Machine Head’s Robb Flynn Covers He Is Legend, Alice In Chains, Etc., Speaks Further On Abandoning Physical Media
Machine Head vocalist/guitarist Robb Flynn‘s recent run of solo acoustic shows saw him tackle some interesting choices. Below you can watch him offer up intimate renditions of He Is Legend‘s “Stranger Danger” (whom he has rightfully been championing a lot as of late), Alice In Chains‘ “Sunshine“, Foo Fighters‘ “Everlong” and Pink Floyd‘s “Wish You Were Here” during the shows.
Furthermore, he has taken to the internet to speak a bit more on the the controversy that followed his thoughts on fully embracing digital media. As part of his ongoing journals, he opened up on the matter with the following:
“Well you guys have spoken, and actually continue to speak, as I still get emails pouring into my inbox. Quite a passionate response about this subject and deservedly so. Apparently my comments caused quite a stir.
Just to expand on my thoughts a bit;
Look, I’m in a band, I’ve lived on a bus/van/plane for well over 25 years of my life now. I live out of a suitcase, that resides on a tour bus, with 10 people (imagine a studio apartment on wheels, with 9 roommates) for 10 months out of a year at times. My life needs to be efficient, it needs to be compact, it needs to be portable. Sure, I used to carry a big-ass CD wallet everywhere with beer-soaked, scratched up CD’s and it was a pain, so yeah, the Spotify / iTunes world fits me perfect.
But, I also realize this isn’t most people’s life.
Most people don’t need the portability I do. Lot’s of people said they love iTunes and streaming. Lot’s of people said they would like a CD, and of course, for the time being, we will continue to sell CD’s. That’s never been a question, as long as there are stores to stock CD’s, we will sell CD’s.
And with Bandcamp.com and HDfiles.com offering CD quality and higher files, that’s a cool thing the future is bringing to files. But also, as I’m sure as most of you know, stores to purchase CD’s are getting harder and harder to find.
HMV (the last UK based CD chain) just closed shop, FNAC and Virgin France just closed. Here in the US Best Buy has cut CD rack space down from 24 racks to 4 racks!
I have a ritual I’ve done for every release since Burn My Eyes in 1994, where first day, I go in and buy our album. Call it good luck, or whatever, I love my rituals. But believe you me, I was stunned, STUNNED, when I went into Ameoba Records in Hollywood (I was in LA on the Jason Ellis show day of release) and saw our regular album NOT on sale, but full price for $16.99.
I spent $40 bucks buying the 2 editions. It was wrong, it’s supposed to be on sale the first week / first month. You reward the die-hards, reward the Head Cases for going out there and supporting you first day/week/month. It’s a thank you. We were pissed, fans weren’t stoked. Shit like this has to change, it has to, and we as a band (with your help) have to figure out a way around it.”
“Sunshine” (Alice In Chains cover):
“Everlong” (Foo Fighters cover):
“Wish You Were Here” (Pink Floyd cover):
COMMENTS
I get what he’s saying completely, and it does suck. I own close to 1,000 cd’s. They’re pertty much like crack to me. If I have money I’m more than likely going to blow it on cd’s. But the retailers are making it harder to get them. I used to live in a small town with one cd store outside of Walmart. Everytime a new cd would drop I’d go to pick it up and there it was first day for $16-18, and that’s just the standard edition! And all the while the guy who owned the place would bitch and moan about how “no one wanted to buy cd’s anymore.” Well no shit! There is a shitload of people out there who will not pay that much when digital outlets are so much cheaper. Retailers need to understand that cd’s aren’t new anymore and expecting to make a prophet off of them at damn near $20 is no longer feasible. This isn’t in any way to try and take the blame off of those who pirate music (which a lot do, and yes, they are to be blamed) but retailers are becoming more at fault everyday for the decline in physical music as a legitimate revenue source.
Hahaha, that fool said “prophet”. It’s “profit”, home slice.
Meh. Shit happens.
I didn’t read any of the text, nor do I care, just wanted to pop in and say how awesome it is that a man that is pretty much a legend would cover He Is Legend. Now HIL, get your shit together and get back on the road and in the studio.
No shit, my man. Easily a top 5 band for me, I’m pumped they’re back in action.
I love that he covered HIL and the things he said about the band but the cover was just awful.
I love HIL so much, I still listen to them on an almost weekly basis. Only got to see them once and they blew me away.
Supporting your local mom n pops record stores are the way to go. Not saying it will solve the problem but these are the same businesses that promote local concerts, will track down new releases that are not otherwise popular or in surplus so you can get your copy the day of a new record’s release.
This. We used to have an indie music store in town years ago. We also had an On Cue(later became Sam Goody) couple blocks away. Went to Goody and asked about Will Haven’s Carpe Diem (day after release). They said they didn’t have it in stock but they could order it for me and get it next week. $18.00. Went down to the indie store, they got it in 2 days for $11.00. The indie store went under because assholes “hang out” at SG. I bought Deftones B-sides album for $29.99, even though there was a sale sticker on it advertising $24.99. They said the sale ended yesterday but were too busy stocking the new Britney Spears albums (that everyone is gonna buy at fucking Walmart to save 6 bucks anyways) to bother removing the sale ads on the Deftones discs. The little shit rang me up without using my members card so I got no points, or my $5 off for my points balance. He didn’t want to go through the hassle of voiding the transaction and doing it right, and his bitch of a manager was supportive of this. I told them this will be the last thing I ever buy here, I’ll buy my shit from amazon.com and I hope you guys go out of business. (They were so smug and cocky about putting the indie out of business) 7 months later, they closed up shop and were crushed by my favorite place to buy music. I later saw the punk working in the cell phone section of Walmart. Justice was served.
That is really fucked. If something is their own error they usually will eat it for the customer. I have an FYE card and mainly go their to get metal cds for $7.99 that I wouldn’t find at Best Buy and not much else unless I want to pay $89.95 for a 4 episode selection of MST3K or 8 episodes of Doctor Who. I was very surprised when a local Best Buy had the new Pig Destroyer though. And that it was one of Nikki Sixx’s Picks
I also go to Record Breakers in Chicago where on average its around the low 20′s for a record which is average even when compared to online pricees. Although they wanted $35 for State of Euphoria and $50 for a Devin Townsend album which is insane considering I got Ritual and Nocturnal by BDM on vinyl and shipped for $45 from the Metal Blade site.
Tell these CD buying whiney pussies to eat a pile of dicks. Why feel the need to respond to this BS? that aint metal. Can’t believe this many people would throw up their hands and moan about a guy getting the idea that compact discs aren’t really in the future plan.
You know, I remember my mom bitching about compact discs getting in the way of cassettes/vinyl somewhere around 1989 (4th grade for me). This is the same damn thing; people getting all fussy because they fear change in their simple lives. Dude, bring on the digital age in music. CDs are a waste of fucking space and I’ll eventually get rid of my 500+ collection. Now my childhood cassettes and collection of pop’s vinyl, that shit is staying put.
First, let me cheers Flynn for covering my favorite Alice in Chains and He Is Legend songs, odd coincidence. But seriously, he butchered the vocals on these songs except the chorus on Sunshine because he had help with the harmony.
To be fair, HIL’s vocalist wasn’t exactly top notch live on the clean vocals either.
Nobody is worse then WCAR’s clean vocalist live. Pathetic.
What about Phil Labonte?
I saw Phil when he filled in for Howard when KSE came to town. He might just be the 2nd worst I’ve ever seen.
Maria Brink, Dez from DevilDriver, Adam Warren Burton C. Bell and Matt Heffy are also terrible live.
Gordon, you definitely must have seen Adam Warren after a shit ton of continuous stops, that made him lose his voice or something… Or maybe he was sick. The two times I have seen him, his screams and growls were literally the loudest and best I have ever heard live. And it was even at a shitty venue in Cleveland, called Peabody’s. Sounded great. The time I saw them with The Acacia Strain, Vincent Bennett was jealous. I like TAS, but Vincent has never once been good live out of the 5 times I’ve seen them. Strictly a product of the studio.
I saw them in Chicago at August and Adam was very tired or had his voice shot. Couldn’t understand his growls and he was more or less talking his growls if that made sense. I gave him the benefit of the doubt but it was very poor. Vincent Bennet sounded great that night.
During Oceano’s set a kid got on stage which lead to security slamming him into Oceano’s stand-up banners and completely wrecking it which lead to the bassist nearly fighting the security. I like the bottom lounge as a venue except security are fucking dicks and there is no crowd surfing or stage diving allowed or they drag people out and beat the fuck out of them. I have no idea why they book punk/hardcore/metal shows there then. During Black Dahlia Murder there Trevor was openly telling security to tone it down and said they wouldn’t be back at the venue at the end of the set. I did enjoy watching security getting it’s ass handed to them during the Amon Amarth show though.
You’re right, CMA. Dont get me wrong, I love this band but Schuyler sucks live. He cant even sing his own shit right. He is easily the Rob Zombie of his genre. This is why I really dont care to see them live, just give me another album.
“HMV (the last UK based CD chain) just closed shop, FNAC and Virgin France just closed.” – what? FNAC is still very alive everywhere, what is he talking about?
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