Category: news

In 1970 Robert Fripp was on the verge of quitting what was left of King Crimson. It looked like third album Lizard had been their last, until vocalist Boz Burrell was hired – and then, by a twist of fate, became their bassist too, as Prog explored in 2021.

Raymond ‘Boz’ Burrell had already made the front page of Melody Maker when he entered the world of King Crimson. The singer had been rumoured to be replacing Roger Daltrey in The Who while the band had been in temporary disarray in 1965.

When Burrell was invited to join Robert Fripp’s band, he found another organisation in disarray. The line-up who’d made 1970’s Lizard was disintegrating, and Fripp – who’d already had to rebuild the band once before – was close to giving up.

“It was so traumatic that at one point Robert couldn’t handle it any more,” saxophonist Mel Collins recalled in 2021. “He told me that if I wanted to carry on with Crimson, I should do the auditioning. All I can remember is Robert giving up completely, saying, ‘There’s no hope.’

“So there I am in this little rehearsal room, auditioning bass players and drummers on my own. As a green saxophone player who didn’t really know the tunes that well, it was unbelievable to be thrown into this situation – but I was hungry to do it. When I think about it now, I can’t imagine how I did it.”

Once Collins found drummer Ian Wallace, Fripp and lyricist Pete Sinfield saw light at the end of the tunnel. Future Roxy Music vocalist Brian Ferry was tried out but they passed on him, and instead selected Burrell, feeling an instant connection with his performance and character.

He’s come on board as vocalist; but, like his immediate predecessor Gordon Haskell, he’d wind up playing bass too – something he’d never done before. The plan had been for future Steeleye Span member Rick Kemp to be bassist, and early rehearsals went well. The spirit in their underground studio was said to be much more positive and fun than it had earlier been. But after three days Kemp dropped out, feeling the music wasn’t for him.

“That was the lowest point,” Wallace said. “When we got that message, we were all sitting in the basement, and it was pretty much that Crimson wasn’t going to happen. That was it, really; the band was all but finished.”

If one of the bassists who auditioned to replace Kemp hadn’t left his instrument behind, the next stage of development might never have taken place. Burrell picked it up, played a few notes, and that was enough for Fripp to decide they’d found their new low-end provider.

“We had had plenty of competent professional musicians audition, but they didn’t have the feel,” Fripp told NME at the time. “Boz felt the bass parts while he was singing, whereas the musicians could play it but couldn’t feel it. And if he could feel it, it could only be a matter of time before it crept down from his head through his hand and into his fingers.”

After a week of trying it out, King Crimson were go again. They performed a four-day residency in Germany in April 1971, replete with expansive improvisations, then a UK tour the following month where the material was tightened up. Then, as the members felt the need to express themselves with their own music, they began to write what would become fourth album Islands.

It was a key turning point for Crimson, steering the music and vision towards a future that even Fripp doubted they’d had. Yes, he found himself as last man standing when the grouping came to an end with just one album to their name, and there were more mountains to climb in the times ahead. But Burrell’s contribution to the band seemed to provide a lasting source of energy, even if it took Fripp a while to be able to face it.

They really loved Boz. They said he had an amazing groove and an amazing vibe – that he really made those things sing

Jakko Jakszyk

21st-century Crimson lead vocalist Jakko Jakszyk saw Burrell’s line-up perform on that 1971 UK tour. “I love Boz’s voice,” he told Prog. “I know it’s maligned by some of the Crimson aficionados, but I don’t really get that. Both Mel and Ian were incredibly defensive about that; they really loved Boz. They loved his bass playing too, even though it wasn’t overly technical. They said he had an amazing groove and an amazing vibe – that he really made those things sing.”

Jakszyk was delighted when Fripp decided to include material from the Burrell era in the new reincarnation. “I think finally he could hear the music in those pieces. He’d avoided them not so much because he dismissed the value of the material or the content, but because of the hellish memories he has of trying to bring that particular music to life.

“I think he hated that period for so long because, in his head, it represented this torturous process that he didn’t want to revisit. Obviously remixing it has helped him come to terms with it all; and certainly playing this stuff again has made him re-evaluate it – which is why it was such a joy to do it.”

Burrell, Wallace and Collins joined Alexis Korner’s blues band Snape, before Burrell became a founding member of Bad Company in 1973. He later performed with Alvin Lee and Family’s Roger Chapman, then with Tam White. The Scottish singer was with Burrell in 2006 when he collapsed and died of a heart attack in his Marbella home at the age of 60.

TMZ is reporting the band notified Wilson that he would no longer be a member moving forward. Continue reading…

The band and Wilson have not publicly addressed the report as of this writing.

Source

PUREST FORM’s latest single, ANIMAL, opens with electronic menace. A blunt industrial beat stomps into view, guitar slashes scrape across the machinery, and Story Beeson’s voice carries the command of somebody who has already located the emergency exit. The Los Angeles trio wanted “White Zombie meets Underworld,” which sounds on paper like a backstage argument at a 1997 festival, yet the combination proves remarkably natural.

Beeson, guitarist and programmer Madi Woodward, and bassist Riley Oikawa-Dahlson bring hardcore discipline to music designed for bodies in motion. ANIMAL pivots between serrated riffs, fractured breakbeats, low-end pressure, and sudden structural swerves, but every turn feels purposeful. The track has muscle, sex, and a mean little grin. Its aggression never becomes gray sludge; there is too much rhythmic wit in the programming, too much snap in the bass, and too much pleasure in the collision between metal weight and acid-house momentum.

There is also a refreshing lack of genre etiquette here; stylistic boundaries are treated as petty municipal ordinances, useful mainly for telling dull people where to stand, then barrel through them with the cheerful confidence of repeat offenders. Beeson’s performance supplies the volatile center. She delivers each line as though language has become a physical object requiring immediate disposal, shouting near the edge of collapse while retaining enough control to sharpen every phrase. Around her, Woodward’s guitar behaves less like decoration than a damaged power tool, while Oikawa-Dahlson keeps the track planted firmly enough for the electronics to lunge, buck, and misbehave.

The video, directed by Beeson, extends the song’s argument into the realm of surveillance horror. “The video takes on the horror of surveillance,” says Beeson. “While using a lot of throwback technology, mostly to pay homage to its influence – Peter Christopherson’s video for Ministry’s Over The Shoulder, it very much intends to communicate how more modern technology is being used for violence against our communities and humanity as a whole. It fits with the concept of ANIMAL: whether the nature is sexual or simply a desire to exist, we deserve to have freedom and we must take that freedom back.”

Watch the video for Animal below:

That conviction also drives RESISTANCE, the six-track EP arriving September 4 through Dais Records. Written amid fires, displacement, ICE raids, and the grinding obscenity of late-stage capitalism, the record channels anger toward collective action rather than private despair. “Resistance, less of an idea, more of an absolute action that has to be taken,” asserts Beeson.

ANIMAL makes that action feel immediate, physical, and dangerously enjoyable. Revolution may remain poorly organized, but PUREST FORM have at least supplied it with a better bassline.

Listen to ANIMAL below and order the single here.

Catch PUREST FORM live on the following dates:

• Sep 11: Los Angeles, CA – The Globe Theater w/ Fiddlehead, Pity Sex + more 
• Sep 18: Austin, TX – Cold Waves Festival
• Sep 25: Chicago, IL – Cold Waves Festival
• Oct 22: New York, NY – TBA
• Nov 14: Orange County, CA – Darker Waves Festival 

Follow Purest Form:

• Instagram
• Bandcamp

The post LA Industrial-Punk Trio Purest Form Explores the Horror of Surveillance Tech in Video for “Animal” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

It would appear the original 9 are now down to 4.

The post Sid Wilson Reportedly Fired From Slipknot appeared first on Theprp.com.

The Vaqueros had the first release on the Audition Recording label out of Rochester, New York, “Echo” / “Desert Wind”. It hit local charts in early June, 1964 and received a review in Cash Box on June 13, 1964.

The group registered copyright for “Echo” on June 15, 1964, music by Larry Weld (Laurence R. Weld), David Heath & Tom Corona (Thomas J. Corona). I haven’t yet found a copyright registration for “Desert Wind”.

Band members were:

Larry Weld – lead guitar
Tom Corona – rhythm guitar
Steve Corona – bass
David Heath – drums

David Heath wrote a history of the band and provided the photos seen here.

In 1963 two 16 year old boys found an old guitar in the house attic in Rochester NY. Larry Weld, the older of the two, decided he would put strings on it and learn how to play. The other boy David Heath said he had a small pair of bongos, round metal tray mounted on a wood stand and a pair of drum sticks. Together they spent many hours trying to play songs they had heard on the radio.

One month later Larry had purchased his first electric guitar and Dave had purchased his first drum set and by this time both had learned several songs and were starting to make new songs of their own. Knowing they needed a rhythm background Dave and Larry asked another Charlotte High school student Tom Corona to join the group and decided on the name “The Vaqueros” for the band. About a month later we composed the song “Echo”. At this point we were starting to play at many parties and events.

Around 10 months after we first started playing we were asked to play for a Rochester business event and that was the first time we met Al Cecere who was just starting Audition Records. Al said he liked our band sound and said he would like us to make a record with his new company. We said we would and set up a date to record but we had two major problems to overcome.

1: We had no bass player in the band

2: We had no second side for the record

The first problem was resolved by asking Tom’s older brother Steve Corona to play bass. He agreed and he purchased a bass guitar. Then Tom and Larry showed him what notes to play so we could make the record. The second problem was resolved by rapidly (in one day) composing the song “Desert Wind”.

After the song was released and hit #1 on the Rochester and surrounding radio stations we had steady play dates in many venues. We had interviews on radio stations, band picture signing dates, photos and release info in Cashbox, and we were the opening act for The Lettermen in Niagara Falls Canada.Within the next month we wrote and (on acetate demo record) recorded our next two songs to be released “Whiplash” and “Our Lost Love”. Al Cecere was setting up for us to open for The Beach Boys.

Just as things were going very well for the Vaqueros the dark side of this business began to show its face. Al Cecere never informed the band of any record sales and stopped supporting us. He had moved on.

With communication with Al Cecere heading downhill, everything slowed and we were all around 18 years old at this point. Life took over and the band started to split. Larry, Dave and Steve went on to other Rochester bands and Tommy married and started a family. We never played together again but do remain friends. Tommy passed away in 2025.

The Vaqueros recorded other songs that went unreleased at the time that now exist on lacquer “acetate” or second-generation tape; a few very effective instrumentals that were ready for release and others that were in progress.

“Whiplash” has an excellent ‘wet’ surf sound I did not find a copyright registration for this one.

“Daybreak” is a spirited vamp with excellent lead guitar from Larry Weld and agile drum fills from David Heath. The group registered it as “Daybreaks” on February 25, 1965, with copyright to the full band including Steve Corona.

“Our Lost Love” is a slower ballad, registered on July 1, 1965 to the four members of the group.

Thank you to Dave Heath for his help with this article and for letting me hear the unreleased songs.

Adrian .

The post Adrian Vandenberg rescheduling upcoming US tour due to bacterial infection that has invaded his body first appeared on Sleaze Roxx.

Once all the papers get signed
We lift you up on discount price
You just have to make this sacrifice

Every false prophet and messiah begins by telling the frightened that they have been chosen. The voice offers clarity, belonging, and the promise of a perfected self; only later come the contract, the price, and the surrender of everything that made the convert difficult to own. On Sacrifice, Southeast London industrial post-punk project The Pixel Rain sends that transaction through the age of algorithmic gurus, where charisma can pass for truth and transformation becomes a product.

Sacrifice is the second single and opening track from The Pixel Rain’s forthcoming debut album, A Sense of Danger, currently scheduled for release in late October. Following Last, the song introduces the album’s post-apocalyptic frame through a society governed by power, authority, consumerism, and technological control.

Sacrifice moves through a cyberpunk dream of deep bass, Kraftwerkian retro-computer pulses, and synth leads glowing with the sterile polish of a showroom terminal. Áron Siegler’s dusky voice maintains a close, controlled pressure throughout the verses, then surges through the chorus’s “So trust me,” landing somewhere between Brian Molko, Trent Reznor, and Paul Banks. Driving rhythms and industrial textures keep the track pushing ahead as the promise at its center grows steadily more predatory.

The lyrics borrow the soothing vocabulary of cults, motivational seminars, and influencer culture. The prophet addresses his followers as “children,” while the parenthetical responses—“We’ll hold you” and “You know we leave no one behind”—resemble scripted affirmations designed to smother suspicion. A promise to remove self-doubt soon becomes permission to remove the self, with salvation reduced to paperwork, discount pricing, and the command, “You have to sell yourself tonight.”

The final verse reveals what this digital saviour has wanted all along. “I prey on the void inside” turns an apparent confession of faith into an admission of appetite, before the closing line—“So we can eat you alive”—strips the sales pitch of its remaining benevolence.

Siegler describes the false prophet behind the song:

“‘Sacrifice’ started with the idea of modern-day false messiahs and how easily charisma can be mistaken for truth. As online platforms continue to blur the line between genuine guidance and performance, I found myself drawn to the psychology behind people who build influence by promising transformation. That idea felt like the perfect companion to the track’s cold, mechanical, electronic atmosphere.”

The song’s science-fiction setting preceded its arrangement:

“Like many of my songs, ‘Sacrifice’ started with a visual idea rather than a musical one. I was inspired by the worlds of Neuromancer and Cyberpunk 2077, and that atmosphere naturally led to a synth-heavy sound. From there, I mixed melodic influences from bands like Depeche Mode and Muse with the industrial pulse and textures of Nine Inch Nails and Ministry.”

Created by Ádám Molnár, the accompanying lyric visualizer treats the viewer’s screen as the target of a computer virus. A digitized version of Siegler’s head becomes the infection’s persuasive face, addressing the viewer as the virtual machinery draws them further into its illusion. The polished interface connects the song’s false promises to the screens through which those promises now spread.

Watch the visualizer for Sacrifice below:

Sacrifice by The Pixel Rain is out via Bandcamp, Spotify, and all major digital platforms. A Sense of Danger is currently scheduled for release in late October.

Listen to Sacrifice below, and order the single here.

Founded by Hungarian-born vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Áron Siegler, The Pixel Rain took shape within Southeast London’s underground and released a self-titled debut EP in 2023. Drawing from industrial rock, post-punk, synth-pop, and electronic music, Siegler balances guitar-led songwriting with layered production, dark atmospheres, and sharply defined melodies. A Sense of Danger extends that approach across songs concerned with power, authority, consumerism, and social unease, viewed through post-apocalyptic imagery and cold electronic machinery.

Follow The Pixel Rain:

• Instagram
• YouTube
• Spotify
• Bandcamp

The post “I Prey on the Void Inside” — The Pixel Rain Confronts False Prophets and Messiahs in Cyberpunk Single “Sacrifice” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

“I had a creepy feeling things were going against us,” said Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Ronnie Van Zant in the summer of 1977. Street Survivors, the album released just three days before the plane crash in October that year, always seems irreversibly bound up in that tragedy. But while there may have been strange vibes and bad juju brewing, the band had been rejuvenated.

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s newest recruit, 28-year-old Oklahoman guitarist and songwriter Steve Gaines, was an inspired choice, and ended up co-writing the lion’s share of the album. But making Street Survivors was anything but easy.

The band started work with producer Tom Dowd at Miami’s Criteria Studios in December ’76, only to be told by management that the recordings weren’t good enough. After the inevitable bust-up, Ronnie agreed. A second version was cut at Studio One in Doraville, Georgia, the following summer, the final album pieced together from both sessions.

Van Zant’s “creepy feeling” stemmed from a run of dangerous mishaps prior to recording. Ronnie had just become a father, and was trying to curb his excessive lifestyle. In the meantime, Gary Rossington, drunkenly passed out at the wheel of his car, ploughed into an oak tree and a telegraph pole and wound up in hospital.

When fellow guitarist Allen Collins and keyboard player Billy Powell were involved in similar car accidents, Van Zant came up with That Smell: a warning message to his hell-raising bandmates – ‘Too much smoke and too much coke… The smell of death surrounds you’. It was an omen of worse to co

Joining That Smell were two more instantly defining Skynyrd tracks: What’s Your Name and You Got That Right were brawny Southern rockers in the grand tradition of Saturday Night Special. What’s Your Name was a risqué tale of a one-night stand and barroom punch-up, played out to blaring horns; You Got That Right included another prophetic lyric (‘You won’t find me in an old folks home’) and Steve Gaines serving up one of the album’s sweetest solos.

Despite its bad omens, Street Survivors is also an album full of upbeat moments that hint at what Skynyrd might have done next. There’s a cover of Van Zant’s favourite songwriter Merle Haggard’s Honky Tonk Night Time Man, which shows off Skynyrd’s country rock credentials. (Ronnie also cut an alternative version, titled Jacksonville Kid, featured on the album’s 2008 reissue.) Gaines’ I Know A Little was the kind of spicy jazz-blues you could imagine Stevie Ray Vaughan covering.

The original cover infamously showed the group enveloped in flames, quickly reissued with an alternative cover shot. But on both you can still relish Leon Wilkeson’s majestic top hat and ‘My Grass Is Blue’ T-shirt, and the band looking like the last gang in town. Inside, the music is prime Skynyrd: raw, sweet, angry and fun. Separated from the terrible circumstances that surrounded it, Street Survivors sounds like a band reborn.

Originally published in Classic Rock Presents Lynyrd Skynyrd

Asomvel .

The post Asomvel launch video for new single “Lone Wolf” first appeared on Sleaze Roxx.