On the national front: 2003's favorite fake blues-punk siblings/human candy canes/resuscitators of aging country icons' careers, The White Stripes, will reportedly release the full-length follow-up to their justifiably huge Elephant on June 15. Several postponements, European tour dates, and the eventual actual release date are sure to follow. Those wondering whether or not fickle mainstream music fans will embrace the duo's next effort with the same gusto as their last might want to check out the sales figures on that highly anticipated Hives follow-up.
… Other formerly big 'n' trendy outfits said to be finishing work on new releases include The Strokes and animanimals Gorillaz, whose advance single, "Feel Good Inc.," comes out in Britain on May 24, and on file-sharing networks worldwide weeks before that.
… The reunited Pixies have also been really big for the last couple of years, but lead Pixie Frank Black has been big for considerably longer, but in a much more literal sense. The man formerly known as Black Francis will be releasing another surely fine solo album, Honeycomb, on July 19; the press release calls Honeycomb, "Black's first solo effort since 1996's The Cult of Ray," which is hella misleading, because he put out, like, six mostly great, mostly retro records as Frank Black & The Catholics between then and now.
… Long-running New York thrash outfit Anthrax has joined forces with the Slave to the Metal Foundation – an organization that raises awareness of the fight against the misuse of dangerous heavy metals, such as mercury and lead – to rail against what have been characterized as, "misanthropic and genocidal initiatives such as the forceful administration to our soldiers of [an] untested and unapproved Anthrax Vaccine." You can learn more about how we're all basically guinea pigs for profiteering industrial and medical concerns at www.slavetothemetal.org, or just wait until the next Michael Moore film is released. (Anthrax isn't in it, but anthrax is.) In other Anthrax news, the band will reportedly tour soon featuring the "classic" lineup from the days of Spreading the Disease and Among the Living; it's persistently rumored that said lineup will inhabit a main-stage slot on this year's OzzFest.
… OLD-SCHOOL HARDCORE PURIST ALERT: Reincarnated seminal California legends Angry Samoans will tour Florida near the end of April. The band, which came out of the same late-'70s shorter-faster movement that spawned Black Flag and The Circle Jerks, features original vocalist "Metal" Mike Saunders (who was also a pretty good rock critic), original drummer Bill Vockeroth, and two of the dudes who filled out The Dickies at one time or another. They'll be inspiring violent nostalgia at the State Theatre in St. Pete on Sat., April 23.
… Speaking of nationals making the local scene, the Warped Tour comes to town on Aug. 5. Good bands currently scheduled to appear include Thrice, Dropkick Murphys, Gratitude and The Working Title; bad bands scheduled to appear include The Offspring, The Starting Line, Avenged Sevenfold, Atreyu and about two dozen others.
… Talented alt-country flake Ryan Adams has announced the street date for the first of a reported three 2005 releases, some of which apparently took longer than a week to record, and weren't recorded as replacements for records which were recorded, then scrapped. Amazing! Anyway, Cold Roses is supposed to arrive via Lost Highway Records on May 3.
… Korn frontman Jonathan Davis is said to be collaborating, again, with His Crunkness, Lil Jon, on a tune, the circumstances of whose eventual release is still cloudy. Now, if you're going, "Wait a minute, I own everything ever done by both Korn and Lil Jon, and I didn't know they ever worked together before," then your musical tastes are not only highly questionable, but you're neither mistaken nor alone. The pair originally got together to hammer out a cover of Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" that ended up on next month's soundtrack to the Vin Diesel-less XXX action-movie sequel. Now, if you're going, "But I downloaded that tune, and Lil Jon's not on it, Xzibit is," then you need to shut the hell up and let me finish. Lil Jon's work on that song was replaced by Xzibit's due to "record company issues," which usually means that somebody didn't get enough money.
And at the local level:Pinellas County death metal outfit The Absence has signed with long-running American indie label Metal Blade. The quintet will be hitting the studio in mid-April to record their Big Time debut. Take that, dudes in psycho contact lenses and colored goatees. And you were sure you'd be doing lines off porn-star cleavage by now.
… In other death metal news, just in case there are two or three diehards out there who haven't heard: The mighty Obituary is back in action. The legendary Tampa act – one of the most prominent bands in the genre's early-'90s first wave – regrouped to play some festival shows over the course of the last year or so, which led to new material and a forthcoming record, currently in the works at Red Room Studios.
… The rumors are true. St. Pete's beloved, gutted State Theatre is under new management – by the management that manages Jannus Landing, to be precise. Theatre co-owners and No Clubs Productions partners Tony Rifugiato and David Hundley, a couple of guys who for decades have been about as supportive of local music as is possible for professional promoters to be and stay out of the poorhouse, will remain involved with the State, though to a considerably lessened degree. It's too soon to tell what changes this will wring within the original-tunes community, but more than one local band is suddenly having a tougher time getting a show booked there than in the past.
… ATTENTION LOCAL BANDS: I mentioned this year's Warped Tour date somewhere back up the page. You wanna play, without paying hundreds of bucks? Hit up www.battleofthebands.com, just like you do every year right around this time, to enter for a slot on the Ernie Ball stage, and possibly more.
… While we're talking contests, congratulations must go out to young Bay area acts Effusion, Good Graeff, Strange Brew, Ten Speed Indian and Unexpected Guest. These five bands have advanced to the finals in Reindeer Records' annual Florida Rock-Off competition for high school-aged groups, now in it's ninth year. The finals will be held at Seminole's Boomerz Boiler Room on Sun., April 17, at 2 p.m.
SCOTT.HARRELL@WEEKLYPLANET.COM
This article appears in Apr 6-12, 2005.