Matchbox INXS

For Rob Thomas - no stranger to guest shots (witness Smooth with Carlos Santana) - it's not the first time he's tackled an INXS number. - more on this story

Green Day The Movie?

Spin.com reports: Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has big plans for the band's upcoming American Idiot musical.

The production, based on the Bay Area punks' 2004 concept album of the same name, will premiere at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California in September. But Armstrong hopes that the musical will eventually hit the silver screen, too -- just like a certain campy cult classic.

"I thought American Idiot had a lot in common with something like Rocky Horror Picture Show," Armstrong told the Associated Press. "It would be great to see a film made out of it someday, too." - more on this story

Hagar and Anthony Bitter About Van Halen Rock Hall Snub

Blabbermouth reports: Although both Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 with Van Halen, the band never performed at the induction since Eddie and Alex Van Halen were no-shows at the event.

Artisan News Service recently caught up with Hagar and Anthony to get their thoughts on the induction. "You know, it was a pretty bittersweet thing for me," said Anthony "It was uncomfortable. It was one of the greatest nights, you know, one of the biggest accolades a person in the business can have. To be recognized for everything that we've done. I remember turning to Sammy, I think R.E.M. was playing and we were going, 'Man, it should have been us.'"

Sammy added, "It could have been. Like the way Metallica did it this last year, they brought both bass players. The brought the father of the bass player that died, Cliff, and they all played together. That's the way you're supposed to do it at an event like that. So, it wasn't cool, I don't care what anybody says — I'll dog those guys the rest of my life for not doing that — but for me not to be there, or Mike not to be there, are you kidding? Like I said, it would take a shotgun to keep me from being there. It's an honor to be brought into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame and I'm going to show up if I'm invited, you know?! It's as simple as that." - more on this story

Zeppelin Fans Threaten To Kill Cream Star

East Anglian Daily Times reports: Suffolk-based music legend Jack Bruce has revealed how he received "death threats" after daring to criticize rock giants Led Zeppelin. The 66-year-old former Cream bassist made headlines across the world in May after describing the band who reunited for a one-off concert in 2007 as "crap".

Speaking to the press at an awards ceremony, Bruce described Led Zeppelin reunion gig at the 02 Arena as "lame" and chided them: "You're crap and you'll never be anything else. Cream is 10 times the band Led Zeppelin is."

Bruce, who lives near the Suffolk-Essex border, said he could not believe the furore his comments caused. "It was just a bit of fun and it was blown out of all proportion," he said. "Some Led Zeppelin fans were really angry at me and I had a few death threats - they're not likely to find me out here though!" - more on this story

Chester Bennington Plans Solo Set At Linkin Park Shows

Blabbermouth reports: Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington's side project, Dead By Sunrise, will perform a special three-song set as part of Linkin Park's shows this summer.

Bennington began working on Dead By Sunrise back in 2006, explaining, "I came up with a few songs that felt and sounded really good, but I knew they weren't right stylistically for Linkin Park. They were darker and moodier than anything I'd come up with for the band. So I decided to work on them on my own rather than turn them over and have them transformed into Linkin Park tracks."

The band, which is Bennington on vocals, guitarists Ryan Shuck and Amir Derakh (from Orgy/Julien-K), bassist Brandon Belsky, drummer Elias Anda (also from Julien-K), and keyboardist Anthony Valcic, recorded "Out Of Ashes" in Los Angeles with producer Howard Benson (Motörhead, My Chemical Romance). - more including the dates of the shows

The Pixies To Doolittle America

HER reports: Europe may get them first, but the Pixies will tour the USA late this year. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the release of their classic 1989 album Doolittle, the band - Black Francis, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago and David Lovering - will kick off the very special US "Doolittle Tour" at the Palladium in Los Angeles on Wednesday, November 4.

The U.S. tour will hit a total of nine cities, including three dates in New York City. Ticket prices and on-sale dates will vary city to city, but some tickets go on sale as early as this Saturday, August 1.

On this tour, the Pixies will perform all of the songs from Doolittle and its related B-sides, "Weird at My School," "Dancing the Manta Ray," and "Bailey's Walk" among them. Doolittle, the band's third album and the first to chart on Billboard's album charts, includes classics such as "Debaser," "Wave of Mutilation," "Here Comes Your Man," "Hey," and "Gouge Away." - more on this story

Def Leppard Still Better Than Poison and the Beatles, Stones, The Who etc

Rock Radio reports: Joe Elliott has spoken once again about the media feud that broke out between Def Leppard and Poison last year, before the bands cleared the air and went on tour together.

The singer explains that when he said Def Leppard were better than Poison, he didn't mean Poison literally – and that, as a member of Def Lep, he's entitled to think his band is better than everyone.

Taking a break from the US trek with Poison and Cheap Trick, Elliott says: "I didn't say their music had no substance. I said ours had more. My belief is that we're better than them. But I would say that about any band, whether it be The Who or the Stones or the Beatles. Not because I'm an arrogant idiot – but because when you're in a band, you are absolutely 100percent allowed to believe you're the best band in the world. - more on this story

Lamb of Gwar- Mason Guitar Hero- Charles Manson Hits Up Phil Spector In Prison- AFI Return- Jello's New Band- Fake Problems Face Real Problems-

antiMusic reports: Lamb Of God, Gwar and Job For A Cowboy are teaming up for a tour of the U.S. this fall. The dates are being scheduled on "off" days during Lamb Of God's tour with Metallica, which will kick off on September 14 in Nashville and conclude on November 15 in New York City. more

Garbage's Shirley Manson is set to feature as a playable character in the forthcoming 'Guitar Hero 5' computer game. Watch a video demo of the game and behind-the-scenes footage of its creation exclusively on NME.COM here

And another Manson is in the news: According to the New York Post, Charles Manson had a guard bring Phil Spector a note of invitation to the cult leader's cell, presumably with the intention of initiating some sort of working relationship. more

AFI have announced that they will play a series of shows in the US this autumn. These will be the band's first shows since they performed at Live Earth in July 2007. more

Ex-Panic! At The Disco members Ryan Ross and Jon Walker have unveiled their new band, The Young Veinsmore

The proposed merger of ticketing giant Ticketmaster and Live Nation, the world's largest concert promoter, should be closely scrutinized by the Justice Department, according to the chair of a Senate antitrust subcommittee and 50 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. more

Jello Biafra has unveiled a new band called Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine. The band's other members include Billy Gould (Faith No More), Kimo Ball (Freak Accident), Ralph Spight (Victims Family), and Jon Weiss, and will release their debut entitled The Audacity of Hype on October 20, 2009 through Alternative Tentacles. more

Grave, has parted ways with bassist Olivier Pinard. the band is currently seeking a replacement. The band comments on the decision, 'For musical and schedule reasons, Olivier Pinard has part ways with the band. That being said, we are immediately looking for a new bassist to fill the missing spot.'more

Sky Eats Airplane and singer Jerry Roush have gone their separate ways. Here's a statement from the band: "After touring for the past two years together, SEA and our singer Jerry Roush have decided to part ways. We hate to see him go, but our creative differences make this the best option for everyone."more

Lawyers for the victims of the Station nightclub fire (Great White) had hoped that their clients would be getting their settlements this summer. Now it looks like the victims will be lucky if they get their money by the end of the year. more

3 Doors Down singer Brad Arnold will tie the knot on September 12. The singer got engaged to fiancée Jennifer Sanderford in late 2008. After the wedding, Arnold says 3DD will begin recording a follow-up to their 2008 self-titled effort.more

This week's Parlour to Parlour features Silian Rail, a guitar-drums instrumental indie rock duo from the Bay Area that strips down and combines the best elements of bands like Tristeza and Tortoise. check it out here

After canceling the rest of their headlining tour due to a death in the family, and then rescheduling part of the tour, Fake Problems has canceled four shows that were set to happen from August 2-6 in Alabama and Florida.more

Wanna watch a new video interview with Edgar Winter? Go more, the link for the interview is on the left hand side of the site.

Bruce Springsteen will play Born To Run in its entirety on September 20 at Chicago's United Center.more

The latest episode of "Talking Metal," contains an interview host Mark Strigl and John Ostronomy conducted with Brendon Small of Metalocalypse and Dethklok. Topics include Dethklok's "The Dethalbum II," King Diamond, Metallica, Mark Hamill, and Gibson guitars. Pictures as well as the podcast can be downloaded here

Metallica performed the "Death Magnetic" track "Suicide & Redemption" for the first time ever Monday night (July 27) at the Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark. Fan-filmed video footage of the performance can be viewed here

Hecklerspray has this insightful look at a much loathed record label: Hollywood Records is a label imprint for the Walt Disney Company. Therefore they have a truly horrible roster of 'stars' like Hayden Panettiere and Vanessa Hudgens. Although I will pretty much listen to any tween piece of crap, some of this stuff is truly bone-chilling. The label pretty much makes its money solely on the premise that if teenagers like to see rubbish actors in movies, they will LOVE hearing them sing. Unfortunately for us, this appears to be true. Basically, being an artist on Hollywood records is like being a chef at McDonalds. Prime examples here. -

Trivium's Into the Mouth of Hell We Tour

Road Runner reports: Trivium and tour presenter [mall store name removed] are pleased to announce the forthcoming 'Into the Mouth of Hell We Tour,' an extensive, 63-date trek which marks the band's first solo headline tour since 2006. Whitechapel, Darkest Hour and Dirge Within serve as support for the first leg of the run. The tour kicks off in September and will run through October. More dates for the first leg will be announced in August, while additional dates and support for the second leg will be announced in September.

Trivium are currently headlining the [corporation name removed] stage of the second annual [corporation name removed] Mayhem Fest. They are known for being voracious road dogs, having toured America relentlessly, separately supporting Slipknot and Lamb of God. They have also appeared as part of Korn's Family Values package and have also supported Iron Maiden.

Trivium have also come up with a brilliant way to allow their live show be something that the fans are able to enjoy repeatedly. This tour will feature a special promotion, where at participating venues, each ticket buyer will be able to re-live their experience at the show, as they will have the option to use their ticket stub, via a unique code, to redeem a free, full digital soundboard recording of the Trivium show that they attended. - more on this story

Tim McGraw Sets Album Release

PR reports: On October 20th, Curb Records will release Southern Voice, Tim McGraw's first studio album in two and a half years. Lead single "It's A Business Doing Pleasure With You" is available now at all digital retailers.

An up-tempo, tongue-in-cheek tale about the price paid for loving a woman who loves designer labels, the song was penned by Nickelback's Chad Kroeger and singer-songwriter Brett James. "It's A Business Doing Pleasure With You" was #1 Most Added in its first and second weeks at radio and is already 15* on the Billboard Country Singles chart.

With the new album, McGraw once again pushes the bounds of his artistry with characteristic honesty, grit and soul - qualities that have, throughout history, exemplified the Southern voice. Recorded in Nashville with his longtime producer, Byron Gallimore (Faith Hill, Sugarland, Phil Vassar), it is the follow-up to Let It Go, which debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 in April of 2007. McGraw will support Southern Voice with an extensive tour in 2010 - more on this story

Machine Head Guitarist Talks About Collapsing on Stage

Blabbermouth reports: Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel has commented on his most recent onstage collapse, which happened this past Saturday (July 25) during the band's set at the Sonisphere festival in Pori, Finland.

Phil — who suffers from a rare condition called cardiogenic syncope (which means that the heart sometimes fails to pump enough blood to the brain, resulting in the sufferer blacking out) — wrote in a July 27 message, "Saturday's episode was different than the previous. I felt it before we went on and probably should've gotten oxygen before 'Halo'. Three of the four [onstage] collapses have happened during that song.

"This run has been the most grueling traveling that we've done in a looooong time and I'm fairly confident that my condition had nothing to do with this [most recent collapse]. - more on this story

Ska is Still Dead

PR reports: Ska is Dead is back from the grave and ready to devour the Eastern half of the U.S.A. Since 2004, The Ska is Dead Tour has been North America's premier ska festival / tour proving that ska and all of its derivatives are very much alive. Previous incarnations of the tour have crossed North America three times, and the Atlantic once, to tour the U.K.. Ska is Dead I, II, and III have featured the biggest names in the genre, selling thousands of tickets in some of North America's best venues.

The first leg of Ska Is Dead IV toured the western half of the U.S. earlier this year playing to packed venues from Denver to Hollywood. The upcoming tour is no exception and is quickly shaping to be the strongest lineup to date.

Ska is Dead IV includes North America's longest running ska band, The Toasters, West Coast skacore legends Voodoo Glow Skulls, and Chicago purveyors of Jamaican Soul, Deal's Gone Bad on all dates. Midwest, third-wave pioneers Mustard Plug will play select dates November 4 thru 8 and 12 thru 21. Boston and New Jersey will be all day festivals which include The Pilfers on both dates. As always, various other noteworthy bands will be added to individual shows including The Johnstones, The Independents, Taj Motel Trio, The Pinstripes, We Are the Union, Hub City Stompers, and Fatter Than Albert to list a few. - dates

BBC Offer Up Two U2 Shows

Billboard reports: BBC Worldwide Music, part of the commercial arm of U.K. broadcaster the BBC, has unveiled two major new U2 shows that it is making available for sale to international broadcasters.

The programs include the Irish band's roof-top performance on top of BBC Broadcasting House in London in February 2009.

"U2=BBC: The History" and "U2=BBC" feature exclusive material from the BBC archive and a series of extensive interviews with the band.
- more on this story

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