“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...”

Best of times, worst of times; good times, bad times – it’s all more or less the same. Difference being Good Times, Bad Times is the title of Godsmack’s upcoming career retrospective disk, which will be released Dec. 4.

Good Times, Bad Times.... 10 Years of Godsmack sort of took me by surprise: I didn’t realize the band had been together that long. I did a little Googling and learned it was actually 1996 when Godsmack recorded their debut disk, All Wound Up. Some other early bio stuff I learned: They knocked out that disk in three days and at a cost of just $2,500. The band spent two more years on the Boston club circuit, until their CD landed in the hands of “Rocko,” a DJ at Boston radio station WAAF. The station put “Keep Away” into heavy rotation and the song rose to the number one spot at the station. Newbury Comics, a New England record store chain, agreed to sell the CD on consignment. Shortly after the success of “Keep Away,” Godsmack went back into the studio and recorded “Whatever,” which became the new local favorite on WAAF.

“We had been selling maybe 50 copies a month at the time WAAF picked up the album,” singer Sully Erna said in an interview. “All of a sudden we started moving over a thousand records a week. It was insane. Even crazier, I was doing all this from my bedroom. After years of grinding away, things finally started taking off.”

This new release may be the last we hear from Godsmack for a while, as the band is apparently taking a short break. Blabbermouth.net quotes Sully as saying, “We're not going away, we are just gonna take a break and enjoy our 10-year anniversary, and kind of recharge our batteries. And then Godsmack will be back, and we will come back bigger and badder than ever.”

Good Times, Bad Times.... 10 Years of Godsmack will not only feature a version of the Led Zeppelin song for which it was named, but all of Godsmack’s other singles as well. There will also be a DVD with an acoustic performance recorded in Las Vegas.

Good Times, Bad Times (Led Zeppelin cover).mp3
Whatever.mp3

Labels: covers, new stuff, rock

posted by aikin @ 7:57 PM