BW&BK reports that ALABAMA THUNDERPUSSY is set to release their new album, Open Fire, on March 6th via Relapse Records. It is the first to feature new vocalist and New Orleans, LA native Kyle Thomas, formerly of EXHORDER and FLOODGATE.

BW&BK scribe Aaron Small recently caught up with ATP drummer and founding member Bryan Cox. One of the topics discussed was Kyle's lyrics. “Most of them are reflective of his personal life and people he knows and things he’s been through the past few years; including the hurricane. The first song (‘The Cleansing’) is basically all about Katrina and his summary of that whole experience. He writes cool lyrics. They’re captivating. They’re not so weird and artsy and profound that they’re difficult to understand. That’s not what we do anyway. I think they fit our music really well. They’re engaging. Kyle does a really good job of coming up with interesting stuff.”

‘Whiskey War’ is particularly attention grabbing with the line: Cops confiscate your grass, then burn it up when they get home and you’re still in jail. “With Kyle coming from New Orleans, it’s kind of a commentary on the crookedness of a lot of the establishment down there. It’s pretty well known that a lot of the government and government employees and cops are in on the take down there.”

Open Fire was recorded at Etching Tin Studios in Richmond, VA - a comfortable and productive environment for ATP. “Oh yeah. It’s literally a little one and a half room hole in the wall. But it’s got a control room and an iso booth and that’s really all we need. If you’ve got a good engineer and you work on your sound, to a certain degree, it really doesn’t matter where you do it. There’s people that spend tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars on these fancy studios and end up with weird sounding records. There’s something to be said for kind of doing it yourself and putting your trust in somebody you know has a good ear. That’s what we did and I think it paid off.”

Not a band to slouch about, Alabama Thunderpussy “already have five songs ready for the next one. The reason behind that is we want to be ready when it’s time to record again. Also, once the album was recorded, we started practicing again, ‘cause that’s what we do. We practice three or four nights a week, no matter what’s going on. So we could jam these songs (from Open Fire) and then by the time we had to leave for tour we’d be sick of them. Or we could start working on new stuff and get a jump on the next record. That’s what we decided to do.”

In closing, fans have nothing to worry about when it comes to the new singer tackling the old songs. “Kyle smokes it! We did a little (road) trip back in October and he learned a handful of the old songs. I don’t think we’re really going to drag out too many of them in the future. The new stuff is so much better. When we tour, we’re definitely going to spend a lot of time playing new songs, which a lot of people hate, but honestly it’s better. We’ll just get on stage with our best material and shred as hard as we can. But Kyle’s a professional man. He absolutely kills it on the old stuff!”

Source BW&BK

HELION have issued the following update:

"We are sorry to announce the following: A little while ago, Jukka (Salo - vocals) told us that he no longer has neither the time nor the required interest to stick with Helion. These are what we call personal reasons, which we understand. Naturally, we’re disappointed in his decision, but considering the situation by large, it’s best for both parties that we move on.

Jukka may post a brief statement on his behalf, in a while at least. Until that, we close this chapter of the Helion saga. We remain friends, this has nothing to do with chemistry.

So, we’re a vocalist short. Any of you who may be interested in the job, can contact us via email: helionprog@gmail.com. Include a sample of your work (mp3 or a link will do). We can also provide an instrumental background to work with, just ask.

What we’re looking for is a charismatic singer with a personal, strong voice and good stage presence. All material up to date should be interpreted convincingly, which means strong clean voice with enough vocal range. Also, strong gritty vocals will be a great addition to the total scale. Preferred age around 25."

Source BBM

The Police are hard at work, getting themselves in musical shape for their reunion tour. The band hits the road May 28th in Vancouver, British Columbia, and they started rehearsing there a few weeks ago, before their official "coming out" at the Grammys. Singer-bassist Sting said they have their work cut out for them, and guitarist Andy Summers joked about how committed he was to the task at hand: (Sting) "We're gonna play songs we've never played before. So there's a lot, lot of interesting work ahead of us, and we're all willing to do it, and it's --" (Summers) "Hmmmmm." (Sting) "Aren't you?" (Summers) "Hmmmmm."

On a more serious note, Summers told the New York Times that he's confident the band can get back their musical chops. He said, "We were the greatest rock band in the world, and that's the way we want to be. And we still have enough ego to think that we can come back, probably just like all bands, and blow every other band out of the water."

But drummer Stewart Copeland knows they still have a lot of work to do to get where they need to be. He said, "Right now, we're not incredible. We started out like a high school band last week. We got to be like a college band. Yesterday, we started to sound like a bar band. Today, we sound like, 'OK, we could earn a living like this.'But we are not yet playing like we deserve to play in a stadium. We'll get there, now that we're on the right track."

Source IceBergRadio