Velvet Revolver Singer Rumor Addressed

According to management, Prior was sent tapes of two new Velvet Revolver instrumental tracks and asked to write words and melodies and to then sing over the music. "But he's just one of numerous singers that tapes went out to," says the spokesperson. "Gord submitted his demos just like everybody else. He wasn't even asked to come in and do a formal audition. I don't know why these videos get out there, but that's just the nature of the Internet." - more on this story

Metal Star Suffers Heart Attack

PR reports: Athera (Pal Mathieson), bocalist with Norwegian band Susperia, was rushed into Akershus Universitetssykehus Hospital in Lørenskog, Norway on the morning of March 9th suffering from acute stomach pains and heavy bleeding. Initial tests revealed that the singer had suffered a heart attack caused by a damaged blood vessel.

Athera is currently in the intensive care unit under close observation, while further tests are carried out. He is expected to remain hospitalized for the foreseeable future. At this moment future plans including touring commitments remain unchanged, until a full diagnosis of his condition has been confirmed.

Athera recently completed vocals on Susperia's 5th studio album, which is due for an early summer release through the bands new label Candlelight Records. - more on this story

Carrie Underwood Covers Motley Crue for American Idol

Blabbermouth reports: "American Idol" star Carrie Underwood tapped into her rock side to record the show's new farewell theme. In keeping with the recent "home" theme of the tunes played as contestants are eliminated from "Idol", Underwood recently tracked a countrified cover of Motley Crue's bitter[cheese] ballad "Home Sweet Home", which will make its debut on Wednesday night (March 11) when this season's first finalist is sent home.

The song will be available as a digital single exclusively on iTunes through March 16, after which it will be released on other online music retail sites.

According to Underwood's official site, a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Humane Society of the United States. - more on this story

Metallica's Hetfield May Have Been Poisoned

Blabbermouth reports: Metallica frontman James Hetfield headed home to the United States on Monday morning (March 9) after being hospitalized in Stockholm, Sweden over the weekend.

Hetfield was admitted to the hospital on Sunday (March 8) with dehydration after coming down with a possible case of food poisoning. He was released Sunday evening, but the illness forced the band to cancel its second concert in Stockholm, scheduled for that night.

In a posting on Metallica's offical web site, Hetfield writes, "James here, alive, at about 80% but getting better. I want to say sorry for missing the second Stockholm gig on Sunday due to illness. The cause/diagnosis at the hospital was narrowed down to either a 24-hour virus or a bad oyster...yes, hate to admit, an oyster could have taken me down." - more on this story

Chris Brown and Rihanna Plan Love Duet?- U2 Gold- Coolio Crack and Battery Charges- Punk Legends Vs Forever 21- Free Kanye Dream- EP For Cutie and more

antiMusic reports: Chris Brown and Rihanna are [reportedly] recording a duet together -- said to be a love song -- despite prosecutors charging Brown with a violent attack on his girlfriend, celebrity websites reported on Tuesday. more.

In related news: Chris Brown is still up for an award at the upcoming Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards, despite petitions to have him disqualified.more

The new U2 album is on track to exceed industry forecasts by selling almost half a million copies during its first week on sale in the United States, the band's manager said on Monday.more

Prosecutors in Los Angeles say Coolio has been charged with cocaine possession. The 45-year-old rapper was also charged Tuesday with battery stemming from his Friday arrest at Los Angeles International Airport. Authorities say he grabbed a screener's arm to prevent a luggage search that turned up the drugs. more

Punk Legends punked! Popular retailer Forever 21 has stocked an interesting looking shirt with what may appear to be imagery from Minor Threat The shirt in question appears to include "Minor Threat" in the font from Out of Step. The Tripwire got a statement from Dischord Records who replied: This is an unauthorized shirt and it is still unclear whether the shirt was produced by Forever 21 or if it is a bootleg that they just happen to carry. Either way the members of Minor Threat are looking into it and Forever 21 will be asked to stop selling it." judge for yourself

Kanye West will join The-Dream for a free MySpace Music show later this week. The rap star is set to make a guest appearance at the singer/producer's gig in Los Angeles on Thursday (March 12), to celebrate the launch of his new album 'Love vs. Money'. more

Death Cab For Cutie are working on a new EP featuring tracks which did not make the finished version of Narrow Stairs. They explained: "When we finished Narrow Stairs, there were four extra songs that, because we were trying to put together an album, we ended up not including them — it's not like they're castoffs or anything; they're part of the Narrow Stairs experience. " more

Jimmy Boyd, the child singer and actor best known for the original rendition of the Christmas novelty hit "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" in 1952, has died. He was 70.more

Johnithin Christ of Code of Honor passed away March 5th, 2009 due to complications from pneumonia. He had successfully survived a brain tumor but the chemotheraphy and steroids depleted his immune system.more

Coachella Adds Bands, DJs After Amy Winehouse Drops Out: Devendra Banhart, the Orb, Chemical Bros., Murder City Devils and Etienne de Crecy have been added to the lineup of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.more

Old 97's frontman Rhett Miller is planning a June 9 release for his fourth solo album, a self-titled affair on Shout! Factory that he recorded during January and February in Dallas. more

Revisiting the blues and the blues-oriented classic songs of Fleetwood Mac, iconic rock drummer and band co-founder Mick Fleetwood has assembled a hand-picked quartet of musicians, The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band, who've created this stunning new live recording, due out March 17th in the U.S. via 429 Records.more

Former Korn guitarist Brian "Head" Welch has selected the following musicians for his touring band: Andrew Gerold (Sandusky, Ohio) - Guitar * Ralph Patlan (Tempe, Arizona) - Guitar * Michael Valentine (Huntington, Virginia) - Bass * Dan Johnson (Fairfax, Virginia) - Drums * Jesus (Heaven) - co-manager. more

Lambgoat confirmed that Madball added former Throwdown drummer Ben Dussault to their line-up. more

Michael Jackson has revealed the exact dates for his 10-night residency at London's O2 Arena, dubbed This Is It! Grab those here.

Darkest Hour have entered Salad Days Studio in Baltimore, Maryland with engineer/producer Brian McTernan to record a new full-length.more

Between The Buried And Me has lined up a few April shows with Telescreen and Eyris.dates

Mission Of Burma has announced they are demoing for their fourth proper studio album, the follow up to 2006's The Obliterati.more

Forgive Durden has been added to Bamboozle Left (4/5) and Bamboozle New Jersey (5/2). Forgive Durden will perform the musical written by band's singer/songwriter Thomas Dutton, Razia's Shadow. It is a full-on piece of musical tale spinning, complete with elaborate characters, powerful themes, and a hauntingly beautiful narrative. Think Rock-Pop meets Broadway. more

Innerstrength Records has added Indiana's Dissever The Tyrant to their line-up. The band will enter the studio next weekend to begin recording a five-song EP - more on this story

Former INXS Singer Changes His Tune About Firing

MusicRadar reports: All right, let's see if we can get this straight: A couple of weeks ago, INXS vocalist JD Fortune said he was kicked to the curb by the band at a Hong Kong airport. Now he says that wasn't the case at all.

"That was sort of a misquote (on my part)," Fortune recently told Sun Media in Canada. "It was the proverbial handshake. Nobody really said, 'Thanks a lot, kid.' I thought we were going to see each other again. It was kind of like, 'Hey, hey, I'll catch up with you later.'"

The 35-year old singer, who won a reality TV show and recorded an album and toured with INXS, has been in the news lately thanks to some bizarre appearances on Canadian television. Fortune claimed the band gave him the heave-ho in Hong Kong and that he was now homeless and in living in his car. - more on this story

New Zeppelin Youth Song

Billboard reports: Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and alternative rock legends Sonic Youth have collaborated on an original musical piece for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and will perform together in Brooklyn, N.Y. in April.

"Nearly Ninety," a new full length work composed by Sonic Youth, Jones and mixed-media sound composer Takehisa Kosugi, will debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on April 16, Merce Cunningham's 90th birthday.

The piece and its debut performances are part of "Merce Cunningham at 90," a four day festival celebrating the choreographer's work and influence. - more on this story

Kanye On A Mission From God

Hecklerspray reports: When performing for the VH1 show Storytellers, Kanye West said that he aimed to be 'the best'. We can deal with this; he wants to plague us with hippity hop beats and rhymes all about digging for gold and other things that everyone in the world can relate to.

But of course nothing is simple with this man and everything has to go one step further. He went on to say: "God chose me. He made a path for me. I am God's vessel."

Erm…so does that mean that Kanye West is Jesus? A modern-day man who has been briefed and instructed to inject the word of God into every living man, woman and child? Maybe that'll explain all of his strange behaviour that we've seen on planet earth. Perhaps God took control of his feet and forced him to wreck Justice's speech when they whooped his ass at an awards show ceremony. - more on this story

Don't Hold Your Breath For A New Nirvana Album

MusicRadar reports: Still hoping for that new Nirvana box set with unreleased tracks? Fuggedaboudit, says the band's former bassist Krist Novoselic; everything's been used up. "There's not going to be any new Nirvana records," he revealed recently.

However, there is video, and in Novoselic's words, it's "a lot of video." He didn't detail the content and nature of the videos, but since he and Kurt Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, are now on good terms, the possibility that material could be issued sometime in the future exists.

The only previously unreleased official Nirvana song to come out since Kurt Cobain's suicide in April 1994 was the single You Know You're Right. "[The song] was a big surprise with people," Novoselic said. "I had that master tape stashed and I didn't tell anybody." - more on this story

Avril Plans To Sell More Latrine Crap

Jam! reports: Canadian pop star Avril Lavigne has finished work on her debut fragrance - the first edition of her planned cosmetics empire.

The singer signed a major deal with beauty company Procter & Gamble to produce a new toiletries line, including perfume, aftershave, bath oil, bath soap, shower gel, body shampoo, and body lotion.

And Lavigne has announced she is to unveil the first product - a fragrance named Black Star. - more on this story

The Vines Set New Album Release

PR reports: It was the cover of Rolling Stone, on September 19, 2002, that first introduced the Vines to America. Six years later, the same thing could still be said. In an age of synths, ornate string arrangements, and electronic embellishments, the Vines continue to play straight-forward, no frills rock & roll on Melodia, their fourth full-length, which comes out March 24.

Singer and guitarist Craig Nicholls snarls and scowls his way through tracks like "Braindead," "Scream," and "Get Out," the hook-driven opener, like only a man who's known the crowd-fueled, fist-pumping energy of a packed concert hall can. These are songs that ignite, full of the unabashedly snotty garage-rock-meets-post-grunge glory that sent the Vines' stunning debut, Highly Evolved, rocketing up the charts.

There's nothing superfluous about Melodia: few of the album's 14 tracks go beyond the two-and-a-half-minute mark. These are tight, tuneful songs – loud and fast rock & roll, pure and simple, the kind that propelled the Vines into international acclaim. - more on this story

Pete Yorn Returns in June With Back and Fourth

Columbia Records reports: On June 23, Columbia records will release Pete Yorn's 'Back and Fourth' marking a new musical chapter in which the acclaimed singer and songwriter has taken a different approach to writing and recording with stunning results.

'Back and Fourth' follows Yorn's first three albums, which he considers a trilogy, and is his first album in three years. Yorn wrote all ten songs on 'Back and Fourth' and recorded the album in Omaha, NE, with producer Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley). Columbia's Co-Chairman Rick Rubin helped guide the project from its earliest demo stages to final mastering.

The songs on 'Back and Fourth' range from lilting mandolin lullabies to bracing anthems. But there's a thread running through the album - an organic feel to the arrangements, a careful pacing to the sequence, a penetrating truth to the stories - that's unmatched by anything else in Yorn's catalogue. - more on this story

Oh No Not Stereo Week: Day 3

antiMusic reports: Oh No Not Stereo's new album '003' hits stores this week and to celebrate we asked Sky Nielsen (vox, gtr, etc) to give us the inside story to five favorites from the effort. Here is Sky with today's song "Get Over It":

"Get Over It" is about some people's perception of us "selling out." When we left LA for the first time to tour as a duo, jealous haters criticized us. When we transcended the local scene we have been a huge part of for so long, it seemed like people still found a way to look down on us, for selling our soul to do what we love to do in life. But we didn't "sell out" then and we aren't "selling out" now, so f**k you to all the jealous haters!!!!

We do our own thing and make our own music every day, with no hands in our pockets. We're not apologizing for working hard and getting somewhere when that's our whole purpose.

Preview songs from the album, learn more about it and the group and more right - here!

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