Thursday Night AC/DC Update

AC/DC's in Chicago, IL tonight and the Sun Times has a nice, but familiar preview of tonight's visit to Allstate Arena.

In a story that's already been repeated a million times around the net, Brian Johnson says he's overwhelmed at the success of AC/DC's new album. Hopefully, Brian will be able to afford a new car sometime soon as his 2007 ride just doesn't cut the mustard anymore, if you ask me.

More Black Ice Reviews:
Vancouver Straight
Stuff (New Zealand)

AC/DC Italia's YouTube Channel has some of the best Black Ice tour videos I've seen so far but, unfortunately, their audio quality is less than desirable. By the way, there's a couple of nice shots of the opening night to be found here. Click on each pic to make them extra large.

If you've attended or are going to attend one of AC/DC's Black Ice concerts, please post your reviews of the show including whatever details you can remember in our comments section below.

Keep rockin, Jon

Latest Issue of Classic Rock Features AC/DC!

Out on October 15th, Classic Rock says they have "Angus Young and Brian Johnson on the new album Black Ice, their top-secret $4 million stage set, and why this might be Brian's last album and tour."

Hmm, sounds pretty interesting! If you're in the USA, check your better bookstores for a copy or, if you're lucky, maybe one your English buds will mail you one!

Also, check out this post from CR about AC/DC's tour being an even hotter ticket than last year's Led Zeppelin reunion show.

Rock N Roll Train - Full Video!

AC/DC - Rock N Roll Train Video Teaser

Here's a quick preview of the AC/DC's first promotional video from the Black Ice album. Rock N Roll Train was filmed in London on August 15th. The full video's not due out until September 19, 2008 and will likely play first on VH1.


AC/DC Spanks Miley Cyrus's Butt!
In other tidbits of note, Undercover News reports that AC/DC is more popular than Miley Cyrus in Australia right now. Last week, fans purchased a total of 1025 more AC/DC albums in retail stores than the teen queen sold, even though she actually has the number one CD.

In fact, no less than six AC/DC albums reside in the ARIA Top 50 currently including TNT, Dirty Deeds, Highway To Hell, Who Made Who, The Razors Edge and Stiff Upper Lip. For full details, check out Paul Cashmere's latest post here.

Speaking of money, Business Review Weekly's annual list of the Top 50 Australian Entertainers was released Saturday and AC/DC was, once again, among the top artists with an estimated $12.0 Million (AU) in gross earnings last fiscal year. That was good enough for eight place on this year's list, but BRW went on to predict that AC/DC will be the top grossing act for 2009 due to the upcoming release of Black Ice and the band's subsequent world tour.

Lastly, for today, here's a video of some kid playing Let There Be Rock on Rock Band2.



Keep rockin, Jon

Download the Angus & Brian Interview on Stern

Here's a great interview of Angus Young and Brian Johnson from the Howard Stern Show on September 9, 2008 for download. Even if you can't stand Stern's tired act it's well worth the listen for Angus' and Brian's great sense of humor.

Thanks to Graham Farrell of the Bon Scott Group at Google for the show!

AC/DC's Train Is A Rolling

Plenty of AC/DC news to get to today so I guess I better get off my lazy ass and post it...

For starters, Brave Words let me know a few days ago that they'd scored an exclusive interview with Mike Fraser, a veteran producer who's list of credits reads like a Who's Who in Rock 'n' Roll.

Mike's done plenty of work for AC/DC over the years including the mixing on albums like Stiff Upper Lip, Razors Edge, and Ballbreaker not to mention remastering their entire back catalog since 2003. He was also instrumental in preparing the Plug Me In and No Bull DVD's for release so you bet your bottom dollar that this guy knows what AC/DC is supposed to sound like.

Here's one of the highlights from their chat with him:


BW&BK: How much pressure is there knowing that Black Ice is easily one of the most anticipated rock/hard rock records over the past few years? Do you guys feel it inside?

Fraser: “Oh sure, I do. I’m not sure if the band does. They are pretty low-key, easy-going guys. They don’t think about any of this kind of stuff. They just come in and get it done. As Malcolm (Young) says, when they are writing songs, if you can thump your foot to it, it’s worth a go. I don’t think they think in terms of that. For sure Brendan (O’Brien) and I did. It’s been nine years since Stiff Upper Lip and at one point there I was thinking, is there ever going to be another AC/DC record, because that’s a long time. Finally they gave me a call. We started March 3rd on the record and I was like, ‘Somebody pinch me; we’re actually sitting here listening to new AC/DC!’”

For more of the interview, check out this page. Brave Words promises more to come from Mike Fraser soon, by the way.



In other exciting news for AC/DC fans, it seems the band is selling incredible numbers of CD's back in Australia right now. Paul Cashmere has reported, in a story picked up worldwide, that AC/DC has no less than six albums in the Australian Top 50 albums list at this moment! In fact, their sales combined outpaced the number one album on the list last week.

Before you click the link above, see if you can guess which six AC/DC albums are selling so well. I'd bet you can't name more than half of them because the list is somewhat surprising. And before I forget, Defamer supposed that the ghost of Bon Scott must be smiling about this week's ARIA charts and I'd have to agree.

But Australians aren't alone in their love for AC/DC as "Rock N Roll Train" debuted at #1 on the Canadian singles charts upon it's release August 28th. Incidentally, RNRT is the first song ever to debut at No. 1 on the Rock charts compiled by Broadcast Data Systems since they began compiling data in 1997. For more on this historic event, see the rest of the story at Blabbermouth.



Now with all the hoopla going on about the new AC/DC album, we're still in the dark as to exactly which band members wrote the lyrics for the new songs. Rock N Roll Train seems to be from the Young brothers alone if you ask most fans, but many are wondering if Brian Johnson was a part of the writing team for the other tracks. Nobody but AC/DC knows for sure, but Time Magazine has just indicated Brian did participate in the lyric writing for the Black Ice CD. Good news, if it turns out to be true...




Last in today's news, but not necessarily least, two new television commercials for Rock Band 2 featuring AC/DC's Let There Be Rock have made their way to YouTube. Both feature essentially the same footage, but one ad lasts a full minute while the other clocks in at just 30 seconds. Incidentally, is it just me or does the timing appear off in both clips?





So here we are, almost in mid-September, and no official word's been released on when ticket sales will begin for the next AC/DC tour. Supposedly, the Black Ice tour is set to start in late October, according to Billboard and other sources.

Hmm...what does that mean? I'm starting to wonder if that little birdie that whispered in my ear the other day about the tour not commencing until 2009 was right.

Say it ain't so, Angus! Say it ain't so!

Keep rockin, Jon

Rolling Stone Kissing AC/DC's Big Balls?

After years and years of loathing, it seems Rolling Stone Magazine is finally changing their tune about AC/DC's brand of rock 'n' roll music.

Yes, once again, Rolling Stone has defied their history by gloriously featuring AC/DC in an another preview of Black Ice which was posted online earlier today.

By most fan accounts, that rag has virtually despised AC/DC their whole career (with the exception of Back In Black) but now they seem to want to help promote the new record by actually offering details of the Black Ice recording sessions while, at the same time, praising the new songs.

Of course, this praise is a far cry from what Rolling Stone has previously said about AC/DC's music. For example, back in the nineties, when they declared Brian Johnson's "banshee vocals are even more shrill these days." in their 2 stars out of 5 Ballbreaker review or the time they said AC/DC had set "a new record for the longest career without a single new idea" with the release of the Razors Edge album.

In fact, not once has AC/DC ever been on Rolling Stone's cover in the United States despite the fact that the band are Rock 'N Roll Hall of Famers and they sell more albums than anybody (except The Beatles) in today's market after 35 years in the music business.

I surmise that this seemingly new found respect for AC/DC has more to do with Columbia Records marketing machine than any true change of heart from Rolling Stone, but I guess time will tell as the band prepares to hit the road soon.



In other AC/DC news, it appears Rock Band 2 might feature some hidden AC/DC songs other than the previously announced, Let There Be Rock.

Apparently, if the above rumored screen shot is to be believed, Shoot To Thrill from Live At Donington will be in the mix, too. You'll find the story about it here and why wouldn't they want more AC/DC tracks in Rock Band? One song is certainly not going to be enough to satisfy the average rock fan!



Lastly, I could really care less about what's on TV these days but, it would be remiss of me not to mention that Rock N Roll Train is being used to help promote the season premier of the CBS show, Criminal Minds, called "NYC Under Attack." (see the video above)

Why they didn't use Safe In New York City instead is something I'll never understand. Oh well, score another big win for the Black Ice division of the record company marketing department.

In other minor news of note, Cinema Blend recently posted a review of No Bull - The Director's Cut and some obscure festival is desperately trying to get some headlines by announcing they want AC/DC to play there next year. But, of course, as has been well said before, AC/DC "doesn't want, or need, to share a stage with anyone."

Keep rockin, Jon

Best Since Back In Black?

Will Black Ice be the best album since Back In Black?

Australia's News.com had the privilege of listening to seven tracks off AC/DC's "Black Ice" earlier today and posted this intriguing review of what they heard.

From what I gather, they feel it's the best thing the band has done since Back In Black. Incidentally, the listening session took place at the world famous Alberts Records studio in Sydney where the group made many a monster recording back in the 70's. Anyway, here's a few selected excerpts from David Higgin's review to whet your appetite for full article.

Anything Goes has the potential to be the band’s biggest hit since You Shook Me All Night Long if released - under one plan - as a second single.

Opening with a guitar sound that recalls Bon Scott’s bagpipes in Long Way to the Top, Anything Goes is a delicious 1970s tune with blood-pumping, 2008 production values.

The Young brothers would disagree, but it is the closest thing to a pop song the band has done and will pull in many new fans.

The songs heard today draw from periods throughout the band’s career.

Black Ice is a head-banging anthem from the For Those About to Rock era, with a riff as good as any the Youngs have written.

War Machine is a hard and fast affair reminiscent of Back in Black’s Given The Dog a Bone.

Meanwhile, criticism of the band's deal with Wal-Mart continues to escalate, at least from some quarters. Goldmine Magazine issued this stinging shot the other day, calling it a "deal with the devil" while another columnist chastized AC/DC has having joined the "corporate rock crowd" which is a far cry from their days as rock's baddest rebels.



Of course, now that the first single has been released fans everywhere are clamoring even more for AC/DC to tour in their area. In fact, according to a recent poll out of Canada, newspaper readers there said that AC/DC is their #1 choice of bands to see on their Fall concert wish list.



Speaking of being #1, AC/DC is not far from it in terms of full album sales from the years 2006 to 2008 according to the Wall Street Journal. In fact, of all the bands in the world, only The Beatles sold more albums than AC/DC in the past 3 years! The Journal says that their success may be partly due to the fact that the group refuses to sell their songs individually through ITunes.




By the way, it looks like the AC/DC store is offering a great deal on a Black Ice Cd/No Bull Dvd (Director's cut) combo right now if you pre-order it directly from them. The regular package goes for $26 whilst the Blu-Ray edition will cost you $10 more. For your money, it appears you'll get a special blue colored AC/DC logo for your Black Ice Cd from that deal. Who's up for it?

In other items of interest, Don Jacobson of the Beachwood Reporter (who?) says "Rock 'N Roll Train" sounds 'exactly like every song AC/DC's done since Brian Johnson joined the band in 1980' but he questions if that's really a good thing or not. His review's kind of fun to read if you don't mind him taking a few pot-shots at your favorite band. Look here for a slighty different take on the song.




Last, but not in the least the least, ACDC.com has an innovative new feature on our favorite band called AC/DC 101. Described as a "crash course in the history of the world's most electrifying rock & roll band, AC/DC 101 provides you with a multimedia show while you read the official story of the lads from down under.

I haven't studied the site very closely but it does look like it will be great fun, especially for the younger fans among us. Wow, isn't it great that AC/DC seems to finally almost have a really decent web site and it's only 2008!

Well, folks, that's all I could find since last time so have a great weekend everybody and stay safe while you're out partying.

Keep rockin, Jon

PS> Thanks for all the great comments lately! Keep 'em coming, eh?

Mystery Riff Uploaded to AC/DC's MySpace Page!

Here's a new riff from AC/DC courtesy of their MySpace page.

Presumably, it's the opening to "Rock 'N' Roll Train," but they've not identified the track as of yet.

(Update: I've been told that fans who attended the video shoot say it is "Rock 'N' Roll Train," but I haven't independently confirmed this to be true.)

2nd Update: Looks like AC/DC's MySpace page took down the sound clip so here it is transferred to a video format. The copy doesn't sound as great but, at least, you'll get the general idea of the track.



In other news of note, Billboard posted a small preview of the "Black Ice" album earlier today. Here's some of what they had to say:

Elsewhere, "Big Jack" nods to the vintage major-key rocker "Who Made Who," while "Wheels" is a hands-in-the-air nod to old favorites such as "Highway to Hell" and "Givin' the Dog a Bone."

Frontman Brian Johnson is in fine form on tracks like "War Machine" ("Better watch your back and cover your tracks!," he warns), the sparse "Decibel," partially sung in his deep, natural voice, and the anthemic "Anything Goes."

"Black Ice" ends with its title track, an old-school blues rocker that finds Johnson growling, "I'll gouge your eyes out."

Sounds pretty good, eh?

Elsewhere, the UK division of SonyBMG has finally unveiled their rehearsal show contest page. Be sure to check out all the entries in their exclusive photo gallery!

Finally, anyone who's ever dreamed of being a long-haired, hard rocker will definitely enjoy Stephen McGinty's latest piece for The Scotsman in which he muses about the greatness of AC/DC and their headbanging demon, Angus Young.

Keep rockin, Jon

Latest AC/DC News Roundup

Lots of news items over the last couple of days so let's get right to it...

Bob Lefsetz, a music business writer for the last 20 years, claims to have listened to AC/DC's "Black Ice" album and has written an extremely positive review of it which you can read for yourself here. Apparentely, sliced bread has nothing on AC/DC's next record.

If you're a fan in the UK, be sure to sign up for AC/DC's UK Mailing List through SonyBMG. I've signed up as Alex O'Loughlin just so they know I''m serious about getting their newsletter.

The Adelaide International Guitar Festival is holding an "AC/DC We Salute You" concert on December 7 with the main-stage acts performing their favorite AC/DC songs as a way to close out the festival. Word has it that two ex-AC/DC members, Dave Evans and Mark Evans, will be part of that performance. After the show, both guys will surely commiserate on how much money they could be making now if they were still a part of the Young Brothers corporate team.

Speaking of Australia, Leaping Larry of WA Today has called for AC/DC to play at this coming year's AFL Grand Final. I second that notion and, further, I call upon the NFL to book AC/DC to perform at the halftime of the next Super Bowl. It's certainly high time that the most played band at football games across this nation be given the opportunity to really rock a Super Crowd.

AceFrehley140986 has been hailed a YouTube Genius by Defamer for his brilliant rendition of Runaway Train/Rock N Roll Train. Of course, I should remind readers that I called that same thing the other day when I stated the video was priceless and also said "Don Coleman, eat your mo'f*cking heart out." Well, apparently, this comment of mine so pissed off the President of the Don Coleman fan club that he/she actually wrote in to call me a geek and a loser.

Lastly, it was very quietly announced the other day that Arnaud Durieux flew to London "to document the first AC/DC video that has been shot in years." No word on on what "document" actually means but fans might remember Duriex as the co-writer of "AC/DC Maximum Rock and Roll," the dreadfully long (but most substantial) AC/DC bio yet written.

However, Durieux isn't the only AC/DC fan that wanted to capture memories of the "Rock 'N' Roll Train" video shoot as this Argentinian site has posted about a dozen photos from the day including shots of Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams, and a very bleary looking Phil Rudd.

Well, that's about it for now but, as I post this, there are 59 days, 10 hours and 2 minutes left until Black Ice is unleashed upon the public.

Keep rockin, Jon

PS> Breaking news: Patrick Donovan and Andrew Murfett just wrote that AC/DC will tour Australia next year, possibly at Telstra Stadium (now known as ANZ Stadium according to Wackypedia.)

AC/DC's "Black Ice" Revealed!

Albert Productions and SonyBMG Australia have announced the worldwide release of "Black Ice," the long awaited new studio album from AC/DC, on October 18.

"Black Ice," the first full-length studio album of all-new material from AC/DC since the release of "Stiff Upper Lip" in 2000, is the band’s debut album for Columbia Records, (New York Based label for SonyBMG) and their 18th for Australia’s Albert Productions.

Track Listing:
1. Rock ’n Roll Train
2. Skies On Fire
3. Big Jack
4. Anything Goes
5. War Machine
6. Smash N Grab
7. Spoilin’ For A Fight
8. Wheels
9. Decibel
10. Stormy May Day
11. She Likes Rock N Roll
12. Money Made
13. Rock N Roll Dream
14. Rocking All The Way
15. Black Ice

Fans of the band will, no doubt, be overjoyed to hear this official news. Especially considering the long wait they've endured since the band released "Stiff Upper Lip" way back at the turn of the century!

Several Australian newspapers and the major wire services covered the breaking news. Samples of which can be seen here, here and here. Entertainment news stalwart, Variety, even suggested that AC/DC might hit #1 with Black Ice.

It's also been officially confirmed that ""Rock 'N' Roll Train," the album's first single, will debut on August 28th and the video will premiere in September," according to AC/DC's MySpace page.

From the looks of things, it seems that Black Ice will be rolled out across the world two days earlier than it will be sold in the United States as Wal-Mart will not be releasing the album until October 20th according to ACDC.com and Wal-Mart's own special AC/DC page.

However, according to Web Wire, Wal-Mart will join with Columbia Records "to launch multiple activities for fans in celebration of the new CD album, including new product features and promotions to come this fall that will bring fans closer to one of history’s greatest rock bands."

Fans may pre-order "Black Ice" through Wal-Mart and AC/DC's own official store beginning today. Reportedly, the album will also be available through Sam's Clubs across the States. You'll have to pay at least $11.88 per CD for this exclusive deal, by the way.

In other news, AC/DC shot the video for "Rock 'N' Roll train on August 15 and a few of the details of that day were printed over at Metal Hammer.

Paul Cashmere of Undercover News also had a short piece on the making of the video which is worth a look, too.

One lucky fan who says he attended the video shoot has even posted a video on YouTube of himself singing the tune to "Rock 'N' Roll Train!" Check it out below...



The singing guy's video apparently inspired another fan to try and transcribe the tune so as to give us all a taste of what the song may sound like on guitar.



Are AC/DC fans a bit excited about Black Ice or what? And what will fans think of the new album's artwork? It's certainly a bit different than anything the band's ever put out before, don't you think? How do the song titles grab you, by the way?

Some of the titles sound quite unusual for AC/DC (Wheels, Stormy May Day, Smash N Grab). However, three of the songs have the words "Rock 'N' Roll" right in the title which obviously reminds us what AC/DC is really about.

So what do you think about Black Ice so far? Are you ready to rock out with AC/DC again? Feel free to leave your comments below.

Keep rockin, Jon

PS> This just in: The fine folks at The Consumerist have posted a very short piece mentioning AC/DC's involvement with Wal-Mart. Read what fans have to say about the deal here.

Rolling Stone Likes The New AC/DC Album???

Fans of this blog probably realize that I think the opinions of Rolling Stone Magazine are virtually worthless when they're reviewing AC/DC's (or anybody's) music. However, they posted an early mini-review yesterday of the new album, Black Ice, in their latest issue that has shocked and awed many an AC/DC fan on the interwebs.

Sweet vindication! Last year in this column, AC/DC singer Brian Johnson promised that they’d tour in 2008. Well, he wasn’t kidding. Soon they’ll begin rehearsals in a secret location, before hitting U.S. arenas in late fall. We heard this news at the Sony HQ on New York’s Madison Avenue, before hearing all 15 tracks of the band’s earthshaking new Black Ice, recorded in Vancouver in just eight weeks with Brendan O’Brien. On it, Brian wails about skies on fire, blood in his eyes, storms raging, lightning flashes, hard rain and pretty women. Angus Young shreds throughout (we dig his slide work on “Decibel”), and the rhythm cats — Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd — are solid as a rock. The first single is “Rock ‘N Roll Train”; “She Likes Rock ‘N Roll” will be a stripper anthem; and “War Machine” (our favorite) will tear you to pieces.

So what does this really mean? Is the new album kickass like Back In Black kind of kickass or is this just hype intended to sell magazines to middle-aged AC/DC fans? I guess we'll have to wait and see for ourselves but the new songs certainly sound promising, don't they?

Well, I guess they should be awesome songs considering all the time it took the band to produce a new album (8 years!).

Anyway, the song title "Rock 'N Roll Train" is now back on the table, apparently, though Undercover News said earlier it would be called "Runaway Train."

Perhaps some lucky fan who participated in yesterday's video shoot in London will fill us in on what song they heard so as to clear up this confusion? I hope so...

Btw, Rolling Stone certainly liked the song "War Machine" which makes me wonder if the lyrics to it reflect some sort of leftist leaning, anti-Bush kind of message.

Hmm, wouldn't that be interesting if AC/DC got a little political like they did when they wrote "Burnin' Alive" which was apparently about the Waco incident?

-



In other AC/DC News, I've neglected to mention that a Director's Cut of the "No Bull" DVD is coming to the Blu-Ray on September 9th which will also include the following, according to Undercover News.

The new version of the disc will include the previously unreleased live versions of `Cover You In Oil` from Gothenburg, Sweden and `Down Payment Blues` recorded in Daytona, USA.

The Blu-Ray disc has also been updated to include `Angusvision` for the tracks `Shoot To Thrill`, `Hail Caesar`, `Rock and Roll Ain`t Noise Pollution` and `You Shook Me All Night Long`. On these tracks, you`ll see what Angus Young was seeing.

There's a nice promo site set up for it on ACDCrocks.com right now if you'd like to pay them a visit, btw.

-


Lastly, a Swedish publication has posted a rumor (supposedly from someone in the band's production company) that AC/DC will play Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden sometime during the Summer of 2009. Read it for yourself here in Swedish or in Google-translated English.

Keep rockin, Jon

AC/DC's "Always Low Wages" Tour Starts In Rocktober!

AC/DC is set to hit the road for an 18 month world tour beginning this October according to the managing partner of the Creative Artists Agency, Rob Light.

This news was announced yesterday at the Intl. Assn. of Assembly Managers' conference and trade show in Anaheim, California as reported here in Billboard.

So far, there's no news on exactly where and when the band will play but you should expect they will, at the very least, hit most of the major venues in Europe, N. America and Australia.

The new CD, entitled "Black Ice," will be sold exclusively throughout most of the western world at Wal-Mart stores. That's why I've dubbed this trek around the world as the "Always Low Wages" tour as AC/DC are seemingly unaware of or don't care that Wal-Mart routinely exploits their workers, giving them little or no health care benefits, and often forcing them to work overtime without pay under threat of losing their jobs if they don't comply.

Not only that, but we all know that most of what Wal-Mart sells come straight from Red China and is, of course, manufactured in mostly inhumane sweatshops by peasants who are lucky to earn a dollar a day.

Perhaps most fans won't care where they buy the next AC/DC record but a growing number of voices are very critical of the band's deal with Wal-Mart. And who can blame them when Americans are losing manufacturing jobs in near record numbers to third world countries across the globe?

Hell, we can't even trust China to even sell us food, toys, and other products that are free of poisons or other almost unimaginable toxins. But you bet your sweet ass that wherever a profit is to be made, Wal-Mart and twenty dozen other corporations that aspire to be them, will be right there harvesting every slim dime to be made inside the Great Wall.

Of course, as AC/DC once famously said, "If you're into evil, you're a friend of mine" but who knew they'd mean Wal-Mart?