Today, it was announced that STONE SOUR, the band featuring SLIPKNOT's Corey Taylor (vocals) and Jim Root (guitar), has parted ways with bassist Shawn Economaki. Here is Corey Taylor's Tweet regarding this matter:
"As some of you might have heard but I'll confirm it: Shawn Economaki is no longer with STONE SOUR. We wish him luck in the future."
As previously reported, Economaki left STONE SOUR in April 2011 during the "Avalanche Tour" to handle some "personal issues." He was temporarily replaced by Jason Christopher, who has since joined Sebastian Bach's touring band. While his replacement hasn't been announced yet, James Root posted the picture below on his Instagram account. Is this the bands NEW bassist?
The album is expected in the Fall of 2012, two years after the band's most recent longplayer 'Audio Secrecy', which debuted at position No. 6 on the Billboard chart and No. 1 on the U.S. iTunes Rock Album chart. It scored the highest international debuts of the band’s career, including Top 5 charts in Germany, Japan and Austria, and Top 10 in the U.K. and Australia. Taylor tweeted the fall release plan, adding that the album has a title but that he "won't give it away yet."
"When you put that mask on you go places you would never imagine," Taylor said during his June 2011 appearance at at the Oxford University. "It comes from a spot that's uncomfortable and really dark." He added: "The mask was a way to visualize everything I was feeling in heart and my gut — all that pain I was holding on to. I didn't have the worst childhood but I didn't have the best, and when you grow up like that you have certain limitations invariably stuck inside you. SLIPKNOT was a way to work it out."
In a Janaury 2012 interview with ESPN.com, Taylor said, "I refuse to wash my mask during a tour. I can't do it. It's like, I don't want to lose it, you know what I'm saying? And it's gnarly, dude. By the end of a tour cycle, my mask smells like an episode of 'CSI'. It gets bad. My wife won't even let 'em come in the house: 'You put that thing in the garage, in the corner, under boxes. I don't want to see it, smell it — fuck that thing."
Come see Corey Taylor and THE MASK at the ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK MAYHEM FESTIVAL! SLIPKNOT is headlining!
6/30 – San Bernardino, CA 7/1 – San Francisco, CA 7/3 – Seattle, WA 7/6 – Phoenix, AZ 7/7 – Albuquerque, NM 7/8 – Denver, CO 7/10 – Dallas, TX 7/11 – Houston, TX 7/13 – Tampa, FL 7/14 – Atlanta, GA 7/15 – Indianapolis, IN 7/18 – Oklahoma City, OK 7/20 – St. Louis, MO 7/21 – Chicago, IL 7/22 – Detroit, MI 7/24 – Cincinnati, OH 7/25 – Cleveland, OH 7/27 – Philadelphia, PA 7/28 – Pittsburgh, PA 7/29 – Washington, DC 7/31 – Saratoga, NY 8/1 – Buffalo, NY 8/3 – Boston, MA 8/4 – Scranton, PA 8/5 – Hartford, CT
Right before Jerry Gaskill suffered a heart attack in late February, the drummer for legendary rockers KING'S X, was busy demoing material for his upcoming solo album with Nashville-based songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist D.A. Karkos.
"As of now, we have 11 killer songs that we believe will be some of Jerry's (and my) best work to date. And when the time comes, we plan on having some very special guest musicians/friends lend some of their talents to the record as well. Needless to say (but I'm saying it anyway), we are very excited about all of this!
"And to quote Jerry, speaking of his recent heart attack and recovery from his public thank you video: 'This is a really bad situation that I think has turned into a really good situation.' There is no doubt in our minds that we we'll see evidence of this truth on this record."
Jerry Gaskill suffered a heart attack on Saturday, February 25th. After spending over 3 weeks in the hospital, Jerry left the hospital and his recovery is going well.
The dudes over at Metal Injection caught up with Clown, aka M. Shawn Crahan at SXSW, right before he hosted a Q&A session for his NEW photo book, 'The Apocalyptic Nightmare Journey', out June 19th. Crahan discusses how the book came about and addresses all the recent controversy about the future of Slipknot. Here are some excerpts from the interview.
"I can clear it up easily for you. Everyone in the band is writing all the time. Whether it's a micro-cassette recorder or a memo on your iPhone or Corey writing random things he invents in his head on a piece of paper or Joey saying 'I got nothing to do, I'm gonna go in the studio with all these ideas. I'm going to rent out a studio for a month and a half and I'm going to fucking write.'
"I think what people don't understand about what's being said is that we're all dealing with Paul's death differently. Some want to move, some want to take time. But basically, what's being said is of course things are being written. But nothing is done because we're not together yet. And there is no reason to get together to talk about it because there are other things moving, like the grieving process.
"Stone Stour is going to go out and do their thing, which they should. They've earned it. It's a good thing. Just me down here at SXSW, I'm the only guy here, doing something. I should be allowed to have this outlet.
"Really, what it all comes down to is that, yes, writing is being done seriously every day, but it is going to be a while. It's just going to be. There's things going on. It gets a little perverted in the press, almost like 'he says yes, he says no, we got a problem.' It's more like, yeah, writing is going on but it's going to be a while, and both of them are telling the truth, and I'm here to tell you, we're not going nowhere!"
ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK MAYHEM FESTIVAL 2012 TOUR DATES:
6/30 – San Bernardino, CA 7/1 – San Francisco, CA 7/3 – Seattle, WA 7/6 – Phoenix, AZ 7/7 – Albuquerque, NM 7/8 – Denver, CO 7/10 – Dallas, TX 7/11 – Houston, TX 7/13 – Tampa, FL 7/14 – Atlanta, GA 7/15 – Indianapolis, IN 7/18 – Oklahoma City, OK 7/20 – St. Louis, MO 7/21 – Chicago, IL 7/22 – Detroit, MI 7/24 – Cincinnati, OH 7/25 – Cleveland, OH 7/27 – Philadelphia, PA 7/28 – Pittsburgh, PA 7/29 – Washington, DC 7/31 – Saratoga, NY 8/1 – Buffalo, NY 8/3 – Boston, MA 8/4 – Scranton, PA 8/5 – Hartford, CT
