Sad news: The music world mourns the loss of Ray Manzarek (74), founding Member and keyboarder of The Doors, White Zombie drummer Phil Buerstatte (44) and Uriah Heep bassist Trevor Bolder (63). R.I.P.!
German Hardrockers BERSERKER will donate 18.000€ to the Berlin cancer charity for children on May 25. November 2011 BERSERKER front man Schröder was diagnosed with cancer, now he is cancer-free. In 2012 the band collected money for this charity at their concerts and will also continue to do so in the future. Slayer´s Jeff Hanneman is dead: he passed away at about 11AM on May 2nd near his Southern California home because of liver failure due to an infection after a spider bite. R.I.P. Jeff!
The Siberian Jay music video "I´m Holding" featuring Mikko Sirén from Apocalyptica on drums - we reported about the videoshoot in our "1h with" Special - can be watched here: http://youtu.be/C-hSNurZVcs
This book is only available in German language!
This is another example of a new literature genre, the scientific approach to the Rock- and Metal scene. Das Buch R.U.M., 188 pages, is definitely “no bullshit”: The author Ralf Abraham is himself a musician (guitarist), promoter and radio DJ. And just like a DJ he uses various “samples” to create a bigger picture. He explores the connection between Rock music, painting, the cultural history of the past 100 years according to cultural and sociological methods, e.g. interviews with painters and musicians, musicians´ and painters´ biographies, but also lyrics of Megadeth, Slayer etc, posters, record covers and the like – just like a DJ creates a playlist. Abraham takes us on the journey to discover why rock music stands for democracy, but he does not “explain away” everything, he rather offers inspiration for your own thoughts and interpretations. The result rather gives the impression of an “interesting conversation among friends” rather than “academic lecture”. In the author´s definition of culture there are no recipients, only producers/creators. Therefore this book can be interpreted as the literary version of a jam session, being as “straight-in-your-face” as a rock song, with the readers as active part of Abraham´s “attempt to describe the democracy of thoughts, the rebellion of music and painting.”
