Yup. I had a long-ass chat with Jet ahead of their reformation/reunion shows with Bruce Springsteen. It was pretty great to hang and talk with a band that I grew up seeing in pubs in Melbourne and watching their stature grow to where you still hear “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” in US sports arenas.
It was fun. Read it here.
Hey! I interviewed Metallica.
More specifically, I got to chat to Kirk Hammett for an unreasonably long time about the relationship between he, James Hetfield and Lar Ulrich, how he lost his phone with 250+ riff ideas for their new album, how fans engage with Metallica now, what the band could mean to a teenager in 2017, the band’s inestimable legacy and what Metallica are in 2017.
It was really cool. Check it out here at Fasterlouder.
(and, if you dig it, check out my deep dive on whether their 1996 album Load is actually any good too)
Wrote about how ace I think the East Coast is, featuring lots of gushing about how great NYC, Boston, DC and Philly are for awol.com.au
Check it out here.
For the 20th anniversary of its release, I listened to Metallica’s Load 20 times (!!!) to determine whether or not it still sucks for FasterLouder.
And man… 20 times is a LOT of “Mama Said”, “Until It Sleeps” and “Bleeding Me”.
Find out the results — does it suck, or not? — right here.
I like bands. I also like realising when it’s time to move on from bands I like. So I wrote about bands I like that it’s time to move on from, for Fasterlouder.
Plus I offer up two bands you should/could listen to instead, which was fun.
Check it out right here.
jaymz clements 