Bigelf Week: Day 1

Preview songs from the album, learn more about it and the group and more right - here!

Aerosmith Singer To Front Led Zeppelin?

House of Rock reports: In what must be rumor #9,999,999 it seems (and that's just this month) Led Zeppelin are reportedly lining up a megastar replacement for singer Robert Plant: they have been jamming with Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler.

Fans of the legendary rock band have speculated there will be a world tour since they reunited for a one-off show last December (2007).

Singer Plant has frequently denied the band is to hit the road for a string of gigs, but rumors the other three members - Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham - have been rehearsing together have sent gossips into a spin.

Now the comeback looks to be a step closer to reality, with reports suggesting Tyler has taken over vocal duties during practice sessions in London.

Don't get your hopes up, these are UK press reports. - Read more

Metallica Top Hall of Fame Poll

cleveland.com reports: The groundbreaking heavy-metal band Metallica was the top vote-getter in The Plain Dealer's ninth annual Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame poll. We asked newspaper readers and visitors to Cleveland.com to tell us which nominees on the latest official Rock Hall ballot are most worthy of induction.

"That's really nice to hear!" Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich said by phone from his home in Northern California.

"It's been a great year for Metallica," he said. "There's a lot of love and goodwill from the fans, from the critics, from the peers, from all the sixth-graders over at my son's school. There's a lot of love everywhere I look. - more on this story

Jennifer Hudson Family Murder, Reward Offered for Missing Child

TMZ reports: Law enforcement sources tell TMZ Jennifer Hudson's mother was one of two victims shot and killed in Chicago on Friday. A neighbor tells TMZ the other victim was Jennifer's brother Jason. A cousin who lived nearby discovered the bodies.

We're told the two bodies were found dead on the scene at 2:44 PM. When the fire department arrived and discovered the bodies, police were brought in and the home was declared a crime scene.

UPDATE 6:40 PM Friday: An all points bulletin has been issued for a boy, believed to be Hudson's 7-year-old nephew, who may have been taken from the scene. Police are looking for 1994 white Suburban with the license plate X584859.

UPDATE 7:35 PM Friday: Police are looking for looking for William Balfour, who they claim could be with the missing 7-year-old. According to records, Balfour listed Hudson's mother's address as a place of residence within the last year. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections website, Balfour is currently on parole after serving jail time for attempted murder.

TMZ's been keeping close tabs on developments, get the very latest here

AP had this update on Sunday: Jennifer Hudson and her family offered a $100,000 reward Sunday for the safe return of her missing nephew, as investigators looked for forensic evidence near the home where her mother and brother were found shot to death. - more on this story

Fall Out Boy Attempt World Record

PR reports: Fall Out Boy announced today that they are attempting to set a Guinness World Record for the Most Interviews on Radio in a 24 Hour Period by a Pair of Two. (a little redundant since a pair is by definition: two. Or it could mean fruits?)

Pete Wentz and Patrick Vaughn Stump have teamed up to take over the radio airwaves to as many stations across the fifty states in a span of 24 hours.

Their record quest will begin at 3:00am PST on October 31, at Premiere Studios in Los Angeles . The current Guinness World Record for the most radio interviews by a pair of two is currently 57 radio stations in 24 hours (completed in May 2008). - more on this story

AC/DC Top Chart, Another Grateful Death, Slash Comments on New GNR, Rock Band Additions, Jane's Addiction Reunite, Allman All Better, Kid Rock U and more

antiMusic reports: Here are the quicks for Monday! AC/DC have claimed their first UK Number One album in 28 years with 'Black Ice', which shot to the top despite no digital format being available. more

Merl Saunders, a jazz and rock keyboardist who collaborated with iconic acts including Miles Davis and the Grateful Dead, has died. He was 74. Saunders died Friday at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Francisco of complications due to a stroke, said his son, Merl Saunders Jr. more

The original lineup of Jane's Addiction crammed into tiny Los Angeles Mexican bar La Cita Thursday night (Oct. 23), playing an hour-long set for a privileged crowd and fueling hopes for a full-scale reunion. more

Slash appeared on the Toucher and Rich show on WBCN/Boston this morning, where the ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist heard the new GNR single "Chinese Democracy" for the first time. Slash told the morning duo, "That sounds cool...it's good to hear [Axl's] voice, you know?" He added that he's "curious to hear what the album sounds like." more

Blink-182's "Dammit" along with a trio of songs from Souxsie & the Banshees will be added to Rock Band 2 next week. Other tracks in the selection come from the Psychedelic Furs and Silversun Pickups.more titles being added

An All-American Rejects fan has put together a controversial and potentially funny little video for the band's new single, "Give You Hell," which features a Robot Chicken-style parody of the Highschool Musical crew. The video is somewhat NSFW.more

Slayer recently entered the studio to begin work on their forthcoming album. The band is working on a new album due out next summer.

Julian Pavone is an exceptionally good drummer and he's only four-years-old. Videos of the phenomenon first surfaced two years ago, and now, Pavone is making history as the youngest performer to grace the stage of Whiskey A Go-Go on the Sunset Strip.more

Snow Patrol has premiered the early listening party of their album, A Hundred Million Suns, on MySpace.com over the weekend. So you can go check that out right here.

Not into Snow Patrol? What about The Cure? The Cure's new album titled "4:13 Dream" was made available on the band's official MySpace profile on Saturday October 25, and MySpace users worldwide can stream the entire album for free. Listen here

Enuff Z'nuff were scheduled to play San Diego on Saturday night but the show never came off. Apparently their drummer Randi Scott was shot during a robbery. This according to a post on their message board from the band's new guitarist Tory. We're not 100% sure if Tory was being serious or not but he reports that "on the positive side, [Randi] should make a full recovery and we took some cool new promo shots." Randi and Tory are also bandmates in The Black Mollys check them out here.

His medical woes behind him for now, according to Live Daily, Gregg Allman will head out on the road in late December for his long-delayed first solo dates of the year. more

Rise Against have been forced to cancel their show Sunday and Monday night due an illness which caused frontman Tim McIlrath to lose his voice. more

In Flames have released a limited edition EP featuring the roll out single "The Mirror's Truth" off the quintet's critically-acclaimed full length release, A Sense of Purpose. Also included on the EP are the previously unreleased tracks "Eraser," "Tilt" and "Abnegation." Their MySpace

Mos Def will release his Downtown debut, "The Ecstatic," on Feb. 9, Billboard.com can reveal. The first single, "Life in Marvelous Times," will hit iTunes as an exclusive on Nov. 4.more

Kid Rock and his Made in Detroit apparel line are working with Wayne State University to help start a college scholarship fund for area music students.more

Blue Man Group will be holding auditions at Musicians Institute (www.mi.edu) exclusively for MI students and grads on Tuesday, November 11th from 12-5pm. They are currently seeking percussionists for immediate openings in shows running in New York, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Universal Orlando, Berlin, Oberhausen, Tokyo and Stuttgart. If you qualify, contact Director of Artist and Career Services Todd Berhorst (toddb@mi.edu) for more information.

A jury of seven men and five women was sworn in for the murder retrial of music producer Phil Spector and attorneys began searching for six alternates, revealing that the ghost of another trial — the O.J. Simpson murder case — hangs over the current proceedings.more

The new member of Leaves' Eyes and Atrocity is Los Angeles based drummer Seven Antonopolous (ex-Opiate For The Masses). Seven: "I've been a big fan of the bands for a long time. I can't tell you how excited I am to play with such amazing people! more

Homeless man Anthony Silva has claimed a $4,000 reward after finding the waxwork head of Sir Paul McCartney in a bin at Reading, England train station.more
Rob Zombie's brand new song, "War Zone," is available exclusively at the official site for Punisher: War Zone. The original track "War Zone", written for and inspired by the film. The song will also serve as the first single from the soundtrack. About his contribution, Rob Zombie said: "I love writing music for films, rather than just throwing them an unwanted B side or remix. This track was written exclusively for Punisher War Zone. A punishing track for a punishing movie." Grab it here

Dude you're getting a Dull! Universal Music Group is teaming with Dell to give customers the option of adding pre-loaded MP3s from the label's catalog to new computers purchased from the company. The deal does not provide access to the full UMG catalog, but rather a collection of curated playlists organized by various themes

Wu Tang Clan, are dusting off those mics and getting back on the road. The saga continues in Portland at the end of November and wraps up in the middle of January.dates
Necrophobic, welcome their new bassist, Alex Friberg, and have issued an update on their new album: "Necrophobic is from now on a 5 piece strong legion! During 2008 the band did a number of shows as a 5 piece with Erik Danielsson (Watain) as a session member. " more

With a voice as soulful as Otis Redding's, as romantic as Luther Vandross and as purely Jamaican as reggae itself, Beres Hammond has been a consistent hitmaker since the '70s. Those qualities are still on display on his 25th album, "A Moment in Time." - more

Slash Plans Star Studded Solo CD

Reuters reports: A solo album or the third Velvet Revolver album -- or possibly both -- are on Slash's docket for 2009.

The guitarist told Billboard that he's "at the very tail end of the demo phase" for the solo project, which he hopes to start recording early next year.

He began creating material during Velvet Revolver's last tour and said that while it will have references to his work with that band and Guns N' Roses, "there's really no particular direction. I just wanted to take a little bit of a break from all the politics and the democracy that is a band and just sort of do my own thing for a little bit. There will be a lot of stuff I don't have the freedom to do in a band situation."

Slash plans to use different singers for each of the album's songs - more on this story

Collective Soul Revisit Afterwards

antiMusic reports: Collective Soul's latest album "Afterwards" will be hitting ALL retailers on December 9th with bonus tracks.

This is a reissue of the Target exclusive which debuted at #25 on the Billboard Comprehensive album chart in September 2007. It contains three new songs by frontman Ed Roland, exclusive to this release, according to Amazon.com.

Wanna taste of what the songs are about? Ed and Joel spoke with us the week of the original release about some of their favorite tracks from the album.

"You're All That I Know". Joel says of the track, "I think this song showcases some real maturity in Ed's songwriting and in the Collective Soul sound. A great chorus hook and interesting guitar parts over some cool changes. I got to sing background vocals on that one as well. I also replaced what was once a clarinet solo with a guitar solo. Now that's way it's supposed to be!"

And here is Ed's take on the song: "That's basically about my wife. We've been married a little over a year. She's a wonderful woman. She changed my outlook on life and it's my way of telling her she's the one. 'You're all that I know when the sun goes down/ You're all that I know when the sun comes rising like that devil in me.'"

- more song stories

GNR's Chinese Democracy A Radio Hit

antiMusic reports: Some artists can stay away almost two decades and come roaring back with hits. Take Axl Rose. The title track from the new Guns N' Roses album hit radio on Wednesday and within a day it was already getting more airplay than the No. 1 song on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart.

Here is a little info that we went sent over: According to Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, between 5am Eastern on 10/22 and 5am Eastern on 10/23, "Chinese Democracy" was played 683 times - full length - on all BDS monitored terrestrial and satellite radio stations.

WAAF-FM in Boston and WHJY-FM in Providence both played it 18 times during that time period. WBSX-FM in Wilkes-Barre was next with 17 spins.

By comparison, the #1 song on the Billboard Mainstream Rock radio chart was spun 322 times on October 22, with 526 spins overall - Don't listen to radio and wanna hear the song? Go here

God Forbid Going for Earthsblood On New Album

PR reports: There is no doubt that one of the most anticipated new albums of 2009 is the new God Forbid full length offering, which is tentatively set for a February release through Century Media Records. This explosive, ground breaking disc entitled Earthsblood, sees the band take their performance to the next level and is easily the defining release of their already heralded career.

Doc Coyle (guitars, vocals) further comments: "The title Earthsblood came to me after watching the film There Will Be Blood. What is the price of ambition? Is the blood of our bodies and the blood of the earth one and the same? With the current energy crisis, and its relation to many of the military conflicts worldwide, there has been a global, collective consciousness that has emerged in regards to the interdependence between humankind and the planet in which we inhabit. Coincidentally, the lyrics that Byron Davis and Dallas Coyle had written meshed with these revelations perfectly. This isn't a preachy, trendy, 'hip to be green' album, nor is it a concept album. It's just an abstract observation." - more on this story

Have a Burning Question for Stereophonics?

PR reports: In celebration of Stereophonics' forthcoming album Decade in the Sun: Best of Stereophonics, the band will be answering fan's questions about the songs included on the greatest hits (+2 new songs) album.

These questions and answers will be put into a very special podcast that will be made available worldwide through the band's website.

The band will answer 20 questions (one for each song) from a few lucky fans who will be chosen to not only ask the band their question on the podcast but will receive an autographed copy of Decade in the Sun. - more on this story

I Don't Think The U.S. Rocks Any More Toto

House of Rock reports: Steve Lukather : "I think the hits killed us in the United States" In a brand new exclusive interview conducted by Nightwatcher's House Of Rock, ex Toto guitar legend Steve Lukather discusses his new album, 'Ever Changing Times', the break up of Toto, his views on the current state of the music business, plus much more. An excerpt from the interview follows below :

NHOR : Where do you feel that Steve Lukather fits in the music scene of today, and what are your expectations for this album? SL : Where do I fit in? (Laughs) You know, I don't really fit in anywhere. I think that's a big problem. Some people, when they're metal, they're metal, and that's what they do. If they're jazz, they're jazz, or if they're rappers, they're rappers. I've always cross pollinated in between all styles. In my youth, and a large portion of my adult life I was a session musician, playing on albums as divergent as McCartney, Elton John and Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, and eveything in between. Cheap Trick and The Tubes one day, then Aretha and Alice Cooper the next day. I just morphed with the situation. With the music of my old band we reflected a lot of the styles of music that we liked. Since there wasn't a particular pretty boy pop star in the band, we were just kind of the band to rake through the coals.

But that was only in the United States. Everywhere else in the world we were respected, and people liked that about us. We quietly sold 30 million records, and with my own personal solo career I've also done really well over there. In Asia, Europe, South America, Mexico...basically any non-English speaking country, with the exception of the UK, where I've done really well. But America's always been an anomaly, so we kind of stayed away. Also financially, it wasn't very viable. Why go out and lose money when you can play arenas elsewhere and make lots of money? There was a huge misconception about my old band, and myself, regarding what kind of musician I am. Although I did an album with Larry Carlton, an instrumental, jam band type of record, and we won a Grammy a couple of years ago. And that was a U.S. based thing. - Read the full interview

Singled Out: Ra

antiMusic reports: Welcome to Singled Out! where we ask artists to tell us the inside story of their latest single. Today we are pleased to feature one of the world's most criminally underrated bands: Ra. Frontman Sahaj Ticotin tells us about "Broken Hearted Soul" from their new album "Black Sun". What makes this single even more significant is the band released the album on their own terms and are having big success at rock radio based on the quality of the song, not the big label muscle pushing it! You might not know what a major accomplishment that is in this day and age. It's HUGE and practically unheard of. So with that said, we now turn it over to Sahaj for the story:

Doing the new Ra record was all about simplifying and thickening what we'd already done on "From one" and "Duality". When it came time to start the record I immediately came up with the riff for "Broken Hearted Soul". Being half Puerto Rican but being in a band named after an Egyptian god, I wanted to do something with a bit of Latin flavor and this pseudo flamenco line is what came up. Then I thought of playing it acoustically for an intro. The groove was funky so I figured why not make the track bounce with the drums.

As for the rest of it... I've been working with all these new emo type bands and I think it rubbed off on me a little for the pre chorus and choruses. I love this song. Lyrically it came directly out of my relationship experience and quoted verbatim several things I actually lamented. The thing I was most proud of with the track was the feeling that there really wasn't anything like it on the radio so I felt very successful having created something unique in a market flooded with similar music.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album - right here!

Wait there is more!

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