News - Page 268

Mudcrutch, Tom Petty’s band before the Heartbreakers, has released its second album, 2, more than 40 years after the band’s 1975 breakup. Mudcrutch can almost be seen as an incubator for Petty’s later band, including future Heartbreakers Mike Campbell (guitar) and Benmont Tench (keyboards). Both men, and Petty, are part of the current incarnation of Mudcrutch, which reformed and released...

Two-time Grammy Award-winner Boris Kozlov has released his debut album as a bandleader: Conversations At The Well. The New York-based bassist, who originally hails from Russia, performs on the record with guitarist David Gilmore (Steve Coleman and Five Elements) and drummer Rudy Royston. The album was recorded on Feb. 16, 2016, in Brooklyn. Conversations at the Well is available on...

A documentary film about seminal British punk band The Damned, by the maker of the “Lemmy” documentary about late Motörhead bassist/bandleader Lemmy Kilmister, is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead features interviews with Lemmy (who had a brief stint with the group), fans like Guns ’n’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, original...

Jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut’s latest album, Natural Essence, features the work of noted jazz bassist Buster Williams (solo artist, Herbie Hancock Sextet, Art Blakey, Ron Carter and many more) and drummer Lenny White. The album features classic piano trio material, distinguished by Chestnut’s pleasure in playing, particularly when supported by such accomplished fellow musicians. The record isn’t Williams’ first time...

If you don’t feel like your version of New Order’s Music Complete was actually complete, an extended version of the album has arrived for you as Complete Music. The band says that due to overwhelming demand, it decided to release the extended versions of the tracks, previously only available on a limited edition vinyl box set. Music Complete was New...

Hal Leonard’s book, Royal Blood for Guitar and Bass with Tab, provides an insight into how Mike Kerr, bassist/vocalist for the bass/drum duo Royal Blood, creates his sound. His bass setup allows him to use his bass to emulate two guitars, as well as carry its own sound. “Through careful arranging of the riffs and deft switching, he’s able to...

Groove metal band DevilDriver has released its seventh studio album, Trust No One. The record was the band’s last with bassist Chris Towning (Bury Your Dead), who played on the group’s previous effort, 2013’s Winter Kills. Diego “Ashes” Ibarra, formerly of Static-X, has stepped in to handle bass duties as DevilDriver tours in support of the new album. The record’s...

Metalcore band Hatebreed has released its seventh studio album, The Concrete Confessional. With Chris Beattie on bass, the album’s themes are wide-ranging, covering everything from the dissipation of the American Dream, to being doomed by vices, to experiencing night paralysis. Then there’s “Looking Down the Barrel of Today”: The Concrete Confessional is available on , and as a digital download...

Legendary horror-punk band The Misfits will be reuniting for the first time in 33 years. After years of disagreements and lawsuits, original members Jerry Only and Glenn Danzig patched things up and will perform along with Doyle Wolfgang Frankenstein at Riot Fest in September. “We were never not friends,” Only told Rolling Stone. “We were just adversaries. Larry Bird might...

Jazz guitar great Pat Metheny’s Unity Group has released The Unity Sessions, the CD version of a filmed performance by the group recently released on DVD. The two-CD set features 13 songs and the bass work of past Thelonius Monk competition winner Ben Williams, who also has a solo career. “Ben has a fearless and open-minded approach to what music...

A show from one of the The Grateful Dead’s earliest stands at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre has finally received an official release as a three-CD set after circulating among fans for decades. As always, Phil Lesh holds down the low end on the set, simply called Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Colorado, 7/8/78. The show’s audio is pulled from the Betty...

Bassist Arthur Barrow, known for his time with Frank Zappa in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as well as his multi-instrumentalist turns with Billy Idol, Nina Hagen, Berlin and more, has penned a book, Of Course I Said Yes!: The Amazing Adventures of a Life in Music. Barrow, who played on Zappa’s Joe’s Garage Act I, Joe’s Garage Acts...