Velvet Revolver To Reunite With Scott Weiland Next Week

Blabbermouth reports that Weiland will return to front Velvet Revolver for a brief performance on January 12th at the House of Blues in West Hollywood. The event titled 'Love You Madly: A Concert For John O' Brien' will honor the recently deceased film/TV composer. more on this story

Van Halen Playing Club Show This Week

(hennemusic) Journalists across New York have been invited to a Van Halen concert at the Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village this Thursday.

Rolling Stone reports that, although nothing is official, word is the band are going to perform a 45-minute set.

The group hasn't played in public since the end of their 2007/'08 reunion tour with original frontman David Lee Roth, though they have been rehearsing for their upcoming world tour at the Roxy in Los Angeles for the past few months. more on this story

Alice Cooper, Steven Tyler and Weird Al New Year's Jam

(hennemusic) Alice Cooper rocked his way into 2012 with a New Year's Eve show in Maui, Hawaii where Aerosmith's Steven Tyler turned up for a few songs.

Cooper played at the Mala Wailea, the famous oceanfront restaurant that is lobby level at Wailea Beach Marriott Resort & Spa. Also on the bill were "Weird Al" Yankovic, Pat Simmons and Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers, and Bob Rock; the event was emceed by comedian Tom Arnold.

Tyler joined Alice for a few songs, including "Walk This Way" and "Sweet Emotion" and they were also joined by Weird Al for a cover of The Beatles' classic, "Come Together," which Aerosmith recorded, themselves, many years ago. Check out video here.

Slash Says New Album is Raw

(Gibson) Slash has been talking about his new in-progress album. It will feature singer Myles Kennedy for all tracks. After the festive break, Slash and Co. return to the studio to continue recording and mixing the as-yet-unnamed album, and the Les Paul-toting star predicts an April release.

Slash tells Total Guitar magazine, "We're just going for the one take that sounds good, so my solos are more raw, probably sloppier in a way, because they're very spontaneous to the point where it's in the heat of the moment."

Of the completed individual songs, Slash says, "There's one song at this point called 'Bad Rain' which is a mid-tempo, very heavy and dark song. It's in a drop-D tuning – and we're already playing a half-step down – and the solo has a kinda chromatic feel.

"There's one very uptempo song with a cool riff called 'Halo.' The third song is called 'Standing in the Sun' and it's very melodic, mid-to-uptempo… just a rock 'n' roll song! All three of these songs are relatively short, they're all in a rock mold, and I guess I always come from that pentatonic point of view. For me, any time you go too far out of that, it ceases to be rock. It has to have a basis around that, otherwise it no longer has any essence of that Chuck Berry kinda deal." more on this story

Deep Purple Legend Jon Lord Updates Fans on Cancer Fight

(hennemusic) This past summer, former Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord announced that he is fighting cancer and would be taking a break from performing while getting treatment.

This week, Lord offered his best wishes to fans and says he is "doing well." Here's Jon's post: Happy New Year to all of you and thank you so much for your wonderful, kind and inspirational messages over these last few difficult months.

I have been mightily sustained by reading them and will continue to be so. You are a very special lot indeed. I am doing well and I will be back with more news and updates in the next week or so. more on this story

Metal Star Restrains Aspiring Model That Trashed His Apartment

(TMZ) Meeting a chick on Facebook sounds good in theory ... but former Danzig bassist Jerry Montano says his experience left him with a series of harassing calls and messages ... and a trashed apartment.

According to papers filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Montano says he was introduced to Priscilla Caputo through friends and they spoke on Facebook. He claims he met Caputo on December 5 when "she came to my place around 4 AM and stayed the night."

Montano says Caputo spent another night at his house on December 11. Two days later, Montano claims he turned down Caputo's offer to hang out again ... which he says caused her to "freak out."

Montano claims she sent him harassing texts all night and eventually showed up at his place -- when he wasn't there -- and after one of his roommates let her in, Montano claims she kicked in his bedroom door and "trashed the place."

Montano says he filed a police report and when he told Caputo about it, he claims she replied by saying if he filed charges against her, she would tell the cops he raped her.

A few days later, after he claims he received even more harassing messages, Montano requested and received a restraining order against Caputo ... ordering her to stay 100 yards away from him and his roommates.

There is a hearing scheduled on January 6 where a judge will decide whether or not to make the restraining order permanent. more on this story

Guns N' Roses Wrap Up Chinese Democracy Tour

(hennemusic) Guns N' Roses wrapped up their "Chinese Democracy" tour with two shows in Las Vegas during the holiday weekend at The Joint, at The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

Friday's concert was available as an online pay-per-view event via iClips; they also delivered GNR's December 21 Los Angeles show the week before.

GNR posted notes to fans before their Saturday show, writing, "Happy New Year To The Mountainous Time Zone...we are about to get things Rocking here in Fabulous Las Vegas! TO ALL OF YOU FROM ALL OF US Happy New Year and may 2012 bring you everything you want that you haven't had yet and then some!" Check out video footage from the gig here!

Allman Brothers Band's 2012 Plans Includes Grammy and Live Shows

The Allman Brothers Band have announced a busy kick off to 2012 including their annual Beacon Theatre dates, a Grammy honor, this year's installment of the Wanee Festival and The Year of the Peach, which celebrates the 40th anniversary of their 1972 live album Eat A Peach. MSO sent over these details:

The band will start the year with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, which "honors performers who have made contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording." That event will take place Saturday, February 11 during Grammy Week in Los Angeles and the group will be mentioned on the Sunday, February 12 national TV broadcast.

"It's shaping up to be a great year," says Butch Trucks, who co-founded the band in 1969 with Gregg Allman, drummer Jaimoe, guitarist Duane Allman, bassist Berry Oakley and guitarist Dickey Betts. "We just wanted to make music that was honest and play it for friends, which is pretty much what we've done. It's an honor to be able to be recognized like this." more on this story

Claypool Discusses Primus Break Up

(Gibson) Primus sure did take their sweet time between recording their latest album (2011's Green Naugahyde) and its predecessor (1999's Antipop). Now, frontman Les Claypool has revealed that the band actually broke up for a while during that interlude, although they didn't tell anyone.

Claypool told Spinner that Primus broke up "for about three years. Then we came back and did the nostalgia thing, in '03, with a pretty big tour. And then in 2006 we did another round. But those tours, they were just – they were what they were.

"We're kind of under-the-radar guys. We've got to go out and work. So for us to stop like we did – we weren't even talking. We definitely broke up. We broke up but we didn't want to tell everybody, so we said 'Well, we're on hiatus.'" more on this story

Queensryche's Geoff Tate Was James Durbin's Wedding Singer

(hennemusic) Rocker James Durbin married longtime girlfriend Heidi Lowe on New Year's Eve.

Queensryche singer Geoff Tate surprised the couple with a performance of his band's 1984 classic "Take Hold of the Flame" – one of Durbin and Lowe's favorite tunes.

"We are so in love and happy that we got to share our special day with our closest family and friends," the couple tells People. "This wedding was the perfect way to kick off the New Year. We are looking forward to living happily ever after." more on this story

Van Halen Billboard at Times Square for New Year's Eve

(hennemusic) Anyone who was in New York's Times Square for New Year's Eve – and those watching one of the TV broadcasts – would have seen a large Van Halen billboard promoting the band's new album.

The train image, with the VHII-era logo, was displayed prominently near one of the live music stages in the square.

The VH graphic was be televised on the ABC electronic billboard between 9 and 10pm (eastern) and the Clear Channel electronic billboard between 10 and 11 pm. Check out a photo of the billboard here.

A Lot Like Birds Announce North American Tour Plans

A Lot Like Birds have mapped out a series of North American tour dates in support of their 2011 release 'Conversation Piece'.

The band will be co-headlining shows over the next few months with Just Like Vinyl and Decoder.

I The Mighty will be playing on select dates as well. The band will then go out on tour with Dance Gavin Dance. more on this story

Members of Guns N' Roses, Down and Shadows Fall Tribute Judas Priest Classic

The latest edition of Mars Attacks Classic Albums Column focuses on Judas Priest's Painkiller Album.

The special features written commentary from special guests including former Judas Priest lead singer Tim "Ripper" Owens, the producer of Painkiller, Chris Tsangarides, Kirk Windstein of Crowbar and Down, Jason Bittner of Shadows Fall, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, and a slew of others.

The podcast portion of the column contains comments from Doro Pesch, Iced Earth's Jon Schaffer, legendary drummer Gene Hoglan, Hade's lead singer Alan Tecchio, Glen Drover, Dave Reffett, author Martin Popoff and members of Talking Metal, Metal Assault, and Iron City Rocks. Check it out

Bob Wayne Releases 2012 Video and Plans Next Album

Bob Wayne will enter the studio this month to begin working on his fifth studio album, but he has marked the New Year with the release of a new video for the song 2012.

Bob says of the album plans, "Well folks, here we go! It's been a long haul the last year! Been on the road since October 2010 and it's now December 2011... and I'm still out here on the road!! But no rest for the wicked!!! As soon as this tour with Scott Kelly (Neurosis) and Jay Munly (Slim Cessnas Auto Club) ends I'll be going immediately to Nashville to begin recording the next album!! It's gonna be rippin!! See you all next year with a new record in my hand and a big shout out to all that came out and supported!!"

Bob Wayne will once again be teaming up with Andy Gibson of Hank III to produce the record. Gibson also produced Bob Wayne's previous album, Outlaw Carnies that was released earlier this year. The new album will be out in 2012 via Century Media Records / People Like You Records. While we wait check out the video for 2012.

The Man Who Inspired Bob Dylan's Mr Tambourine Man Release Debut

(Gibson) Bruce Langhorne, the man who inspired Dylan's classic song "Mr. Tambourine Man," has finally released a solo album.

According toMusic-News.com, the album is appropriately titled Mr.Tambourine Man.

Langhorne, a top '60s session player who played guitar on Dylan's original brought a tambourine (actually a Turkish frame drum with bells attached that made it jingle like a tambourine) to the session and Dylan has credited Langhorne as an inspiration for the track. more on this story

New Smashing Pumpkins Compares To Mellon Collie?

(Banana 101.5) The Smashing Pumpkins are taking a detour from their massive 44-song project 'Teargarden by Kaleidyscope' to bring you a full album called 'Oceania.' Frontman Billy Corgan says it's their best since 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' — hopefully we'll be able to confirm that this Spring.

Speaking to Sterogum recently, Corgan went as far as comparing the new record to one of their most beloved previous releases:

"I mean it's been a long time since I made a record where you play it for fifty people and fifty people say 'this is a great record.' I haven't had that since Mellon Collie where fifty people go 'OK, that's a great record.' That's a long time. That's fifteen, sixteen years between that feeling of 'OK, now you've got one here.'" more on this story

Klogr Debut Coming This Month

(Glass Onyon) Italian Alternative-Metal rockers Klogr will be releasing their debut album, 'Till You Decay' this month on Valery Records.

Described as "an alternative rock/metal album in which both the instrumental and the vocal lines are delivered very heavily at times and more melodic at other times creating the sound of Klogr", fans of the band and music press worldwide have been anticipating the CD release.

The album is based on the concept that the society around us controls us, judges us, conditions us and ultimately suffocates us. A psychological game of massacre, control and power over the masses, in which they use fear and anxieties to destabilize a person into something more fragile, more controllable and more subservient... till you decay. more on this story

I See Stars Tour Kicks Off This Week

I See Stars will hit the road for North American headlining "The Leave It 2 The Suits Tour" on January 6th.

The trek will also feature Stick To Your Guns, Memphis May Fire, Our Last Night and Make Me Famous (from the Ukrainian who will make their North American touring debut on this trek).

I See Stars will be on the road ahead of the March 13th release of their new full-length album. more on this story