Motley Crue's Tommy Lee Injured

"We all wanna say we're sorry Tommy has to sit out a couple shows, But we hope to have him back up on the drums [as soon as possible]. Until then, he is at all the shows, jumping around, helping out with vocals and playing piano ever so lightly on 'Home Sweet Home'.
- more including video

Jimmy Page Unveils New Songs

Billboard reports: When he gathered with U2's The Edge and Jack White to play together for the new film "It Might Get Loud", Jimmy Page wanted to have more than just his old favorites to jam on.

So he produced "a couple of sort of sketches," titled "Embryo No. 1" and "Embryo No. 2" that the Led Zeppelin founder says represent the first step for some new music in the not-too-distant future.

"They just go to show I didn't go in there thinking, 'Let's see what we can get away with from the past?' " Page tells Billboard.com. "It was quite important, I felt, to actually have something that shows I'm still working on the guitar relative to just doing 'Whole Lotta Love' or something like that. It was more 'Let's show a complete picture,' so you've got that kid (a young Page on British TV) playing at 14 and you've got me playing on some things which are really pretty current for me." - More from Page at Billboard.com

Cradle Of Filth Guitar Hospitalized After Being Hit Onstage

Blabbermouth reports: British extreme metallers Cradle Of Filth were forced to cut their set short Saturday night (August 15) at the Bloodstock Open Air festival in Derbyshire, England after guitarist Paul Allender was hit by an object thrown by a member of the audience, resulting in Paul being unable to finish the performance and requiring medical attention.

A Blabbermouth.Net user by the name of "metalfanBKP" has submitted the following eyewitness account from the event: (full account at the full story link, here are some of the highlights) someone threw a large object that hit Paul Allender in the lower back. He grimaced and put his hand to his back, immediately leaving the stage. The rest of the band continued playing the song without him and, eventually, they all left the stage.

"After about 10 minutes of silence, the organisers had announced that a missile thrown at the band had injured one of the band members and that the band would not continue. This happened approximately 35 minutes into an 80-minute set that COF was expected to play. Having spoken to the security at the front after the crowd began to disperse, I found out that Paul was actually taken to hospital (which accounted for the sound of ambulance sirens that was heard) and that the object thrown was, in fact, a 'gobstopper,' which is like a giant golf ball." - more on this story

ZZ Top Tour Despite Aerosmith Cancellation

PR reports: In light of the just-announced cancellation of Aerosmith/ZZ Top tour dates which had been slated, ZZ Top is mounting a tour of its own that will hit the ground running as soon as this coming week.

Routing will take ZZ Top to many of the markets that had been on that cancelled tour's itinerary, giving fans a second chance, in a manner of speaking, to see the band after all. ZZ Top affirms a commitment to scheduling as many dates as feasible as soon as possible with more specific details relating to markets, venues, ticket sales, etc. to be revealed shortly.

Aerosmith dropped out of the tour due to injuries sustained last week by front man Steven Tyler. When it became apparent that the dates they were scheduled to share with Aerosmith were in jeopardy, ZZ Top band members – Billy F Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard -- caucused with management and came up with a plan to get the show back on the road on an ASAP basis. - more on this story

Lit Drummer Dies From Brain Cancer

PR reports: Allen Shellenberger, drummer for Orange County rock band Lit, lost his battle with brain cancer Thursday, August 13, 2009 surrounded by his loving family, the band, and close friends. He was 39 years old. In May 2008, Allen was diagnosed with a malignant glioma brain tumor and immediately underwent clinical trials, chemotherapy and radiation treatments at the Cedars-Sinai Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute.

Allen was a founding member of Lit over two decades ago and was able to perform with the band until last fall. In a statement from Kevin Baldes, Jeremy Popoff, and A.Jay Popoff, the band had this to say of their longtime friend Allen:

"To know Al was to know laughter. He had a heart of gold and would do anything for anyone. Words cannot begin to express how much he will be missed. This was our brother and not a day will go by that we won't think about him. Right now we're trying to find the balance of mourning his loss and celebrating his life. Allen has experienced more in his 39 years than most people dream of in ten lifetimes. This is a tremendous loss for us, our fans, and also for Allen's family who took such good care of him during his battle with cancer." - more on this story

Slash Remembers Les Paul

antiMusic reports: Our friend Erin Broadley over at L.A. Weekly had the chance to talk to Slash about the late great Les Paul last week. Here are a couple of notable quotes from the exchange: "The first guitar I ever got was a Les Paul copy," Slash laughs

"It's important for kids to know who Les was because when I first started playing, I thought Les Paul was the name of a guitar. I didn't know it was a real person..."

"Les was the kind of guy that anytime you were in his presence, he was always very upbeat, always cracking jokes, always making comments about the women present... Very polite but very perverted at the same time, you know? [Laughs] The fact that he took a liking to me and took me under his wing was a huge honor." - Read the full feature here!

Aerosmith Will Still Play Court Ordered Show

starbulletin.com reports: Rock band Aerosmith will honor a court settlement and perform a concert on Maui in late September or early October, according to an attorney who represented thousands of ticket holders who sued after the band canceled a concert two years ago.

Attorney Brandee Faria said she talked yesterday with Aerosmith's lawyer, Jay Handlin, and was assured the band would perform.

The band's publicist announced Thursday that it was canceling its summer tour after singer Steven Tyler was injured when he fell off a stage Aug. 5 while performing in South Dakota. - more on this story

Nirvana Reissue and Live Bonus- New Radiohead EP This Week?- Jim Dickinson RIP- Rare Beatles for Game- Rex Brown Is Down Again- Blitzkrieg Guitarist Dies and more

antiMusic reports: Sub Pop will reissue Nirvana's classic debut album, Bleach, to commemorate its 20th anniversary. Due out November 3, the rerelease of the 1989 record will feature the original album and an entire never-before-released live performance. more

There is speculation that Radiohead will issue a new digital EP as early as Monday (Aug. 17), following the leak of a track online assumed to be a new song by the band. Fan site At Ease reports that "These Are My Twisted Words" was posted on its message board and it has since appeared on YouTube. According to At Ease, the source file includes the title "Wall of Ice" and the release date Aug. 17 more

Bob Mehr has this sad news: The North Mississippi Allstars have lost their father, Bob Dylan has lost a "brother," rock and roll has lost one of its great cult heroes and Memphis has lost a musical icon with the death of Jim Dickinson. The 67-year-old Dickinson passed away early Saturday morning in his sleep. The Memphis native and longtime Mississippi resident had been in failing health for the past few months and was recuperating from heart surgery at Methodist Extended Care Hospital. more

Poison the Well have announced a month-long headlining tour with Canadian rockers Billy Talent.more

Bassist Rex Brown will rejoin his Down bandmates on the road starting with the August 24, 2009 show in Austin, Texas.more

Ian Jones, original guitarist for New Wave Of British Heavy Metal legends Blitzkrieg, passed away on August 10 after a long illness. more

Gallows has scrapped their previously announced Australian and New Zealand tour dates, instead opting to tour the U.S. with AFI.more

Rare Beatles audio will appear throughout the upcoming Beatles: Rock Band video game.more

Halloween is back and so too is writer-producer-director Rob Zombie, who once again puts his own twisted twist on the soundtrack. Halloween II – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Hip-O/UMe), to be released August 25, 2009, and co-produced by Zombie, manages to bring together dialogue from the film as well as music from Motorhead, 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.

AM Conspiracy, the band fronted by former Drowning Pool vocalist Jason "Gong" Jones, has parted ways with guitarist Mike Farole.more

ORBS, featuring members of Between The Buried And Me and Fear Before, among others, will tour the East Coast briefly this month. Dates are here

Original San Francisco bay area thrash masters Sacrilege BC have released their blistering 1986 Party with God recording officially on November Fire Recordings. The seventeen track package includes the bands first demo and has been remastered from the studio session tapes. Sacrilege BC was on the crest of the crossover movement that emerged from the birthplace of California thrash. For more information or to order the digipack visit www.sacrilegebc.com also available on itunes.

God Seed — the Norwegian band featuring former Gorgoroth members King (bass; real name: Tom Cato Visnes) and Gaahl (vocals; real name: Kristian Espedal) tells Blabbermouth: "It has been rumored that Gaahl and King have disbanded God Seed. However, this is not the case. Gaahl has chosen to retire from metal music." more

We end with a couple mailbag items. Jesse writes: John Shanks only confirmed "We Weren't Born To Follow" as the new Bon Jovi smass (single that is). The album is called The Circle, confirmed by Obie on the official Bon Jovi website. Single "we weren't meat to follow" end of august. album The Circle November 10th. [Apparently the "tweet" where that info came from was unclear on this point but was clarified later. Chalk it up to being like when KISS was going to call their album "Condemnation" and ended up going with "Cheesy Nights" instead.]

We got quite a few emails about the Top 100 singers list (which we expected). Aside from a few about a couple of typos (thanks! We thought we double checked all of them but we missed a couple. All fixed now), most were bitching about the results (including a large number of Axl haters/Clay Aiken lovers. Astroturf?). First off we must state two important things about this list. One) It is a poll and two) we asked our readers to submit their favorite singers, not who they think are the best singers. There is a distinction. Three) since we cover a wide variety of music, this list also reflects that we attract a wide variety of music fans. That's democracy for you. If we asked ever person who voted for a full top 100 list, they would probably all be different. If your favorite singer didn't make the list, don't feel too bad as most of my personal favs didn't make the cut and a lot of singers that I can't stand did. We might have to do this again in a few months and see what kind of results we get a second time? So if you don't like the results this time, you'll have a chance to change them the next! But first we'll have a favorite guitarist poll and before that we are working on another rather different idea (more on that soon). In the meantime, more Weird Al and less U2 and Springsteen. We got the message. But if you get off at getting angry at lists like this, have we got a treat for you. Check out this side by side comparison of our old Top 100 Albums of All Time polls from 1999 and 2000. [Note No. 4 in 1999!] -

Burton Bell Led City of Fire Release Album Online

Fresno Media reports: Hard Rock experimentalists, City of Fire, pay homage to the vibrant city in which the band was formed, Vancouver, BC, with their self-titled debut release. "I have always loved Vancouver," explains vocalist, Burton C. Bell. "During this session, my eyes were intensely aware that Vancouver is vibrant with life, like a raging fire. This is where the name of the band came from. I was inspired like never before, and I believe it shows accordingly on this City of Fire debut."

City of Fire's debut album was released on the band's website, www.cityoffire.com, on Saturday August 15th, with a full-scale release to be announced shortly.

Although they are relatively young as a band, City of Fire has plenty of musical experience; Burton C. Bell (Fear Factory) on vocals, and Byron Stroud (Zimmer's Hole, Fear Factory, Strapping Young Lad) on bass, with Ian White, vocals/guitar, Terry "Sho" Murray (Shocore), guitar, and Bob Wagner (Shocore, Econoline Crush), drums, rounding out the lineup. The band's self-titled debut was recorded over a two-month period in the band's hometown of Vancouver, at the Factory Studios and Profile Sound. - more on this story

Want A Free 29 Track Album?

PR reports: John Lefebvre made his debut CD, the 29-song opus, Psalngs (pronounced songs) while he was out on bail. Unable to leave Los Angeles for an indefinite period of time, after his arrest in 2007 by the US Justice Department, the Canadian-born Lefebvre made the best of what could have been an unpleasant situation. He assembled a dream-team of musicians, guided by legendary Nashville producer Brian Ahern (Anne Murray, Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash), spent three weeks putting down live tracks at Village Recorder studios and gave life to a collection of songs that range in tone from romantic to rant and speak to his deepest-held ideals: love, truth, respect and honesty.

The entire project, plus videos of select songs and a 30-minute documentary on the making of Psalngs is available for free download on Lefebvre's web site: www.press.Psalngs.com.

"Music is like a beautiful painting," Lefebvre says of his decision to make all of the tracks available at no charge. "I wanted to put it out there for people to enjoy." - But just who is John Lefebvre?

Exodus, Testament and Strapping Young Lads Members Form Tenet Supergroup

PR reports: All of you old-school thrash metal fanatics rejoice as ex-Exodus vocalist Steve "Zetro" Souza and lead guitarist Glen Alvelais (Forbidden / ex-Testament) joins forces with ex-Strapping Young Lad members Jed Simon, Byron Stroud and Gene Hoglan in a project known as Tenet, whose amazing new album, Sovereign, is set for an Aug. 25th release.

While it took a rather long while to launch this entity, TENET are now set to mercilessly explode onto the global metal scene with a high quality, furious thrashing old school metal album

Mixed by Vincent Wojno (Machine Head, Kreator, Trouble) and mastered by Andy Sneap (Megadeth, Opeth, Arch Enemy), Sovereign will not only leave any lover of traditional thrash metal impressed, but will also make an impact on fans of modern metal sounds without pseudo-trendy ambitions. - more on this story

Sing Along To Queen Classics

PR reports: Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. today announced the release of SingStar Queen, the latest installment in the multimillion-selling SingStar franchise, available for both Playstation3 and PlayStation2 computer entertainment systems. SingStar Queen sets the stage for the ultimate rock star experience, challenging players to perform popular tracks from global rock legend Queen.

Developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe London Studio in collaboration with the band and Hollywood Records, SingStar Queen for PS3 features over 20 of the most memorable Queen songs and music videos including 'We Are The Champions,' 'Another One Bites The Dust,' 'We Will Rock You,' 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' 'Under Pressure' and many more.

"Queen and SingStar both have a wide and diverse global fan base," said Charlie D'Atri, marketing director, Hollywood Records. "We are thrilled to collaborate with SCEA on SingStar Queen to offer PlayStation fans the unique opportunity to become a part of rock history with the best interactive singing experience available set to the legendary music of Queen." - more on this story

Third Eye Blind Respond To Album Leak

Megaforce reports: Six years of an artist's work pre-empted. How do you keep ahead of people who leak music? In light of Third Eye Blind's new album Ursa Major being posted online in a haphazard and somewhat lazy fashion, we are streaming the "correct" album and mix and proper presentation in all its glory for you to hear here

We are also trying to keep ahead and bumping the street date a day early to August 17. All those fine retailers who have such great deals on the album will continue to do so. "Wow! I leave the country and my album ends up leaking. I was in Jakarta performing for the fine citizens of Indonesia after their devastating terrorist attack -- I can't speak more highly of the country. I am asking for all those downloaders who illegally downloaded our new album, please donate some money to your local charity," says Third Eye Blind singer Stephan Jenkins.

"And to those leakers who posted the wrong album, well, shame on you for being lazy. You guys know the lyrics and presentation are important to us. Rock on!" - more on this story

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