Tragedy Hits Pennywise

Liverpool Band Accused of Eating Cats for Satan

Nightwatcher reports: A Liverpool band about to play to more than 1,000 fans in Tunisia had the plug pulled on their concert when authorities believed rumors they were Satanists.

Anfield group Anathema were ready to perform a sold out gig in the capital Tunis when they were told they could not go ahead.

They hoped to reschedule for a couple of night later but the gig was canceled a second time. Guitar technician Darryl Anthony wrote in his blog: "Our promoter informed us that somebody has informed the Tunisian interior ministry that Anathema are Satan worshipers who eat black cats and drink their blood." [Better call PETA!] - more on this story here

Guns N' Roses Rock Band Video Game

Billboard reports: Guns N' Roses mainman Axl Rose may have spent 15 years fine tuning the 14 tracks on "Chinese Democracy," but it only took five months for the entire album to make its way into the "Rock Band" video game franchise.

"Chinese Democracy" will be released in its entirety into the Rock Band Music Store on April 14 and gamers will be able to download and play all 13 songs from the record, Harmonix and MTV Games announced Friday. "Shackler's Revenge," the first track to emerge from the album, made its debut in the "Rock Band 2" release.

Gamers who use the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 gaming systems will be able to purchase the entire album and individual tracks, while Nintendo Wii players can only buy the tracks individually. - Read what Axl has to say

Miley Cyrus Denies Boob Job- Green Day Clubbing- iTunes and Labels Learn Economics 101- Delfonics Legend Dies- The Dead Ponder New Music and more

antiMusic reports: Let's get the silliest story out of the way first: Miley Cyrus has dismissed stories that she's had a boob job.The singer has seen recent stories about her weight gain, with others suggesting the 16-year-old actress/singer had undergone surgery. "I did start out really skinny, but you're not going to have boobs when you're 12 years old." Cyrus explains. "I'm like, 'What are you talking about? Let me grow!" more

Green Day will appear at New York's Bowery Ballroom on May 18, just three days after the release of the band's hotly anticipated eighth studio album, "21st Century Breakdown," according to MTV Germany.more

Billy Bob Thornton's band has canceled the rest of its Canadian tour after the actor compared the country's fans to mashed potatoes with no gravy in a testy interview that caused a sensation online.more

Today's "Well Duh" report comes from Billboard.biz. Apparently Apple and the labels are finding out the hard way that raising prices leads to a drop in sales. A lesson Apple learned the hard way years ago with the Mac but must have forgotten when they agreed to a 30% hike in the prices of the most popular iTunes. Billboard says "Two days after the Apple iTunes Music Store raised prices on some individual tracks, there was evidence the increases have hurt the sales rankings of songs given the higher $1.29 price." more.

Randy Cain, a founding member of the soul group the Delfonics, which had such hits as "La La Means I Love You," has died. He was 63. Cain's death Thursday at his home in Maple Shade, N.J., was confirmed by investigator Rob O'Neal of the Burlington County medical examiner's office, who declined to release other details.more

The spring U.S. tour by The Dead may well be the first step towards turning the band into a recording entity again -- or at least that's what the surviving members of the Grateful Dead hope.more

When the New York Times asked Fleedwood Mac legend Stevie Nicks her thoughts about Lindsay Lohan possibly portraying her in a movie, Nicks responded, "Over my dead body." Find out why (It's not the obvious and assumed question of credibility) here

Manowar continues to make history with innovative ways for warriors from all corners of the globe to enjoy metal at its finest! Manowar is currently recording a song from their new album in 15 (and counting...) different languages!! more

Khanate will release a new (and final) album on May 26th via Hydra Head Records titled "Clean Hands Go Foul." Last active in 2006, the group includes James Plotkin (OLD) and Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O)))). The album has been made available on black, gold, and vanilla bean swirl vinylmore

Warpath's lead guitarist Pete Hawthorne has been indirectly involved with a motorbike accident, burning his left hand, which has forced the band to pull out of the up-coming Evile / Mutant tour, according to a band statement more

Antagonist has cancelled their upcoming tour with Fate. The band has issued the following: "The fact is, we have a broken down van, no trailer, and no money to fix any of these problems. We thought we'd have these problems resolved in time, but it just didn't work out that way.more

Maroon has announced the new dates for their visit to Russia. They will be playing on June 6th in St. Petersburg at Club Orlandina and June 7th in Moscow at Club Tochka. Both shows will be with Canadian death metal band Kataklysm.more

Early Man has backed out of their April tour dates with Valient Thorr due to injury. band statement

Amy Winehouse is reported to have declined an offer by Eminem to collaborate on a song for his new album 'Relapse'. A UK tabloid claims that the rapper wanted the troubled singer for his highly anticipated comeback record, for a similar track to his worldwide smash 'Stan' - which featured the vocals of Dido. more

Robbie Williams will not be rejoining Take That despite recent media speculation, Gary Barlow has said. "People constantly ask if Robbie will rejoin us but nothing has changed," said Barlow more

Deadlock has announced the addition of John Gahlert to their line-up on bass. - more

Fans To Pick Guitar Hero Smash Hits

PR reports: Guitar Hero fans can now cast their votes online at SmashHits.GuitarHero.com to determine the order in which songs will be revealed for Activision Publishing, Inc.'s Guitar Hero Smash Hits.

Guitar Hero Smash Hits takes the most exciting, recognizable and fun to play music from genre-defining titles Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, which were previously available for guitar-only in-game play, and delivers them as a compelling and dynamic full band experience.

Starting today, music and video game fans alike can visit SmashHits.GuitarHero.com to cast their votes for which previous Guitar Hero game they would like the set list unveiled from first. Each week, a portion of the Guitar Hero Smash Hits set list will be revealed based on which prior game captures the most votes. - more on this story

Death Cab for Cutie and Cold War Kids Members Team Up for a Cause

PR reports: Nathan Willett from Cold War Kids and Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie are running to raise money for the non-profit organization Water Wells for Africa during the month of April while their bands are on tour together in North America.

The number of miles Nathan and Ben run is being recorded in real time at www.runforwaterwells.com so fans can follow along as they rack up the miles. There is a suggested donation of $1 for every mile that the guys run.

Water Wells For Africa is a grassroots non-profit that was founded and run by Nathan Willett's family twelve years ago. Through donations, WWFA has put in over 100 water wells in drought regions in Malawi, Southern Africa. - more on this story

Talking Velvet Revolver With Duff

PR reports: A special episode of Talking Metal features interviews host Mark Strigl conducted with Duff McKagan of Loaded and Velvet Revolver as well as Dan Lorenzo of Hades, Non-Fiction, The Cursed, and Screaming Metal.

In Duff's interview he confirms that Velvet Revolver have NOT yet found a singer. He reveals that he has heard the new Alice In Chains album and calls it the best album of the past 10 years. He also discusses Slash's book and Loaded's new album.

Additional podcast topics discussed by Mark Strigl and host John Ostronomy include Talking Metal's April 12th appearance on MTV2's Headbangers Ball, Velvet Revolver's singer search, and KISS's upcoming fan-routed tour. - listen to the podcast

Eagles Of Death Metal Jam With Punk Legend

NME reports: Eagles Of Death Metal were joined onstage in London by The Damned's drummer Rat Scabies last week(April 8) as they tackled a classic by the punk outfit.

The drummer made a guest appearance at the HMV London Forum on the last night of the band's UK tour - playing on a cover of his band's 1976 debut single 'New Rose', widely considered to be the UK's first punk release.

Introducing Scabies, frontman Jesse 'The Devil' Hughes said: "One thing I love about playing in London is you can play with your friends too. Everybody, Rat Scabies." - more on this story

Pet Shop Boys Say Yes To Return

PR reports: One of the most iconic and influential pop acts in the world, Pet Shop Boys return with their tenth album and first for Astralwerks on April 21, 2009.

In a career spanning over 2 decades, the duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have created some of the most beloved and recognizable hits in the world ('West End girls', 'It's a sin', 'New York City boy', etc.), and sold over 30 million records. They've worked with artists like Dusty Springfield, David Bowie, Liza Minnelli, Robbie Williams, Electronic, The Killers and Madonna. In the USA, Pet Shop Boys are the fourth most successful artist in the history of the Billboard dance charts (behind Madonna, Donna Summer and Janet Jackson).

Filled with sparkling state of the art pop songs, Yes is an affirmation of the duo's knack for mixing innovative artistry with exuberant commercial appeal. Produced by the acclaimed Xenomania (Girls Aloud, Sugababes, Cher, Kylie Minogue, Saint Etienne), the album features guitar work by ex-Smith Johnny Marr and orchestral arrangements by Owen Pallett (Last Shadow Puppets, Final Fantasy). - Play The Pet Shop Boys Snake Game

Iron Maiden Screening New Film at Festival

PR reports: Fans attending the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival's April 16 Atticus Pre-Party will have the unique opportunity to screen the upcoming Iron Maiden film "Iron Maiden:Flight 666."

"Iron Maiden: Flight 666" is a revealing portrait of one of the world's most successful rock bands in an entertaining and inspirational account of their chaotic lives during the infamous 45-day world tour, "Somewhere Back in Time." Considered to be the most ambitious and adventurous tour in rock history, Maiden journeys through 13 countries on their own "magic carpet," a customized Boeing 757 airliner carrying the entire tour, including stage, crew, and twelve tons of equipment to 23 sold out shows in Asia, Australia and North, Central, and South America.

The theatrical release of the film will be distributed and marketed D&E Entertainment, the leader in Theatrical Distribution and Marketing of Alternative Content. The amazing feature-length journey will be shown on over 450 HD digital screens, in 41 countries, for one day only on April 21 - Maiden Day. - more on this story

Franz Ferdinand Reject Fast Food Offer

NME reports: Franz Ferdinand have admitted they snubbed an offer to allow a US fast food chain to use one of their songs.

Frontman Alex Kapranos said a large Mexican chain wanted to use the song 'Bite Hard' from their current album 'Tonight: Franz Ferdinand', for an advertising campaign.

But the band turned down the offer because they didn't feel comfortable signing it over. [wow! A band with musical integrity!] - more on this story

Singled Out: Throwing Color

antiMusic reports: Welcome to Singled Out! where we ask artists to tell us the inside story of their latest single. Today Throwing Color frontman Drew Duddy tells us about "How To Feed A Skeleton" from their brand new EP "The Static Seas," which is being released this week. We now turn it over to Drew for the story:

While brainstorming some ideas for our debut EP, The Static Seas, Dave was working on a song that was built around a catchy piano part that he had come up with. We were all really stoked on the song, but realized that we needed to rework some of its parts. We ended up scratching the piano, changing the key, and creating a more developed, upbeat rock song. Like most of the tracks on The Static Seas, Dave sat down and wrote most of its musical structure before any vocals were laid down.

I would have to say that the vocal melodies and lyrics of How To Feed A Skeleton came together relatively quickly. This song was written at a time when I was facing some difficult choices in my life and I was consumed with the realization that some of my closest of friends were falling quickly into a life of alcohol and drug abuse. How To Feed A Skeleton was written as an anthem for those who have decided to leave those "so called" friends behind and lead a much more fulfilling life.

We all decided that the best way to address this touchy subject was to just be completely straightforward and honest lyrically. The chorus hook, "And now I see you're too high to figure it out" was actually the first line that I had come up with for the song, so I decided that I would try and work the lyrics around that specific line. The title, How To Feed A Skeleton, is a poke fun at those people who are caught up in the trendy designer drug craze.

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

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