KISS and Motley Crue Tour Coming

"It's going to be really cool because KISS is bringing their full stage show, and Motley will be bringing our full stage show," said Vince, "so you are going to see two huge headliners at the same time. It's going to be one of the biggest tours of the summer, if not the biggest." more on this story

Slash Recording With Steven Adler

Slash will reunite with his former Guns N' Roses bandmate Steven Adler in the recording studio tonight (March 15th).

Slash posted the news to Twitter yesteday, "Looking forward to laying down some guitars on a song for Steven Adler's new record tomorrow night.

He also had a fun tweet about a special preview of his upcoming solo album, "Apocalyptic Love." He wrote, "Played the new record for my snake, Sam. 1st time he's been active in a month. I hope that's a good sign."

Rolling Stones Delay Possible 50th Anniversary Tour

(Gibson) Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have confirmed that there will not be a 50th Anniversary Rolling Stones Tour in 2012. The rock legends said that they aren't quite prepared to go globe-trotting, according to Rolling Stone.

However, it appears that the Glimmer Twins have their sights set on something in 2013. Richards suggests that a tour next year is actually more appropriate for the 50th anniversary.

"The Stones always really considered '63 to be 50 years, because Charlie [Watts] didn't actually join until January," Richards said. "We look upon 2012 as sort of the year of conception, but the birth is next year." more on this story

Van Halen Full Concert Video Stream

(hennemusic) Footage of a complete Van Halen show from their current tour has surfaced. Fan-filmed video of the band's February 22 gig in Indianapolis gives viewers the ability to check out a full 2012 Van Halen concert.

The Indy date was the third show on the tour, following the February 18 opening night in Louisville, Kentucky and a February 20 concert in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

The 24-song set (including solos) featured a variety of tracks from the Van Halen catalogue, rarely-performed songs like 1981's "Hear About It Later" and 1984's "Girl Gone Bad," and four tunes from the new "A Different Kind Of Truth" album. Read more and watch the video here.

Bruce Springsteen Scores No. 1 Debut

Bruce Springsteen's new album "Wrecking Ball" squeaked out a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 album chart.

The album had first week sales of 196,000 according to SoundScan, just 1,000 units over Adele's blockbuster album "21" which has been No. 1 for 23 non-consecutive weeks.

The No. 1 debut is also historic for Springsteen, giving him a tie with Elvis Presley for the third most No. 1 albums in history with ten each. The Beatles hold the record at 19.

Read Billboard's report to see what other titles made the chart this week, here.

Metallica Rev Up Expanded Orion Fest Plans

(hennemusic) With more than 30 artists on the bill this June, Metallica's upcoming Orion Music + More festival in Atlantic City has the music angle more than covered.

Metallica will be playing their classic "Black" album in its entirety on one of the nights for the first time ever in the U.S., and performing the "Ride The Lightning" album on the other night.

Now, Metallica has announced details of the Orion Custom Car + Motorcycle Show, curated by frontman James Hetfield. Over 300 of the best Customs, Hot Rods, Muscle Cars and Custom Motorcycles will be on display at the Orion Custom Car + Motorcycle Show inside the festival grounds throughout the weekend. more on this story

Billy Corgan Smashing Posers

(Gibson) Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan lamented the state of alternative rock in a one-on-one conversation with writer Brian Solis at South by Southwest earlier this week, asserting that "posers" have replaced authentic artists.

"[Artists who achieve breakthrough success today] have grown up thinking that being famous is the goal," he said. "Not to be respected, not to be dangerous." Corgan went on to say, "Don't call it rock 'n' roll. I was part of a generation that changed the world – and it was taken over by posers."

In a subsequent interview, conducted at SXSW's Samsung Blogger Lounge, Corgan talked about the impact social media has had on the music industry. "The music business is shamefully behind the curve as far as understanding the effects that social media has on the business," Corgan said. "They just treated it like it was a curse and a plague upon them. And I was one of the first people to stand up and say, 'No, this is a great thing.'" more on this story

Lamb of God and Devildriver Supergroup Offer Free Songs Download

Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton took to his Twitter page to tell fans about a new project with Devildriver frontman Dez Fafara and offer fans two song downloads from the group.

Morton laid out the news in the following series of tweets: good evening! the name of the project is: Born Of The Storm. songs written by me & Dez Fafara. (Kevin Talley played drums on these demos!)

the 1st song i will share is called "Nowhere Fast". 1st gtr solo is a guest appearance by Ryan Lake of Alabama Thunderpussy. the 2nd is me!

so...w/out further adieu...here is "Nowhere Fast" by Born Of The Storm : http://www.mediafire.com/?h9h5g68nzlpcycn

the next song i will share with u is called "Dust". it once again features Kevin Talley on drums & is a rare chance to hear me rock a bass!

so...for your listening pleasure...here is "Dust" by Born Of The Storm. we hope you enjoy! http://www.mediafire.com/?kzbq3y14rkzdg17

Agnostic Front Cancel Tour

Agnostic Front have been forced to cancel their upcoming concerts in Southeast Asia for financial reasons.

The band broke the bad news to fans with the following announcement: "We are very sorry to announce that due to overwhelming expenses to be able to play Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore we unable to make it this time. We thought we could make it happen but it didn't work out.

"We will make some more arrangements in the future with more time to make these shows happen but as of today, those dates are cancelled. We are sorry to announce this. Cheers to our fans there and we will look forward to a next time."

Slipknot's M. Shawn Crahan Releasing Book

M. Shawn Crahan of Slipknot will release his debut art book of photography entitled, 'The Apocalyptic Nightmare Journey,' on June 19th.

MSO sent over these details including an excerpt from Metallica's Lars Ulrich's forward to the book and a Q&A with Crahan: The Apocalyptic Nightmare Journey is a large-format art book collection of explorations in darkness and light from SHAWN's experimental photography, his second and equally powerful artistic outlet which he has honed for over a decade. Weird, wired, paranoid, endlessly imaginative and cancerously prolific, he's created thousands of dangerous representations of reality through eye-gouging Polaroids in numerous artistic styles throughout this hand-picked collection of images.

Lars Ulrich of Metallica wrote the forward for the The Apocalyptic Nightmare Journey. Here is an excerpt: "Throw yourself into clown's world, throw yourself into clown's book, throw yourself into clown's images, throw yourself into the whole f**king thing. Let go of the bungee cord, do away with the safety net. Just go for it, and let the journey take you wherever the journey's going to take you. And as you're going on that trip through this book, occasionally imagine clown next to you. Imagine hearing his voice in your head talking about what these images and experiences have meant to him and where he was going with it. And you will end up on one f**k of a ride, that I can guarantee you will be unique, spellbinding, and potentially life altering. This book is everything that art should be." more on this story

Quiet Riot Find Their Voice

Quiet Riot announced to fans on Wednesday that they have found their new lead singer and he will make his live debut with the band later this month.

In a Facebook post believed to be written by drummer Frankie Banali, they made the announcement: I spoke several weeks ago with my friend and vocalist Keith St John to once again thank him for lending his talents to Quiet Riot during our time of need. Keith stepped in on very short notice so that Quiet Riot could meet our live dates in February. Keith knocked it out of the park with great vocals and performances and we are forever in his debt.

Quiet Riot takes this opportunity to introduce our new vocalist Scott Vokoun and we look forward to seeing all of you on tour! more on this story

Slash Vs Alice Cooper for Top Gear

(hennemusic) Slash made an appearance on BBC's car show, Top Gear, recently, to promote the upcoming release of his new album, "Apocalyptic Love," due May 22.

A good chunk of the session was, obviously, spent discussing cars."My first car, that I paid for with my own money, was a Honda CRX," said the guitarist. "It was a cool looking little car. And then I gave it to my brother and I got a 1996 427 Corvette Coupe."

After an extended conversation with one of the show's hosts, Slash was shown doing a timed lap for the segment "Star In A Reasonably Priced Car."

Watch the video to see how Slash's lap time stacks up against other guest drivers, including Alice Cooper here.

Gwar and Municipal Waste Tour Starts Tomorrow

Municipal Waste will hit the road tomorrow to provide direct support to Gwar on their "Return Of The World Maggot" Spring tour.

The tour kicks off tomorrow, Friday March 16th in Richmond, Virginia with a benefit show for the Smoot Family Fund established to help support the widow and unborn child of recently fallen GWAR member Cory "Flattus Maximus" Smoot.

Municipal Waste's new album The Fatal Feast will be released in North America on April 10th and in Europe on April 13th. more on this story

Rush's Alex Lifeson Limited Edition Prints for Charity

(hennemusic) The Kidney Foundation of Canada has announced the sale of Limited Edition Prints by Alex Lifeson of Rush.

Beyond his work as guitarist for Rush, Lifeson is also a visual artist whose original paintings regularly sell for thousands of dollars. This charity venture is a rare opportunity to own one of his paintings at a very reasonable cost.

A signed, limited edition of 250 prints have been made. The print is on high quality, heavy stock, and each print comes with a Certificate of Authenticity, signed by the Executive Director of the Atlantic Canada Branch of The Kidney Foundation of Canada, confirming that the print that you have purchased is one of only 250. more on this story

James Durbin Returning To American Idol

(hennemusic) American Idol season 10 finalist James Durbin is reportedly be returning to the program next month.

James is said to be returning to Idol for a special performance; he'll be rocking the weekly results program on Thursday, April 12.

Last fall, Durbin released his debut album, "Memories Of A Beautiful Disaster," and has been playing showcases around the States to build his fan base. more on this story

Melechesh Set New EP Release

Melechesh will release a new digital EP, Mystics Of The Pillar II, on April 27th in Europe and on May 1st in the US.

Vocalist/guitarist Ashmedi had this to say about the EP: "We recorded two different ending version of 'Mystics of the Pillar' - this one changes tempo and picks up steam. Why? Because we felt like it, a song with two different endings is not too common in this day and age.

"Last minute we chose one to be included on the album, thus the second version was not mixed and mastered till a much later date. We also decided to release a couple of instrumental versions to our songs, namely 'The Epigenesis' title track which is a 12-13 minute epic and Sacred Geometry both are multi faceted and work perfect just as instrumental works. We actually have an instrumental version of the entire album mixed and mastered so enjoy these couple of tracks." more on this story

Tank To Deliver War Nation in June

(MMP) Tank will release their new album "War Nation" on June 4th in Europe and June 5th in USA (via MVD).

Apart from the new album, TANK will also release their first ever live DVD later this year. Recordings were made while opening for Judas Priest in 2011 and during the bands show at Stodola Club, Warsaw on March 9th 2012.

The set list will include fan favourites such as 'This Means War' 'Echoes of a Distant Battle' 'Power of the Hunter' and ' The War Drags Ever On' plus future classics such as 'Judgement Day' and 'Phoenix Rising'. more on this story

End Of September Coming in May

Ulterium Records will release End Of September's self-titled debut album on May 11th in Europe and on May 22nd in North America.

Ulterium Records have posted an album teaser at YouTube to give potential fans a taste of what is to come. Check it out here.

According to the label, End Of September have been able to successfully create a mix between melodic metal and more modern metal that not many bands have more on this story

Liam Gallagher Plans To Play Oasis Songs at Beady Eye Shows

(Gibson) Talking to British radio station Xfm, ex-Oasis singer Liam Gallagher has said that his new band, Beady Eye, will be playing Oasis songs live this summer.

Gallagher said: "We're doing Fuji Festival in Japan, which is in July. And we will be dropping Oasis songs for anyone who's bothered.

"We were always going to do it, but we thought the album needed to stand on its own. We've done some good gigs, we've done some s--t gigs. And it's time to drop them in now. Everyone else is. I feel they're just as much my songs as they are Noel's. And if people don't like it, go to the bar or f-- off. If they do like it, jump up and down, let's have a good time." more on this story

Singled Out: Namesake's Worlds Away

Today Will Crafton from Namesake tells us about their brand new single "Worlds Away" which comes from their forthcoming album. Here is the story:

This was actually a last minute song added to the album. We were short a few songs and we were pushing to put one together as soon we could. What we didn't expect was to write the debut single for the album! Brad and I were literally sitting in a room stumped. He started playing a riff and I was really digging it. We started doing our usual song writing routine. I would hum some melodies and put lyrics to it later. We got a bunch of catchy melodies and later that night I sat alone in my room and came up with the story. I had just gotten through some hardships with a girl, in which I felt like i didn't know her anymore. We had grown so far apart that I felt like we were on different planets, thus, "Worlds Away" was born.

I spent the next few nights writing the lyrics, going through every emotion that crossed my mind during our time together, unfortunately the whole relationship was a struggle. We fought a lot over stupid stuff, her parents hated me for no legitimate reason, and it seemed like everything was against us. I guess that's why we tried so hard to make it work, but it was broken from the start.

My head was spinning over this song, it truly was an emotional roller coaster for me to write it. The lyrics came easy though, basically because I had lived the entire thing and it was still fresh on my mind. Eventually I was able to put the story to a close, leaving myself and her on different parts of the galaxy. But despite how far away we were from each other, I could see her world from a distance, and she will always be able to see mine.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!