I am so excited to announce I have a new single coming June 28th called “I Never Said It'd Be Easy.”  It is definitely one of my favorite songs I've ever recorded.  Please pre-save it on your favorite streaming platform or pre-order it on iTunes (which helps it chart on release day).  Would mean so much to me!  I can't wait for you to hear it!

re-Save/Pre-Order Link: http://snd.click/ineversaid

New album by SERPENTS, the duo formed by Karyn Crisis (Gospel of the Witches, Ephel Duat) and Luciano Lamanna will be released on November 15th, 2020 via BloodRock Records.
 
“ANIMA is not an album for people who need to remain in their comfort zone. It’s an album of spells, protections, and healings, and likely it will take listeners on a journey into the subconscious… that dreamy world where only the brave allow their awareness to open up reveal secrets often kept from themselves.
The spiritual journey is a solitary one that sometimes feels like drowning and sometimes feels like flying, and this album is a soundtrack to the grief and discoveries that inevitably result from these experiences.
Turn off the lights, lie on the floor, and let these electronic atmospheres and layers of voices wash over your ears, flow into your heart and take you where you dare to go.”
 
TRACKLIST:
Ecate Celeste
Incantesimo
AlphaOmega
Requiem
Your Cold Embrace
Centrum
 
Pre-orders available via our Bandcamp shop:
https://bloodrockrecords. bandcamp.com/album/anima

PRESS-KIT DOWNLOAD:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uo2xinqkuhmf03r/AABJWap-kXigXGd7_AKY7WRua?dl=0

Jimi Hendrix's Japanese sunburst electric guitar has sold for more than £160,000 ($209,000) at auction.

The late music icon - who chocked on his own vomit and died at the age of just 27 in September 1970, and was one of the first rock stars to join the famous cult 27 club - used the popular instrument after being discharged from the army in 1962 and when he performed for acts including the Isley Brothers.

The classic piece went under the hammer at GWS Auctions and was only expected to fetch £38,000 ($50,000), but it sold for £138,000 ( $180,000), plus fees, meaning the total spent on the sought-after instrument by the winning bidder was £165,000 ( $216,000).

As per the description of the guitar on GWS' website, Hendrix used the instrument when he "played on the Chitlin’ Circuit with the likes of Wilson Pickett, Slim Harpo, Sam Cooke, Ike and Tina Turner and Jackie Wilson before moving to Harlem, New York in early 1964."

Hendrix's friend Mike Quashie - who influenced the 'Purple Haze' rocker's music - signed a letter confirming the electric sunburst belonged to the rock legend before his passing last year.

The listing stated that the guitar is “in well-loved condition” and was “keep it in its original state” without any strings on it.

The Hendrix sale comes just two months after Kurt Cobain's acoustic guitar from Nirvana's iconic 1993 'MTV Unplugged in New York' performance sold for a record-breaking $6 million (£4.85 million) at auction.

The 1959 Martin D-18E - which was often out of tune - was expected to fetch between $1million (£810,835) and $2 million (£1.62 million) at the online 'Music Icons' sale hosted by Julien's Auctions, but it ended up breaking the record for the most expensive guitar ever.

The priceless instrument - which was bought by an Australian businessman - succeeded the black Stratocaster owned by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, which sold for $3.95 million in 2019, as the most expensive guitar.

“She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many,” said husband John Travolta

Kelly Preston, the actress best known for her role as the fiancée of Tom Cruise’s character in Jerry Maguire , died Sunday. She was 57.

The actress’s husband, John Travolta , shared the news on Instagram  Monday. “It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that my beautiful wife Kelly has lost her two-year battle with breast cancer,” he wrote. “She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many.”

Born October 13th, 1962, in Honolulu, Hawaii, Preston studied acting at the University of Southern California and began her career with minor roles on television shows like, For Love and Honor. In 1985, she landed her first major movie role with the teen comedy  Mischief .

Preston’s breakthrough came a few years later when she portrayed Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love interest in the 1988 comedy film Twins . That same year, Preston met Travolta while they worked on the film The Experts . The couple would marry in 1991.

Preston worked steadily on various film and TV projects during the early Nineties, before landing  Jerry Maguire in 1996. It wasn’t a huge role, but Preston made the most of it, particularly a scene where she tells off Cruise’s Maguire with a few punches to the face and a knee to the gut after he unceremoniously dumps her.

In addition to  Jerry Maguire , Preston portrayed Jane Aubrey in 1999’s For Love of the Game , and made a cameo appearance in the 2000 sci-fi film  Battlefield Earth , starring Travolta. Her final film role was in the Travolta-helmed  Gotti , in 2018, as the wife to Mafia boss John Gotti. To prepare for the role, Preston met with the real-life Victoria Gotti and formed a relationship with her.

“We sat there for hours, just talking and eating,” Preston said at a press meeting during the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. “I spent the whole day with her family. I also had an email relationship with her, and she would tell me everything.”

Preston is survived by Travolta and their children, Ella Bleu and Benjamin. Their eldest son, Jett died in 2009 at age 16 after having a seizure.

By

Jackson Maxwell

Guitars from the Pink Floyd frontman's collection fetched millions.

Yesterday, June 20, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour auctioned off over 120 guitars from his personal collection in New York City through Christie's. Highly anticipated throughout the guitar community, the auction shattered numerous records.

Gilmour's legendary 1969 Black Strat  took in  $3,975,000 ,   establishing a new world auction record for any guitar sold at auction — ever. Of course, this was the axe heard on “Comfortably Numb,” “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” “Money” and many other Pink Floyd classics.

The 1969 Martin D-35 Gilmour used on "Wish You Were Here" was up first, and—after selling for  $1,095,000 —immediately became the most valuable acoustic guitar ever sold,  according to Christie's.  The pre-auction estimate for the guitar? $10,000-$20,000. 

Gilmour's Olympic White "#0001" Fender Stratocaster —which he used on “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)”—was sold for  $1,815,000 , making it, a ccording to Christie's,  the most valuable Strat ever sold at auction.

Speaking of Strats, Gilmour's Candy Apple Red 1984 Fender Strat —which he used throughout the A  Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell  era—brought in  $615,000 . 

Not content with merely setting records for Strats and acoustics, Gilmour also set an auction record for a Les Paul, after his  1955 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop fetched $447,000 .

This page will be updated as the auction continues.  

"These guitars have been very good to me and many of them have given me pieces of music over the years," Gilmour said in a statement announcing the auction. "They have paid for themselves many times over, but it’s now time that they moved on. Guitars were made to be played and it is my wish that wherever they end up, they continue to give their owners the gift of music. By auctioning these guitars I hope that I can give some help where it is really needed and through my charitable foundation do some good in this world. It will be a wrench to see them go and perhaps one day I’ll have to track one or two of them down and buy them back!”

Source: Guitar Player

By: Jackson Maxwell

David Gilmour is downsizing his personal collection for a good cause.

David Gilmour has announced that he will auction off more than 120 guitars from his personal collection through Christie's.

The auction, which will take place in New York City on June 20, 2019, will feature some of Gilmour's most prized and iconic guitars, some of which are valued at as much as $150,000. All sales proceeds will benefit charitable causes.

“These guitars have been very good to me and many of them have gifted me pieces of music over the years," Gilmour said in a statement. "They have paid for themselves many times over, but it’s now time that they moved on. Guitars were made to be played and it is my wish that wherever they end up, they continue to give their owners the gift of music. By auctioning these guitars I hope that I can give some help where it is really needed and through my charitable foundation do some good in this world. It will be a wrench to see them go and perhaps one day I’ll have to track one or two of them down and buy them back!”

Some highlights from the collection can be seen here .

By Andy Greene

Listen to lesser-known gems from the band’s catalog

Most everyone knows Pearl Jam’s early hits like “Jeremy” and “Better Man,” and their first few albums sold in the millions. But starting in the mid-1990s, they did everything possible to back away from the spotlight. Albums like Binaural and Riot Act came and went without much notice, even as their massive cult fanbase grew to insane proportions. They recorded a ton of amazing songs after No Code , and here’s a guide to 15 songs that only the hardcore fans love. (A special shout-out to Pearl Jam super fans Hillary and Kate for helping with the song selection.)

1. ‘Long Road’

Eddie Vedder's contributions to the 1995 Pearl Jam/ Neil Young collaborative album Mirror Ball were pretty minimal, but he did write the haunting ballad "Long Road" during the sessions and it was later released on the EP Merkin Ball . Vedder wrote the song as a tribute to his high school drama teacher Clayton Liggett, but it works as an all-purpose tribute to lost loved ones. It took on a new meaning days after 9/11 when Vedder sang the song with Young at the Tribute to Heroes telethon.

Source: RollingStone

Read more...

With the release of a new career-spanning Cornell box set, the Soundgarden guitarist explains how the track list came together and shares memories of his late friend

“There’s a lot of things about Chris [Cornell] that people don’t know,” Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil tells Rolling Stone . “He didn’t bring a lot of baggage. Meaning, he didn’t carry a lot of things or materials or relationships within his life. He was a little bit independent of that. He traveled lightly.”

It’s late October, and Thayil is slumped on a black leather couch in the green room of the Metro club in Chicago, gamely sharing memories of his longtime friend and bandmate. He’s just come offstage after running through a tight soundcheck with the MC50, Wayne Kramer’s all-star MC5 tribute band, ahead of a barnburner of a show a few hours from now. Almost 29 years ago to the day, he was in this exact same room along with Cornell, drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Hiro Yamamoto while Soundgarden were touring in support of their album Louder Than Love .

The reason Thayil is opening up is because of a new four-disc, career-spanning box set simply titled Chris Cornell that the singer’s estate will issue on November 16th. Now available for preorder , the set features 88 songs that show off the full breadth of Cornell’s incredible musical life from his earliest beginnings with his iconic band Soundgarden to the one-off supergroup Temple of the Dog, his heady years with Audioslave in the early 2000s, and the whole span of an eclectic solo career that saw him writing James Bond theme songs and collaborating with hip-hop producer Timbaland. There’s also a bevy of unreleased live cuts, including a touching duet with his daughter Toni on Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” recorded at the Beacon Theater in New York.

Chris Cornell - Unboxing Video

Read the entire story at the RollingStone website.

“We haven’t even gotten a chance to hang out, just us three, yet … We’re going through healing,” says Ben Shepherd of band’s future

A massive crowd gathered on a misty Sunday to honor the late grunge pioneer Chris Cornell . The Seattle Museum of Pop Culture unveiled a life-size bronze statue of the late Soundgarden singer, which was commissioned by his widow, Vicky Cornell. She was there with their children Lily, Toni and Christopher, as well as Cornell’s former bandmates Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd.

“It’s a reflection of his light, a light that shone through his music and touched millions,” Cornell said during the ceremony. “A light that he used to illuminate our lives, and a light that will continue to inspire those in the future. This statue represents that light — a beautiful, powerful, incomparable presence in a hometown worthy of someone as special as Chris.”

Thayil, Cameron, and Shepherd told Rolling Stone that it was “a lot to take in” seeing Soundgarden fans turn out nearly a year and a half after Cornell was found dead  in a Detroit hotel room on May 18, 2017, hours after a Soundgarden concert.

“There were so many moments [with Chris] that impacted my development as a musician and later on, just as friends,” Cameron said. “I remember so much of when I first joined the band in ‘86. The band was still formulating a sound, but it didn’t take long to get to the sound that it eventually would become and to stay that path. As a guy who’s played in bands forever and ever, it’s really hard to get that so early on in the life of a band, so that’s still significant to me.”

Shepherd, who joined the band in 1990 following Jason Everman’s exit, added, “One thing about Chris, speaking specifically about him, [was] he had the spirit of ‘go for it’ all the time. Just go for it. Push, find out where we can go. And all three of those guys for me when I joined — I was thrown in the fire — they were already rollin’. And they’re all so adventurous and so strong that they made it a totally natural thing to just see where we can go. … It was all about moving forward. What’s next. Onward. Let’s go find out.”

Cornell’s lack of ego, they added, helped the group to stay together through numerous tours, which wasn’t always the case for their peers. (“You guys were one of the first bands out of this town that actually toured and then came back and stayed a band and then kept doing it,” Shepherd said to Cameron. “Soundgarden was focused from day one. You could just tell that they were stable and ready to go.”)

“I think Chris was always encouraging us to bring in material and contribute creatively,” Cameron said. “He didn’t have the type of fragile ego that required feeding it at all times. He wanted to be fed as an artist, not as a star.”

Two of the three band members — Cameron and Thayil — reunited in June for Denmark’s Northside Festival as part of a supergroup called MC50, joining the likes of original MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, Zen Guerrilla’s Marcus Durant, Fugazi’s Brendan Canty and King’s X’s Dug Pinnick to pay tribute to the Detroit-based rock group, but plans for future reunions will have to wait as they continue to process Chris’s death.

“We’re just still taking our time and giving ourselves space to process everything,” Cameron said. “We would certainly love to try to continue to do something, figure out something to do together.”

“On a personal level,” Shepherd said, “We haven’t even gotten a chance to hang out, just us three, yet. … We’re going through natural healing, then thinking about the natural next step.”