To follow up on my announcement on Twitter today, I have enthusiastically accepted the position of music editor of Tiger Beat magazine. I’m thrilled to be able to report on the vital, culturally-potent music that is shaping not just the hearts of today’s youth, but that is the cornerstone of the music industry. While music that came out thirty years ago is indeed exciting, and while heavy metal will always occupy a small place in my heart, my friends and colleagues have long known that my soul beats to the rhythms of pop, and it is a tremendous honor to be working with the team at Tiger Beat. You can read the magazine’s official statement here.
Where else have I been? Hammering away like John Henry on HGH. March was a hellaciously busy month, seeing me contributing pieces across the globe and internetosphere with reckless, unchecked abandon. My thanks and apologies to all of my editors and their poor, suffering families. For the one or two of you who aren’t my friends on Facebook, here’s what I’ve been up to lately:
I interviewed drummer Mike Portnoy, of Adrenaline Mob, Flying Colors and ex-Dream Theater for TNB. Mike tweeted the link twice and then linked to it on his official Facebook Page, which has 600K followers. The piece thoroughly exploded in a delightful way. Although the haters and keyboard warriors at Blabbermouth.net have given him a criminally hard time for his casual use of the word “literal.” Come on, guys–give a brother a break!
I then posted a piece on my site here about my ten favorite character actors. I posted a link on Facebook, thinking a few friends might want to chime in, only to field a request from Emperor Listi to move it to TNB where it could enjoy greater scrutiny from movie lovers far more informed than I. After a bit more editing, that piece ended up here.
I figured that the Portnoy interview, which has been read, re-linked, tweeted and re-published in over fifty countries, would pretty much be the big bomb for awhile, but I ended up 
receiving a call last Thursday to see if I’d be interested in meeting with Slayer’s Dave Lombardo for an interview. Well hell yeah, Dre! That interview ended up rivaling, if not exceeding the hype surrounding the Portnoy piece, mainly because Lombardo revealed that he and Kerry King had written nine songs for the new Slayer album. That interview, which was an absolute blast to conduct, is here.
I met up with my buds in Five Finger Death Punch last weekend for an upcoming feature and we discussed their nomination as International Band of the Year for this year’s Metal Hammer Golden Gods. These guys rock. Catch them when they roll through your town.
The benevolent overlords at Metal Hammer shipped me off to Vegas to report on the second night of Tool’s recent tour. It is indeed a thorny cross that I bear…
My piece on The Mars Volta–their latest album, conspiracy theories and the At the Drive In reunion–is in Classic Rock magazine’s issue 169.
A feature I did on classic rock revivalists Howlin’ Rain is in Classic Rock issue 170.
Like your metal extreme? In Outburn magazine issue 63, I interview War of Ages and review a gang of albums, including Diabulus in Musica and Every Minute Can Kill.
Finally, over at Chuck Palahniuk’s LitReactor, I published Ten Lighter-Raising, Horn-Throwing, Can’t-Miss Rock Biographies. If you’re cobbling a spring reading list, swing by and see if something catches your eye.
Happy spring, you crazy bastards.
-jd
this was SO MUCH BETTER than google’s egg.
can you send me the tb with kirk cameron and river phoenix on the same cover? i mean, my birthday IS tomorrow.