Van Halen Ink Deal and Album Ready for Release?

The release date is set in stone and is top secret, but will be announced very soon. See hennemusic's prediction for the date here.

Metallica To Play Black Album In Full at Music Fest

(hennemusic) Metallica are the first headliners announced for the 10th anniversary edition of the Download Festival.

The three-day festival runs June 8-10, 2012 at its regular home in Donington Park. Metallica posted the news: "To help celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Download Festival, the dudes who run it asked us how we felt about playing 'The Black Album' in its entirety and we thought 'hold on, that could be really cool since it is technically the tail-end of the 20th anniversary of the release (August '91).' So come hang with us for the 2012 version of our European Summer Vacation featuring 'The Black Album,' with the exclusive stop in the UK on June 9."

2012 marks the third headlining slot for Metallica; they played in 2004 and, again, in 2006, when they performed the legendary "Master Of Puppets" album in its entirety. more on this story

Classic Dio, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest Interviews for Metal Day

Seton Hall University's 89.5 FM WSOU is joining VH1 Classic in celebrating today, 11/11/11 as national metal day with classic interviews with Ronnie James Dio, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and you can listen online. We were sent the following details:

At WSOU-FM, it was Gabby Canella, the station's Music Director, whom knew the station had to be a part of it all and spearheaded the effort to create special programming to mark this first. "When I heard about VH1 Classics declaring a National Metal Day, I loved the idea of it," Canella says. "I wanted to take it one step further and show just how important the genre is to our staff at WSOU as well as our listeners. A lot of us here have those fond memories of discovering certain bands or songs for the first time, and just being hooked ever since. For me, metal music is a genre that brings both passion and intensity; I think the whole purpose of National Metal Day should be to celebrate this kind of music for what it is and prove whatever negative stereotypes that are out there wrong."

On Friday, November 11, to partake in National Metal Day WSOU-FM will air the following 'vintage' interviews originally recorded by station alum Sean McEneely in the late 90's:

8:30 a.m.: Interview with Dave Murray of Iron Maiden
12:30 p.m.: Interview with Ronnie James Dio
8:30 p.m.: Band Interview with Judas Priest (will take place during station's specialty show Vintage 80's) Listen here

Jeff Beck Receives Living Legend Award

(Gibson) KISS's Gene Simmons hosted the Classic Rock Roll of Honour at the Roundhouse in Camden, north London, last night.

The winners featured a host of top rock names, including Lemmy, Foo Fighters, Steve Winwood, Manic Street Preachers, Roger Waters, Jeff Beck, Queen and The Who.

According to Music-News.com, Queen's Roger Taylor presented the prestigious Living Legend Award to guitar virtuoso Jeff Beck. Aster receiving a standing ovation, Beck then performed with guests Joss Stone and Chrissie Hynde. more on this story

Axl Rose Pressured To Release Chinese Democracy

(hennemusic) A preview clip from VH1's That Metal Show's interview with Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose has surfaced. This time out, Axl is asked about the pressure he felt from media and the fans to release the "Chinese Democracy" album before he felt it was completed.

"It was a torrential downfall," says Axl of the pressure directed his way during the process. "You have people just screaming 'release it!,' and that's good that they want it, but what does it mean? I don't even know what means."

"My favorite one," he continued, "I saw a post, it was about Steven [Adler]. And they go, 'Axl and Steven are having a race to see which one could put out their album last." more on this story

The Secret To AC/DC's Classic Sound

Former AC/DC bassist Mark Evans is promoting his new book Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside/Outside of AC/DC and as a result we are learning even more about the band.

In an interview about the book with MusicRadar.com, Evans details how Angus and Malcolm Young arrived at the powerhouse AC/DC sound. Says Evans: "Like most great guitar duos, they were doing what came naturally. I think they came across the guitars and amps that they liked, and once they found what sounded good, that's what they stuck with. Malcolm loved playing his 1961 Gretsch Jet Firebird. It was given to him by Harry Vanda, who was in The Easybeats with George Young, Malcolm and Angus' older brother. Since he was 13 or 14, Malcolm's played that Jet Firebird. He also messed around with a Gretsch White Falcon for a little while. The Jet Firebird is pretty much gutted by now. It only has one pickup and one volume control. But it works for him. He plugs it straight into his amp, and there's his sound.

"As for Angus, he went for the SG because it was small and light. Angus is a tiny guy, so he couldn't have a big heavy guitar on him - he'd never get through a show. Also, he loved Leslie West, who played an SG on some recordings. [Malcolm and Angus] are not encyclopedias on guitars and amps, but they do know what works for them. When I was in the band, they both used early '70s Marshall JMP heads. They'd put those through a couple of quad boxes. They don't go in for trying to have tons of tones; they do what they do, and that's it. Guitar, cable, and amp-that's the two of them right there. And what they've done is amazing. I don't think there's any guitar combination on earth that's any better." More about the book here

Mick Jones To Play Clash Classics Live For The Time in 30 Years

(Gibson) Mick Jones, leading light of two seminal U.K. bands, The Clash and Big Audio Dynamite, has said he will play Clash songs again in concert for the first time in almost 30 years.

According to NME.com, Jones will play a string of dates in December for the Hillsborough Justice Campaign. The campaign raises money for the families of those killed in the Hillsborough soccer stadium disaster of 1989.

Jones committed to the dates after playing a benefit show in Liverpool. He told NME: "It was just a fantastic, fantastic thing. I was very pleased to be asked and it went so well, so we thought we'd might try and do some more." more on this story

Nikki Sixx Mentors 400 Music Students

(Sub) Last week, 98-7FM presented an installment of the "Musicians Institute Conversation Series" featuring Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx.

Hosted by 98-7FM Music Director Darren Rose, more than 400 MI students and fans attended the live event at the Musicians Institute Concert Hall in Los Angeles to hear Sixx discuss his personal journey through the music industry

From when he touched his first guitar, to his method for songwriting, to creating his own record label – as well as his advice and encouragement for those pursuing a career in music. Check out video of the event here.

Memorial for Gwar's Cory Smoot Takes Place Today

(Freeman) Arrangements have been finalized for the memorial service for Gwar guitarist Cory Smoot AKA Flattus Maximus.

The service will take place today, November 11th at the Bennett Funeral Home Chesterfield Chapel, located at 14301 Ashbrook Parkway in Chesterfield, VA. The private service begins at 4:00 PM. In lieu of flowers the family is asking that contributions be made to the "Smoot Family Fund". Contact Smootfamilyfund@gmail.com.

Gwar will have to cancel two performances on their current tour, so they can attend the services. Thursday November 10th in Medford, OR and Friday November 11th in San Francisco, CA are the dates that are affected. Tickets for both dates will be refunded at point of purchase. more on this story

Trivium and In Flames Winter Tour

Trivium will kick off 2012 with a North American tour with In Flames that will be hitting theaters and ballrooms.

The tour launches Jan. 12 in Milwaukee and runs through Feb. 21, circling back through the Midwest to Chicago. The tour will hit major cities over the course of several weeks, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston, Denver, New York and more.

"Trivium can't wait to get out again on the road with In Flames. They are one of our all time favorite bands and together we plan on giving our best shows to the fans," singer/guitarist Matt Heafy said excitedly about the forthcoming trek. more on this story

An Evening With Corey Taylor Tour Begins Next Week

Next week Slipknot and Stone Sore frontman Corey Taylor will launch his first-ever solo tour "An Evening With Corey Taylor."

The tour will begin November 14 in Anaheim, California and will conclude on December 13th in Orlando, Fl.

This unique month-long trek will feature Corey playing acoustically, both original songs and some of his favorite covers. The evening will also encompass a spoken word performance with select excerpts from Corey's book Seven Deadly Sins… and audiences will get a rare chance to interact with the frontman during an open Q&A session. more on this story

Nickelback Comment on Thanksgiving Halftime Show

(Roadrunner) Nickelback is set to play the 2011 United Way Thanksgiving Halftime Show during the first game of the NFL's tripleheader when the Detroit Lions host the Green Bay Packers on Thursday, November 24 at 12:30 pm ET. The game and halftime show will be broadcast live on FOX.

"We are honored to perform at the United Way halftime show on Thanksgiving Day," commented Chad Kroeger of Nickelback.

"We always love playing in Detroit, our fans there have been tremendously supportive of us through the years and we can't wait to come back and celebrate an exciting day for the Lions and the city of Detroit." more on this story

The Fabulous Thunderbirds Plan New Album

(MPM) Severn Records has inked The Fabulous Thunderbirds who will begin recording their label debut CD shortly for release in early 2012.

"We are thrilled to have The Fabulous Thunderbirds as part of the Severn family and to have the opportunity to give Kim and the band's music a home," said Severn Records president David Earl. "Their style will fit in perfectly with what we do and we are looking forward to the first studio sessions in the creation of a new Thunderbirds album."

"I'm really excited about being a part of Severn Records," said Kim Wilson. "We have a great rapport with David Earl and I feel at home already. The creative family atmosphere he provides is something that is very rare in any business these days." more on this story

The Dillinger Escape Plan Jam With Mike Patton

The Dillinger Escape Plan have announced some new headlining dates and were also joined on stage last week in San Francisco by Mike Patton for the song "When Good Dogs Do Bad Things" which comes off the Irony Is A Dead Scene EP that featured Patton as the band's frontman.

The band just posted a new blog about the performance, hanging with Jello Biafra, as well as multi-camera video footage of the song shot by the band. Check it out here

The tour with Mastodon is going through the beginning of December, and the band has announced two special Headlining Shows along the run. more on this story

Coldplay Playing Saturday Night Live This Week

Coldplay will make their fourth appearance as the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" this Saturday, November 12th where Emma Stone will be the host.

The performance comes on the heels of the release of the band's new album, Mylo Xyloto, which has charted at No. 1 in 32 countries to date.

It also hit the No. 1 spot in all 35 iTunes stores around the world, breaking the record for the highest number of download sales in one week.

Chris Martin appeared on "The Howard Stern Show" this week and Coldplay will perform on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" on Wednesday, December 7. more on this story

Townshend Says Quadrophenia Was The Last Definitive Who Album

(Gibson) Everyone has their favorites, and when it comes to Who albums, Pete Townshend's is Quadrophenia. "I'm very proud of it," he said at the media launch of the director's cut reissue of Quadrophenia this week (via Music Radar). "It's the only Who album I produced on my own. I'm amazed by what we managed to achieve with an eight-track studio. I had complete control and it proved that when I have complete control I get it right."

Townshend went on to say that The Who, "only made three landmark records: Tommy, Who's Next and Quadrophenia."

"I've always felt that Quadrophenia was the last definitive Who album," he added. "I've always regarded it as a very ambitious album, but what got away was the story… But to me, it felt to me like it was the end. The reason I've spent so much time working on this new edition is because it's an epochal record, the last great album by The Who." more on this story

Psycroptic Set New Album Release

(Fresno) Psycroptic will release their fifth studio album, The Inherited Repression, on February 7th in North America and February 10th in Europe.

Commented Psycroptic guitarist, Joe Haley, "The Inherited Repression is far and away my favorite Psycroptic album thus far - all of us in the band think this. It's the age-old cliché from bands when they talk about their current album as being the best of their career, blah, blah, but I have to say it because it's true. We wouldn't think there is a point of going on if we couldn't outdo each album prior. We are certainly not playing music for anything else than the love of creating it and performing it.

"The Inherited Repression is quite different from anything we have done in terms of song writing and structure, and we spent a lot longer writing and demoing the songs before we recorded it, which you can tell. It's a very dynamic album - the fast elements faster, the slow elements slower, and a lot of light and dark binding it together. It's a very catchy album as well - you can tap your foot, bang your head or anything else you want. Basically it has a lot of groove on it from start to finish." more on this story

The Devin Townsend Project Announce Box Set Tracklist

The Devin Townsend Project has announced the tracklisting for their forthcoming box set "Contain Us."

The release is a special tribute box-set for their epic quadrology (Ki, Addicted, Deconstruction, and Ghost) that was designed and created by Man Alive's Tom Bejgrowicz (who also conceived the classic and must-have Misfits Coffin box-set).

The box set will be released on November 29th and will contain the albums: Ki, Addicted, Ghost, and Deconstruction plus two bonus DVDs and CDs and more. more on this story

Why Robert Plant's Hair Remains The Same

(Gibson) Robert Plant is known for creating one of the most successful bands in rock history, Led Zeppelin, as well as his work with Band of Joy. But, as the 63-year-old's musical projects have changed over the years, one thing has remained pretty consistent: his long, curly blonde hair.

Speaking with GQ, Plant had a bit of fun chatting about his long locks. When asked, "How on earth have you managed to keep your hair like that?" Plant replied, "Well, I don't know. We could be quite serious about it. I just have been very lucky. My mother was a gypsy, and she had a lot of dark blood in her, and her hair was very, very thick – she couldn't even get a brush through it. So I have been very fortunate."

He added that every time he goes to cut it off, "hairdressers refuse to do it." So, the locks are here to stay. more on this story

Singled Out: Edward Rogers' The Biba Crowd

Edward Rogers released his brand new album "Porcelain" this week and to celebrate we asked him to tell us about the album's opening track "The Biba Crowd". Here is the story:

What a perfect event, seeing Mott the Hopple reform at the Hammersmith Apollo for three special shows, and I was lucky enough to be there.
The song's melody flowed into my brain right after the show, and I demoed the song that same night. The crowd was almost as interesting to me as the wonderful sound that Mott was playing from the stage.

One of Ian Hunter's lines taken from "Saturday Gigs" was "Chelsea girls are the best in the world for company," which got me thinking about the way young ladies were dressing in the early seventies and of course in London every hipster shopped at BIBA.

It was a night for tears and memories - a night to relive your past and forget for a few hours the crazy world today. The lyrics were shooting out of my head as fast as I could write them down.

I wonder where the Biba Crowd went
Were you supporting Mott that night
Saw Silver John playing on and on
Gained a little weight, but he's still getting it on
So when I left England I had this little ditty ready to be recorded. What a fun night, and as extra bonus a song that hopefully (at least in my mind) captured the feeling of the crowd of the event.

Where did all the velvet go
Matching satin oh the silver dream, ya know
Thought I'd live it one more time
Then leave the legacy behind

It's funny when we went to record this song the producer (Don ) looked at me and said are we recording a song about Justin Bieber. I never let him live it down…..have a listen and see if you can join the party. "69 was cheaper wine."

Golden days of my youth
Relived for an evening to tell a few tales
Catch up on rumours, see the the old faces
And nod to those who passed us by

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself right here!