Mike Portnoy News
- Check out Tony Levin's LTE Tour Diary!
- LTE NEWSFLASH - Limited additional tickets for Monday!
- Mike Portnoy Video interviews at Ultimate-guitar.com
- Mike Portnoy interview at Backstage Musician
- Mike Portnoy podcast at MusicRadar.com
- Mike Portnoy's PN08 end of tour wrap-up
- Mike Portnoy Blog entry/tour update at ProgressiveNation2008.com
- Exclusive Podcast with Mike Portnoy on MTV2 Headbanger's Blog
- Roadrunner Records & Mike Portnoy Supports Record Store Day!
- When Portnoy & Akerfeldt Unite!
- Turtlehead (Portnoy, Bello, Bobby Blitz) footage posted online
- Mike Portnoy Guest Blog at MTV.com's Headbangers Blog
- Mike Portnoy Tattoo Special on Heavy-Metal.de
- MP Interview / DT Live footage on Laestadea.com
Projects
Archives
- Mike Portnoy News Archive (1999-2008)
- Transatlantic News Archive (1998-2006)
- Liquid Tension Experiment News Archive (1998-1999)
Check out Tony Levin's LTE Tour Diary!
Added on 06-23-2008Click here to check out Tony Levin's LTE Tour Diary!
LTE NEWSFLASH - Limited additional tickets for Monday!
Added on 06-20-2008At approx 4pm today (Fri), BB Kings will be releasing some limited additional tix for the sold out LTE shows on Monday night....
Get em before they're gone!!!
MP
Mike Portnoy Video interviews at Ultimate-guitar.com
Added on 06-19-2008Mike Portnoy interview at Backstage Musician
Added on 06-09-2008Backstage Musician currently features a video interview with Mike Portnoy.
Mike Portnoy podcast at MusicRadar.com
Added on 06-09-2008Click here to listen to a podcast interview with Mike Portnoy at MusicRadar.com.
Mike Portnoy's PN08 end of tour wrap-up
Added on 06-02-2008Click here to check out Mike Portnoy's PN08 end of tour wrap-up.
Mike Portnoy Blog entry/tour update at ProgressiveNation2008.com
Updated on 05-15-2008Mike Portnoy has posted a Blog entry/tour update at ProgressiveNation2008.com.
Footnote to my PN08 Blog post....
Just wanted to spread the word that the "something very cool and special in store for fans of DT and Opeth" that I mentioned in my last PN08 Blog post is sadly now NOT going to happen.....
The idea turned out to be a little too logistically difficult to pull off so it needed to be blown off...
Oh well....sorry about the tease!!!
MP
Footnote to my footnote!!
Just so not to leave this up for eternal speculation....
We were asked by Roadrunner to do a special unique one-off performance for a few limited fans on one of our days off (in between Albany and Boston to be precise) with a few DT members and a few Opeth members combined to do like a little intimate, unplugged-type performance.
Myself and Mikael had already decided the 6 piece band line-up (3 guys from each band) and picked the songs to play, but in the end it was just too difficult to pull off (logistically, not musically of course)
Now of course, you all want to know the line-up and songs picked....but man, I have to leave SOMETHING to the imagination don't I?????
Yes indeed it would've been VERY cool...but in the end was just too hard to put together because of gear, rehearsals, crew guys, rerouting the tour buses and hotels, etc, etc.
The good news is, Mikael and myself are STILL planning on someday collaborating (along with Steven Wilson)....so it's not like my footnote implied that THAT was no longer happening....
MP
Exclusive Podcast with Mike Portnoy on MTV2 Headbanger's Blog
Added on 04-25-2008http://headbangersblog.mtv.com/2008/04/25/exclusive-podcast-dream-theater-drummer-mike-portnoy/
"In one week, Dream Theater will launch the maiden voyage of their Progressive Nation festival in Los Angeles. The tour, organized by drummer Mike Portnoy, features the prog-metal veterans along with opening bands Opeth, 3 and Between the Buried and Me.
Progressive Nation marks the first large-scale national tour to focus exclusively on an eclectic range of progressive bands, from straight ahead rock to psychedelic doom and death metal. In a year when Gigantour has removed the focus a bit from the technical proficiency of its acts, Portnoy's traveling progfest could become the go-to destination for fans of complex metal and superlative musicianship.
We recently talked to Portnoy about the birth of Progressive Nation, his background in prog metal, the genre's history, Dream Theater's recently released compilation Greatest Hit (...and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs) and how the band almost broke up after their only top 10 radio hit "Pull Me Under." Portnoy was also candid about being a control freak and how alcohol and drug abuse almost ruined his life."
Roadrunner Records & Mike Portnoy Supports Record Store Day!
Added on 04-18-2008Nearly 500 independent music stores, including all of the CIMS, Music Monitor Network and AIMS coalition stores plus Newbury Comics and many others across the country (even the world) are participating in tomorrow's (April 19th) Record Store Day Promotion.Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater)
Growing up a rock and metal fan on Long Island in the 70's and 80's was very different than it is today. There were no chain stores like Virgin and Tower and of course no internet mail order services like Amazon. The only way to pick up albums were to shop at your local "mom and pop" record stores....
In the late 70s, it was always easy to find the latest releases from my favorite bands....Led Zeppelin, The Who, Kiss, Pink Floyd, Queen, etc were all readily available at any record store. But in the early 80's, as I discovered more "underground" metal bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motorhead, Accept, Mercyful Fate, Loudness and Raven (from reading my imported copies of Kerrang), there was no place in small town Long Beach, Long Island to find the latest records from these bands I was reading about. Then I discovered Slipped Disc Records in Valley Stream, Long Island. They not only carried the albums from these bands, but also the 12" singles with bonus tracks, the t-shirts, the imported live videos and anything else that existed! When the American thrash scene was beginning to erupt around 1983, I could always count on Slipped Disc to carry anything I was looking for from bands like Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, Exodus, Testament, Flotsam & Jetsam, Death Angel and Nuclear Assault.
Taking the train there every Saturday was the highlight of my week! And on the day I received my drivers license, the very first place I drove to was Slipped Disc to pick up Metallica's Ride The Lightning album which was released that VERY day! (The imported version of course!) Now in 2008, the world is a very different place... the aforementioned chains and online stores have made it very difficult for the mom and pop stores to compete. In fact, my beloved Slipped Disc just announced it will be closing its doors for good. So let's hear it for people like Mike from Slipped Disc and all of the independent store owners that have helped shape the metal scene for the past 25 years. Without them, a lot of us may not have existed....(Or at least have been as metal as we are!)
There is also a great Youtube testimonial from Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater) as well up on the Record Store Day page at http://www.youtube.com/user/recordstoreday.
When Portnoy & Akerfeldt Unite!
Updated on 04-21-2008In anticipation of the Progressive Nation 2008 tour, Roadrunner Records brought together the leaders of the two acts topping the bill: Dream Theater's Mike Portnoy & Opeth's Mikael Akerfeldt sat for a series of interviews to be posted over the next 4 weeks leading up to the PN08 kickoff in Los Angeles on May 2nd.
These 2 self-proclaimed music fanatics talked about everything from their appreciation of each other's bands to Abba to the upcoming Progressive Nation tour....
Click here for Part 1 in a series of 7 in which they try to recollect the first time they had met each other.
Turtlehead (Portnoy, Bello, Bobby Blitz) footage posted online
Added on 03-17-2008Check out YouTube - Turtlehead - "Overkill" (Motorhead) with Mike Portnoy, Bobby Blitz & Frank Bello
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWUH2k9B4R0
or scroll down to "Talking Metal Jams" with MP, BB & FB for the full un-edited performance:
http://fuse.tv/tv/talkingmetal/video.php
Mike Portnoy Guest Blog at MTV.com's Headbangers Blog
Added on 02-20-2008Guest Blog: Dream Theater Drummer Mike Portnoy Pledges Allegiance to One Nation Under Prog
Mike Portnoy Tattoo Special on Heavy-Metal.de
Added on 01-14-2008Heavy-Metal.de currently features a detailed interview with Mike Portnoy regarding all his different tattoos (including photos).
Click here for the interview and photos.
MP Interview / DT Live footage on Laestadea.com
Added on 01-03-2008A video interview with Mike Portnoy and Dream Theater live footage is available on Laestadea.com.
Click here!
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