m u r d e r d o l l s — s o u n d wa v e s i d e s h o w s
Soundwave Sideshows
primus
Thu, Feb 24 Iron Maiden Fri, Feb 25 Gang Of Four
Sydney Entertainment Centre
The Hi-Fi, Brisbane
Mon, Feb 28 Primus/Melvins Enmore Theatre, Sydney Stone Sour/Coheed and Cambria/Sevendust, 36 Crazyfists Big Top, Luna Park, Sydney Pennywise/Millencolin/Mad Caddies UNSW Roundhouse, Sydney The Gaslight Anthem Metro Theatre, Sydney Anberlin/The Starting Line/Bayside Manning Bar, Sydney
Serious side projecT Side projects are, by a general rule of thumb, pretty hit-and-miss affairs. They often appear to be a bit of an ego boost, or a way for an artist to get his/her cast-off songs, unwanted by the main act, released. Others can actually be superior to the main project (see Maynard James Keenan’s A Perfect Circle band, in this writer’s humble opinion). Seminal, massively successful bands often spawn a side project or two, or more, in a similar way to which successful teams often breed coaches in later years (see the mighty Hawthorn teams of the 70s and 80s). Slipknot are one such band, having produced at least two high profile side projects since their inception in the mid to late nineties. “At the start, it was huge shock,” Joey explains, “Slipknot fans were like ‘what the fuck is he doing?’ (laughs) People didn’t know what to think. But people will be surprised when they hear the new record, it’s all heavy, even though it’s more of a rock feel. So yeah, I think Slipknot fans will get into it as well.” The album, entitled Women and Children Last (as a tongue-in-cheek ode to a Van Halen album from the early 80s), due out on August 31 through Roadrunner, is indeed a lot heavier than you might imagine. It’s also taken it’s time to become a reality, with the previous, and debut Murderdolls album Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls actually coming out no less than eight years ago. Joey explains that it was simply a matter of he and Wednesday 13 deciding that it was just
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Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison formed Murderdolls in 2002 with shock rock/horror punk psycho Wednesday 13 (who also does Murderdolls as a side project outside his regular solo gig), with the intention of creating a sound that was markedly different the crazed, frenetic metal sound of Slipknot, but could still appeal to many of their fans. By Rob Whitfield.
time, time they got their collective act into gear again. “I was just like, ‘it’s time to shake shit up again,’” he recalls, “but this time, do it for real, with complete seriousness, and with real songs and real production. I called Wednesday up and I said, ‘hey man, do you really want to do this, make another Murderdolls record,’ and he didn’t say anything for a while. He stood there for 30 seconds, so I said ‘okay, never mind dude,’ but he just said, ‘dude, you just made my life, I’ve been waiting for this call for five and a half years!’ So we just started exchanging songs. We had something like 60 songs. We went in, and this is the first time me and Wednesday have really sat down, and wrote together. So I actually consider this to be the first Murderdolls record.” The record is also steeped in lyrical images of blood, death, gore, drugs and the darker side of life in general. Anyone familiar with Murderdolls, and indeed Slipknot, wouldn’t be at all surprised by this, and the lyrics on
the new album, whilst basically tongue in cheek, go even further down this path, and take on a more personal tone this time, amid the horror movie imagery. Joey agrees that they can be a little obsessed with the nasty side of life at times. “Yeah, I would say so,” he says, with the merest hint of hesitation, “we’ve always found it an intriguing thing. The first record was more ‘funny’, kinda camp and cheesy type of record. And it was great for what it was. But this one is a lot different — you got songs like ‘Nowhere’, and ‘Nothing’s Gonna be Alright’, and ‘Rock n Roll is All I Got’, those are very personal lyrics, those are no joke, he’s not makin’ things up. It’s about the last six years of his life, pretty much missing me! He’s been pretty much living out of a suitcase.” At the time of writing, Murderdolls had a long list of massive shows coming up to support the release of the album, including a run of huge arena shows across Europe, the London version of Ozzfest and throughout the States with Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper, no less. The band has definite plans to bring their colourful stage show to Australia at some stage during the next 12-18 months. “Absolutely,” he states definitively, “at the end of next year.” With Slipknot on hold after recent tragedy, it’s a feast for fans of their two major side projects, with singer Corey Taylor’s Stone Sour also currently active after an album release, and will be appearing at Soundwave along with Murderdolls.
the sword
Tue, Mar 1 Third Eye Blind/The Rocket Summer Annandale Hotel, Sydney Murderdolls/Monster Magnet/Dommin Big Top, Luna Park, Sydney Bring Me The Horizon/The Amity Affliction/ Asking Alexandria UNSW Roundhouse, Sydney Sum 41/The Blackout/There For Tomorrow, Veara Metro Theatre, Sydney Social Distortion/The Bronx Enmore Theatre, Sydney Gang Of Four The Gaelic Club, Sydney Saxon/The Sword Manning Bar, Sydney Mayday Parade/Breathe Carolina/Every Avenue The Forum, Sydney High On Fire/Trash Talk/Kylesa The Hi-Fi, Brisbane
coheed and cambria
Wed, Mar 2 Queens Of The Stone Age Enmore Theatre, Sydney Terror/H2O/Polar Bear Club/Fucked Up Manning Bar, Sydney Devildriver/Ill Niño/All That Remains/Nonpoint The Forum, Sydney We The Kings/Never Shout Never/The Maine Metro Theatre, Sydney Slash/Coheed and Cambria/Taking Dawn The Tivoli, Brisbane Silverstein/Blessthefall/I See Stars The Hi-Fi, Brisbane
reverb magazine issue #055 — february 2011 27