News - Page 267

Instrumental jazz/fusion/prog band MJ12, featuring Percy Jones (Brand X, Soft Machine, David Sylvian, Brian Eno, Steve Hackett) has released its self-titled debut album. The band draws its name from “Majestik 12, which was supposedly a group of 12 scientists and engineers assembled in the late 40s to investigate UFOs,” Jones said. There’s speculation as to whether the group actually existed....

Michael Franti & Spearhead has released its ninth studio album, Soulrocker. The band is most well known for the 2009 hit “Say Hey (I Love You),” co-written by bassist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Carl Young, who has been an integral member of the band since its beginning in 1994. This time out, Franti produced in collaboration with two Jamaican producers, and...

You can learn to play bass lines created by one of rock’s best-ever bassists, the late Jack Bruce, with the help of a new play-along book. Hal Leonard Corp. has published “Cream – Bass Play-Along Vol. 52” includes tab and companion audio to help you learn some of the power trio’s most well-known songs: “Badge,” “Cross Road Blues (Crossroads),” “Politician,”...

Bassist Jonathan Moody drew on his classical background for his seven-song EP, Music for Our Hands. Moody, also known in the music industry as GHS Strings’ social media manager and a bow tie aficionado (which he nods to on the EP’s cover), also taps twenty years of gigging in the southwest Michigan music scene for the record and pays homage...

Vibraphonist/composer Warren Wolf has released his third solo album, Convergence. The record features the work of virtuoso bassist and five-time Grammy Award winner Christian McBride and other big names in modern jazz, including drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, pianist Brad Mehldau and guitarist John Scofield. McBride also produced the album and serves as a mentor to Wolf, who was a member...

Guitarist Tom Morello, drummer Brad Wilk and bassist Tim Commerford of Rage Against the Machine fame have teamed up with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Cypress Hill’s B-Real to form Prophets of Rage. The politically themed band blends elements of each of the members’ respective groups. If you’re wondering what that sounds like, check this out: Now the five-piece machine...

U2 concluded its Innocence and Experience tour with an epic performance in Paris, captured in the 2.5-hour concert film, iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Live in Paris, available on Blu-ray and DVD. The Blu-ray set includes the film, with guest performances by Eagles of Death Metal and Patti Smith, as well behind-the-scenes footage, additional music videos and live tracks. As he has...

The Misfits’ new EP, Friday the 13th, is inspired by 1980s horror movies, as befits a horror-punk band. The band’s founding bassist and continued heartbeat, Jerry Only, tells Kerrang! magazine that he loved 80’s horror because of movies like John Carpenter’s “The Thing.” Even so, he pulls a bit of his 1960s childhood into the mix, too, on the closing...

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have released their 11th studio album, The Getaway, the band’s first record since 2011’s I’m with You. The album was produced by Danger Mouse and mixed by Nigel Godrich, and as always, features Flea on bass. And according to radio.com, frontman Anthony Kiedis told KROQ radio’s Kevin and Bean that making the album wasn’t a...

Experimental composer, bassist, producer and record label owner Bill Laswell teams with iconic Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell and Indian drummer/DJ/producer Karsh Kale on his latest EP, Funkcronomic. The album, part of “M.O.D. Technologies: The Incunabula Series” features funk-based instrumental pieces combining old- and new-school sounds that evoke a stripped-down take on Funkadelic. Check out a portion of the album’s opening...

Jaco Pastorius revolutionized bass playing over the course of a tragically short life, which has been depicted in the acclaimed documentary, “JACO,” produced by Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo. Now, some of Jaco’s most famous bass lines (from his solo work, tenure in Weather Report, and on songs by Joni Mitchell and Herbie Hancock) are part of the Hal Leonard Bass...

Two of the final shows performed by legendary metal bandleader and bassist Lemmy Kilmister have been released in audio and video formats. Lemmy led Motörhead for 40 years and continued performing even as his health began to fail him. The shows captured on Clean Your Clock occurred on Nov. 20 and 21, 2015, in Munich, Germany, just a bit more...