The week in metal has been rather dominated by dumb news. This was the week a concert venue owner in Washington DC was fined $500 for opening a window to allow a drummer’s fart to escape. An enforcement officer from the city’s Alcohol Beverage Regulation Administration just happened to be passing by the fun-sounding Madam’s Organ Blues Bar last June at 1.30am when the ‘operational policy violation’ was spotted – all the venue’s doors and windows must be shut after 12.30am whenever live music is performed. Proprietor Bill Duggan said in a report: “He opened the window to let a fart out. He cracked it open for five minutes – and the inspector showed up. 20 fucking years with not one violation, and this is what they came up with. People get stabbed and shot in other establishments. In ours, someone farts, cracks a window, and they spend a year on it.” Bill intends to appeal the ruling, as you can tell from as a status update on the venue’s Facebook page: “It took a long time for that gas to clear the air – but the current situation smells even worse.”
Mastodon’s Brent Hinds has caused a bigger stink this week with some heavy words about heavy metal. “I never really liked heavy metal in the first place,” the guitarist reveals. “I came from Alabama playing country music, surf rock, rockabilly, and stuff like that. I just went through a phase in my 20s where I thought it was rebellious to play heavy metal. Then I met Brann Dailor and Bill Kelliher, and they were really, really, really into heavy metal. Ever since then I’ve been trying to get Mastodon to not be such a heavy metal band, because I fucking hate heavy metal and I don’t want to be in a heavy metal band.” Pretty strong meat there Brent, but this vituperativeness might be a symptom of another issue he was ranting about to Guitar World: doing interviews. “It frustrates me because I have to talk about things I’ve talked about over and over again. There’s nothing we can talk about that involves Mastodon that I’ll get excited about. After 15 years of doing this every fucking day of my life, the last thing I want to do is talk about doing it.” It’s a hard life, eh Brent?
In other doofus news, Five Finger Death Punch frontman Ivan Moody expressed regret about the onstage meltdown last month when Moody described drummer Jeremy Spencer’s autobiography as a band work “That I had nothing to do with,” which evidently caused Spencer to walk offstage, followed by the rest of the band, leaving Moody trying to engage the crowd in a singalong. The band came back after ten minutes and finished the show, but many fans thought they were witnessing the end of 5FDP. Moody blamed the argument on technical problems while guitarist Jason Hook suggested Moody’s drinking was the root cause. This week Moody explained: “Jeremy and I were talking backstage and we were both being human. It just sucked that I had my microphone in my hand… Unfortunately there were 20,000 people watching while he and I had an argument. I really fucked up and I was so embarrassed.” Moody seems to have admitted responsibility for the incident, but when you think of the bands throughout history who have pulled off whole tours despite hating each other, it does seem oversensitive to abandon your audience because the singer dissed your autobiography.
Finally, it seems leaving Twitter is the new joining Twitter. Ronnie Radke from Falling In Reverse has flounced off the social media platform after a spat with vlogger Onision, who uploaded a video entitled Why Do People Hate Falling In Reverse? (+ Ronnie Radke). “I’m signing off Twitter. Sick of your negativity sick of your utter disgustingness, goodbye,” was his final tweet. Meanwhile, Disturbed frontman David Draiman has also quit Twitter, tiring of attacks about his pro-Israeli stance. “I’m done with social media,” he told 93X Radio. “It’s become a playground for trolls… I hope that the couple of years of my being as involved in it as I was meant something to people. I hope they gleaned something from it, or took something away from it, or at least were entertained because now I’m becoming a recluse.”
