Scott Weiland Says Stone Temple Pilots Will Have Buy Him Out

"So I just don't really see that… They'll have buy me out of the company, because I have major value in the company and in the brand. So that's where we're at. The lawyers will deal with it." more on this story

Linda Ronstadt Can No Longer Sing Due To Disease

(Classic Rock) Linda Ronstadt is suffering from Parkinson's Disease, she's revealed and it's robbed her of her singing voice. The veteran artist, 67, has confirmed long-repeated rumours within the music industry and admitted she'll never be able to sing again.

She first thought the problem arose as a result of a tick bite, but was later diagnosed with the degenerative disorder – and she suspects she's had it for several years.

"I can't sing a note," Ronstadt tells AARP. "I couldn't sing and I couldn't figure out why. I knew it had to do with the muscles but I thought it might have also had something to do with the tick disease I had. Then I had a shoulder operation so I thought that's why my hands were trembling.

"Parkinson's is very hard to diagnose, so when a neurologist said, 'Oh, you have Parkinson's,' I was completely shocked. I think I've had it for seven or eight years already because of the symptoms I've had." more on this story

Maiden, Queen, Zeppelin Stars and Jon Lord's Final Jam on New DVD

(Classic Rock) Two years of Sunflower Jam shows will be released on DVD next month, featuring members of Iron Maiden, Queen and Led Zeppelin, plus late Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord's final live performance.

Main feature is the 2012 Sunflower Jam, held at London's Royal Albert Hall, which saw the stage shared by Bruce Dickinson, Brian May, John Paul Jones, Alice Cooper, Ian Paice, Mark King, Alfie Boe and others.

A bonus disc carries the previous year's show in the same location, at which Lord made his last public musical appearance ahead of his passing from cancer. Performances also came from Deep Purple, Rick Wakeman, Joe Bonamassa and others. more details.

Pearl Jam Release 'Mind Your Manners' Video

(Radio.com) When Pearl Jam announced their new album Lightning Bolt via countdown clocks a month ago, it came along with the first single off the record "Mind Your Manners." Now, the single has got visuals courtesy of director Danny Clinch — who worked with Eddie Vedder on the videos for his ukulele solo album Ukulele Songs – and Missoula, Montana artist and animator Andy Smetanka.

Here, Clinch and Smetanka put the band rocking directly out in front of stock video images and silhouettes that are a more than a little reminiscent of their 1998 animated video for "Do The Evolution". The new video is only the band's 11th official music video in their entire 22 year career.

For a bit of the behind the scenes look, watch PJ guitarist Mike McCready talk about his part in making the song, and how he tried to create a really "hard-edged, Dead Kennedys-type riff" in a mini interview posted to the band's YouTube page.

Pearl Jam's 10th studio album Lightning Bolt arrives October 15, and the band will head out on the road for a North American tour just before starting October 11 in Pittsburgh. Check out the video here.

Status Quo Frontman Says Frantic Four Reunion Was A Mess

(Classic Rock) Status Quo frontman Francis Rossi says the band's celebrated Frantic Four lineup reunion was "a f**king mess." He and Rick Parfitt reunited with drummer John 'Spud' Coghlan and bassist Alan Lancaster for their first shows together in over three decades.

But Rossi tells Classic Rock: "To me, the tour was a f**king mess. Spud was unfit and kept slowing down, and Alan has his own problems. So it was extremely hard work for me and Rick."

He also admits to feeling bewildered over why anyone cared. "Sometimes it was so sloppy that I can't see why the fans loved it. I'm glad they did, but for the life of me I can't comprehend why – other than it's all about nostalgia. And that's not really what motivates me."

Nevertheless, Rossi thinks the classic lineup will ride again.

Kyuss Offshoot Vista Chino Tease New Album

(Classic Rock) Vista Chino, the band formerly known as Kyuss Lives, have released a teaser for upcoming album "Peace" and announced a string of fall tour dates in the UK.

John Garcia and Brant Bjork came up with the new name after former bandmate Josh Homme took legal action, saying he'd been happy for them to tour using the Kyuss title but he didn't want them to record under it.

Vista Chino's debut album, Peace, is released on September 2nd in the UK and September 3rd and they will be launching a UK tour in October. Check out the album preview and the tour dates here.

Green Day's Broadway Idiot To Hit Theaters

(Radio.com) A new documentary chronicling the journey of Green Day's American Idiot and how it went from the recording studio to the Broadway stage is hitting theaters this fall.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the doc, Broadway Idiot, looks at the challenges of adapting the band's 2004 album into the 2010 Broadway production.

The 80-minute film, which debuted at South by Southwest earlier this year, will hit theaters Oct. 11 in New York before expanding its run to other U.S. cities and Canada a week later.

Broadway Idiot also takes a look at how theater transformed Green Day frontman, Billie Joe Armstrong. The singer, who in 2010 took on the leading role of St. Jimmy in the musical, is currently penning music for a Yale Repertory Theater production premiering next year. The new musical, These Paper Bullets, is a rock and roll update of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. more on this story

Joan Jett Thinks Runaways Reunion Is Pointless

(Gibson) Joan Jett has told L.A. Weekly that she can't see the point in a Runaways reunion. She thinks there would be more bad than good were it to take place.

Lita Ford reported in 2012 that she, Jett and Cherie Currie had settled the differences resulting from their 1980 split, that she had dined with both her former bandmates. The topic of getting back together was raised.

But, at the time, Ford added: "I don't know how Joan feels about it. I couldn't get a solid answer from her. If she decides she wants to put together the Runaways again, I'd be in 100 per cent."

Now, Jett now tells L.A. Weekly, "I don't really get why we should do it – the down side is bigger than the up side. It would be fun for people to see, but you've got to remember we're not who we were in 1976. It's not worth it to me. We had a great band that kicked ass for three and a half years. I'm very protective of it because it was very special to me.

"To come back and have the press judge us… Plus, you can't gauge the dynamics of the band. I'm just not sure it would be the reunion the fans are looking for." more on this story

The Safety Fire Streaming Their New Album In Full Online

(TeamRock Radio) The Safety Fire have made new album Mouth Of Swords available for streaming, fans can hear the entire record ahead of its UK release on September 2.

The djent brigade will take part in Mike Portnoy's Progressive Nation At Sea cruise in February next year alongside Transatlantic, Devin Townsend, Animals As Leaders and more.

Before that, they embark on a brief UK tour in support of the release that will kick off on September 4th in London and conclude on September 8th in Bristol.

Stream the album and grab the tour dates here.

Iron Maiden's Trooper Beer Launched In Canada

(hennemusic) Iron Maiden's Trooper beer continues to expand its global reach and is now available in Canada. The beer is available at the LCBO in Ontario, Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries, and Pure Global in British Columbia and Alberta.

Iron Maiden launched Trooper beer in May and the demand has been huge. Last month, Robinsons Brewery announced the production of the one millionth pint, just eight weeks after it went on sale.

The Drinks Business reported the news equates to over 20,000 pints of the beer being drunk every day since its launch, and the brewery said the mark had been reached six months ahead of schedule.

"We have had interest and enquiries for Trooper from 184 countries and together with Sovereign, our international distributor, we are currently planning Trooper's worldwide expansion and dealing with the import/export bureaucracy," says Robinsons' marketing director David Bremner. "Maiden's global following is immense and in all corners of the planet so we are focusing on the wonderful opportunity of making this a global beer, which would be a truly remarkable feat for a genuine British ale." more on this story

Blue October Frontman Talks New Inspiration For New Album

(Radio.com) For Houston rock band Blue October, best known for hits like 2006′s "Hate Me" and helping inspire author Stephenie Meyer to write Twilight novel New Moon, coming together to make the group's seventh full-length album, Sway, was a brand new beginning. Frontman Justin Furstenfeld (second from right, above), after years of struggling with a crippling alcohol addiction, was clean, sober, and making music with an inspiration he was drawing from for the first time.

"Sway is about trying to find solutions to problems instead of dwelling in the problems," Furstenfeld told Radio.com from his home base in San Marcos, Texas. "It's about recognizing that you have to be proactive with your life if you really want to make it through to the other side and enjoy it … I spent so much time just being pissed off. My wife said it best towards the end of my drinking career, as I would call it. She said, 'Nobody grieves this way. You're a hypocrite. You need to man up, like seriously. Enough is enough.' When she said that, it was like a stepping stone in my life. I always go back to that."

With a renewed determination to venerate his family, his band, and their legions of fans, Furstenfeld wrote songs that reflected on his newfound perspective, such as the emotional ballad, "Not Broken Anymore," which he calls the most personal tune on Sway.

"That's the first song I attempted to tackle when I found this new way of life," he said. "It means so much to me because I wrote it for my wife, what she did for me and all the things she empowered me with.

"I didn't want to write complex songs anymore. Not on this album, at least. I wanted to write songs you could get after one listen. It wasn't about how sad I am, it wasn't about how much turmoil I was in. It's just giving thanks. So when I hear ('Not Broken Anymore'), it just makes me remember all of the things I put my wife through and how she still stood up to me."

Blue October's new album is also the band's latest foray into independence, releasing it on their own label, Up/Down, with fans financing the endeavor via crowd-sourcing website PledgeMusic in record time.

"That is the definition of blessed," Furstenfeld marveled of the band reaching their PledgeMusic goal is less than a week. "I'd still be working as an exterminator in Houston. I'm still trying to wrap my head around all of it. We were able to fund the album and half of the documentary that we're shooting by what they've done for us. The marketing, the videos, everything going into this album is a direct result of the fans' passion. I don't know how to say thank you enough. So every day I have to honor them with my sobriety, my honesty and showing them there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that light is now. A lot more.

Simon McBride Announces Fall Tour

(The Blues Simon McBride has confirmed another round of UK and Ireland tour dates in October and December, including his first visit to Dublin in nearly five years.

The guitarist is riding high with recent album Crossing The Line, which landed him a Blues Blast Award nomination. He recently said: "I'm a guitarist first and foremost, but for this record my goal was to concentrate a bit more on the actual songwriting than I had in the past."

McBride will appear at the inaugural HRH Blues festival, sponsored by The Blues Magazine, in North Wales during March 20-22, 2014. Check out the dates here.

Cassie Taylor's Second Album Came Out of 'Post Quarter Life Crisis'

(The Blues Cassie Taylor describes her second album, Out Of My Mind, as the result of a "post quarter-life crisis." The 26-year-old daughter of Otis Taylor became a member of his band aged 16, then bowed out after eight years to clear her head.

The bassist and vocalist returned in 2011 with debut album Blue, but she's advanced her cause with the follow-up, released earlier this year. Taylor tells Westword:

"I feel like I really know who I am – not only as an artist, but as an individual, and I think it shows on the album. It's less driven by personal stories and more driven by finding stories in life that pertain to my personal life." more on this story

Skindred, Soil and Viza Tour

(TeamRock Radio) Skindred have announced a UK tour that starts in January, in support of upcoming album Kill The Power. They'll be joined by Soil and Viza for 11 dates, and the record will be released around the same time.

The ragga-metallers offered lead track Ninja by way of a taster earlier this week. Skindred drummer Arya Goggin says: "We always pride ourselves on having great guests on our tours and we're really excited to have Soil as our main special guests – they absolutely slay it live.

"We're also extremely pleased to have Viza bring some of their unique energetic gypsy punk metal madness to the proceedings. Bring it on!"

Check out the new song and grab the tour dates here.

Singled Out: Oldboy's Daylight Savings

Today folk rockers Oldboy tell us about the song "Daylight Savings" from their brand new album "Covered in Sound". Here is the story:

One of our favorite songs off the album "Covered in Sound" is this one titled Daylight Savings. While Shawn wrote most of the songs on the album, our very own Benjamin Barr wrote this one.

The song centers on this idea that most of us have had bad scenarios with the daylight savings time change. In this song the change has a major effect on two people in particular. These two people just want to be able to get away together, but sadly never meet due to his clock being set incorrectly.

We like to think of it as the struggle and the decision to finally leave a situation only to have it be an end. Maybe it's the case that this guy needed to travel alone and only used this girl as his motivation. It's a tragic story, despite its hopeful start, but also goes to show that you never really do get that "sitcom-perfect ending". You can however, create that sort of an ending for yourself.

It seems like everyone has had a moment where they want to just up and leave, but it's that missing motivation factor that often holds us back. This song should, on one hand, motivate you to do something special, but also remind you to turn your clocks back in the fall.

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

Nine Inch Nails' New Song 'Find My Way' Goes Online

(Radio.com) With the release of their new album, Hesitation Marks, less than two weeks away, Nine Inch Nails are giving fans another taste of the record with the song "Find My Way."

The studio version of the song premiered on Zane Lowe's show on BBC Radio 1 last week (August 22) and shows a softer side of the industrial band.

On the track, which they debuted at Japan's Fuji Rock Festival last month, Trent Reznor gets spiritual with the prayer-like chorus, "Lord my path has gone astray/ I'm just trying to find my way."

As of now, the band has revealed four songs from their upcoming album including "Came Back Haunted," "Copy Of A," and the pop-punk-sounding track "Everything."

Hesitation Marks, Nine Inch Nails' first album since 2008′s The Slip, comes out September 2.

Check out Find My Way here.

Reckless Love Release 'So Happy I Could Die' Video

(Classic Rock) Finnish rockers Reckless Love have revealed their second single/video So Happy I Could Die from forthcoming album Spirit. They've also announced an October UK tour.

"So Happy I Could Die" is available as a digital download from all the usual platforms. Reckless Love's third full studio album will be released via Spinefarm Records on September 2 – titled Spirit, this is the follow-up to 2011's Animal Attraction.

In addition, Reckless Love have announced a headline run of UK dates for October 2013; this tour follows on from the band's month-long UK visit in the autumn of 2012, which included a four-night residency in London. Check out the video and tour dates here.

Bring Me The Horizon Release Can You Feel My Heart Video

(TeamRock Radio) Bring Me The Horizon have confirmed a UK tour for October and November this year and they've released a video for their track Can You Feel My Heart.

The band will be on the road to support recent album Sempiternal, which reached number three in the charts on release earlier this year.

Watch the new video and see Oli Sykes, Lee Malia, Matthew Kean, Matthew Nicholls and Jordan Fish perform live on the following dates.

65daysofstatic Release New Sing Prisms

(Prog) 65daysofstatic have released new track "Prisms" which comes from upcoming fifth album "Wild Light". The band have released a stream of the song and a free download.

The record will be launched on September 16th in the UK and October 29th in North America via Superball. The band say: "We're delighted to issue the first audio analgesic from Wild Light into your ears.

"Prisms is the outcome of 65daysofstatic smashing itself into a million pieces and reassembling itself in the dark. We tried to write sad music to be danced to at the end of the world – a possibility that seems unlikely. Thanks for listening!" Check out the new song.

Metallica's And Justice For All Album Turns 25

(Radio.com) In the latest installment of Radio.com's In Not Fade Away series, they take a look at Metallica's '...And Justice For All,' the album that introduced them to radio, MTV and arena headlining status. The record turns 25 this month.

You could hear the complaining about 35 seconds in. Metallica's feverishly-anticipated follow-up to their breakthrough 1985 album Master Of Puppets started out pretty well, with James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett's guitars swirling over each other, recorded normally, then reversed and played backwards on the album.

And then: enter the drums. Of all the things that angered fans about this album (They did a nine-minute ballad! They made a video! They're touring arenas! They're using a non-metal band — The Cult — as their opener! And didn't they get a new bass player? Why can't we hear him?), one thing that seemed to rankle them most was the sound of Lars Ulrich's drums.

On the band's first three albums, Ulrich pounded the drums like Black Sabbath's Bill Ward or Led Zeppelin's John Bonham had done years before. But on Justice, the drums sounded thin and clicky even though it was high up in the mix — like he was borrowing an electronic kit from a defunct new wave band. Producer Flemming Rasmussen, who had produced Master of Puppets and Metallica's 1984 album Ride The Lightning, also helmed …Justice, but he wasn't the original producer. Due to schedule conflicts, he wasn't available when the band wanted to start, so they used Mike Clink, who had impressed the band with his work on a little album called Appetite For Destruction. But after a few weeks, it became apparent that Clink wasn't the right guy for Metallica and Rasmussen returned to the fold.

As Mr. Rasmussen told Radio.com, "I was booked all through January and February of 1988, and the band wanted to start January 3. On January 21, Lars called me and simply asked: 'When can You come?' So I pushed all my [previously booked] sessions together and left for Los Angeles on February 14.

"When I got there, they had only recorded one song, which was one of the B-sides, and I was not too pleased with that. So, we started from scratch."

And while he produced the album, he didn't mix it; the band had already hired Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero (who mixed Appetite For Destruction) for those duties. Rasmussen maintains that Ulrich's drums were well recorded.

"I was very surprised when I heard the mix, but assumed it was what the band (i.e. Lars and James) wanted," he said. "It didn't sound like that when I left the session."

And then there was "One." They had done slower songs before like Ride the Lightning's "Fade To Black" and Master of Puppets' "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)," but "One" marked the first time that they shot a video. It was something they'd been notably against previously, even as other thrash metal bands had shot promotional clips. Worse, they actually did a five-minute edit of the song for radio and MTV.

However, the bass sound — or lack thereof — was a problem not just for fans, but for their new bass player. Jason Newsted joined the band shortly following the September 1986 death of Cliff Burton. A former member of Arizona thrashers Flotsam & Jetsam, Newsted made his Metallica debut on their 1987 release The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited, which featured covers of thrash and punk bands, including the Misfits, Killing Joke and Diamond Head. But …And Justice For All was a much different studio experience than anything he'd done in the past.

"Up until that point all the recording stuff that I'd ever known was [done quickly]," Newsted told Radio.com. "With Flotsam & Jetsam, [1986 album] Doomsday For The Deceiver was made in six days, top to bottom. For $5000. You'd play things in one take. Eight minutes of music in one take. That's what I knew. Going to Metallica on Garage Days, we recorded it in five days. That's what I knew! On And Justice… I was with the assistant recording engineer [Toby Wright, who would go on to produce Alice In Chains and Slayer]. There were no other band members there, there were no managers, there was no producer, just me and that guy. I took my bass and my amp, just like I did with Flotsam & Jetsam, just like I did on Garage Days, and I set it up and put the mic in front of it. Same instrument and same amp I used last time. I played all the songs."

He notes that he did most of the songs in one take, and was finished in about two days. The rest of the band took months to record their parts. Being the new guy in the band, and reasoning that his bass sound was represented on Garage Days, Jason sat out the mixing sessions. In retrospect, he admits that may have been a mistake. more on this story