Classic Rock News

KISS’ 12th studio album, Animalize, is turning 40 this year, and to celebrate the band has launched a new 40th anniversary merch collection, complete with two limited-edition vinyl variant bundles.

One of the bundles includes an Animalize 40th anniversary picture disc, along with a T-shirt with the album’s track list. It was limited to only 500 and has already sold out.  

The second, limited to 2,500 units, includes a 40th anniversary black-and-white cornetto color vinyl, wrapped in a mirrored sleeve, that comes with a poster. It also includes an Animalize jersey that reads “if it’s too loud, you’re too old.” 

In addition to the packages, there’s plenty of other merch for the KISS Army, including an Animalize print button-up shirt, several T-shirts, jerseys and a sweatshirt, as well as a duffle bag, nail stickers, buttons and a bumper sticker.

All the merch is available at shopkissonline.com.

Released Sept. 17, 1985, Animalize was part of KISS’ commercial resurgence that also included 1983’s Lick It Up. The album was certified Platinum and featured the hit song “Heaven’s On Fire.” 

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Marky Ramone is hitting the road this summer and promises to treat fans to plenty of Ramones classics.

The rocker will tour with his band, Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg, with the trek kicking off Aug. 27 in Denver. The tour will hit such cities as St. Paul, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Portland and more, before wrapping Oct. 11 in Sacramento.

“See ya there! Playing all your favorite songs non-stop!” Marky shares.

A full list of tour dates and ticket information can be found at markyramone.com.

Marky Ramone, born Marc Steven Bell, joined the Ramones in 1978, replacing drummer Tommy Ramone.

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Back in June, The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White, who’ll star as Bruce Springsteen in the upcoming movie Deliver Me From Nowhere, told Variety he had yet to meet The Boss — but it looks like that may change soon.

Speaking again to Variety, this time on the red carpet at the Prelude to the Olympics event at Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton museum, Allen revealed that he’s now “texted and emailed” with Springsteen. He’s hoping to finally come face to face with the rocker at his Saturday show at London’s Wembley Stadium, the final stop on Springsteen’s current European tour. 

White added, “I’m really excited to see him perform.”

When asked how Bruce texts, a smiling White responded, “like a boss.”

Deliver Me From Nowhere, based on Warren Zanes‘ book Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, follows Springsteen’s efforts to make his solo album Nebraska.

Released on Sept. 30, 1982, Nebraska featured 10 acoustic songs Springsteen originally recorded as demos on a four-track recorder. Springsteen had planned to rerecord the songs with The E Street Band but instead opted to release it as a solo acoustic record. It featured such songs as “Atlantic City,” “Johnny 99” and “State Trooper.”

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Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has dropped a new song and scent.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer just released the song “Deified” in conjunction with his new fragrance, Tony Iommi Deified, from luxury perfume company Xerjoff.

A video for the track has also been released, featuring pencil-drawn animation, which, according to a post on Instagram, “tells of a profound and powerful story that lies behind the palindromic nature of Deified.” 

“Deified” was written by Iommi and produced by Iommi and Mike Exeter, with Xerjoff founder and CEO Sergio Momo also playing on the track.
 

Tony and Xerjoff previously collaborated on the scent Monkey Special and the song “Scent of Dark.”

“Here we go again, another collaboration with my dear friend Sergio Momo (Xerjoff) with a new perfume called Deified,” Iommi shares. “I’m really excited about our new perfume and after the success of our last one (Monkey Special) I hope that you’ll like Deified as much as I do.”

Deified the scent is described as having a “duality of leather and spice” with notes of saffron, cinnamon, rose, patchouli and a woody base of papyrus.

A limited number of signed fragrance bottles are available to order now.

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Paul McCartney is the latest musician to pay tribute to legendary British blues/rock guitarist John Mayall, who passed away Monday at the age of 90.

“In the 1960’s we would meet at one of the late-night music clubs and often go back to his house where he had a huge and glorious collection of records,” McCartney writes on Instagram. “During these moments he became a mentor and would educate me on a lot of the blues guitarists playing at the time.”

“I would lounge back in the armchair, and he would play tracks by people like BB King, Buddy Guy, Albert King and many other great players. He would then play me tracks by Eric Clapton who was later in his band The Bluesbreakers,” McCartney continued. “The more he played the more I could see the links between all these great guitarists. Besides being very entertaining, it was a great education noticing the similarities between these stunning players.”

He concludes the post by sharing, “John was a lovely, down to earth man from the North of England so we found it easy to relate to each other and I will always thank him for his love of music, the blues and his willingness to turn others on to what he knew.” He ended the post with a simple, “Thanks John, love you!”

Mayall’s band Bluesbreakers was a breeding ground for future well-known rock stars. Different incarnations of the band featured such artists as Clapton, Fleetwood Mac’s John McVie, Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green, The Rolling Stones’ Mick Taylor and Cream‘s Jack Bruce.

Mayall is due to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in October in the Music Influence category.

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Neil Young is ready to release the third installment in his Archives series. 

Young is set drop Archives Vol. III (1976-1987) on Sept. 6. As the title suggests, it focuses on Young’s career from 1976 to 1987, complete with music recordings and film, as well as lots of content that has never been heard or seen before.

The limited-edition deluxe edition of the set, described as “one of the most extensive anthologies in his recorded history,” will come with 22 discs, made up of 17 CDs and five Blu-rays. It includes 198 musical tracks, with 121 previously unreleased versions of songs, including live and studio recordings, and new mixes or edits. There are also 15 previously unreleased songs.

The Blu-rays will feature 11 films, four of which have never been released before. They contain 128 tracks and over 14 hours of film. 

But that’s not all. Young will also release a separate 17-CD limited-edition Archives Vol. III box set, as well as a double vinyl LP, Takes, which has 16 tracks, featuring one song from 16 of the 17 CDs.  

Archives Vol. III sets are available for preorder at the Greedy Hand Store at Neil Young Archives. Those who preorder the set will get a CD with the songs from the Takes vinyl included. The 17-CD set will also be available at music retailers.

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Bruce Springsteen helped one of his fans pop the question at his show at Wembley Stadium in London on Thursday. 

Video posted to YouTube shows Bruce noticing a sign in the audience as he finishes performing the tune “The Promised Land.” He grabs it and holds it to the cameras, showing the crowd that it reads “boyfriend will propose to me if he can have your harmonica,” and then Bruce starts calling the guy over.

Bruce hands over the harmonica to the smiling boyfriend and, after he secures the goods, he pulls his girlfriend over for a kiss, with the big smiles on their faces suggesting he fulfilled his end of the bargain.

As for Bruce, after the camera panned in on the kiss, he quickly broke into his next song, which, according to setlist.fm, was “Hungry Heart.”

Bruce has one more show at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, which will be the final night of his European tour. The new U.S. leg of the tour kicks off Aug. 15 in Pittsburgh. A complete list of dates can be found at brucepsringsteen.net.

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On This Day, July 26, 1943 …

The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, born Michael Philip Jagger, was born in Dartford, Kent, England.

Now considered one of the world’s best rock ‘n’ roll frontmen, Jagger was studying at the London School of Economics when a chance meeting with childhood friend Keith Richards at a train station changed the course of his future: the two formed a musical partnership that eventually became The Rolling Stones.

In their 60-year career, The Stones have become one of the bestselling artists of all time. They’ve had nine Billboard #1 albums and eight #1 singles, selling over 200 million records. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

Jagger’s personal life has also kept him in the headlines over the years, although he’s technically only been married once — to Bianca Jagger, from 1971 to 1978. He’s had several high-profile relationships, including a four-year relationship with Marianne Faithfull and an unofficial marriage to model Jerry Hall.

He has eight children with five different women. His youngest, son Deveraux, with current girlfriend Melanie Hamrick, is 8.

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A treasure trove of previously unreleased music from the Jimi Hendrix Experience will be released in September as part of a new box set dedicated to Hendrix’s legendary New York studio, Electric Lady.

Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision, dropping Sept. 13 as a five-LP or three-CD set, will include 39 tracks, 38 of which have never been released before. They were all recorded by Jimi, bassist Billy Cox and drummer Mitch Mitchel at Electric Lady between June and August 1970. Hendrix died only weeks later on Sept. 18, 1970.

Included in the set is a Blu-ray with 20 new 5.1 surround sound mixes of the compilation album First Rays of The New Rising Sun, along with three bonus tracks and the upcoming Hendrix documentary Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision, which features never-before-seen footage and photos from the studio.

And fans are getting their first preview of the new set with “Angel (Take 7),” the original recorded performance of the tune, which appeared on the 1971 posthumous release The Cry of Love.

The box set is available for preorder now.

To coincide with the premiere of the documentary Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision on Aug. 8, New York City is set to temporarily rename a portion of West 8 Street, where Electric Lady is located, Jimi Hendrix Way. The doc will then premiere at Quad Cinema on Aug. 9, followed by a Q&A with the film’s director, John McDermott, co-producer Janie Hendrix and producer/engineer Eddie Kramer.

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The bell has been tolling for Metallica‘s Ride the Lighting for four decades.

The metal legends’ sophomore album was released July 27, 1984 — 40 years ago Saturday. Following their 1983 debut, Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning saw the young ‘Tallica — then featuring bassist Cliff Burton alongside frontman James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist Kirk Hammett — building and expanding upon their thrash metal roots.

Ride the Lightning spawned Metallica classics including “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Creeping Death” and “Fade to Black,” along with the instrumental “The Call of Ktulu.” It’s been certified six-times Platinum by the RIAA.

Metallica followed Ride the Lightning with their 1986 opus Master of Puppets, which would turn out to be Burton’s final record. Burton died in a bus crash just months after Master of Puppets was released.

Ahead of the Ride the Lighting anniversary, Metallica launched an exhibit dedicated to Burton as part of their virtual Black Box museum.

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