IS Metallica News
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DECEMBER 2000 NEWS


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MISCALLICA
12.29.00

VH1 has a new show called Radical Recuts, the show premeires January 4th at 11-11:30 and features Enter Sandman recut with stubborn toddlers on the road to Sleepytown.

Lycos named Metallica as #4 for their annual 'The Web's Top Music Groups.' Finishing above Metallica were N'Sync, Backstreet Boys and Korn. Last year, Metallica made #5.

Leonard tells us: "If you go to VH1.com you can see Metallica's performance of "Fade to Black" on the VH1 music awards."

MTV LATINO listed their Top 100 videos Most Wanted of the Year. Metallica takes: #37 with No Leaf Clover and #14 with I Disappear. Thanks to Esteban

Pollstar has released its annual listing of top concert ticket sales of the year. Metallica comes in 9th, raking in $42 million with only 11 shows!

More than 4.5 million members of eTour have decisively named their choices for the most beloved and most belittled sites of 2000. The site added Metallica.com to their 'belittled' list, saying: "Maybe you have to be a bit of a die-hard fan to appreciate this site, but after all of Metallica's multi-million dollar whining to Napster, Internet veterans gave this band's site an overwhelming thumbs down. Let the free music play on! "

The last episode of Biker-Jens on the Norwegian TV channel TVNorge was taped in San Fransico with Lars. The interview was is Danish and we got to see Lars' house, garden, and home-studio. It featured about 10 seconds of Lars drumming, because he didn't have any earpluggs. They also visited the studio where Bob Rock was working on S&M. They talked about how the band started and the usual... nothing new, but Lars said the music is still very important to him. From Odd Erik




NEW SO WHAT!
12.26.00

So What!, Issue #4 has been printed and is on its way to be delivered to you as we speak! If you haven't received Issue #3 yet, it went to the post office on December 7th and should be to you shortly. The new issue features the guys on the cover and includes a new Shortest Straw, among some great feature articles.




HAPPY HOLIDAYZ
12.24.00

ESTEBAN AMADOR lets us know that Elektra has posted this holiday greeting from Lars:

"Lars Ulrich reminisces with typical Lars-ness about 'the year that was' in the December 14 issue of Rolling Stone. He feels vindicated about Metallica's throwdown with Napster, saying the issue was never "about fu***** money, it was about choice," and referring to all the other artists who backed away from the fight as "pu*****". He even takes the time to give us a movie preview, offering two thumbs up to the upcoming Sean Penn/Jack Nicholson movie The Pledge, saying he was still "shaking for fifteen minutes" after a sneak peak at the crime drama. Sounds like our kind of flick."


Happy holidays to all from Inter Sandman!




ESSENTIAL COLLECTIONS
12.20.00

Sonicnet has compiled their essential albums in the genre of rock (amongst others). Just what is the Essential Collection? According to Sonicnet, "The 300 albums that make up our Sonicnet Essential Collections - 25 albums each in genres ranging from rock (where Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry rub shoulders with Metallica and Beck) to jazz (Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Cassandra Wilson) to classical (Bach, Beethoven, Cage) - aren't necessarily the best, or the most definitive. But they are, we think, a perfect place to start, whether you want to start a Latin music collection or a pop music argument." Says author Billy Altman, "In the process of its careening five decades of existence, rock music has chronicled the story of our collective consciousness - of our attitudes and interests, and how we choose to express them. But whether joyous (Buddy Holly), adventurous (the Beatles), haunted (Pink Floyd), thoughtful (the Byrds, R.E.M.), righteous (U2, Bruce Springsteen), brooding (Hüsker Dü, Metallica) or outrageous (the Rolling Stones, Guns N' Roses), rock's essential albums all share one vital, common bond." The black album made the very impressive list, and you can check out these must have albums by clicking here.




LARS SHOT: HOAX!!
12.18.00

From KNAC:

A false news story has been making its way across the Internet. The story alleges that Metallica's Lars Ulrich was shot yesterday when leaving a downtown hotel Sunday morning. It goes on to explain that Ulrich was rushed to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, TX after sustaining mild gunshot wounds to the groin and abdomen by a gunman who approached him in broad daylight, shouting "You killed Napster" as he fired.

The story was posted on a fake site designed to look exactly like a CNN.com news story page. It even features links that go to other fake stories and sites the source as Associated Press. Apparently it's quite easy to make these phony webpages by simply viewing the code of the page and exchanging the real text for fake text.

No word yet as to whether Metallica, Associated Press or CNN.COM will be taking any legal steps regarding this issue.

Thanks again to Sam for the story.




LARS SHOT
12.18.00

Chck Stanley of 99.5 KISS FM in San Antonio reported earlier that Lars had been shot outside his Austin, Texas hotel. The report has since been removed from their website.

From CNN:

Lars Ulrich, drummer for the seminal rock band Metallica, was shot when leaving his downtown hotel Sunday morning.

Ulrich was rushed to Brackenridge Hospital after sustaining mild gunshot wounds to the groin and abdomen just before 10:00 AM CST outside an office building at San Jacinto Blvd off First Street just blocks away from the Texas State Capitol Building.

A well dressed man approached Ulrich in broad daylight shouting "You killed Napster," witnesses reported. Bodyguards for the musician were caught off-guard and unable to respond in time.

The shooter was seen fleeing the scene, but was later apprehended and taken into custody, police said. The name of the 23-year-old suspect has still not been released.

Ulrich was treated and released later Sunday afternoon but refused to speak about the shooting or his condition.

thanks to Sam for the CNN link.




ON THE SIDE...
12.11.00

So what's the boys in Metallica got going on the side while they're on break?

JASON: ECHOBRAIN
Jason's side project, called Echobrain should be just about wrapped up. With Jason & the rest of Echobrain producing, & Brian Dobbs engineering. Guest musicians include Kirk Hammett, Jim Martin, Sophia Ramos Dupré, & David Teie & Jennifer Cline from the National Symphony. Other luminaries: Flemming as drum tech, Paul "Carl" DeCarli on the ProTools, and Zach Harmon doing everything else.

LARS: TMC / SYSTEMATIC
Lars has been working on his record label's band, Systematic. The band's album, produced by Peter Collins is currently being mixed by Andy Wallace. The band is also looking for a new drummer, if you're interested check out their website, here. Their debut album was mostly recorded in Nashville, with some recording also taken place at 'The Site' recording studio in Northern California! Bass player Nick writes about Lars on the band's website:

The cool part of him coming out was the late night jam sessions we had with him when we were through recording for the day. We jammed AC/DC, Skynyrd, and some other old metal stuff as well as some Metallica stuff. We ran the tape on it so maybe it'll end up somewhere when you least expect it.
Check out their site for pics of Lars and Systematic, there are also some MP3 clips to check out. Lars' The Music Company website is here!




MISCALLICA
12.07.00

Metallica came up empty at Tuesday's Billboard Music Awards. They were nominated in three categories...

Chris lets us know that Men's Health 18 polled visitors to www.MH-18.com on what they consider to be the best music to pump iron to. The common ground in 570 responses: a solid beat and honest lyrics. The winner? Metallica, at 13%, followed by Limp Bizkit at 10%.

In the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone magazine (the 2000 yearbook issue), Kirin lets us know that for each month of the year, it has highlights in music of that month. For July 2000 it features a small article on James' back accident and also includes a cool picture of him waveboarding.

Metallica Club members can check out pics from James' TWO guest appearances with COC, one on bass and one on guitar, but both on the song Seven Days. Check out COC in a town near you as they tour the country with Clutch...Visit the members section of Metallica.com for more!




RS'S PEOPLE OF THE YEAR
12.06.00

Rolling Stone named their People of the Year this week...and who was one of them but Lars Ulrich. As they write, "we decided to ring in the new with the year's most notable faces and voices. These were the people who rocked our world in 2000." Click here to read what RS had to say about Lars and a brief interview with the man himself. Also, be sure to check out the full list...




THEY SPEAK
12.02.00

A few acts, including Metallica, made their way backstage to the press area during Thursday night's award show...here's what they had to say:

"Metallica's Kirk Hammett stated the obvious about his band's next album. "It's gonna come out when it's done and it's going to have a bunch of songs on it." The band also took the Camp Chaos cartoons, featured predominantly throughout the telecast, with a grain of salt. "If you can't take the piss out of yourself, then you're in a pretty sorry state," said drummer Lars Ulrich.

Singer James Hetfield was actually the one artist who didn't kiss the Fans' asses for giving the band the Gods of Thunder award. When asked how it compared to awards decided by record executives, Hetfield endorsed both formats. "They are both valid," he said. "Either your peers or your fans, they respect you somehow so they vote for you. Either way, it's still an award thing [that] you show up and enjoy."


Read the whole article here.




ANOTHER VH1 REPORT
12.02.00

mblackwood@metallica.com lets us know:

"Well - what Marvin said was pretty appropriate. I was hanging out with him for the few hours before the show started. About an hour before the band played, Met's production manager picked the 8 girls out of line (two of whom could be heard to say "I don't even know any Metallica songs") that you see on stage. Being in the front of the line, I got to stand right behind the stage, which was a cool experiance. I was about 10 feet behind Kirk (to the right of the stage), and pretty close to Lars. It was cool to hear the boys make comments and talk to eachother. When the cartoon introducing the act came on the air, James was watching it on a small moniter on stage, and laughed, saying , "Dude, I like how they did your armpit hair!" Also, being right behind Kirk, I could see and hear him playing (and singing) Sweet Home Alabama with his guitar turned off. There were a lot of big name Metallica people back beind the stage as well. Directally to my girlfriend's left was Flemming Rasmussen, and to my right was the Metallica Mom (who plays with Lars' hair on the Cunning Stunts DVD). The one unfortunate side to the "behind the stage" perspective was the accoustics. The way the vocal drivers were set up, I could barely hear anything James said. Other than that, it was the best "concert" experiance I have ever had."






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