Michael Jackson Dies From Cardiac Arrest

Jackson was set for a comeback next month with a 50-show residency at the O2 Arena in London. You can read the latest from various sources linked - here

The Seeds' Sky Sunlight Saxon Dies- Phish Joy- Manager Sues Over Tom Waits Book- Def Leppard Day Declared- Creed TV- Randy Rhodes Film Preview and more

antiMusic reports: With the news of Michael Jackson's death other music news stories took a back burner on Thursday, so today's Day in Rock and quicks are shorter than usual. Here is what we do have:

More sad news and a follow up to a story from yesterday, The Seeds' Sky Sunlight Saxon passed away on Thursday morning at 9:10am. According to his official website Sabrina Saxon and Joshua Aquarian were at his side and he passed peacefully and with no pain. Read a little about this cult rocker and watch a video at The Music's Over

With the first leg of their summer tour now in the history books, Phish has announced the title of its first studio album in five years. "Joy," a ten song set, is due later this summer on the band's own JEMP Records.more

Herb Cohen, former record executive and manager for Tom Waits has sued journalist Barney Hoskyns and Random House, his publisher, for $1 million over claims allegedly made in Hoskyns' "Lowside of the Road, A Life of Tom Waits."more

A 10-minute trailer for "Randy Rhoads: Last Train Home" (working title), the long-awaited documentary film on the life of celebrated rock guitarist Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot), can be viewedhere

Friday, June 26 has been proclaimed "Def Leppard Day" in the town of Hamburg, New York by virtue of a unanimous vote Monday by a bemused Town Board.more

With news that he recently joined the ranks of Bleeding Through, guitarist Dave Nassie has confirmed that he is leaving No Use For A Name. "I just wanted to take this time to thank all the No Use friends, family, and fans for all your love and support for the past 10 years. I am sure most everyone by this time knows, but I will no longer be found on stage right guitar. I have truly enjoyed and appreciated all the years making music, life long friends, and records with such a talented group of people." more

Whitney Houston's album, set for September 1, 2009 worldwide release on Arista Records, will be titled "I Look To You". Damn, we were hoping for "Clive Ass Turkey".

The Killers are planning to record an album of cover songs before the end of the year. "It's something that we've always talked about doing and we're still talking about," singer Brandon Flowers told NME.more

The Death Weather have announced they will play the 2009 Glastonbury festivalmore

Over The Rainbow will return to Russia and post-Soviet territories in September/October for another headlining tour. Confirmed dates are here

The Burning has parted ways with guitarist Rasmus Normand and replaced him with Alex Kjeldsen (ex-DAWN OF DEMISE).more

A brand new Megadeth track entitled "Headcrusher" is available for listening by calling Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine's number (866.597.6342) at TheLiveLine, a service he launched that enables musicians to connect to their audience over the phone.more

Creed will appear on the Fox News morning show "Fox and Friends" this morning (Friday 6/26) around 8:00 am est as part of the show's summer concert series. The show is set to start at 5:00 am, an hour earlier than usual for a special edition in remembrance of Michael Jackson. more -

Unreleased Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson Recordings

antiMusic reports: Tributes are pouring in for Michael Jackson. Queen's Brian May issued his very own tribute but also broke the news that there are unreleased recordings of Jackson and Freddie Mercury.

Here is part of May's statement/tribute: "Hard to know what to say - what to feel. I find myself wondering what might have happened on his tour ... the number of dates in the UK that he had committed to was insane. I did have a feeling it was impossible, but I was so shocked to hear that he went so suddenly. Very sad. Of course I still think of him as a boy - he used to come and see us (Queen) play when we were on tour in the States, and he and Freddie became close friends, close enough to record a couple of tracks together at Michael's house. Tracks which have never seen the light of day.

"Michael was the boy star of The Jackson Five, and always the most screamed at. I remember in their show, they tried very hard to make all the brothers equal in the presentation, but it was abundantly obvious that all most of the girl fans really wanted to see was little Michael. It was Michael who heard our track 'Another One Bites the Dust' when he came to see us on The Game tour ... and told us we were mad if we didn't release it as a single." - more on this story

Wentz Backs Away From Fall Out Boy Swan Song Statement

Jam reports: Fall Out Boy star Pete Wentz has denied the rockers are set to go their separate ways.

The bassist shocked fans earlier this week by taking to his Twitter.com Internet page to admit the band's last record, 2008's Folie a Deux, may be their "swan song."

He tells MTV.com, "No, we're not calling it quits, but we've no future album plans right now. We can't quit, we're waiting to get fired." - more on this story (including some pretty big assumptions-or distortions- from the reporter)

Soundgarden Reunion Rumor Waters Get Even Murkier

Blabbermouth reports: Ex-Soundgarden bassist Ben Shepherd allegedly commented on recent rumors that the band was planning to reunite through a text sent to a reader of music industry news site The Daily Swarm.

Speculation about a reunion got kicked up a notch last week thanks to an interview in England with SHINEDOWN singer Brent Smith, who said that "someone specifically in (SOUNDGARDEN's) organization" had told him that the reunion was on. Why Smith was the beneficiary of this information was left unexplained, but when asked by text whether he knew SHINEDOWN or had anything to say about a reunion, Shepherd reportedly wrote, "No to knowing about whatever band and that guy should go fuck himself for cashing in on our name as well as saying things he doesnt know."

There's been no confirmation, however, that the author of the text message was actually Shepherd, making this even more confusing.
- more on this story

Flaming KISS Eminem Addiction Voodoo

Billboard reports: Eminem -- in his first full-scale concert performance in four years -- Kiss, Jane's Addiction and the Flaming Lips are among the headliners at the 11th annual Voodoo Experience music festival, taking place Halloween weekend in New Orleans.

Organizers have announced more than 150 acts who will play on eight stages in three separate areas -- named Le Ritual, Le Flambeau and Le Carnival -- around the city.

Eminem's appearance is the only full-length concert he's announced in support of his chart-topping new album, "The Relapse," his first set of new material in five years - more on this story

Portugal. The Man Announce Satanic Tour

HER reports: With the buzz growing increasingly louder as the July 21 release date approaches for Portugal. The Man's brand-new album, The Satanic Satanist, the group will launch a U.S. headlining tour with two New York-area dates -- August 4 at Brooklyn's Union Pool, and August 5 at the Mercury Lounge in New York City. In addition, the band will play Lollapalooza on Sunday, August 9 at 1:30PM on the Playstation Stage, and at Outside lands on August 29 on the Panhandle Stage at 3:10PM.

P.TM's jumping to bona fide festival attraction was proven by the band's most recent show-stopping appearance at Bonnaroo on June 11 which led to several media accolades, including Whitney Pastorek of Entertainment Weekly, who declared the band was "My favorite new discovery," as well as Jim Fusilli from the Wall Street Journal, who raved that P.TM was the "best set I heard last night, and my very early contender for the best set of the festival."

Touring in support of The Satanic Satanist, Portugal. The Man - guitarist/vocalist John Baldwin Gourley, bassist/singer Zachary Scott Carothers, keyboardist/singer Ryan Neighbors, and drummer Jason Sechrist - will perform some 50 shows in North America between August and October, culminating on October 23 back in New York at the CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival. The band will incorporate a number of the new songs into their set, and, according to Gourley, "There may be a little less jamming than we've done before, but there will be some new takes on some of the older songs." - more on this story

Skillet Set Release

Atlantic reports: Skillet has announced the forthcoming release of their eagerly awaited new album. "Awake" – which features the tracks "Hero" and "Monster" – arrives in stores and at all online retailers on August 25th.

The release of "AWAKE" will be preceded by the electrifying new single, "Monster." The track is slated to impact at Active Rock and Mainstream Rock outlets nationwide on July 14th, while a companion video is currently in pre-production.

One of America's hardest working live acts, Skillet will herald "AWAKE" with an exhaustive tour schedule, kicking off a full-scale headlining tour at Fort Wayne, Indiana's Embassy Theater on September 24th. - more on this story

3 Inches Of Blood Album Details

Century Media reports: The world is eagerly awaiting the triumphant return of one of the biggest defenders of traditional heavy metal, 3 Inches Of Blood, and the anticipation continues to build to epic proportions.

The stunning new album, Here Waits Thy Doom, was tracked in Seattle's Sound House Recordings with renowned producer Jack Endino (High On Fire) and is soon to be hailed as the gospel of all things heavy.

The album's official track listing is below along with some very interesting covers that span the hard rock spectrum and will be appearing as b-sides and/or bonus tracks for the upcoming release. - more on this story

Singled Out: Sugarwall

antiMusic reports: Welcome to Singled Out! where we ask artists to tell us the inside story of their latest single. Today Rick Barrio Dill from Sugarwall tells us about "Missed You" from their brand new album "Find A Way". We now turn it over to Rick for the story:

For Singled Out, I chose our song "Missed You". It really is a funny debate for us anytime we have to choose a song off the record to act as a "single" because everyone in the band or our camp has completely different opinions and for me, depending on the mood I'm in, my preference could be any song on the record. I really feel every song on the record is strong and has a home depending on your tastes or mood. Then I can ask my friends and everyone has different opinions...so today I'm feeling kinda hooky rock/pop. lol

In all honesty, I love Ronnie Dee (our singer) to death as a human being and he is one of those rare individuals who I feel as a producer could sing the phone-book (as they say) or anything really and he instantly makes it legit. He just has that special "it factor" that resonates with lots of people. When it came time to tackle "Missed You" in the recording process, Ronnie approached the original demo with a kind of sassy blues attitude and a hint of country and instantly the story just came to life.
The song is really a story of a love affair that starts for two people that really shouldn't be together because of a various reasons, none the least being a substantial age difference. Despite this, they both feel and have always felt that the love is real and genuine. Years go by and the feelings never stop and eventually the stars line up where the timing is right and its no longer taboo or "wrong". They finally come together and what has always been just a far off future for both of them is actually realized in the present and its all positive finally.

My favorite part of the song is probably Ronnie's vocals on the bridge and last outro chorus. He just hits the gas and some things come out of my boys mouth that only a few people on the planet can give you (the listener). lol. Also it has this kinda cars-like clapping going down over the end when the point in the story is being realized and its just a great energetic end to a quick rock/pop coming-of-age love story.

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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