Black Sabbath: Classic or Dud?

Mike Joyce was briefly in Suede.

Moe worked w/Magnet.

Elvin Jones toured with Hood

ok not really

ah, Magnet. google says that must have been it. god what a slog that show was. Seeing Mo at the Empty Bottle was super great, tho!!

Response To Geezer’s Statement

Posted on May.20, 2012 under Black Sabbath

Dear Sabbath Fans and Musicians,

I have read Geezer’s statement of May 19, 2012 titled “Heavy Heart.” Out of respect for the Birmingham gig, I wanted to wait 24 hours before releasing this statement. There are some points he brought up which I want to respond to.

1) I had indeed notified Ozzy, Tony and Geezer, well before my first public statement, that I was having contractual difficulties.

2) I came out into a public forum to be accountable to the fans primarily, and to say at a public level there’s a problem. The band members stopped talking and corresponding with me some time ago, with the exception of a nice letter from Tony on my birthday. Prior to that, Geezer and I were corresponding, but that stopped abruptly in late February after I emailed a specific question to him.

3) In my statement of May 15, I clearly stated I would play Birmingham for free. That was not a problem – charity or otherwise.

4) My Download fee was not an extravagant amount. Originally, when Download was part of a full tour, I had asked for a decent fee. More recently, as we were negotiating just Download/Birmingham and Lollapalooza, I told my attorney that I would accept the proposed small Download fee, but there were other parts of the offer that were unsatisfactory.

I will continue to be honest and respectful towards the band and our fans. I will also confront any untruths about me, and any fault finding missions aimed at me that come to my attention.

I hope the band and the fans had a good gig in Brum.

Stay safe/stay strong.
Bill Ward

No Supernaut, no credibility.

Bill's statements totally pass the smell test imho

You realise that eventually Universal will run out of semi-dormant or struggling record labels to buy, and will start buying up semi-dormant or struggling 'Legacy' band incorporations?

And that by the year 2201, Morrissey will be the sole member of Black Sabbath?

That setlist rules. No Supernaut though, which is weird, especially if they are playing Under the Sun and Tomorrow's Dream. Play those 3 and Cornucopia, and you can call it the Vol. 4 Tour.

this is true: "3) In my statement of May 15, I clearly stated I would play Birmingham for free. That was not a problem – charity or otherwise."

Still with Bill here.

who sat in for ward at birmingham?

Ozzy's drummer.

The Stone Roses would play Supernaut. Top buzz.

well, you can check out what the ward-less sabbath sounded like here: http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=1103

I'm sure they sounded just fine. I've interviewed Tommy Clufetos (the sub drummer) and he says he strives to play old songs in a familiar manner without changing the arrangements or getting all crazy. Prior to working with Ozzy, he was Rob Zombie's drummer, and before that he played with Alice Cooper and Ted Nugent.

But there was never any question of that. They could find a million people to play these songs; they're generally not that challenging. Ironically, only Ozzy can't be replaced. But a reunion is a reunion, and if they're not all there, it is not a reunion.

It's a farce. Fuck Tommy Clufetos

anybody who doesn't have a fuck tommy clufetos tatttoo by this time next week is posing

post your pics

I shouldn't skim. I thought aero wrote "anyone who doesn't fuck tommy clufetos by this time next week is posing". If you miss the tattoo part it seems overly ambitious.

only the most kvlt will fuck tommy clufetos

impale him on your blackened painis.

I thought that said blackened paninis for a minute and didn't see how that was tr00 or KVLT.

fucking a panini machine would be metal as hell though.

Only if it was the devil's panini machine.

sick sick sex.

NEW ALBUM NEWS

Nude album nudes.

No thank you.

I'm sure I'll give it at least one listen, but it's very fair to say I'm not expecting much.

I have to say the Rubin treatment is the only possibility of this being good but my expectations are low

Had a brief discussion w/Adrien yesterday re the album title - my theory is that 13 counts the 8 albums with Ozzy, the 3 with Dio (including Dehumanizer) and Born Again. Sorry, Glenn Hughes and Tony Martin - you don't count.

What's rubin's track record for these late-in-the game comeback jobs? I'm assuming the first Cash one would be at the top, but a poll might be interesting.

His work on Ballbreaker is tremendous. Easily the best-produced post-Lange AC/DC record.

I like Ballbreaker. I also like Death Magnetic a whole lot, though.

"He's just a vibe merchant, really. He vibes you up. He's not one who gets involved hands-on," Iommi said. "He leaves it to you to do it and he sort of says, 'Yeah, I like it,' you know, or, 'I don't like it.'"

In Shut Up and Sing it's evident that Rubin didn't even set foot in the studio for the Dixie Chicks' Taking The Long Way. They show up at his house and play him what they've done so far. He says "Nice chorus" or "That sounds good." The only reasonable conclusion one could draw is that he's running a con job. Coincidentally or not, the production on that record is abysmal.

Rubin produced the third Slipknot album, and their singer, Corey Taylor, said this about that in 2011:

"There are some people who would love for me to toe the party line, which is basically, 'Working with Rick Rubin was a very enriching experience.' Let me give you the fucking truth of it: Rick Rubin showed up for 45 minutes a week. Rick Rubin would then, during that 45 minutes, lay on a couch and have a mic brought in next to his face so he wouldn't have to move...The Rick Rubin of today is a thin, thin, thin shadow of the Rick Rubin that he was. He is overrated, he is overpaid, and I will never work with him again as long as I fucking live."

Jakob Dylan also laid on the Rubin hate in a recent WTF interview.

you lazy for this one rick

Nice to finally hear someone call Rubin out. Really seems like he's been coasting on his rep for a while. But it benefits both parties: bands get the "cred" (such as it is) and resulting uptick in sales (however small) of having Rubin's name on their record (sound apparently being a secondary concern), and Rubin gets the dough.

xp

This has been the deal w/Rubin forever and forever - can he actually engineer at all?

I assume (perhaps naively) that he must have some rudimentary engineering knowledge, at the very least.

I wouldn't think he was overrated if he was a serious non-engineering motivator a la Guy Stevens or Kit Lambert. But "hm, good chorus" does not production make.

iirc in that Jay-Z doc RR was in there making beats like he did in the 80s. but as far as having any hands-on involvement when making a record means putting mics in front of instruments and putting hands on the mixing board, yeah.

lots of bands have started doing an album with Rubin and then fired him or parted ways to finish it w/o him: U2, Weezer Crosby Stills & Nash, Velvet Revolver, Hot Hot Heat

On those first four Danzig albums, he's producer on the first few, "executive producer" on the fourth one. Either way, he tends to use great studios and obviously hires some excellent engineers. But yeah, Reign in Blood was a long time ago.

I hope he can help Sabbath not sound overproduced. The Heaven & Hell record was perfect. I don't believe this will be nearly as good as that was.

gonna need a lot of smoothing for Ozzy's vocals, and pitch correction.....Dio was still singing pretty incredibly on that H&H studio album, but yeah the production on that was perfect for what they were doing.

Rubin produced the third Slipknot album, and their singer, Corey Taylor, said this about that in 2011:

"There are some people who would love for me to toe the party line, which is basically, 'Working with Rick Rubin was a very enriching experience.' Let me give you the fucking truth of it: Rick Rubin showed up for 45 minutes a week. Rick Rubin would then, during that 45 minutes, lay on a couch and have a mic brought in next to his face so he wouldn't have to move...The Rick Rubin of today is a thin, thin, thin shadow of the Rick Rubin that he was. He is overrated, he is overpaid, and I will never work with him again as long as I fucking live."

― 誤訳侮辱, Sunday, January 13, 2013 3:41 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is kinda awesome tbh

Not if you're in the band, I would imagine.

yeah stories like that are great if you hate the musicians who had to watch their session go to shit I guess

Rick Rubin has been coasting on his Rubin-aura for a long-assed time. Half the people I hear that talk about how incredible he is usually have no recent examples when asked for reasons why.

(I did not like Death Magnetic, fwiw...)