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B Sides for 08/12/2014



Robin Williams Dead at 63 of Apparent Suicide
(Radio.com) The entertainment industry was shocked Monday afternoon upon hearing the news that actor Robin Williams died by apparent suicide in his Marin County home. He was 63.

"This morning I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost of it's most beloved artists and and human beings. I am utterly heartbroken," Susan Schneider, Williams' wife, said in a written statement, reports CBS San Francisco.

"On behalf of Robin's family, we are asking for privacy during our time of profound grief. As he is remembered, it is our hope the focus will not be on Robin's death but on the countless moments of joy and laughter he gave to millions."

"He has been battling severe depression of late," Mara Buxbaum, Robin Williams' press representative, added in a statement. "This is a tragic and sudden loss."

Williams had checked himself into rehab earlier this year. One of his last roles was on The Crazy Ones, a half-hour sitcom on CBS. The show was canceled earlier this year.

Multiple celebrities took to social media to both offer their condolences and pay tribute to the fallen actor.

So sad about Robin Williams�-
KATY PERRY (@katyperry) August 11, 2014

Aw man, that's terrible news. rest in peace and laughter Robin Williams � You had a great run and touched many lives. That counts.-
(@deadmau5) August 11, 2014

Devastated right now. Loved you Robin-
Brad Paisley (@BradPaisley) August 11, 2014

holy sh*t. R.I.P. robn williams. grew up with that man, what beautiful gifts he gave to us-
Flea (@flea333) August 11, 2014

Robin Williams, a gift to the world. So very very sad. My love and condolences to his family. He is awake, and we are all still sleeping.-
sia (@Sia) August 11, 2014

Thank you to the beautifully original + brave artist that is #RobinWilliams. You taught us how to stand on the edge, fearless, + shine.-
JARED LETO (@JaredLeto) August 11, 2014

Robin Williams is gone. What a crying shame. It's raining in Ohio. I met him fleetingly and he had light in his eyes! He was adorable!-
Boy George (@BoyGeorge) August 11, 2014

More tributes here.

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ZZ Top and Jeff Beck Tour Opener Jam Video Goes Online
(hennemusic) ZZ Top and Jeff Beck teamed up to jam on Friday in Missoula, Montana on the opening night of the pair's summer US tour, and fan-filmed video from the show is available online.

The Texas rockers brought Beck out for their encores, which included an extended jam on their classics "La Grange" and "Tush", as well as a cover of the Elvis Presley hit, "Jailhouse Rock."

Last month, ZZ Top announced that they were forced to postpone the start of their summer tour following news that bassist Dusty Hill had to undergo surgery to remove two kidney stones.

The band issued a statement the kidney stones were discovered in the course of a routine physical examination where Hill's doctor advised him that they should immediately be removed before they cause more serious problems down the line. More on this story.

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Ace Frehley Releases Steve Miller Band Cover
(hennemusic) Original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley is previewing his cover of the Steve Miller Band's 1973 classic, "The Joker", a in a newly-released ad for his forthcoming album, "Space Invader."

The single will be available on iTunes starting today. Due August 19th in North America (August 29th in Europe), "Space Invader" is Frehley's first new solo album in five years.

Ace will help promote the release when he sits in with The Roots on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday, August 12. Check out the song preview here.

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Hatebreed's Jasta Jams With Suicide Silence
(TeamRock Radio) Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta joined Suicide Silence on stage to perform his band's track Last Breath and video of the jam has gone online. The collaboration came on the Hartford, Connecticut leg of the Mayhem Festival and the moment was caught on camera, with Jasta dedicating the track to former Suicide Silence frontman Mitch Lucker who died in 2012.

Suicide Silence covered the Hatebreed track on the special edition of their latest album You Can't Stop Me, which was released last month and the deathcore outfit were delighted Jasta could join them on stage, saying: "Thanks Jamey for rocking' out with us on Last Breath."

You Can't Stop Me is the band's first album since the death of Lucker, who was killed in a motorbike smash in November 2012. He was replaced by Eddie Hermida and the band say the tragedy shaped the album. "Mitch left behind a set of lyrics with the title You Can't Stop Me, says Guitarist Mark Heylmun. "It gave us chills and we knew we had the title and the title track."

Watch video of the jam here.

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Queensryche Member Explains Split With Geoff Tate
(Classic Rock) Queensryche's Scott Rockenfield says parting with Geoff Tate was like shaking off a long-term "sickness". The band settled a long-running legal dispute with former frontman Tate in April this year, with Tate's band now performing under the name Operation: Mindcrime.

And while much has been said of both parties' relief at the settlement, drummer Rockenfield says things were tense while Tate was still in the band. He was replaced by Todd La Torre in 2012, leading to a situation where two bands called Queensryche were touring and recording.

Rockenfield tells Pop Break: "The conflict started years ago, but prior to it when we were all still working together in the old band, we had been in a dark place for a long time. It wasn't going well, the years were stacking up on us, we weren't making the music we were passionate about and were being forced to do a lot of things we didn't want to do."

He had more to say here.

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The Smashing Pumpkins Adore Outtake Streaming Online
(Radio.com) The Smashing Pumpkins will reissue Adore, their fourth album, later this year prior to a pair of new music releases next year, and the band now has a first taste from the reissue in the former of a demo outtake.

The 107-track deluxe box set will include the track "Let Me Give the World to You" in its demo form from the Adore sessions in 1998, and the band has shared that version yesterday (Aug. 11) via YouTube.

The song was originally recorded with Rick Rubin for Adore but was left off the final track list. However, it eventually rerecorded as part of the Pumpkins' Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music that was released in 2000.

Check out the outtake here.

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Megadeth's Full Bloodstock Performance Goes Online
(hennemusic) Megadeth headlined the closing night of the UK's Bloodstock Open Air festival on Sunday, and pro-shot video of the band's complete performance is available to view online.

The thrash veterans topped a bill that also included Saxon, Amon Amarch, Obituary and others as they wrapped up the final night of the 4-day annual event at Catton Hall in Walton-On-Trent.

Band leader Dave Mustaine posted a "megaselfie" from the stage at the festival. Megadeth are currently playing shows across Europe on their Super Collider world tour, named after their latest album.

The band will play the Summer Sonic festival in Tokyo and Osakam Japan later this month before enjoying a few weeks off. Watch the Bloodstock video here.

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The Agonist Discuss Producer's Influence In Latest Studio Video
(TeamRock Radio) The Agonist have commended producer Chris Donaldson for his work on their upcoming fourth album in their just released fourth online studio update video for the project.

On what will be their first record with singer Vicky Psarakis, the band have returned to work with fellow Canadian Donaldson, who was behind the desk on their first three albums.

In the band's latest studio update, drummer Simon McKay says: "The good thing about working with Chris is that he's really calm. If you hit a bump and it's not working, he'll just let you work it out. There's not much you can do other than hammer out the kinks at that point - he'll tell you if it's not good."

Guitarist Danny Marino says the working relationship is a match made in heaven as far as The Agonist are concerned: "We see eye to eye on some things and we don't see eye to eye on other things when it comes to recording production," he says. "It's good because sometimes you need someone to tell you 'no' and that you should maybe consider other ideas. The end result is a really good balance of his way of doing things and ours."

More including the video here.

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Aerosmith Go Behind The Scenes Of Let Rock Rule Tour
(hennemusic) Aerosmith have released a behind the scenes video from their Let Rock Rule tour of North America, which launched last month. The summer run waps up September 9 in Clarkston, Michigan.

The Boston rockers are currently playing a hits-filled set on the trek - with opener Slash - while also continuing to promote their latest album, 2012's "Music From Another Dimension."

Steven Tyler and Joe Perry also recently released a new arrangement of the band's 1973 classic, "Dream On", to honor the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Check out the video here.

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Willie Nelson Covers A World Of Topics In New Interview
(Radio.com) Talking to Willie Nelson is, on one hand, a straightforward experience. He speaks calmly and in small bites, with a gentle laugh and friendly smile always on hand to put you at ease. He's quick with an answer but also patient, thoughtful and willing to go deep when it comes to speaking about his long life experience, the varied terrain of American music, and where the two have (frequently) intersected.

A Willie Nelson conversation can also go in any number of directions. When Radio.com sat down with Nelson for a chat on his bus last month, the conversation started on topic with his latest album Band of Brothers. Soon, though, it moved into text messaging, concept albums, the enduring influence of the Grand Ole Opry, old friends of his like Billy Joe Shaver and Chet Atkins, and why he loves performing and touring so much (six decades down the road and "it's still fun"). It's a meandering path, but it's a hell of a fun journey - and we wouldn't want it any other way.

Two key building blocks of Nelson's long career came up repeatedly: songwriting and performing. The latter has always been at the heart of Nelson's musical world. Even now performing is his chief occupation; he spends more nights on his tour bus than he does at his ranch in Texas.

As for songwriting, that's what jump-started his commercial career, thanks to songs he wrote like "Crazy," "Family Bible" and "Night Life." By his own estimation Nelson has written thousands, and this year he added even more to the roster. His latest album Band of Brothers, released this past June, includes nine newly written compositions that have no problem standing on their own as part of Nelson's extensive catalog.

"It's been a while since I wrote that much," Nelson told Radio.com. We were speaking on his bus before a July 12 show with his band, the Family, at Ravinia, a lovely outdoor amphitheater just north of Chicago.

Curiously, Band of Brothers is the first Nelson album to focus on newly written material since his 1996 album Spirit. What took him so long? "Oh, I don't know," Nelson said. "Roger Miller said it pretty good, he said, 'Sometimes the well runs dry. And you've got to wait till you live a while to let it fill up again.' And I think there's a lot of truth in that."

When pressed, Nelson admitted that it wasn't just surge of personal inspiration that got him writing again. He had some outside motivation. "The secret ingredient here is Buddy Cannon," Nelson said. "He and I work well together. And it's rare I find anyone I can really feel comfortable writing with. But he and I kinda hit a stride there and wrote some pretty good songs."

Cannon is a veteran Nashville songwriter and producer best known for his work with Kenny Chesney (he's produced the bulk of Chesney's albums, including his upcoming collection The Big Revival). All nine of the Nelson-penned songs on Band of Brothers were cowritten with Cannon.

That, however, doesn't mean Nelson and Cannon sat down in a room together to hash things out, as is typical among many Nashville songwriters. Instead, they wrote songs by passing ideas back and forth via text messages.

"It just happened to be the easiest way to do it," Nelson said. "I'll write a verse, he'll write a verse. One of us will put a melody down. And he's got all those great musicians there in Nashville and he can cut the track. And next thing you know we've got an album."

Nelson said he's never written that way before, but he emphasized that "it's a lot easier. You're free to think or say or write what you want to. And Buddy does the same thing. He's got great instincts, and we seem to be fairly successful together."

Band of Brothers isn't the first time Cannon and Nelson have collaborated. "I had him do some producing for me on a couple albums I did," including recent releases Moment of Forever, Heroes and Let's Face the Music and Dance. "We just became good friends and started having a good time writing and making records."

A lot more here.

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Amon Amarth Vigilant To Maintain Their Level Of Success
(TeamRock Radio) Amon Amarth bassist Ted Lundstrom believed the hard work they've done to achieve success will be wasted if they ever stop pushing. He remembers a time when the Bloodstock main stage act would "rather do something else" than rehearse, because of the pressures of their day-jobs. And he wants to make sure they don't end up back in the same position.

Lundstrom tells Arte Concert: "Before we made it big enough to do this full-time it was a hassle. You have to work, get time off for touring; you get tired if you work a whole day then you need to go to rehearsal in the evening. You'd rather go home and do something else."

He's glad to report the band's schedule is "easy" and "fun" these days - but he knows they can't let things slide. "You can never relax just because you reach a certain level," he says. "That's when you're going to start going down again.

"You reach a new level and then you have to work even harder, come up with greater plans, make better albums, better shows." More on this story.

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Singled Out: Sleeperstar's Apocalypse
Today Jake Lester of Sleeperstar tells us about their brand new single "Apocalypse" which comes from their forthcoming new album, "Lost Machines." Here is the story:

"Apocalypse" is the culmination of a lot of hard work, long nights, and unplanned jam sessions on tour. Over the past few years the basic idea of the song, which started during a sound check somewhere in New Jersey, has been played, abandoned, screamed at, and, finally, brought into its final form. As a band, we're extremely proud of where it's ended up.

We chose Apocalypse as our single for this record because it expresses a lot of what we have gone through in the life of the band and, specifically, in the creation of this album. It is always a challenge to be original, to find some new perspective or sonic experience that truly declares itself. There is a kind of magic, though, when you feel like you're running out of time or you're about to fail at something that you've been working on or wanting for a while, and at that point it's either the end one thing or the beginning of another. I think that's true of this song, true of Lost Machines, and definitely true of Sleeperstar.

We spent a month in Nashville recording with the brilliant Dustin Burnett, and he really helped us take Apocalypse from "really cool rock song" to something truly special. What Dustin brought was a natural approach but a more aggressive feel to our sound, taking risks and pushing limits that we had tried to get across in our live performances. The result is that this new music is very up-front, bold, and really a big step in a new direction for Sleeperstar, and we couldn't be more ready for people to hear it.

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

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