Joaquin Phoenix's Bad Rap A Hoax

The hoax is said to be motivated by a desire to lampoon actors who take themselves too seriously and the media that follows their every move. - more on this story

Lynyrd Skynyrd Member Dies- Coldplay and The Killers Team Up- Super Bowl Journey- Bowie Denial- Swift Still On Top and more

antiMusic reports: Sad news from Lynyrd Skynyrd on Wednesday: "Beloved Pianist for the Lynyrd Skynyrd Band, Billy Powell, passed away last night. We have no further details. The family and band request your respect and understanding during this difficult time. Thank you." Lynyrd Skynyrd is canceling shows due to Billy's passing. We hope to re-schedule the shows in the near future. Please refer to www.lynyrdskynyrd.com for updates on touring.

Journey will help kick off Super Bowl XLIII as part of the pregame festivities adjacent to Raymond James Stadium during the Super Bowl XLIII celebration in Tampa Bay on Sunday, February 1 at 5:30 p.m. EST. John Legend will also appear.

Indie rock band Modest Mouse is returning to the road for a 12-date U.S. tour, beginning February 22 in Oakland, Calif. The trek concludes March 8 at the Langerado Festival in Miami.more

Coldplay and The Killers will team up for a co-headlining benefit gig for the War Child charity. The show will take place February 18, immediately after the BRIT Awards. more

Teen country star Taylor Swift continued her reign on the U.S. pop album chart Wednesday, starting an eighth week at No. 1. Swift's "Fearless" sold 63,000 copies during the week ended January 25, according to Nielsen SoundScan, a mere 1 percent slip from the previous week.a ninth week is doubtful, find out why

David Bowie has denied he is currently in Berlin recording new material, as a fake Twitter update had informed fans. He doesn't even have an account at Twitter. more

Motorhead will embark on a U.K. headlining tour in November. dates

Whiskey Falls, will appear and perform weekly on the "Toughest Cowboy" television series. The new sports-competition reality series premieres tomorrow – Thursday, January 29 at 11:00pm ET/PT on Spike TV. "Toughest Cowboy" is a new eight-episode one hour series from Survivor producer Mark Burnett.

Vanna have announced their second full length for Epitaph Records. The record is titled A New Hope and is due out March 24, 2009.more

After years of waiting, Symphonies Of Sickness, the second album from British grindcore/death metal legends Carcass has been reissued and is out now in North America. Don't hurt yourself jumping up and down with joy.

2009 marks the 25th anniversary of when The Crucified started making music. To celebrate, Tooth & Nail Records will release a collector's edition box-set of music, video and history. more

New York death metal legends Suffocation has announced a headlining tour of North American to celebrate the bands twentieth anniversary and forthcoming new album, 'Blood Oath.'more

The two-day trial over the rights to the Gorgoroth band name involving vocalist Gaahl, bassist King ov Hell and the group's estranged guitarist Infernus began earlier today (Wednesday, January 28) in Oslo, Norway. more

Axamenta, the former band of current Epica bassist Yves Huts, has called its quits. more

Jorn is working hard on the recording of the new studio album which he plans to entitle "Spirit Black". Titles of some of the new songs include "Road Of the Cross", "Black Heart" and "Rock'n Roll Angel". more

Check out this previously unreleased footage of Heartless Bastards performing "The Mountain" at Austin City Limits 2008. This gives you an idea of what to expect from Heartless Bastards at SXSW as well as the rest of their national tour. - Watch it here

Bon Jovi Football Lawsuit

AP reports: The former sales manager for the Philadelphia Soul arena football team is suing club owner Jon Bon Jovi and his partners for nearly $125,000 he says he's owed.

Joseph Krause of Jenkintown alleges that rock singer Bon Jovi and other team officials told employees they would receive two weeks of severance pay.

The Arena Football League is canceling the 2009 season as it creates a better business model for tough economic times. - more on this story

Godsmack Crash Dispute

eagletribune.com reports: Conflicting statements have been made in the chain-reaction car wreck that has led to a lawsuit against rock star Sully Erna of the band Godsmack. Lindsay Taylor, 26, and her parents, Elaine and Jeffrey, all of Chelmsford, are suing Erna for the April 11, 2007 three-car crash on the ramp from Interstate 93 south to Route 213 east.

Taylor rode in the back seat of a Toyota Camry driven by Eric Sargent of Haverhill. She suffered a severe traumatic brain injury and was in a coma after the crash, according to the lawsuit and her lawyer.

The front-seat passenger in the Camry, Cliff Sargent, told Trooper Daniel Doiron that the Camry rear ended a woman in front of them before being hit by Erna's Hummer, according to Doiron's report. - Erna's lawyer contends that Erna did not cause the accident.

Zappa Widow Loses Court Battle

Reuters reports: Gail Zappa, widow of U.S. rock legend Frank Zappa, has failed in her bid to stop a German music festival from using her husband's name and image.

Zappa and her family trust had launched a lawsuit against the German Frank Zappa fan club over its annual Zappanale festival, demanding the removal of a bronze sculpture of Zappa at the festival site in Bad Doberan and damages of $325,000 if the festival continues to use the Zappanale name.

But the higher court in Dusseldorf ruled January 21 that festival organizers may continue to use Zappa's name and his image on the festival logo and related merchandise such as T-shirts and baseball caps. - more on this story

Kelly Clarkson Sucks Britney's Record

PR reports: Kelly Clarkson's new single "My Life Would Suck Without You" catapults from the #97 position it held last week to the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, breaking the record held by Britney Spears' "Womanizer" which went from #96 to #1 in a week's time. [would any credible artist want to be compared to Spears?]

The single's jump also marks the largest leap to #1in the chart's 50-year history. Kelly previously held the #1 spot on the Hot 100 in 2002 with "A Moment Like This," which went from #52 to #1.

"My Life Would Suck Without You" is the first single off Clarkson's fourth album titled All I Ever Wanted (19 Recordings/RCA Records). The release of All I Ever Wanted has moved up to March 10th. - more on this story

Smashing Pumpkins to Debut New Song During Super Bowl

Billboard reports: The Smashing Pumpkins will unveil a new song, "FOL", in an commercial for Hyundai during the Super Bowl.

This is the second famed musician Hyundai has enlisted for Sunday's big game. The first is Yo Yo Ma.

"The combination of Hyundai's exciting new Genesis Coupe matched with music performed by Smashing Pumpkins offers the perfect 'kick-off' to Super Bowl advertising," said Joel Ewanick, VP of marketing, Hyundai Motor America. [why not have them just rework a past hit.. "Hyundai is the greatest..." Too commercial?] - read more

Slayer and Marilyn Manson Confirmed For Mayhem Festival: Dates Announced

HER reports: Organizers of the Mayhem Festival announced today that hard music legends Marilyn Manson and Slayer will top the bill on this year's highly anticipated tour, which is set to kick off July 10 at the Sleep Train Amphitheatre in Sacramento, CA. The festival will tear through 27 cities in the U.S. and Canada.

Like last year's Godzillian-sized lineup, the second annual Mayhem Festival will feature a gaggle of rock's heaviest bands: the main stage will see Marilyn Manson and Slayer joined by Bullet For My Valentine and a special guest that will be announced in the coming weeks; the Jägermeister stage will feature Trivium, All That Remains, God Forbid and the Jägermeister Battle of the Bands winner; the side stage will feature extreme metal bands Cannibal Corpse, Job For A Cowboy, Behemoth, Black Dahlia Murder and Whitechapel. The World's Greatest Freestyle Motocross team Metal Mulisha will also be revving up the crowd with their unique style of death-defying motorcycle stunts on all dates.

"Given the great success of last year's festival, we knew that we needed to put together a stellar group of talent for 2009—and we have," says Mayhem producers John Reese and Kevin Lyman. "This will be a blockbuster event, one that blends thrilling live performances with special music-related events and a few yet-to-be-revealed surprises. The result is a concert experience like no other. We're extremely excited to get the show on the road." - more on this story

Doves Set Release

PR reports: Acclaimed British trio the Doves will release their much anticipated new studio album, Kingdom of Rust (Astralwerks Records) on April 7th, 2009.

Kingdom of Rust is the Dove's 4th studio album, their first since Some Cities debuted at # 1 on the U.K. album charts in February, 2005. The Doves, comprised of Jez Williams, Andy Williams and Jimi Goodwin are offering fans a sneak peak by offering album track "Jetstream" as a free download for two weeks on their website www.doves.net. A U.S. tour is expected to hit stateside in late spring.

The trio has been recording the album for the past 18 months, having ensconced themselves to a farm house-come-studio in backwaters of Cheshire, England. They teamed up with long time Doves collaborator Dan Austin to co produce all but 2 tracks of Kingdom Of Rust. For the remaining 2 tracks; "10.03" and "Winter Hill," the group worked with ace producer John Leckie (Stone Roses, Radiohead). - more on this story

Trail of Dead Funeral Party

PR reports: Funeral Party will be hitting the road with ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead next month as direct support on their full US tour.

The band is also confirmed for SXSW 2009. Funeral Party is currently putting the finishing touches on their debut album at The Mars Volta's studio in Los Angeles which will be released April 21st.

In the meantime, their digital only The Bootleg EP is out now at all digital retailers featuring their blogger approved jam "Car Wars." - more on this story

Vinyl Testament

PR reports: Two classic albums by thrash legends Testament 1997's "Demonic" and 1999's "The Gathering" will be reissued on gatefold double vinyl by Prosthetic Records on Feb. 3.

Each will feature etched artwork on Side D and be limited to 1,000 copies worldwide.

Additionally, 100 copies of "Demonic" will feature red vinyl, while 100 copies of "The Gathering" will feature gold vinyl. Pre-orders can currently be placed at - store.prostheticrecords.com.

Singled Out: Tommy Bones

antiMusic reports: Welcome to Singled Out! where we ask artists to tell us the inside story of their latest single. Today Texas metalheads Tommy Bones tell us about "Fight" from their brand new self-titled EP. We now turn it over to the band for the story:

"Fight" is about today's highly corrupt government officials, and the constant disregard of our nations foundation and constitution. To many of our so-called elected government officials, use their power in office, not for the good of our country and citizens, but only for their own personal gain. "Fight" calls to the people to take back and secure our nations future. We our not without power!!

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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