Buckcherry’s Josh Todd Dishes on New Out-of-the-Box Conceptual Video, How Crazy The Band Is Off-Stage, and His Favorite Charities

Photo Credit:  Century Media Records

The late 1990’s was a bit of a monkey-see-monkey-do era in music history.  Back then, artists like Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit, Rage Against The Machine, and countless others were all spewing out their versions of rap-rock across the airwaves.  However, one band stood out by going against the grain yet still earning widespread attention in the rock world at that time.  That band was Buckcherry.

And even though many of those rap-rock acts have all but disappeared or have modified their approaches to stay afloat, Buckcherry has stayed its course well into 2013, sticking to its soundtrack-to-a-booze-guzzling-party template to the delight of its fans.  That’s not to say that the band hasn’t tried new things because, as you will read, it has.  It’s just that, better than almost any other band, Buckcherry embodies the rebel-without-a-cause mentality that defines rock-n-roll and plays what it wants to regardless of any trends or business influence.

Helping Hands Rock Reviews recently had the chance to sit down with Buckcherry’s lead vocalist, Josh Todd, to catch up on the latest twists and turns in the journey of the veteran rock band.

Concert Photos: Shinedown Performing With Carnival of Madness at First Niagara Pavilion in Burgettstown, PA on August 20, 2013

Shinedown

Concert Photos: Skillet Performing With Carnival of Madness at First Niagara Pavilion in Burgettstown, PA on August 20, 2013

Skillet

Concert Photos: Papa Roach Performing With Carnival of Madness at First Niagara Pavilion in Burgettstown, PA on August 20, 2013

Papa Roach

Concert Photos: In This Moment Performing With Carnival of Madness at First Niagara Pavilion in Burgettstown, PA on August 20, 2013

In This Moment

Concert Photos: We As Human Performing With Carnival of Madness at First Niagara Pavilion in Burgettstown, PA on August 20, 2013

We As Human

Carnival of Madness 2013 Raises The Bar For Hard Rock Package Tours

One of the highlights of 2012's outdoor concert season was Carnival of Madness - an annual tour featuring five of the year's top hard rock bands.  While last year's lineup (Evanescence, Chevelle, Halestorm, Cavo and New Medicine) was exceptional, this year's Carnival appeared to be even better...at least on paper.  At Helping Hands Rock Reviews, we set out to the First Niagara Pavillion in Burgettstown, PA (near Pittsburgh) on August 20, 2013 to find out whether this year's line up was as amazing as it sounded.

First up at the early hour of 5:00PM was the relatively new band We As Human.  With a debut album that is a legitimate contender to be among 2013's top five hard rock albums in a year characterized by the release of lots of great music, our eyes were focused sharply on this band to see if their live show could convey the magic that their album does.  They blasted onto the stage with "Sever" in a way that demonstrated a full intention to win over the thin crowd that had trickled in early.  Follow-up tune "Dead Man" featured a sweet solo from guitarist Justin Forshaw in between a couple of the song's soaring choruses.

 It is common knowledge that John Cooper of Skillet played a role in We As Human getting signed so, being that those bands are on the same tour, one wondered if Cooper would join the band for "Zombie" - a song on which he was featured in the recorded version.  Sure enough he did, singing the second verse to the delight of the steadily growing crowd.

Album Review: The Indecent - Control

Cycles in music can make things predictable.

Teenagers live and breathe music throughout high school.  Eventually, they grow into young adults, get jobs, get married, have kids, and suddenly the music that took up so much mindshare is supplanted by those pesky "more important things."

Then, like clockwork, 30-somethings start missing their youth and waxing nostalgic for the music they grew up on.  Their favorite bands - what's left of them, at least - reform and go on nostalgia tours, spawning a resurgence of a two-decades-old genre and inspiring new music that sounds suspiciously like the old.

That's exactly what happened to grunge.  With reformations of bands like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden in recent years, grunge was poised to rear its head on the music scene once again.  And along with the reappearance of its greying founding fathers came new, baby-faced grunge bands like Dead Sara.

Another new band riding the coattails of the grunge resurrection is The Indecent, who recently released their Warner Brothers debut - the 5-song EP entitled Control.

Album Review: Five Finger Death Punch - The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 1

I am embarrassed to admit it.  Though I had heard of Five Finger Death Punch, I had never really heard their music before.  So, I was excited to have the opportunity to finally sit down and take in the music of this band that so many friends have been raving about lately.

Now, having heard of a band without hearing their music brings expectations of what one will hear.  With a name like Five Finger Death Punch, I thought that there was little room for interpretation of what the music would sound like.  However...