Today's Day in Rock News !

Today's Day in Rock


Ten Years After's Alvin Lee Dead at 68
(Classic Rock) Alvin Lee, the guitarist and singer of Ten Years After, has passed away suddenly at age 68.
A statement posted on his official website read: "With great sadness we have to announce that Alvin unexpectedly passed away early this morning [March 6] after unforseen complications following a routine surgical procedure.

"We have lost a wonderful and much-loved father and companion, the world has lost a truly great and gifted musician."

Read Classic Rock's Max Bell overview of Lee's career here.




Axl Explains Why Original Guns N' Roses Won't Reunite
(hennemusic) As Guns N' Roses prepare to kick off their Australian tour in Perth on Saturday, leader Axl Rose has given a rare interview to Adelaide Now to promote the shows and the subject of reuniting with the original lineup came up.

"I understand the 'romantic' thing, the desire, the fantasy," says Rose. "Personally, I haven't wanted other bands to reunite, or really enjoyed it when they have. For me generally something always seemed missing."

"But Guns is my life, not someone else's," he continued. "For me there hasn't been a way to make any type of reunion work regardless of money (either talk or legitimate) without jeopardizing what I feel is the well-being and best interests of nearly everyone I'm involved with in the GNR camp (including myself).

"People here have big investments of their lives in what we're doing. We've worked hard for what we have here now and continue to do so. I know what I went thru then. I know what I and all of us have gone thru since. People enjoyed the product and the entertainment our lives gave them back in the day, but they weren't the ones actually living those lives together. It's not somewhere I'd go back to or would want to go again. Life's too short." more on this story




Rolling Stones Playing Music Festival?
(hennemusic) The Rolling Stones will play the Glastonbury festival this year, according to Kasabian's Sergio Pizzorno.

The guitarist spoke with MTV UK about Kasabian's headlining appearance at London's Hard Rock Calling event on June 29, which happens the same weekend as Glastonbury's finale.

"I hope ours is the most talked about performance of the weekend," said Pizzorno, "but that would be a miracle because The Rolling Stones are playing Glastonbury. I can imagine there will be a lot of people there waiting for them." more on this story




Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson Tour
(hennemusic) Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson are teaming up for a North American tour according to an image on Cooper's website.

An image on Alice's website shows a poster for the trek, billed as "Masters Of Madness/Shock Therapy Tour."

No official announcement has been made as of yet, but The PRP reports the two dates have been leaked. See the poster and the dates.




Led Zeppelin, The Who, Elvis Considered For Walk Of Fame
(hennemusic) Led Zeppelin, The Who, Elvis Presley and Blur are among the acts being considered for London's new Music Walk Of Fame.

The BBC reports Camden Town is to be officially twinned with Hollywood to create its very own Music Walk of Fame.

The list will go to a decisive public vote on the Music Walk of Fame website in May. "We hope this will be the highest accolade in music," said music promoter Lee Bennett.

"This is an international brand not specific to Camden, but it is in Camden as we truly see it as the world's rock and roll capital." more on this story




Metallica Frontman Discusses Catch-22 With New Album
Triple M caught up with Metallica frontman James Hetfield while the band was in Australia for the Soundwave Festival and he discussed the band's new albums plans.

"Yeah, we're trying to write [new material] but gigs keep popping up that are too exciting to stay home for," said Hetfield. "We have lots of material [we've been] working on from the day Death Magnetic ended all the way up until now.

"There's tons of material. Some [riffs] stick with me because the theme keeps coming back. Out of 700 riffs there's at least three I've played 20 times."

They also asked him what direction the music was going to take, either "old school" or like St. Anger and he responded, "I don't know where it's going yet but we've got lots of different sounds, different styles," he said. "We're certainly not afraid of jumping into past 'feels'.

"After Death Magnetic we've stopped running hard and started embracing some of our past. Master Of Puppets was kind of a core reference for Death Magnetic."

But he then was asked about the fans wanted an album that sounds like their classic "Master of Puppets" and he responded, "Let's not do that shall we," he laughs. "It's a catch-22 because I completely understand what people want. It's like they're asking you to recreate a memory in their past and you cannot do that. It's a moment of time.

"We're one of those bands that doesn't really care what people want," he laughs. He also discussed the band's upcoming 3D movie.




Memorial Show For Alice In Chains' Mike Starr Tonight
There will be a memorial show tonight (March 7th) for late Alice In Chains bassist Mike Starr at Seattle's Studio Seven.

Starr's sister Melinda organized the event which will feature performances from Blacklist Union with Tony West, the Alice In Chains tribute band Grind, Sin Circus, Amanda J. Hardy, Garden Of Eden and Steal Beans, plus a number of surprise guests.

Starr died of a suspected overdose of prescription drugs and alcohol in Salt Lake City on March 8, 2011: he was 44. Some more details about the event
here.




Van Halen's OU812 25th Anniversary Celebrated With New eBook
Martin Popoff of BraveWords is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Van Halen's "OU812" with the release of a new eBook which explores the making of album.

Popoff had this to say about the eBook, "It's always a blast talking with Sammy Hagar, and within this lively read, he's considerably charitable in giving me the story of this 'hair metal'-era smash hit from the mighty Van Halen."

Former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar had this to say, "We could do no wrong. We just said, let's start recording today. We just made a date. We had come off a very lengthy tour for 5150 and Eddie had a bunch of riffs he was jamming around. I had a bunch of lyrics in notebooks that I had been thinking about and writing. And we just put them together and jammed in the studio. It was just complete, simple, magic."

BraveWords has more details about this release and Popoff's other eBook releases here.





Linkin Park Plan Special Record Store Day Release
Linkin Park will be celebrating Record Story Day with a special limited edition version of their debut album packed with bonus materials.

The band will be releasing 3,000 copies of their debut album "Hybrid Theory" as a single disc vinyl LP that will also include a two song 10" EP, a exclusive poster and sticker.

The bonus 10" EP contains the tracks "One Step Closer" and "My December". This pressing will also contain long out of print poster and original street team sticker re-productions.

Record Store Day will take place at participating independent record stores across the U.S. on April 20th.





Asking Alexandria, Motionless In White, Whitechapel, Chimaira Tour
Asking Alexandria will be hitting the road next month to launch their North American "Don't Pray For Us" tour.

The band have recruited Motionless In White, Whitechapel, Chimaira and I Killed The Prom Queen to support them on the trek.

The tour is set to kick off on April 19th in Wichita, KS and will conclude on May 17th in Grand Rapids, MI. Asking Alexander will then make appearances at the Rock on the Range and Rocklahoma music festivals before heading to Europe for a summer tour that includes several music festival appearances.

Guitarist Ben Bruce had this to say about the tour, "AMERICA, how have you been? Good? Yup thought so, me too! Well, as promised, we are back and we are better than ever. With our third studio album looming dangerously near we thought we should do a tour for you lot. An aggressive, heavy as f**k and balls to the wall tour to get you all ready for our new album. We shall be releasing some new material leading up to the tour and we shall be playing this new material for you all to enjoy live as well. 'The Don't Pray For Me Tour' is our first U.S. tour of the year and f**k it feel good to be back. We have a great support line up and will be tying in the headlining dates with some amazing festival appearances. America, get f**king ready, lets start the new year with a HUGE f**king bang. Can't wait to see you all." more on this story




The Joy Formidable Expand North American Tour Plans
The Joy Formidable have expanded their upcoming North America headline tour and announced some music festival appearances.

The band will be kicking off their tour on March 18th in Santa Ana, Ca. The tour will conclude on May 11th in Richmond, VA.

The group will also playing several music festivals including Metallica's Orion Music Festival, Ottawa Blues Fest, the Norman Music Festival, the Beale Street Festival and the Shaky Knees Fest in Atlanta, GA.

The Joy Formidable are hitting the road in support of their latest album, Wolf's Law. more on this story




The Marshall Tucker Band To Grand Marshal NASCAR Race
Southern rock veterans The Marshall Tucker Band has been tapped as grand marshal for this weekend's NASCAR race in Las Vegas.

The Sam's Town 300 NASCAR race will be taking place at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway this Saturday, March 9 and will air live nationally on ESPN2 at 4 PM EST.

"We are so excited to be associated with this Nationwide Series NASCAR race," says lead singer Doug Gray. "We've always been big supporters of NASCAR so this opportunity came as a welcome surprise."

The band will give the official order for drivers to start their engines, followed by John Sou, General Manager of the Sam's Town 300, dropping the green flag to start the race.

The Marshall Tucker Band will follow the race with a concert at The Orleans Hotel and Casino that night.




Journey May Never Make Another Album
(Classic Rock) Journey may never make another album because they're not sure anyone wants them to. Keyboardist Jonathan Cain says the relative failure of their last release, 2011′s Eclipse, has led them to rethink the value of writing and recording new material.

He tells The Pulse Of Radio: "We're not convinced the market will bear another CD from us. And it's so much work to make one.

"The last album we made was a departure; we did a heavy rock'n'roll record. It wasn't received very well in the States and they kinda liked it in Europe. That's what I thought was going to happen. It barely sold 100,000. After all that time and money, what are we doing here?"

Cain says Journey may decide to release an EP rather than a full-length record... more.




Green Day Turned Blind Eye To Armstrong's Problems
(Classic Rock) Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt admits the band were working too hard to look out for each other – and so they turned a blind eye to frontman Billie Joe Armstrong's personal issues.

That resulted in his onstage meltdown last year, which sent him to rehab and derailed the band's three-album release plans.

Armstrong told last week how he'd lost control of his personal circumstances and only vaguely remembered the moment during Green Day's set at the iHeartRadio Festival in LA.

Now Dirnt tells Rolling Stone of the experience: "It was very tense. They locked us in a room for about six hours. I won't say 'locked' – but I didn't want to hang out in the hallway with everybody's entourage. I felt like a rat in a cage.

"When Billie showed up, it was, 'You're not right; what's going on?' I kept an eye on things and it just went progressively downhill. Me and Billie don't play like 12-year-olds any more, but at one point I was like, 'Let's goof around.' We ended up wrestling backstage – I thought, 'If I can just get some of this out of him.' But with the mood depressants and alcohol it doesn't end up a jovial party." more on this story




Jack White Scores Gold With Blunderbuss
Jack White's debut solo album, Blunderbuss, has been awarded a gold record by the RIAA after selling more than 500,000 copies in the United States.

The album was released in April of last year and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album charts.

Blunderbuss was also the highest charting solo debut and biggest selling vinyl album of 2012 in the U.S., knocking The Beatles' Abbey Road" off the top spot (a position it had held the previous three years), Blunderbuss' sales are the highest for a non-catalog LP since Soundscan began specifically tracking vinyl in 2008.




Alabama Shakes Plan Live TV Broadcast This Weekend
AXS TV will be broadcasting the Alabama Shakes concert from the Ogden Theater in Denver live on Saturday night.

The broadcast will begin at 12am (Midnight) ET (Sunday) / 9:00pm PT (Saturday March 9th). AXS TV broadcasts on DIRECTV Channel 340, DISH Network Channel 362, AT&T U-Verse Channel 1106, Verizon FiOS Channel 569 and via various cable providers.

The tour stop is part of the band's current North American headline tour in support of their debut album, Boys & Girls. more on this story




Lamb Of God Still Mourn Fan's Death Despite Singer's Not Guilty Verdict
Lamb Of God fans breathed a huge sigh of relief earlier this week when the band's singer Randy Blythe was acquitted of manslaughter charges in the Czech Republic but the band have expressed a more somber reaction.

Drummer Chris Adler issued a statement on behalf of the band according to BraveWords that said, "We greatly appreciate and have been fortunate to have the support of our friends, families and fans from all over the world during a nightmare situation for us in Prague.

"We are now able to get back to work, but are still saddened by the loss of Daniel Nosek. The trial may be over, but the loss is forever and we also continue to mourn."




Paul Stanley of KISS Discusses Autobiography in TV Interview
(hennemusic) KISS are doing several media interviews while playing Australia, as they continue to promote the shows and the band's latest album, "Monster."

The group are currently touring the country with Motley Crue and Thin Lizzy. On Monday, KISS frontman Paul Stanley was a guest on Aussie talk show, "The Project," where he spoke about the band's longevity (2013 is the group's 40th anniversary), his upcoming autobiography.

"I was really reluctant to do an autobiography," says Stanley. "[Author] George Orwell said that 'the autobiography is the most outrageous form of fiction.'

"When you write about yourself, you tend to be at the epicenter of everything, but I'm trying to be realistic and tell the story, basically, for my kids. I'd love my kids to know that it wasn't always an easy road and that if you love doing something, you'll work your butt off." Watch the interview here.




Eddie Van Halen and Valerie Bertinelli Watch Son Rock With Termonti
(hennemusic) Eddie Van Halen checked out his son Wolfgang at the Tremonti show at The Roxy in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

A new photo of Eddie Van Halen, Wolfgang and his mother and Eddie's ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli from the event has surfaced online.

Last fall, Wolfgang joined the group – the side project of Creed/Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti - at the start of their tour, on 24 hours notice, to fill in on bass for the absent Brian Marshall, who had to pull out for undisclosed personal reasons. See the photo here.




Noel Gallagher Weighs In On New David Bowie Album
(Gibson) Noel Gallagher believes there's a lesson to be learned from the way David Bowie staged his recent return to making music.

In a new interview with New Musical Express, Gallagher says Bowie's new album serves notice that established artists shouldn't be so quick to trade on past glories.

"It's great to hear his voice singing something new," says Gallagher. "The more you hear [the single] 'Where Are We Now?,' the better it gets. The video's mad – like his cat directed it."

Gallagher said Bowie's comeback "blew his mind," adding that it strengthened his [Gallagher's] resolve against the idea that bands should reunite to perform their "oldies."

"If you had turned on the news and it had said, 'David Bowie is to do a series of concerts next year,' everyone would have gone, 'Oh great, can't wait, that's it, let's talk about something else,'" Gallagher said. "But we're still talking about that song. New music and records rule, but reunions for gigs [don't]." more on this story






Singled Out: Prospect Hill
Today Prospect Hill drummer Mark Roberge tells us about their new single "Come Alive" which comes from their third album "Impact". The band is currently on tour supporting the release. Here's the story:

"Come Alive" started out as that bad ass main guitar riff that you hear right from the beginning. I remember Derek our guitarist jamming the part before rehearsal one night and I was immediately hooked.

We worked the songs parts out and arrangement shortly after and had something close to what it is now. I then attacked it lyrically and vocal melody wise.

At the time I had some close people around me getting caught up on prescription medication and it was upsetting and angering at the same time. So I used the song as a canvas to pour those emotions and to send a message out. These people seemed like zombies to me, just walking around all numb and oblivious to real feelings. I wanted them to "Come Alive" and the hook just worked so well. I built the verses around the chorus and then the bridge was the tricky part. I had something initially that just wasn't as awesome as everything else to me.

Our producer Anthony Resta really pushed me to write something big for that bridge and I just went into it with a lot of angst. The bridge ended up being my favorite part once it was all done. Adam our singer really hit what I was trying to convey emotionally during tracking and that's the story! ! BAMO!

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




Dave Grohl Jams With Jon Fogerty and Rick Springfield
(hennemusic) Dave Grohl brought his Sound City Players to Jimmy Kimmel's show Tuesday night.

The group were joined by Jon Fogerty for a heavy version of the Creedence Clearwater Revival classic, "Fortunate Son."

Rick Springfield then hit the stage with Grohl and company for "The Man That Never Was," a tune from the Sound City film soundtrack. Watch the jams here.




New Iggy and the Stooges Song Streaming Online
(Gibson) Last week Iggy and the Stooges announced they had completed Ready to Die, their second studio album since reforming a decade ago. Now, the pioneering punk band is offering a preview of the disc in the form of a stream of the album's lead single.

"Burn," the single, offers an incendiary blast of proto-punk that more than lives up to its title. Unlike The Stooges' 2007 comeback album The Weirdness, Ready to Die features Raw Power-era guitarist James Williamson.

Hence, the new disc is being presented as the proper follow-up to that seminal album, released by the band 40 years ago. (Sadly, original Stooge Ron Asheton passed away in January 2009.)

Iggy and the Stooges will kick off a tour later this month at the South by Southwest music conference in Austin. Ready to Die will be released April 30 on Fat Possum Records. Check out the stream here.






Sites & Sounds: The Moon Rock with Chuck Berry Package
antiMusic's Travel Editor Kevin Wierzbicki has some good news for Chuck Berry fans: Here's a package deal that lets you see one of the founding fathers of rock'n'roll in concert and then spend the night in one of the hippest hotels in St. Louis. The Moon Rock with Chuck Berry package includes a night's lodging at the Moonrise Hotel, a boutique hotel with a space-age theme and lots of memorabilia reflecting America's fascination with space and the solar system (you'll find that "the Moon" sets on the hotel roof nightly.)

Then just a short walk away is the famous St. Louis rock'n'roll eatery Blueberry Hill; head downstairs to the Duck Room with your included ticket to see Berry live in concert and expect him to do a little bit of "duck walking" as he rips through hits like "Maybelline," "Let it Rock," "Little Queenie," "Reelin' and Rockin'" and of course "Johnny B. Goode."

The Moon Rock with Chuck Berry package starts at $239 and is available on the third Wednesday of each month. Discounted rates for additional nights are available. More info is at www.moonrisehotel.com or (314) 721-1111.

The Moonrise Hotel and Blueberry Hill are in the St. Louis entertainment district known as The Loop where you'll also find the Pin-Up Bowl, the historic Tivoli movie theatre, the St. Louis Walk of Fame and the Pageant live music venue. For more info on planning your trip to St. Louis visit www.explorestlouis.com.