Jukebox – Music News Cuts – 5/2

Jukebox.

Peter Criss

KISS drummer Peter Criss has a new rock album out, the first since 2007, when he put out One for All.

Peter Criss announced it to Rolling Stone, “I want to let the Kiss Army and all my rock fans know that my new ‘rock’ album will be coming out this fall,” he said. “I’ve got some really great players on it: Michael McLaughlin, John 5 on lead and rhythm guitar, Billy Sheehan, Piggy D [Matt Montgomery] on bass, and Paul Shaffer on B3 and piano. I am on vocals, drums and percussion. I also have great backup singers, like Dennis and Sharron Collins and Cathryn Manning from the Cat 5 Band.”

It’s been a good time for Peter Criss. “I had an absolute blast doing this album, and everyone was so much fun to work with — they were just amazing,” he said.

Circle Jerks

Circle Jerks are back. They have begun outlines of two new songs, put together in the studio of Rancid’s Tim Armstrong. Singer Keith Morris had this to say to SPIN. “We’ve gotta put out a fuckin’ ripper that just blazes your ears.”

This will be the first attempt after 2010’s acrimonious failed attempt. The band had two weekends at Coachella recently, where they put on some of their best performances.

“What I need to stress upon them is we’ve gotta come out like our lives fucking depend on this,” Morris says, also to SPIN. “We’ve got to come out like we’re the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, and the Green Berets.”

He said later, “If we’re just gonna dilly-dally around and come off like a bunch of old guys playing fast music, that doesn’t work. We gotta go back like we’re fuckin’ teenagers because we’re competing with a bunch of young dudes and young gals. And we just have to rip people’s faces off.”

Bruce Dickinson

Bruce Dickinson is going on a tour. The Mandrake Project Live 2025 North American tour begins in Anaheim, CA House of Blues August 22^nd and covers New York, LA, Texas, Florida, and Canada, with a stop in Brazil.

Blabbermouth spoke to Dickinson about the tour. “Yeah, it was great.” He said. “Honestly, the reception was great. The reaction to the band when we toured all through Europe [last year] was fantastic. Obviously, we just did two or three shows here in Southern California [in April 2024] just to kind of warm things up before we went down to Brazil… But, yeah, it was brilliant. And people got it. I mean, not everybody is gonna get everything you do — it’s not compulsory — but I thought it was a really good, varied album. It was heavy, but it was emotional and stuff. So it was really good. And it worked really well live.”