Metallica Already Jamming New Riffs

Trujillo: Basically, I don't know the technical details. I can only tell you this: outside of the business side of things — which is probably what you're asking me — on a creative level, the sky's the limit. To me, "Death Magnetic" is only a launch pad. We're already jamming on new ideas and new riffs. There's a rhythm-section thing that I'm feeling with Lars that I'd like to dive into even more so with the future. It's great to be playing thrashy, heavy riffs again, too. That's one of the things with this band — there's no shortage of musical ideas. When you check out some of the other bands that have been around for so many years, sometimes the hardest thing is to stay motivated. Sometimes bands will end up playing almost like — how do you say it? — a tribute scenario where they're playing all the hits all the time. That's cool. But the future of [that type of] band doesn't seem as interesting. I think we still got it in us to create interesting music and to get even better with it. That's kind of fun. - read the LiveDaily article

McCartney Accuses Dalai Lama Of Cannibalism? Not Quite

antiMusic reports: Here is a perfect example of the media twisting the facts to create a sensationalized story (a.k.a. yellow journalism). Paul McCartney appeared on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report on Wednesday.

Keep in mind this is a comedy show. Here is the exchange that took place between host Stephen Colbert and Macca. "I have a beef to pick with you, sir, in that you don't eat meat," Colbert said to vegetarian McCartney. "Don't you think if the animals had the opportunity, they would eat us?"

Paul then reported responded, "In an emergency, perhaps the Dalai Lama would eat me." That was obviously a joke but it some how turned into this in an NME report "Sir Paul McCartney accused the Dalai Lama of cannibalism in a US television interview last night." It's getting almost as bad as MSNBC's so-called reporting! - Full NME report

U2, Kid Rock and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss Added To Grammys

PR reports: Kid Rock, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Rihanna, and U2 are the latest performers announced for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards.

They join previously announced performers Kenny Chesney, Coldplay, Jennifer Hudson, Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne, Paul McCartney (with special guest drummer Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters), Katy Perry, Radiohead, T.I. and Justin Timberlake, Carrie Underwood, and Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, T.I. and Kanye West in a special performance of their hit single "Swagga Like Us."

Actor Simon Baker from CBS' "The Mentalist," actor/musician Jack Black, current three-time GRAMMY nominee Duffy, current nominee Josh Groban, three-time GRAMMY-winning jazz musician and current nominee Charlie Haden, actor Samuel L. Jackson and Academy Award-winning actress and current GRAMMY nominee Gwyneth Paltrow will appear as presenters. [seriously, Paltrow is a nominee and they want to announce this?] - more on this story

Lil Wayne Rolling Stone Song Theft Lawsuit Settled

antiMusic reports: Remember that lawsuit over Lil Wayne's usage of the Rolling Stones' classic "Play with Fire?" it appears that the matter has been settled; we received this rather businesslike statement:

ABKCO Music Inc, UMG Recordings, Inc., Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., EMI April Music, Inc. and other parties, including Dwayne Michael Carter, p/k/a Lil Wayne, announced the settlement of all claims asserted in the litigation between the parties commenced, in July, 2008, by ABKCO in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

In the litigation, ABKCO had sought, among other things, injunctive relief and damages arising from ABKCO's allegation of infringement of ABKCO's Rollng Stones' composition "Play With Fire" by the Lil Wayne recording "Playing With Fire" which was originally contained in the album "Tha Carter III." The defendants, who are parties to the settlement agreement, had denied ABKCO's allegations in the litigation. - more on this story

Punk Metal Pioneer Dies- Album Sales Drop 55%- Run-DMC The Movie- Ben Kweller Fight- John Martyn RIP- The Streets Blacked Out- Super Fury March- CKY and more

antiMusic reports: John McCarthy, the singer for '80s Boston punk metal pioneers Post Mortem, has died at age 40. The group's guitarist John Alexander wrote on Myspace, " He was/is one of my oldest friends. An interesting character with many great stories to tell, he will be missed..... We had just finished recording the music for a new Post Mortem record (John wrote most of the words for it.) The vocals were not done and John was planning on doing his vocals in February. His goal of making another Post Mortem record has ended. This band was everything to him. I think we'll finish it up somehow and dedicate it to him....." Post Mortem Myspace - Blabbermouth report.

Grammy.comreports: Album sales in the United States have fallen 54.6 percent since 2000, according to figures from Nielsen Soundscan. In 2000 U.S. album sales exceeded 943 million units, while in 2008 physical and digital album sales combined to total 428.4 million, a sizable drop of 514.6 million units. First week album sales have also shown a marked decline during the period. 'N Sync's No Strings Attached sold 2.4 million units during its first week in March 2000. In May 2008 Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III posted first week sales of 1.01 million units. (1/29) [Keep in mind that 2000 was the year of boybands and teen pop. And there were far fewer albums released in 2008 that were worth buying(yes that's an opinion but the numbers don't lie either)]

Writer Cheo Hodari Coker, whose "Notorious" followed the life of late rap star Notorious B.I.G., has been tapped to write a similar biopic about Run-DMC. more

British singer-songwriter John Martyn, whose soulful songs were covered by the likes of Eric Clapton, died Thursday. He was 60. Martyn's official Web site said the musician, who lived in Ireland, died Thursday morning. It did not give a cause of death.more

Ben Kweller is proud to announce the premiere of his new music video for "Fight" on MySpace. As one of the highlight tracks from his soon-to-be released ATO Records album "Changing Horses," "Fight" is a good-natured clip that illustrates exactly the lengths one will go for their buddies in a pinch. watch it

Super Furry Animals are putting the finishing touches to their ninth studio album and it will be released this Spring. The album will first be released digitally on March 16 through the band's official website, with a physical format following on April 13 for the UK and April 21 for the US. more

Metallica has been confirmed as one of the headlining acts for this years edition of the Belgian festival, Rock Werchter.more

CKY has entered the mixing stage of their forthcoming new studio album, 'Carver City.' The album will be released via Mallcore Records on May 19th and was produced by the bands guitarist Chad I Ginsburg. more

The Streets gig at London's O2 Academy Brixton last night (January 29) was cancelled at the last minute due to a power failure at the venue. more

Century Media Records will release Daath's new album, The Concealers, on April 21st. more

It Dies Later Than Today: "Lividity", the new album from Buffalo's IT DIES TODAY, has had its release date pushed back to March 3 (via Trustkill Records). Commented the band: "So everyone, you might be wondering why the record didn't come out yesterday [January 27]. We've had some serious setbacks throughout the process of trying to finish 'Lividity' and put it out." more

On Monday, January 26th Kristopher 'Kristov' Krmp, drummer and a founding member of Marazene passed away due to complications with his fight with cancer. more

Dead By Wednesday, featuring former member's of the underground heavy weight outfit Gargantua Soul & drummer "Opus", have announced a 'Precious Metal Monday' sponsored showcase on Feb 23rd, 2009 at Lit Lounge in New York City.

The Abominable Iron Sloth has cancelled the final leg of their current U.S. tour. - more

Iron Maiden Hotel? Don't Book Your Rooms Quite Yet

caterersearch.com reports: Mark Fuller, the nightclub owner and restaurateur, has denied weekend reports that heavy metal band Iron Maiden are involved in his latest hotel venture.

The £10m Sanctum Soho, which opens in March, is the second hotel from Concept Venues, Fuller's company set up with chef Garry Hollihead.

Concept Venues counts Iron Maiden co-manager Andy Taylor as an investor, which led The Sunday Times to report [or is it distort?] that the band were the driving force behind the hotel. - more on this story

Wrestler Soundtrack Snubs Springsteen Title Song

antiMusic reports: Koch Records is pimping their soundtrack release for the much hyped movie The Wrestler, but much of the musical focus on the film has been on the title track by Bruce Springsteen. So it was curious to read this line in the press release "The Bruce Springsteen title track will not be a part of the soundtrack but is currently available on his new studio album, 'Working On A Dream.'"

The soundtrack is filled with a lot of tracks from 80s metal and glam bands which can be found on countless compilations already. Perhaps they were cheap to license? Apparently a lot of these tracks were used in scenes from wrestling halls and the strip club and the Ratt songs in the film were by Rat Attack, which is frontman Stephen Pearcy's cover project which also featured George Lynch of Dokken and Tracii Guns of LA Guns on some tracks on a CD release. Who knows if they actually use the original versions on this soundtrack which are in fact credited to Ratt? But another notable song from the film, Guns N' Roses "Sweet Child of Mine" isn't found here either.

But if you don't already own a dozen copies of most of these tracks from other compilation releases, "The Wrestler Soundtrack" is for sale at iTunes and Amazon MP3 with a CD release set for February 24th. Again strange timing since the movie is already out. A cynic might suspect that… we'll let you complete that thought as you gaze at the - tracklisting

Band That Spawned Motley Crue, Guns N' Roses and W.A.S.P. Reuniting

Blabbermouth reports: Hollywood '80s metal band London, best known for its hilarious appearance in the Penelope Spheeris documentary film "Decline Of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years" (and whose former members include Nikki Sixx, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Steven Adler, Blackie Lawless and Fred Coury), will reunite for its first live show in 21 years at Paladino's in Reseda, California on February 14, 2009.

Lead guitarist and band founder Lizzie Grey, vocalist Nadir D'Priest, co-lead guitarist Sean Lewis and drummer Tim Yasui will perform songs from the LONDON albums "Nonstop Rock" (1984), "Don't Cry Wolf" (1986) as well as the songs "Breakout" and "Russian Winter" (see video below) from the 1988 "Metal Years" movie.

The inspiration for the reunion show comes fresh off the success of the Cleopatra/Deadline Records release of the 1989 LONDON studio demos, appropriately entitled "The Metal Years" (now available on iTunes, Amazon.com and other fine retailers) last winter on both CD and limited-edition 12" vinyl , as well as the continued massive exposure of the band's '80s music videos on YouTube and MySpace. - more on this story

Les Claypool Sets New Release

PR reports: Les Claypool will release yet another brilliant work of art, Of Fungi And Foe, March 17, 2009 on Prawn Song Records.

"Of Fungi And Foe" is the expansion of material Claypool has recorded over the past few years for the video game "Mushroom Men" and the motion picture "Pig Hunt". Being inspired by these 2 projects Claypool decided to keep creating and turn it into an album.

The song Mushroom Men on this release is a more in depth version of the theme song from the video game. Additionally a jam session with Gogol Bordello's charismatic front-man Eugene Hutz turned into the track "Bite Out Of Life". - more on this story

Clapton Guests On New Manfred Mann Frontman's Solo Album

PR reports: Paul Jones is known to many as the singer of the British Invasion band Manfred Mann — the voice on mid-'60s hits like "Do Wah Diddy," "Pretty Flamingo," "Come Tomorrow" and "Sha La La." The new CD, Starting All Over Again, is his first solo album in decades. It will be released on March 10 on Collectors' Choice Music, marking it the first non-archival release in the venerable reissue label's history.

Backing Jones on the project are musicians of no small esteem: Eric Clapton plays guitar on two tracks ("Choose or Cop Out" and "Starting All Over Again") and is joined by Jake Andrews, guitar; Tony Marsico (Plugz, Cruzados, Neil Young, John Doe, Peter Case), bass; Alvino Bennett (LTD, Stevie Wonder, Bryan Ferry, Dave Mason), drums; Mike Thompson (Eagles, Don Henley), piano and Hammond B3 organ; Ernie Watts (Rolling Stones, Thelonious Monk, Steely Dan), saxophone; Darrell Leonard (Duane Allman, Freddie King, Smokey Robinson), trumpet; Tom Junior Moran (Percy Sledge, Mick Taylor, Phil Seymour), saxophone; Mikael Rickfors (The Hollies), backing vocals; Jake Andrews and several others. - more on this story

Vh1 Viewership Drop Explained

PR reports: They may be puzzled in the executive offices of Vh1 why they keep losing viewers, but it only took a few sentences into the following press release for us to figure it out: Ray J's success in the entertainment business has brought him fame, fortune, and a never-ending supply of gorgeous girls. After years of hookups and rocky relationships he's ready to break away from the gold-diggers and groupies and find a unique lady capable of restoring his faith in women. VH1 is teaming up with Ray J in hopes of finding him a true "ride or die chick" among a group of 14 beautiful women from across the country. "For the Love of Ray J" premieres on VH1 on Monday, February 2 at 10:30 PM*

"For the Love of Ray J" will catch every exciting moment as Ray J follows in the footsteps of his boys Flavor Flav and Bret Michaels. Fourteen lovely ladies will move into Ray J's bachelor mansion and go through a series of challenges, dates, and heart-breaking eliminations until he finds the one woman he's been waiting for. Not only will the ladies have to prove their love for Ray J, but they must also show him they can keep up with his fast-paced lifestyle. - more on this story

Depeche Mode Tracks

PR reports: Depeche Mode have announced the track listing for their eagerly anticipated 12th studio album Sounds Of The Universe, released April 21st, on EMI/ Mute. The release is preceded by their new single 'Wrong', out March 9th.

'Sounds Of The Universe' marks a reunion between Depeche Mode and Ben Hillier, who previously produced their 2005 album Playing The Angel. Eclectic and energized, the band's new LP was recorded in Santa Barbara and New York.

'Sounds Of The Universe' Track Listing: 1. In Chains 2. Hole To Feed 3. Wrong 4. Fragile Tension 5. Little Soul 6. In Sympathy 7. Peace 8. Come Back 9. Spacewalker 10. Perfect 11. Miles Away / The Truth Is 12. Jezebel 13. Corrupt

Stay tuned for more details on the release of Sounds Of The Universe - here

REPO! Road Tour Diary: Indianapolis

antiMusic reports: We've been telling you all about REPO! The Genetic Opera and the recent REPO! Road Tours. The third tour just wrapped up and REPO star and co-writer Terrance Zdunich (plays Grave Robber) gives us the lowdown! Here is today's entry from Indianapolis.

January 12, 2009. It's 6:00am. I crawl out of bed, splash some water on my face, pack up my things, and head downstairs to the hotel's lobby. Darren Smith and I have an 8 o'clock flight this morning—with an hour layover in Denver—en route to Indianapolis: our 2nd stop of Repo Road Tour 3. An airport shuttle is picking us up in a half-hour and I've barely slept; it was hard for me to shut down after last night's energetic REPO! screening in Salt Lake City.

Our 1st flight lasts a little over an hour. Darren and I land and grab layover breakfast. Being accustomed to the smoke-free nature of Southern California's restaurants and bars, it's a little strange to step into this hazy, tobacco-clouded diner. Eating my smoke and eggs, I get a text message from Spooky Dan Walker. He's en route to meet us in Indiana. Spooky, a fan of REPO! and friend of ours (and writer for Bloody-Disgusting.com), will be acting as our spooky tour manager for the remainder of RRT3. - Read the full diary entry with photos

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