Today's Day In Rock News!

Today's Day in Rock Stories

Guns N' Roses And Pearl Jam Supergroup Share New Song(Radio.com)

The Levee Walkers are a new rock super-group featuring bassist Duff McKagen of Guns N' Roses, guitarist Mike McCready from Pearl Jam and Screaming Trees' drummer Barrett Martin.
For the band's latest track, "All Things Fade Away," the Seattle-based band tapped local singer Ayron Jones to handle vocals. "The three of us [conceived the Levee Walkers] to make music with guest vocalists," Mike McCready told Rolling Stone. "It's been a cool, enlightening experience for me as Duff and Barrett push me to be a better musician."

"We've been lucky enough to have Jaz Coleman from Killing Joke and Latin artist Raquel Sophia sing with us," McCready continued. "Our latest great singer and guitar player is Ayron Jones from Seattle. Ayron is a super-talented singer-songwriter who has added a new fuel to the fire of Levee Walkers songs. He is also a smokin' guitar player that needs to be heard."

"Ayron is such a special and badass new Seattle artist," added Duff McKagan. "I went to a show of his last year in Seattle, and it was one of those that just simply made me realize how glad I am that I chose music as a path. Mike and Barrett are, of course, the best at what they do as well. I'm a proud Walker of Levees!" Check out the song here.


Bon Scott Allegedly Planned To Leave AC/DC Before His Death(Gibson)

It's been almost four decades since original AC/DC frontman Bon Scott passed away. He made six albums with the Australian hard rockers, but just as the band was set to make their international breakthrough, Scott died in London in 1980. His replacement, Geordie vocalist Brian Johnson would step in and help continue AC/DC's upward trajectory that saw them become one of the world's biggest bands and a live tour de force over the next few decades.
Now, a new book suggests that Scott was in fact planning on quitting AC/DC before his untimely death. In the book Bon: The Last Highway, the author Jesse Fink recounts an interview with Roy Allen, a friend of Scott's from Texas, who received a call from the AC/DC frontman in late 1979, at the end of the band's Highway To Hell tour.

According to Allen, the singer called him suggesting he was tired of the hard rock life, saying, "Roy, I want to come to Texas. I'm coming into a good bit of money soon. I've had it: the living on the road, the shows, the drinking. I'm ready to leave the band. I've got to get out. It's all killin' me and I know it. I want to know if I came to Texas, I could stay with you. We could try quit drinking together."

Allen didn't make much of it at the time, not knowing that it would be the last conversation he'd have with Scott. Read more here.


Lynyrd Skynyrd Cancel 2017 Dates Over Medical Emergency(hennemusic)

Southern rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd have cancelled the final three dates of their 2017 schedule due to a medical emergency involving guitarist Gary Rossington.

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, details of Rossington's health issue were not released when a November 3 date at the Capital City Amphitheater in Tallahassee, FL was shut down on the day of the show.

The situation also forced the group to cancel a November 4 appearance at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, FL, and a November 5 headlining slot at the Rock Fest 80s event in Pembroke Pines, FL that will see .38 Special perform in their place,

The lone original member of the Southern Rock icons, Rossington has battled health issues in recent years, including heart surgery this past August "to address some blockage in his arteries", which followed a similar procedure in the summer of 2016 after the guitarist suffered a heart attack in late 2015. Read more here.


Rarest Ever Beatles LP Album Being Auctioned(Gibson)

A copy of a rare Beatles album once owned by John Lennon, complete with hand-drawn sketches, and three Beatle signatures, is expected to sell for more than $200,000 at auction later this week.
The early edition of Yesterday And Today features an infamous photo of the group dressed as butchers, and remains one of the only copies in existence. It will be auctioned as one of the star lots of Heritage Auctions' Entertainment Signature Auction, which takes place in Dallas on November 11. At the time of writing, the Current Bid is listed as $100,000.

Lennon gave it to Beatles collector Dave Morrell in 1972 in return for memorabilia and bootleg material. The message states "To Dave, from John Lennon," alongside a date of December 7, 1971. The album was later also signed by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Read more here.



Metallica Release Live Video Of Rare Song Performance(hennemusic

) Metallica delivered the rarely-performed "...And Justice For All" track "The Shortest Straw" at Genting Arena in Birmingham, England on October 30, and the band are sharing professional footage from the event.
The song, which made its first appearance in Metallica's set since 2013, was featured on the group's 1988 album as the project peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 on its way to US sales of more than 8 million copies.

The Birmingham stop landed in the final week of Metallica's European tour in support of their latest effort, "Hardwired…To Self-Destruct." Produced by Greg Fidelman, drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist James Hetfield, the group's tenth album topped the charts in 57 countries around the world last fall. Watch the video here.






Eric Clapton Documentary Hitting Theaters For One Night(Radio.com)

Film distributor Abramorama has teamed up with the Showtime network to bring Life in 12 Bars, the Eric Clapton documentary, to select movie theaters on November 24.
A limited theatrical release will qualify the film for awards consideration in the new year. It's already one of the 170 films submitted for Oscar consideration, which will be narrowed down to 15 before the nominees are selected.

Directed by Lili Fini Zanuck, The Hollywood Reporter reports that Life in 12 Bars is "an unflinching and deeply personal journey into the life of the legendary musician." The film explores Clapton's difficult childhood and struggles with substance abuse, as well as his role in shaping the rock landscape." Read more here.


Jeff Lynne's ELO Stream 'Telephone Line' Live Video(hennemusic)

Jeff Lynne's ELO are streaming video of a 2017 performance of their classic, "Telephone Line", ahead of the November 17 release of the live album and concert film package, "Wembley Or Bust."
The fourth and final single from the Electric Light Orchestra's 1976 set, "A New World Record", was a Top 10 hit in the US and the band's native UK while the project went on to Platinum sales in both countries.

Multi-instrumentalist Lynne has been touring in recent years under the banner Jeff Lynne's ELO. Directed by Paul Dugdale, "Wembley Or Bust" captures Lynne's sold-out show before 60,000 fans at London's Wembley Stadium this past June, where he delivered material from the group's extensive hit-filled discography; the show also includes tracks by The Move and The Traveling Wilburys.

"It's the best time I ever had in music," says Lynne of the Wembley event. "It is beyond anything I could have imagined." The new live package will be available in multiple formats, including 2CD/Blu Ray, 2 CD/DVD, 2CD and 3LP packages. Watch the video here.



Billy Corgan Goes Virtual Reality With 'Aeronaut' Video(Radio.com)

Billy Corgan has shared the music video for "Aeronaut" from his recently released full-length, Ogilala. The video also serves as a preview of a forthcoming immersive virtual reality experience for Corgan's Ogilala album.
The video was created inside a 3D world that was imagined by San Francisco artist and filmmaker, Danny Bittman and brought to life by the joint Viacom NEXT and Isobar team. By capturing Corgan's three-and-a-half-minute performance in volumetric video at Microsoft's Mixed Reality Capture Studios, Isobar, Viacom and Bittman, were able to use the Unity creation engine and Tilt Brush to create a world around him. The project is due for release in early 2018.

Corgan fans will also want to tune in to The Late Late Show with James Corden on Wednesday, November 8 to catch his live performance of "The Spaniards." Check out the clip for "Aeronaut" here.



Dave Grohl Mashes Up 'Snowman' and 'Enter Sandman'(Radio.com)

When Dave Grohl guest hosted for Jimmy Kimmel on his late-night talk show wearing a bearded David Letterman costume and welcomed his guest Kristen Bell things got a little weird- in a cool way.
The Foo Fighters frontman revealed to the actress, who was dressed as Tom Selleck in Magnum P.I., complete with Hawaiian shirt and hairy chest, "If I was to jam a song with you, I would become the coolest dad in the world."

Bell who voiced Anna in the movie Frozen, replied, "I would love to jam with you." Grohl asked her if they could play "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" Bell dedicated the performance to Grohl's daughters: "Violet, Harper and Fifi, this is for you." She started the beautiful song on her own, then partway through, Grohl joined on drums and the tune morphed into Metallica's "Enter Sandman." Check out the collaborative performance here.



Morrissey Live Debuts The Smith's 'I Started Something I Couldn't Finish'(Radio.com)

Fans at a recent Morrissey show in Portland, OR, were treated with the live debut of "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" and video of the performance has been shared online
"I Started I Something I Couldn't Finish" was the second U.K. single from The Smiths' fourth and final studio album, Strangeways Here I Come, released in 1987.

It's the first time a former member of the Smiths has performed the song live, according to NME. Morrissey rolled out The Smiths' chestnut at Portland's Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Halloween night (Oct. 31). Check out the performance here.




Neil Young Streaming New Song 'The Visitor'(hennemusic)

Neil Young is streaming audio of "Already Great" as the lead single from his forthcoming album with The Promise Of The Real, "The Visitor", ahead of its release on December 1.
The 10-song project pairs the rocker with the band fronted by Willie Nelson's son Lukas, who also backed Young on 2015's "The Monsanto Years" and the 2016 live set, "Earth."

"The Visitor" also follows the recent issue of an unreleased 1976 album by Young called "Hitchhiker." The acoustic set was originally recorded in one session at Indigo Studios in Malibu, CA on August 11, 1976.

This summer, Young revealed plans to launch an online archive tracing his entire musical history. "Every single, recorded track or album I have produced is represented," he writes as an introduction to neilyoungarchives.com. "It is always current. You can browse the music I made between today's date and 1963, when I made my first recording in Canada and it was released as a 45 RPM single."

Billed as "coming soon", Young and his team have been diligently compiling detailed information about his recordings for the project. Stream the new song here.



Singled Out: Russkaja's Kosmopoliturbo

Russkaja recently released their new album "Kosmopoliturbo" and to celebrate we asked guitarist Engel Mayr to tell us the story behind the song "Hey Road" from the new studio effort. Here is the story:
The song "Hey Road" from Russkaja's new record "Kosmopoliturbo" was actually one of the first ones that Georgij (singer) and me finished. It started with my basic idea of a midtempo song combining Acoustic and Electric guitar in the intro (and also later on in the Tango C-part, but that came around later). I already had Intro/Verse without vocals and the Chorus with a vocal melody. I wanted the chorus to be really hooky. When I played my demo to Georgij he immediately came up with the Intro/Verse vocal melody which I totally fell I love with.

Georgij also liked the hooky Chorus and on one of the following tours I noticed that he was sitting in the back of the bus and writing lyrics to that song. When I realized that he was actually writing about being on the road I thought that's really cool since we're touring a lot and it really fits the song! "Hey Road" brings up a feeling that everybody in the band can really identify with!

A few weeks later the Tango melody in the C-part came to my mind and at first I recorded it with heavy guitars in the demo but then I felt it should retain a more traditional Tango feel with the horns and violin playing the melody and the rhythm section playing the Tango groove behind with a strong Steelstring guitar.

When we were in the studio recording the song I wasn't sure anymore if the Intro should be Acoustic or Electric guitar, so I recorded both and when the album was mixed I really liked the way it sounded with Electric AND Acoustic guitar simultaneously and we did it that way!

I think "Hey Road" became a great song and I really enjoy playing it live and also singing the backing vocals to it. It's one of those songs that just feel natural and gives you a great vibe!