Pearl Jam Forced Off Stage?

The band kept playing for another 20 minutes until organizers turned on the houselights, signalling the end of the show. The rockers said their goodbyes but Vedder sat down cross-legged in the middle of the stage clutching his microphone until his bandmates grabbed their instruments and joined him for one more tune.
- more on this story

Motley Crue Singer Slams Axl Rose

Blabbermouth reports: Motley Crue's Vince Neil has slammed Axl Rose for letting the Guns N' Roses fans down. Guns N' Roses' latest album, "Chinese Democracy", the band's first since 1993's "The Spaghetti Incident", failed to live up to the hype its 10 years in the making generated.

Neil tells the U.K.'s The Sun that believes GNR's loyal fans have finally grown sick of the band, thanks chiefly to Rose's failure to turn up to rehearsals and perform live shows.

"For ['Chinese Democracy'] to fail was pretty crazy after so many years of being recorded. Then the tour got cancelled," Vince is quoted as saying. "A buddy of mine [presumably referring to current GUNS N' ROSES guitarist D.J. Ashba, who also plays in Sixx: A.M. with Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx. — Ed.] went to go play guitar for him. They rehearsed for three months and Axl never once turned up. Rule number one: show up! - more on this story

Guns N' Rose Live Return?- iPhones Exploding- Lee Returning To Motley Crue?- R.E.M. Live CD- Now Unions Trying To Screw Up TV Talent Shows and more

antiMusic reports: Taiwan based booking agency Brokers Brothers Herald has published a Guns N' Roses concert date at Taipei County Stadium in Taipei, Taiwan on December 11. more

Is Tommy Lee coming back to the Crue? According to a posting on Sevendust drummer Morgan Rose's Facebook page, Wed night's (August 19) Motley Crue concert at the Comcast Center Event in Mansfield, Massachusetts will likely mark his final appearance with the Crue as the temporary replacement for Tommy Lee. more

Apple is investigating media reports that one or more of the company's iPhones have exploded in Europe, a European Commission spokeswoman said. The spokeswoman for the EU executive, which oversees the safety of consumer products sold in the 27-country bloc, said Apple had described the reported incidents as isolated. more

R.E.M. has set an October 26 release date for R.E.M. Live At The Olympia, a two-CD set featuring 39 songs recorded during the band's "working rehearsals" in the summer of 2007 in Ireland. more

A rare performance from folk icon Tim Buckley, who died in 1975 at 28 , will find a new audience this summer. "Live at the Folklore Center, NYC -- March 6, 1967" is being released August 25. by the Tompkins Square label. more

Sheryl Crow has sold her music publishing catalog to First State Media
Group, a Dublin, Ireland-based investor in publishing assets. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the sale earlier Wednesday, said the deal was valued at about $10 million. [Really?] more

The Parson Red Heads' Parlour to Parlour adventure concludes this week with part two of their interview, in which we get a tour of their communal pad in L.A. and see them have an unexpected run-in with the LAPD. more

Sony Music International Japan are reportedly set to reissue the Riot albums Thundersteel (1988) and The Privilege Of Power (1990) with bonus tracks. Each title will be digitally remastered to their highest quality. more

TV talent shows such as The X Factor are guilty of "cheap exploitation" because they do not pay contestants, performers union Equity has claimed. It is calling for all contestants who reach the final round this year to be paid and have legal status as workers. more

Shudder To Think has announced a one-off show on Wednesday, September 2 at New York City's Bowery Ballroom. This will be the band's only appearance in support of their upcoming live album, Live From Home, which is due out September 15, 2009.more

Paramore have announced details of a one-off London gig, which is likely to see them debut new material from forthcoming album 'brand new eyes'. The band are set to take to the stage at the capital's O2 Islington Academy on September 7 more

So is the new KISS any good? The readers over at Blabbermouth seem to be loving the first full track preview.

Sonic Syndicate will announce their new singer on Monday, August 24 at 7:30 a.m. on the Stockholm radio station Bandit Rock 106-3.more -

Pumpkins Officially Hire New Drummer as Solo Corgan Hits The Road

PR reports: Billy Corgan has announced that Mike Byrne has Joined The Smashing Pumpkins as their new drummer. The 19-year-old Portland, OR native will make his debut with the band on the Pumpkins' next album- about which a major announcement is expected in September--and tour. "I'm super excited to be playing with the band," says Byrne. "Dream come true, man."

Byrne will join Billy at six solo Southern California small club dates August 26-31 with special guests Spirits in the Sky--the band Billy assembled to play at a tribute show in Los Angeles at the Echoplex in July for late Seeds frontman Sky Saxon. Spirits in the Sky includes Mark Tulin of The Electric Prunes and Kerry Brown of Catherine and the Ancient Chinese Secrets.

Byrne--who's played in such indie Portland bands as Moses, Smell The Roses and the Mercury Tree--heard about the Pumpkins' open call for a new drummer on the Internet this past April and submitted his materials. Byrne was immediately called to attend an audition in Los Angeles, where Corgan liked what he heard—a lot. "We didn't actually play songs at the audition," says Byrne. "We just kind of jammed for about 15 minutes and then talked about Fugazi for the other 15 or so minutes." - more on this story

Beatles Remastered and Reissued

Apple reports: Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music are delighted to announce the release of the original Beatles catalogue, which has been digitally re-mastered for the first time, for worldwide CD release on Wednesday, September 9, 2009 (9-9-09), the same date as the release of the widely anticipated "The Beatles: Rock Band" video game.

Each of the CDs is packaged with replicated original UK album art, including expanded booklets containing original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. For a limited period, each CD will also be embedded with a brief documentary film about the album. On the same date, two new Beatles boxed CD collections will also be released.

The albums have been re-mastered by a dedicated team of engineers at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London over a four year period utilising state of the art recording technology alongside vintage studio equipment, carefully maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings. The result of this painstaking process is the highest fidelity the catalogue has seen since its original release. - more on this story

Ozzy To Go 12-Stories Tall Over Hollywood

BW&BK reports: The Sunset Strip Music Festival - taking place September 10th-12th - will honor the larger than life rock icon Ozzy Osbourne as its Sunset Strip Icon 2009. The tribute actually begins this Thursday, August 20 when Osbourne's immortal image will be unveiled on one of the largest billboards in Los Angeles. It will hang high above the Sunset Strip spanning 12-stories (6,500 square feet tall) off the east side of the famous 9000 Building directly across the street from The Roxy Theatre and Rainbow Bar & Grill. The new signage will be lit at night allowing for its viewing from miles away.

Next, on Thursday, September 10, Osbourne will be honored at a tribute event to kick off the three-day music festival. The tribute event honors icons that have made an impact on the legacy of The Sunset Strip. On Osbourne's first US tour with Black Sabbath in 1970, the band performed a five-night stand (November 11th-15th) at the legendary Whisky A Go-Go.

"This expansive wall not only celebrates our honoree, Ozzy Osbourne, it also serves to welcome everyone to The Sunset Strip and is certain to be a very photographed component of this year's music festival," noted Todd Steadman, executive director of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. - more on this story

U2 Describe Their Dizzy Spider-Man Musical

BBC reports: U2's Bono and The Edge have described their forthcoming Spider-Man musical as "dizzy" and "not a straight take on the myth".

Turn Off The Dark, the production the Dublin band has written music and lyrics for, is set to open on Broadway in New York in 2010.

They also confirmed American actress Evan Rachel Wood would play the part of MJ and revealed more about the other characters. Speaking to Radio 1's Edith Bowman, Bono said: "We've got a new villain, it's a girl. It's a very extraordinary role. We've taken it to a much more dizzy place than you'd expect. We've got big tunes. We're very proud of it." - more on this story

The 10 Greatest Electric-Guitar Players

antiMusic reports: Time's music critic Josh Tyrangiel "picks" who he feels are the 10 Greatest Electric-Guitar Players. Left handed guitar God Jimi Hendrix heads up the list with this description, "The greatest of all time? Maybe. No one merged the blues, rock and psychedelia with as much ease or wielded a guitar with as much charisma."

Former Guns N' Roses axeman Slash lands in second place because " A remarkably precise player who had to put up with more crap from his lead singers than any other guitarist on this list. Does he make the cut partially because of the hat? Yes. Yes he does."

The rest of the list: 3. B.B. King 04. Keith Richards 05. Eric Clapton 06. Jimmy Page 07. Chuck Berry 08. Les Paul 09. Yngwie Malmsteen 10. Prince - Check out the full special here

The Bravery Announce Headlining Tour

PR reports: Off the heels of a North American tour with (pop)punk rock mainstays Green Day, New York City's The Bravery announced an ambitious headlining tour kicking off Friday, September 18th at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas, NV in support of their new release out November 10th .

Lead single "Slow Poison" impacts Modern Rock Radio September 15th. The band will play shows in more than 30 cities across the country throughout the fall. The tour is in support of their much-anticipated third studio album, slated for release in November 2009. Pre-sale tickets go on sale today. General public on sale starts this Saturday, August 22.

The band's new album is produced by John Hill, whose credits include Santigold and M.I.A. This album follows 2007's The Sun And The Moon, which featured the wildly successful smash hits "Time Won't Let Me Go" and "Believe." - more on this story

Badfinger, Humble Pie and Uriah Heep Supergroup Natural Gas Coming To CD

Glass Onyon reports: Music collectors worldwide are ecstatic with the CD release of the legendary 'Natural Gas' album featuring Badfinger, Humble Pie and Uriah Heep alumni. The Natural Gas album has been given the CD treatment by premier re-issue label Renaissance Records in conjunction with ItsAboutMusic.com, who has an impressive back catalog of releases. Originally released in 1975 on the Private Stock label, the eponymous debut by Natural Gas featured Joey Molland of Badfinger, Jerry Shirley of Humble Pie and Mark Clarke of Uriah Heep and Colosseum.

"I went to this20place called Blakes in London, which was a hangout for rockers," recalls Joey Molland. "It was a cool little place. One night I saw a friend of mine there named Mark Clarke; a bass player from Liverpool who'd played with Uriah Heep and Colosseum. We were just talking and having a laugh and I asked him, 'What are you doing?' He said, 'I'm going up to Jerry Shirley's this weekend. I'm going to stay there and we'll probably have a jam – why don't you come with us.' I didn't really know Jerry, but I thought it would be cool. So Mark calls him and Jerry says. 'Come on up.' We go on up to Jerry Shirley's house – he had a lovely little farmhouse outside of London. We found out that day that he had just left Humble Pie. Later on that night we had a jam; I think it was Clem Clemson, Jerry, Mark, myself and there may have been one or two others. We had a lot of fun, just playing rock 'n' roll songs and blues songs.The next morning Mark, Jerry and myself decided to put a band together. We thought, 'Why not. But do we have any songs?' I had a couple of songs, which I played to them. One was called 'Once Again A Love Song' and the other was called 'Dark Cloud'. Likewise, Mike had a couple songs. We also got a keyboardist, a guy named Dave Kafinetti from the band Rare Bird. He went on to be the keyboard player in 'Spinal Tap'. What a knockout guy!" Kafinetti was replaced before the recording of t he album by Peter Wood who co-wrote 'Year of the Cat' with Al Stewart.

The Natural Gas album was recorded at Crystal Studios in Los Angeles and produced by legendary Mountain member Felix Papalardi. "Felix was really nice," says Joey, "a real sociable guy and talented fellow. As far as a producer went, we really wanted Mal Evans to do it. But the label wanted Felix Papalardi, the bass player from Mountain who'd done Cream and all that – the label wanted him to do it. Apparently Felix wanted to do the project as well, so that was that. I think Mal was pretty disappointed actually." - more on this story

I Hate My Hair and Want To Die

PR reports: Australia's Goons of Doom will release their second LP, I Hate My Hair and Want To Die, in the U.S. on October 20, 2009 via Volcom Entertainment

In mid-September Goons of Doom will embark on a short Southern California tour (all dates/venues below), it will be their first time back in the U.S. in 3 years.

I Hate My Hair and Want To Die is - as described by the band themselves - songs and sounds of pirates and adventures and romance on the clipper, immortalized for the hip set, the lonely loser, the sentimental soul and gutter trash fucks alike and of course for future generations to dissect and examine and analyze. - more on this story

Kraftwerk Boxset

PR reports: Kraftwerk: Electro Pioneers, living legends and globally revered masters of electronic sound, celebrate the 35th anniversary of their landmark 1974 hit 'Autobahn' by releasing a special collector's CD boxset featuring remastered versions of eight astounding albums on October 6th, 2009.

Rolling back musical barriers with every forward-thinking phase of their career, Dusseldorf's Zen masters of electronic minimalism laid the foundations for four decades of computerised pop and dance music. By chain reaction and mutation, they have influenced generations of artists in all genres, mapping musical futures yet to come. From Bowie to Daft Punk, Aphex Twin to Portishead, Dr Dre to LCD Soundsystem, and almost everyone in between, the mark of Kraftwerk is endless, endless.

In 2009 Kraftwerk have upgraded their Kling Klang masters with the latest studio technology and these eight magnificent recordings still sound like nothing else in the history of music. Kraftwerk are unique, pristine, profound and beautiful. Decades may pass, but their streamlined synthetic symphonies stand outside time, as fresh as tomorrow, transcendent and sublime. - more on this story

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