MK ULTRA

Celebrity porn star Stormy Daniels, the adult entertainer at the centre of controversy regarding her relationship with US President Donald Trump, has directed a music video for She Likes Guns, by steampunk-themed shock rockers Granny 4 Barrel.

The video was shot last June and features three of porn’s hottest stars, Lily Lane, Arya Fae and Casey Calvert. The three take turns to cavort flirtatiously amidst an array of lethal weapons, both vintage and modern.

“We shot the video with Stormy months ago, but we received some push-back from radio and media about the sensitive subject,” say the band. “So we sat on the release of the song and video – but now we’re just going for it. Stormy did an incredible job directing – she knew exactly how we wanted to portray the song in the video, and with our spring tour upon us, we decided that the right time to release it is now.”

The video for She Likes Guns was produced by Jeff Tomei, who has previously worked with artists including including Smashing Pumpkins, Matchbox Twenty, Jerry Cantrell, Skid Row, Corrosion Of Conformity, Soul Asylum, Warren Haynes and more.

Granny 4 Barrel, from upstate New York, are launching the video to coincide with the start of their Year Of The Bull tour, which kicks off in Salt Lake City on Thursday. They’ll be playing alongside Texas Hippie Coalition and Kobra and the Lotus. The band’s single Freak Flag is also out now.

Granny 4 Barrel tour dates

Apr 19: Metro Music Hall, Salt Lake City, UT, US
Apr 20: Herman’s Hideaway, Denver, CO, US
Apr 21: Sunshine Studios Live, Colorado Springs, CO, US
Apr 22: The Riot Room, Kansas City, MO, US
Apr 25: Marx The Spot, Johnson City, TN, US
Apr 26: The Masquerade, Atlanta, GA, US
May 03: Trixie’s Entertainment Complex, Louisville, KY, US
May 05: Blue Fox Billiards, Bar and Grill, Winchester, VA, US
May 07: Alchemy, Providence, RI, US
May 08: Exhibition Hall, Watertown, NY, US
May 09: The Montage Music Hall, Rochester, NY, US
May 10: Dingbatz, Clifton, NJ, US
May 11: The Kingsland, New York, NY, US
May 12: Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center, Harrisburg, PA, US
May 13: Jergels, Warrendale, PA, US
May 15: The Agora, Cleveland, OH, US
May 16: The Machine Shop, Flint, MI, US
May 17: The Forge, Joliet, IL, US
May 18: The Music Factory, Battle Creek, MI, US
May 19: Route 20, Sturtevant, WI, US
May 20: Fubar Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO, US
May 23: El Corazon, Seattle, WA, US
May 24: Hawthorne Theatre, Portland, OR, US
May 25: DNA Lounge, San Francisco, CA, US
May 27: 1720, Los Angeles, CA, US
May 30: Marquee Theatre, Tempe, AZ, US
Jun 01: The Rail Club, Fort Worth, TX, US
Jun 02: Scout Bar, Houston, TX, US
Jun 03: Come and Take It Live, Austin, TX, US

Liv Sin featuring former Sister Sin lead vocalist Liv Jagrell have released their cover of Danzig‘s “Devil’s Plaything” from their upcoming new EP Inverted.

The following message was posted on Liv Sin‘s Facebook page yesterday:

“Sinners! We are incredibly proud to announce the official release of our new single “Devil’s Plaything” a cover of Danzig taken from our upcoming EP “Inverted” produced by Martin Sandvik of Hardcore Superstar at Studio Österlyckan! Stream it, buy it and request it at your local radio station! We will also release this in a very exclusive vinyl edition which will feature a previously unreleased bonus track!
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Pre-order at Despotz Records: http://despotz.bigcartel.com/artist/liv-sin

Earlier this year, Liv Sin announced that they were planning a new EP with some acoustic arrangements.

Robin Zander has confirmed that CHEAP TRICK is working on a new album for a tentative late 2018 release.

CHEAP TRICK has released nearly 20 studio records, including three in the past two years: “Bang Zoom Crazy Hello” in 2016, and “We’re All Alright” and “Christmas Christmas” in 2017.

In a new interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Zander said even more music is on the way.

“We’re working on another record right now as we speak,” the singer said. “In fact, we just did a John Lennon cover song. I’m thinking we should put it out now, because it’s a great version of ‘Gimme Some Truth’.”

Asked if the new record will materialize this year, Zander said: “Oh, it will be this year. We’ve already got a couple of songs that are mixed and ready to go. I’ll tell you one thing that we’re working on, that we’ve finished already, because it might not be on the record. It might be, but it might not be. I’d like to get [the cover of ‘Gimme Some Truth’] out as soon as possible, even if we don’t have the record ready, I’d like to put that out somewhere.”

GHOST has set “Prequelle” as the title of its new album, due on June 1 via Loma Vista Recordings. The disc was recorded last year at Artery studios in Stockholm with producer Tom Dalgety (OPETH, ROYAL BLOOD) and was mixed in January at Westlake Studios in West Hollywood, California with Andy Wallace (NIRVANA, SLAYER).

“Prequelle” track listing:

01. Ashes
02. Rats
03. Faith
04. See The Light

05. Miasma
06. Dance Macabre
07. Pro Memoria
08. Witch Image
09. Helvetesfönster
10. Life Eternal

“Prequelle” marks the introduction of GHOST’s new leader, Cardinal Copia, who made his live debut with the band on April 6 at a private, three-song acoustic performance in Chicago.

The last Papa, Papa Emeritus III, was forcibly taken from the stage during the final show of the band’s “Meliora” tour cycle last fall, with Papa Zero arriving to announce the beginning of “the Middle Ages.” Of course, all the Papas — except the elder Zero — and Cardinal Copia are the same man, GHOST founder and vocalist Tobias Forge.

Forge’s new alter ego will play his first full live show with GHOST on May 5 as the Swedish band kicks off a run of North American dates in Riverside, California.

Forge told Revolver about “Prequelle”: “It is loosely themed around the concept of death and doom. It’s a themed album around medieval times, but it’s definitely clinging onto a lot of very current things. The Black Death [plague] is a great example of a turning point for a whole civilization. Complete villages were annihilated. Most people knew very little, so all of it was God or the Devil — and about their faith being questioned: Why are we being stricken down by this great scourge? It must be because of our not fearing God enough and all this superstitious bullshit.

“There’s a lot that you would recognize today in online mannerisms,” he continued. “In many ways, we’ve gone back a few steps because now it’s closer to how it was back in the old days when people were standing at the square and all of a sudden, it’s like in Monty Python’s ‘Life Of Brian’: ‘Stone him! Ra! Ra! Ra!’ Public trials are very unsupervised and extremely swift and speak to the most primordial parts of us.”

In a separate interview with Metal Hammer, Forge talked about the musical direction of “Prequelle”, saying: “It’s a very bright-sounding record. And it’s a very heavy record, I’d say, but not from a Metal Hammer point of view, meaning all metal through and through. But it’s a heavy record with a heavy theme. I think the overall ambience is very serious.

“Technically, a GHOST song could just be piano and vocals but it could also be full pounding, heavy-thrashing hard rock,” he added. “I’m not in any way comparing us to them but I guess our modus operandi is a little like what QUEEN did — just decide to play really good songs and not focus too much on sticking to a recipe.”

Forge last year revealed his identity while responding to a lawsuit filed by four former members of GHOST, who accused him of cheating them out of their rightful share of the profits from the group’s album releases and world tours.

Photo by Mikael Eriksson

Photos by Dale Patrick Bennett and may not be reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without the written permission of Alex Zander/MK ULTRA Magazine

The lights went down promptly at 9:30 inside of Chicago’s Riviera Theater on a chilly April night. The days of whether or not MINISTRY would or could make it onstage in time were long ago, but still fresh n my memoires. There had been more than a few. By tonight I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen the band perform live in just under 3 decades. I’ve also lost track of how many incarnations of the band I’ve witnessed Uncle Al take out of the road with him. Call him what name you choose as he has as many as he does Grammy nominations. Grandpa Jourgensen, Alien Jourgensen, Hypo Luxa, Buck Satan, Alien Dog Star or just Uncle Al, there’s no denying that he is widely regarded as the leading the figurehead of this genre of music and been given the moniker “the godfather of industrial music.”

Jourgensen’s co-conspirators, the 5 man backing band that this time included DJ Swamp as live scratcher, came out under the tuned down rumble of “I Know Words” from their latest offering “AmeriKKKant” and launched into the slow groove of the latest single “Twilight Zone” as Al joined his mates onstage for 90-minutes of ear crushing sonic thunder. It didn’t take long to take notice of a leaner cleaner front man. At 59 years of age it appears that LA has really done a number on him as apparently is he not only a few years free of booze, red wine in his case, and over a decade clean of drugs but for his age he’s in peak physical condition. Though I don’t picture him eating salads or jogging alongside former MINISTRY guitarist and Prongs main man Tommy Victor through the trails of LA, he’s by far the healthiest version of the man I’ve ever witnessed. Fear Factory’s Burton C. Bell took over vocal duties on “Victims of a Clown” also from the new record as Al strapped on and played something other than his trademark Gibson SG. Fond memories of the “Filth Pig” version of the band echoes through my mind as I listen to the latest album with his haunting harmonica playing and the latest touch of a DJ scratching along to the music. No other band can get away with it but somehow in their ultimate wisdom MINISTRY really make it work.

Then came the onslaught that my ears would not forgive me or the band for anytime in the near future. Following the latest installment of the sample laden instrumental series stretching back to “Psalm 69” with “TV5/4Chan”, the twin guitar assault of Sin Quirin and Cesar Soto alongside Tony Campos on bass, drummer Derek Abrams and a keyboardist that needs no introduction Mr. John Bechdel blew the roof off the dump with a decade plus of new millennium MINISTRY. The brain crushing onslaught of “Punch in the Face”, “Senor Peligro”, “LiesLiesLies” and title track “Rio Grande Blood” was a lesson in the very very fast and heavy MINISTRY. Burton returned to the stage to handle vocals of two more new politically charged tunes “We’re Tired of It” and “Wargasm” before the band performed one more newbie, the lead single “Antifa”.
Just when I thought the crowds senses couldn’t possibly be capable of handling more they ripped into some old classics that brought everyone to their feet. “N.W.O.” was followed by “Thieves” and then came the big surprise of the year, something that nobody could have expected, and shame on you “in case you didn’t feel like showing up”, Revolting Cocks alum Chris Connelly joined Al’s wall of sound for a rousing rendition of ” So What”. I honestly found myself fighting back the tears.

Two encores would follow which were also two surprises “Bad Blood” and “Psalm 69” topped off the most incredible night of heavy music I’ve heard in ages. I told my photographer Dale Patrick Bennett and meant it, “it doesn’t get any better than this” though I doubt he heard me over the ringing in his ears. – alex zander

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