Tarja Week: Poison

antiMusic reports: Tarja Turunen made her mark on the world as the frontwoman of Nightwish. Now she strikes out on her own with her solo debut 'My Winter Storm'. The album soared to the top spot in her native Finland and went gold in one day! To celebrate the upcoming US release of the album we asked Tarja to pick her favorite tracks from the disc and tell us a little about them. Today she tells us about "Poison".

This Alice Cooper classic is still very much played in the rock radios in Finland. The lyrics are very funny if you consider a woman singing them. I cannot reveal myself as a die-hard fan from Alice Cooper, but I always liked this one and it also brings me back to my years as a teenager. We did quite many backing vocals in the studio with my friend Tea, my brother Toni and Daniel, the producer of the album. The original song has
already a huge amount of backing vocals and it definitely took some time to get them done.

We produced the song to fit to the complete picture and sound of My Winter Storm. Mel Wesson did amazing ambience sounds and Alex, Doug, Earl, Torsten and Daniel were working very hard in the studio to make it sound fresh, but faithful to the original at the same time

The CD hits US stores on Feb 26th but you can preview tracks and learn more - right here!

Daughtry Working on New CD

antiMusic reports: While a lot of the "winners" of American Idol are finding themselves out on their backsides after TV fame didn't translate into record buying interest, Chris Daughtry is one of the biggest Idol alums and he didn't even win. The big news for Daughtry fans is that Chris and his band are hard at work on the follow up the best selling self-titled debut.

Our friends over at Gibson.com just conducted an exclusive interview with Chris and the band and we learn that the band isn't resting on their best selling laurels, they already have 17 songs ready for their sophomore album and hope to complete writing this spring. Does that mean a double album or 2 minute songs? Who knows? But they did let some cats out of the bag about the direction of the music. Here are some excerpts:

"Some songs are coming out a little heavier than the last record, and some songs are just way more beautiful," Daughtry says, mentioning that drummer Joey Barnes has written some new material on piano.

"Chris just sits at the back of the bus and will come out with something and say, 'I just wrote this thing,'" guitarist Josh Steeley says. "And it's amazing. The new stuff isn't too far from the album that's out now, but it's more complex."

Check out the full article for more on the songwriting plus some personal stuff from Chris. And yes Gibson.com is now a destination for music news and features, not just a place to salivate over Les Pauls. But you can still do that too. - See that here

Rocker Suing Cops

Punknews.org reports: Billy Bean from No Trigger and Smartbomb has written Punknews.org with some legal woes. The woes stem from the FEST VI weekend and some drunken conduct.: "4 of us from No Trigger and replacement bassist/TM fly down on the friday before the fest. Perkins, the drummer and our boy from home drove down to get there for friday. Perkins and company pick me up from the rest of the group in Orlando. We "pre-game" for the evening at one of our friends house then head to downtown Orlando. About 1am I start to feel 'overserved' by the bartender and step outside to puke up all the booze from the night. It gets pretty gnarly, im almost unconcious I was so trashed. Some dude who was a paramedic stopped to help me and Perkins called my phone and this guy picks up telling Perks to come pick me up before the cops do. SO they meet up to exchange yours truly.

"We head back into the bar for round 2. I step outside again about an hour later. The rest of the guys come out as we are about to leave. Perkins kicks over a trash barrel on the sidewalk next to about 15 cops in polo shirts. They pursue him, Perkins yells 'Bean RUN!!' Being so trashed and not able to make the right decision, I ran. They caught up to perks and just told him to clean the trash up and he was able to go home. 4 cops chased my drunk barely standing ass downtown Orlando. I finally sit down against a SaniKan. They book it right at me and yell to stop resisting, grabbed my arm, threw me on my stomach, and began to tase me repeatedly. They tased me a total of 7 times on the back and hip. I was arrested and had to spend 18 hours in jail. My bond was set at $1200. Luckily my bail cleared in time and I made the show 20 minutes before we were scheduled to go on Saturday."

Bean apparently has the option of a plea bargain of "6 months probation, 40 hours minimum community service, and anger management classes" or potentially a year in Florida prison. Bean is filing civil suit against the Orlando PD, citing problems with the police report and excessive violence. - His whole message can be found here

Aerosmith Sells Out

Contact Music reports: AEROSMITH frontman STEVEN TYLER is cashing in on the band's back catalogue, by selling the rights to a music marketing company.

Tyler has written and co-written 160 songs, including Love in an Elevator and Dude Looks Like a Lady, worth an estimated $50 million (GBP25 million). According to the New York Post, the rocker has formed a partnership with Primary Wave Publishing, which was formed by former Arista and Virgin Records boss Larry Mestel.

Primary Wave also own a stake in the Beatles songs written by John Lennon and the back catalogues of Kurt Cobain, Daryl Hall and John Oates. - more on this story

Hatebreed Explain Why They Left Mallcore Label

Rockdirt reports: It appears that Hatebreed had to find out the hard way that Mallcore Records has the worst publicity department in the business. Rockdirt has the story: Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta spoke with Revolver magazine about the band's split with Roadrunner Records following the release of 'Supremacy' in 2006.

"They had a bunch of people on their label, and we felt we didn't get the publicity push that we deserved for our last record," he explained. "We realized we need to go to a place where we can be the big fish in the small pond. But ultimately there's no hard feelings; the split was good on both sides."

As for the Connecticut metalcore group's efforts to find another label, he revealed, "Well, first we're gonna do a separate deal for our DVD. There's always been so much red tape with DVDs, and we want to make sure we do it right. - more on this story

Panic At The Disco to Headline Honda Tour

antiMusic reports: Nothing says 21st century rock n roll like a corporate sponsor. And the corporate tour season is heating up! That's right the latest corp tour was announced today. As an added bonus it's "green". Here is the "official" 411: It's that time of year again- time to get fired up for the Honda Civic Tour and this year's electrifying headliners, Panic At The Disco.

These four nice young men from Las Vegas have created quite the buzz for their theatrical performances, sharp lyrics and pop-driven tunes. And it shouldn't come as any surprise to see PATD following last year's band, Fall Out Boy, since PATD is signed by Pete Wentz's record label.

The tour starts on April 10, 2008 in San Francisco, CA, but start planning your musical rendezvous ASAP. PATD is thrilled to follow in the tradition Fall Out Boy, The Black Eyed Peas and Maroon 5 to promote environmental consciousness with the Civic Hybrid. [but they still haven't announced green amps and lighting rigs.... tisk tisk. - official site is here]

Disturbed Teams with Clowncore Stars for Overpriced Energy Drink Tour

antiMusic reports: The guys that brought us the Sk8tr Shoes Pop Punk Tour and the Taste of Emo tour, now deliver the Overpriced Energy Drink Tour featuring Disturbed and clowncore stars Slipknot! Coming to a corporate named venue near you soon. Metal Underground has the story:

Billboard.com has now confirmed that SLIPKNOT and DISTURBED will hit the road this summer on the first-ever Rockstar Mayhem tour. The outing, sponsored by Rockstar Energy drink, will run in July and August, with additional artists and dates to be announced.

Rockstar Mayhem is being assembled by Vans Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman and John Reese, Lyman's partner on the Taste of Chaos tour. - more on this story

Morrissey Bonus

Gigwise reports: Morrissey has confirmed the final details regarding his forthcoming 'Greatest hits' album. The album, which takes songs from his twenty year solo career, will be available on CD and Double vinyl from February 11th.

The album will also include two previously unreleased songs, new single, 'That's How People Grow Up' and 'All You Need Is Me'.

A limited run of the albums will also be accompanied by a bonus CD which includes eight songs recorded live during Morrissey's run at the Hollywood Bowl last June. - More including full tracklisting

Judas Priest Almost Done with New CD

Metal Underground reports: Metal-rules.com spoke to JUDAS PRIEST singer ROB HALFORD recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat found below: Metal-rules.com: On the status of the new Judas Priest CD, Nostradamus:

Halford: "I've been away for about a month while Glenn and K.K. [Downing, Judas Priest guitarist] have been doing their final guitar overdubs. We're about to start mixing, so I'm going to see the boys in a few days time and then we'll be rockin' and roaring through the mixing sessions."

Metal-rules.com: So your vocals are already laid down for the new album then? Halford: "Yeah, I completed those some time back. Everybody does their bits as you go along and normally I don't do my vocal work until the bulk of the recording has been done which is how it turned out and rhythm guitars and everything were laid and all the other instruments, but Glenn and K.K. have just been burning the midnight metal oil and getting all of their leads completed, so I'll be excited to hear what they've been doing. Then we get on with the mixing and the mastering and get it out for (this) year when the tour kicks off." - more on this story

Illness Sidelines Epica Tour Plans

Metal Underground reports: Singer Simone Simons of the Dutch symphonic metallers EPICA has issued the following update:

"Since a couple of months I have been struggling with infections and had surgery many times. The doctors didn't know what was wrong with me. After a lot of tests at the hospital they found out that I am infected with MRSA, also known as the hospital bacteria.

"The treatment of this bacteria comes with a strict hygienic schedule which I have to work through every day. Because of this I will not be able to go on long trips, let alone living in a tour bus. Therefore we are forced to cancel most of our shows in February. The shows on the 22nd and 23rd in Lille and Vosselaar we will still do since they are independent shows and very close by." - more on this story

Supersuckers Can't Come Up With an Album Title But Are Touring Anyways

PR reports: Supersuckers kick off 2008 with announcing details of their new full-length album and adding more live dates. Singer, Eddie Spaghetti, will perform a special solo set backed by Jordan Shapiro on these dates and the full Supersuckers band will join them starting on January 24, 2008 in Hillside, IL.

The band is currently finishing their new album (to be released later in Spring 2008 on their label, Mid-Fi Recordings) and will be previewing new songs as well as performing their classics. Currently untitled, the new album will, be the band's first full length recording since 2003's "Motherf^ckers Be Trippin." Since then, Supersuckers opted to release music through the EP format.

Eddie Spaghetti explains, "Yeah, I pretty much thought we were done making full length records. But the somewhat anemic response to our 'Paid' EP sort of got me to re-think the whole EP concept. So when we got into the studio this last time, we just threw everything we had at the tape machine and we saw that we had enough for a full length." - more from Eddie and those dates!

3 Inches Of Blood Temp

Metal Underground reports: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based metallers 3 INCHES OF BLOOD have reportedly recruited drummer Ash Pearson (SOUND OF THE SWARM, JUST CAUSE) for their current tour with THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, HATE ETERNAL and DECREPIT BIRTH.

Pearson joins the group as the replacement for Alexei Rodriguez, who was unceremoniously dismissed from the band after he landed in a physical confrontation with SAXON drummer Nigel Glockler at the Hard Rock Hell festival in England this past November.

3 INCHES OF BLOOD has been added to Metal Hammer's Defenders Of The Faith tour. Running from April 23 to April 26, the tour also features OPETH, ARCH ENEMY and DEVILDRIVER. - more on this story

Blackmore's Night Working on New Album

antiMusic reports: Ritchie Blackmore does smile on occasion. Also while the world seems filled with poptarts that lip-synch and use clones in their "concerts" there are actually theatrically pleasing concerts where live music is performed by actual musicians and there is no choreography? We learn this and a lot of other great stuff in a new interview with Candice Night. In all seriousness, our interviewer-in-chief, Morley Seaver, spoke with Candice right before Christmas about the new Blackmore's Night live DVD "Paris Moon" and learned a lot of cool things in addition to the ones mentioned above. Among them is the exciting news that Blackmore's Night is working on a new studio album! Tis true, here is a little of what Candice had to say about that:

"And in January, we head back into the studios here. We've actually got five songs recorded already for the new album which we did kind of in between touring this past year. And so we're going to head back in with our producer Pat Regan form Los Angeles, and probably spend the next two to three months in January through to probably March recording I guess the next seven or eight songs for that one. So that should be out soon. (laughs). And we actually do have some cover songs on that so, you may find some of that interesting. (laughs) (mysterious voice) ah, the mystery ensues…(laughs).

"...I think there's a lot of really cool stuff that we've got going on with that. Some of it is very organic and just really …beautiful and some of them have that fun pop kind of flavor to them, especially the cover song. You know the problem, every time I mention we're going to do a cover song, somebody else takes it and puts it out immediately right before we're going to do it. (laughs). So I kind of have to be unfortunately kind of elusive when it comes to that. But as soon as you get it, you'll know exactly what I was talking about."

The full interview doesn't officially post until Monday but since we really like you and you ate all your vegetables we decided to give you a treat and will - let you read it today!

Wait there is more!

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