Vince Neil Is A Water Waster

I can't even with this.

The environment is very important to me. I drive a pure electric car. I'm a vegetarian. I have no children. I recycle literally everything. My husband drives a Volt. We group our trips when using his gas backup to be as efficient as possible. I run behind him in our house, turning off lights. I bang on the door for him to take shorter showers. I try not to buy excess crap I don't need because it will just end up in a landfill at some point... and then I see on Blabbermouth that Vince Neil is a big water waster. Now, California is in the middle of an epic drought. Residents are on ration and have to conserve... and of course Vince does whatever he wants and consumes 2,200 gallons of water every day. The average household in his rich city of Danville, California consumes 300 to 400 gallons a day. What in the world is he using all the water for, anyway? Good grief!

Oh, and don't even get me started on the almond farmers... 

'Winter Wonderland' - Stryper Style

Happy Friday! It's been a long, long, long week for me so I'm very happy it is finally Friday! To celebrate this December Friday, I decided we should share some of our favorite Glam Christmas tunes. Here's one of my faves: Stryper's "Winter Wonderland." Leave me some of your favorites in the comments section!

Carolina Rebellion Festival Expands

Monster Energy Carolina Rebellion expands to three full days in 2016, featuring best of today’s rock, along with legendary classic artists playing on four stages, the expanded Pig-Out BBQ village, and premium camping facilities. The 2016 festival is set for May 6, 7 and 8 at Rock City Campgrounds at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, NC, just outside Charlotte, NC.

The Mid-Atlantic’s Biggest Rock Festival sold out in advance in 2015, with a record-setting 80,000 fans in attendance for the fifth annual Monster Energy Carolina Rebellion.

The current band lineup for Monster Energy Carolina Rebellion 2016 is as follows: Disturbed, The Scorpions, Rob Zombie, ZZ Top, Five Finger Death Punch, Shinedown, Deftones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, A Day To Remember, 3 Doors Down, Alice Cooper, Bring Me The Horizon, Cypress Hill, Pennywise, Lamb Of God, Megadeth, Ghost, Sixx:A.M., Anthrax, Collective Soul, Clutch, The Sword, The Struts, Asking Alexandria, Yelawolf, BABYMETAL, Pop Evil, Bullet For My Valentine, P.O.D., Sevendust, Hellyeah, Between The Buried & Me, Parkway Drive, Black Stone Cherry, Saint Asonia, Trivium, Escape The Fate, August Burns Red, Turbowolf, Enter Shikari, Sick Puppies, Filter, Candlebox, Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown, New Years Day, Aranda, Thousand Foot Krutch, Red Sun Rising, Texas Hippie Coalition, Hands Like Houses, Code Orange, Failure Anthem, Avatar, Lacey Sturm, The Glorious Sons, From Ashes To New, Wilson, I Prevail, Monster Truck, Audiotopsy, Wild Throne, and RavenEye.

Co-Executive Producer Danny Wimmer says, "From its inception, we believed Carolina Rebellion would grow into a three day festival. There is a loyal rock fan base here to support Rebellion’s continued growth. While this of course means another full day of music, including more classic artists, the entire festival experience will be noticeably enhanced. This year’s emphasis will be on food. We will be hosting a ‘Gourmet Man Food’ offering that reflects the cultural food explosion that is happening all around the country.” 

Monster Energy Carolina Rebellion specially priced weekend presale tickets are available now. Visit the Monster Energy Carolina RebellionFacebook and Twitter pages for a password to purchase now. Fans are encouraged to buy early and save since ticket prices will increase at the public on-sale on Friday, December 11 at 10:00 AM ET at www.CarolinaRebellion.com.

Current Ticket Prices are as follows:

3 Day Weekend General Admission from $139 + fees
3 Day Weekend General Admission 4-Packs from $419 + fees
1 Day General Admission (Friday, Saturday, or Sunday only) from $79.50 + fees

Poison To Do Las Vegas Residency?

According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Bret Michaels is keen on doing a Las Vegas residency with the rest of Poison. In fact, the band was apparently "going to do one last year." Remember, 2016 is the 30th anniversary of Look What The Cat Dragged In, so doing a residency sometime in the next few months makes a lot of sense. Thoughts?

Poison are open to the idea of a Las Vegas residency. Details here: https://t.co/pVQSC6evsA pic.twitter.com/vqyyswqS7O

— UltimateClassicRock (@UltClassicRock) December 8, 2015

Metal Grammy Award Nominees

The nominees for the 58th Grammy Awards came out yesterday. In between all the nods to Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift was the Metal category. Of the Metal noms (listed below) I sure hope Sevendust pulls this one out. The Grammy Awards are about as big a joke as the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. Still, it would be nice for an underdog band like Sevendust to get a win once in awhile. Some of the nicest guys in music, those Sevendust boys.

The Grammy Awards telecast is set for February 15th.  

SLIPKNOT, LAMB OF GOD, GHOST, SEVENDUST, AUGUST BURNS RED Among GRAMMY AWARDS Nominees https://t.co/EqLtsczt2Q pic.twitter.com/6idZEht3VX

— BLABBERMOUTH.NET (@BLABBERMOUTHNET) December 7, 2015

"Thank You" was just nominated for a GRAMMY for Best Metal Performance! Unbelievable! #thankyou @TheGRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/b4uRoSiR6C

— SEVENDUST (@Sevendust) December 7, 2015

Remembering Frank Zappa

Today's post is from our good friend HIM

I was introduced to Zappa via the most benign of means, “Trouble [Comin’] Every Day”:

 

It sounded like a throwback protest song. But the voice (of all things) got to me. He sounded committed, and serious, and p**sed.

 
Of course, Zappa’s 1966 debut album Freak Out! was a protest album. But all of Zappa’s albums turned out to be centered on protest: about standards, about limits, about music, about living.

The rabbit-hole that I fell into (a rather corporate one given that it was on Rykodisc’s by-the-numbers 1995 compilation Strictly Commercial) has grown shallower over time. But I still find myself drawn to Zappa now and again. Drawn, of course, because one sometimes simply wants to feel unbalanced and uncertain. I occasionally want less Dokken and less rockin’. I sometimes want to be reminded that music, through time, has placed a burden on us to think about what we hear so we can better speak about what we think.

 

Recently, I find myself thinking of his thoughtful stance on attempts to limit musical freedom and freedom in general, voiced alongside John Denver and Dee Snider:

 

At the same time, I am reminded of how infuriatingly aloof, yet strangely captivating and open, he could be when he offered up an interview while deep in the depths of the cancer that would take his life:

 

But all of these thoughts send me back to another fact: as annoying as he could be, as self-assured as he was, and as elusive as his most “radio friendly” sounding songs turned out to be, Zappa was Zappa. Noise for noise’s sake. A retro take on the past that would make Rob Zombie blush. Craftsmanship that featured people like Steve Vai, George Duke, Ike Willis, Adrian Belew, and on and on it goes.

 

The man reminded people not to eat snow of a certain color, and inspired them to move to Montana. He also changed the shape of music while advancing the cause of freedom of speech. In recent months, a lot has gone wrong in the world of music and in the world in general. We are all lucky if we remember that people like Zappa—love him or hate him or do both while rubbing the top of your head and stomach at the same time—made this world a better place.

 

I would say rest in peace. But Zappa would tell me to shut up and follow his lead. And I gladly would.

This post is dedicated to my long-time friend Dan, who once lovingly made copies of every Zappa album there was, simply because I was broke, couldn't afford to buy them, and needed to hear them. I repaid the favor by buying most of them, long after it was necessary to purchase CDs or tapes.

BBG! Nine Years Later

I missed my own blog anniversary because I've been so busy lately. The actual anniversary of this blog was back on December 3, but we'll celebrate today instead. I can't believe this site has been around nine years at this point. It seems unreal to me, all the bands I've met and interviewed. The shows I've attended and the friends I've made, all because of this site. Thanks to those of you who continue to stop by and post your comments or just to have a quick read when you're taking a break from work. The Internet is way more crowded than it was nine years ago. Back then, bands used Myspace to connect with fans. Now you can sit at home and watch festivals stream for free thanks to a high speed connection.

In the time this blog has been around, I've had three different homes, as many jobs and two cars. Still, the constants remained: my husband is also my best friend, Aerosmith is still my favorite band, my love for Def Leppard's Hysteria has never waned and I still want to retire in Hawaii.

It seems like events sure have been sad lately - this last year has been exceptionally brutal the world over. At least we still have our music to get us through!

A special shout out to Christian, Brian, Kim, HIM, Heather, Kari, Metalboy!, Dj and anyone else over the years who has helped me out with posts. Publishing content every single day for nine years straight with no interruption is not easy. 

Let's Get Rocked!