Bret Michaels Preview

"I would play music whether I made it or not," Michaels told a journalist in 2002 and it's that commitment to his art that continues to keep him at the forefront of the entertainment industry. - Listen to the first single "Go That Far"

Genesis Reunion DVD Boxset Coming To Walmart

BW&BK reports: Genesis deemed its 2007 reunion tour worthy of a three-disc DVD set because, according to Phil Collins, "we thought something like this, which may never happen again, was worth documenting just in case something good happened."

When In Rome 2007, due out next month on Rhino and exclusively through Wal-Mart, certainly gives Genesis fans plenty of opportunities to remember the tour.

It features the entire July 14 show shot by director David Mallet before 500,000 fans at Rome's Circus Massimo. A nearly two-hour documentary, "Come Rain or Shine," by director Anthony Mathile, chronicles the tour - more on this story

A Touch of Someone Else's Class

PR reports: Alive Records will release the new album by southern punk-ass blues duo Black Diamond Heavies on June 10th. Titled "A Touch of Someone Else's Class," the band recorded the album with producer Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys at his Akron Analog studio during a whirlwind 3-day session. Recently, the band wrapped a month long U.S. tour in April and is currently performing throughout Europe in May before hitting the road in the States this summer.

For the first time, the Black Diamond Heavies new album will feature special guests including long-time Tom Waits collaborator Ralph Carney (who recently guested on The Black Keys new album) on horns for the slow burn of "Bidin' My Time," Mr. Jimmy (The Falconer) contributing bass on several tracks and Dan Auerbach on guitar for the song "Happy Hour." The 11-track set also features several cover songs including furious takes on Tina Turner's "Nutbush City Limit," Nina Simone's "Oh Sinnerman" and "Take A Ride" by James Model T Ford. - more on this story

Singer of Sam

Blabbermouth reports: Son Of Sam, the resurrected band led by Danzig guitarist Todd Youth, has announced the addition of singer Ian Thorne to the group's ranks.

Ian joins Youth, Steve Zing and Karl "RockFist" Rosqvist, all of whom performed as Danzig's band on his last tour.

In other news, Son Of Sam has posted a new track, "The Bleeding", on its MySpace page. The song comes off the band's sophomore album, "Into The Night", tentatively due this fall. - more on this story

Souls of Mischief Solo Release

PR reports: Opio, member of the classic hip-hop group Souls of Mischief, has released details of his sophomore solo album, Vulture's Wisdom, Volume 1.

The album will include a bonus DVD with music videos as well as animated shorts and features artwork by renowned pop artist David Flores. The album will be released in August on Hiero Imperium Records as the first chapter of a forthcoming trilogy.

The idea for Vulture's Wisdom came about in conversations between The Architect and Opio after they met while sharing neighborhood studio spaces. The conversations sparked a flood of creativity from Opio, and as fast as The Architect could supply beats, Opio was penning lyrics. "We embody the energy that people are trying so desperately to recapture or reconnect with. We never fell prey to all the trappings of materialism. Our music has stayed true to the art form and this album is a tribute to that." The album includes a bonus DVD with 7 music videos as well as animated shorts. Pop artist David Flores (XLARGE, Stussy, Deluxe, Shorty's) provided the album artwork. - Opio will be touring this summer and fall in support of the album with Hieroglyphics. Dates available here.

Britney Pisses Off Aerobicisers

antiMusic reports: Not really news, but funny when you think that Brit could easily buy her own equipment. TMZ: Britney Spears got her bump and grind on at Bally yesterday - but not before tossing out a room full of aerobicisers.

Needless to say, the class was PO'd they got the boot. The gym tried to console the electrolyte-heavy crew with free t-shirts and water bottles - some of which were literally thrown back at them.

TMZ spoke with Bally's Chief Marketing Officer John Wildman who admitted that booting regulars for Spears was their fault -- someone at the gym double booked the room. - more on this story

Hey RCA, Keep Clive Away From David Cook

antiTorial reports: Dear RCA, Please keep Clive Davis away from David Cook. I've skipped American Idol this season, last season, the season before, season before that, etc, etc. Besides being sick of Paula "Hack" Abdul's absolute stupidity, I got sick of watching generic singers butcher songs by covering up the fact that they do not have a great voice by using the bogus vocal masturbation technique of over-singing everything. But I caught a clip of Wednesday night's show and was surprised by David Cook's jam with ZZ Top.

While as a rock singer he's good, but not absolutely outstanding. It was still good to see someone up there that can sing rock, play an instrument and has the potential to be a legitimate rockstar (remember this is based only on seeing him rock ZZ Top, he could be a poptart at heart). So RCA how about it? Why not allow David to prove his credibility and let him write his own songs? None of that bs Avril contribute two lines and call them a songwriter; let him do the entire album on his own and see what happens.

You can keep Clive busy by letting him take that bland nerdy little kid into the studio and make the cheesy music he seems happy with. That's a win-win, Clive can launch his new Wisconsin Records with the little David with a cheddar filled album of music for 12-year-old girls and middle-aged house wives, and David Cook can try to make a legitimate rock album and you might have a winner that can actually go double-platinum. The Clive "let's make em' cheesy" formula doesn't work. Just ask the last "rocker" to grace the Idol stage. Clive couldn't wait to get Bo Bice into the studio and look what happened, we got the ironically titled "The Real Thing," ," an album of warmed-over Nickleback-lite trite. - more on this rant

Slash and B Real of Cypress Hill Team Up

antiMusic reports: Rap rock pretty much sucks but any team can pull it off it would have to be B Real of Cypress Hill and Slash. The two are teaming up to perform at the first annual Sunset Strip Music Festival which will take place at the end of June in Hollywood.

Other acts slated to appear are: Everclear, Soul Asylum, Camper Van Beethoven, L.A. Guns featuring Jani Lane of Warrant, Hot Hot Heat, Juliette & The Licks, Dilated Peoples, Godhead, Hellogoodbye, The 88, Louis XIV and more acts to be announced
- more on this story

Lit Brain Tumor Update

PR reports: Allen Shellenberger, 38 year-old drummer for Orange County rock band Lit, has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Lit made an initial announcement over their website on May 5th that a brain tumor had been discovered and the band was canceling their European tour dates with KISS. Biopsy results identified Shellenberger's cancer as malignant glioma.

According to the National Cancer Institute, malignant glioma affects approximately 10,000 Americans per year. It is the same type of cancer Senator Edward M. Kennedy is battling. Allen's symptoms prior to diagnosis were numbness and tingling in the left side of his body.

Shellenberger is under the care of world-renowned neurosurgeons Dr. Hunt and Dr. Black at the Cedars-Sinai Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute where he is pursuing radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Despite the news, Allen is in good spirits and committed to the fight. - more on this story

Flaming Foo Pearl Jamming The Who, Pink Floyd Still Winners, Winehouse for UK Fest, Grammy Awards, Leppard Support, Zune is for N.E.R.D.s, KISS and more

antiMusic reports: Can you believe it's Thursday already? Here are some quicks to help you get to Friday: Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters and Flaming Lips have signed on to perform at VH1's third annual "Rock Honors," which this year will salute the Who. The event will be held July 12 at Los Angeles' Pauley Pavilion and air five days later. more

Pink Floyd and soprano Renee Fleming were named winners of the 2008 Polar Music Prize on Wednesday for their contributions to their musical genres. The British rock group and Fleming will each receive a cash prize of $168,000 at an Aug. 26 awards ceremony in Stockholmmore

Do you know why we don't have tort reform to cut down on frivolous lawsuits? Maybe because trial lawyers OWN the Congress since they are by far the biggest campaign contributors! So the following story of a ridiculous lawsuit should come as no surprise: The woman who accused Lindsay Lohan of stealing her fur coat has now made things official and has hit Lindsay with an actual lawsuit even though the coat was returned to her some months ago. Maria "Masha" Markova filed a civil lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday. The suit asks for "punitive and exemplary damages" but does not specify the amount. "Let it be up to a jury to decide," Markova's attorney, Merrill Cohen, told ABCNEWS.com, "if it goes that far." more

Amy Winehouse will perform at this summer's Glastonbury Festival. She will play the festival's main Pyramid Stage on June 28, just before headliner Jay-Z, it was announced Wednesday. more

Sony Pictures Releases has formed a new business unit, The Hot Ticket, which will digitally project concerts, performing arts and sporting events into movie theatres. The service will launch this summer; Cirque du Soleil's "Delirium" will be cinecast from London's 02 Arena in August. more

There is nothing like planning ahead! The 51st Annual Grammy Awards will be held Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and will be broadcast live to the east coast by CBS. more

For the third leg of the Def Leppard's North American tour, all support acts/guests have now been finalized. During the 16-date leg, there will be no less than five acts opening for Def Leppard: Joan Jett And The Blackhearts (July 30 - Aug 3), Billy Idol (Aug 6-15 and Aug 17-21), Everclear (Aug 16) and Styx/Reo Speedwagon (Aug 23). The final date of this leg is billed as "an evening with Def Leppard." more

In anticipation of N.E.R.D.'s first album in four years, they are currently offering the song "Spaz" exclusively for sale on Zune Marketplace. The track, which is also being featured in the brand's television and online advertising campaign for Zune Pass, will not be available anywhere else until the release of the new album Seeing Sounds on June 10. The band will offer additional exclusive content as part of the Zune Ignition program throughout the month of June. go here

Apparently KISS plan to add a new leg to their current post retirement tour, they issued the following statement: This tour just keeps getting bigger and the band has never been better! Until we sort out the next leg, we don't want to stop, so we're doing a few US shows for our enjoyment, as much as the fans. We are having the time of our lives on the Alive 35 tour and over half a million KISS fans obviously share the feeling! Why stop?

IFC will be premiering three exclusive trailers of Heavy Metal in Baghdad over the next weeks. Currently we have the band, Acrassicauda, talking to Suroosh about the time their practice space was demolished by a SCUD missile. Think being a band is hard in America, try dodging missiles. Oh and most of their equipment got destroyed as well. Rock and Roll! Check out the clip on IFC.com Heavy Metal in Baghdad Out On DVD June 10th.

In this week's episode of maniaTV's new music show, All Access , host Samantha Maloney visits the in-home studio of Junkie XL to get intimate with the world renowned electronic artist and his friend Nicole from Electrocute. Junkie XL, who is best known for his worldwide remix of the Elvis single, "A Little Less Conversation", has produced five solo albums, two video game soundtracks, and countless remixes for everyone from Coldplay to Justin Timberlake. it tis here

Need more news? We've just added some new sites to the RockNews.info Newswire. Welcome to Nightwatcher's House of Rock who has hard rock news and exclusive interviews and also Old School Metal, the site title says it all! For those that love indie rock we now carry AngryApe to get you the latest. We're also working to expanding the headlines for sites that offer frequent updates. So you'll see some listing expanding over the next couple weeks as we work on that. As always, if you know of a great site missing from the newswire, then let us know. This is for you so you can get the very latest rock news. And we've also removed a couple of sites because of lack of updates or a recent turn to absolutely bogus reporting.

Here is WYSP's Monkeyboy with today's Red Lasso clip of the day: The Kooks on Jimmy Kimmel 5/21/2008 - Check it out here

Filter and 10 Years Tour

PR reports: On the heels of the release of their compelling new album Anthems For The Damned (Pulse Recordings) which debuts on the Billboard Indie album chart at #2 this week, Filter has announced U.S. tour dates with special guests 10 Years, kicking off June 12.

The band's current leg of dates--their first tour in nearly six years--included a slot this past weekend at Columbus, Ohio's "Rock on the Range" music festival.

On the road, Filter will perform songs from the new album—including the first single and video "Soldiers of Misfortune," hailed by the New York Post as a "soaring and emotional song"—with the band's classics like "Hey Man Nice Shot" and "Take A Picture." - more on this story

New Kids On The Block Are Rock?

antiMusic reports: "Must every rock band reunite?," AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen asked in a feature story on Yahoo News Wednesday which was accompanied by a photo of middle-aged boyband popsters New Kids on the Block. While the definition of what is "rock" has become rather lax over the years, it hasn't sunk so far as include boybands. The article basically is based around a Rolling Stone writer bitching about bands getting back together.

Here is the intro followed by the link if you care to read the rest: Your favorite '90s band broke up? Fear not, they'll be back. Seventies and '80s bands, too. And if not this year, maybe next.

This summer's concert calendar boasts tours by reunited rockers and relics — Stone Temple Pilots (split in 2003) and New Kids on the Block (split in 1994) — and recently re-energized bands such as the B-52s, the Black Crowes, Motley Crue and Yes. A round of reunion shows filled last summer's slate as well, with the Police, Led Zeppelin, Genesis and Van Halen playing their time-tested hits for fans. - more on this story

Win 10K For Making A Video

PR reports: The Weepies got a lot of breaks on their path to success. In 2006 and 2007, the band topped the digital download charts, country hopped from festival to festival, were nominated for the Shortlist Music prize, wrote an album with Mandy Moore, and landed songs in national ad campaigns as well as on favorite primetime television shows. So when it came to making a new video for their album title single, "Hideaway," The Weepies decided to pass on a big break of their own.

"Lately the most creative and interesting videos that we've seen have been small budget and sometimes home-made, put up on the internet by people who clearly love making them as an art form," they explain. Today the Weepies announced a video challenge prodding fans, independent filmmakers, and passionate people to craft the official music video for first single, "Hideaway." Hosted by social network, ascap-doesnt-want-labels-to-promote-their-artists-go-with-bmi-next-time, the video challenge offers a $10,000 cash prize, premier and feature promotions through ascap-doesnt-want-labels-to-promote-their-artists-go-with-bmi-next-time, video servicing to major television and online video outlets, and of course, attention as a professional film maker. - more on this story

. Duffy - Rockferry

Duffy's soulful vocals will undoubtedly be compared to those of Dusty Springfield, especially on torch songs like "Hanging on Too Long," but Rockferry's first single, "Mercy," is clearly a message to fans of Amy Winehouse, you've got a new girl now. (5 stars) - Read the full Duffy - Rockferry review

. For You - The New Bruce Springsteen Book

For You takes the reader on a magical, mystical and poignant journey through forty-years of Bruce Springsteen's life. It's a time machine to the past. I wasn't impressed with the book, I was bowled over. For You is the ultimate Bruce Springsteen keepsake. (5 stars) - Read the full For You - The New Bruce Springsteen Book review

. Sevendust - Chapter VII: Hope and Sorrow

Any fan of the band in the past would be somewhat satisfied, but as a dedicated metal/hardcore fan, this album only reminds me of why I stopped listening to the radio in the first place - Read the full Sevendust - Chapter VII: Hope and Sorrow review

Wait there is more!

Read Day In Rock Reports From Other Days
 

Submit news or a press release to the Day In Rock report