For a man who has been out on the concert trail for a number of months, Richard Fortus is feeling surprisingly invigorated. The guitar player for Guns N Roses and The Compulsions, has been rocking across the country but he is finally home in St Louis, happily surrounded by his family and far away from the lights, the fans and the long bus rides.
Jack Russell had the world in the palm of his hand. Then poof – it disappeared before his very eyes and he found himself on the outside looking in. And outside was not a safe place to be. Waking up to the hum of machines and a voice whispering that a friend had died is a cruel reality check. Jack Russell needed to wake up before it was too late.
Probably one of the most popular young bands out there today, Art Of Dying has become the darlings of rock & roll. Last year they traveled the country as part of the Uproar Festival and rode a big kahuna wave right up the charts with their first two singles “Die Trying” and “Get Thru This”. And with their fan base growing larger every day, they are certainly feeling pretty good.
So what exactly is Rebelution? Glide decided to find out with a phone call to lead singer and main songwriter Eric Rachmany, who was home in San Francisco enjoying some nice weather before his band went back out on the road. Formed in 2004 while all four band members were attending college, Rebelution first hit big in Hawaii, releasing their first album in 2007. They have been growing in popularity ever since, selling out more and more venues as they travel the country spreading their reggae.
This past November, Megadeth released their latest musical endeavor, aptly named TH1RT3EN. Chock full of the snarls and shreds that fans are used to, it also hums with a new energy that has been building since the addition of guitar player Chris Broderick in 2008.
Having spent quality time with both David Bowie and John Lennon providing inventive guitar sounds to such albums as Young Americans and Double Fantasy, he has never stayed satisfied. Instead, he keeps chasing the rock & roll dragon, developing new projects that fill him with that tingly excitement that a new band chemistry naturally provides. He is currently reviving Phantom, Rocker & Slick and they are hitting the concert trail with their brand of rockabilly rock, while over these past few weeks he has been spending studio time with a local punk band. And on top of all that, he has recorded a few songs with his Dolls bandmate David Johansen and Motley Crue guitarist Mick Mars.
And what exactly did Megadeth give to the loud and excited crowd? One hell of a show. Getting all riled up over some fan’s stupidity only invigorated the band to play a balls-to-the-wall locomotive set, culminating in a masterful fire-breathing dragon of an instrumental orgy of “Holy Wars/Silent Scorn”. Proper credit has never been given to this band, much less for their guitar onslaughts, grown ever more vigorous with the addition of Broderick in 2010. There is definitely a new fire in their soul, which is apparent on old Megadeth standards “Peace Sells”, “Symphony Of Destruction” and “A Tout Le Monde”, which saw Lacuna Coil vocalist Cristina Scabbia joining the gravel-voiced one for a duet.
Sometimes we all love a good no-brainer rock song to get us through our day. But then there always comes a time when too much rhythm partying starts to fray the stem cells and you find yourself craving Bob Dylan or Neil Young or Peter Gabriel; music that injects a few bars of powerade Einstein into those cavities in the brain. Since about 2006, the San Francisco band Howlin Rain has been feeding the hungry with an alternative intelligentsia to the souls weakened by Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.
is not easy being the musician who takes over for a popular member of a superstar band; to come in and try to fill those shoes all while attempting to put your own personal spin on the music that millions know word for word and note for note. But this was the situation that Lawrence Gowan found himself in when he replaced Dennis DeYoung in the vastly popular Styx in 1999. Since then, he has put his stamp on the Styx catalog, adding a bit of Scottish-Canadian wizardry to their American classics such as “Renegade”, “Crystal Ball” and “Blue Collar Man”. But what some fans may still not know is that Gowan was pretty popular on his own in Canada, nabbing awards and hit records and successful tours. He just never had the chance to see what he could do in the United States until he joined forces with Styx.
“They had me looking at things differently than I usually would. Ideas started to untangle and we got into areas of writing that seemed fresh and exciting,” Nikki Sixx wrote in his photography book This Is Gonna Hurt, referring to his collaboration with Sixx:AM bandmates Dj Ashba and James Michael. “Their talent inspired me like nothing else had in years."
