104 / 116
Nickelback return to Australia in May 2015.
Here are the tour dates!
Rod Laver Arena
,
Melbourne
May 15 /
Adelaide
Entertainment Centre
May 18 /
Brisbane
Entertainment Centre
May 20 /
Allphones Arena
,
Sydney
May 22 /
Perth
Arena
May 26
13
Despite its apparent voraciousness, Nickelback
laugh off the vitriol; in their world it seems any
publicity is good publicity. In any case, much of
the derision aimed at Nickelback is inevitably
amplified by social media.
Recently, a London resident named Craig
Mandell tried to crowd-fund an anti-Nickelback
campaign to keep them out of the English
capital. For every dollar raised, he would email
the band asking them not to visit. He got 60
backers and raised $339 – hardly the edge of
an anti-Nickelback revolution (he claims on the
campaign website that he donated the money to
charity, and that it was not for personal gain).
The band, if not quite seeing the funny side,
do admit the constant attention keeps their
name in the media. In October, after news of
the Mandell campaign reached the band, Chad
Kroeger ruefully admitted that, “if [the critics]
had stopped writing all this stuff about us, there
would be no controversy . . . and we probably
would have died out years ago. They don’t know
that they’re still responsible for us being around
today.”
The aptly titled
No Fixed Address
was
recorded in several different locations over 2013
and 2014. Mike Kroeger lives in Maui, Hawaii,
and several sessions took place there.
Brother Chad was based in Los Angeles at
various times in the last year, so some recording
took place there as well. The band also recorded
in Vancouver, and at several European locations
while they were on tour. So, the album is
literally and figuratively all over the map.
While that explains the splash of styles across
the album – from the electronic experimentation
of the opener
Million Miles an Hour
to the funk
of
Got Me Running Around
(featuring Flo Rida),
there’s another element in
No Fixed Address
that might raise some eyebrows – humour.
The southern delta blues-fuelled
Get ‘Em Up
is tells the story of a bank robbery gone very
wrong – disastrously, absurdly, utterly wrong.
Speaking to Loudwire.com, Chad Kroeger said
he’d always wanted to write a song about a
bank robbery. “Instead of it being this scene
out of the movie
Heat
– a very serious thing – I
pictured these two guys who come up with this
plan and it’s just going to be fantastic,“ he told
the website at a press conference last month.
“There’s going to be machine guns, and
they’re going to roll up in this hot muscle car
and they’re going to kick the front door in, get
the money and to get away scot free and head
to Mexico. Then … they can’t find a place to
park. They drive around the block a half a dozen
times. Then they finally get parked, start walking
towards the bank, go to kick the front door in,
and it’s Sunday! The bank is closed! There are
two cops standing across the street. I picture
almost the
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
absurdity of it.”
The other thing about Nickelback is that,
despite not quite being ‘elder statesmen’, they
are travelling toward a certain maturity. Chad
Kroeger just turned 40 and got married, and
brother Mike admits he’s had some funny
moments playing the band’s music to his kids.
“I get some honest feedback.”
He said, speaking to Loudwire.com, “there’s
a moment in
Million Miles an Hour
and my son –
he stops the track – and goes, ‘did he just say
‘trippin’ balls’? I was like, ‘yeah son. Your uncle
just said ‘trippin’ balls’, right there.’”
There’s a moment in
Million Miles an Hour
and my
son goes, ‘did he just say ‘trippin’ balls’? I was like,
‘Yeah your Uncle just said ‘trippin’ balls’ – right there
No Fixed Address
by
Nickelback is available
now via Universal Music.
The new album’s opener dives
straight down the wormhole, and
takes us right along with it. Chad
Kroeger sings “take… two of
these/and watch the walls begin
to breathe.”Weirdly, this is really
synthy; the band are having a major
muck around down in the electronics
department.Yes, Nickelback use
synthesisers on the opening track of
their new album: you might have to
read that again.
“What do we want?We
want a change! And
how are we going to get
there? Revolution!” It
won’t have the military
industrial complex
shaking in their boots
anytime soon, but
Nickelback getting
even vaguely political?That’s a first in
anyone’s book.
Once, Chad Kroeger featured on a
song called
My Darkest Day
with
Ludacris, and one called
Porn Star
Dancing
with ZakkWylde. Now a
clean-living married man (he got
hitched to April Lavigne a while back),
this track has plenty of shimmy, but
not as much sin. It’s a four on the
floor, bass in your face, disco track.
In which Nickelback unleash a rapper.
Yep, you read that right too – Flo Rida
is here laying it down on this Latin
flavoured, horn-fuelled funk-up.We’re
guessing Santana wasn’t around to
guest on the session.