Today's Day in Rock News!

Today's Day in Rock


Alice In Chains Complete New Album
(hennemusic) Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell has confirmed that the band has completed recording its new album.
Joined by singer William DuVall, bassist Mike Inez and drummer Sean Kinney, Cantrell recently wrapped up the album sessions with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Foo Fighters, Deftones) and engineer Paul Figueroa.

The follow-up to 2009's "Black Gives Way To Blue" is the band's second record with DuVall; original lead singer Layne Staley died in 2002. more on this story



Izzy Stradlin Jams With Aerosmith
(hennemusic) Former Guns N' Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin joined Aerosmith during their show Monday night in Los Angeles.

Stradlin jammed with the Boston rockers on "Mama Kin," the first song of the band's encore at the Staples Center.

Aerosmith are currently in the final week of the second leg of their Global Warming tour in support of their new album, "Music From Another Dimension"; shows wrap up December 13 in Nashville. Watch video here.



Rolling Stones Announce Special Guests For Next Concert
(hennemusic) The Rolling Stones have announced that Mary J. Blige and Gary Clark Jr. will be joining the band on stage for their first U.S. 50 and Counting concert at The Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY on Saturday, December 8.

This news follows special appearances at London's O2 Arena by Jeff Beck and Mary J. Blige at the kick off show on November 25th and Eric Clapton and Florence Welch at on November 29th show.

The Stones will continue the 50 And Counting shows with two more dates in the U.S. at Newark, NJ's Prudential Center on December 13th & 15th. more on this story




Two Members Leave Boysetsfire
Boysetsfire announced yesterday that they have lost two members of the group, drummer Matt Krupanski and his brother Marc Krupanski who played bass.

Guitarist Chad Istvan first broke the news to fans about Matt's departure with the following posting on Facebook: "I've written and erased this announcement a number of times over the last few months. I can't say whether it's that I don't know the right way to approach what I'm saying or if the act of saying it gives a certain finality to the words but here goes...

"Matt Krupanski, long-time friend, will not be playing with us anymore. He has a number of incredible opportunities in his life right now and understandably will pursue them. It turns out when we saw him reading books with titles like "why buildings stand up" and "why buildings fall down" it was a lot more than just a vague interest in architecture, it was a new passion. Matt graduated from the Pratt institute last spring after 5(?) challenging years learning things that make ZERO sense to me and now he will put that knowledge to good use. more on this story




Daughtry and 3 Doors Down Live TV Special
AXS TV will be broadcasting the Daughtry and 3 Doors Down concert from from 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, Colorado live on December 11th.

"This has been a great tour with 3 Doors Down," said Chris Daughtry, lead singer of Daughtry. "We want to thank AXS TV for bringing the tour to everyone that isn't able to see us out on the road."

"We are having a blast touring across the country with Daughtry and thanks to AXS TV we are bringing the show live to your living room," said Brad Arnold, lead singer of 3 Doors Down. "Tune in and check it out, it's the next best thing to being there in person!" more on this story




Green Day's New Album Streaming In Full Online
iheartradio are streaming Green Day's new album, Tre, in its entirely one week before it hits stores.

¡Tre!, the third album in Green Day's album trilogy ¡Uno!,¡Dos!, and ¡Tré!, and will be released next Tuesday, December 11th.

Highlights from the band's recently announced documentary ¡Quatro! recently premiered on VH1. The documentary pulls back the curtain and takes fans inside the world of Green Day, chronicling their creative process while conceptualizing and recording their the current album trilogy. ¡Quatro! was directed by Tim Wheeler and produced by Tim Lynch for Farm League. The full-length version of the documentary will be released in 2013. Listen to the stream here.




Jonathan Davis' Wounded Warriors Film Premieres Online Today
The short film starring Jonathan Davis of Korn, Wounded Warriors, will be premiered online today with a free stream.

The film was directed by Sébastien Paquet documents Davis' return to Ramstein Air Base in Germany August 11, 2012 to visit with members of armed forces stationed there as well as those in transit from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The online premiere will take place today (Wednesday, December 5) as a free stream on MonsterEnergy.com Its television premiere is set for the second season of the GI Festival on the Pentagon Channel in May 2013, where it will air in over 34 million homes and military bases around the world. more on this story




Fleetwood Mac's Buckingham Discusses Christine McVie's Burnt Bridges
(CBS Local) Fleetwood Mac has just announced dates for their 2013 tour which will consist of founding members Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on bass, along with singer/guitarist/songwriter Lindsey Buckingham and singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks but not Christine McVie who lest the band after The Dance tour.

Would Fleetwood Mac ever welcome Christine to join them for a few of her classics? CBS Local put that question to Lindsey Buckingham. "Well, that's a good question! It's an odd thing for me, in many ways I'm having a better time in the band as a foursome, only because it opens up a range of things that I can do. Except for maybe 'Don't Stop,' we don't do a lot of her stuff. It opens up the amount of material we can play, it allows me to be more of a 'guy,' to be more of who I am up there," he explains, saying that without a keyboardist in the band, his guitar takes center stage. "I would be shocked if she ever expressed any interest to do anything with us. Shocked and pleased."

Christine has attended one Fleetwood Mac show since leaving the band (she declined to perform with them), but she hasn't had much contact with the group in the past decade. But Buckingham explains that she was going through a lot of life changes at that point. "She ended up getting a divorce, she ended up selling her house in L.A., she moved back to England, she quit the band, she sold her publishing," Buckingham said. "She didn't necessarily have to burn as many bridges as she did. Everyone sometimes wonders whether or not there might have been more of a middle ground for her to strike, not necessarily in terms of her staying in Fleetwood Mac. But she just wanted to reinvent herself. She seems to want to lead the antithesis of the life she led before, and I don't pretend to understand such a radical change but it was obviously something she needed." More from Lindsey here.




Sabbath Birthday Sabbath For Ozzy
(hennemusic) Ozzy Osbourne turned 64 on Monday and Black Sabbath shared another image from the California studio where the band is recording their new album with producer Rick Rubin.

In recent weeks, Sabbath have offered up photos of band instruments while keeping fans updated on the progress of the project.

The latest to surface is from frontman Ozzy Osbourne. "Spending my birthday tracking vocals on the new Black Sabbath album," posted Ozzy, along with a photo from the studio. Check out the photo here.




Dave Grohl Releases Sound City Film Trailer
(hennemusic) Head Foo Fighter Dave Grohl is gearing up for the release of his first feature film, "Sound City," and has released the trailer online.

The documentary chronicles the story of the Van Nuys, California studio of the same name, where music legends recorded major projects throughout the years – including Nirvana's 1991 smash, "Nevermind," which featured Grohl on drums.

Grohl has released the trailer for the film, which features footage of Tom Petty, Metallica, Neil Young, Butch Vig, Stevie Nicks and others. Watch the trailer here.




Braid and Balance and Composure Releasing Split EP
Braid and Balance and Composure will be releasing a split EP via No Sleep Records on February 26, 2013.

Braid are currently working on their next full-length album that is scheduled for a 2013 release. Additionally, the band will round-out 2012 with a run of dates in the Midwest with special guests Into It. Over It, Diamond Youth and Cut Teeth on December 14 in Milwaukee, Wi, December 15 in Detroit, MI, and December 16 in Chicago, IL.

Fresh off a U.S. tour with Circa Survive, Touche Amore and O'Brother, Balance and Composure will hit the road at the end of January for a headlining U.S. tour with The Jealous Sound and Daylight. more on this story




Porcupine Tree's Colin Edwin Releasing New Collaboration
(Sub) Alchemy Records will mark the end of days, December 21, 2012, with the release of Burnt Belief, a progressive instrumental collaboration between bass player Colin Edwin (Porcupine Tree, Metallic Taste of Blood, Ex-Wise Heads) and guitarist/composer Jon Durant.

The album will be released through Alchemy Records in the U.S. and will be available on iTunes, CDBaby, Burning Shed and Amazon.

Burnt Belief marks the second time that the two musicians have worked together since Edwin contributed bass to Durant's 2011 release, Dance of the Shadow Planets. It was recorded at three studios, two in the U.S. and one in the U.K., with Edwin and Durant exchanging digital files over the Internet. Additional musicians were later brought in, with Jerry Leake ("Cubist," Natraj, Club d'Elf) on percussion and Geoff Leigh (Ex-Wise Heads, Henry Cow, Hatfield and the North) on flute. more on this story




Focus Releasing New Album
Veteran progressive band Focus will release their new album, X, on February 5th in North America.

Featuring cover art by Roger Dean (Yes), the album was produced by the band with a running time just shy of 60 minutes and st is the first new material from the four-piece in six years.

Founded by keyboardist/flutist Thijs van Leer in 1969, the band have two certified gold recordings in the US spurred on by hits "Hocus Pocus," "House of the King," and "Sylvia." Thijs van Leer comments, "it is a thrill to have finally completed Focus X. We are all ecstatic about the new material. Our music is evolution, not revolution." more on this story




Jackson Browne InTheStudio For Running On Empty Anniversary
InTheStudio is celebrating the 35th anniversary of Jackson Browne's Running On Empty on the latest episode of the syndicated radio show. They sent over these details:

Jackson Browne remembers the concept for the album Running On Empty to program host Redbeard. "It wasn't called Running On Empty…But it was going to be a live album, with live versions of songs that had already been recorded, and new songs, and jams, and some of the hilarious things people say."

Coming off his solo breakthrough album The Pretender, the Southern California singer/songwriter suddenly found himself a single parent with a 3 year old son and a widower following the suicide of his wife. Conventional wisdom would assume that any one of these challenges alone could require an entertainer to put his or her career on hold indefinitely, yet Jackson Browne did exactly the opposite. He went on tour to work through his personal struggle and his creative pause, where the road offered a routine, structure and distance from the pain. Browne's idea to write and record on the road would garner two Top 20 singles, "The Load Out/Stay" and the # 11 charting title track "Running On Empty". Stream the episode here.




Springsteen Fans Asked To Contribute To Documentary
(Gibson) Producer Ridley Scott has asked for Bruce Springsteen fans to contribute their own video footage expressing what The Boss's music means to them, as part of his documentary project Springsteen & I.

The film will be directed by Baille Walsh with producer Svana Gisla, who says "We are searching for a wide variety of creative interpretations, captured in the most visually exciting way you can think of, whether you've been a hardcore Tramp since '73 or have heard one of his songs for the first time today! If you can't use a camera or are not sure how to capture your story then get in touch and we will link you up with someone who can!"

The film is due for release in cinemas in 2013, but if you want to be involved you'd better act quickly: the deadline for footage submissions is 11am on Thursday December 6. You can upload your footage at the film's website, www.springsteenandi.com - and obviously the higher the quality the better, but anything will be accepted for consideration, as long as it's under 5 minutes in length. more on this story





Rock Hall Names New President and CEO
(CBS Local) The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum has promoted Gregory Harris to its President and CEO.

After a nationwide search for a new President and CEO, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc. board approved the 47 year old Harris, who holds a graduate degree in museum studies and whose industry background also includes curatorial, membership and sponsorship experience. Since 2008, Harris has served as the Vice President of Development.

"Throughout the search process, all of the voting was unanimous for Greg," said Board Chair William W. Rowley, who headed a seven-member search committee. more on this story





Singled Out: My Heart to Fear
Today My Heart to Fear lead singer Trevor Pool tells us about the song "Blood Money" from their brand new EP "Lost Between Brilliance and Insanity," which was released this week. Here is the story:

It was June of 2011 and we were on a three month tour up and down the coast of the good ol' USA. The tour manager had just informed us that a local church was going to house us for the night, and we were looking forward to finally washing ourselves in a shower rather than a carwash. We arrived at the church around noon after driving all through the night, but didn't know which building to go into. So after 20 minutes of awkwardly roaming around this rather large property, we finally found where we were supposed to be.

So, there we were all settled into our resting quarters, and I decided to take a stroll around the church lot for an hour or so. The foyer was this huge cross-section hallway that was about thirty feet tall on the inside and had marble floors and stone pillars. I walked around the place(s) a little more and find that each building was gargantuan as well. EVERY SINGLE DETAIL was expensive. There were showers in every bathroom, dressing rooms for the choir, closets the size of my living room that only hold the choir's robes, LED exit signs, bridal rooms, the sanctuary had five oversized plasma TV's just to show the words of the songs being sang, etc…etc…

So here it is. The moment where I anticipated to walk into the GIANT sanctuary to justify the giant church, right? Wrong. The maximum capacity (as listed on the wall of the upper part of the sanctuary) was 810. So just for benefit-of-the-doubt's sake, I told myself it was probably a college campus, homeless shelter, orphanage, or whatever could justify all of this non-sense. I walk up to one of the pastors on staff, and asked him what kinds of purposes the buildings served. I asked if they were for teaching, community service, or the like. His reply was a simple "Nope. S'just a church" I proceeded to ask if there was a large youth program and he interrupted me in mid-sentence saying "No, sir. It is only a church"

Now, our tour was sponsored by a charity organization known as "Compassion International," which has this program where you can feed, clothe, educate, and give medical attention to a needy child in another country for only thirty-eight dollars a month. So here I was thinking, if this church spent even a tenth of what they spent on these buildings and donated it to a charity like Compassion, literally an entire village-maybe an entire town- could be saved. Also, this whole story begs the question…is the blood of the children that could have been saved on the wealthy American church's hands?

All of this to say, I began immediately writing the first line to our newly made song, saying "Why do we paint the walls of our churches with the tears of the starving children?" I understand it's the easiest way to be controversial by writing a song against widely-understood corruption in the church, but we're not writing/releasing this song to be "edgy" or "controversial", we're releasing this song to not only bring this serious matter to attention, but also to disassociate the love of Jesus Christ from the acts of churches and people like these.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself as you watch the video here and learn more about the band and the EP right here!




Led Zeppelin on Wikimetal
The latest episode of the Wikimetal podcast is a celebration with a special interview with rock legends Led Zeppelin.

Wikimetal spoke with Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page, Robert Plan and John Paul Jones as well as Celebration Day director Dick Carruthers.

The show tells us that they spoke about "the movie, the band's history and presenting truly amazing sounds, straight from the O2 Arena. " Listen to the full episode here.




Voivod Preview New Album With EPK Video
Voivod are giving fans an early taste of their forthcoming album, Target Earth, with the release of a new EPK.

The band has posted the official Target Earth EPK, featuring behind-the-scenes footage, plus an exclusive interview with Away (Michel Langevin) and Chewy (Daniel Mongrain) about the making of the album. Watch it here.

The album will be release as a CD, gatefold double vinyl and a limited edition deluxe box set on January 21st in Europe and January 22nd in North America. more on this story




The Killers Feel Christmas In Their Bones
(CBS Local) As The Killers make their way across the U.S. promoting their latest album Battle Born, the Nevada-based foursome will once again play gift-giving elves as they have for the past seven years, by delivering a new Christmas song to all the little boys and girls.

To ensure the song would be ready for a holiday release, the band shoe-horned a recording session into a day off during their European tour earlier this year.

"I Feel It In My Bones" features vocals from Ryan Pardey, the band's former Tour Manager, known to fans as "The Captain." Pardey, now fronting his own band, Halloween Town, famously appeared as Santa during the band's performance on The Tonight Show as well as performances at Live 105′s Not So Silent Night and KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas, annual multi-act Christmas benefit concerts held in San Francisco and Los Angeles respectively. more on this story




Johnny Marr Jams Classic From The Smiths
(CBS Local) Legendary guitarist and Morrissey nemesis, Johnny Marr is preparing to release his latest solo album The Messenger, scheduled to hit stores next year.

To keep his name in front of the media, he's popped up on various radio shows as of late.

During a performance for BBC 2′s Dermot O' Leary radio show, the singer/guitarist treated fans to new material, "New Town Velocity," as well as his version of The Smiths' "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want." more on this story




The Dropkick Murphys Release Christmas Video
The Dropkick Murphys have released a new Christmas video for the song "The Season's Upon Us." We were sent these details.

The video features a ramshackle approach to the wild-side of the Holiday season, with crazy family members and mayhem, all punctuated by the band's signature style of rock and singular wit. Watch it here.

"The Season's Upon Us" will be a bonus track available on the iTunes deluxe edition of band's new studio album SIGNED and SEALED in BLOOD, to be released January 8th via Born and Bred Records. more on this story




Triple Play Q&A: Why Your Band Is A Virus
Last week we told you about James Moore releasing a new edition of his book "Your Band Is A Virus - Expanded Edition". Today we debut our new Triple Play Q&A series by asking James three direct questions to go a little deeper into what the book is all about:

antiMusic: What inspired you to write the book (and give away your secrets)?

James: Well, the main inspiration factor for me as a music lover has always been music with depth, whether that be Neil Young, Public Enemy, Rage Against the Machine, or Radiohead. I've taken that motto into my company, Independent Music Promotions, but I can only taken on so many artists. Getting into the educational side and writing books was a must, because if the information is made available, then the serious artists can choose to work with it and generate results. Lending a helping hand, or even providing a few pointers, to an up-and-coming artist who means what they say is inspiring to me. The book is mainly aimed at the artists with real passion and creativity/drive, and not ones who are looking to be a cookie cutter group or perhaps mold themselves into a commercial machine (those who want to be the next Nickelback, for example).

Yes, I decided in the end to share almost everything, as the underlying goal of the book was to provide the most comprehensive music marketing guide available period. That meant "selling the farm", so to speak. It's not really risky to reveal the tactics and have the market saturated, because only a small percent of artists will be dedicating the necessary hours to make it happen.