Rock Band 3 is Coming- Faith No More's First US Reunion Gig- Iron Maiden Singer Gets Axed- New Hendrix Video- Johnny Depp Doors- Sept Strokes? and more

UK metal legends Raven have announced North American tour dates in September/October in support of their new album, Walk Through Fire. more -

Slash Announces His Solo Band Line-up

Slash has finally announced the members of his solo band, who will join him on the road to promote his forthcoming self-titled solo album. As previously announced, Myles Kennedy will take on vocal and guitar duties.

Kennedy is best known as the frontman to Creed offshoot band Alter Bridge and was also rumored to be the frontrunner in taking over for Robert Plant in Led Zeppelin after auditioning for the three core members of the legendary group who briefly considered reuniting in 2008.

On Wednesday, Slash announced the rest of the band's line-up. It will include: Rhythm guitarist Bobby Schneck (who has worked with Weezer, Green Day, Goo Goo Dolls) who sat in for Brad Whitford on Aerosmith's ill-fated tour last summer. Bassist Dave Henning from 90s neo-prog band Big Wreck and drummer Brent Fitz who has worked with Union, Gilby Clarke, Theory of a Deadman, Streetheart, Harlequin, Econoline Crush, Indigenous and Alice Cooper. - more on this story

$12 Million Payoff in Travis Barker Plane Crash Death

A $12 million dollar settlement has reportedly been reached in the case of the wrongful death of Travis Barker's friend Chris Baker who died in the 2008 airplane crash that put the Blink-182 rocker and the late DJ AM in the hospital.

While Barker and DJ AM, real name Adam Goldstein, escaped from the plane, which crashed during take off from an airfield in South Carolina, two of their friends and the two pilots were killed. Travis' best friend Chris Baker was one of those who lost his life in the crash.

Jam! reports that legal papers show that Baker's widow Otilia and three-year-old son Sebastian have received more than $12 million from Clay Lacy Aviation, Goodyear Tire and Rubber and Learjet as a result of the lawsuit. - You can read the Jam! report here

Original Sunny Day Real Estate Plan New Album

Billboard had big news for Sunny Day Real Estate fans on Wednesday. They report that the Seattle rock act is planning to record its first album in 15 years with its original lineup.

The news was Tweeted last night by Seattle radio DJ Marco Collins of KEXP and has been confirmed to Billboard.com as accurate, although no timeline for recording or release has been determined.

Group members Jeremy Enigk, Dan Hoerner, William Goldsmith and Nate Mendel have been fleshing out new material since last fall, coinciding with their first live shows as a unit since 1994.
- See Billboard for more including some live show news

A Third Rare Randy Rhoads Recording Goes Online

With the anniversary of Randy Rhoads tragic death approaching on March 19th, The Metal Den continues to post rare Rhoads related material. They have previously posted isolated guitar tracks from two classic songs from the Blizzard of Ozz album, and today they have a demo of another track from the album.

Here is their announcement followed by a link to check it out: TMD has unearthed a rare demo performance of "Goodbye To Romance" from Ozzy Osbourne's classic Blizzard of Ozz album.

After the highly controversial 2002 "Blizzard" album reissue, which saw the original bass and drum tracks by Daisley and Kerslake replaced with Ozzy's bassist and drummer at the time (Trujillo/Bordin), a major outrage in the rock music world was sparked. Many people feel that no matter what the reason, Sharon Osbourne (wife and manager of Ozzy) stepped way over the line by 'tearing apart' the original masterwork... - Check it out here

Another Metallica Tour Change-Up

Metallica have been forced to change another venue on their current Latin American tour. Earlier this week they were forced to change their Panama City show from Plaza Figali to Figali Convention Center and now they announced that their show in Caracas, Venezuela has also been moved.

Here is what they had to say: What a week! Bad news/good news .. . bummer is that La Rinconada is still under construction preparing for the Softball World Championship. The good news . . . we'll be playing right next door at Campos de beisbol de la Rinconada! So literally 70 meters away, we'll be set up to rock Caracas this Friday, March 12.

It goes without saying that your tickets to La Rinconada will be honored at the new location and when we last checked, there are a few left for sale. - See Metallica.com for the latest

Slash Explains Why Ozzy Single Was Dropped

(Rock Radio) Slash wanted the first single from his solo album to be the track he recorded with Ozzy Osbourne but was forced to make another choice. Instead, he went with his collaboration with Wolfmother mainman Andrew Stockdale – and that's why By the Sword is a single and Crucify the Dead isn't.

The guitar hero explains: "The problem with this record is, because I have all the guest singers, you run the risk of interfering with the release of other people's records.

"That's what the issue was. I had to make sure that whatever single I was using wasn't stepping on the toes of that artist's own record – and Ozzy's got a new record coming out."
- more on this story

Mutemath Spring Tour

Mutemath will hit the road on April 13th for a spring tour as special guests of 30 Seconds To Mars.

The band is touring in support of its current album Armistice, their second album for Teleprompt/Warner Bros. Records, which debuted at No. 18 on Billboard's Top 200 album chart in August 2009.

In addition to the shows with 30 Seconds to Mars, Mutemath will also perform at this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 18th, and the Bamboozle Festival on May 2nd. - more on this story

OK Go Launch Their Own Label and Announce Tour Dates

OK Go, the band whose inventive internet campaigns and self-directed music videos have set records and won the band a GRAMMY, announces the formation of Paracadute.

Paracadute and OK Go will oversee the distribution and promotion functions for the band and have planned an extensive promotional campaign for OK Go's latest album, Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky, which was released in January. Just as the band saw an opportunity to do something different with their homemade videos, OK Go see untapped potential in the sea change that the music industry is experiencing and believe there are tremendous opportunities for artists capable of managing their own promotion and distribution. The band, who have always controlled their publishing, merchandise, touring, and all other non-recording rights, are parting by mutual agreement with EMI Music.

"We'd like to thank the people who have worked so hard on our behalf," said OK Go singer Damian Kulash, who will discuss the band's departure from the label on NPR's "All Things Considered" today. "And we'd like to thank our fans for making this choice an easy one for us." - a lot more here including tour dates

Shout Out Louds Announce Tour Dates and Documentary

Merge Records is excited to announce that Sweden's Shout Out Louds will be embarking on a North American tour during the month of May with Brooklyn buzz band Freelance Whales. With the band's new album, Work, in stores and online now, the tour begins on May 2 at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, and will culminate with a performance at the House of Blues in San Diego, CA, on May 22. Last week the band performed a sold-out show at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg where they performed tracks off their new album as well as crowd favorites from their previous two full-lengths.

In addition to the upcoming tour, the band just issued a mini-documentary on the making of Work titled "Shout Out Louds ... at Work." Directed by the band's bassist and renowned video director Ted Malmros, "Shout Out Louds ... at Work" provides a deep glimpse into the process that went into the creation of the songs that make up the new studio album.

Through the alluring moving images and stills taken from interviews with the band and Phil Ek, their producer, to the Washington woodlands where Work was recorded, the mini-documentary presents itself as a diary that captures all of the emotions evoked from the pressure, as well as the excitement, of creating such a highly anticipated release. - dates and link to the video

The Drive-By Truckers Late Night and Additional Tour Dates

The Drive-By Truckers will appear on "Late Show with David Letterman" on Friday, March 12th and "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" on Wednesday, March 31st. They've also added additional dates to their The Big To-Do tour including nine dates with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.

The Big To-Do will be released on Tuesday, March 16th on ATO Records and has already been in the Top 10 in music on Amazon. The band is offering an exclusive deluxe pre-order from their web site. The deluxe package includes a 52-page color book with the art and text from the album, a Wes Freed limited edition, signed and numbered giclée, 18 postcard set, and 180 gram double gatefold vinyl. The band has also posted "You Got Another" as the third preview track on the record. The track is streaming on the band's website.

The band will kick off the tour this week in Atlanta, GA with a two night stand at the Variety Playhouse then heading to SXSW where they'll play an in-store at Waterloo Records on Thursday, March 18th at 2 pm and then perform at Stubb's at 10:30 pm with Band of Horses and Broken Social Scene. - more on this story

Sky Eats Airplane Announce EP and Tour

Sky Eats Airplane will release a 3 song EP, The Sound Of Symmetry, on April 13th that will be available exclusively on tour, at MerchNow.com, and digitally.

Recorded with up-and-coming producer Taylor Larson at his studio in Bethesda, Maryland, the band intends to let the EP serve as a teaser of a forthcoming full-length, to be recorded this fall.

The band will perform the new material on an upcoming co-headlining run with Drop Dead Gorgeous, kicking off March 30th in Salt Lake City - dates

Dew Scented Confirm New Album Release

Prosthetic Records is proud to announce they will be releasing German thrash stalwarts, Dew Scented's new album in North America.

The effort entitled, "Invocation," which was recorded by Jörg Uken at Soundlodge Studios (God Dethroned, Sinister, Despondency), is due out on May 25th. "Invocation" also marks the first appearance of drummer Marc-Andree Dieken (ex-Obscenity), and guitar team Michael Borchers and Martin Walczak, alongside long term members, vocalist Leif Jensen and bassist Alexander Pahl.

Leif Jensen commented on the signing: "Dew-Scented are honored to announce that our new album "Invocation" will be released via Prosthetic Records in North America! The label's dedicated staff, their outstandingly classy and pretty open-minded musical taste for all things extreme as well as the quality work delivered for cool bands like Lamb Of God, Gojira, Skeletonwitch, All That Remains or Beneath The Massacre make us happy and proud to be teaming up with them as new partner for our upcoming releases! We look forward to unleashing "Invocation" upon the thrashing masses in North America soon!" - more on this story

Good Old War Announce Album And Tour

Indie rock trio Good Old War will release their self-titled second album June 1st on Sargent House. The band will play several weeks of dates supporting Circa Survive, beginning March 11th in Carrboro, North Carolina and wrapping up March 24th in Cleveland, OH.

Along the way the band will stop off in Austin, TX for three performances at the SXSW Music Conference. They will appear at the Bamboozle festival in New Jersey in May. Tour dates below.

Good Old War's sophomore release is the result of several winter months spent holed up in a remote house in the Pocono Mountains, where band mates Keith Goodwin, Dan Schwartz and Tim Arnold crafted this earnest, original collection of songs in near-isolation. The album explores weightier topics such as love, loss and addiction, and the band experimented with new instruments, techniques and conventions to push the boundaries of their familiar indie rock/folk territory. - more on this story

Turisas Check in On Recording Progress

Finnish warmongers Turisas continue to establish their definitive brand of battle metal as they begin tracking for their eagerly awaited third full-length album, which is tentatively set for an early fall release.

The group are currently holed up at Sound Supreme Studios in Hämeenlinna, Finland – the same studio where they recorded their previous album The Varangian Way (2007). TURISAS have just posted the first part of their ongoing video series documenting the entire recording process.

Vocalist, songwriter and producer Mathias Nygård comments: "After a nine-month break from touring to fully focus on songwriting, we've finally moved forward and have now started recording. It's going to be a long project and is bound to keep us all busy through the summer, but believe me; it will be worth the wait. With three years between albums, there's been enough time to find a fresh angle and new ideas not to repeat ourselves or albums we've done in the past. The songs rock big time, but the epic elements aren't going anywhere – it's going to sound larger than ever before. The leap forward is going to be just as big as between Battle Metal and The Varangian Way. Stay tuned to our YouTube page for new video reports from the studio and we can't wait to unleash this beast in a few months." - Watch the video here

Son Of Aurelius Offering Preorder Bundle

The debut album from Son Of Aurelius, "The Farthest Reaches" is set for release on April 13th.

For fans that cannot wait to get their hands on this technical masterpiece, a link has been set up to pre-order the album.

he album is available for pre-order in a bundle, which includes the album and a Son Of Aurelius T-Shirt designed exclusively by acclaimed artist Joshua Andrew Belanger, who also did the cover art for the album. The CD can also be pre-ordered by itself. - preorder here

Year Long Disaster Offer Free Song To Celebrate Album Release

Year Long Disaster's sophomore LP, Black Magic: All Mysteries Revealed hit stores this week via Volcom Entertainment.

To celebrate the release, the band teamed up with Spin.com to debut the MP3 for the track, "Cyclone". Grab it here.

Black Magic: All Mysteries Revealed was produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Alice in Chains, Rush, Marilyn Manson) and is based loosely on the early 20th century Russian novel, Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov. - more on this story

Yo Gabba Gabba Apples in stereo

More news from The Apples in stereo. First off, Robert Schneider (as Robbert Bobbert and the Bubble Machine) will be performing the song "We R Super Heroes" on Nickelodeon's Yo Gabba Gabba today March 11.

Other "Super Hero" guests will include Mos Def, Devo, Super Biz Markie and The Aquabats.

Yo Gabba's first guest was Elijah Wood, who yes! is in the short film "Exploring the Universe" along with Robert. Check that out - here

VNV Nation Announces US Tour

In support to their widely-hailed seventh studio album Of Faith, Power and Glory on Anachron America, electronic rock pioneers VNV Nation will be launching a national tour in San Francisco on March 16th and circling the states.

The special guests on select shows include SITD and Aerodrone. Kicking off what will be a very busy year, the Irish/English duo will also be releasing Crossing the Divide, a collection of remixes from their current album by Jade Puget from AFI, Rotersand, Reaper, Leæther Strip, Architect and more and will be released in May 2010 (more info soon).

With their unique and formidable ability to combine very melodic, danceable electronics with haunting and powerful lyrics, VNV Nation have built a massive fanbase, playing to hundreds of thousands of fans at both their own sold-out shows and major rock festivals worldwide. Their massive hits "Standing" and "Dark Angel" are club staples that still pack dancefloors. Of Faith, Power And Glory was released on June 23, 2009 and charted on Billboard's Electronic Charts at #5. - dates

Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights Set Album Release

F-Stop/Atlantic recording artist Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights will release their national debut Pardon Me on April 27.

The band will celebrate the release with a slew of special performances, including their first late night TV appearance on April 8 on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC) and a supporting slot on Kid Rock's sold-out Chillin' The Most Cruise, which embarks from Tampa, FL on April 29. In addition, the band has recently been added to the star-studded line up for Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

Prior to all that, the band will head to Austin for the South By Southwest Music Conference. There they will headline the Relix magazine day party on Friday at Antone's, in addition to several other appearances, including BMI's showcase on Thursday night, and the Relix magazine official showcase on Saturday evening. (See tour itinerary - here)

Singled Out: Mangrove

Welcome to Singled Out! where we ask artists to tell us the inside story of their latest single. Today Chris Jonker from Mangrove from tells us about the title track from their latest album "Beyond Reality." We now turn it over to Chris for the story:

More than any other song on the album, I would say that although the title track is more that 9 minutes long, its structure is a typical 'song' structure rather than the longer 'epic' tracks on the album. But as we are Mangrove the progressive rock band and not a pop band, we gave this song the typical Mangrove treatment: a more heavy approach towards the end to create a kind of climax, a nice synth solo and even 2 guitar solos. Nevertheless we think this song could interest a wider audience than just the progrock lovers. It has a kind of 'classic rock' song feeling. I think this was the first song we wrote for the album. In contrast to some other songs (like 'Time Will Tell') we wrote this song rather quickly. As soon we had the verses and the choruses it went very fast. I can imagine our excitement when we wrote this song. We felt the song was just so strong. Everything seemed to be right. And after some time, I still think it's a great song. But maybe better to refer to what others said about this title track:

"The nine minute title track brings a new feel to the album with a more aggressive Uriah Heep like attack. Stomping organ mixed with a Ken Hensley like scream, show a far more rock style than anything that has gone before, however it is still wrapped up in masses of atmosphere and fanfare. It's a brilliantly paced track that has you almost welling up with tears during the slower sections and then seconds later banging your head to the driving beat. Add to that the most memorable chorus that's on the album and it's nigh on perfection." - Steven Reid, Sea Of Tranquility

"The title track, 'Beyond Reality', is a mid length track with a lot going for it. Opening with a soft piano introduction the guitar and bass quickly cut injecting some power before cutting back to vocals and acoustic guitar. Instrumental breaks allow for injection of some very emotive guitar work, which manages to impress without the need to go over the top. As the track progresses additional layers build up producing a fuller, richer sound while the vocals take on a more classic rock style." - Simon Hill, New Horizons

Chris Jonker: "I am pleased to let the readers of 'Day in Rock' judge for themselves by downloading the title track for FREE here Enjoy!!" -