Metallica Wanted To Hire A Ramone?

"Johnny [Ramone] was actually the one who hooked me up with the audition because he was friends with [Metallica guitarist] Kirk Hammett" C.J. explained. more on this story

Van Halen Forger Guilty

A man who ran a massive forgery scheme online that involved selling more than 1,200 album covers and sports memorabilia items with bogus signatures entered a guilty plea this week.

According to Reuters one of the items mentioned in the plea agreement was a Van Halen "5150" album with forged signatures from the band members that was offered for sale on eBay.

David Bruce Shryock plead guilty to charges on Monday in federal court in Springfield, Missouri. Shryock reportedly used various eBay accounts to cheat buyers out of over $175,000 by offering bogus items. Read the Reuters report for more details.

KISS N Lady Gaga?

(hennemusic) Could KISS be teaming up with Lady Gaga? It's not out of the question, says guitarist Paul Stanley. "Anything's possible. She's terrific, and it's not improbable," he tells LA Weekly in a new interview.

How did the subject come up, you ask? Well, the new KISS album will be called "Monster," and, of course, the Gaga connection stems from the pop singer calling her fans "little monsters."

Yup, not much to go on, but there it is. And hey, KISS wouldn't be the first rockers to collaborate with the Lady: she enlisted Clarence Clemons and Queen's Brian May for her latest album, and she's been raving about Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden for some time, so there's already a mutual thing going on between the pop and rock worlds there. more on this story

Ozzy Classic Now Family Friendly For TV Ad

(hennemusic) A new car ad campaign features a familiar soundtrack, but the song isn't performed in its usual style.

A TV ad for the Honda Pilot, a midsize crossover SUV, shows a family of 8 cruising along when one of the kids starts singing a drum beat. It's the familiar tempo of the opening drum riff to Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train."

One by one, the family members join in on with different parts on an a cappella version before they…well, watch the video to see what happens for yourself here

Deftones Limited Edition Box Set

Reprise Records have set a October 25th release date for a limited edition vinyl Box Set: Deftones: The Vinyl Collection, 1995 - 2011.

The collection is a seven-album (8 LP) retrospective containing the band's six studio albums - 1995's Adrenaline, 1997's Around the Fur, 2000's White Pony, 2003's Deftones, 2006's Saturday Night Wrist, and 2010's Diamond Eyes, and the limited edition 2011 Record Store Day release Covers.

Each album has been exclusively re cut for vinyl from the original master recordings andpressed on 180-gram European virgin vinyl. The collection, which includes a unique lithograph and cover art, comes packaged in a hand numbered collector's box pressing of 1000 copies worldwide. Deftones: The Vinyl Collection, 1995 - 2011 is expected to sell out quickly.

It will be sold exclusively via www.deftones.com and www.becausesoundmatters.com. more on this story

Garbage Finishing Comeback Album

Garbage is back and is currently in the studio putting the finishing touches on their fifth studio album and their first in seven years.

The new album is being recorded in a basement in the Atwater Village area of Los Angeles, CA, the first to be recorded outside of Madison, WI.

The as yet untitled album will be released in Spring 2012, and is being produced by Garbage, engineered by Billy Bush, and mixed by Butch Vig and Billy Bush. more on this story

Puscifer Announce Tour and Halloween TV Appearance

Puscifer will kick off their North American tour on November 7th in Seattle and have announced the initial dates for the trek. Additional dates will be announced soon.

Puscifer will make their television debut on Halloween with a performance on The Late Show with David Letterman.

That appearance and the tour are in support of the band's sophomore release, Conditions of My Parole (Oct. 18, Puscifer Entertainment). more on this story

Goo Goo Dolls Five-O and Fall Tour

The Goo Goo Dolls plan to continue touring through the fall by launching a new string of dates on October 12th in Milwaukee.

The band toured all summer in support of their latest album, Something For The Rest Of Us.

The have also just recorded a brand-new song, entitled "The Best Of Me," which will be heard on an upcoming episode of CBS's hit remake of Hawaii Five-O, as well as on a soon-to-be released soundtrack album. more on this story

Joe Bonamassa Plans Arena Tour

Joe Bonamassa has announced plans for a major UK arena tour that will take place next March.

Fresh off a successful European tour with Black Country Communion, and rave reviews of BCC's "2" album, Joe's forthcoming UK solo tour will see him perform material from his current studio album "Dust Bowl" plus songs from his vast catalogue of albums including "A New Day Yesterday", "The Ballad of John Henry", "Sloe Gin" and "Black Rock".

Joe's band features Carmine Rojas (bass), Rick Melick (keyboards) and Tal Bergman (drums). Joe will also preview songs from his new studio album due for release in late May 2012.

Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi Adds U.S. Date

(hennemusic) The Tony Iommi fall book tour had added its first US date to promote "Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven And Hell With Black Sabbath."

Following news of for UK stops, the Black Sabbath guitarist will appear in New Jersey as part of his book-signing tour to promo his upcoming memoir.

The Ridgewood, NJ date of November 1 marks the US release date of the book; it will be released in Europe on October 13. more on this story

Joe Cocker's Hard Knocks Coming Later

The release date of Joe Cocker's new album "Hard Knocks" has been pushed back from the original November 22nd release until January 24th in North America.

His first new recording in over three years, "Hard Knocks" was produced by Matt Serletic. The recording sessions took place in Serletic's own Emblem studios in Los Angeles involving a host of acclaimed musicians like Ray Parker Jr., Tim Pierce and Joel Shearer on guitar, Josh Freese, Matt Chamberlain and Dorian Crozier on drums, Chris Chaney on bass and Jamie Muhoberac on keyboards. The songs were mixed by Chris Lord-Alge and mastered by Bob Ludwig. Songwriters Kara Dioguardi of recent American Idol fame and Marc Broussard have contributed songs to the collection.

Says Cocker, "I don't really know what you would call this album: 'rock/pop'? It's a little more pop than I've been into for quite a while so it would scare me sometimes. I would do the basic tracks and then Matt would go away and do some of these overdubs and he had all these electronic things on there. It was sometimes like 'Oh, my god!'. But I wanted to work with Matt very much. And I always knew what kind of record we would be making." more on this story

Bridge School Benefit Concerts Coming To DVD and CD

(hennemusic) On October 24th, Reprise Records will release two very special packages: a three-DVD set and a two-CD collection that feature unique live performances from many of the phenomenal artists who've performed at the beloved Annual Bridge School Benefit Concerts over the past 25 years.

Some of the biggest names in music are included on The Bridge School Benefit Concerts - 25th Anniversary Edition, performing rare, acoustic versions of songs, never heard anywhere else, to benefit The Bridge School, a non-profit, innovative organization educating children with severe speech and physical impairments through the use of augmentative and alternative communication systems and assistive technology. This once-in-a-lifetime collection is sure to become a treasured artifact for generations to come.

Artists featured on the three-DVD set include Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Pearl Jam, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, The Who, Tom Petty, Simon and Garfunkel, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, and much more. more on this story

A New Chapter For Wayne Static

(Audio Ink Radio) Static-X frontman-turned-solo artist Wayne Static releases his debut solo album, the pummeling 'Pighammer,' Tuesday (Oct. 4), and the release comes out on Static's own label, Dirthouse Records. For now, Static is the only artist on Dirthouse Records. But in the future, he's hoping to sign other musicians, Static told Audio Ink Radio.

"I would like to sign other artists," he said. "The whole thing is an experiment at this point, and everything is going well at this point, so if this record does well, I'd like to sign some other bands, too."

Static also hinted that a Static-X reunion was definitely not in his plans, at least not in the near future. "I'm just focusing on the solo project, and I haven't broken up the band officially or anything like that, but everyone's kind of gone their separate ways and are doing their own thing in other bands and things like that," he said. "So, we could get together sometime in the future, but I don't really know. I'm just having a great time doing this right now. Read the full interview

Kill Devil Hill Kick Off First American Tour

The new Pantera/Dio/Sabbath supergroup Kill Devil Hill kicked off their first ever North American tour Sunday night in Clifton, NJ.

Kill Devil Hill features inny Appice (Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, Dio) bassist Rex Brown (Pantera, Down) Dewey Bragg (Vocals) and Mark Zavon (guitars).

Freeman Promotions sent over word that the band played close to an hour and a half during the opening gig. The tour is set to run until November 5th. more on this story

Rose Tattoo's Angry Anderson Ponders Political Career Move

(Gibson) Rose Tattoo frontman Angry Anderson is considering running for a Federal seat in the Australian parliament.

The 63-year-old singer has joined the conservative Nationals party, and is planning to run for one of two seats in the state of New South Wales. Anderson told The Australian newspaper, "At this stage we are just talking about possibilities, that's about as much as I can say, we are talking."

Anderson is a vocal opponent of Australia's proposed carbon tax, and is well known for his work with the under-privileged. Senator Barnaby Joyce joked on Twitter that "Tried to get Angry to change his name to Assertively Agitated Anderson but no luck so here comes Angry." more on this story

Little Room for Harrison With Lennon and McCartney as Beatles Writers

(Gibson) Paul McCartney says George Harrison's increasing songwriting output may have contributed to Harrison's unhappiness with The Beatles.

In a new interview with Mojo, McCartney says Harrison had described his All Things Must Pass solo album as 'diarrhoea.' "That was his own affectionate way of describing that he'd had a lot of stuff stored up and it had to come out," McCartney said. "I mean, I don't think I'd describe it like that. But I know what he meant."

McCartney said that with albums typically being only 40 minutes long and with he and Lennon in full inspiration mode, there wasn't much room for Harrison's contributions. "And Ringo had to have a track," he said.

McCartney conceded that the enormity of The Beatles meant there wasn't as much room for George to contribute as he would have liked. more on this story

Evanescence Get Pretty Reckless For Tour

The Pretty Reckless have announced plans to hit the road with Evanescence in October for a series of tour dates in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Germany.

The U.S. leg begins October 10th in Oakland and visits major cities in the U.S. and Canada before wrapping up in New York City on November 1st.

The band then heads to the U.K. for a string of November dates, followed by four shows in Germany at the end of the month. more on this story

The Who's Pete Townshend To Lecture on Today's Music Biz

(Gibson) The Who's Pete Townshend will be giving a special lecture on modern music later this month. The legendary Gibson SG loving guitarist is giving the inaugural John Peel Lecture on dealing with the new download world.

According to the Daily Express, Townshend is especially pleased to be honoring BBC broadcasting legend, John Peel (who died in 2004).

Townshend said: "John didn't just listen to music, he played it on air and let his audience decide. He was a listener first, and an activist second, and I am happy to have a chance to honor him and examine how his legacy might extend into the future." more on this story

The Decemberists Releasing New EP

(Sub) The Decemberists have announced the November 1st release of the b-sides EP Long Live The King, a companion piece to their #1 debuting breakout LP The King Is Dead.

The 6-song EP features outtakes from The King Is Dead recording sessions at Pendarvis Farm including "E. Watson" (with backing vocals from Laura Veirs and Annalisa Tornfelt), the horn-drenched "Sonnet," and a cover of the Grateful Dead's "Row Jimmy", as well as the home demo "I 4 U & U 4 Me."

The CD and 10" vinyl versions of Long Live The King are available for pre-order now at The Decemberists' website and Amazon.com. The EP will also be released digitally through all digital retailers. more on this story

Def Leppard Launch Fan Questions Month

(hennemusic) Def Leppard are getting up close and personal with fans. Ok, well, sort of – the band has been stockpiling questions sent in by fans over the past few months and are now ready to shoot back some answers.

"Over the entire month of October," posted Leppard, "we will reveal one question per day (except on weekends) by posting video clips of Joe (Elliott, vocals) and Phil (Collen, guitar) filmed at their respective homes, answering questions about the current music climate, their goals, why Joe is always tied up in their videos, the loss of Steve Clark, the band name (yes, even that!) and much more."

The band has offered up the first video in the series: in the clip Phil responds to a question about songwriting inspirations… Check it out here

Clutch For The Holidays

(Freeman) Clutch have just announced their annual holiday shows for 2011. The guys will be playing five shows starting in Boston, MA on December 27th and culminating with an epic New Year's Eve performance at the famed Trocadero in Philadelphia, PA.

Support on these dates will come from Corrosion of Conformity and Kyng. Tickets for these special shows go on sale tomorrow October 4th for the Artist Arena Fan Club Presale, and the general public on sale is this Friday October 7th.

In other Clutch news, Weathermaker Music has confirmed the release date of November 29th for the "Blast Tyrant" Double Vinyl Package. more on this story

Whitesnake and Warrant Also Winers

(superLOUD) It seems that the new fad right now (especially in Europe) is rock star endorsed wines.

Lemmy's not the only rocker that's been endorsing wine. Whitesnake's David Coverdale went on VH-1's That Metal Show earlier in the year and one of the topics covered was his own line of wine.

AC/DC and Queensryche's Geoff Tate also apparently have wines out. Rock band Warrant's Napa Valley Red is available here in the States from artistwine.com, as are two blends featuring the rock band Ratt. There are more

Singled Out: Sean Spillane's Distracted

Today Sean Spillane (Arlo/Midway) tells us about Distracted, the first single from The Woman Movie Soundtrack which was released this week (the film hits theaters on October 14th). Here is the story:

About a year and a half ago I sent feature film director Lucky Mckee, the demo version of "Distracted" that I recorded way back when I wrote it eight years before. He loved it and wanted to feature the demo in his film upcoming "The Woman". At the time, he was finishing his shooting script and had asked me to be the composer for the film. His idea was to have me come out to Turners Falls, MA and write and record additional songs while the film was being shot in order to get the vibe and pace of the story. This worked out better than imagined. However, as the new songs began to take shape, I realized the demo version of "Distracted" wasn't going to cut it, especially when played over huge speakers in a movie theater. I re-recorded it and I really feel like this more realized version captured the charm and spontaneity of the demo, while absorbing the despair and angst of the characters in "The Woman".

"Distracted" is one of those songs that feel like I wrote it in 15 minutes because it just poured out of me one evening, lyrics and all. This is not always the case, but sometimes things just click. The world view within "Distracted" relates to life in our modern age which is moving very quickly and bombards us with so much information on a daily basis that as soon as we begin to fully understand and make peace with tragic or confusing events in our lives, our attention is being pulled away in a completely different direction by something even more ridiculous. Therefore, we never have time to fully comprehend most world changing events, which inevitably dooms us to repeat our mistakes. "Distracted before we know/We're distracted and so it goes."

The personal side of "Distracted" deals with the idea that we're all good inside but circumstances and events occurring around us tend to warp and distort our tendency toward goodness. There a moments in our lives in which each of us have lied or done varying degrees of harm to others, sometimes without even knowing it. "'Cause the world is so dark, but there's light deep inside you/We all have been hurt and we all have been lied to" I lament how we are all distracted by our own agendas and quest for survival in these fast paced, unforgiving times and have little or no time to reflect on the consequences of our actions. "Now the consequence of actions and incompetence/ show it's worse than we had feared"

Even though I wrote "Distracted" eight years ago, I feel like it is even more relevant today and should be relevant for a long time, seeing how we won't be throwing away our TV sets, cell phones and computers any time soon, and thank god for that.

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

. Rock Reads: Duff McKagan - It's So Easy (And Other Lies)

Duff McKagans new book is by no means a gratuitous blow-by-blow recount of his years of excess. Sadly his former rhythm partner, Steven Adlers memoir from last year fell into this trap where the glut of drug intake took on overzealous dimensions that disgusted rather than delighted. - Read the full Duff McKagan - It's So Easy (And Other Lies) review

. Remake-Remodel: REO Speedwagon - Hi Infidelity 30th Anniversary Edition

The music on Hi Infidelity may not exactly be timeless but it holds up pretty good today; if you liked it then youll still like it today. And with the release of this 30th Anniversary Edition you can hear the demos for the entire album (except for Out of Season). - Read the full REO Speedwagon - Hi Infidelity 30th Anniversary Edition review

Wait there is more!