Today's Day in Rock News!

Today's Day in Rock


Mick Jagger's Girlfriend Found Dead of Suspected Suicide
(Classic Rock) Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger has said he's "shocked and devastated" after his girlfriend of 13 years L'Wren Scott was found hanged in her New York home.
Police believe fashion designer Scott, 49, committed suicide with a scarf tied around a doorknob yesterday morning. Her body was discovered by her assistant, whom she's texted to come to the luxury Chelsea apartment.

A police spokesman said: "A 49-year-old female was found this morning at 10.05am at 200, 11th Avenue. She was unconscious. She was pronounced dead on arrival by the emergency medical services. The investigation is ongoing. We are awaiting medical examiners to determine the cause of death." more on this story




Def Leppard and KISS Reveal Tour Plans
As expected, Def Leppard and KISS announced on Monday that they will be teaming up for a North American tour this summer and they also revealed that the trek will benefit military charities.

The bands made the announcement during a press conference in Los Angeles. The tour is scheduled to get underway on June 23rd at USANA Amphitheater in West Valley City, UT.

ABC reports that one dollar from each ticket sold will go to military charities and Def Leppard announced that those charities include USO, Hiring Our Heroes, Project Resiliency/The Raven Drum Foundation, August Warrior Project and the Wounded Warrior Project.

Members of the military will also be given access to a special ticket pre-sale on Military.com where they will be offered discounted tickets to the upcoming shows.

Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott explained during the press conference that although KISS will be closing each show, there won't be competition between the bands on the tour, "Certain people think it's gonna be competitive, you know, and I just don't see it as competitive," he said. "These two great bands that are gonna be playing for the same amount of time -- it's joint forces. I mean, I don't see it as competitive at all."

Paul Stanley of KISS added, "I think this all comes down to pride. You know, rivalry, who's gonna be better...I think this is about going out and being your best.

"Because when you're at your best, they get the best. It's all about giving the audience what they deserve and we'll sleep very contently tonight, knowing that we're doing this together."

It was also revealed that aside from the North American dates the tour may be extended to include international dates, according to ABC. more on this story




Metallica Added To Special Ozzy Osbourne Event
(hennemusic) Metallica have been added to the list of performers who will honor Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne when he receives the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award at the 10th anniversary MusiCares MAP Fund benefit concert at Club Nokia in Los Angeles on May 12.

Joe Walsh will present Ozzy with the award, which Metallica's James Hetfield received in 2006; previous honorees include Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chris Cornell, Alice Cooper and Jerry Cantrell.

Ozzy and his solo touring band will perform at the event with special guest Slash. Osbourne will be recognized for support of the MusiCares MAP Fund which helps musicians with addition problem. more on this story




Nirvana's Ex-Drummer Chad Channing Won't Be Inducted Into Rock Hall
(Radio.com) Last week, Future Rock Legends (a blog that follows all things related to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's inductions) posted a story that former Nirvana drummer, Chad Channing who played on their classic debut album, Bleach, would be inducted into the Rock Hall along with Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Channing's eventual replacement, Dave Grohl. Unfortunately, that has turned out to be untrue.

Radio.com reached out to Channing over the weekend, for an interview. At that point he seemed unsure whether or not he was officially being inducted. Sadly, as we went to press, he emailed us, informing us that he will not be inducted with his former bandmates.

He forwarded the text of a message that the Hall of Fame sent to Nirvana's management saying, "Can you tell whoever looks after Chad Channing that he isn't being inducted… It is just Dave, Krist and Kurt."

Read the interview with Channing before he got the text here.




Arch Enemy Replace Angela With The Agonist's Alissa White-Gluz
(TeamRock Radio) Angela Gossow has stepped down from fronting Arch Enemy in order to focus on managing the band, she's revealed. The band's upcoming ninth album, War Eternal, will feature new vocalist Alissa White-Gluz, ex of The Agonist. Her first track with the band will be launched later this week.

And while The Agonist have confirmed her replacement, White-Gluz sounded a tone of regret that she wasn't given the chance to continue fronting both bands.

Gossow says in a statement: "After 13 years of pure f***ing metal, six studio albums and countless tours, I feel the need to enter a different phase in my life. I'll remain business manager of Arch Enemy and I'll continue to develop my management roster. I'm staying true to my heavy metal roots - just leaving the spotlight, so to speak.

"I've known Alissa as a fear friend and superb vocalist for many years. I always thought she deserved a chance to shine, and now she's getting it, just like I got back in 2001. I'm proud to be part of this Arch Enemy chapter, albeit in a different way, revving up the engines behind the scenes.

"I hope to see you in front of the stage - I will join you there this time. Let the killing begin, once again!"

Read what Alissa had to say and find out who is replacing her in The Agonist here.





Supergroup Killer Be Killed Release First Songs
(TeamRock Radio) Soulfly frontman Max Cavalera, Mastodon bassist Troy Sanders, Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist Greg Puciato and ex Mars Volta drummer Dave Elitch have released their first tracks as supergroup Killer Be Killed.

The band were first revealed in 2012, when the lineup also included Nate Newton of Converge. Cavalera said at the time: "We've got three singers for the project, which is going to be killer. I don't know any other metal projects out there with three people singing like this. We could be like the Transplants of metal."

Their self-titled album is set for release on May 12 via Nuclear Blast, in CD, digipak, digital and vinyl editions. Hear the songs Wings Of Feather And Wax and Face Down here.




Clapton, Joe Perry, Ben Harper Among Guests On Jonny Winter Album
(The Blues Johnny Winter has worked with Eric Clapton, Dr John, Ben Harper, Mark Knopfler, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and Aerosmith's Joe Perry on his second Roots album.

The follow-up to 2011's covers set has just been completed, with a release date tentatively set for June or July. Two further similar albums, Roots 3 and Roots 4, are being planned.

Winter's manager and guitarist Paul Nelson tells Billboard: "We started this series of traditional songs that Johnny grew up on. I knew it was an easy formula for him to digest. It was educational." more on this story




AFI's Davey Havok and Jade Puget Launch Straight Edge Band XTRMST
(Radio.com) AFI's Davey Havok and Jade Puget have confirmed rumors that the hardcore band XRTMST is indeed their creation. Tapes of the band were recently given away for free at Vacation Vinyl in Los Angeles, reports Alt Press.

The four-song cassette featured no text, only an "XT" logo, with a small piece of paper on the sales counter that read, "Do you like hardcore? Fan of Straight Edge? If so - Take this tape for free!"

Puget took to twitter to give fans the confirmation they wanted. He tweeted, "Now that the cat is out of the bag, XTRMST is indeed Davey and I. More to come."

One listen will certify that this is definitely not AFI. It's something much more aggressive. While no live dates have been announced for XTRMST, AFI will head out with Linkin Park and Thirty Seconds to Mars on the Carnivores Tour. Have a listen to XTRMST's self-titled EP here.




Zakk Wylde Discusses New Album and Black Label Society Changes
(Gibson) The ever-entertaining Zakk Wylde has been talking more about Catacombs Of The Black Vatican, the new Black Label Society album due in April (7th in Europe, 8th in North America).

BLS recently parted ways with longtime guitarist Nick Catanese and replaced him with Dario Lorina (previously of Lizzy Borden.) Wylde has told Guitar World magazine about Catanese's departure: "I had called Nick to tell him about the album and he told me that he was already knees deep into doing his own thing and wanted to stick 1,000 percent into it. I told him it was cool and that we loved him and that he'd always have a home here.

Wylde continued: "The thing is no one ever gets kicked out or fired. If you want to go, you're always able. Now we've got [guitarist] Dario Lorina in the band, and not only is he a kick-ass guitar player who can shred, but he's also a really cool dude."

Of the new album, Wylde says, "I think everyone can expect a lot of fun and excitement. he laughed. "It was like what Chris Farley did in that one skit, where he was selling that hair-care product. Make sure you always use the word 'fun' when you describe it.

"Someone asked me what the difference was between this new record and the other nine. I told them that it's basically all of the songs we used on the other nine records, except they've got different titles now. It's fun and exciting for the whole family!" more on this story






Lars Discusses New Metallica Song The Lords Of Summer
(hennemusic) Metallica debuted a new song, "The Lords Of Summer", in Bogota, Columbia on Sunday, and now drummer Lars Ulrich is revealing some details behind the track.

"We promised our fans we'd play a new song and we've been writing and creating away and we're going to throw something at them on Sunday," Ulrich told Rolling Stone last week. "We have something lined up that is fairly representative of where our creative headspace is at right now. It's one of those things that's like, 'Here, we're writing and we're creating.'"

But while the song sounds fully crafted, Ulrich says things change. "We did the same thing when we went out and played a bunch of dates in 2006," he says. "We were writing and played two different new songs over the course of that summer, and none of them made the record [Death Magnetic]. One was called 'New Song 1' - going out on a creative limb, here - and the other was called 'New Song 2.' That's how deep we went. There was a couple of pieces in 'New Song 1,' some of the middle bit ended up in 'All Nightmare Long,' and the intro bit ended up in 'The End of the Line.' That's how we work; stuff just gets changed around, moved over and this goes over there and the rest of that gets sacked and that ends up in the intro in song five." [Laughs]

Watch video of the performance of the song here.




Von Hertzen Brothers Reveal New EP Release Details
(Prog) Von Hertzen Brothers will release an EP entitled Flowers And Rust on April 7 via Spinefarm, they've confirmed. The launch comes a day before they tour the UK in support of The Wildhearts. And the Finnish prog outfit have also confirmed an appearance at this year's The Great Escape festival in Brighton on May 8-10.

Mikko Von Hertzen recently said of the upcoming tour: "After seeing the kind of response Ginger's music has on people at his recent birthday bash in London, even the thought of playing for a crowd of such rock lovers is making my heart race. I have no doubt the tour will be sweet and sweaty, smelly and smiley - and, of course, loud as hell!"

VHB's six-track digital release includes an alternative version of last year's single Flowers And Rust, three acoustic tracks including a cover of Queen's Don't Stop Me Now, and a remastered version of 2006 track Approach. more on this story




Mystery Replace Benoit David
(Prog) Former Yes signer Benoit David has left Mystery after 15 years at the helm, the Canadian band have confirmed. Benoit, who joined the prog veterans in 1999 and appeared on three albums, made the decision to leave before they completed touring duties in support of 2012′s The World Is A Game. He's been replaced by Jean Pagaeu, who officially joined the band last week.

Mystery mainman Michel St-Pere reports: "It's not been easy for us to say goodbye to Benoit. As we were preparing for our first European shows he discussed his desire to take a break from music for a while. He fulfilled his commitment to do all shows up until June. We took the summer off, then Benoit announced he was leaving."

St-Pere describes the hunt for a replacement as "no easy quest" and notes: "As things seemed to speed up for Mystery we had to slow down, take a pause and see where we were going." more on this story




Former Black Crowe Marc Ford Releases New Video
(The Blues Ex-Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford has released a video of his track Blue Sky ahead of an eight-date UK tour in May. The song appears on upcoming solo album Holy Ghost, set for launch on April 14.

Holy Ghost features Phantom Limb as his backing band after he'd produced the English outfit's second record in 2012. Ford explains: "One day it just dawned on me, 'Wait a minute, Phantom Limb is the perfect band for this.'

"I said to Stew Jackson, 'You allowed me to pull your baby apart and put it back together. How about payback? I think I have some of the best songs I've ever written - and you've got a bitchin' band.' He just said 'Get here.'"

He describes Holy Ghost as "hopeful, in a dark way sometimes" and adds: "It's a reflection of my life."

Watch the video and grab the tour dates here.


Hunt On For Unknown Blind Virginia Bluesman
(The Blues A Virginia musician has launched a search for the street performer who introduced him to the blues in the 1950s. Bill Jenkins, leader of veteran bluegrass outfit The Virginia Mountain Boys, was inspired to start playing by the figure who stood on the streets of downtown Newport News.

He tells the Daily Press: "I used to love to listen to that old man play. He was blind - he had this little cup where people would give him tips. His daughter would come and pick him up every afternoon. He was always there; I remember him clear as day."

Jenkins was six or seven years old at the time, but always managed to find a few cents to leave in the man's cup as he delivered classics on a Gibson J-45 guitar. more on this story



Journey's Neal Schon Releasing New Solo Album
(hennemusic) Journey guitarist Neal Schon has announced that he will release his new solo album, entitled "So U", on May 19th in Europe and on May 20th in North America.

Schon has teamed up with Black Star Riders' bassist Marco Mendoza and Journey drummer Deen Castronovo for the 9-song project, with many of the tracks co-written by Night Ranger/Damn Yankees singer, songwriter and bassist Jack Blades.

"This is a great new record that features all three of us - Deen, Marco and myself - sharing lead vocals. Enjoy!" says Schon. The guitarist will soon issue a video for the title track as the album's lead single. more on this story





Whitesnake Release Slide It In 30th Anniversary Video
(hennemusic) Whitesnake's 1984 release, "Slide It In", turns 30 this year and the band have released a new compilation video of tracks from the project to mark the occasion.

Already a mainstay in their native UK, Whitesnake's sixth studio album was a breakthrough for the band in North America. "Slide It In" was the group's first album to crack the US top 40 on the Billboard 200, based on the success of two of the project's six singles, "Love Ain't No Stanger" and "Slow 'An Easy."

In 1988 the album re-entered the US charts due to the success of the 1987's self-titled "Whitesnake" album, helping it sell more than 2 million copies to reach double platinum status Stateside. Watch the video here.




Rolling Stones Add More Summer Tour Dates
(hennemusic) The Rolling Stones have announced that they have added a pair of dates in Germany to their upcoming summer tour through Europe as part of their 14 On Fire tour.

The band will play Berlin's Waldbühne on June 10 June and Düsseldorf's Esprit Arena on June 19 as part of their 14 On Fire tour. The group will announce more European dates in the next week.

The shows follow recent news that the Stones will play the Pinkpop Festival in Holland on June 7, Circus Maximus in Rome, Italy on June 22, and the TW Classic Festival in Belgium on June 28. more on this story




Billy Talent's Ian D'sa Featured In Wounds New Video
(TeamRock Radio) Wounds have released a video for their track Dead Road, featuring Billy Talent guitarist and vocalist Ian D'sa. It's taken from the band's debut album Die Young, launched last year.

Frontman Aiden Coogen describes Dead Road as one of the most important pieces of music he's ever been involved with, saying: "This is the first song I ever had the guts to sing - and it'll be the last song I'll ever sing."

Fans in the UK can catch them on tour with Kvelertak and Empress next month. Grab the dates and watch the new music video for Dead Road here.




English Schoolboy Tops The iTunes Blues Chart
(The Blues An English schoolboy has topped the iTunes blues chart with a rendition of classic Every Day I Have The Blues recorded during a class concert. Tom Croysdill, 18, sang and played the number last year at The John Henry Newman School in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.

The recording hit the number-one download spot over the weekend, leading Croysdill to tell the Comet: "It's been a really great experience." His music teacher, Philip Wright, has more to say:

"Tom is really talented and he gave an excellent performance. It's great for our department to be able to demonstrate the kind of hard-working an successful individual we're helping to produce."

Take a listen here.




Caravan, Beardfish and Collage Lead RoSfest Lineup
(Prog) This year's annual RoSfest will be headlined by Caravan, Beardfish and Collage, with seven other acts appearing over the weekend of May 2-4 at the Majestic Theatre in Gettysburg, Philadelphia.

The lineup is completed by Clepsydra, Thank You Scientist, Sound Of Contact, Elephants Of Scotland, Subsignal, Red Sand and Fright Pig. Organizer George Roldan says:

"As you'll see from the bands we have signed for 2014, RoSfest is in development. There's a steadily increasing number of fine new bands that comes forth that we feel deserve the chance to play at a festival such as ours. Some are established with a small following already, others are fresh entities just starting out.

"We feel we have an obligation to those new artists to make them somewhat better known - especially when conditions for recording artists in general and new artists in particular are as challenging as they are. more on this story





Video of Rolling Stones Singapore Show Goes Online
(hennemusic) The Rolling Stones brought their 14 On Fire tour to Singapore on Saturday and video of their performance of three classic songs from the show has surfaced online.

The band played to a sold-out crowd of 5,000 at the Sands Grand Ballroom, and were joined by thousands of fans outside the venue as they watched the concert on a live simulcast.

The Singapore date is the final stop on the Asian leg of the Stones tour, which now moves on to play Australia for a series of concerts starting Wednesday in Perth. Watch the video here.




Mount Carmel Streaming New Album Get Pure Online
(Classic Rock) Classic Rock presents the premiere of US three-piece Mount Carmel's third album Get Pure ahead of its release via Alive Naturalsound next month on CD, vinyl and as a digital download.

Described as "the only non-bullsh*t hard rock band in goddamn America", the Columbus, Ohio band are frontman Matthew Reed, his brother Patrick on bass, and drummer James McCain.

Matthew explains: "We're interested in conveying emotion as honestly as possible. We understand that, for us, the only chance we have at a fulfilling existence relied on our ability to write expressive music." Check out the stream here.




Simon Godfrey Streams Song From New Album
(Prog) Simon Godfrey has released a new solo album entitled Motherland and he has released a stream of the song "Dust And Wires" from the new studio album.

Godfrey performs all instruments except harmonica and spoken-word sections, which are delivered by songwriting partner Robert Ramsay. The dozen tracks are described as "very personal" and were recorded over the past four months in London and Philadelphia.

Motherland follows last year's Rise Up Forgotten, Return Destroyed, which he launched under the Shineback title. Take a listen to the song "Dust And Wires" here.




Singled Out: Demon Hunter's Death
Today Demon Hunter frontman Ryan Clark tells us about the song "Death" from their brand new album "Extremist," which is being released today (March 18th). Here is the story:

We met as a band a few months before we started recording to go over all of the demos, which was a first for us. This little brainstorming session really helped us hone in on how we were going to approach each song. As we began to build upon "Death," it seemed pretty unanimous to use the track as the album's opener. It's different than any album opener we've done in the past, so it felt like a fresh idea. It's certainly not the fastest song on Extremist, but it's arguably the heaviest, so it really helps inject some guts from the get-go.

This was one of the first songs I wrote for the record. I channelled some of the repetitive simplicity from LifeWar, using that model as a prototype without regurgitating it. To me, LifeWar was almost my homage to simple, driving hardcore songs like Earth Crisis' "Firestorm," whereas "Death" feels more like a simplified Meshuggah track, or something from A Life Once Lost's Ecstatic Trance album - which I really love.

The intro for the song took a few creative turns throughout the process, but we're very pleased with what we settled on. The idea was to take the main riff from the song and mimic it's key and cadence/rhythm with layered vocals. I think there's something like 24 tracks of vocals at a certain point. The tearing sound throughout the intro is of pages being ripped out of an old copy of Anton Lavey's Satanic Bible, which is actually an idea I've had for probably 5 or so years. It's was nice to finally find a fitting place for it.

After the main pieces were recorded for the intro, Jeremiah built upon it with pounding drums and atmospheric textures. These additions really make this a "headphones song," because it's extremely layered throughout.

The idea to bend the first note of the main riff was an idea that came to me after I recorded the demo. I think it adds a really dark, unsettling element to the part.

Lyrically, "Death" speaks about being held to unrealistic standards. It is a statement of being broken or flawed, and warns against placing one's trust in man… any man, including myself.