NEW GAY PARIS VIDEO MEANS DEATH FOR US ALL
Getteth thee to YouTube to check out the video for Ash Wednesday Boudoir Party, the second single from Gay Paris’s new album The Last Good Party. It’s a rollicking dose of gravel-voiced post-Pantera, post-Devin-Townsend–Vampira-Style filth.
AEROSMITH BASS PLAYER TAKES A BREAK
“Is that Tom in a wig,” was a popular question at Aerosmith’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl gig on Sunday night. The answer: nope. Bass player Tom Hamilton has dropped out of the band’s current tour as he battles a chest infection. Hamilton has returned home to the USA to recover, and he plans to rejoin the band and continue their Global Warming tour when he feels well enough. Filling in for now is film and TV composer David Hull, a founding member of Dirty Angels and a collaborator with Joe Perry in The Joe Perry Project. Hull was flown in from the USA at short notice to fill in for Hamilton. Get well soon, Tom!
GIG ALERT: FLYLEAF
Metropolis Touring and Tombowler present Flyleaf, headlining in Australia for the first time. Described as “the sweet-yet-tortured tones of Evanescence with the angry wails of Lacuna Coil” by Rag Magazine, and also compared to the likes of Deftones and Chevelle, their latest is New Horizons. The subsequent tour – featuring new vocalist Kirsten May (ex-Vedera) – makes its way to Australia in August, and you can catch them at The Hi-Fi on Friday August 16. Tickets are available from metropolistouring.com and the venues.
BEASTWARS INVADE THE BENDIGO
One of New Zealand’s heaviest, hardest, and most well-respected stoner rock bands, Beastwars, are just about to release their second studio album, Blood Becomes Fire, and they’re finally touring Australia for the very first time. They verily attack the Bendigo on Saturday May 11 with ground support from a ruthless local line up including rising punk rockers Batpiss, Broozer and The Ruiner (with members of Bloodduster and Christbait).
HEAVEN THE AXE WIN OZ HARD ROCK RISING CROWN
Heaven The Axe have been crowned Australian winners of Hard Rock Rising, the Hard Rock Cafe Global Battle Of The Bands. There are 96 bands from all over the world competing to be one of the final 25 who will be reviewed by an industry panel and chosen to fly to London to perform as part of a world tour with a globally-supported record release and music video. You can help Heaven The Axe to win by voting in the Hard Rock Rising web app. Voting is open now and until Saturday May 4 (and it only works on a computer, not a phone). Get the link at facebook.com/heaventheaxe or facebook.com/hardrock. Check out their website for full Victorian regional dates.
THE NATION BLUE GET SWEATY AT THE TOTE
Sometimes you get a press release so well-written than you just have to run it as-is. Example: “Single? Looking for men with beards in black t-shirts? Don’t like conversation? Prefer to face an illuminated wall in cordial silence with others? May we present you with the hottest ticket in Melbourne for your particular thing: On Saturday the 8th of June, The Nation Blue, No Anchor and Dead will convert The Tote into a veritable forest before your very eyes. With a resting pulse rate of 105+ The Nation Blue have finally been able to stand up, brush aside the Cheetos and leave the house after a long secluded summer. They are sweaty, uncomfortable and angry and will be diving into the lesser-ventured folds of their back catalogue, as well as presenting their first new material since 2009. Brisbane’s No Anchor are so heavy they disregard the entire top half of the frequency spectrum. It’s been almost 12 months since they last levelled Melbourne and they are touring on the back of their fourth masterpiece The Golden Bridge, released late last year. Come and slow mosh to square waves. Dead subscribe to a similar guitar hate as No Anchor and the bands will be releasing a split 7″ together in time for the show. They will open the night in primordial fashion dragging a colossus of force from two brutalised instruments. Witness this live evolutionary chart as one bass-becomes-two-becomes an appallingly played guitar. Hope I don’t break a string.”
Saturday June 8 at The Tote Hotel. Tickets are $15 plus booking fee, on sale now from Oztix.
