Today's Day in Rock News!

Today's Day in Rock


Van Halen To Do Rare TV Performance
(hennemusic) Van Halen will launch their latest release, "Tokyo Dome Live In Concert", with a rare TV performance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday, April 2nd and the show's promotion for the appearance hints at an upcoming tour.

"In a daytime exclusive, the California rockers will take over Ellen's stage to perform one of their favorite songs as they embark on their Greatest Hits Tour!," reads the listing on the program's website. "They're some of the most talented, wildest and most exciting musicians of all time.

"Nearly all of Van Halen's albums have gone triple platinum, featuring iconic records like 'You Really Got Me,' 'Runnin' With The Devil' and 'Dancing In The Street.' Ellen and her audience will be dancing through the aisles when Van Halen brings the heat to the room!"

The rare TV appearance comes just two days after the March 31 release of the group's first live album with David Lee Roth. Recorded live at the Japanese venue on June 21, 2013, the package features a 25-song set delivering material from the band's original, classic era and 2012's "A Different Kind Of Truth", the group's first studio album with Roth in almost 30 years.

Van Halen have issued an audio stream of their 1981 classic "Unchained" as a preview to the new album. Check it out here.




Metallica Offering Free Download
(hennemusic) Metallica are offering a free audio download of a corporate show that they played in San Francisco for cloud computing company Salesforce.com on February 9.

The band's career-spanning 14-song set is available at livemetallica.com. Metallica have previously shared video from the event, including a performance of their 1986 classic, "Master Of Puppets", and fan-filmed video from the show can be viewed here.

The group played the same event in 2011 when the company's chief executive officer, Marc Benioff, asked his neighbor - Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett - if they would perform. Read more here.




Rolling Stones Fans Don't Get What They Want On SatisfactionThursday
Rolling Stones fans didn't get much satisfaction on Thursday as the band failed to announce a North American tour as many expected when the legendary group started teasing an announcement with the hashtag
#‎SatisfactionThursday‬ late last week.

As we reported on Monday, the band began hinting at a big announcement via teases posted to their Facebook page with the hashtag #SatisfactionThursday, and a link to the website www.justakissaway.rocks which featured a video with footage of the band touring set to the their classic hit "Miss You" playing in the background. The site also featured the band's lips and tongue logo above the words "Get What You Need" and the #SatisfactionThursday hashtag, as well as a signup box for email alerts.

There was speculation that the band planned to announced the details to their rumored North American tour on Thursday, but instead the band removed the video and posted a contest sign up that said "Here's your chance to utter the immortal words, 'LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE ROLLING STONES!' Grand prize includes a TRIP FOR TWO to an undisclosed location and a COMMEMORATIVE VIDEO shot by the Stones' official videographer."

So it appears they are giving a fan the opportunity to announce the band at a live performance. To add fuel to the tour rumor fire, the small print for the contest includes tour promoters AEG Live, LLC.

As for the tour announcement, WKRN reports that "the nationwide promoter's ticketing is being blamed for the delay" and the mayor of Nashville was forced postponed a planned announcement of a local show on Thursday.

Mayor Dean hinted at what the announcement would be on Wednesday when questioned by WKRN. "Let's just say, don't start me up on that topic," he joked. "I can't give you any satisfaction today answering your questions. And if you're gonna bug me about it, I'm gonna tell you to get off my cloud." Watch the video and read their report here.





Motley Crue's Vince Neil In Legal Battle Over Social Media Accounts
(hennemusic) Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil has found himself in a legal dispute over the control over his social media accounts and filed a lawsuit to get them back.

The Las Vegas Review Journal reports Neil has filed a lawsuit against an Oregon woman, Kristy Sinsara, in an effort to have her relinquish control of his social media accounts.

An agreement between the two gave Sinsara administrative control of his accounts while Neil retained ownership; while the singer's complaint confirms Sinsara created content for Neil on his behalf for a period of time, he claims she is making unauthorized posts that the public and his fans believe are being made by him. Read more here.




Video Of Blink-182's First Show With Matt Skiba Goes Online
(Radio.com) Blink-182 performed their first show in front of live audience last night with Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba filling in for Tom DeLonge. "Meet your new mommy," Mark Hoppus said to the audience as he pointed at Skiba.

The normally brooding Alkaline Trio singer appeared to be very in-the-moment, smiling and playing off both Hoppus and Barker. And when it came time to sing lead vocals, Skiba delivered DeLonge's lines with relative ease, with a delivery similar enough to DeLonge's to keep the songs from sounding jarringly different yet with enough of his own personality injected to let the audience know he wasn't trying to be DeLonge.

Absent was the funny back-and-forth between the co-frontmen that fans are accustomed. But Hoppus made sure to deliver up a healthy does of potty humor leading sing-alongs for both "Happy Holidays, You Bastard" and, well, the other song that can't be described without being completely censored. You know the one. It's the one written to upset your mom.

Being the first show with Skiba, no professional video was permitted at the show, however, there was no shortage of fans holding their phones above their heads. The confetti cannons at the end made for a colorful finale to a pretty special evening. Enjoy some samples and the full setlist here.




Kurt Cobain Documentary To Hit Movie Theaters
(hennemusic) "Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck" director Brett Morgen has revealed the new documentary about the late Nirvana frontman will debut in three US cities in advance of its premiere on cable channel HBO on May 4.

"4/24 Montage of Heck will open in Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York City," tweeted Morgen, who oversaw the project with executive producer - and Cobain's daughter - Frances Bean.

Morgen has also announced a series of international cinema debuts, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland (April 9), the UK (April 10), Sweden (April 27), Italy, Australia and New Zealand (April 30).

A soundtrack album will feature unreleased material, including an epic, 12-minute acoustic song by the Nirvana frontman. Listen to the song, read more and see the trailer here.




Foo Fighters May Make Second Season Of Sonic Highways In The UK
(Classic Rock) The Foo Fighters could make a follow-up to their Sonic Highways documentary series - and it could focus on the UK. The eight-part run was created alongside the band's 2014 album, and it's set for a DVD release next month. The band used eight US studios to record their tracks, and produced a film about each location.

And although the Foos aren't likely to make an album the same way, there's no reason they can't make another set of TV shows - and drummer Taylor Hawkins could be the leading light.

Mainman Dave Grohl tells Billboard: "There might be a season two - there are a lot of studios." He adds: "Taylor is one to ask about UK studios. He's been to them all, even if they're kebab shops now.

"He'll show up and be like, 'You guys know that they f***ing recorded Queen's The Game in here, right?'" Taylor says: "They're hallowed ground. I think they're churches, man." Read more here.




Failed Deep Purple Reunion Attempt Inspired New Whitesnake Album
(Classic Rock) David Coverdale has explained how plans for a reunion with Deep Purple colleague Ritchie Blackmore led to the creation of Whitesnake's upcoming Purple Album.

The tribute work is released on May 18, and it's the first Whitesnake album to feature guitarist Joel Hoekstra in place of Doug Aldrich. Coverdale exclusively told Classic Rock how late Purple keyboardist Jon Lord had wanted the Mark III version of the band to reunite, and discussions took place after his death.

Now he says in an EPK video: "A lot of the ideas weren't appealing to me, unfortunately. But I was already doing preparatory work on these songs, hoping Ritchie would be open to bringing them up to date and reappraising some of them."

When he told his wife it was a shame that his work had been wasted, she asked, "Why don't you do it under the Whitesnake banner?"

Coverdale continues: "I took a little time to think about it, I spoke to my musicians and everybody was incredibly positive, so it was all systems go." Read more and watch the video clip here.




Cockney Rebel's Best Years Lineup Reunites
(Classic Rock) Steve Harley has reunited the surviving members of Cockney Rebel's Best Years Of Our Lives lineup for a 16-date UK tour. The shows will be the first time the lineup has played together with Harley since 1976.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel's 1975 album Best Years Of Our Lives, guitarist Jim Cregan, drummer Stuart Elliot and keyboard player Duncan Mackay will join Harley on the tour, which kicks off in Manchester on November 2.

Harley says: "The three guys are still my mates. The fun we had back then, when we toured and recorded together, holds fabulous and special memories. I take life on the road a lot more seriously now, though, so they'd better be prepared.

"I'm thrilled to think they'll be up there on the great UK concert hall stages with me once again." Read more and see the dates here.




Jake E. Lee's Red Dragon Cartel Replace Lead Singer
(Classic Rock) Jake E Lee's Red Dragon Cartel have split with singer DJ Smith and replaced him with Michael Beck. Smith was part of the lineup put together by former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Lee when he decided to come out of retirement in 2013.

The frontman's time with the band was overshadowed by negative reviews for their first-ever show, in which he appeared to be drunk and under-rehearsed. Lee later laughed off the incident.

Smith says: "It's true I left Red Dragon Cartel. It's kind of complicated, but I think it was the right thing to do. One day I'll comment more - for now, that's all, folks!" Read more here.




Paul Stanley Has 'Too Much Pride' For Original KISS Reunion
(Classic Rock) Paul Stanley has likened playing live with former KISS members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley to "spending a night with your ex wife." The frontman insists there was no way he was going to perform with the pair at last year's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction.

Stanley tells News.com.au: "I enjoyed the Hall Of Fame in a twisted way. It was a terrific night but there was no way I was going to play with them. Frankly, I have too much pride in what I do than to create a moment of nostalgia for someone else. To get on stage with Ace and Peter was an interesting, surreal moment - but nothing I wanted to prolong.

"Someone asked me before the Hall Of Fame, 'Couldn't you just play with the original lineup for one night?' I said, 'How about spending a night with your ex wife? What's the point?'"

Stanley, 63, admits he's had to face the issue of his voice changing over the years, making it more difficult to perform tracks he first sang in the 1970s. Read what he had to say about that here.




Juliette Lewis To Front Mastodon, Dillinger, Mars Volta Supergroup
(TeamRock Radio) The Dillinger Escape Plan's Ben Weinman has confirmed actress Juliette Lewis will front supergroup Giraffe Tongue Orchestra, also including Brent Hinds of Mastodon, Pete Griffin of Deathklok and Thomas Pidgen of the Mars Volta.

Weinman has been teasing the project for some time, along with the fact that he was working with Lewis, who has her own band Juliette And The Licks. Now he tells SiriusXM (via Revolver): "It's something we've been working on for a long time. We finished all the music and we're finalising the vocals now.

"Juliette is singing, along with some other guest people. Me and her have become pretty close friends." But he admits he was skeptical when he first heard of Lewis' band. "I was like, 'Oh, another acts that has a vanity project,'" he recalls.

His attitude changed after he saw her perform. "I saw this person putting all her energy and spirit into music. I thought this was almost more real than most bands - because she doesn't need this." Read more here.




Killer Be Killed's Curb Crusher Video Features Footage For First Shows
Metal supergroup Killer Be Killed have released a music video for the track "Curb Crusher" which comes from their forthcoming album and features footage from their debut performances that took place at the Soundwave festival in Australia.

The band features The Dillinger Escape Plan vocalist Greg Puciato, Mastodon bassist Troy Sanders, and Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy and ex-Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera.

The band posted the following intro for the video on their Facebook page, "So....a few weeks ago we took a little trip to Australia, and let's just say we got a bit of it on film(by a bit we mean every damn second unless we told the dudes to stop). Didn't want any of you to miss out on our first EVER shows, ya know? So here you go, we'll just leave this right here. If you were there, thanks, if not, we wish you would have been....there will be a next time....somewhere...."

The group will be releasing their debut album on May 13th in North America, May 12th in the UK and May 9th in Europe. Watch the new music video here.




Janis Joplin Biopic Hits Another Major Setback
(Radio.com) It's still going to be a while before anyone sees the Janis Joplin biopic, Get It While You Can, which has been in development for half a decade. The film, for which Amy Adams signed up back in 2010, was slated to start filming this year but now it's been hit with another setback.

This time, it's not finding a director--Dallas Buyers Club auteur Jean-Marc Vallee is still on board--the snag is instead a lawsuit, The Hollywood Reporter reports.

The film's producers LKL Productions and Silver Reel have filed suit against writer Ron Terry, his affiliate companies and his investment firm Chesterton Capital for breach of option agreement, unfair competition, interference with contract and prospective economic advantage.

LKL and Silver Reel apparently purchased the rights to the project for $117,000 last August but they claim that Terry and his affiliates have still been shopping around the script.





Slipknot Hopes To Live On With New Members Forever
(TeamRock Radio) Slipknot percussionist Shawn 'Clown' Crahan hopes the band will keep going after all the original members are gone. And he suggests the lineup could consist of the current men's sons.

Two new touring members - not named but believed to be drummer Jay Weinberg and bassist Allessandro Venturella - were brought in ahead of the release of .5: The Gray Chapter last year.

Clown tells the BBC: "Don't be surprised if, one day, nobody in the band will be in the band. It'll all just be new people. I'll be 80 and there'll be a whole Slipknot thing moving.

"I mean, we've got two new guys now, man. You never know - my son might take over." Read more here.




Meshuggah Update Fans On New Album, Preview Song
(Prog) Meshuggah are aiming to release their eighth album next year, drummer Tomas Haake has revealed. And he's offered a sneak preview of one of the band's songs in progress.

Haake says in the studio video: "Right now we're writing for an album that will hopefully be out in 2016. Sometimes a song idea comes from a guitarist or a bass, sometimes it's from me as a drummer. When it's my song, it starts with me messing around at the kit."

Hakke then demonstrates what he calls "more of a rhythmical idea" and shows how it proceeds to the songwriting stage. Check out the new studio video here.




Former Slayer Drummer Joins Meshiaak
(TeamRock Radio) Former Slayer drummer Jon Dette has joined Australian newcomers Meshiaak. Dette, who also plays with Iced Earth and had spells with Anthrax and Testament, joins a lineup including ex-4arm frontman Danny Tomb, Teramaze guitarist Dean Wells and bassist Nick Walker.

Meshiaak say: "Yes, the Jon Dette joins the guys on what promises to be a blistering must-have album for 2015. The debut will feature nine tracks mixed and mastered by UK's Matt Hyde."

The band have penned a deal with Mascot Label Group. They'll set up in Green Day's Jingeltown studios in California this month to begin recording their debut album, Alliance Of Thieves. Check out a video here.




Fans Made Blink-182 Gig Easy For Matt Skiba
(TeamRock Radio) Matt Skiba has described the challenge he faced with replacing Tom Delonge in Blink-182 - but says says Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker made it easy for him.

The Alkaline Trio frontman filled in for DeLonge in Los Angeles on Wednesday, and he'll step up again in San Diego on Friday and Orange County on Sunday.

And despite the massive task of learning 25 songs in a short space of time, he says the experience has been fun from the outset. Skiba says on Hoppus' podcast: "You guys made it very easy for me to just have fun with it and make it great. The vibe has been amazing.

"I couldn't be more excited. We've been rehearsing a lot and it just gets better and better and more and more fun." Read more here.




Randy Bachman Releases 'Heavy Blues' Video
(hennemusic) Randy Bachman has released a music video for the title track to his forthcoming album, "Heavy Blues", which is due for release on April 14 in North America.

It will be released a day earlier in the UK. Produced by Kevin Shirley, the new album sees the Guess Who/BTO rocker teamed with bassist Anna Ruddick and drummer Dale Anne Brendon.

Special guests on the album include Peter Frampton, Joe Bonamassa, Neil Young, Robert Randolph and the late Jeff Healey. A North American tour in support of "Heavy Blues" starts April 1 in Milwaukee, WI. Watch the video here.




Steve Hackett Wanted To Explore The Evolution Of Music On New Album
(Prog) Steve Hackett hopes listeners don't recognise the sounds they hear on upcoming album Wolflight - because that's the way he intended it. The former Genesis guitarist set out to explore the evolution of music in his first solo original work since 2011.

Hackett has previously revealed that he'd learned to play the Iraqi oud while preparing to record, and that Wolflight includes a range of ancient instruments.

In the new promo video, Hackett says: "I was playing it to Nick Magnus and he said, 'I don't recognise what half the instruments are.' I said, 'That's good - that's what we wanted, to go through that reinvention.'

"It was made so you can go from genre to genre. There's not too many difficult time signatures in here." He adds: "I'd like to think Darwin would be proud of this; it's a journey that goes through a lot of different places and times." Watch the video here.




The Hoodoo Gurus Reveal Mark Kingsmill's Replacement
(hennemusic) The Hoodoo Gurus have named Nik Reith as their new drummer following the retirement of Mark Kingsmill after 30 years with the group who announced his retirement plans last month.

Reith's long history on the Australian music scene includes stints with New Christs, The Celibate Rifles, Tumbleweed and, most recently, punk legends Radio Birdman.

"Nik kept Deniz and Rob from Birdman fully informed about his audition with us," says frontman Dave Faulkner, "and he apparently has their blessing (and we thank them for being so generous of spirit about that). Nik will still be touring Europe with Radio Birdman in June, then he will be ready, willing and able to perform with us.

"Our first gig with Nik will be in August. Before then there will be a lot of rehearsal as we bring Nik up to speed on more than 30 years of Gurus music! Our other priority is to begin working on new material for the NEXT Hoodoo Gurus album." Read more here.




Toto Didn't Expect To Record Their New Album
(Classic Rock) Toto's David Paich has revealed the band didn't expect to record their latest album - until they discovered they owed their label one. They release Toto XIV in the UK on March 23 (Monday) via Frontiers Records, ahead of their return to the UK in May.

Paich tells Songfacts: "In 2006, when Falling In Reverse was released, we thought that might actually be our last album. To our pleasant surprise we still owed our record company one more. You don't know until you actually check."

The next problem was to decide its content. "You go, 'Do we just put together a lot of odds and neds that we haven't already recorded?'" says the keyboardist and vocalist.

"We started pulling out our little pieces and everything - and realised that we wanted to get in and write an organic, homegrown Toto record from scratch and really make it count. That's exactly what we did." Read more here.




John Mayer To Induct Stevie Ray Vaughan Into Rock Hall
(hennemusic) John Mayer has been selected to induct Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble into the 2015 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame during the ceremony in Cleveland on April 18.

The late Texas blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan topped the fan ballot for the event with more than 18 million votes - more than 5 million ahead of the next nominee.

The Rock Hall announced its list of presenters on Wednesday, which include Paul McCartney inducting fellow Beatle Ringo Starr; Fall Out Boy inducting Green Day; the late Lou Reed will be honored by fellow New York music legend Patti Smith; Stevie Wonder will introduce soul singer Bill Withers; Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band will honor the Paul Butterfield Blues Band; and, Steve Cropper will induct the 5 Royales. Read more here.




Danzig Recording New Album
(Classic Rock) Glenn Danzig has confirmed that he is at work recording the follow-up to 2010's Deth Red Sabaoth. The former Misfits frontman made the announcement via a Facebook posting.

The frontman reports that guitarist Tommy Victor and drummer Johnny Kelly have been laying down tracks in Los Angeles with producer Chris Rakeshaw. Its release is planned for late 2015 or early 2016.

A separate covers album has been completed and should be launched in the near future. Danzig revealed last year that he was also working on an EP of Elvis Presley cover versions. Read more and see the Facebook post including photos here.




Soundgarden's Chris Cornell Finishes Recording Solo Album
(hennemusic) Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell has revealed that he has finished recording his fourth solo studio album, which follows "Euphoria Morning" (1999), "Carry On" (2007) and "Scream" (2009).

Cornell began recording the project in mid-January before heading to Australia last month with Soundgarden to perform as part of the Soundwave Festival series, which wrapped up a few weeks ago.

"Last day of recording solo album!," Cornell told fans in an online posting on Thursday. "Thanks Brendan, Tom and Kyle. We made the magic happen." Read more here.




Fozzy's Chris Jericho Wouldn't Mind Never Wrestling Again
(TeamRock Radio) Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho says he'd be happy if he never wrestles again. The singer and WWE superstar balances his musical career with his stints in the ring, but says the band is now his priority.

He tells GetYourRockOut: "If I never wrestle another match again, I'm happy with it. I've done all that I ever wanted to do and more. I still like going back from time to time, because it's fun.

"I've been very smart over the last 10 years in building the Chris Jericho brand, and wrestling is a part of what I do. But it's not by far the biggest thing of what I do.

"When I was a kid, I wanted to be in a rock band and I wanted to a wrestler, so I've always done both. It's just that wrestling took off first." Jericho insists he's never based a career choice on a paycheck. More here.




Dez Fafara Wouldn't Change Coal Chamber Past
(TeamRock Radio) Dez Fafara says he regrets nothing in his career - even the angry Coal Chamber split in 2003. He's gearing up for the release of the band's comeback album Rivals and recently had to deal with Jeff Kendrik and John Boecklin leaving Devildriver, the band he formed after pulling the plug on Coal Chamber.

He tells The Age Of Metal: "Even with the tumultuous break-up, I wouldn't have done anything different. It gave me a chance to do Devildriver - and that's its own beast now.

"You can't drive everything. I'm a believer in 'Let the movie play itself out.' Life is that way." Fafara plans to turn his focus back onto DevilDriver after Coal Chamber complete their tours of the US, South America, Europe and Australia. Read more here.




Singled Out: Southern Front's Face Down
Today Zak Ward from Southern Front tells us the story behind the song "Face Down", which comes from the group's brand new album "Death Throes". Here is the story:

The song Face Down had been one that survived the creative process as an incomplete song for a couple years. It was about half of a song (the first half) and even that was morphed a good amount into what it eventually became. The basic parts stayed the same, just modified and refined. It began as a couple riffs that we jammed on in practice a few years back. It was one of those things where Jason had a riff, Jon came up with another on the spot, then a couple more and suddenly we had half a song. The problem was that we soon moved out of that practice spot, played a bunch of shows and got off track with the creative process until we had to stop playing shows for a couple months to focus solely on creating new music.

Once we were able to kick back into high gear with the creative process, we decided to try all different forms of writing songs. Through that effort, the vast majority of the material was created for our new album "Death Throes", as well as the EP that preceded it titled "Seasons of Hate". During that time, we finally got back to work on Face Down and decided to make the second half completely different with the goal to make it still work as a cohesive song. We did all we could with the ideas we had in the first half so we broke it off and took a sharp turn to jam-town. That's where the guitar break comes in before the solo section. Jason and Jon trade off a few solos and it goes into a heavy groove until the song fades.

Lyrically, the song is intense and very aggressive. The topic of the song is revenge and there's a lot of raw emotion in it because it is a sensitive topic. More specifically, it's about revenge on a person or persons that did you wrong. Of course there are certain people (that shall remain unidentified) that helped inspire the lyrics. That being said, the lyrics are also meant for the listener to connect in their own personal way. If we take that angle and write about a personal experience, maybe others can relate to having been screwed over and tasting revenge. It's an outlet to release that aggression instead of through the means of actual revenge because there's always consequence and karma swings both ways. Our music video for the song captures this concept perfectly and there's a strong message in it.

What really makes the essence of this song is the strong collaborative effort between all the band members to give it that Southern Front sound and feel, as well as the heavy lyrical theme that is often associated with our music.