Strange things have been happening this week, and I’m not talking about the election. On November 1st Amazon.com posted a page for the forthcoming ‘Detroit Stories’ album (vinyl and CD) which included an album cover illustration. It also appeared to confirm they are aiming for a February release date, as mentioned by Alice in the recent AirB&B Halloween webcast. February 26th to be precise, although of course this could still change. The cover image featured the album title and the Alice splatter logo over a industrial scene, clouds filling the top half of the cover outlining the spider eye make up.
The following day the page was gone.
And in the last hour or so the official Alice facebook page has posted a short 15 second, silent video of clouds or smoke. Could this the start of the ‘Detroit Stories’ promotional campaign? Don’t forget the cool cryptic videos earMusic posted before ‘Paranormal’ was released. Could they be planning something similar for the new album?
Update: Today (sunday) they’ve just posted another cryptic silent clip, this time with the buildings in front of the clouds.
Dennis Dunaway is featured on ‘American Blues Scene‘ promoting last weeks ‘Love Potion #9’ single and his appearance tomorrow evening in a webcast talking about his career and book. More details about the webcast can be found here.
Alice has turned up on a new single by ‘Splash n’ Boots’, a childrens record by Canadians Nick Adams and Taes Leavitt. You can here the song ‘Heart Parade’ now on Spotify.
Alice has released a short "fact video" on ‘Elected’ which you can check out here.
NME have announced that Alice will take part in a forthcoming ‘Reunion’ video with the cast of ‘Waynes World’. No date is set for the event but previous reunions for the casts of ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘lord of the Rings’ have been popular. ‘Nights With Alice Cooper’ posted that Alice would be there.
Just in time for Halloween Alice has launched a new horror themed card game. From the press release:
“This is 2020, which means all things are upside down and backwards. You’re going to be staying home a lot, so why not play HorrorBox. It’s something totally new, fun for everyone. I helped write a lot of the stuff in it. You will become The Addams Family, if that’s a goal in your life.” -Alice Cooper
Just in time for Halloween, the Godfather of Shock Rock himself, Alice Cooper, has partnered with FITZ Games to launch ‘HorrorBox’, a first-of-its-kind, haunted comedy card game with a focus on all things horror. Co-written by a team of horror fanatics, with help from Alice himself, the game prompts players to select from question cards like “Pennywise tricked me by…..” and “The tenth circle of hell is for….” Entertaining answer cards such as “Setting up my haunted house as an Airbnb” provide countless pairings for endless laughter. To kick things up a notch, dare cards are sprinkled into the question cards, cueing players to “drink something that looks like blood” or “knock on your neighbors door and say you’re next.”
Alice has even posted a video launching the game which you can see here.
There’s a base game box available, and various expansion packs, or you can get everything in one big package. So far it seems this is only on sale in the US. but it’s likely somewhere over here will stock it soon and save us the likely horrific postage charges.
Also announced this week is a new talent show, with a difference. Alice will be one of the judges on this new talent show which will involve real musicians playing their own original songs! What a concept! The new show will be called ‘No Cover’ and Alice will judge along with Lzzy Hale and Gavin Rossdale (Bush). The show is being launched by ‘Hit Parader’ magazine and Sumerian Records (Nita’s record company) and will be filmed at the legendary Troubador club in West Hollywood in December (covid permitting). No info about when or where we’ll be able to watch it yet though. If you have a band you can apply to the show now via their website here.
““I can’t wait for No Cover,” says Alice Cooper. “To me, a band really isn’t a band unless they are writing their own material, and if you know anything about me you know that I have a very high standard for not only the songs but also the performance. I’m looking for the band who has it all – the one who can not only write it and play it, but perform it and make me BELIEVE it.”
Alice’s Rock’n’Roll Fantasy Camp interview on November 28th will be gatecrashed by none other than Shep Gordon. Get these too together and you never know what will come up. Tickets are still available at Universe.com.
The last Record Store Day of 2020 has been and gone, and the long awaited ‘Live From The Apollo Theatre Glasgow, Feb 19, 1982’ live album is finally out (along with yet another version of ‘Dirty Diamonds). Sadly they haven’t put much effort into the sleeve, no gatefold with photos etc, but it’s still a terrific recording of a legendary show. A bit of advice: if you missed getting a copy at the weekend make sure you do a google search before paying inflated prices on eBay, as last time I looked there will still online stores with copies for normal price.
Alice’s appearance on AirB&B’s ‘Spooky time’ last week was actually a lot of fun, at least for the kids who joined in! Alice was in costume and make up as was Sheryl who popped in a few times as well. You can still watch the broadcast on YouTube.
And speaking of Sheryl Cooper, she was Ryan Roxie’s guest for ‘In The Trenches’ this week and this is one you don’t want to miss. Lots of chat about the 1975 tour, meeting Alice and falling for him, and daughter Calico dropped in as well. Definitely check this one out on YouTube. If you are waiting for Ryan’s interview with Michael Bruce which was announced a few weeks ago, it’s been delayed, but is still coming up. Keep an eye on Ryan’s social media channels for news of a new date.
And as I mentioned Calico, there’s a new interview with her in ‘French Fries’ magazine that you can read here. Calico, Chuck and Beasto Blanco will be on the haunted ship ‘Queen Mary’ on Halloween night for a ‘virtual haunt and music fest’ including a special performance by Beasto. Calico let slip on the ‘Trenches’ podcast that they’ll be playing a Motorhead cover, but with her singing it not Chuck! Should be interesting. You can get all the info about this special event and buy tickets to join in here.
Yahoo still seem to be getting content out of their interview with Alice from a couple of months ago. They’ve just put up an article with Alice talking about ‘The Muppet Show’ which you can check out here.
On October 30th there will be a special Halloween release of “Love Potion No. 9” by Fiona Silver which is of interest to us because it features Dennis Dunaway! The songs currently being played on Song being played on Sirius XM, WRAT New Jersey, CFMU Hamilton, Ontario, WJCU Cleveland, and more. No link for the video yet but it should appear on Fiona’s YouTube channel here.
Update: and now you can see it below
Also on October 30th – Signed copies of Blue Coupe’s ‘Eleven Even’ re-release will be available at participating independent record stores across the US with the option of hosting virtual in-store meet and greets with Blue Coupe. I originally announced that this was happening on Record Store day but I was mistaken, so check you local store tomorrow!
The ‘Daughters of Noise’ have released a new version of ‘Clones (We’re All)’ which isn’t half bad. Check it out here.
Dennis Dunaway and Rockin’ Reggie release Tribute to Suzi Q
Dennis Dunaway and Rockin’ Reggie have released a new song paying tribute to Detroit legend Suzi Quatro to mark her 70th birthday. The song is called ‘Motor City Bad Girl’ and be streamed below. Suzi, who has lived in the UK for many years but came out of the same Detroit scene as the Coopers, was a trailblazer for women in rock and is best known for a string of hit singles in the mid-seventies as well as regularly appearing on the classic sitcom ‘Happy Days’. She was also the opening act on the ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ US tour. A new film biography called ‘Suzi Q‘ has been doing the rounds at film festivals for the last year or so and features Alice and manager Toby Mamis.
In other Dennis news, with the Sweden Rock Festival cancelled this year the organizers are going online and will be streaming concerts and interviews on radio channel Sveriges Radio P4 from this Friday with full concert recordings airing on Saturday including Blue Coupe’s epic show from last year which included guest Ryan Roxie. A detailed schedule is now available here.
This years Record Store Day has been split into three separate events due to the coronavirus pandemic. This means that the Alice Cooper live record from Glasgow in 1982 has been put back until October 24th. The other record store dates are August 29th and September 26th.
The new Alice Cooper single. ‘Don’t Give Up’, went live on streaming services at midnight and you should now be able to watch the official video above. The video was made in lockdown featuring photos sent in by fans to illustrate the lyrics to the songs and also features the current band! A limited edition vinyl picture disc will be released on August 14th and is now available to pre-order (click the earMusic link).
Tonight (Friday) at 6PM EST Alice and Dennis Dunaway will feature on SiriusFM channel ‘Ozzy’s Boneyard’ to premiere the song and talk to Keith Roth about what they have been up to the last few weeks. They will also play Blue Coupe’s ‘Hallow’s Grave’ (featuring Alice). The show should be repeated several times if you miss it. Outside the USA it *appears* you can listen online at https://player.siriusxm.com/ if you select to start free trial (no card details needed). Just do a search for ‘Ozzy’s Boneyard’. It’s unclear how long that ‘free trial’ lasts though.
Earlier this week Betty Wright, Soul and R&B singer, songwriter and background vocalist passed away. Betty dueted with Alice on ‘No Tricks’, the B-side to ‘How You Gonna See Me Now’ in 1978.
Phoenix New Times interviews Alice on how he and the family have been entertaining themselves in lockdown.
The last remaining April Alice Cooper shows now have new dates but The Grand Rapids show is now cancelled. The Milwaukee show is rescheduled for November 10th, Omaha will be November 13th, and finally Seattle will be on November 30th.
Ryan Roxie interviewed band mate Chuck Garric on ‘In The Trenches’ this week and you can watch the show now on YouTube. It’s a great interview with lots of stories about a young Chuck starting out in the music industry. A part 2 is promised.
Beast Blanco (Calico, Chuck and Chris) also show up on the ‘Tru Rock Revival Magazine’ podcast which you can watch on facebook here.
Monday May 18th would have been the day that Blue Coupe, with Tish and Snooky, would have been performing on the Silja Rock Cruise, but since that was cancelled they are releasing a ‘Stay Home Video’ of “Keep Rollin’ On”. It will debut on Monday at noon eastern time and will hopefully be on Spotify etc as well. Keep an eye on Facebook for links when it goes live.
There’s a new trailer video for the Suzi Quatro documentary ‘Suzi Q’ which features Alice. Suzi is of course an old friend from the Detroit days and the ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ tour.
Nita Strauss talks to ‘Guitar World‘ about her new ‘Rock Guitar Fundamentals’ guitar course.
Glen Sobel and Orianthi appear in a new lockdown video for the Beatles ‘Let It Be’ to raise funds for the MusiCares Relief charity. The song features a huge list of musicians, way to long to list here.
Alice Cooper will be one of many acts to take part in this weekends ‘Lighthouse Live‘ streaming event. This is a 12 hour marathon livestream featuring dozens of Detroit related musicians aiming to raise money for homeless children, families and individuals in the south east of Michigan. You can tune in via YouTube or Facebook (links to be announced on their site) today between 2PM and 2AM local time with Alice set to show up around the 6PM mark (10PM UK time I think).
Beasto Blanco were livestreaming earlier this week, performing an excellent three song set for German media. Unfortunately the actual livestream was region locked, but it’s available now for everyone to see now at Magenta Musik. Well worth watching. Chuck Garric will also be the next guest on Ryan Roxie’s ‘From The Trenches‘ podcast this Tuesday at 5PM UK time.
The Cooper family also posted a truly brilliant lockdown video in place of the cancelled Alice Cooper 2020 golf tournament. You can also watch it below.
Alice himself has been talking to ‘American Songwriter‘ about his song writing influences.
Dennis Dunaway has posted the 4th and final part of his Manchester trip blogs which you can check out here. He will also be taking part in an interview with Alice for ‘Ozzy’s Boneyard’ on Sirius XM radio which should air on Friday May 15th to coincide with the release of the new Alice Cooper single ‘Don’t Give Up’.
Nita Strauss has been talking to Ultimate Guitar and Metal Injection about playing with Alice, the lockdown, and her forthcoming second solo album, which is set to feature a couple of guest vocalists. She’s hoping this will be released before the end of the year.
Dennis Dunaway emailed to let us know that Tommy Gwinn, an artist in Tempe, AZ, is painting a public mural as a memorial to musical artists who grow up in the Phoenix area and wants to include a portrait of Glen Buxton in the work. He is crowd funding to get this to happen and is already half way to his goal so lets get this done! You can pledge any amount and every bit will help to reach the target so Glen is permanently memorialized in his home town. You can help out here.
Dennis has also posted part three of his Manchester chronicles which you can check out here.
According to Ticketmaster the Grand Rapids show has now been cancelled.
Nita Strauss has launched a new online guitar course, ‘Rock Guitar Fundamentals’, at IWannaPlayGuitar.com. The course’s three modules cover complete beginners through to those wanting tips on how to play like Nita, and currently is on offer for half price!
Alice Cooper has posted a short video marking the 40th anniversary of the ‘Flush The Fashion’ which you can see here.
Ryan Roxie’s latest ‘In The trenches’ features and interview with himself! Check it out here. Next up Ryan will be interviewing Hanoi Rocks frontman and huge Alice fan Michael Munroe.
Alice pops up briefly in a new Winger video for ‘Better Days Coming’ which you can watch here. The video features a total of 24 guests including Alice, as well as Jeff Scott Soto, Alan Parsons, Klaus Meine, and dozens of Winger fans.
Over the last week many of the previously postponed shows have now received new dates either via AC.com, Ticketmaster or individual venue sites. As far as I have been able to put together the changes are as follows:
31st March – Fallsview Casino, Niagara Falls, ON – Postponed until November 6th
1st April – Memorial Centre, Peterborough, ON – Postponed until November 7th
5th April – Fox Arts Center, Appleton, WI – Postponed until November 11th
8th April – Adler Theatre, Davenport, IA – Postponed to November 14th
10th April – Alerus Center, Grand Forks, ND – Postponed until November 18th
11th April – Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, MB – Postponed to November 19th
13th April – Conexus Arts Centre, Regina, SK – Postponed to November 21st
15th April – Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton, AB – Postponed to November 23rd
16th April – CN Centre, Prince George, BC – Postponed until November 25th
18th April – Abbotsford Centre, Abbotsford, BC – Postponed to November 28th
19th April – S.O. Events Centre, Penticton, BC – Postponed to November 27th
5th June – Winstar World Casino, Thackerville, OK – Postponed until October 30th
6th June – Stormont Vail Events Center, Topeka, KS – Postponed until October 31st
17th June – Mohegan Sun Arena, Wilkes-Barre, PA – Postponed until January 24th 2021
Original tickets for all shows *should* be valid for the new dates. The April 22nd show in Portland is now marked as cancelled on the venue website, which leaves just four shows from the original schedule not either cancelled or having a new date: Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Omaha, and Seattle. There’s no firm news on the Hollywood Vampires European shows yet, but the Lowlands Festival in August has been cancelled so that’s one show gone.
If you missed Ryan Roxie’s ‘In The Trenches’ chat with Kane Roberts you can watch it on YouTube, as well as another episode featuring Airboune’s Joel O’Keeffe which was recorded during the Australian shows in February. Ryan will be back again tomorrow for ‘Sunday Livestream Sunday’ at 5pm UK time.
Dennis Dunaway has posted the second part of his Manchester trip blog which you can read here. If you missed part on it’s here.
Nita Struass will be taking over the Ibanez Instagram channel on Monday posting videos, photos and anything else she can think off.
For obvious reasons there isn’t a huge amount to report this week but there are a few things worth mentioning.
Spin Magazine has a new interview with Alice and Sheryl discussing the current closure of The Rock Teen Center due to Coronavirus.
Punk Globe has a new interview with Neal Smith telling stories about the original band and his solo albums.
ABC News has a short article on Dennis Dunaway with a couple of videos including the full Blue Coupe Pro-Filmed Sweden Rock show from last year.
NBC are to repeat last years ‘Jesus Christ Superstar Live’ on Sunday April 12th, although it’s unlikely anyone reading this hasn’t seen Alice’s turn as ‘King Herod’ by now.
Alice’s appearance at the Motor City Comic Con between May 15th and 17th has unsurprisingly been canceled. You can get information about refunds here.
Lastly, Zee Productions are releasing 500 piece jigsaws on April 4th featuring the cover art for ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ and ‘Trash’. They look pretty cool and can be pre-ordered here.
Alice has been talking to Arizona Central this week and chats about how he and the family are dealing with the current virus situation. During the interview he also reveals the title of the next studio album. The new album is called ‘Detroit Stories’ and features songs about or inspired by the city. We already know that Michael, Neal and Dennis have recorded parts for the album, and from the ‘Breadcrumbs EP’ we know that it also features various Detroit musicians which he also confirms. No release date yet but it’s getting closer!
Ryan Roxie’s latest ‘From The Trenches’ podcast features a great interview with Dennis Dunaway which is well worth watching. Dennis tells lots of stories from the early days and talks bass for over an hour and you can watch it here. There promises to be a "part 2" in the future too!
During his short livestream show the other night Roxie also announced a new project called the ‘System-12 Guitar Method’. This is a "fresh new approach to learning guitar that differs substantially from the more ‘traditional’ methods that have been taught in the past. This new ‘system’ for learning guitar is easy to understand, filled with guitar ‘life-hacks’, and focuses on the most important techniques and theories to get one playing songs and riffs faster than any other learning method out there." You can learn more and get onboard early via this Kickstarter campaign page, where you can pledge as little as $10 for various perks.
Alice is also getting into podcasting with a new one called ‘Alice Cooper’s Vintage Vault‘. The podcast features Alice talking about a subject with clips from interviews conducted for the ‘Nights With Alice Cooper’ radio show over the past 16 years. The first show is all about Slash!
Beasto Blanco postpone shows, while Alice confirms he’s finishing new album.
I didn’t think there was very much to report this week thanks to the current Coronavirus situation, but I seem to have found a fair amount including a few links to entertain you while we get through this mess.
Sadly Beasto Blanco have had to postpone the last few dates on their current tour. They hope to reschedule the dates later in the year.
Alice sent an email to Rolling Stone in which he confirmed he will be spending the enforced time off caused by the postponed shows to finish off the new Alice Cooper album. No more details yet of course, and just because it’s nearly finished doesn’t mean they will change any planned release schedule and put it out any earlier, but it’s good to know it’s getting closer. Read the full article here.
Blue Coupe have posted professionally filmed footage of their full Sweden Rock show from last year with guest Ryan Roxie. It’s great and you can watch here.
If you’re looking for something to kill a couple of hours Ryan Roxie has been busy making podcasts. In the first he sits down with bandmate Tommy Henriksen for an interesting chat about Tommy’s career including lots of AC info, and in the latest (today) he interviews Billy Idol/Atomic Playboys guitarist Steve Stevens. The Tommy podcast is already up on Roxie’s YouTube channel and the Steve Stevens one should be there soon as well.
Nita Strauss has been chatting to Kerrang! about working for Alice, and her solo career, which you can read here.
Nita is also taking part in a cool new project put together by Dave Ellefson of Megadeth, called ‘School’s Out!‘. The idea is to help entertain youngsters during the virus crisis by offering "free music lessons and one-on-one mentoring sessions via Skype from major artists to students stuck at home due to COVID-19 restrictions." It’s free, and students aged 18 and under can sign up to get a call. The list of artists also includes former Alice Cooper drummer Jimmy DeGrasso along with various other Megadeth related musicians and friends. Nice one Dave!
There’s a short interview with Dennis and Cindy Dunaway at the Manchester, UK ‘Astroturf’ showing last week. I couldn’t be there but it seems to have been a great success.
The Fire Fight Australia charity show has spawned a double album featuring performances from the concert. It’s out now, and features Alice and the band performing ‘School’s Out’ at the show.
The multitalented Eric Dover (‘Eyes Of Alice Cooper’ etc) has a new band called ‘The Lickerish Quartet’ which sees him hooking up again with a couple of his pre-Alice bandmates from Jellyfish. Their debut EP is out on May 15th and is called ‘Threesome Vol. 1’. They’ve also released a video for the lead track called ‘Lighthouse Spaceship’ which is pretty awesome and you can check it out in this article about the band from PopMatters.
Kerrang! magazine have an article ranking every Alice Cooper album from worst to best. Their order is a little odd to say the least but you can check it out here.
Go Tech Daily have a longish article about the ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ album, however it’s obviously been google translated or something, as you get classic statements like "Bob had labored with us on every single album from ‘Adore It To Demise’ to ‘Billion Greenback Infants’" I must have missed those albums! Maybe worth a read just for a laugh.
Lastly for now the ‘Alice Cooper Solid Rock Teen Center’ is to broadcast a series of concerts on Facebook between March 23rd and 27th featuring different performers each day from the teen center, and "some other surprises". You never know who might show up at some point! Check it out via facebook.
