Music News: Slipknot, Rand Paul, Green Day and Paramore

Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky likes to hear himself speak and when he opens his mouth many times weird thoughts are expressed. The conservative produces a "Festivus" report every year about what he sees as wasteful government spending and the name is insulting to the greatness of Seinfeld from which the name of the report was stolen and the report is also useless. In 2023, Rand Paul even attacked some metal bands, such as Slipknot, for wasting money.

Paul specifically talks about the United States Small Business Administration and its responsibility for distributing financial relief during a time when "local concert venues and family-owned theatres were forced to shut down during the pandemic." Paul's report cites a Business Insider investigation that names several musical acts that received some of the financial relief. Besides Slipknot, some of the bands included are Korn and Smashing Pumpkins.

What is missing is how the bands spent this money. While Slipknot and others make millions doing large tours, if they cannot tour not only do they not earn income but neither do the truck drivers, stage crew, and others who work on tours. The bands should be able to live on what they have earned during their careers, but crew members are likely not as lucky.

Slipknot dissed by Rand Paul and Green Day set to release a new album

So before Rand Paul starts hating on musicians, maybe he should dig a little deeper into where the money actually went.

In happier news, Green Day is set to release their new album, Saviors, on January 19. If the rest of the record is anywhere near as good as the first three tracks released from it, the album is going to be fantastic. But Green Day isn't the only band releasing new music to start 2024, of course.

Among the other notable releases are Lou Reed's Hudson River Wind Meditations (January 12), The Vaccines' Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations (January 12), Sleater-Kinney's Little Rope (January 19), and Gruff Rhys' Sadness Sets Me Free. Make sure to save the money you got for Christmas in order to buy these new records.

Paramore scrub their social media

Paramore might be about to end things. They have hinted that they are not sure what the future holds for the band but now they have deleted all their posts on X (the artist formerly known as Twitter), changed their profile pictures on both X and on Facebook to an empty icon, and their website is gone. Maybe we are in store for a new band with Hayley Williams and her pal, Taylor Swift? Maybe like a boygenius 2.0?

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