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  #1681  
Old 16th March 2023, 10:07 PM
Susan Foreman's Avatar
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New interview at Ultimate Classic Rock

"Alice Cooper Said ‘No Overdubs’ on New Album With Touring Band

Getting to the top is easy. Staying there is the real challenge. Just ask Alice Cooper.

The Godfather of Shock Rock has enjoyed dizzying highs and weathered perilous lows over a career spanning more than half a century, and he's got plenty of scars and stories to show for it. Cooper could have easily become a rock 'n' roll casualty; instead, he kicked his vices and became a sage survivor, a picture of self-preservation on a constant quest for reinvention.

This year is no different, as Cooper readies an all-new stage show called "Too Close for Comfort," which he'll debut in April on a solo headlining tour before opening for Motley Crue and Def Leppard and co-headlining alongside Rob Zombie this summer.

Rejoining him onstage will be guitarist Nita Strauss, who left the band in 2022 to hit the road with Demi Lovato and was replaced temporarily by former Cooper guitarist Kane Roberts.

Cooper indicates that fans will be hearing a lot more of Strauss and the rest of his touring band in a recent talk with UCR, during which he discusses his new stage show, recording plans and the 50th anniversary of the chart-topping Billion Dollar Babies.

Over the past few years, you've been bringing a handful of late-'80s cuts from Constrictor and Raise Your Fist and Yell back into your set. Fans were super-excited when you guys brought "Freedom" back on the last tour with Kane.
Kane, of course, is one of my favorite people in the world. He's got Stallone's body and Jerry Lewis' brain. He's one of the funniest people I've ever met in my life. But, you know, those '80s songs we brought back in because we had Nita. Nita was a shredder, and those songs were all Kane Roberts shred songs. And so when she came in the band, I went, "Oh, that opens up a couple of albums here." That opens up Raise Your Fist and Yell and Constrictor and all those songs where that kind of guitar can kind of rule. Ryan [Roxie] and Tommy [Henriksen] are just great rock 'n' roll guitar players. They're sort of Joe Perry-type of guitar players. But getting that extra boost of having a shredder like that, that opened up a lot for us.

Who initiated the conversation for Nita Strauss to come back?
It was the funniest thing because I always have had a revolving door in my band. If somebody has a thing where they say, "I want to go do this for six months," I go, "OK, go." Absolutely no problem. ... I understood what she was trying to do with Demi, and it worked. It was a good thing. And of course, getting Kane back in was a fan favorite. That was something that was really fun for us and them. And then at the end of it, I said, "You want to come back?" She goes, "Sure." And I went, "OK, great. It's gonna be a whole new show." I never, ever take a musician and put them in a position where they can't revolve out and then revolve back in.

Speaking of the new stage show, is there anything that you're able to share about the upcoming production or set list?
I can tell you that Mademoiselle Guillotine is not there anymore. Marie Antoideath is there. Marie Antoideath will probably be the one that is trying so hard to cut my head off because she had her head cut off and she wants revenge.

Understandable. I can't blame her for that.
No. And we are bringing back one other bit from Welcome to My Nightmare that kind of works right into that, that I think the audience will really, really like. Something we did on Nightmare that really, the audience every night went, "Oh!" Those are the kinds of things, it's kind of cool to not just do a song that they weren't expecting, but to do a bit that they're not expecting.

Do you think there's a world in which we could ever see some Flush the Fashion or Zipper Catches Skin songs coming back into the mix?
The band are always pushing for that. 'Cause some of those songs were my blackout albums, where I honestly don't remember writing Zipper Catches Skin. I don't remember writing much of Special Forces. ... The songs are great, but the production on those songs, I want to go back and almost reproduce those songs. Because the songs were good, it's just that we didn't really produce it well enough. Songs like "Zorro's Ascent," I mean, there's just so many good ones in there that I wish I could just go back and re-record.

That would be a real treat for fans.
It would be something different. Call it The Blackout Album. In fact, that just happened just now between me and you, so if that happens, you'll know that that came from this conversation.

I think those are fascinating records. The circumstances of their creation were not great, but it was really interesting to hear the way you were reacting and adapting to the sound of popular music changing at the time.
I didn't know if we were making fun of it or not. Some of it was so tongue-in-cheek, especially on Flush the Fashion, where I kind of think in the back of my mind that I was making fun of it. But at the same time, the songs, like "Clones" and "Leather Boots" and songs like that, I went, "Wow, those songs were really pretty cool."

You could apply that line of thinking to a lot of Alice Cooper's discography. You were always kind of satirizing the culture but also engaging with it.
When we first played our stuff for Frank Zappa, Frank Zappa listened to it, and it was very ... Pretties for You was very complicated. [The songs] were only two minutes long, but [there were] 38 changes in a song. And he'd sit there and he goes, "I don't get it." I went, "What?" And he goes, "I'm Frank Zappa and I don't get it." And I said, "Is that good or bad?" And he says, "No, I'm signing you because I don't get it." Now, people listened to that album at the time, and they went ... OK, one guy reviewed it as "a tragic waste of plastic," which I thought was a great review. But now it's being reviewed as art. People are looking at and saying, "This was so far ahead of its time." And some of it was.

This is a big milestone anniversary year for Alice Cooper. You're looking at the 50th anniversary of Billion Dollar Babies and Muscle of Love. Eight months is not a lot of time between records. Do you have any new revelations about them?
Back then, it was something really interesting. If you remember the time period, you did two albums a year. We did Love it to Death and Killer in the same year. And I think we did School's Out and Billion Dollar Babies in the same year. But we did two albums a year. Everybody did, that was just the way it was. You did an album and then you went on tour. And then, while you were on tour, you were writing the next album. And there was a point where the Alice Cooper Band, we did, I think, four or five or six albums in three years or something like that, and they were all hit albums. But while we were on the road, we didn't live anywhere. People would say, "Well, I want to send this to you. Where do you live?" And I'd go, "Uh, Holiday Inn?" Because we didn't really have an address. It was just, you finished the record and you went on the road. And then when you got off the road, you went right back into the studio, because you were competing with some of the best acts in the world. So you'd better stay up there, especially if you had a hit record. Then the hard part is staying there. If you have a No. 1 record, then people are really waiting for that sophomore record, and it better be good, because that's what's gonna mean if you're gonna stick around.

As you get more successful, even if you're keeping the same pace of writing and recording, I'm sure the touring is amping up, the press is amping up and everything else is becoming a little harder. So it's not realistic to expect to keep that same pace and quality when you're making records.
Yeah, and really, you go into an album — especially with [producer] Bob Ezrin — with, "We don't do fillers." In other words, every song had to be a song that you could sit down at the piano and sing the verse, the bridge, the chorus. It couldn't just be a riff and somebody yelling at you. The quality of the songs was what really [mattered]. But that was a whole generation. There's not one bad song on Elton [John] albums. There's not one bad song on a Rod Stewart album. The quality of the albums back then was so good. And it's because we were really competitive with each other, and we were the next generation after the Beatles. So who did we learn from? We learned from the Beatles. We learned how to write songs listening to the best band that ever wrote songs. And then you add a little Rolling Stones or a little Yardbirds or a little Kinks into that, and finally, you develop your own sound. But we learned from the best, and I think if you listen to any album from the '70s and '60s, they're all really good songs.

You mentioned a few months ago that you and the guys from the original Alice Cooper Band had been working together and whipped up about a dozen songs. Any word on new music, either solo or with your old bandmates?
Well, there's a new album coming out with my touring band right now. I wanted to show off the touring band, so we wrote songs, went in the studio, and I said, "Here's the deal on this album: No overdubs." I said, "Everything has to be done in the studio live because the whole idea of this album is showing off how good this band is live." So when you hear this album, it sounds like a studio album, but it's actually them playing live in the studio. That album will be coming out, and then, the thing with the original band is when we broke up, we never broke up with any bad blood. We went to high school together, we were on the cross country and track team together, things like that. There was never bad blood between any of us, and we always ... I mean, I would ask Dennis [Dunaway], "Dennis, could you come in and play bass on this song?" "Yeah. Could you sing on this song? I've got a thing going on with this band that I'm in." "OK." So there was never that like, "Oh, I'm never gonna talk to him again," or "I'm never gonna work with him again." So we've always been writing. "Neal Smith will send me three or four songs and I'll do some writing lyrics on it and send it back to him, and he has his own band. Dennis is in two or three bands. Mike [Michael Bruce], they're always working musicians. So when we write 10 or 12 songs, I don't know exactly what that's going to be, but I know that those songs exist now. So I'm thinking about in the future, that would be kind of a cool thing.

I'm sure your group chemistry and proficiency as individual players have only gotten better over the years.
That has a lot to do with Ezrin. Bob Ezrin really forced us into becoming a really good band. The band could play, but he was the guy that came in and said, "OK, this part is great. This part is great. I don't understand where you're going on this part because it doesn't fit at all." And then Love it to Death was born, and that was the first time you could listen to an Alice Cooper album and go, "Oh, that's Alice Cooper." Because he gave us a signature. When he started out with us, he said, "Why is it that when you hear a Doors song, you know it's the doors?" He said, "Because Jim Morrison's got a signature voice. Robby Krieger, nobody plays like him. Ray Manzarek, they have a sound. The Stones have a sound. You guys don't have a signature sound or something that's really you." And then, when we worked on Love it to Death, then Alice Cooper had a personality and had a signature sound. And then after that, it just stayed there. If something came on the radio, you could go, "Oh, that's Alice Cooper.""
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  #1682  
Old 17th March 2023, 04:07 PM
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EarMusic and The Hollywood Vampires are due to release a new live album, 'Live In Rio', on CD, vinyl and blu-ray on June 2nd


The show was recorded when the band were promoting their first album in 2016, and includes guest appearances from Lzzy Hale, Andreas Kisser (Sepultura) and Zak Starkey (The Who)

The full track listing is as follows:
  • Raise The Dead
  • My Generation
  • I Got A Line On You
  • Cold Turkey
  • Five To One / Break On Through (To The Other Side)
  • Manic Depression
  • 7 And 7 Is
  • Whole Lotta Love
  • Jeepster
  • I'm A Boy
  • School's Out
  • Billion Dollar Babies
  • Train Kept A-Rollin'
  • Brown Sugar

Attached Images
File Type: jpg Hollywood Vampires Live In Rio LP Cover.jpg (97.5 KB, 34 views)
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  #1683  
Old 17th March 2023, 05:10 PM
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Good touring line up that with Duff on bass and Matt Sorum on drums.

Wonder if contractual reasons meant they couldn't list McKagen on the cover.
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  #1684  
Old 17th March 2023, 07:38 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs View Post
Wonder if contractual reasons meant they couldn't list McKagen on the cover.
It's probably more to do with the fact that the full-time members of The Hollywood Vampires are Cooper, Depp, Perry and Henriksen, while Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum are just 'hired hand session musicians' who played on the tour
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  #1685  
Old 21st March 2023, 08:20 AM
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Distortions Unlimited, the company that builds many of the props used in the Alice Cooper show, have posted a 'Behind The Monsters' video demonstrating some of their creations, including some that have not been used on stage... yet!

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  #1686  
Old 23rd March 2023, 12:12 AM
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Nita Strauss - Winner Takes All (Featuring Alice Cooper)



I like this but had i said it was a new Alice Cooper song from his forthcoming metal album with his touring band then i don't think anyone would have suggested any different.
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  #1687  
Old 4th April 2023, 09:52 PM
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Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3 'Awesome Mix' soundtrack

1. Radiohead - Creep (acoustic version)
2. Hearty - Crazy On You
3. Rainbow - Since You Been Gone
4. Spacehog - In The Meantime
5. Earth Wind & Fire - Reasons
6. The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize?
7. Faith No More - We Care A Lot
8. EHAMIC - Koinu No Carnival - From 'Minute Waltz'
9. Alice Cooper - I'm Always Chasing Rainbows
10. The Mowgli's - San Francisco
11. X - Poor Girl
12. The The - This Is The Day
13. Beastie Boys - No Sleep Til Brooklyn
14. Florence + The Machine - Dog Days Are Over
15. Bruce Springsteen - Badlands
16. The Replacements - I Will Dare You
17. Redbone - Come And Set Your Love
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  #1688  
Old 15th April 2023, 09:04 AM
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'School's Out' from the frankly bizarre 1981 'Alice Cooper In Paris' television special


It's really disturbing watching Alice in this - he is hideously emaciated (almost skeletal) and obviously in the midst of his cocaine addition
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  #1689  
Old 26th April 2023, 03:32 PM
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Two new expanded, deluxe anniversary editions of 'Killer' and 'School's Out' have been announced

"NEWLY REMASTERED ALBUMS EXPANDED WITH RARITIES, AND PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED CONCERTS AVAILABLE ON JUNE 9

Alice Cooper was unstoppable during the 1970s when the band released four consecutive platinum albums and five Top 40 hits like 'I’m Eighteen,' 'School’s Out,' 'No More Mr. Nice Guy,' and 'Elected. Rhino will reissue two of those platinum albums – 'Killer' (1971) and 'School’s Out' (1972) – with newly remastered sound, rare recordings, and previously unreleased live performances.

Both Deluxe Editions will be released on June 9 as 2-CD sets and 3-LP versions on 180-gram vinyl

The vinyl versions for both Deluxe Edition recreate the original album sleeves down to the smallest detail. For Killer, that means a gatefold sleeve that opens to reveal a detachable 1972 calendar with a photo of Cooper in the gallows. The cover of School’s Out looks like a wooden school desk and opens to reveal the LP wrapped in a pair of panties. The band stopped including the underwear following a controversy as to whether or not they were flammable. Thankfully, the lacy unmentionables in the new Deluxe Edition are not a fire hazard.

Both sets come with booklets that include track-by-track commentary by band members and former Creem Magazine editor Jaan Uhelszki, plus liner notes by Bill Holdship, also a former Creem Magazine editor

KILLER (DELUXE EDITION) introduces a newly remastered version of the original release, which peaked at #21 on the Billboard albums chart. Along with the singles 'Under My Wheels' and 'Be My Lover,' the record also includes 'Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,' 'Desperado,' and the prog-rock-inspired epic 'Halo Of Flies.' The bonus material features alternate takes for 'You Drive Me Nervous,' 'Under My Wheels,' and 'Dead Babies'

The collection also gives fans an unreleased live recording of the band’s performance at Mar Y Sol Pop Festival in Puerto Rico on April 2, 1972. Recorded a few months before the band returned to the studio to make School’s Out, the show previews 'Public Animal #9' from the upcoming album. The band played most of Killer during the concert, including 'You Drive Me Nervous,' 'Under My Wheels,' and 'Halo Of Flies.' They also tapped the group’s 1971 album, Love It to Death, for live versions of 'Is It My Body?,' 'Long Way To Go,' and the smash hit 'I’m Eighteen'


SCHOOL’S OUT (DELUXE EDITION) begins with a newly remastered version of the 1972 original, which peaked at #2 on the albums chart. Essential tracks like 'Luney Tune' and 'Alma Mater' are joined by 'Gutter Cat vs. The Jets.' The latter is an homage to West Side Story, a significant influence on the band. The song incorporates lyrics from 'Jet Song' from the 1957 musical, which led to an unlikely songwriting credit for Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim on an Alice Cooper track

The Deluxe Edition contains rarities like the single versions of 'School’s Out' and 'Gutter Cat vs. The Jets.' Two previously unreleased tracks are also included, an alternate version of 'Alma Mater' and an early demo for 'Elected, a song that would appear in 1973 on the band’s first #1 album, 'Billion Dollar Babies'

Alice Cooper’s concert in Miami on May 27, 1972, adds even more unreleased music to the collection. The show was recorded a few weeks before the band entered the studio to record School’s Out. The live performance features standout versions of 'Halo Of Flies,' 'School’s Out,' and 'Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,' a song that gives Cooper a chance to show off his impressive harmonica skills"



As a taster for the releases, an unreleased version of 'Be My Love', recorded in Miami in 1972, has been made available

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  #1690  
Old 27th April 2023, 03:15 PM
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Alice has picked his five favourite horror films.

In chronological order they are -

Carnival of Souls (1962)
The Haunting (1963)
Suspiria (1977)
Salem's Lot (1979)
The Evil Dead (1981)

https://www.loudersound.com/news/ali...-horror-movies
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