Are any of you like me when it comes to TV watching? Like, I have cable and I have about five different streaming services, and I barely watch any of them. Seriously, all I ever watch is sports! But I spend so much money on the TV because my wife likes to watch certain things and my daughter likes to watch certain things and my son likes his stuff and for whatever reason they all tell me we need each of these different channels. My wife is always trying to get me to invest in some long series or drama, and I just get bored after a while and drop out. Recently though, she found Todd Haynes’ excellent Velvet Underground documentary, which I totally enjoyed. (Yeah, it wasn’t sports, but there were guitars, history, and great music!) The Velvet Underground was a bit before my time, but I discovered them at a great period in my life—when I had simple needs, a miniscule budget, and a rabid need to make noise with a guitar. To the uninitiated, try to search out songs like “I’m Waiting For the Man,” “I Heard Her Call My Name,” and my personal VU favorite, “Sister Ray.”I’ve always been fascinated with real characters—people who are just weirdly interesting. Usually I don’t find them; they find me. And man, the Velvets had some characters. Check out the movie if you can. It is well worth your time to see how all these interesting artistic movements coalesced with a music scene in New York. But I have to say, one thing I kept digging was the interesting gear the band was using in the early days: most notably fuzz boxes, Sears amps, and a wonderful little Japanese guitar called the Kent Copa.I guess you’ve heard this from me many times, but around 1963, electric guitar popularity began to explode and the world was flooded with Japanese imports. The Kent brand name was used by the Buegeleisen & Jacobson Trading Company (B&G for short), based in New York City—just one of the many importers dealing with Japanese guitar builders at the time. From 1964 to 1966, almost all the Kent electric guitars were produced by the Tokyo Sound Company (more commonly known as Guyatone), which had an extensive catalog of guitars, amps, pickups, effects, and microphones—everything a budding musician would need.And so it went that a humble Guyatone-built Kent guitar made it into the hands of Sterling Morrison and Lou Reed. If you check out the documentary or search out photos, it’s easy to see Sterling and Lou take turns tearing it up with a Kent Copa. (Of course, the guys played other guitars, too, and Lou is more associated with his black Gretsch 6112, especially in the early period. The VU was also endorsed by Vox and I seem to hear all sorts of early Vox effects in the songs.)As for the Kent Copa, it made its first appearance in the 1963 Kent catalog as a mid-level electric with a list price of $149. This model had a mahogany body and maple neck (supplied by the Japanese Mahura factory) paired with three Guyatone-made pickups, three volume controls, one tone control, and a rotary selector switch. The model came in red or sunburst, but I rarely see the red color. As the years passed, the Copa evolved a bit to feature better sounding pickups and a cheaper price. By mid-1966, the Copa only cost $112 and had two more finish options (honey blonde and cocoa tan), but the axe remained basically unchanged in its short three-year run.The Kent Copa that Sterling and Lou were playing was from the 1964–’66 range, since theirs had the more angular, rectangle-shaped pickups. These were low-output pickups with a strong DC resistance rating, but they were rather gnarly with a hint of overdrive, even at calm control settings. The real magic happens when the Copa is paired with a raunchy amp (à la the Danelectro-made Silvertone 1484) and a primitive fuzz like the early Vox Tone Bender.Two other quirks to note: The bridge was a non-adjustable plastic job that did not help with intonation. So, if your guitar was off from day one, it would be off forever. Second, the tremolo on the Kent Copa is actually very good! The spring is recessed into the body and the darn unit just works amazingly and has a great feel. There was a story that the founder of Guyatone, Mitsuo Matsuki, visited the Harmony Guitar factory here in the U.S. He observed all sorts of building techniques and tried his hand at making his own tremolo. Not really knowing anything about a guitar’s playability, he made an early tremolo that only moved one way and increased the pitch. Sort of weird, but by the time the Copa came out, Mitsuo had it all figured out. See—we all can learn and evolve! So, excuse me for now. I have to get upstairs to see the 76ers game!

MOTIONLESS IN WHITE will release a brand new song, “Cyberhex”, this Friday, March 11. A teaser for the track, in the form of a “transmission” from MOTIONLESS IN WHITE frontman Chris “Motionless” Cerulli, is available below.

Last September, Cerulli told the Topeka radio station V100 that he was getting ready to record the vocals for MOTIONLESS IN WHITE’s follow-up to 2019’s “Disguise” album. He said: “I was in California working with our producer Drew [Fulk] throughout a lot of the summer.”

As for a possible release date for the new MOTIONLESS IN WHITE LP, Chris said: “In my ideal scenario, I would love, like, February [or] March. But once it hits the label’s hands, that stuff changes. But I will be pushing for February or March, for sure.”

MOTIONLESS IN WHITE will join forces with BLACK VEIL BRIDES and ICE NINE KILLS for a triple co-headline North American tour this spring. The “Trinity Of Terror” tour will be the first time ever that fans get to see all three bands on the same stage each night.

The coast-to-coast outing, which will see the three bands alternating closing sets each night, is set to kick off on March 17 in Mesa, Arizona and make stops in Los Angeles, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Philadelphia, and more, before wrapping up with a performance at Norfolk’s Chartway Arena on April 27.

For tickets and more information, visit www.trinityofterrortour.com.

“Disguise” made an explosive chart debut upon its release, debuting at No. 4 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart while also claiming No. 2 on the Hard Rock Albums chart and No. 27 on the Billboard 200 — MOTIONLESS IN WHITE’s third consecutive Top 30 entry on the overall chart. “Disguise” was highlighted by a series of stellar singles, including “Brand New Numb”, “Undead Ahead 2: The Tale Of The Midnight Ride” and “Disguise”, the latter joined by a haunting companion video directed by frequent collaborators Jeremy Danger and Travis Shinn. In addition, “Brand New Numb” was accompanied by an official visual, directed by Max Moore.

In 2006, MOTIONLESS IN WHITE materialized out of Scranton, Pennsylvania with an inimitable conjuration of sharp metallic rock, nocturnal industrial, magnetic melodies, and larger-than-life visual imagery. The quintet — Chris Motionless (vocals), Ricky Olson (guitar), Ryan Sitkowski (guitar), Vinny Mauro (drums) and Justin Morrow (bass) — quietly clawed their way to the forefront of hard rock, gathering nearly half a billion cumulative streams and views to date. Following the success of “Creatures” (2010) and “Infamous” (2012), “Reincarnate” (2014) sunk its teeth into the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, bowing at No. 9 and capturing No. 1 on the Top Rock Albums chart. Both “Graveyard Shift” (2017) and “Disguise” cracked the Top 5 of the Top Hard Rock Albums chart and Top Rock Albums chart. The latter yielded the band’s biggest hit to date, “Another Life”, which gathered 37 million Spotify streams, followed by “Brand New Numb” at 24 million and “Disguise” at 17 million. Along the way, they sold out headline tours and supported everyone from SLIPKNOT and KORN to BREAKING BENJAMIN. Not to mention, MOTIONLESS IN WHITE have collaborated with Jonathan Davis of KORN, Maria Brink of IN THIS MOMENT, Dani Filth of CRADLE OF FILTH, Tim Sköld of KMFDM, Caleb Shomo of BEARTOOTH, and more. The five-piece kept busy throughout 2020, releasing the “Another Life / Eternally Yours: Motion Picture Collection” EP and a livestream performance of “Creatures” for its decade anniversary. They band also dropped a cover of THE KILLERS’ “Somebody Told Me” and the standalone singles “Creatures X: To The Grave” and “Timebomb”.

Swedish occult rockers GHOST will hold a special “Impera” record-release event, dubbed “Live From The Ministry”, this Thursday, March 10 at 2 p.m. EST on their YouTube channel. The LP, GHOST’s fifth , will arrive on March 11 via Loma Vista.

According to a press release, “Impera” “finds GHOST transported literally hundreds of years forward from the 14th century Europe Black Plague era” of its previous album, 2018’s “Prequelle”. “The result is the most ambitious and lyrically incisive entry in the GHOST canon: Over the course of ‘Impera”s 12-song cycle, empires rise and fall, would-be messiahs ply their hype (financial and spiritual alike), prophecies are foretold as the skies fill with celestial bodies divine and man-made… All in all, the most current and topical GHOST subject matter to date is set against a hypnotic and darkly colorful melodic backdrop making ‘Impera’ a listen like no other — yet unmistakably, quintessentially GHOST.”

Produced by Klas Åhlund and mixed by Andy Wallace, “Impera” consists of the following 12 songs:

01. Imperium
02. Kaisarion
03. Spillways
04. Call Me Little Sunshine
05. Hunter’s Moon
06. Watcher In The Sky
07. Dominion
08. Twenties
09. Darkness At The Heart Of My Love
10. Griftwood
11. Bite Of Passage
12. Respite On The Spital Fields

In a recent interview with El Paso Inc., GHOST mastermind Tobias Forge spoke his decision to record “Impera” with Åhlund, who also sat behind the desk for 2015’s acclaimed “Meliora” effort. Asked why he chose to end his streak of working with a different producer on each new GHOST LP, Tobias said: “The thing is you need to keep moving so that you don’t get stuck in friendly comfortable mode. ‘Meliora’, the record I made with Klas, was really good, but the recording and the production itself left a few things to be improved. When time came to record ‘Impera’, the writing and demoing had been done in 2020. But in early 2021, the American producer who was supposed to make the record couldn’t come because of the travel restrictions, and I couldn’t go to America. And because Klas is also a very scheduled person, he had a project lined up that fell through. All of a sudden, he had a few months off, and I was, like, ‘That is well-timed, because I don’t have a producer. Would you like to produce the record?'”

Forge worked on the follow-up to 2018’s “Prequelle” with Åhlund and Swedish co-writers Salem Al Fakir and Vincent Pontare, whose credits include Madonna and Lady Gaga.

Regarding his collaboration with Åhlund, Al Fakir and Pontare, as well as OPETH’s Fredrik Åkesson who was brought in to sharpen the album’s guitar attack, Forge recently told St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “I found that I can work really well with someone I respect, who is always pushing for the best. They make me want to write better, to get my game up a little.”

GHOST has just completed its co-headlining tour with VOLBEAT. The 26-date trek kicked off on January 25 at the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nevada and ended on March 3 in Anaheim, California.

In March 2020, at final show of GHOST’s “Prequelle” tour in Mexico City, Mexico, the band officially introduced Papa Emeritus IV, the new character who will front the act for its next LP phase.

Forge performed as a “new” Papa Emeritus on each of the band’s first three LPs, with each version of Papa replacing the one that came before it. Papa Emeritus III was retired in favor of Cardinal Copia before the release of “Prequelle”.

Photo credit: Mikael Eriksson

NOTHING MORE and ASKING ALEXANDRIA have announced a co-headlining North American tour starting this spring, produced by Live Nation. The trek will kick off in Kansas City, Missouri on May 13 and end in Houston, Texas on June 19, with other stops planned in Nashville, Denver, Atlanta, New Orleans, and more. The tour will see two of the most celebrated rock bands today join forces to dominate stages, at a monumental time in both bands’ careers.

After its multiple Grammy nominations for 2017’s “Stories We Tell Ourselves”, NOTHING MORE will release the highly anticipated follow-up album this year via Better Noise Music, with the first offerings expected to drop in the coming weeks. Fans will be treated to multiple songs from the project leading up to its release, showcasing the band’s artistic evolution over the past few years and how their sonic statements uniquely fit into today’s soundscape. Meanwhile, ASKING ALEXANDRIA will perform new music from their latest, critically acclaimed album “See What’s On The Inside” and companion EP “Never Gonna Learn”, both from Better Noise Music. The album’s first single, “Alone Again”, gave the band their first-ever No. 1 at U.S. radio, with the song also debuting to the band’s best streaming performance for the first month period in August. The second single, “Never Gonna Learn”, is on track to continue that success, already Top 15 at U.S. radio.

Fans will be able to purchase tickets for the tour starting tomorrow, Tuesday, March 8 for the Citi and artist presales, Wednesday, March 9 for the Live Nation and Ticketmaster presales, Thursday, March 10 for the venue and local presales, and Friday, March 11 for the Citi Preferred and general on sale. All ticket sale times begin at 10 a.m. local time.

Eager to connect with fans on the road in 2022, ASKING ALEXANDRIA founding member Ben Bruce stated: “This spring and summer we are finally getting back to doing what we love. We are finally hitting the road again and we will be bringing our biggest stage show yet with us. ASKING ALEXANDRIA and our friends in NOTHING MORE will be teaming up and co-headlining across North America alongside ATREYU and EVA UNDER FIRE.

“We have missed playing for you all so much and we can’t wait to get back out there and see you all. We will be playing songs from the very beginning of our career all the way through to our latest album ‘See What’s On the Inside’. See you all soon.”

In 2017, NOTHING MORE released “The Stories We Tell Ourselves”, which received critical acclaim and three Grammy Award nominations for “Best Rock Album”, and “Best Rock Performance” and “Best Rock Song” for “Go To War”. Having topped Billboard’s U.S. Mainstream Rock Songs chart, “Go To War” has amassed more than 60 million streams across streaming platforms. “The Stories We Tell Ourselves” has seen more than 156 million streams, according to Spotify, and was ranked as the second best hard rock album of 2017 by Loudwire.

On returning to the stage and today’s announcement, NOTHING MORE’s Jonny Hawkins said: “We have been in a dark cocoon of our inner most thoughts and feelings for two damned years … shifting, shaping and transforming into a creature filled with terrible power and an unregulated lust for energy. This is going to be our greatest album yet… and this tour with ASKING ALEXANDRIA is just the beginning. Be ready, America.”

NOTHING MORE and ASKING ALEXANDRIA 2022 tour dates:

May 13 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theatre
May 14 – Oklahoma City, OK – The Criterion
May 15 – Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom
May 17 – Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle
May 18 – New Orleans, LA – The Fillmore New Orleans
May 20 – Birmingham, AL – Avondale Brewing Company
May 21 – Daytona Beach, FL – Welcome to Rockville
May 23 – Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
May 24 – Rochester, NY – Main Street Armory
May 25 – Silver Spring, MD – The Fillmore
May 27 – Montclair, NJ – The Wellmont Theater
May 28 – Wallingford, CT – The Dome at Oakdale
May 29 – Reading, PA – Theatre at Santander Arena
May 31 – Cincinnati, OH – The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center
June 01 – Nashville, TN – Marathon Music Works
June 03 – Chicago, IL – The Riviera
June 04 – Indianapolis, IN – Egyptian Room @ Old National Centre
June 05 – Cleveland, OH – Agora Theater
June 07 – Detroit, MI – The Fillmore Detroit
June 08 – Madison, WI – The Sylvee
June 09 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
June 12 – Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium
June 13 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex
June 15 – Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
June 16 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
June 19 – Houston, TX – House of Blues

American rock bands ALICE IN CHAINS and BREAKING BENJAMIN come together for the first time for a co-headlining tour with special guests BUSH to put on an incredible night of rock across the country, making it one of the hottest tours of the summer. Produced by Live Nation, the 30-city tour kicks off on August 10 at The Pavilion at Star Lake in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania winds across the U.S. in Camden, Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Seattle, Irvine, CA and more before wrapping up in Mansfield at the Xfinity Center on October 8.

With over 30 years behind them and 30 million records sold, the upcoming tour marks ALICE IN CHAINS’ first tour dates in nearly three years. The band will be playing iconic songs from their classic albums like “Dirt” and “Facelift” as well as fan favorites from their more recent releases “Rainier Fog” and “Black Gives Way To Blue”.

ALICE IN CHAINS was honored in December 2020 with the Museum Of Pop’s annual Founders Award. The celebration was streamed worldwide, viewed well over one million times, and offered fans a chance to see acoustic performances from ALICE IN CHAINS, as well as covers from musicians and friends of the band.

Sean Kinney, founding member and drummer for ALICE IN CHAINS, said about the tour: “We’re looking forward to finally hitting the road again this summer. It’s been too long and we can’t wait to get outdoors and share a night of music with our fans again.”

Alongside ALICE IN CHAINS, BREAKING BENJAMIN are looking forward to performing live, coming off of a pair of successful tours in fall 2021. Their most recent work, “Aurora”, was released in January of 2020. Comprised of reimagined versions from their critically acclaimed catalog, “Aurora” quickly became a fan favorite and featured the brand new song “Far Away”. As always, the band will be performing a set chock full of hits all summer long.

Ben Burnley of BREAKING BENJAMIN said: “We are so extremely excited to be hitting the road with ALICE IN CHAINS and BUSH. It’s such an honor to share the stage with such amazing bands that we grew up listening to and have influenced us so very much! We can’t wait to see you all out there!!”

Tour dates:

Aug. 10 – Burgettstown, PA – The Pavilion at Star Lake
Aug. 11 – Camden, NJ – Waterfront Music Pavilion
Aug. 13 – Syracuse, NY – St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview
Aug. 14 – Wantagh, NY – Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater
Aug. 16 – Clarkston, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre
Aug. 17 – Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center
Aug. 20 – Council Bluffs, IA – Westfair Amphitheater^^
Aug. 22 – Milwaukee, WI – American Family Insurance Amphitheater
Aug. 24 – Tinley Park, IL – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre – Chicago, IL
Aug. 27 – Englewood, CO – Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre^^
Aug. 29 – Salt Lake City, UT – USANA Amphitheatre
Aug. 31 – Bend, OR – Hayden Homes Amphitheater
Sep. 02 – Ridgefield, WA – RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater
Sep. 05 – Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre
Sep. 07 – Wheatland, CA – Toyota Amphitheatre
Sep. 08 – Irvine, CA – FivePoint Amphitheatre
Sep. 10 – Phoenix, AZ – Ak-Chin Pavilion
Sep. 11 – Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheater
Sep. 14 – Del Valle, TX – Germania Insurance Amphitheater
Sep. 16 – Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion**
Sep. 17 – Houston, TX – The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion presented by Huntsman**
Sep. 20 – Rogers, AR – Walmart AMP
Sep. 21 – Maryland Heights, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre – St. Louis, MO
Sep. 27 – Raleigh, NC – Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek
Sep. 28 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
Sep. 30 – Tampa, FL – MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre at the FL State Fairgrounds
Oct. 01 – West Palm Beach, FL – iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre
Oct. 04 – Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion
Oct. 05 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live
Oct. 08 – Mansfield, MA – Xfinity Center

** BUSH not appearing
^^ Not produced by Live Nation

Tickets go on sale on Friday, March 11 at 10 a.m. local time on Ticketmaster.com.

VISIONS OF ATLANTIS will release its new studio album, “Pirates”, on May 13 via Napalm Records. The official music video for the LP’s first single, “Legion Of The Seas”, can be seen below. The clip, produced by Lichterwald Produktion, is described in a press release as “a cinematic music film, highlighting the acting skills of all band members and featuring a nasty pirate.”

VISIONS OF ATLANTIS states: “‘Legion Of The Seas’ is a statement song that embodies the mindset we carry throughout the entire record. No matter what we are facing, we remain the masters of ourselves and our lives. We are delighted to welcome the listeners on board of this new age of VISIONS OF ATLANTIS with this powerful video, for one of the heaviest songs of the record. Acting scenes meet a fiery band performance, all in a very cinematic way, conveying our universe the best way.”

With its eighth full-length album, VISIONS OF ATLANTIS delivers its most confident and honest record so far, proving that they have definitely stopped wandering to finally unleash their rebellious side and a free spirit as untamed as the seven seas.

VISIONS OF ATLANTIS comments: “Being a pirate to us is being fully aware and having our lives in our own hands, living and thinking freely, embracing life as an adventure with all its light and darkness.

“With the new album, we are opening a new era for VISIONS OF ATLANTIS, fully embracing the identity we have been flirting with for several years now — making the music that truly resonates with our souls. We continue our journey taking us through darker waters, heavier storms, where all serves as background for a metaphor about personal growth and spirituality. If ‘Wanderers’ was more about the bright side of our path, ‘Pirates’ definitely takes us deeply into shadow work, where we are facing other kinds of monsters along the way.”

The album pulls the anchor with the epic opener “Pirates Will Return”, which instantly enchants with its hymnlike chorus and showcases the high-class versatility from the very first second. In the blink of an eye, VISIONS OF ATLANTIS manage to create their very own incomparable universe of symphonic epicness, intense riffing and, above all, the impressive vocal symbiosis of Clémetine Delauney and Michele Guaitoli. Delauney’s bewitching offerings oscillate between clear vocals, powerful belting and operatic techniques, whereas matchless counterpart Guaitoli adds spice with top-notch power metal infusions. “Pirates” presses ahead with catchy hook lines, like in mighty “Melancholy Angel”, rousing “Clocks”, charging “Wild Elysium” and majestic “Master The Hurricane” — the latter of which will make every symphonic metal enthusiast’s heart pound faster through its perfectly balanced mixture of dramatic choirs, heavy orchestration and dedicated vocals. “Pirates” reaches the harbor for now with mesmerizing “I Will Be Gone”, building up a dramatic wall of sound accented by harmonizing flutes and bagpipes, delivered by no less than FEUERSCHWANZ virtuoso Ben Metzner, who joins also on “In My World”, “Master The Hurricane” and “Heal The Scars”.

“Pirates” track listing:

01. Pirates Will Return
02. Melancholy Angel
03. Master The Hurricane
04. Clocks
05. Freedom
06. Legion Of The Seas
07. Wild Elysium
08. Darkness Inside
09. In My World
10. Mercy
11. Heal The Scars
12. I Will Be Gone

VISIONS OF ATLANTIS will support DRAGONFORCE on a six-week North American tour beginning tonight (Monday, March 7) in Santa Ana, California.