MK ULTRA

PHIL LEWIS Calls Former L.A. GUNS Guitarist MICHAEL GRANT ‘Toxic’ And ‘Insufferable

In a series of social media posts, L.A. GUNS vocalist Phil Lewis explained why he pushed the group last year to fire guitarist Michael Grant, with whom he also played for several years in the Tracii Guns-less version of L.A. GUNS that disbanded at the end of 2016.

Responding to a fan who questioned whether he and Guns “care what fans want,” Lewis responded, “We like to play with the highest-quality musicians who step up our game. It’s not a nostalgic [sic] act, believe me.”

When another fan specifically asked why Grant was fired, Lewis wrote, “I watched an Oprah [Winfrey] interview, and she said at this stage in her life, she only wanted to talk [with] and be around the people she chooses. I found Michael to be a narcissistic sociopath, and after countless warnings to modify his behavior, I just woke up and realized we need the kind of energy and teamwork that somebody like [current rhythm guitarist] Ace [Von] Johnson brings to the band.”

Lewis elaborated further on the Metal Sludge Gossip Board, where he posts under the name “Al Snug” (“L.A. Guns” backward): “[It] honestly had nothing whatsoever to do with his stagecraft. He was just insufferable to be around in close proximity. I carried him for five years, so if it was about upstaging, he wouldn’t have lasted a month… He didn’t like me. Didn’t like the band. Didn’t like the scene, but it was easy money and the chick [sic] were free so I decided to give the gig to someone who appreciates it. He’s a toxic person, no doubt, and of course I knew it was gonna rock the boat. Tracii was upset, but I had to insist and knew there would be resedue [sic] but survival of the band depended on it and I have zero regrets.”

Grant — a former member of ENDEVERAFTER — joined the Phil Lewis/Steve Riley version of L.A. GUNS in 2013. He began playing alongside Lewis and Tracii Guns in 2016, when they initially performed as L.A. GUNS’ PHIL LEWIS + TRACII GUNS before starting to tour and record in 2017 as simply L.A. GUNS. He also performed on the group’s 2017 album “The Missing Peace” and the 2018 live album “Made In Milan”.

In the nearly two years that Grant played with Phil and Tracii, that version of L.A. GUNS managed to avoid having any lineup changes. Beginning with and including Grant’s firing in March of 2018, however, the group has undergone five.

Grant will not participate in the new Riley-anchored version of L.A. GUNS whicih will make its live debut at the M3 Rock Festival in Columbia, Maryland next month.

In a sort of related story: TRACII GUNS Recalls Seeing MICK MARS Perform For First Time: ‘At The Time, There Was No One Like Him’

In an exclusive interview with Rock Scene, L.A. GUNS guitarist Tracii Guns looks back on his early experiences with music. He remembers being a young boy and sitting in the back of his mother’s boyfriend’s car in 1971 and hearing LED ZEPPELIN’s “Whole Lotta Love” for the first time. “It was overwhelming audio fear,” he recalls. “I remember thinking, I have to recreate that noise right now!”

On the way to the airport, they stopped by a newsstand. Tracii saw Jimmy Page, decked out in his dragon suit, on the cover of Creem magazine. His mom told him, “That’s the guy making that noise on the record.” “I saw that picture, and I’d never seen anything like it in my life,” Tracii says. “The imagery, the sound, it completely captivated me when I was five and a half years old. From that point on it was all about, ‘Mom, play me something like that!’ ‘Led Zeppelin II’ was all I ever listened to until I was seven years old. The theremin coming in on the ‘Whole Lotta Love’ solo, that riff, the way Jimmy used reverb…everything had plate reverb on it. Everything sounded scary and dark and damp. I kinda pictured these dark figures in a really cloudy overcast environment being very moist and depressing. And I was so drawn to that.” Shortly after, Tracii heard a BLACK SABBATH greatest-hits album. “The imagery on the cover was just, like, all these skeletons in a community, and the first song was ‘Iron Man’,” he says. “I was like, ‘Oh! There’s more of this.’ It was like a horror movie for your ears.”

Tracii also talks about when he first saw MÖTLEY CRÜE’s Mick Mars, who had such an impact on him. “At the time, there was no one like him,” he says. “He was fucking nasty. He was really tight, really nasty, a cool kinda distortion.” He also talks about how he got his sound and his style by listening to Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold” at age 13, as well as the other tracks on the “Double Live Gonzo!” album, which was blues-oriented rock ‘n’ roll. “If I didn’t get exposed to that I may have never gotten exposed to that as part of my style,” Tracii says. “If I’m gonna learn ‘Stranglehold’, that means I’ve gotta learn the other three sides of that double album. That’s where I started picking up on the basic rock ‘n’ roll blues sound. The blues is the discipline that goes into creating metal.”

L.A. GUNS’ new album, “The Devil You Know”, was released on March 29 via Frontiers Music Srl.

(Conqueroo) Omnivore Recordings have announced that they will release Buck Owens and the Buckaroos’ The Complete Capitol Singles: 1971-1975 on May 31st on CD and digitally. We were sent the following details:

The set is the third and final volume in a series chronicling every one of Buck’s historic Capitol Records singles from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. Taken from the original stereo masters, The Complete Capitol Singles: 1971-1975 collects the A- and B-side to all 21 singles from that period, including nine Top Ten hits, in their original, chronological form.

Newly remastered, and featuring liner notes from author and Bakersfield country historian Scott B. Bomar, The Complete Capitol Singles: 1971-1975 presents the golden age of Buck Owens in an entirely new way.

“One of the good things that happened in 1970 was that I finally had my studio up and running in Bakersfield,” said Owens of that period. “If I was in the mood to record, I’d just call the guys and tell ’em when to be there. I didn’t have to deal with having to find out when Capitol’s studio would be available anymore, or go to the trouble of driving down to L.A. every time we were going to record, or knowing that every minute I was recording at Capitol it was costing me money. It was still costing me money to record at my own studio, of course, but at least I wasn’t billing myself at an hourly rate that would be charged against my record royalties like Capitol had done to me all those years.”

From Bomar’s liner notes: “Taken together, [these sides] represent a period of experimentation that reflects Owens’ willingness to adapt to changing times and commercial tastes. The music presented here includes some pop-inflected country, some bluegrass, some novelty songs, some slickly polished productions, and some stripped-down ballads. In Buck’s chest, however, beat a hard-driving honky-tonk heart that was never too far from the surface. The elements we associate with Buck’s 1960s period are on display here, too. While his ’70s output doesn’t often earn the same attention as his earlier work, there is much from this period that should be celebrated.”

These are the records that made Buck Owens a legend and defined the Bakersfield Sound. It’s history. It’s The Complete Capitol Singles: 1971-1975.

Track Listing:
Disc One
1. Bridge Over Troubled Water
2. (I’m Goin’) Home
3. Ruby (Are You Mad)
4. Heartbreak Mountain
5. Rollin’ in My Sweet Baby’s Arms
6. Corn Likker
7. Too Old to Cut the Mustard – Buck & Buddy
8. Wham Bam – Buck & Buddy
9. Santa’s Gonna Come in a Stagecoach – Buck Owens & Susan Raye
10. One of Everything You Got – Buck Owens & Susan Raye
11. I’ll Still Be Waiting for You
12. Full Time Daddy
13. Made in Japan
14. Black Texas Dirt
15. Looking Back to See – Buck Owens & Susan Raye
16. Cryin’ Time – Buck Owens & Susan Raye
17. You Ain’t Gonna Have Ol’ Buck to Kick Around No More
18. I Love You So Much It Hurts
19. In the Palm of Your Hand
20. Get Out of Town Before Sundown
21. Ain’t It Amazing, Gracie
22. The Good Old Days (Are Here Again)

Disc Two
1. The Good Old Days (Are Here Again) – Buck Owens & Susan Raye
2. When You Get to Heaven (I’ll Be There) – Buck Owens & Susan Raye
3. Arms Full of Empty
4. Songwriter’s Lament
5. Big Game Hunter
6. That Loving Feeling
7. On the Cover of the Music City News
8. Stony Mountain West Virginia
9. (It’s a) Monster’s Holiday
10. Great Expectations (B-Side Version)
11. Great Expectations (A-Side Version)
12. Let the Fun Begin
13. 41st Street Lonely Hearts’ Club
14. Weekend Daddy
15. Love Is Strange – Buck Owens & Susan Raye
16. Sweethearts in Heaven – Buck Owens & Susan Raye
17. The Battle of New Orleans
18. Run Him to the Round House Nellie (You Might Corner Him There)
19. Country Singer’s Prayer
20. Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

PSYCHO LAS VEGAS 2019 continues to make waves as it confirms its final lineup for this year’s three-day, four-stage takeover of Mandalay Bay Resort And Casino August 16th – 18th, 2019.

Swedish progressive metal titans Opeth and Grammy award-winning thrash metal legends Megadeth will join UK doom icons/PSYCHO LAS VEGAS alumni Electric Wizard as this year’s mainstage headliners. Opeth’s performance will mark their only US appearance of the year. As if that isn’t enough, the curators of the event have also added Scottish post-rock unit Mogwai, former Screaming Tees frontman/alternative rock icon Mark Lanegan, the multi-talented Bruce Lamont who will appear with his avant metal unit Yakuza as well as his Led Zeppelin tribute band Led Zeppelin 2, psychedelic stoner rock unit Dead Meadow, Norwegian black metallers 1349, and American thrash veterans Vio-lence among others.

Additionally, the world’s only heavy metal talk show, Two Minutes To Late Night, will bring its popular YouTube show to the festival stage while multi-talented recording artist, music producer, and self-help guru Andrew W.K. will bring the weekend ceremony to a close for the second year in a row with a DJ set.

See a full list of confirmed artists below.

The highly-coveted “Psycho Special” passes and “High Roller VIP” passes are now sold out, however “Tier 1 Weekender General Admission” passes are still available at $249 but will increase to $299 once the first tier sells out. Single-day tickets priced at $109 will be available in the coming weeks. All ticket prices are exclusive of taxes and fees. Tickets and more information are available at VivaPsycho.com.

PSYCHO LAS VEGAS 2019:

 
When: August 16th-18th, 2019
Where: Mandalay Bay Resort And Casino – Las Vegas, NV
Tickets:
VivaPsycho.com

PSYCHO LAS VEGAS 2019 Final Lineup (alphabetical):
1349
Amenra
Andrew W.K.
Bad Religion
Beach House
Black Mountain
Candy
Carcass
Clutch
Cold Cave
Dead Meadow
Deafheaven
Devil Master
Dvne
Electric Citizen
Electric Wizard
En Minor
Fu Manchu
Full Of Hell
Glassjaw
Goatwhore
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Grails
Graveyard
Hangman’s Chair
Have A Nice Life
Hell Fire
High On Fire
Ilsa
Kadavar
L.A. Witch
Led Zeppelin 2
Levitation Room
Mark Lanegan
Megadeth
Mogwai
Monophonics
Mork
Mother Mercury.
Motorbabe
Night Horse
Nothing
Old Man Gloom
Opeth
Oranssi Pazuzu
Perturbator
Polyrythmics
Power Trip
Rotting Christ
Royal Thunder
Soft Kill
Spindrift
The Black Angels
The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
The Faint
The Obsessed
Tobacco
Tomb Mold
Triumph Of Death
Truckfighters
Twin Temple
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats
Vio-lence
Warhorse
Yakuza
Yob

And be sure to kick off the weekend with PSYCHO SWIM, the previously-announced all-day, prefest pool party at Daylight Beach Club at Mandalay Bay on Thursday, August 15th featuring Corrosion Of Conformity, Lucifer, Danava, ASG, Primitive Man, Idle Hands, Howling Giant, and Thrown Into Exile. Tickets are separate from the three-day festival and on sale now for $35 (excluding tax and fees) for those 21 and older. Grab your tickets today at VivaPsycho.com.

PSYCHO LAS VEGAS 2019 Pre-Party:
When: August 15th, 2019
Where: Daylight Beach Club – Las Vegas, NV
Tickets: VivaPsycho.com

** This is a 21+ event **

Lineup:
Corrosion Of Conformity
Lucifer
Danava
ASG
Primitive Man
Idle Hands
Howling Giant
Thrown Into Exile

PSYCHO LAS VEGAS is the premier vacation-destination music festival in the US for those who worship all that is rock ‘n’ roll. After three award-winning years housed under the confines of the Hard Rock, the event is moving to the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino through an exclusive partnership with MGM Entertainment, and will usher in a new era of spectacle, performance, and production. Meticulously curated, the annual gala has become notorious for delivering diverse and eclectic lineups – from rock and metal to world music and electronic – the likes of which have never been seen in North America. In 2019, PSYCHO LAS VEGAS is rebooting America’s conception of what a festival can be, on its own terms and with its signature mix of grit and grandeur.

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http://www.instagram.com/psycholasvegas

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AC/DC’s longtime engineer Mike Fraser has confirmed that the band has been in the studio “doing something.”

Rumors of a new AC/DC record have been circulating for several months, ever since singer Brian Johnson and drummer Phil Rudd, along with guitarists Angus Young and Stevie Young, were photographed outside Vancouver’s Warehouse Studios. Based on the pictures, the assumption at the time was that AC/DC was in the midst of making — or at least planning — another album, with Rudd and Johnson both back in the lineup. Online reports have also indicated Angus Young will dedicate the new AC/DC album to his late brother.

Fraser spoke about a possible new AC/DC record during an interview he did last month with Australian record-masterer and podcaster Tony “Jack the Bear” Mantz.

Asked if there is any truth to the rumor that there’s another AC/DC album in the works, Fraser said, “Umm… Well, yeah, I could say that we’ve been in the studio doing something. What’s come of that I can’t discuss yet, but uh…”

“With Brian singing?” Mantz asked. “I think so,” Fraser replied, laughing.

Fraser recorded and mixed five AC/DC albums, including the band’s latest CD, 2014’s “Rock Of Bust”. He is also known for his mixing work with such acts as RUSH, GUNS N’ ROSES, METALLICA and LED ZEPPELIN.

Ever since AC/DC completed the tour cycle for “Rock Or Bust” more than two years ago — a turbulent trek that weathered the forced retirement and eventual death of co-founder Malcolm Young, plus the departures of Johnson, Rudd and bassist Cliff Williams — fans have wondered whether sole remaining founding member Angus Young would keep the band going or decide it was time for AC/DC to pack it in.

Johnson was forced to leave AC/DC mid-tour due to a dangerous level of hearing loss, and was eventually replaced on the road by GUNS N’ ROSES frontman Axl Rose, while Williams decided to retire at the end of the cycle.