Studio A Audio Recording & Production

It’s Grammy nominations day in America. The nominations for the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards were revealed early Wednesday morning (Nov. 20), with a handful of the major categories announced during a live stream, while the other categories were revealed moments later via the Grammy website.

On the rock front, the big names this year include Tool, I Prevail and Rival Sons. Tool were doubly nominated for Best Rock Song for “Fear Inoculum,” while “7empest” received a Best Metal Performance nomination. I Prevail also scored a pair of nods with Best Rock Album for Trauma and Best Metal Performance for “Bow Down.” The other double nominee was Rival Sons, who are up for Best Rock Performance with “Too Bad” and Best Rock Album with Feral Roots. Check out all of the rock and metal categories below and see who’s up for Best Metal Performance here.

The 62nd Annual Grammy Awards will take place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles with host Alicia Keys on Jan. 26. CBS will air the Grammy Awards broadcast, while Grammy.com will also stream the ceremony for awards given out prior to the broadcast.

See the nominees in some of the key categories below, and to check out all of the nominees, head here.

Record of the Year

Hey Ma – Bon Iver
Bad Guy – Billie Eilish
7 Rings – Ariana Grande
Hard Place – H.E.R.
Talk – Khalid
Old Town Road – Lil’ Nas X Featuring Billy Ray Cyrus
Truth Hurts – Lizzo
Sunflower – Post Malone & Swae Lee

Album of the Year

I, I – Bon Iver
Norman Fucking Rockwell – Lana Del Rey
When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go – Billie Eilish
Thank You Next – Ariana Grande
I Used To Know Her – H.E.R.
7 – Lil’ Nas X
Cause I Love You – Lizzo
Father of the Bride – Vampire Weekend

Song of the Year

Always Remember Us This Way – Lady Gaga
Bad Guy – Billie Eilish
Bring My Flowers Now – Brandi Carlile
Hard Place – H.E.R.
Lover – Taylor Swift
Norman Fucking Rockwell – Lana Del Rey
Someone You Loved – Lewis Capaldi
Truth Hurts – Lizzo

Best New Artist

Black Pumas
Billie Eilish
Lil Nas X
Lizzo
Maggie Rogers
Rosalia
Tank and the Bangas
Yola

Best Rock Performance

Pretty Waste – Bones UK
This Land – Gary Clark Jr.
History Repeats – Brittany Howard
Woman – Karen O. and Danger Mouse
Too Bad – Rival Sons

Best Metal Performance

Astorlus – The Great Octopus – Candlemass featuring Tony Iommi
Humanicide – Death Angel
Bow Down – I Prevail
Unleashed – Killswitch Engage
7empest – Tool

Best Rock Song

Fear Inoculum – Tool
Give Yourself a Try – The 1975
Harmony Hall – Vampire Weekend
History Repeats – Brittany Howard
This Land – Gary Clark Jr.

Best Rock Album

Amo – Bring Me the Horizon
Social Cues – Cage the Elephant
In the End – The Cranberries
Trauma – I Prevail
Feral Roots – Rival Sons

Best Alternative Music Album

U.F.O.F. – Big Thief
Assume Form – James Blake
I,I – Bon Iver
Father of the Bride – Vampire Weekend
Anima – Thom Yorke

Best Recording Package

Anonimos & Resilientes – Voces Del Bullerengue
Chris Cornell – Chris Cornell
Hold That Tiger – The Muddy Basin Ramblers
I,I – Bon Iver
Intellexual – Intellexual

Read More: Every 2020 Rock + Metal Grammy Award Nominee Announced | https://loudwire.com/62nd-annual-grammy-awards-nominations/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

Metallica are the grand equalizer, serving as the connective tissue between heavy metal and the mainstream world. So many unexpected headbangers have professed their fandom for the thrash legends and in a recent interview, Paris Jackson (daughter of the late Michael Jackson), said she skipped her high school prom to see a Metallica concert.

As Paris and her brother, Prince, readied themselves for the “60 Years of Motown Event,” which was held in Beverly Hills, Calif. earlier this month, Vogue documented a behind-the-scenes look at the siblings preparing for the big night. Prince mentioned he was looking for new music to listen to, to which Paris said she’ll send him some of her playlists, asking, “You just started listening to Motley Crue, right?”

Prince clarifies that he’s started listening to the hair metal icons, who recently reunited, again recently. “I know you weren’t a huge fan when I was going through my insane phase,” added Paris, confessing her own fandom, “But now you’re really getting into all the rock ‘n’ roll bands that I love.”

Later in the clip, Paris tries on a second dress, which she revealed would have been her idea dress for her high school prom (she’s now 21), but she passed on the classic formal dance, opting for metal instead. “This is my second dress and I feel like a princess. I never actually went to prom. I skipped it to go see Metallica, so this feels nice,” she divulged.

Metallica have a number of international tour dates booked for 2020, including a two-performance headlining spot at a handful of major U.S. festivals. Right now, however, frontman James Hetfield is focusing on his return after entering rehab in late September.

Read More: Michael Jackson’s Daughter Paris Skipped Prom to See Metallica | https://loudwire.com/michael-jackson-daughter-paris-skipped-prom-metallica-concert/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

“I said, ‘Am I just the drummer now?’ They said yes. And I said, ‘Can you tell me if I am still a creative equal in the band?’ And they said no. So, I left,” drummer said

ByDANIEL KREPS 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Reddit
• Email
• Show more sharing options

Janet Weiss opened up about her exit from Sleater-Kinney and her difficult decision to leave the band for the first time in a new interview.

Speaking to the Trap Set With Joe Wong podcast, the drummer revealed that her diminished role within the punk trio while working on their latest album The Center Won’t Hold led to her departure.

“The rules changed within the band, and they told me the rules changed,” Weiss said of her former band mates Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker. “I said, ‘Am I just the drummer now?’ They said yes. And I said, ‘Can you tell me if I am still a creative equal in the band?’ And they said no. So, I left.”

Weiss said that, prior to her exit, the Sleater-Kinney members entered into counseling — like in 1998, the drummer noted — in an effort to work through their problems as a band. Ultimately, Weiss decided the shift in her role signaled it was “time for me to move on,” as Weiss tweeted in July 2019 after announcing her split from the group.

“I thought about it a lot. I mean, I will never play with two people like that again. They are totally unique, incredible, intuitive players. It’s a lot to walk away from. It’s my sisters, my family. But I couldn’t be in that band and have it not be equal, especially with what it represents to me. It represents equality… How can we be fighting for equality and not have it in our band; it just became a disconnect,” Weiss told Wong’s drummer podcast.

“I don’t think [Brownstein and Tucker] saw it like that. They’re not evil people, I just think the two of them are so connected and they really agree on almost everything, they just thought, ‘We’re gonna take this band somewhere and we want to be in charge of that, the two of us.’ I think I was a threat to where they wanted the band to go, and who I am, and that felt bad to me.”

Weiss also expressed reluctance to perform songs from The Center Won’t Hold — an album that lacked the drummer’s usual contributions — on a tour in support of the St. Vincent-produced LP; following Weiss’ exit, Angie Boylan has stepped in as Sleater-Kinney’s drummer on tour.

“The new record was made sort of without me and it would have been challenging to get up there on stage and deliver those songs like they were mine, when they weren’t mine at all. It just got real lonely for me,” Weiss said.

“As band mates and partners and people I’ve had a relationship with all this time, I wanted to be not a threat and not someone to hold at arm’s length, but someone to embrace and to go together where we wanted to go. But they had very specific ideas of what they wanted, and I just didn’t fit anymore. We couldn’t get on the same page. It was really hard, it was not something I took lightly at all… But I love them and they seem happy; they’re doing the thing the way they want to do it. It doesn’t have to be the three of us; it could be this pure thing with the two of them,” she said.

Track will appear on band’s upcoming LP, The Unraveling, out in January

ByJON BLISTEIN 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Reddit
• Email
• Show more sharing options

Drive-By Truckers stare down the end of the world on their new song, “Armageddon’s Back in Town,” the first offering from their upcoming LP, The Unraveling, out January 31st via ATO Records.

“Armageddon’s Back in Town” is a ramshackle rocker, which is described in a statement as a “whirlwind joyride through the whiplash of events we collectively deal with each day.” The song finds co-frontman Patterson Hood grappling with a deluge of confusion, dismay, uncertainty and guilt as he sings, “There’ll be no healing from the art of double dealing/Armageddon’s back in town again.”

The Unraveling follows Drive-By Truckers’ 2016 album, American Band, and was recorded at Sam Philips Recording Service in Memphis with engineer Matt Ross-Spang and longtime DBT producer David Barbe. The album also features guest appearances from the Shins’ Patti King, violinist/string arranger Kyleen King and North Mississippi All-Stars’ Cody Dickinson, who plays electric washboard on “Babies in Cages.”

The three years between American Band and The Unraveling marks the longest gap between new DBT records, and Hood and co-frontman Mike Cooley reportedly suffered periodic bouts of writing block as they tried to figure out how to contend with the chaos surrounding them.

Hood said the band ultimately settled on a approach that was “more heart and less cerebral,” adding, “While a quick glance might imply that we’re picking up where 2016’s American Band left off, the differences are as telling as the similarities. If the last one was a warning shot hinting at a coming storm, this one was written in the wreckage and aftermath. I’ve always said that all of our records are political but I’ve also said that ‘politics is personal.’ With that in mind, this album is especially personal.”

Drive-By Truckers already have a slew of live shows scheduled for 2020, starting with a trio of gigs in Colorado in January. The band will then perform three shows for their annual HeAthen’s Homecoming at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia, February 13th through 15th, before embarking on a North American run that stretches through March and April and wraps May 2nd with a set at the Shaky Knees festival in Atlanta.

The Unraveling Track List

1. “Rosemary With a Bible and a Gun”
2. “Armageddon’s Back in Town”
3. “Slow Ride Argument”
4. “Thoughts and Prayers”
5. “21st Century USA”
6.” Heroin Again”
7. “Babies in Cages”
8. “Grievance Merchants”
9. “Awaiting Resurrection”

Nashville singer-songwriter’s new album ‘Bone Structure’ arrives March 6th

ByJON FREEMAN 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Reddit
• Email
• Show more sharing options

Nashville singer-songwriter gives a ride to some old friends in the video for his new song “Habits,” a country-tinged track from his forthcoming album Bone Structure. The album, Pope’s follow-up to 2017’s Work, will be released March 6th via his own Brooklyn Basement Records.

A mostly acoustic number that has Pope examining the mistakes and stumbles that brought him to the present, “Habits” is — like many of the songs on “Bone Structure” — a personal tune that was penned for the singer’s young daughter. In the second verse, he doles out some advice gleaned from his own experiences. “Almost nobody cares about what you feel, only what you accomplish becomes real. Still I’ve been crippled by my anxiety, but I guess it’s better to be wrong in the pursuit of being free,” he sings.

“I know that stressing about things doesn’t make my life any easier, but try as I might, sometimes it’s hard to intellectualize away your worries,” Pope tells Rolling Stone Country. “I spent a lot of years with industry people telling me to stop writing such personal, specific songs but in my mind, the only way I can really connect with folks is by telling them who I am.”

RELATED

See Songwriter Ron Pope’s Meditative ‘The Last’ Video

Blue-Collar Hero Ron Pope on DIY Songwriting, New Album ‘Work’

In the “Habits” video, Pope hops into a white passenger van and drives around the rain-soaked streets of Nashville picking up some of his musician pals. Those include drummer Jerry Pentecost, who’s played with Pope and also tours with Brent Cobb; singer-songwriter Lauren Morrow and her musician husband Jason; and trumpet player Charles Ray, who has toured with Kelly Clarkson.

Previously, Pope released the tracks “Practice What I Preach” and “Wait and See” from Bone Structure. On January 10th, he’ll launch a headlining tour of the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

Ron Pope 2020 tour dates:

January 10 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge
January 11 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
January 14 – Toronto, ON @ Great Hall
January 15 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage
January 16 – Philadelphia, PA @ Foundry at Fillmore
January 17 – Boston, MA @ Sinclair
January 18 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
January 22 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
January 24 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
January 25 – Salt Lake City, UT @ In the Venue
January 27 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
January 28 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
January 30 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
January 31 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
February 1 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
February 3 – Houston, TX @ Bronze Peacock
February 5 – Austin, TX @ 3Ten at ACL
February 6 – Dallas, TX @ Granada
February 8 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
April 17 – London, UK @ Union Chapel
April 18 – Manchester, UK @ The Stoller Hall
April 19 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg
April 21 – Cologne, Germany @ Kulturkirche Köln
April 23 – Göteborg, Sweden @ Pustervik
April 24 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Hotel Cecil
April 25 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Södra Teatern
April 27 – Oslo, Norway @ Parkteatret Scene

Celebrity photographer also shot shot Elton John, David Bowie, Faye Dunaway

ByJON BLISTEIN 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Reddit
• Email
• Show more sharing options

Photographer Terry O’Neill, who photographed the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and countless other icons of the Sixties, died Saturday, The Associated Press reports. He was 81.

O’Neill died at his home in London following a battle with cancer. His agency, Iconic Images, confirmed his death with a statement shared on O’Neill’s Instagram: “It is with a heavy heart that Iconic Images announces the passing of Terry O’Neill, CBE,” the note read. “Terry was a class act, quick witted and filled with charm. Anyone who was lucky enough to know or work with him can attest to his generosity and modesty. As one of the most iconic photographers of the last 60 years, his legendary pictures will forever remain imprinted in our memories as well as in our hearts and minds.”

Born in West London in 1938, O’Neill was an aspiring jazz drummer when he found his way to photography. One of his earliest jobs was as a staff photographer for the tabloid, the Daily Sketch, and because of his age and his background as a musician, he was tasked with taking some very early portraits of the Beatles.

“I was asked to go down to Abbey Road Studios and take a few portraits of this new band,” he said, per a bio via Iconic Images. “I didn’t know how to work with a group — but because I was a musician myself and the youngest on staff by a decade — I was always the one they’d ask. I took the four young lads outside for better light. That portrait ran in the papers the next day and the paper sold out.”

Not long after, O’Neill was enlisted to photograph the Rolling Stones and soon became one of the top chroniclers of celebrity culture during the “swinging Sixties” and beyond. He shot celebrities like Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra and Michael Caine, while he also took photos for various James Bond films starring Sean Connery and Roger Moore.

In 1977, he took one of his most famous portraits: His then-girlfriend Faye Dunaway slumped in a chair poolside, surrounded by newspapers, staring at the Oscar she’d won the night before for Network.

O’Neill would would also take photos of various athletes and politicians, even Queen Elizabeth II, although music remained central to his career. He was one of David Bowie’s go-to photographers (O’Neill took the iconic “jumping dog” photo), calling the musician “my creative muse” in an interview with The Guardian in August.

“I treated David like a Shakespearean actor as you never knew who was going to show up,” O’Neill said. “He could look alien-like or female-like; it was always so exciting as everything he did was so unpredictable.”

One of O’Neill’s other favorite subjects was Elton John, whom he spent several decades photographing. He shot John during his legendary two-night Dodger Stadium series in October 1975, and, most recently, shot the portrait that appears on the cover of John’s new memoir, Me.

On Twitter, John paid tribute to O’Neill, writing, “Terry O’Neill took the most iconic photographs of me throughout the years, completely capturing my moods. He was brilliant, funny and I absolutely loved his company. A real character who has now passed on. RIP you wonderful man.”

Elton John?@eltonofficial

Terry O’Neill took the most iconic photographs of me throughout the years, completely capturing my moods. He was brilliant, funny and I absolutely loved his company. A real character who has now passed on.

RIP you wonderful man.

Love, Elton xx#RIP #TerryONeill