Interview: Megadeth's Dave Mustaine discusses "Endgame"

 

 Dave Mustaine has nothing left to prove to the world of heavy metal and could easily hang up his guitar with his legend intact. But the man simply refuses to rest.

You know Mustaine’s story: After being booted from Metallica in the early ’80s, Mustaine set a goal of creating a band that would rival Metallica in power and aggression. That band, Megadeth, certainly accomplished its goal: With Mustaine as singer, primary songwriter, co-lead guitarist and unstoppable energy source, Megadeth released a string of critically acclaimed albums in the ’80s and early ’90s – such as “Peace Sells … But Who’s Buying?” “Rust In Peace” and “Countdown To Extinction.” Mustaine’s influence on legions of metal guitarists has been huge and the musical impact of Megadeth can be heard everywhere today, from the “neothrash” movement to new metal superstars such as Lamb of God and God Forbid.

After suffering a serious nerve injury to his hand in 2002, Mustaine disbanded Megadeth and could have retired forever. But relaxing is not in the man’s nature. Instead, Mustaine underwent a year of physical therapy, regained his ability to play guitar (defying the prognosis of his doctor, who said he’d never play again) and returned Megadeth to its thrash roots on albums like “The System Has Failed” and “United Abominations.”

Last week, Mustaine and bandmates Chris Broderick (guitar), James LoMenzo (bass) and Shawn Drover (drums) released “Endgame,” an album as technically precise and sonically vicious as any of ‘Deth’s major classics. In its first week, the band sold enough copies to break into the Billboard Top 10.

During a recent phone interview, Mustaine said he is still sometimes amazed by his legendary status.

“When I was a kid playing the guitar, no one ever told me I’d be the head of a multi-million dollar corporation,” Mustaine said.

Mustaine plays guitar in much the same way the killer robot from “The Terminator” blasts humans – relentlessly, with a level of aggression that almost knocks the listener down. That guitar style, Mustaine said, developed naturally.

“I’m self-taught and I don’t know a lot of theory. I picked up the guitar and learned how to play it,” he said. “A lot of guys talk about loving the guitar and loving to play it. I always thought you should punch it in the stomach.”

While Mustaine has shared the stage with many sharp shredders over the years, the recent addition of Chris Broderick to the band has been intimidating, Mustaine said.

“Chis is one of those guys whose playing is almost other-wordly,” Mustaine said. While Mustaine does the majority of the songwriting and has written solos for his sidemen in the past, Broderick proved his worth as a songwriter by co-writing “The Hardest Part of Letting Go … Sealed With A Kiss” on “Endgame.”

“”The world is full of gunslingers, but can they write songs?” Mustaine said. “I never had a guy join the band” and contribute songwriting ideas on their first record, he said. While working with other guitar players has been a challenge, playing with Broderick on “Endgame” was a pleasure, Mustaine said.

“I can swear to you on both of our lives that there was never a (Megadeth) record with me not having to talk to the other guys about their playing,” Mustaine said. By contrast, Mustaine only had to make two small corrections to Broderick’s performance during the recording of “Endgame.”

“Chris was a breath of fresh air,” Mustaine said. “He’s not caught up with the hoopla. He comes by it naturally.”

“Endgame” is an album “that needed to be written,” Mustaine said. Mustaine is especially enthusiastic about the title track, which details the abuses that could occur because of “antiterrorism” laws rushed through Congress, such as the “USA Patriot Act.”

“‘Endgame’” was necessary for me to say the (former) president signed something that was snuck by both houses of Congress,” Mustaine said, referring to the title track.

While Mustaine uses music to address what he sees as flaws in society – such a breakdown “in common decency,” he said – the ultimate goal is to please himself and the listeners.

“For me, I write music because it makes me feel good and makes other people feel good,” he said. ” … I think the funnest song to make while we were recording was, ‘This Day We Fight.’ Every single solo was a challenge, because I’d listen to Chris’ (solo) and mine and think, ‘you’re not going to (upstage) me.’

“He’s capable of doing that and he’s a better player than I am,” Mustaine said of Broderick. “My gift is as a songwriter” and front man, which is all about having “attitude,” he said.

The band has one more album on its contract with Roadrunner Records. But that’s in the future: For now, Mustaine is focusing on the band’s upcoming tours of New Zealand, Australia and Japan. In early November, Megadeth will co-headline the “Canadian Carnage” tour with Slayer, before coming south again for a tour of smaller U.S. cities, including St. Louis and Covington/Greater Cincinnati. A tour of major U.S. cities is being planned for 2010.

“Gigantour,” which Mustaine created as a way to give listeners “a festival where you don’t feel” ripped off, will also return next year, Mustaine said. But for now, Mustaine said he is extremely pleased with “Endgame.”

“Megadeth is one of those bands that is not going to stop until it’s time to stop,” Mustaine said. “There’s one more record on the Roadrunner contract … Do I think we’re going to top “Endgame”? I honestly don’t know.”

You can hear “Endgame” in its entirety on Megadeth’s Myspace page. Also, here’s the video for “Headcrusher.”

Week 3 Fantasy Update With Ricky Williams

We had the chance to sit down with Ricky Williams in what will be a weekly fantasy segment. Below is Ricky’s take on who he thinks is the best guy to grab, who you should already have on your team, and who might help you down the line who is still a free agent.

 

Ricky Williams: It is disappointing to start the season with two straight losses. Every one on the team understands that we have a good team and our expectations are still set high and aimed at the playoffs. The Monday Night Game is definitely one of the strangest games I have ever been in. We felt like we were in control the whole game, but in the NFL, you have to put a team away when you have the chance. Peyton Manning is a future Hall of Fame quarterback and proved it in the game.  It is a big week for the Dolphins and practice will be intense. We need a win.

 

Playoff Bound Sports: Ricky, who is your fantasy stud for this week, that fans should consider trying to get at all costs?

 RW: After seeing what Peyton Manning did this week live and in person, how can you doubt his ability to lead the Colts. It looks like New Orleans offense is on all cylinders with Drew Breesthrowing the ball all over the field. He is definitely going to have a huge year. As far asrunning backs are concerned, my teammate, Ronnie Brown, is the real deal and Adrian Peterson is a no brainer.

PBS: Who is your fantasy sleeper?

RW: I am not sure how high Ted Ginn, Jr. went in fantasy drafts, but I see him getting better every week and his speed is dangerous for defenses. I liked what I saw in Donald Brown from the Colts; he must have led the nation in rushing for a reason last season for UConn.

PBS: Who on the Dolphins should fantasy players take in to consideration picking up?

RW: I think our running game is getting better and better so that benefits Ronnie and I. And I already mentioned, Ted Ginn, Jr..

PBS: How is your fantasy team turning out so far?

RW: I have my son and a few of his friends looking after my team. We are in the middle of the pack but we are hoping for a big week.

PBS: Do you have any fantasy goals this week for your game that you want to accomplish?

RW: I am looking for Drew Brees to keep up his hot hand and Ronnie and I will keep the running game going. I am planning to draft a weekly team on Thursday through ourwww.fantasy4charity.com site. Once I get my roster set, we plan on lighten up the scoreboard. Come on Dolphin fans, draft a team this week and help us support military families.

Integrated Marketing Interview...Part 2

Here is part two from the interview with Megan Thomas from The Sustainable Agency:

Part 2: How do you see emerging and traditional media working together?

These two disciplines really must be integrated into one communication function.  The way marketers communicate with consumers today requires a deep understanding of the target consumer.  They may still watch the news, but on their laptop.  They can access recipes for dinner online, but prefer to have them delivered to their inbox.  Knowing how they prefer to consumer media is of paramount importance.  Consumers will determine how, when and where they want marketers to interact with them.  It used to be a debate about whether the brand or the retailer had control.  Now technology drives the decision – it’s in the consumer’s hands.

One way that smart marketers can maximize their budgets is to use social media to listen to their consumers.   People are using social networks to be connected: to friends, families, causes or other affinities.  They are listening to their peers when it comes to product recommendations, places to visit, how to deal with problems, etc.  I think that this is born of a common humanistic desire for empathy.   We like to talk to others who have been there, done that.  We learn from their experiences on what to do and not to do (if only our kids would listen to us!).  Marketers can use social media to talk and listen to their target consumers.  They really want to be heard and if you choose to ignore them, they will still be vocal about it – on the worldwide web.  There really isn’t an option anymore to pretend issues or problems will go away.  Transparency is key and I think consumers are OK if you make mistakes.  Just learn from them and make changes moving forward. 

The Sustainable Agency specializes in eco-friendly marketing.  You can hear the interview at: http://www.sustainableagency.com/integrated-marketing-trends/

 

Harkin Confident Senate Health Bills Can be Merged

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) said today that “similarities between his committee’s bill and the one being marked up in the Senate Finance Committee would make it easier to meld the two proposals into a single bill,” The Hill reports.

"I don’t think that there is an insurmountable hurdle in melding these two bills and putting them together," Harkin said during an appearance on MSNBC.

Harkin said there was "no doubt" that the inclusion of an individual mandate in the Finance bill improved the easiness to merge it with the HELP bill.

But the two committees must work out differences surrounding a public health option proposal.

The key sticking point between the two bills will most likely be whether or not the final Senate package will include the public (or "government-run") healthcare option. While the HELP bill includes it, the Finance bill — in its current form — eschews the public option altogether in favor of nonprofit healthcare cooperatives.

Interview: Greedy Smith - Mental as Anything

After 32 years in the business, Aussie music icons, Mental As Anything, finally have the recognition from their peers that they so richly deserve with their recent induction into The Aria Hall of Fame. We spoke with frontman, Greedy Smith, about the band’s reaction to the announcement and got a history lesson in the birth of the Australian Pub Rock Scene…

“It was a bit of a shock because we haven’t had one before” Greedy was, of course, talking about the band’s induction into The Aria Hall of Fame. “And when you get asked, it’s a big deal. There was a lot of organisation involved in the weeks leading up to it. It’s a fairly frantic month. I think, by the end of it, we realised that it’s a time for reflection, looking back, and it was a time when we gathered up a couple of our old players: Reg and Pete. (Reg Mombassa and Peter O’Doherty). It’s the first time we’d played with them together since Ho Chi Minh City on Australia Day in 2000.”

Clearly, it was a very special moment for everyone and Greedy smiles as he recalls the night. “My 10 year old son was there, and my wife, and it had a lot of resonance in that way, and in terms of what we’ve done for the last 35 years. It was good because, often, with our work, we tend to play in clubs. We’re not like these other bands; we don’t do all the huge festivals where there’s lots of bands together. We tend to play at a club or a pub or a restaurant or whatever. And so we don’t get to see any of the other bands and singers so it was good to catch up with a few of them.”

Reflecting on the many changes he has seen in the Australian music industry over the years, the singer remarks: “I think one of the reasons why we’re here, why we’re still playing is because, at the time that we started, the music would be on Top 40 radio and there’d be a few TV shows like Countdown, Sounds… the TV shows would give you the gossip about what bands would do and would feature a lot of overseas but also a lot of Australian music. But also it was a simpler time.

Because there wasn’t so much music everywhere else, people really treated their music quite seriously and they were wanting to see bands live. That was the thing to do. So you get to this thing where all these bands were playing and they’d just ask the publican ‘Can we play in your pub?’ and they had all these big rooms left over that were designed for the old 6 o’clock swill’.” (Note: For those of you who aren’t painfully aware of this sad part of Australian history, that is when all pubs would shut at 6 o’clock at night. Hard to believe, but true! ) so they had to sell as much beer as they could in the hour between 5 and 6 so they’ve got these rooms with a big bar down one side – they were big rooms – and then they changed the licensing laws and the place would be basically empty and then bands like us came along and said ‘Can we play here?’ and I think that’s how a lot of the Australian music evolved.” Aahh yes… the birth of the Aussie Pub Rock Scene….

Greedy nods. “They (bands) would be playing six or seven nights a week in all these places all around Australia. They were such a great grounding. Everybody needed to play and to put out records. There was a lot of Australian music being played on the radio and record companies were really supporting Australian bands because it was working. I think that things were simpler. I think that we were much more fortunate than bands that sold a lot more records than us in the 90’s. All the music around then was music in shampoo commercials and films started taking off. We had songs in films but not where films were sold on the songs. That was a new thing. Because of that, when radio stations go around doing surveys and they play the songs that they like to hear, they instantly recognise ours on there and they say ‘Oh yeah’. It reminds them of the time when there wasn’t so much music around. Because there wasn’t so much music around, songs that they did hear then are more special to them.”

So what is happening with Mental As Anything these days? “The line-up we have now has been fairly solid for about the last 5 years now. It’s exciting looking back but then we’ve got to look forward because we’ve just put out two albums and we’re concentrating really on playing our songs… trying to play as well as we can. For this century, that’s been our guiding light, to play the songs as well as we can. Martin and I particularly feel very grateful for the fact that we can go to lots of places around Australia and people will know our songs. They mightn’t know that we’ve recorded them or whatever, but then they recognise it, and they go ‘Oh, that one!’ They have a recognition for it. And it makes it very easy for a band to do that because we have been playing in the band for all these years and we know what it means for people to identify with music. We don’t want to let that go. We think it would be silly to let that go. We’re very fortunate in having that. What it means is that people know our music. That’s why we want to keep playing it because people seem to find it ‘special’ and it’s very flattering!”

Aria awards aside, Greedy counts the time he first heard ‘Nips Are Getting Bigger’ on the radio as one of the highlights of his career. “That was a major thing. That was huge. That was a pretty good feeling.” But there was a downside to fame. “Because we had success on the radio with that song, we couldn’t get any work anymore because people thought we’d be too expensive because we were on the radio, so we had to go from the advantage of being an Arts School band and having this ready made crowd to go back into the pubs and play to people we didn’t even know. So that was an important time that I remember.”

He ponders for a moment before adding “And I remember when ‘Live It Up’ went to No. 3 in the U.K. That was a special moment. It had been a hit in Australia but nobody was interested over there and in Europe. Then, when Crocodile Dundee came out, our record company over there said ‘Let’s put the poster on the single pack. After that, it was a huge hit. So we were very grateful to have a bit of a go around there. And ‘Too Many Times’ was a hit in Canada back in 1982. It was an unexpected hit. It was popular with the college kids and after that, because of that, we tried to get on a tour over there and Men At Work kindly put us on their tour and we toured Canada and America in 82 and again in 83. We’ve done a lot of that sort of touring.”

While touring North America gave them some great exposure, Greedy has some reservations about the band’s acceptance in the U.S.A. “America’s too big to swallow. I think our sense of humour’s not quite understood in America.” He believes, though, that the Canadians are on the same wavelength as us. “It’s the Commonwealth sense of humour .. they just know .. they just know it… but then I think that we did learn that, sometimes, it’s good not to be hugely successful because all of the rock and roll excesses that seem to go on and these really long American tours, playing 6 or 7 nights a week and driving long (distances). You can kill yourself! So we’ve never spent more than two and a half months overseas. And we’ve only done that three times that I can remember. The rest of the time we’ve come home to our families and the way the music industry is, it’s just mainly weekend stuff. You might get some work during the week but it’s mainly weekend stuff. It means you can have a bit of a family life and then you pack the bag and get in the car or on the plane on the weekend and I find it’s quite a sustainable lifestyle.”

This year has also seen the release of two new albums for Mental As Anything.“Essential As Anything” is a greatest hits collection and includes a DVD featuring 37 clips of the band. Greedy explains that they had to redo the sound on many of these clips as the quality had deteriorated over the years. “The strange thing about that, I was looking at You Tube because they’ve got the Hall Of Fame stuff on You Tube somewhere and I was looking at our clips and they had one that had ‘Enhanced Sound’ and I thought ‘They’ve already put it on You Tube to replace the other bootleg they’ve got on there.’” He shrugs his shoulders in feign defeat. “But, what can you do?”

The band’s first studio album for several years, ‘Tents Up’, was also released in June. Why did this album take so long?

“Because we still do about a hundred and thirty shows a year so we’d do it in between until it was right and then one record company we were on was swallowed up by another record company and that’s been happening for years.” Greedy explains, “But also we wanted to make sure it was right because we’re getting a bit older now, getting a bit fussier about promoting songs because people expect to hear the songs that are played on the radio and we’re quite happy to give it to them but it’s good to do some new songs. But what we feel is that, if we feel confident with them that people are going to accept them in some way. That’s a challenge though.”

Missionary Interview - Marti & Brenda Roman

Today we are traveling back to the continent of Africa.  The country of Benin to be specific.  Our missionary couple that we will be hearing from today is Marti & Brenda Roman.  As always if you have any questions for them, I would love to pass the question along.

How and when did you first feel called into missions?

Marti was called to missions when he was 5 years old during a missionary service at his church in Coleman MI.  Then while working one of his jobs in college, God spoke to him and told him that he would be a missionary.

I, Brenda, was called at summer church camp when she was 10 years old.  It was just a normal service…but when I went down to the altar to pray God told me He wanted me to be a missionary to Africa.

How did you know what country God was calling you to?

After we were approved to go to Africa, Morris Williams presented several different countries that had needs at the time. (1979)  One of the countries he mentioned was Benin.  I (Brenda) knew immediately that Benin was it.  However, I did not say anything to Marti..and sure enough 2 weeks later Marti came and told me that he felt God wanted us to go to Benin. We are still missionaries to Benin!
What is your favorite thing about being a missionary, and what is the most difficult thing?

The best thing for Marti is establishing churches in strong Muslim areas. ..the worst thing for him is having to say no to pastors asking for help with building walls or roof for a new church, because of lack of funds.

The best thing so far for me has been influencing the culture for God. (Ruth Center- where young women who would have been forced into marriages etc.. attend a live in 3 year technical school to learn job skills and a re safe) or the micro-finance for widows, or Junior and Teen Bible Quiz where girls are allowed to compete with boys and do very well.  The worst is missing my children and grandchildren.

How has Speed the Light affected your ministry?

We both travel all over the country in our ministries..this would be IMPOSSIBLE if not for our speed the light car!  Without our Speed the Light vehicles we would not have been able to start over 100 churches in Benin…nor would we have had the outreaches mentioned above.

If you could give any advice to today’s youth, what advice would you give?

We would like to encourage you young people to give your life to your God given passion….it will be more adventure than you can imagine…and there is no satisfaction in the world like knowing you are doing what you were created to do.

Is there anything we can pray with you about?

We are starting itineration in November.  Please pray that God will use us as we speak, to challenge others to give their lives to reach a people they do not yet know.

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Thank you for all you do in raising funds for our Speed the Light vehicle…we can truthfully say that nearly everyday we get into the car and drive to a village we say, “God Bless the young people who have made it possible for us to be driving this car right now.”
Amen!

Marti and Brenda Roman

Semaine de surprises sur le site des EdS qui fêtent leur 2 ans d'existence!!!!!

 

Sans Franco Vinas, le site des EdS n’aurait pas existé! Nous avons créé ce site pour exprimer notre mécontentement et, de fil en aiguille, nous avons construit le site le plus actif parlant du Servette FC!!! Pour fêter avec nous ce deuxième anniversaire, les EdS vous réservent des surprises cette semaine avec des cadeaux pour vous remercier de votre fidélité! Dès demain, venez nour rendre visite pour la semaine des EdS!!!!!!

La rédaction des EdS