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ALICE COOPER To Release Halloween Single

Shout! Factory and legendary rocker Alice Cooper have announced an exclusive alliance to bring Cooper's brand-new Halloween single, "Keepin' Halloween Alive", to the digital music entertainment marketplace. The announcement was made today by Shout! Factory founding partner and COO Bob Emmer.

Under its agreement with Cooper, Shout! Factory will be the exclusive digital media distributor for "Keepin' Halloween Alive", as well as the track's bonus karaoke (a.k.a. "Cooperoke") version for digital music downloads

Alice delivers the song with the garage-punk snarl he is best known for, ensuring that it will soon be a Halloween classic.

"At home my family all gathers around an old spooky tree decorated with skulls and bones in the living room, and we exchange gifts," says Cooper. "It's our holiday. We even all have matching black-and-orange Halloween sweaters! I wanted a theme song for people like me, and for us Halloween never ends. In the chorus I say, 'I'm keepin' Halloween alive, baby, 3–6–5'... and I mean it!"

"Keepin' Halloween Alive" was co-written and co-produced by Cooper with Piggy D. (a member of ROB ZOMBIE's band), who played rhythm guitar/backup vocals. Dave Pino (POWERMAN 5000) is featured on lead guitar, and David Spreng (BOB DYLAN, THE BRAVERY) on drums.

Of the recording, Cooper says, "We played it live as a band to capture the vibe. It was the easiest work I think any of us have ever done, not to mention a blast!"

"We are thrilled to be working closely again with the legendary Alice Cooper on his new Halloween-themed single and adding to Shout! Factory's expansive digital audio library," said Bob Emmer, Shout! Factory founding partner and COO. "Throughout his long and storied career, Cooper has always been a master entertainer and a consummate showman. His connection to the dark and spooky holiday is definitive. It's great to be working with him as he is crowned the King of Halloween."

In addition to releasing the new single, Cooper is busy hosting his "Nights With Alice Cooper" radio program, now syndicated on more than 100 stations worldwide and staying on the road with his "Theatre of Death" world tour.

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Thanks, that's a great site. Still, I haven't been able to find out if there's an opening act (or who it is) for Wednesday night's show in Durham. I'll have to go back and dig a little deeper.

5th Avenue Vampires, Dennis Dunaway is in the band.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=158172753734

www.myspace.com/fifthavenuevampires

Richie Scarlet (guitar, vocals), Russ Wilson (DDP - drums), Joe Von T (vocals), DD (bass, vocals).

http://rockassdick.blogspot.com/2009/09/5th-avenue-vampires-live-dates.html

Edited by Rock N' Rollin' Man
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  • 11 months later...

He just played Atlantic City again. I missed this one. Another awesome Alice fan I met last year emailed me that she saw it.

Another Alice Cooper show. Lots of death, destruction, mayhem. The usual Alice.

I was there....

What a cool show! I've never seen Alice live and being a big horror movie fan made this concert even cooler. Lots of nasty sideshows and blood: Alice gets decapitated, Alice gets hung by a girl he earlier strangled behind a screen (through silhouettes), he is put in straight jacket, he impaled one his many stage executioners with a large spike, his executioners impaled him with a large syringe during "Poison", during "Feed My Frankenstein" a large green monster (a hairy version of the cyclops from Jason and the Argonauts) came out with the Bride of Frankenstein, he threw fake jewelry out during "Dirty Diamonds", threw out several canes, threw out fake $100 bills with Alice's face on them from the sharp sword he carried, used that sword to cut off a baby's head and popped large confetti filled balloons at end, was also impaled by a wall of spikes, had a sexy nurse do a striptease, he sang to a dead woman while he held her in his arms and proceeded to bodyslam her, and much more I'm forgetting. But the show is NOT all about gimmicks because the band is awesome. Led by the very talented Keri Kelli on lead guitar, the band also consists of Jimmy Degrasso on drums, Chuck Garric on bass (AWESOME), and Damon Johnson on guitar. Alice's band can jam and all took turns doing some nice solos. I met Keri after the show while eating at the H.O.B. and he was a very friendly guy. I must note he also had a very large Swan Song logo on the back of his jean jacket vest. Alice's voice sounded great and he obviously has lots of fun doing this stuff. How could you not? It was Halloween with great music. It might my first Alice but not my last. Btw, I think the coolest job in the world would be paid to "kill" Alice on stage every night. Keri told me some of these guys have been with Alice for over thirty years. Can't blame them. Here's the setlist:

  • School's Out (Part)
  • No More Mr. Nice Guy
  • I'm Eighteen
  • Wicked Young Man
  • Ballad Of Dwight Fry
  • Go To Hell
  • Guilty
  • Cold Ethyl
  • Poison
  • From The Inside
  • Nurse Rozetta
  • Be My Lover
  • Only Women Bleed
  • I Never Cry
  • Black Widow Jam
  • Vengeance Is Mine
  • Dirty Diamonds
  • Billion Dollar Babies
  • Killer
  • I Love The Dead
  • Feed My Frankenstein
  • Under My Wheels
  • Elected (ENCORE)
  • School's Out (ENCORE)

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  • School's Out (Part)
  • No More Mr. Nice Guy
  • I'm Eighteen
  • Wicked Young Man
  • Ballad Of Dwight Fry
  • Go To Hell
  • Guilty
  • Cold Ethyl
  • Poison
  • From The Inside
  • Nurse Rozetta
  • Be My Lover
  • Only Women Bleed
  • I Never Cry
  • Black Widow Jam
  • Vengeance Is Mine
  • Dirty Diamonds
  • Billion Dollar Babies
  • Killer
  • I Love The Dead
  • Feed My Frankenstein
  • Under My Wheels
  • Elected (ENCORE)
  • School's Out (ENCORE)

Looks like Alice is doing the exact same setlist he did for his Theatre of Death tour (not that there's anything the matter with that).

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I like Alice Cooper. It's one of my all time favorite bands and artists. It's also one of the first bands I got into when I had started to discover music. I have a really nice memories of Alice Cooper like buying Hey Stoopid, the first Alice Cooper album I bought, or like hearing "Poison" first time, not knowing it's Alice Cooper's song. My favorite albums are Billion Dollar Babies, Love It To Death, Killer, School's Out, Welcome To My Nightmare, Trash and Hey Stoopid. I like Alice's original and 70s career the most, of course, but I also like his career after the comeback in the 80s. One huge example of that is Trash album. "Poison" is one my favorite songs of all time. I think he really pushed his career forward with "Poison".

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  • 2 weeks later...

I see that Alice was just -and FINALLY is(yes, I'm shouting) nominated for the rock and roll hall of fame.

IMO he should tell them to f themselves. He has got so many classic tunes, even rock and roll anthems with

schools out and he finally gets nominated. It's as bad as the grammy's.

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I see that Alice was just -and FINALLY is(yes, I'm shouting) nominated for the rock and roll hall of fame.

IMO he should tell them to f themselves. He has got so many classic tunes, even rock and roll anthems with

schools out and he finally gets nominated. It's as bad as the grammy's.

No matter how much of a joke the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame has become, it's still an honor and that's how Alice has responded. If you haven't done so already, check the Rock n' Roll of Fame thread or the News section of Alice's website for his reaction.

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Had no clue he hadn't been inducted yet, good for him. As far as the HOF goes I understand why they can't and don't induct everybody worthy at the same time. Unfortunately like anything else, including Led Zeppelin, it's a business with a bottom line to look after. They induct a mix of long overdue artists, a few forgotten names and those just eligible each year for a reason, so they don't run out of name brand inductees capable of getting people through the door.

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Had no clue he hadn't been inducted yet, good for him. As far as the HOF goes I understand why they can't and don't induct everybody worthy at the same time. Unfortunately like anything else, including Led Zeppelin, it's a business with a bottom line to look after. They induct a mix of long overdue artists, a few forgotten names and those just eligible each year for a reason, so they don't run out of name brand inductees capable of getting people through the door.

And controversial names such as Donna Summer, Chic, Run DMC, LL Cool J, etc. In the cases of Skynyrd and Sabbath, they were nominated several times before actually being inducted. I really didn't see any need in that. If I'm not mistaken, Kiss hasn't even been nominated yet (nor have Purple, Yes or Rush) and this is the first time Alice has been nominated. I really don't see any need in that either. If they're worthy, induct them already.

Edited by Jahfin
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  • 2 weeks later...

From WorleyGig.com:

Original Members of the Alice Cooper Band Record New Material for Cooper Solo Album

Alice-Cooper-at-the-Zoo-1972-300x208.jpg

Alice Cooper in 1972: Neal, Alice, Michael, Dennis and Glen

Hello, Hurray! Fans of the original 1970s band Alice Cooper are about to have one of their long-hoped-for dreams come true. The band’s four surviving members, guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, drummer Neal Smith and vocalist Alice Cooper (lead guitarist Glen Buxton passed away in 1997) spent two days in September at a NYC studio recording three original tracks for Cooper’s next solo album. Rumored to be a follow-up to Cooper’s first solo effort, 1975’s Welcome To My Nightmare, the album is due to be released in the fall of 2011. These sessions were the first to feature all members of the original Alice Cooper band since the group recorded its 1974 swan song, Muscle of Love.

At the board for these sessions was studio legend Bob Ezrin, who not only produced the band’s commercial breakthrough, 1971’s Love it To Death (featuring the hit single “I’m Eighteen”), but who was also responsible for producing several of their other classic hits, including School’s Out and their most popular and commercially successful album, 1973’s Billion Dollar Babies. Ezrin has also produced many solo albums for Alice Cooper the individual since the band’s breakup. Ezrin, whose exhaustive body of work includes landmark albums such as Pink Floyd’s The Wall, has been quoted as saying that the work he did with the Alice Cooper Band in the seventies gave him his career. It is also rumored that rock photographer Bob Gruen, who took many photos of the original band back in the day – including promotional shots for Muscle of Love featuring the band dressed in identical sailor suits – made an appearance to visually document the band hanging out in the studio.

Those Alice Cooper band devotees still hoping for a reunion that would see the band perform live can hold out hope that Smith, Dunaway and Bruce make good on rumors that they will join Cooper this coming December in Phoenix, AZ for his annual Christmas Pudding charity concert event.

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Cool news.

Need to listen to The Dennis Dunaway Project Bones From The Yard heard it's pretty good, love Dunaway's playing.

Here's a recent interview with drummer Neal Smith.

http://www.bravewords.com/news/147674

By Mitch Lafon

The ALICE COOPER BAND’s influence on the rock community is immeasurable. They created “the stage show” and delivered iconic rock songs such as ‘I’m Eighteen’ and ‘School’s Out’, but for some reason none of it mattered to the uber nerdy pseudo-hip Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame nominating committee. Well, that was until this year. The band (frontman Alice Cooper, drummer Neal Smith, late guitarist Glen Buxton, bassist Dennis Dunaway and guitarist/keyboardist Michael Bruce) finally got their criminally overlooked nomination. Even though, this doesn’t mean they’ve been ‘Elected’ to the hall, BraveWords.com sat down with original drummer Neal Smith to discuss what it means to him and his band.

BraveWords.com: Have you had a chance to speak to any of your former bandmates since the nomination was announced?

Neal Smith: “Dennis and I always throw emails back and forth to each other, but no. I know we’re all aware of it, but we haven’t talked about it.”

BraveWords.com: Are you surprised that it took so long for the Alice Cooper Band to be nominated?

Smith: "I want to be perfectly clear. This is the band that is being nominated because I’ve seen things on CNN and CBS where they have a picture of Damon Johnson and Alice… You will see that line blurred an awful lot during this process I’m sure. It’s the band and all five (original) members that are the nominees. You know me and from the word ‘go’, I’ve always been 100% behind everybody’s solo projects, but without the band nobody would have a solo project. I think the nomination is sixteen years overdue. Looking back historically, the vein of music that the band opened up… before that maybe Dr. John or Screaming Jay Hawkins touched on theatrics, but nothing to the extend of where we took it. So, to be totally ignored for sixteen years, to me, is still a bit of an insult. We didn’t change music as much as the show, but the music we had certainly has stood the test of time. That’s the one thing that surprises and humbles me more than anything… That people still want to listen to our music. That’s the greatest testimonial that we have. Alice is still out there basically doing the same stuff we did, but with a little bit of a spin on it. The bulk of the music is our original music and that’s great. I’m glad that fan can still hear it. It’s still not the same to me as when we play it.”

BraveWords.com: Would be nice to hear you play it again…

Smith: "It looks like we’ll be going out to Phoenix to play another of Alice’s X-Mas Pudding shows. We did it four years ago and this is the tenth anniversary. Alice has asked Dennis, Mike and I to join him and do some songs…”

BraveWords.com: If the Hall Of Fame does elect you, and since Glen is no longer with us, would you play as a four piece or bring somebody else in?

Smith: "In the past, we’ve brought in Damon Johnson. He’s a great guy and a great guitar player, but whether he’d go onstage with us there or not… The only thing I know is that, at least, a decade ago we all agreed that if by chance we were elected – we’d all play together.”

BraveWords.com: You brought up the word ‘insult’ before. Are you insulted that a band like ABBA was inducted before the Alice Cooper Band was even nominated?

Smith: "Well, it is the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame. I’m looking at this year’s nominees. How many of those acts are rock n’ roll? Maybe five. BON JOVI, J. GEILS and us… there might not even be five. I’m not sure what I would call NEIL DIAMOND. DONOVAN definitely isn’t rock. DONNA SUMMERS is not. I love THE STOOGES, but why are The Stooges in the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame? I love that band, but I don’t get it. What’s their significance versus a band like ours? But like with anything else there will always be the political aspect of it. The one thing that I find cool is that if Donovan and we make it… Donovan sang on the song 'Billion Dollar Babies' and it would be great that, if he’s at the ceremony, he sang 'Billion Dollar Babies' with us. Overall, it’s cool and like anything we do – I’m happiest for the fans. I know that they’ve signed petitions for years and at this point in my life and my career my motivation to do anything musically is for the fans. I’m happy and it would be a nice thing, but nothing will outdo the album Billion Dollar Babies being #1 at Cash Box, Record World and Billboard. That was the shocker of shockers for me… for April 1973 we were on top of the world.”

BraveWords.com: Are you currently working with Alice and Bob Ezrin on the Welcome To My Nightmare II project/ album?

Smith: "We have been in the studio, but that’s all I’m going to say at this point.”

BraveWords.com: So there is some validity to reports that you might be laying down one drum track for the album.

Smith: "Yes, and it does include Michael as well. Michael did join us in the studio, so it’s Mike, Dennis, Alice and I.”

BraveWords.com: “That’s fantastic.”

Smith: "There’s more than one track too.”

BraveWords.com: Even better! Let’s hope it’s a whole album…

Smith: "Well, it’s not that.”

BraveWords.com: As a long-suffering fan of the original Alice Cooper band – I’ll take what I can get.

Smith: "I just know that everything, right now, with everybody is very positive. When we’re all together, it’s exactly like the old days and like I said we’re going to go down to Phoenix and do a show together in mid-December. Last time we did that four years ago, fans flew in from Australia, Canada, Europe… We’re excited to do it and it’s for a great cause, but I still want to do something where we can play a bigger show for the fans.”

BraveWords.com: It would be nice to have you record a full show for a Blu-Ray/DVD release.

Smith: "That’s what I imagine. I like what Cream did with their reunion and I could foresee something like that… I don’t know if it’ll ever happen, but all I know is that as time goes on people are a little more willing to talk about it and consider it. We’ll see what happens.”

For whatever happens – stayed tuned to BraveWords.com.

Edited by Rock N' Rollin' Man
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  • 4 months later...

Alice Cooper: The Original Shock Rocker

by DAVID C. BARNETT

alicecooper.jpg

February 22, 2011

In March, five new performers will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's an eclectic group of selections, ranging from New Orleans funk giant Dr. John to gravel-voiced skid-row balladeer Tom Waits. But in spite of their differences, each of these singers adopted a special identity or image to stand out from the rest of the pack. Over the next several weeks, Morning Edition will look behind the stage personas of this year's inductees.

Vince Furnier's first stage costume was a Beatles wig. He and some buddies from the Cortez High School cross-country team in Phoenix entered a talent show in 1964, doing their impression of the Fab Four. They went over so well that they cut a record the following year. They called themselves the Spiders, and Furnier says they really took their stage image seriously.

To read the rest of the article click here.

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