John Mayer A Guitar God?

New dates have been added to John Mayer's 2008 summer tour. As previously announced, Mayer's run with special guests Colbie Caillat and Brett Dennen begins July 2 in Milwaukee, WI. Mayer's tour will now close out the summer with the addition of new dates with guests Paramore and OneRepublic. Tickets for the added dates become available with an exclusive Music Today presale beginning June 2 and will be available to the public on June 7. - more on this story

Why Celebs Are Junkies

VH1 reports: Celebrities who live their lives in the fast lane with their every move charted by the paparazzi have always seemed more vulnerable to substance abuse. But today, it seems celebrity drug and alcohol addiction has reached epidemic proportions.

Renowned addiction specialist and host of VH1's Celebrity Rehab, Dr. Drew Pinsky, M.D. examines the root causes of celebrity addiction, the reasons behind the rise and why Hollywood is one of the toughest places to get clean in "VH1 News Presents: Dr. Drew's Celebrity Addiction Special" premiering Thursday, June 5 at 9pm. Serving as on-camera host and narrator, Dr. Drew analyzes the reasons behind the celebrity addiction epidemic. He investigates some of Hollywood's most disturbing drug stories, reveals some common celebrity personality traits that can trigger addiction behaviors, and he offers commentary on some of the most troubled celebs

Among the stars discussed in this special include Amy Winehouse, Steve – O, Lindsay Lohan and the late Heath Ledger as well as new, revealing interviews with musician and recovering addict Nile Rogers, and season one Celebrity Rehab participants Seth "Shifty" Binzer and Mary Carey, who continue to battle their alcohol and drug dependencies. Finally, the program will highlight famous Hollywood sobriety success stories, such as those of Jack Osbourne, Craig Ferguson and Tom Arnold.

For more info on "VH1 News Presents: Dr. Drew's Celebrity Addiction Special" as well as uncut interviews from the broadcast with Nile Rodgers, Seth Binzer and Mary Carey, viewers can go - online

Machine Head Chop Song for Video

Metal Underground reports: Machine Head frontman Rob Flynn wrote to MTV's Headbanger's Blog to explain why the song "Halo" was shortened from nine minutes to five minutes for the video.

"Our friend Dean Modino at Modino Media Design was able to take these very crude, one dimensional metal carvings, bring them to life and give them some motion. He did a f**king killer job!!! While it was/is a massive bummer that we had to edit our glorious nine minute epic down to a puny five minute epic, there we're several factors that played a role.

"Basically, doing a nine minute video is like doing two videos, and financially as well as logistically, it became a nightmare. So it got chopped!! We f**king dig the sh*t out of it, though, and while it pains us more than anyone to have to remove four minutes out of our song, the video turned out f**king sick!!!!!!!! We know you guys are gonna really dig it, because we really dig it, and you all know the meticulously high standards we hold ourselves to." - more on this story

Danger Delayed

PR reports: The Swedish glam / hard rock band Danger has just announced that the release date of their new promotional EP " First Touch " has to be pushed back to June 27 due to technical problems in the studio.

"We were working day and night to have the mixing and mastering proces of the songs done, before the Sweden Rock Festival would start. As you all know, we always hand out free copies to the audience there and that was also the plan for this year. Our time-schedule was very tight to make it and when the equipment failed on us, there was nothing more for us to do than to accept it and to wait till all equipment has been fixed, so we can move on," Rob Paris said.

He continues " But at the end, it's even better to do it this way. We have more time now to give the fans the best job possible. The rough versions of the songs sound already killer, it's the best we have recorded so far. It's the most exciting period in the band's career, we cannot wait to let the world hear the songs !" At Friday June 27th, " First Touch " will be officially launched with a big MySpace online release party at - www.myspace.com/bestdanger

O.A.R. Sign Up For Virtual Gig

PR reports: O.A.R. have just announced they are to be the next major artist signed on to perform at DeepRockDrive, the world's first interactive online concert venue. The June 16th performance will be the first opportunity for O.A.R. fans globally to interact with the band in anticipation of their July 15th release, All Sides, and the 36-date "All Sides Tour" this summer. O.A.R. will perform their single, "Shattered," from their forthcoming album for the first time live, giving the audience an exclusive front row experience unlike any other.

O.A.R., which includes band members Marc Roberge (vocals, electric & acoustic guitar), Richard On (electric guitar & background vocals), Jerry DePizzo (saxophone), Benj Gershman (bass), and Chris Culos (drums) holds the dubious pleasure of selling out New York City's famed Madison Square Garden - twice, captured in concert on 2007's 2-CD set, Live From Madison Square Garden, as well as a two-disc DVD package, with the same name. All Sides is O.A.R.'s first new studio album since 2005's popular breakthrough, Stories Of A Stranger, which included the band's hit singles "Love and Memories, " and "Heard The World."

"Performing at DeepRockDrive will allow us to bring new and old songs to people wherever they may be," said Marc Roberge. "That's the beauty of this show, communicating with an audience that is spread throughout the world. All from Vegas, how can you beat that?" - event site

Grind Over East Coast Tour

PR reports: Brutal Truth announces Grind Over East Coast tour dates: NYC, Toronto, Philly and Rochester. Sez sharp: "We are looking forward to coming home to New York City, a time to grind..."

Brutal Truth has not played in New York City since 1998!!! We haven't played on the East Coast since Maryland Deathfest 2007; We have an awesome Midwest show at the amazing Central Illinois Fest coming in July. We've been hearing from the east coast an nyc grinders that things are still not fast enough, still not loud enough: so we are totally psyched to be able to announce Brutal Truth's Grind Over East Coast mini-tour!!!< - more on this story

Violator Get Euro Release

PR reports: Violator, Brazil's finest export of thrash metal since Sepultura, are finally set to release their ripping debut album, Chemical Assault, in Europe on July 21st 2008.

Fresh off a two month tour of South America and having recently featured on the Thrashing Like A Maniac compilation, VIOLATOR are ready to unleash the thrash assault on Europe this July. CHEMICAL ASSAULT will be released on CD in Europe by Earache Records.

Violator frontman PONEY had the following message: "We are really happy to get our record out in Europe by Earache. Maniax from all places are writing us, it's amazing. Chemical Assault was done with no big pretensions, in a total DIY spirit. It's a great honor to see that it will be released by the same label that one day released Scum or the Concrete Sox/Heresy split. To see how far this is getting, it's totally unbelievable. We can't wait to travel to the old continent to thrash and have some fun!" Violator will be announcing European tour dates soon for now grab the latest - here

U.S. A KISS Nation?

Sleazeroxx reports: The Kiss Army fan club has an enthusiastic new recruit: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice was in the Swedish capital Thursday for an international conference on Iraq. Kiss had a sold-out concert to play Friday.

"I was thrilled," Rice said of her late-night encounter with Kiss frontman Gene Simmons and bandmates Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer in the executive lounge of the Sheraton Hotel where they signed autographs and handed out backstage passes and T-shirts to her staff.

"It was really fun to meet Kiss and Gene Simmons," she told reporters, noting that they seemed well-informed about current events. The band had asked if she could stop by after she finished dinner with the Swedish foreign minister and Rice readily agreed, she said. - more on this story

Kurt Cobain Shoe Coming

E! reports: Kurt Cobain boots bad, Converse-inspired ones rad. A year ago, the Nirvana frontman's widow, Courtney Love, kicked to the curb print ads in the U.K. that featured her late husband modeling Doc Marten boots in heaven.

Now, the ex-Hole singer is giving thumbs up to a line of Converse sneakers paying tribute to the grunge icon, who committed suicide in 1994.

The shoes will hit stores this fall, along with footwear inspired by the Grateful Dead, to help mark the manufacturer's 100th anniversary. - more on this story

Follow Ups and Mailbag: Scars is No Sideband, MySpace Heads Off AntiAnthem, Minus the Coverage, and Mission: Metallica Will Cost You

antiMusic reports: Some follow-ups and responses to reader mail. First off we heard from a few Scars of Broadway fans last week that were a bit irritated that we called the band a "side-band" for Daron and John of System of a Down. A bad choice of words on our part as it turns out, we did contact their publicist to clarify and she told us that System is on an indefinite hiatus and right now, Scars IS Daron and John's band. So apologies to them. And after grabbing the preview on their debut album (hits stores on July 29th) it sounds like this band may go on to be in the tradition of Mars Volta by equaling the success of the band that spawned it. We're hoping to line-up a Scars of Broadway week for the album. We'll see if that happens, but in the meantime they did just announce some intimate Europe shows, grab those and the preview (and North American dates) more

MySpace Heads Off AntiAnthem By Fixing the Problem: Also good news on the Donnie Vie front. The music press can do some good (once in a great, great while). After we ran the story last week about how Donnie was so frustrated about not being able to gain access to his Myspace page that he was planning to write an anti-Myspace anthem, a rep from Myspace contacted us and we put them in direct touch with Donnie so they can get that all sorted out. We lost the song as a result, but the problem was solved. Maybe this will inspire Donnie to pen a pro-Myspace song. We'll see.

Minus the Coverage: Roger wrote in to ask why we are ignoring Minus the Bear after covering them for a long time. The sad answer is that the band's label Suicide Squeeze doesn't want our coverage. We came to that conclusion after they ignored requests for coverage. We have more labels and artist approach us for coverage then we can handle so these labels will obviously get priority coverage (if the music warrants it.) We're sorry it has to be this way, but it's not fair to those that take the effort and actually want our coverage if we ignore their artists in favor of labels like Suicide Sqeeze and Nuclear Blast that don't want our coverage. But again, the music has to be worthy of coverage or the story news worthy enough for us to devote our attention to it. Sadly, these labels knock themselves out of consideration.

Mission: Metallica Will Cost You: A couple of angry Metallica fans wrote us about the Idolator story we quoted last week that quoted prices for the new Metallica CD via the Mission:Metallica website. The prices quoted in that article included the "platinum experience" for Mission:Metallica which promised things like full show downloads, fly on the wall goodies, contests etc. The prices without the "platinum experience" are $11.99 for the download and $19.99 for the CD, which are more than the standard $9.99 download price and $12.99 - $16.99 CD prices, but to be fair the CD cost includes shipping. And finally the "platinum experience" package that includes the physical CD is $32.99 not $36.99. So the record has been set straight. Grab your credit card and feed the Lars - here

.... MorleyView: Killsmith (Neal Smith of Alice Cooper Band)<

Legendary Alice Cooper drummer Neal Smith has managed to keep his hand in the music scene since the band went on a 34 year hiatus. Sexual Savior, released on Valentine's Day, represents a huge chunk of Smith. Morley spoke with Neal about the CD. - Read the full Killsmith (Neal Smith of Alice Cooper Band) MorleyView

. Rigor Sardonicous - Vallis Ex Umbra De Mortuus

Rigor Sardonicous craft an exquisitely gloomy album both frightening and memorable. Though the somber finality of death chokes listeners with a crushing atmosphere of oppression at every turn, Vallis constantly retains a sense of legitimate love for craft. (4.5 stars) - Read the full Rigor Sardonicous - Vallis Ex Umbra De Mortuus review

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