1001 Free Songs

This program is introducing music listeners to a world of new music for free! In fact, one thousand and one bands of all styles and musical genres were selected from artists across North America and around the world to provide a song which has been made available for free download at www.myspace.com/windows. Kick things off with the rockin track "Slave" by Edgewise (and a lot more) - Edgewise

Paul McCartney Retiring?

Nightwatcher reports: Sir Paul McCartney [reportedly] wants to retire with a huge farewell world tour next year. The 67-year-old Beatles legend is [said to be] planning to play at a host of "unusual" locations before walking away from performing large scale shows.

[An unnamed source told The Sun] "Paul wants to go out with a bang. He's played countless stadiums over his 50-year career and is on the hunt for the most unusual locations he can find.

"He realizes the older he gets, the less his body will be able to cope with the demands of extended periods on the road. He might play the odd benefit concert - but other than that he'll be putting his feet up and enjoying retirement." [Note: given that this report was based on an unnamed source, take it with a pound of salt. It could have come from random joker in a pub for all we know. We will try to reach out to McCartney's reps and see what we can learn, but for now read the rest of this report - here]

The Devil Vs Axl Rose and Lars Ulrich

Blabbermouth reports: Johnson Cummins of the Montreal Mirror recently conducted an interview with Eagles Of Death Metal frontman Jesse "The Devil" Hughes. And the Devil had a few things to say about other rockers including Lars Ulrich of Metallica and Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses.

On Axl Rose: "Like any other Guns N' Roses fan, I find Axl to be really insulting. He cost a lot of people their jobs, a lot of heartache and probably some mental breakdowns while he fucked around on a record ['Chinese Democracy'] for 16 fucking years — just because he wanted to be a dick. I firmly believe that the gods of rock 'n' roll just chose me to kick him out of the gang for gross misuse of power. Axl still has the opportunity to do something that no one expects him to do, which is something cool. I honestly think he can do it, but first, he really needs to control himself a bit, and most importantly, get a real friend."

On other a$$holes in rock: "Lars Ulrich from Metallica is somebody who just really gets my gander up. You can tell the other guys in the band are cool and used to just be serious heshers who were probably whacked out on meth and would've kicked your ass in the '80s. On the other hand, you have Lars, who is just this swishy Mary who grew his hair long, put on a denim jacket and infiltrated this cool gang. The only time I met him, he was wearing a golf pantsuit and everybody was wondering who this fat golfer dude was acting like an asshole in our backstage area. He could've been the greatest, but I went up to him after I figured out who he was and told him how much I loved Metallica, and he just looked through me and walked away. Thirty minutes later, Josh introduced me as the dude from the band, and he didn't even remember me from a half-hour before and went on about how he thought we were rad. The only thing I wanted to do at that point was kick his ass." - He's not done

Stage Collapses Killing 1, Injuring 75

AP reports: Organizers on Sunday canceled the closing day of a country music festival in central Alberta a day after a fierce thunderstorm caused an outdoor stage to collapse, killing one person and injuring about 75 others.

Thousands of fans were camped out at the Big Valley Jamboree in Camrose, 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Edmonton, when strong winds and heavy rain struck about 6 p.m. on Saturday, sending people screaming and running for cover. Actor Kevin Costner who was about to perform with his band narrowly escaped serious injury.

Police and festival organizers told a news conference at the site Sunday that one person was killed by falling debris from the stage and about 75 others were injured, most of whom were treated at the site. - more on this story

Red Hot Chili Peppers To Regroup This Fall

Billboard reports: With another Chickenfoot tour and the first release of his instrumental side band Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats looming, the drummer has October circled on his calendar for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' return to active duty.

"That's the plan," Smith tells Billboard.com, noting that what was announced as a one-year break turned into two for the quartet after touring to support 2005's "Stadium Arcadium."

"Everybody was like, 'Y'know, I really like having this time off, not being a Chili Pepper and doing other things...It'll be two years in September, so now we're ready. You can't force people to play when they don't want to play or aren't ready to play or whatever -- not in our band, anyway." - Read the rest of this Billboard report

Guitar Hero 5: Full Tracklisting Announced

PR reports: Guitar Hero today unveiled the final 15 tracks to be showcased in the epic 85 song set list in Guitar Hero 5. Among the varied collection of current hits and classic artists are Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire," TV On The Radio's "Wolf Like Me," Muse's "Plug In Baby," Stevie Wonder's classic "Superstition" and Nirvana's multi-award winning, chart-topping "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Also joining the set list in Guitar Hero 5 and making their music video game debut are Arctic Monkeys and Dire Straits.

The entire set list is at players' fingertips from the start, featuring genre-defining hits from some of the biggest rock artists and bands of all time, including The Rolling Stones, The White Stripes, Kings of Leon, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Vampire Weekend. Players take complete control as Guitar Hero 5 allows gamers to personalize and customize how they experience music by being able to play with any controller combination -- multiple vocalists, guitarists, bassists and drummers, in any game mode. With the game's all-new Party Play Mode, getting the band back together has never been easier. Players can now jump in or drop out of gameplay seamlessly, without interrupting their jam session.

Elevating the Guitar Hero series to new heights with unmatched social gameplay, an enhanced style, new in-game artists and more rock legends, Guitar Hero 5 features new surprises and challenges that will fire-up long-time fret board fanatics and create a new generation of addicts.

When Guitar Hero 5 ships on September 1, living room rock stars will be able to rock any way they want to the expansive set list including the pulse pounding tracks listed - here

AC/DC Smash Record- Free McCartney- Downloader Fined 675K- OutKast Star Ditches Jive?- Dave Grohl Avenue- Creed Support- Baroness Drop Clutch and more

antiMusic reports: AC/DC smashed New Zealand box office records when tickets to their "Black Ice World Tour" went on sale for their Wellington and Auckland shows this week. More than 85,000 tickets have been sold across the two cities — that's one in 50 New Zealanders buying a ticket to the rock and roll extravaganza. more

Download your free copy of Paul McCartney's "Great Day" featured in the Adam Sandler film, "Funny People," here.

A Boston University student has been ordered to pay $675,000 to four record labels for illegally downloading and sharing music. Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., admitted he downloaded and distributed 30 songs. The only issue for the jury to decide was how much in damages to award the record labels. more

OutKast Rapper Big Boi has been working on his solo album, Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty, for quite some time. And now it looks like he will be taking the album to Def Jam rather than his previous home of Jive Records.more

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl made a special appearance Saturday (August 1) in his birth town after having a street named after him. more

Vancouver-based, New Zealand-bred hard rockers Like A Storm will open for Creed on 18 dates of the band's summer reunion tour.more

Sonic Youth have added seven shows to their upcoming tour of the US, with the new dates launching September 25 in Pomona, CAmore

Halloween II - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" (Hip-O/UMe), released August 25, 2009, and co-produced by Zombie, manages to bring together dialogue from the film as well as music from MOTÖRHEAD, THE MOODY BLUES, SCREAM (sans future member Dave Grohl), ROD STEWART, the MC5 and FOGHAT, alongside new psychobilly band CAPTAIN CLEGG AND THE NIGHT CREATURES.more

Blue Coupe featuring featuring original Alice Cooper Band member Dennis Dunaway and former Blue Öyster Cult legends Albert (drums) and Joe (bass) Bouchard, have announced a handful of shows at the end of August.more

High On Fire will enter the studio in August to begin work on their fifth studio album. Pre-production will commence in Los Angeles with producer Greg Fidelman (Metallica, Slayer) at the helm.more

Baroness has dropped off their current tour with Clutch. Here's a statement from the band: "We regret to inform you the people, our fans and friends, that we will not be finishing the tour with Clutch from July 31st in Calgary till August 8th in Baltimore. There are times in life when family takes priority over all, and is so in our case at this time."more

Rise Records is proud to welcome Those Who Lie Beneath into the family. Their debut album " An Awakening" is due out on October 13th.
Check out 2 brand new songs here.

The Letters Organize have announced a one-off reunion show to take place on August 28 at Drunken Unicorn in Atlanta, GAmore

The Viper Room has announced that Ace Frehley will be appearing on their stage during the Sunset Strip Music Festival on Saturday, September 12th.

5&1/4 Records is proud to announce Vangel's latest release: Eat Your FootLoose (LIVE), a 20-min mishmash of Live set material. Eat Your FootLoose is a continuous improvisation of released and unreleased Vangel material with audio taken from live performances(2006-2008) in Paris, Milan, Budapest, Vienna, Toronto & Montreal . video -

A Static Lullaby Robbed

Lambgoat reports: A Static Lullaby apparently had their van and trailer stolen this week in Orange County, California. Here's the latest from the band:

"Yesterday we posted a Myspace bulletin asking everyone to keep and eye out for our van and trailer after it disappeared from in front of Tyler's house at around 10 or 11 am that morning.

"As of today we still have not heard any word from the Brea Police of any of the towing companies about whether or not the van was towed, so as of now we are officially declaring it stolen."
- more on this story

Megadeth Frontman Recovering From Surgery

Rock Radio reports: Dave Mustaine says the medical procedure he received on his neck and vertebrae last week went well, and he's looking forward to a full recovery.

The Megadeth mainman nearly lost the use of his right arm in 2002, and revealed on Wednesday that he needed urgent attention once again. He was hoping medics would be able to patch him up so he could complete touring commitments for the year, but warned he might need more serious surgery later.

But after last week's procedure he says all has gone well. He explains: "Thank you for your prayers and positive thoughts today. They're working rather well. There is only one thing that we are watching right now and I should be good." - more on this story

The Mars Volta Announce U.S. Tour

Warner Bros reports: Following on the heels of a triumphant appearance at last month's Bonnaroo festival and the recent announcement of a Sunday September 13 headline slot at this year's Monolith Festival, The Mars Volta has announced a full U.S. tour.

The tour will kick off August 29 at the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco followed by a two-night headline stand at the Hollywood Palladium following on August 30 and September 1.

The tour begins in the wake of The Mars Volta's fifth full length studio album, Octahedron, which was released June 23 by Warner Bros. Records in the U.S., entering the Billboard chart at #12. - more on this story

Evergreen Terrace Drummer Back In The Hospital

antiMusic reports: Evergreen Terrace drummer Kyle Mims is back in hospital according to his label Metal Blade Records. They write in their weekly newsletter: Unfortunately we have some bad news. Although Kyle's surgery for his shoulder went smooth, he is back in the hospital with a blood clot in his lung, otherwise known as a pulmonary embolism.

It is pretty serious. His family is still accepting donations for medical costs. Kyle was just a few weeks away from qualifying for health insurance through his work before this accident.

His medical bills have become insanely expensive. Anything you can do to help is much appreciated by Kyle, his family and Evergreen Terrace. - To donate please go here

Carmine Appice Gets A Little Help From His All-Star Friends

PR reports: Fuel Records is scheduled to release the Guitar Zeus project by legendary drummer Carmine Appice, featuring a compilation of 24 of the best Guitar Zeus songs. Conquering Heroes hits the streets on August 18th. The double-disc set showcases the prolific talents of many world-renown rock guitarists including Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big), Yngwie Malmsteen, Neal Schon (Journey), Steve Morse (Deep Purple), Jennifer Batten (Michael Jackson), Mick Mars (Motley Crue), and the core band featuring Tony Franklin (The Firm, Blue Murder) on bass, Kelly Keeling (Blue Murder, MSG, TSO) on vocals/keys/rhythm guitar, with Appice on drums.

Author, clinician, drummer... Carmine Appice first came to prominence as the percussionist with the late 1960s psychedelic band Vanilla Fudge. He contributed distinctive background harmonies with bassist Tim Bogert, adding to the group's high decibel sonic assault. After five albums, Appice and Bogert left Vanilla Fudge to form the blues rock quartet Cactus with vocalist Rusty Day and guitarist Jim McCarty. Eventually, Appice left Cactus with Bogert to join Jeff Beck in the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice, and then later joined Rod Stewart's backing band in 1977, co-writing hit songs such as "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" and "Young Turks". In 1978, Appice played drums on Paul Stanley's first solo album. He was a member of KGB featuring Ray Kennedy, Rick Grech, Mike Bloomfield and Barry Goldberg, and has recorded with Stanley Clarke, Ted Nugent, and Pink Floyd. He was the drummer for the bands King Kobra and Blue Murder, and toured with Ozzy Osbourne.

Appice first created Guitar Zeus in 1995 when he recruited some of the most famous guitarists in the world to be a part of his project, from Zakk Wylde and Ted Nugent to Brian May (Queen) and Slash (Guns N Roses), even tennis legend John McEnroe. Songs also included guest vocals by Dug Pinnick and Edgar Winter. Throughout the late 1990's, three Guitar Zeus CDs were released to worldwide critical acclaim. - more on this story

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