The 2009 Musink tattoo and music tour has been canceled, siting the current economic climate as the reason. The US leg was due to launch January 30, 2009 with Motorhead and Social Distortion on the bill.

Bummer.

Last year, they kicked off the tour in Orange County, CA in February, with over 15,000 people in attendance for the three-day lifestyle event and 300 of the best tattoo artists in the world.
Kat Von D (think LA Ink), co-producer commented

“I’m sad that this year’s festival will not go on as planned, but I’d rather the fans not be disappointed, as there were key elements that did not come together as originally designed,”

We’ll see about 2010, but don’t hold your breath.

Red Fang - “Prehistoric Dog”

The careers of musicians are  too often ones of stagnation and mediocrity - bands are generally content to rest on their laurels and continue to churn out album after album that, while sufficient musically, lack any real new direction or surprises.  Sometimes this works - case in point, the mighty Motorhead.  But for many, you just eventually lose interest if a band doesn’t show some spark of creativity.  So any attempt to chart new territory or explore the avant garde for interesting musical ideas should always be respected and applauded, right?

Well…maybe not.

In 1988, after establishing themselves as one of the most unique and brutal of the hybrid thrash/death/doom bands in existence, Celtic Frost (albeit a completely different line-up of the band, with Tom G. Warrior the sole remaining original member) released the lamentable Cold Lake to the confusion and violently negative reaction of long-time fans.  The band abandoned all their previous darkness and experimental leanings for a perplexing glam-metal direction, which included the disconcerting photo of one of the band members proudly displaying his auburn tuft of pubic hair peeking through the fly of his britches.  Warrior teased out his hair until he looked like Malcolm Young auditioning for Poison.  And the music itself?  Gone are any attempts to reach new musical heights.  The songs are in the main pointless rehashes of light-weight hair-metal bands like Ratt or Dokken.  They don’t even reach a level of sleaze and bombast that makes Motley Crue listenable.  Hearing Warrior “sing” lyrics like “We are drowning in purple wine/Standing as one, as one we line/Gold and light did stop their dance/A fever obscene, a wicked romance” seems like a slap in the face.  Even when he throws in his trademark “Ooh!” it is painfully apparent that he has completely lost track of what made Celtic Frost special to many fans. The album signaled the death of Celtic Frost (with the exception of a last attempt at saving face, the Vanity/Nemesis album, which tanked) until Warrior resurrected it in 2001 and produced the astounding Monotheist.* But when Frost reissued their back catalogue, recently, Cold Lake was conspicuously absent.  It had become Warrior’s red-headed stepchild.

Tom G. Warrior has since broken his silence on the matter:  “I was too eager to simply have a good time, I was too happy to have new musicians who actually wanted to write and who didn’t leave me with the immense burden of writing and producing the entire album (as it had been for the first three Celtic Frost albums). I therefore loosened control (of material and quality) too much. And I was too glad to let the darkness go – right down to the band’s image. The original concept for Cold Lake as outlined was now taking on its own dynamics and our focus became totally out of control. What was going to be a far more melodic (commercial) album by the original line-up became an overblown steam release valve for past frustrations, recorded by new musicians who didn’t yet understand the legacy of Celtic Frost. Tony Platt’s faulty production and the hefty disagreements he had with us contributed to this. The mistakes are countless. Just two here: we didn’t let go of Tony because we wanted a major name attached to the album – after all, that was what Celtic Frost always requested from Noise Records and had never gotten. Now it was possible. And Celtic Frost’s traditional complete ignorance of what was appropriate now backfired when we did Cold Lake in this totally inappropriate way.”

Strangely, Cold Lake now sells for up to $70 on eBay.  Some people are just morbidly obsessed with a good train-wreck, I guess.

*Warrior had another hissy fit this year, however, and again disbanded Frost amidst a torrent of dramatic blog entries.

AC/DC is up for Grammy again for ‘Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals’.
They were also nominated, but lost, in 1989 for Blow Up Your Video, 1991 for The Razor’s Edge, 1992 for Moneytalks, and 1994 for Highway to Hell (losing to Stone Temple Pilots, how embarassing).

AC/DC, who have sold more than 1.5 million copies of their latest album Black Ice in the US, will compete with Radiohead, Coldplay, the Eagles and breakthrough rock act Kings of Leon.

Seriously…
They had best win this time. Look who they are up against.

Brent Hinds, singer/guitarist for the New Wave of American Heavy Metal band Mastodon, talks with someone with an accent about their new album Crack the Skye, due out in 2009.
He starts the interview with a yawn, waxes philosophical about the mysticism of Rasputin, is very polite to those who bring him coffee, talks about outer body travel and how it relates to the new album and the four elements.

Barry Spencer Scrannage is auctioning off some of his person collection of Ozzy, Black Sabbath and other weird ass stuff you collect over the years as a now 50 year old heavy metal drummer.

“My career started at school in Dorset with a band
called “The Shakedowns” and the changing world of
the 60’s. I left school and returned to Birmingham,
where I was honoured to meet and to befriend the
late, great, John Bonham. I started a band with
Glenn Tipton; “Merlin” and we were lucky enough
to play at the original Cavern in Liverpool.

I was part of the formative days of “Light and Sound
Design”, who were part of the biggest lighting
company in the world and supporting some of the
biggest tours. This would lead me to work on the
AC/DC “Highway to Hell” tour, to name but a few. I
was then lucky enough to support them with my
own band “Starfighters” on the “Back in Black” tour.

I later lived with Ozzy Osborne just after he left Black
Sabbath, to form “Blizzard of Oz”, with Randy
Rhodes and Bob Daisley. Ozzy; a great “frontman”
with a crazy sense of humour and madness; the
talented Bob Daisley and the delicate genius of
Randy, who tragically left us all too soon.
I have played and met many, many more famous
musicians in their formative days and have many
tales to tell.”

The auction is being handled by Fieldings Auctioneers in Stourbridge, UK, as part of their Christmas Sale.

Check out the item #830

BLACK SABBATH (1968 - Present)
English rock band -
A large stage prop crucifix in steel with open apertures to accommodate a full lighting rig with partial wiring remnants as used by Black Sabbath in various world tours with associated letter signed by Terry Lee.
£800 - £1200
“The Black Sabbath Cross was given to me by Terry Lee a director of Light and Sound Design who were responsible for the lighting on the tour”.

And lots of cool posters, tapes and other stuff that Ozzy probably snorted coke off of.

Check out the catalog here (be warned, its a PDF).

The Prince of F*ckin’ Darkness turns 60 today - can you believe it?

Clods wishes Ozzy well. His music has played a huge role in my life going back to the early 80’s when I first started getting into heavy metal. I’ve had the privilege of seeing him solo and with Black Sabbath on the reunion tour and again at Ozzfest 2004. What would we do without him, huh?

Happy Birthday, Ozzy!

During an interview with Sebastian Bach for 3 GUYS PICKIN’, Don Dokken shows up out of nowhere and begins blasting his old band, Sebastian’s old band, Skid Row, and throws in a story about his legal troubles (for a while, Don did not even own his own name - “Dokken”).  This is good stuff.  Ignore the Blabbermouth references.

Oh, and sorry about the two dorks that take up a good portion of the beginning of the video.  It’s worth it to make it past that part, though.

OzzFest wants to know what bands you want to see at the 2009 OzzFest.
Go ahead and sign into your www.ozzfest.com account and list 5 bands you want to see next summer.
Or just list your fav 5 in the comments below on ClodsOfSodom.com We'll be sure to send them to $haron as suggestions.