Angels & Airwaves Week: Heaven

antiMusic reports: It seems like only yesterday that Angels & Airwaves released their debut album but the band isn't messing around and a little over a year after that CD dropped they are already back with their sophomore effort, 'I-Empire,' which hits stores this week. To celebrate the release we asked Atom Willard to pick his favorite five tracks from the new CD and tell us a little bit about each one. Here is Atom with today's song "Heaven"

The last song on the record, and the last song we finished as well. We had a big part of this song for most of the writing process, but then got completely sidetracked with different songs, and kept putting off wrapping it up. Sometimes it's harder to get so far so quick with a song and then stop since you get used to the way it sounds, and it's difficult to be objective. Our motto of "don't stop until it's perfect" can have us chasing a part for a while, like we did with this outro. Finally Tom came through with some killer lyrics that fit so well. This song completely wraps up two records worth of self discovery and expression, and epic and idealistic end to the whole thing.

Just in case you didn't know Angels & Airwaves is former blink-182 & Box Car Racer guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge, Offspring drummer Atom Willard, David Kennedy from Box Car Racer and former 30 Seconds to Mars bassist Matt Wachter. Tom produced the new album. Preview some tracks from the CD, learn more about the band and CD and more - right here

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Eagles Slam Britney

antiMusic reports: It's bad enough that the 70s country rock icons denied Britney a triumpant comeback, now one the band leaders has blasted the pop tart and her behavior. Gigwise has the story: The Eagles' Don Henley has hit out at Britney Spears' influence on children, adding that he doesn't want his children to grow up like the popstar.

Henley also said that the band have now replaced the rock'n'roll ethos which they used to live by with a better lifestyle in order to set a good example.

"Things are different to when we were young and single and self-absorbed. Back then all we had to think about was music and girls," Henley said. "(Now each of us are) deeply involved in being a good parent and not having our kids grow up to be Paris Hilton or Britney Spears." [who can argue with that?] - more on this story

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Police Raid Winehouse

antiMusic reports: While Amy Winehouse reportedly finally got her hands on a U.S. work visa on Thursday, back home police were raiding the popstar's residence for some mysterious reason (had nothing to do with drugs). E! has the story:

British authorities raided the beehive-rocking singer's northwest London home Thursday as part of an investigation that also led to the arrest of four unidentified men at another locale, according to the Metropolitan Police Service.

"It's part of an ongoing operation," police said, adding that the four men, all between the ages of 19 and 25, were busted in east London on suspicion of "perverting the course of justice" (a British-sounding allegation if there ever was one).

"It has nothing to do with drugs," a spokesman for the couple told the newspaper. "Amy is fine. She has not been charged or arrested." - more on this story

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Axl Quit GNR To Gain Control of Guns N' Roses

antiMusic reports: One of the big revelations in Slash's new autobiography is how the original Guns N' Roses split up and Axl Rose gained control of the group and name. Slash also delivers bad news for those that have been hoping that the original line-up would somehow regroup, it's not going to happen.

Slash writes of the possibility of a reunion: "It's funny, when fans ask me, as they do almost every day, whether Guns, in its original form, will ever reunite, it is hard to take them seriously. That question is so asinine to me; if they knew the real story, they'd already know the answer. But my response is always the same: 'Take a look at what everyone is doing now. Duff and Matt and I are part of a really successful band. Izzy's content doing his thing; Steven too. And Axl is touring with the "new Guns." No one is making phone calls to see when we can get the band together again.'"

Just how did that "new Guns" come about? It started when Axl and the band's manager had the other members of the band sign a contract that gave Axl control of the group name if they ever broke up. And that's exactly what Axl did, he broke the group up. Slash writes that the break up was caused by "Axl wanting control to the point that the rest of us were strangled." Then on August 31, 1995 Axl dropped a bomb on Duff and Slash, the only remaining members at the time, when sent them a letter "saying he was leaving the band and taking the name with him under the terms of the contract." Of course, Slash and Duff were invited to still be part of Axl's band, but you'll have to read to book to learn more about how that worked out.
- A little more on it here

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Radiohead Call Sales Claim BS as they Confirm Release Date

antiMusic reports: There has been a big hubabaloo about a study of a "few hundred" or so Radiohead fans from ComScore which claims that most fans ripped off Radiohead when they released "In Rainbows" as a pay whatever you like download. Radiohead have dismissed the study and its findings as well as announced a release date for the physical CD.

"In Rainbows" will ring in the New Year across the world on December 31st when it hits stores via XL Recordings. But U.S. fans are still in the dark as there is no release officially set Stateside as yet. But what about that ComScore study? Reps from the band basically dismissed that form of market intelligence as stupidity. Now while a lot of outlets reported on the study as gospel last week, we did hold off because when reading the fine print it was a rather narrow sample group of people that opted to be studied and our own experience has shown such numbers to be way off. ComScore did get some good press though but reps for the band have labeled their research "wholly inaccurate" and "in no way reflect definitive market intelligence," according to Filter. Ouch. Maybe we should recheck that with President Howard Dean? ComScore blogged a response defending their "research". Speaking of unreliable sources, an anonymous source claims that the band are wholly against their former label's plans to release a Boxset. Read about that and a bit more on this whole ConnedScore thing - right here

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Cops Taser Ozzy Fan

Contact Music reports: An Ozzy Osbourne fanatic had to be tasered by police at the rocker's concert in South Dakota on Wednesday night (07Nov07) after refusing to curb his enthusiasm.

The unnamed 16-year-old started a mosh-pit at the front of the stage towards the end of Osbourne's set in Sioux City and security staff were forced to move in to stop him from injuring other audience members.

The teenager ignored security men, who then left police to deal with the over-excited youth. When he refused to calm down and after he injured a police officer, he was tasered and removed from the audience. - more on this story

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Stones Won't Play With Zeppelin

NME reports: Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts have denied that they will make a special guest appearance at Led Zeppelin's reunion show. Led Zeppelin are set to reunite at the O2 Arena in London on December 10th.

The bill will include Pete Townshend, Foreigner and Paolo Nutini with Bill Wyman and The Rhythm Kings.

It was originally suggested the Rolling Stones' frontman might be playing with Wyman, but this was denied early on. - more on this story

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Muse Dishonored Because of Erection Concerns

antiMusic reports: British rockers MUSE have been stripped of a hometown honour in Teignmouth, England after local dignitaries realised what their name stood for. [see our note below]
Council chairman David Cox was looking forward to honouring the group with a 'Home Of Muse' billboard at the entrance to the town, but has had second thoughts.

A local opponent to the sign alerted him to the fact that MUSE is an acronym for Medicated Urethral Suppository For Erection - and the honour was scrapped.

[antiMusic note: The MUSE that is mentioned in the acronym in this article is a product of VIVUS, Inc. We could find no connection to the band name. In fact, the product wasn't released outside the U.S. until a year after the band formed in England. Maybe this is a case like the Anti Christ Devil Children BS (AC/DC) or the Kids in Satan's Service (KISS) crap with idiots making things up and even bigger idiot politicians believing them?] - more on this story

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Chesney Wins Top CMA Honor

Reuters reports: Kenny Chesney captured country music's top prize -- Entertainer of the Year -- for the third time on Wednesday in an awards show that also saw big wins for Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood.

"I love country music and I love doing what I do," said the 39-year-old entertainer whose tour this past summer drew more than 62 million fans.

He previously won the County Music Association's top honor in 2004 and 2006 in a 10-year career. [see how the other awards - worked out.]

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Kanye and Black Eye Pea Working on New Jacko

Gigwise reports: Michael Jackson is currently working on his new album with Kanye West and Black Eyed Peas star, Will.I.Am, according to reports.

Pencilled in for release in 2008, Jackson unveiled the plans for the album during a rare interview with Ebony Magazine.

The star's revelations support speculation from earlier this year that he was recruiting West as the album's producer. - more on this story

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Sorry No Lily Allen Panties Coming

antiMusic reports: Bad news for those that got their hopes up yesterday about soon sporting a Lily Allen bra. It's not gonna happen. Gigwise has the report: Lily Allen will not be the new face of Agent Provocateur, a spokesperson for the company says.

The spokesperson said that yesterday's reports that Allen was to head a 2008 lingerie line for the company were pure speculation.

French actress Vahina Giocante has actually been unveiled as the public face of the company. [Find out what Lily is going to do - instead]

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Cornell on Audioslave Split

Rockdirt reports: Chris Cornell offered a few more clues on his decision to leave Audioslave during an interview with Michael Roberts of the Cleveland Scene. Besides the band failing to match the quality of their self-titled debut on 2005's 'Out of Exile' and the following year's 'Revelations', the former Soundgarden frontman said business matters were also bothering him.

One was when an unnamed member was "trying to have a mixer remix a couple of the songs at the last minute before the record came out, without telling the others." The 42-year-old said that while he's proud of the work Audioslave put out, his decision to split from the group wasn't a huge struggle for him.

"It might have been different if it had been something like Soundgarden, where it was, for the lack of a better term, my first love," he explained. "With Audioslave, I didn't have that same connection. To fight through it just didn't seem worth it." - Rockdirt

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Blood Brothers Break Up Officially

antiMusic reports: The Blood Brothers have made their break up official with the following statement: After 10 years of making music as The Blood Brothers, we have made the collective decision that our time together has come to an end. We feel extremely fortunate to have spent such a deeply memorable and amazing part of our lives with each other.

At this point, however, we feel it's best that our futures move forward on separate paths. We'd like to express our sincerest thanks and gratitude to all the bands we've played with, individuals who have helped us make our records, and fans who have come to our shows and picked up our music throughout the years. - more on this story

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