May 31, 2012 by A.S. Van Dorston

Good article. I think if Black were actually asked to clarify, he and Grohl (who contributed drums to the new Tenacious D album, which just hit #4 on Billboard last week) would turn out to be closer to the same page than you’d think. Above all else, those guys are fans of rock’s often maligned, but hugely popular sub-genre, heavy metal. Black’s entire career is basically a tribute to AC/DC and Dio. Grohl is an outspoken metal fan who put together the Probot project a few years back, and wore a Slayer shirt to the Grammys. While there may not be as many blockbuster mega-selling albums as in the 80s and, well, the self-titled Metallica album, it seems that there are strong fanbases for a wider variety of metal and heavy rock. It’s expected that geezers like Van Halen, Scorpions, Def Leppard and Iron Maiden can still sell out stadiums. But so apparently can Black Sabbath, much more reliably than they usually could throughout the 70s and 80s. Significantly, more culty bands like Motörhead and much younger non-mainstream bands like Mastodon, Opeth, Baroness, Ghost and Torche are consistently selling out medium to large-sized clubs and venues. Even Nirvana couldn’t do that after releasing their first album. They couldn’t even fill the 250-capacity club 7th Street Entry I saw them at. I still believe it was a lucky fluke that they got the one hit single, as there were plenty of other bands at the time that were just as good. Lots of great rock bands have stories of playing to empty rooms and almost starving on the road in the 80s. I just don’t see that happening as much, even though there are far more rock bands out there than ever before.

When my main problem is trying to catch a rock band early enough in their career so I can enjoy them in a small room that isn’t oversold and uncomfortable, I know rock is doing just fine.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Dead? Again?

By Dave Whitaker 31 May 2012

In the past week I’ve had Jack White’s new Blunderbussalbum on repeat, much to my 6YO’s dismay. He groans when I belt out the line, “I eat sixteen saltine crackers / Then I lick my fingers.” I’ll take my son’s reaction to be a commentary on my cringe-worthy warbling instead of an assessment of one of today’s leading rockers.

If prognosticators are to be believed, my offspring’s generation will never experience rock music because the genre has departed to that great musical graveyard in the sky. Of course, rock ‘n’ roll has survived multiple death sentences practically since birth, making cats’ nine lives look like nothing. As far back as 1956, the Maddox Brothers & Rose reshaped Ray Charles’ “I Gotta Woman” into a song rechristened “The Death of Rock and Roll”. Continue…

Posted in: Rants, Reposts