10 Years Week: Beautiful

This was a song that was almost thrown away early on in the writing process because the rest of the band just simply did not like it. Somehow it stuck around and the more everyone lived with it, the more everyone began to like it. Luckily for us we never followed our original impulse and canned this tune.
- Preview the album, learn more about the band, grab tour dates and more right here

Led Zeppelin World Tour

antiMusic reports: Could it finally be happening? Gigwise seems to think so: Led Zeppelin will mark their 40th anniversary with a £250million world tour, according to reports. Calls for the band to reform for a full world tour have been relentless since they played a one-off show at the O2 Arena in London last December.

Yesterday (May 9th), David Coverdale, the frontman of Whitesnake and a long-term friend of the band, said the tour was "very likely".

"I'm expecting a call from Jimmy any day asking my band Whitesnake to support them on their world tour. Am I on board? You bet. Probably worth billions," he said. - more on this story

Suge Knocked Out in Bar Fight

TMZ reports: How the mighty have fallen -- literally! Suge Knight was hit so hard by a man last night at the Shag nightclub in Hollywood, he lost consciousness.

Lowdown: A TMZ source was there last night [Sat], and witnessed Suge talking to a guy -- and the convo was friendly enough at first. Then it turned. Suge shouted, "I want my money!" Suge then rushed the guy with the help of his posse, and began hitting and kicking him. Get this -- during the fight, Suge put a random guy in a headlock, demanding his cellphone.

People outside the club broke up the fight, and as the beatee got up, he landed a right hook to Suge's face, knocking him out cold. We're told Knight was out for nearly three minutes. - more on this story

Poison Rape Response

Sleazeroxx reports: TMZ asked Poison's Rikki Rockett about the rape allegations pending against him...with his current girlfriend roughly 10 feet behind him.

In the video, available at www.tmz.com, Rikki states that he will hold a press conference "hopefully Monday" to discuss the rape charge filed against him. Rikki also says the he doesn't know who the girl is and says that he is "doing a press conference next week, this whole thing is going to be over. It will be the end of it."

In March Rikki was arrested on a rape warrant out of Mississippi as he got off a flight from New Zealand at LAX. 46-year-old Rikki Rockett was busted by the Airport Division of the LAPD as he was going through customs. - more on this story

Gnarls Barkley Get Festive

PR reports: Anxious to get on the road, celebrate the summer, and perform songs from their new album The Odd Couple, Gnarls Barkley have announced a slew of upcoming festival performances.

Gnarls has confirmed 20 dates so far, including: the Roots Picnic in Philly; the Soco Music Experience in Denver; the Quart Festival in Norway; the Roskilde Festival in Denmark; Rock Werchter in Belgium; Eurockness in France; the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland; the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam; the Benicassim Festival in Spain; Lollapalooza in Chicago; and the ACL Festival in Austin.

More will be announced as soon as the band is allowed to disclose. "Summer is a time to get outside, meet new people, try new things, and dance, in whatever way you dance," said a spokesperson for the band. "If anyone can coax the people outside, Gnarls can. Any excuse for a righteous throwdown." - more on this story

John Mellencamp Set For Life, Death, Love and Freedom

PR reports: John Mellencamp's eagerly anticipated new album, Life, Death, Love and Freedom, produced by T Bone Burnett, will be released July 15 by Hear Music at Starbucks Company-operated locations in the U.S. and Canada as well as traditional music retail.

Mellencamp has characterized the album as a collection of "modern electric folk songs." With backing from his legendary touring band, the album's 14 tracks were recorded at his studio in Bloomington, Indiana and mixed in Los Angeles with Burnett behind the boards for all of the sessions. Mellencamp cites Burnett's production as key to "finding the soul of each song." As far as singing to Hear Music is concerned, he noted, "In today's business environment, each artist needs to pursue his own path and determine what works best. For me, Hear is the right way to go for this album. I'm glad to be working with a team of open minded people who seem to be interested in what the music is about and what it sounds like."

The album will be the first ever release in the ΧΟΔΕ (CODE) format. T Bone Burnett and his team of engineers developed CODE, a proprietary audio technology that creates high-definition audio files that are virtually indistinguishable from the original master tapes. The resonance, warmth and presence that has been realized with CODE is unprecedented in the digital era. The CODE version of "Life, Death, Love and Freedom" is a DVD that will come packaged with a standard CD version of the album, available at all retail outlets, at no additional cost to the consumer. The CODE disc is playable on virtually all DVD machines including stand-alone players and drives integrated into computer systems. The DVD's content can be copied into most computer music software including iTunes and can, then, be downloaded onto personal music players such as the iPod. The standard CD is included to answer all possible compatibility questions. Mellencamp commented, "When T Bone introduced me to CODE, it was a remarkable experience. I could hear the music the way it was intended to be heard. I'm very happy the people are going to be able to share this experience in a way that's so true to our original intent." - more on this story

Muse EP For Gamers

Gigwise reports: Muse have released a new 3 track EP via the computer game Guitar Hero.

The 'track pack' – which contains 'Supermassive Black Hole', 'Exo-Politics' and 'Stockholm Syndrome' for PS3 and Xbox 360 users.

Muse are the latest group to offer extra examples of their music to players of the game. - more on this story

Echo & The Bunnymen Orchestra

PR reports: In the year of the band's 30th anniversary, Echo & The Bunnymen comes to New York City on Wednesday, October 1st for a very special concert at Radio City Music Hall performing their beloved album Ocean Rain in its entirety backed by a 10-piece orchestra. Acclaimed musical director Rupert Christie, who recently helmed the live performances of Lou Reed's Berlin will conduct the orchestra. Tickets go on sale to the public on Saturday, May 10 and are priced at $59.50, $49.50 and $39.50.

Released in 1984, Ocean Rain was Echo & The Bunnymen's fourth album and is widely considered their masterpiece. It mesmerized Echo's fans and broke them to a much wider audience on the strength of such towering songs as "Silver," "Seven Seas" and the unforgettable "The Killing Moon." Upon the album's reissue in 2004 it was again praised in the media, with Blender Magazine acknowledging that Ian McCulloch "wasn't that far off" when he had declared it the greatest album ever made, and admired it as "a portrait of splendid derangement with spectacular orchestrations."

Echo & The Bunnymen are currently in the studio with producer John McLaughlin working on their tenth studio album entitled The Fountain which is set for release later this year. The first single from the album, "I Think I Need It Too" will be released in August in the UK. - website

Get Blitzed With Sweet

antiMusic reports: We told you about the return of Sweet last week, but we got some new info in including the line-up and initial dates. They also just booked an appearance on KLOS's Mark & Brian program on June 5th. We were pleased to learn that longtime antiMusic friend Stuart Smith will be handling guitar duties. Here is the info:

Popular rock band Sweet led by bassist /vocalist Steve Priest will begin their "Are You Ready Steve?" 2008 tour their first in many years, it was announced today. The original Sweet was formed by Priest along with vocalist Brian Connolly, drummer Mick Tucker and guitarist Frank Torpey (later replaced by Andy Scott) in the UK and rose to fame with such hits as Ballroom Blitz, Fox on the Run, Love is Like Oxygen, Little Willy, Hellraiser, Teenage Rampage, Blockbuster, Action and many others. The 2008 Sweet tour will be a tribute to Connolly and Tucker whose tragic deaths were terribly pre-mature.

According to Edna Gundersen's story on the cover of the Life section in USA Today on May 2, 2008: "A blitz may be coming to your local ballroom. Bassist Steve Priest, a founding member of Sweet, has reconstituted the glittery fuzz-rock band that ignited U.K. and U.S. charts with such '70s hits as Ballroom Blitz, Little Willy, Fox on the Run and Love Is Like Oxygen. The Are you Ready Steve? Tour kicks off June 12 at The Whisky in Hollywood, with guitarist Stuart Smith, singer Joe Retta, drummer Richie Onori and keyboardist Stevie Stewart…Priest's reconfiguration plans to revisit all the historic Sweet spots, including Blockbuster, Action, Hellraiser and Teenage Rampage." - lot more info on the players, plus the initial dates

Gorerotted Lose The Gore

PR reports: The UK's Gorerotted have decided to take a big step and change their name to The Rotted! After working so hard on their new album, 'Get Dead Or Die Trying', the guys felt that due to the huge progression they've made from previous releases musically and lyrically, and after a few line-up changes, that this was the only right thing to do.

Says frontman Ben McCrow: "The motives behind what we were doing with Gorerotted have changed over the years, and as a mark of respect for what we achieved, for previous band members and for fans, we didn't feel it was right to continue under our previous monicker. This album is gonna blow people away, I couldn't even classify it for you if I tried, all I can say is its heavy as fuck, catchy as hell and a piece of work we're all incredibly proud of. People have been affectionately referring to us as THE ROTTED for some time now, so it seemed like a decent change to us." - more on this story

Clash, Sonic Youth, Blondie For Rock Band

PR reports: Harmonix and MTV Games announced today the latest additions to the Rock Band downloadable content catalog: a three pack of rock radio hits from the late '70s (Blondie's "Hanging On The Telephone"), (The Clash's "Train in Vain (Stand by Me)") and early '90s (Sonic Youth's "Kool Thing").

"Hanging On The Telephone" first appeared on Blondie's third—and arguably best—album, 1978's Parallel Lines. "Train in Vain (Stand by Me)" is from the album many critics refer to as one of the greatest rock records ever recorded, The Clash's 1979 blockbuster London Calling, and "Kool Thing," featuring Public Enemy's Chuck D, was from 1990's Goo, Sonic Youth's first major label album. - more on this story

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