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Delta Rae will release their debut LP through Sire Records, a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group
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Ben Folds was inducted into the N.C. Music Hall of Fame Thursday
William Michael Dillon performs on Sessions at Studio B
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Local compilation benefits the Community Music School
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WKNC hosted its sixth annual Double Barrel Benefit Feb. 6 and 7
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In 1998, alternative metal bands Korn, Limp Bizkit and Incubus were on top of the world. The trio performed together on the highly successful Family Values tour; Limp Bizkit was prepping its sophomore LP, which debuted at number one on the Billboard Top 200; and Korn’s 1998 album Follow the Leader also shot to number one and received high praise from the Total Request Live audience.
But in 1999, Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst introduced the world to a band that would change the landscape of alternative metal.
“[Durst] is the one person in a line of many who heard what we had to offer and actually put himself on the line for us, ” Staind frontman Aaron Lewis says.
Trading Durst’s signature backwards baseball cap for a slick, shaved head and nu-metal’s rap tendencies for brooding, often bleak lyrics, Staind unknowingly redefined the genre and made way for bands such as Cold, Breaking Benjamin, Seether, Trapt and Hinder to storm popular music airwaves.
This shift was much more in line with the direction grunge was moving in the early ’90s when radio began trading Nirvana for Live, and Alice in Chains for Collective Soul and Candlebox. Lewis chalks this new movement in alternative metal to the cyclical nature of popular music and the fact that rock bands often “regurgitate” what has already been done.
“Everything has been done once — at least,” Lewis says. “Anybody in rock music is ripping off Black Sabbath or any of those bands from that era that really kind of blew the rock thing wide open for all of us.”
Since Staind peaked in popularity in 2001 with Break the Cycle, popular music has again shifted to a retro-fitted style that mimics music of the ’70s and ’80s. This swing from brooding to poppy has not affected Staind’s record sales much, however, and Lewis says the band’s natural progression from album to album has a lot to do with it.
“We were much younger 11 years ago. I was still full of all the teenage anger that I was holding onto,” Lewis says. “Over the years, writing lyrics and writing these records has been cathartic for me. It’s a way of getting this stuff off my chest so I don’t have to carry it around anymore.”
Sporting a low-profile, black Boston Red Sox baseball cap, black T-shirt and oversized jeans, one might have the notion that Lewis still clings to the nu-metal ethos, but he asserts his understanding of the need for musical progression.
“Once [something is] off my chest, I don’t want to keep revisiting it so that nothing changes. And I’d like to hope that our fans don’t want the same record from us over and over again.”
So far the formula has proven to be successful for Staind as the albums Break the Cycle, 14 Shades of Grey and V all debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, and 2008′s The Illusion of Progress debuted at number three. And while Korn has struggled to capture the same success it saw pre-1999 and Limp Bizkit is still fighting its label of “Worst Band of the Year” from a 2003 Guitar World readers poll, Staind has continued to sell albums and release singles that captivate modern rock radio.
However, there may be a resurgence on the horizon for late-’90s alternative metal with the announcement last week that guitarist Wes Borland has once again teamed up with Fred Durst to record another Limp Bizkit album. In turn, that may lead to another run of Family Values tour dates.
“Limp Bizkit is working on music again and they plan on going back out on tour,” Lewis says. “That would be pretty cool to put the Family Values thing back together again -– I’d be in.”
While the fate of post-grunge still hangs in the balance, Lewis will continue touring and recording with Staind, and he is planning a solo release that will feature many of the songs that he presents during his intimate, acoustic performances.
“There are a few songs I’ve been throwing out there over the past year or so that are songs that I wrote while I was out on tour or just have kicking around,” Lewis says. “They’ll be on the solo record –- renditions of them, anyways. They’re never finished until you go into the studio.”
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February 19th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
great interview…i would love it if Family Values would come back again…that would be sweet
April 6th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
I would love to see Limp Bizkit, KoRn, Filter, & Staind come back for Family Values this year!