we were just hanging out and he asked me if I would mind if he put me in touch with Lou, who engineered the thing. I was like ‘yeah…’ “
“Reed was originally thinking of having Pepper [Keenan] sing on that track but something happened and Pepper couldn’t do it. So it was like ‘you know what would be cool is if we got that guy Aaron from Red Fang.’ I think it was like Reed mentioned it and then Lou talked to Sean, and then Sean talked to me and that’s how it came together.”
While he enjoyed working on the song, he missed his one chance at performing it live at a recent one time show in Los Angeles.
“No I’ve never played it. That was my chance I guess with the concert that they did (Teenage Time Killers at Henry Fonda Theater) in LA but there was no way for me to make it down. Juggling kids and being on tour was real hard. That was a weekend I wasn’t available. Hopefully they’ll do another one and I can do it. I love the idea and I want to actually perform the song once.”
John Sherman of Red Fang. Photo Credit: Kaley Nelson
While Beam and the Red Fang guys experienced a lot during this album cycle, he shared some of the highlights he experienced throughout the past few years.
“This last tour with Whores and Wild Throne was big. That was one of the funnest US tours we’ve done. I also loved that tour we’d done with Big Business and American Sharks earlier, and we did a tour right in the beginning with Helms Alee, Wild Throne and a band before them called Gaytheist. Those were all super fun US tours.”
“The highlight of show for me was…and we’ve played a lot of really good shows. But the one that really was the most memorable from this album was Hellfest in France. It was the third time we’ve played it and we’ve got a pretty decent main stage slot. I would say conservatively there were 25,000 people watching us play, and they were not just standing there. It was packed and people were rocking out all the way to the back of the crowd. It was amazing. It was so fun.”
“Lots of times there’s something about the energy of an intimate club you can’t capture on a big huge festival stage like that. But with that many people it was awesome. Maybe we’ll never get to do that again but that’s really memorable.”
Red Fang with Paul Shaffer on Late Show With David Letterman.
They met a lot of high profile names along the way, and many were not necessarily from the heavy music world. One person they met was David Letterman, where they had a rare opportunity to perform on his television show – Late Night With David Letterman – before he retired earlier in the year.
“That was on this album cycle! It seems like so long ago,” said Beam, suddenly remembering this moment. “That was an amazing experience. It was one of those things where I didn’t feel nervous until they started taping the episode. Once they tape it there’s no stopping. It feels like when you’re climbing to the top of a huge waterslide or you’re about to skydive. You know you’re committed. There’s nothing you can do – you have to do it. You’re terrified when you do it and as soon as you do it, you want to do it again. It was exactly like that. It was awesome.”
They also got to work with actor and musician Fred Armisen, who appeared in their music video for ‘Blood Like Cream.’ “He played in a band called Trenchmouth in the 90s that my kids’ mom they used to play shows together, like way back when. She knows him from the music world before he was on TV at all. Pretty interesting.”
Fred Armisen with Red Fang on the “Blood Like Cream” Music Video.
Lastly, Beam talked about a new Red Fang also in the work, following the conclusion of their touring cycle.
“Yeah for sure. We’ve already got three songs that are totally done, and we’ve got pieces of…I don’t know…30 more songs worth of material. We’ve got to start as soon as we get back from this tour we’re gonna lock in and start bashing out the songs and turning them into finishing them. We have studio time tentatively booked for end of February or beginning of March.”
“We’re really buckling down now. These tour things come up and A) you’ve got to make money and B) we wanted to try out these songs on the road as well and dial them in a little bit better and see how they’re working. That really helped a lot.”
He gave a preview of the new material that is in the process of becoming the new Red Fang album. “You’ll probably be able to find some YouTube videos of some of the new songs. We’ve played them on this whole tour. One of them is called ‘The Shadows’ and it’s actually on this seven inch we’ve already put out. We’ll do an updated version of it.”
“There’s a new song that I’m super excited about that we’re playing on this last tour that’s kind of a slower, a little dirtier songs but it has this more Russian Circles kind of thing that happens half way through it. It’s got some surprises.”
“We’re still experimenting and branching out and trying new things always. It’s clearly going to be a Red Fang record but with some stuff you haven’t heard before.”
Hardcore noise experimentalists Whores have announced they have signed to eOne Music and will release their next album from the label in 2016. Vocalist Christian Lembach commented on the signing:
“We are over the moon to be working with eOne Music. They completely understand where we are coming from, and it is an honor to be under the umbrella of the biggest indie label in North America.”
Whores is on the road opening for Red Fang and Wild Throne.
Oct 01: Billings, MT – Pub Station Oct 02: Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge Oct 03: Ft. Collins, CO – Aggie Theatre Oct 06: Kansas City, MO – Riot Room Oct 07: Chicago, IL – Subterranean Oct 08: Columbus, OH – Ace Of Cups Oct 09: Pittsburgh, PA – Altar Bar Oct 10: Brooklyn, NY – Palisades Oct 11: Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts Oct 13: Raleigh, NC – Kings Oct 14: Atlanta, GA – Masquerade Oct 16: New Orleans, LA – Siberia Oct 17: Dallas, TX – Gas Monkey Live Oct 18: Austin, TX – Mohawk Oct 19: Houston, TX – Warehouse Studio Oct 21: Albuquerque, NM – Launchpad Oct 22: Phoenix, AZ – The Rebel Lounge Oct 23: San Diego, CA – Casbah
Over the past two years, Red Fang has made its name known across the music world with its raw, riff oriented rock sound and continuing to win over new fans on every stop along the way. Audiences have slowly discovered their latest release, Whales and Leeches, through their wild music videos and their extensive touring schedules.
Guitarist David Sullivan talked about their experiences over their recent album cycle. “We’ve been touring a lot, so we’re staying in people’s minds and playing shows. Video’s definitely help (‘Crows In Swine’). We just had a new animated video come out and stoked how that came out. I got to meet the animator, this guy Adam Avilla last night and talking face to face. That was kind of cool.”
“Most of our videos, our friend Whitey McConnaughy lives in Portland. We see him around all the time. This was a new person for us to work with,” he said.
Guitarist Bryan Giles of Red Fang. Photo Credit: Kaley Nelson
After spending last winter supporting Opeth and In Flames across North America, and taking part on the Desertfest in both the UK and Germany, the band is about to headline a tour with Whores and Wild Throne, which also hits Knotfest in Devore, CA.
Guitarist Bryan Giles spoke about their past year of touring, and at the time of the interview, were completing the Opeth and In Flames tour. While musically opposites from what Red Fang is about, they have made it work around sharing stages with a variety of artists and winning over their fans to capitalize on the moment.
“We’ve been lucky. I’ve always had that worry in the back of my mind when we do a new tour with bands that are different stylistically from us. I don’t know how the crowd’s going to do…every since we were just starting out it was cool to see playing with death metal bands and the crowd seemed to enjoy it, even though we were not exactly what they were playing. I’ve built some amount of confidence…yeah the music’s totally different but it’s still got distorted guitar and blasting drums. We have that too so here we go. Hopefully people will like it,” said Giles.
Guitarist David Sullivan of Red Fang, by Susanne A. Maathuis Photography.
Neither Giles nor fellow guitarist David Sullivan knew how they were selected to open for the Opeth and In Flames tour, but playing in front of early arrivals at these packed shows did help them gain new fans.
“I’m not sure how we got picked. We had done a tour with In Flames a few years ago. We did this Rockstar Energy Mayhem tour and they were on there. We met those dudes and became friends. I’m not sure if they were like ‘we really dig Red Fang’ or if they requested us. I’m not sure how it happened,” said Sullivan.
“I’d like to think it was the case. But I don’t know,” said Giles.
“We didn’t know the Opeth guys. All super nice guys. I don’t know how we got chosen for this but it worked out great,” added Sullivan.
Bassist/vocalist Aaron Beam of Red Fang. Photo Credit: Hillaire Jason
Sullivan and Giles both talked about their home turf of Portland, OR, where the Northwestern US music scene has grown like wildfire and other artists have began to attract attention from around the music world. Talks about a new grunge scene may be premature but something special seems to be in the air there.
“I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s a new movement. It does seem like there’s a lot of activity,” said Sullivan.
“It could be Relapse moved there a couple years ago. So some local stuff is getting seen by a pretty big underground label,” said Giles.
“That’s true. That might have a lot to do with it. Relapse moved their headquarters from Philadelphia to Portland. I’ve never thought of that. It definitely could have something to do with it,” added Sullivan.
“It’s growing. There’s a lot of people moving to town. It’s just crazy how many crummy high rise apartments are going in. It happens to every city but Portland has been a sleepy city for a long time. Now things are going to grow, and a lot of young people moved there for artistic reasons. For being on the West Coast, it’s probably one of the least expensive cities to move to. Everything has increased,” concluded Giles, about the growth to their city possibly leading towards a rising music scene.
John Sherman of Red Fang. Photo Credit: Kaley Nelson
Talks about a new album has been circulating for some time, but Red Fang has been taking their time to work on it, reportedly due out sometime in 2016. They both shared their thoughts on how the new album may shape into.
“We don’t really know what it’s going to be. We’re not trying to pick a certain genre – we’ve got some punk, kind of fast stuff, some more stoner-y stuff. We’re all over the place. It’ll sound like Red Fang. We don’t have a set goal in mind that I can express except to make music that we dig and we like,” said Sullivan.
“That’s the only rule that we have. We must all enjoy it. It doesn’t matter if we end up doing spaghetti westerns as long as we’re all on board with it…,” said Giles.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen…,” responded Sullivan.
“I don’t see it happening either but you never know. But I’m not taking it off the table…,” said Giles, in a semi-joking overtone.
“It will sound like Red Fang but I don’t know what specifically it will be like,” concluded Sullivan.
Both of them would not rule out any musical directions, and fans of the band should not rule out anything.
“We’ve always said we’re not going to restrict ourselves to any one style. It still follows somewhere in the range of heavy music. It’s not like we’re trying to be strictly stoner or strictly thrash. It’s whatever we enjoy,” said Sullivan
Giles summed it up best as a response, semi-joking, “Thrash sounds too exhausting. I think we’re too old to be thrash.”
Crucialfest 5 will be held June 18-20, 2015 in Salt Lake City, UT. The confirmed line will include:
Goatsnake Dead Meadow Royal Thunder Rosetta Mothership Kowloon Walled City Giant Squid Captured! By Robots Uzala Norska Black Pussy Ides of Gemini Demon Lung Castle Lesbian Wild Throne Ghetto Blaster Eight Bells Cold Blue Mountain Throes
With Locals: Eagle Twin SubRosa Cult Leader Settle Down Baby Gurl Worst Friends Agape God’s Revolver Eons Dethrone the Soverign Dark Seas INVDRS Cicadas Disforia Odium Totus The Wasatch Fault Turbo Chugg The Ditch and the Delta Oxcross Filth Lords Die Off Top Dead Celebrity Anthems Stickfigures D∅NE Exes Hard Men Magda-Vega
Schedule Thursday June 18th Area 51 / 4pm / $10 / 18+ Stage Baby Gurl Eons Throes Cicadas The Wasatch Fault Filth Lords
Area 51 / 4pm / +$5 / 21+ Stage INVDRS Eight Bells Ghetto Blaster Cold Blue Mountain Hard Men
Area 51 / 9pm / $10 / 21+ Royal Thunder Wild Throne Settle Down Top Dead Celebrity Friday June 19th Area 51 / 4pm / $10 / 18+ Stage Cult Leader Rosetta Ides of Gemini Norska Dethrone the Soverign Disforia
Area 51 / 4pm / +$5 / 21+ Stage The Ditch and the Delta Castle Demon Lung Oxcross Odium Totus
Urban Lounge / 9pm / $15 / 21+ Dead Meadow Black Pussy Dark Seas D∅ne Saturday June 20th Area 51 / 2pm / $15 / 18+ Stage SubRosa Kowloon Walled City Captured! By Robots Giant Squid Mothership Worst Friends Anthems Stickfigures
Area 51 / 2pm / +$5 / 21+ Stage God’s Revolver Agape Lesbian Die Off Exes Danger Hailstorm Magda-Vega
Urban Lounge / 9pm / $20 / 21+ Goatsnake Eagle Twin Uzala Turbo Chugg CrucialREST – Sunday June 21st FREE / ALL AGES / FOOD Kids & Dogs Welcome! No Alcohol Please Bands and Venue TBA *Schedule subject to change. Accomodations
May 28: Siberia – New Orleans, LA May 29: Fitzgerald’s – Houston, TX May 30: Club Dada – Dallas, TX May 31: Holy Mountain – Austin, TX Jun 02: Rebel Lounge – Phoenix, AZ Jun 03: The Hideout – San Diego, CA Jun 05: The Grove – Anaheim, CA (w/ Halestorm and Rival Sons) Jun 06: The Regency – San Francisco, CA (w/ Halestorm and Rival Sons) Jun 08: Roseland Theater – Portland, OR (w/ Halestorm and Rival Sons) Jun 09: Showbox SODO – Seattle, WA (w/ Halestorm and Rival Sons) Jun 10: Revolution Center – Boise, ID (w/ Halestorm and Rival Sons) Jun 12: Wilma Theatre – Missoula, MT (w/ Halestorm and Rival Sons) Jun 13: Knitting Factory – Spokane, WA (w/ Halestorm and Rival Sons) Jun 14: The Commodore Ballroom – Vancouver, BC (w/ Halestorm and Rival Sons) Jun 16: Pub Station – Billings, MT Jun 18: Crucial Fest – Salt Lake City, UT Jun 19: Larimer Lounge – Denver, CO Jun 20: The Record Bar – Kansas City, MO Jun 21: The Nether Bar – Minneapolis, MN Jun 22: Beat Kitchen – Chicago, IL Jun 23: The Pyramid Scheme – Grand Rapids, MI Jun 25: St. Vitus – Brooklyn, NY Jun 26: Great Scott – Boston, MA Jun 27: The Parlour – Providence, RI Jun 28: Kung Fu Necktie – Philadelphia, PA Jun 30: Metro Gallery – Baltimore, MD Jul 01: The Camel – Richmond, VA Jul 02: The Chop Shop – Charlotte, NC Jul 03: The Earl – Atlanta, GA ^w/ Halestorm and Rival Sons
New tour dates with Wild Throne have been revealed! Catch Royal Thunder on the road this Spring/Summer including select…