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Metallica Bummed About St. Bomb 
Reuters reports:  U.S. sales of Metallica's latest album, which fell off the pop charts earlier this month, are a "bummer," according to the veteran rock group's singer, James Hetfield. 

But the band is not giving up on its U.S. fans, and plans to launch a six-month tour of indoor arenas on March 2, it announced backstage at the American Music Awards on Sunday. 

Metallica performed at the event but lost the race for favorite alternative music act to Linkin Park. 

"St. Anger" has sold about 1.5 million copies in the United States since it debuted at No. 1 in June. 

"It's a bummer," Hetfield said. "In Europe it's doing really good, and some other places ... It is what it is. We can't change that. We do our best and that's all we can do." 

Drummer Lars Ulrich said "St. Anger" is Metallica's best seller in Europe since its 1991 self-titled release, the so-called "black album," and the band is preparing to launch its third "St. Anger" tour there in December. 

"It's a very challenging record," Ulrich said of "St. Anger," which was constructed by a computer program and features no guitar solos. He added that U.S. rock radio programmers seemed more interested in playing bands like Nickelback. 

Metallica's top U.S. sellers include "Metallica" with 13 million copies, "... And Justice For All" (1988) with 7 million, and "Master of Puppets" (1986) with 5 million, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America.  - Click Here for the Full Story

Notice some curious absences from that list of best sellers?

Get Korn This Friday
VH1 reports: Korn have pushed up the release date of their Take a Look in the Mirror due to an online leak, following the lead of recent moves by G-Unit and Jay-Z.

Korn's sixth album will now drop on Friday instead of November 25. It joins the ever-growing ranks of rushed releases that include albums by the likes of Metallica, Eminem, Nas and 50 Cent as artists increasingly scramble to get their music in stores before everyone's already heard it via downloading or bootlegging - . Click Here for the Full Story

People must be downloading their concerts too. I mean why would they go from Arenas to halls? It must be file trading. 

Evanescence Catch Cold
VH1 reports: Despite the murkiness of initial reports, Ben Moody's departure from Evanescence appears to be permanent.

"I actually haven't had any contact with him at all," singer Amy Lee said Sunday of the guitarist, who walked out on the band October 24 in Berlin without a public explanation. "But I hear he's way happier, and I know we all are, so it's for the best.

"It was just kind of an unhealthy situation for everybody," Lee said as she walked the red carpet at the American Music Awards. "Everyone was really unhappy. I think it was just time to evolve."

Lee said Cold guitarist Terry Balsamo, who performed with the band at the awards ceremony, will replace Moody at least through February.

Balsamo will join Evanescence on a North American tour through mid-December and on stints through Australia and Japan in January. He may also stick around when writing starts for the next album.

"I'm really looking forward to it," Lee said. "We're writing a little this week and next week, and then starting in February we're really just gonna concentrate on writing, and I'm so excited. [Writing is] my favorite [part]."

"We've all grown so much as musicians and as artists and as performers that I think [the next album] can do nothing but be better," she added..
.-Click Here for the Full Story

Ozzy Changes Again
Digital Noise reports: Ozzy Osbourne has rescheduled three dates from his postponed European tour.

The new dates will now take place in February 2004. Unfortunately the Newcastle and Glasgow dates have been cancelled due to technical difficulties. 

You can now catch Ozzy at Wembley Arena on February 22nd and Birmingham NEC on 24th and 26th.

All tickets from the original shows are still valid and the remainder are now on sale. Tickets for Newcastle and Glasgow can be exchanged for a Birmingham ticket for the gig on February 26th by calling 08705 321 321 or can be refunded from point of purchase. 

H.I.M. and Biffy Clyro are confirmed as special guests.. - Click Here for the Full Story 

To our UK friends: look on the brightside, at least Kelly isn't opening this time around like she was supposed to on the original reschedule of the cancelled rescheduled cancelled postponded dates. 

In Stores
RIFTrock reports: 11/19 these new releases will hit stores:
Blink 182 Blink 182
Most Precious Blood Our Lady Of Annihilation
Link The Kids Are Alright
Slick Shoes Biggest and the Best
Maxeen Maxeen
Also, The Aquabats' DVD Serious Awesomeness

Next week, new releases from The Starting Line and a Doghouse Records compilation.
..-Click Here for the Full Story

What you got back home, little sister, to play your fuzzy warbles on? I bet you got, say, pitiful, portable picnic players. Come with uncle and hear all proper! Hear angels' trumpets and devils' trombones. You are invited!

Hammerfalls Solo
Metal Underground reports: Hammerfall vocalist Joacim Cans has collaborated with Dionysus/ex-Sinergy drummer Ronny Milianowicz on three songs for Cans' forthcoming solo album. At the moment, Joacim is working with Swedish pop singer Marcus Öhrn on additional material for the CD, which is expected to surface in April 2004. Other musicians expected to make an appearance on the album include bassist Mat Sinner (Primal Fear, Sinner), drummer Mark Zonder (Fates Warning), and guitarists Stefan Elmgren (Hammerfall) and Metal Mike Chlasciak (Halford, Painmuseum).

Cans and Milianowicz have spent much of the past four years writing an epic musical called "The Conspiracy". In addition, Cans has contributed lyrics to the song "Bringer Of War", which is set to appear on the sophomore Dionysus album, "Anima Mundi", due on January 19, 2004 through AFM Records..Click Here for the Full Story 

Global Sting
Billboard reports:  Sting's Sacred Love Tour will begin Jan. 23 at the Knight Center in Miami. 

The first leg of the tour will encompass about 35 shows in North America. They will be followed by about 35 shows in Europe, beginning in late April, playing some theaters but mostly arenas and festivals. 

Sting will return to North America for a run of 30-35 amphitheaters in July through September. Plans then call for a return Europe and other international territories. The total tour could include as many as 150 shows in 2004. Ticket pre-sales will be conducted through Sting's fan club and American Express promotions. - Click Here for the Full Story

Machine Head Still Homeless 
siN's metal news: MACHINE HEAD manager Joseph Huston has posted the following message on the band's message board:

"I have not taken occasion to post on this forum, but due to current circumstances I felt it was important. I know many of you have expressed concern, and in some cases, frustration in regards to the release of "Through The Ashes Of Empires" in various territories. I wanted to take this opportunity to clarify things and to express thanks on behalf of Machine Head and myself for your patience and understanding.

The album was released in Europe and the U.K. on Oct. 27th and it is due out in Australia and Japan toward the end of this month. As for the U.S., Canada and South America, we are still in the negotiation process with several labels. Traditionally, MH albums have been released almost simultaneously worldwide. Due to circumstances already elaborated upon by Robb to you all, this release is different. We have narrowed down the field of potential label partners for the above mentioned territories, and our hopes are that we will have an agreement in place at some point over the weeks ahead. It is important for MH to have a label in place that knows the band, the music, and all of you - the people that support them. It is not as much the financial aspect of the deals that is consuming time as much as it is the mechanics of structuring a deal that allows MH to be MH. We are fairly close, and of course, as soon as something is inked you all will be the first to know.. Click Here for the Full Story 

Michael's Changes His Mind 
Reuters reports: British singer George Michael has signed a new global recording deal with Sony, the company from which he battled to free himself in the early 1990s. 

"Sony Music UK today announced that it has signed a new worldwide record deal with George Michael," the company said Monday on its Web site www.sonymusic.co.uk. 

It said Michael was finishing recording "Patience," his first album of original material since 1996's "Older," and the new album would be released early next year. 

"We are delighted to be working again with one of the greatest recording artists this country has ever produced, who has made another classic album," said Rob Stringer, chairman and CEO of Sony Music UK. 

The statement said that in a career spanning nearly two decades Michael had sold more than 75 million records. 

Michael, who leaped to fame in the early 1980s with Wham!, lost a long legal battle in 1994 to break out of his contract with Sony, which he said was stifling him and preventing him maturing from a teen idol to an adult star..-Click Here for the Full Story 

Kind of reminds you of a certain son in the bible.

Jurassic Rock Mag
AP reports: Publishing executive John Rollins, who witnessed the infancy of Vibe and Spin magazines, had a revelation one day when he dropped a Buena Vista Social Club album into his CD player. 

"The type of music I was listening to at home over the weekend was not the music that could be found in the pages of either of the magazines I helped found," he said. 

So he decided to start a new one, aimed at the burgeoning market of adults over 30 who buy music. Tracks makes its debut on newsstands Tuesday. 

Sting's blue eyes stare out from the cover, which promises that Tracks is about "music built to last." Besides Sting, there are articles about Cassandra Wilson, Robert Plant  and R.E.M. A lengthy and eclectic CD review section features pieces on Dolly Parton, Rufus Wainright, Al Green, Van Morrison , Death Cab for Cutie and Basement Jaxx. 

Over the past decade, music buyers over age 30 have become the majority. They accounted for 56 percent of the music purchased in 2002, up from 46 percent a decade earlier, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. 

Older listeners wield formidable purchasing power. Rollins, who joined Spin two years after it started in 1985 and helped found Vibe in 1993, enticed investors with statistics showing people aged 30 and over bought $7.5 billion worth of music in 2001, up from $3.2 billion a decade earlier. 

Billboard's current Top 50 album chart contained 21 discs by artists who arguably appeal most to this group, including Rod Stewart, the Eagles, Bette Midler, Norah Jones, Toby Keith, Sarah McLachlan and Barbra Streisand. 

That doesn't include discs by Ryan Adams, the Strokes or John Mayer, whose music - if not the names - should be familiar to older listeners. .  Click Here for the full story

Sounds more geared towards the over 40 crowd. But it's hard to imagine a mainstream music mag on the stands in 2003 that doesn't have a half-naked pop star on the cover. 

Rock on TV
Rockdirt.com reports: Rock acts on television this week include Kid Rock, who performs on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Tuesday and Last Call with Carson Daly on Thursday; The Strokes, who perform on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on Tuesday; Phantom Planet, who perform on Last Call on Tuesday; 3 Doors Down, who perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday; P.O.D., who perform on Last Call on Wednesday; Story of the Year, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, who perform on Last Call on Friday; and Yellowcard, who perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Friday.-Click Here for the Full Story 

McCartney and Dave Stewart For AIDS
NME reports: PAUL McCARTNEY and DAVE STEWART have teamed up to write a song for a charity rock event to help AIDS sufferers.

The duo wrote 'Whole Life' at London's Abbey Road Studios. The song can only be heard via charity website 46664.com, reports the BBC.

Other acts appearing at the show, in aid of the Nelson Mandela campaign 46664, include Peter Gabriel and Yusuf Islam, formerly Cat Stevens. 46664 was Mandela's former prison number.

The show, which will take place at Cape Town's Greenpoint Stadium on November 29, will also feature acts such as Beyonce, Bono, Ms Dynamite, Queen, Anastacia, The Corrs and Youssou N'dour. -Click Here for the Full Story 

What we were after now was the old surprise visit. That was a real kick and good for laughs and lashings of the old ultraviolence.

Rock Travels
(press release) On Sunday, November 30 from 9-11P ET/PT, host Ray Manzarek, organist for The Doors, takes Travel Channel viewers on a psychedelic tour through time in the world premiere special TEMPLES OF ROCK.  The two-hour special visits some of the most important performing and recording sites in rock and roll, namely: The Cavern, CBGB, Fillmore Auditorium, the Fillmore East, Motown's Hitsville USA, Sun Studio and the Whisky a Go Go.  Along the way, viewers will share in the eyewitness accounts of how The Cavern audience attacked George Harrison on the night of Ringo Starr's debut with the Beatles, will hear stories of the unique relationship between the Fillmore East and the neighboring Tisch School of the Arts, and will get a peek at the less than stately bathrooms of the NY Bowery's CBGB.

In addition, this unique documentary interviews rock and roll legends Dickey Betts, Graham Nash, Johnny Ramone, Martha Reeves, Smokey Robinson, Ringo Starr and members of the bands The Byrds, Chicago, Grateful Dead, and Talking Heads.  

TEMPLES OF ROCK features over 15 original songs from the golden days of the rock and roll age including: "Blue Suede Shoes," "Dark Star," "Ferry Cross the Mersey," "Heat Wave," and "White Rabbit."   Rare photos and archival footage of this period in music history are also included.  Viewers will see film of The Temptations recording "My Girl," in the original Motown Studio and video of the Allman Brothers Band performing "Whipping Post" live at the Fillmore East.  And, they'll meet a young punk rocker who traveled 1,013 miles for the opportunity to work at Sun Studio.   A highlight of the program is host Ray Manzarek's monologue performed on the stage of the Whisky a Go Go, set to The Doors' song "The End" in which he recounts the infamous tale of The Doors final performance there. -Click Here for the Full Story 

WWIII
(press release) Arctic Talent Management is organizing The Global Battle of the Bands, the first-ever worldwide talent competition for pop and rock bands. 

Forget artificial Pop Idol-style competitions, this is the real deal with real bands playing real music…live. Encompassing all musical genres, The Global Battle of the Bands will strive to unearth the best un-manufactured new bands in the world and bring them to a wider audience. Throughout each year, starting in 2004, local qualifying heats and national finals will be organized in countries around the world, with the eventual winners of these going forward to The Global Battle of the Bands World Final, which will be held in a different major city each year.

We are launching the competition with the European Global Battle of the Bands on Tuesday, January 20 2004 at London's Mean Fiddler (Formerly Astoria II) featuring invited bands from around Europe. These bands are being chosen on the strength of their music and live performances by our network of scouts and industry experts. The best band on the night according to our judges will win the BOB Awards' Best New European Band title and $10,000. The best bands will also go forward to the first Global Battle of the Bands World Final to be held in November 2004 in a major world city yet to be decided.

We already have hundreds of entries but we still want more. We are seeking as many exciting new signed or unsigned bands as we can find for consideration.
-Click Here for the Full Story 

Plug - antiFEST 02 Revisited
antiMUSIC is proud to sponsor a concert tonight at The Joint in Los Angeles featuring three bands that rocked Day 2 of antiFEST 02-Bird, Lowfive and Donnie Vie. 

Kicking things off at 8pm will be Bird, the former frontman of Bird3 (you may have caught them on tour with The Cult, Lennon or Veruca Salt a couple summers ago). Bird has been creating quite a buzz in Los Angeles with his new solo material, come see what all the excitement is about. 

Next up is Lowfive featuring former members of Queens of the Stone Age, Bird3, and The Flys. These guys headlined day 2 of antiFEST 02 and brought the house down with their high voltage rock. Their debut album will be coming out soon in Europe and they are eyeing North American release in 04. Watchout cuz Lowfive is the band most likely to kick your ass in 2004! 

Headlining tonight's show is Enuff Z'nuff frontman Donnie Vie and his new band featuring Tim Tame (Dizzy F**kin Reed Band) and Troy Patrick Farrell (Up The Dose and The Starf**kers featuring Gilby Clark and Slim Jim Phantom).  Don will be playing Enuff Z'nuff favorites plus music from his new solo CD "Just Enuff" (The Limited North American edition is sold-out. A regular North American edition expected next year.) 

Also playing: Swan Lee featuring members of Ministry, The Space Twins and Swirl. 

The show is being presented by Happenin Harry. Speaking of which rumor has it the Haptones (w/ Dizzy Reed) will close out the night, warming up for their invasion of Chicago this weekend.  

Should be a great night of music and fun… Hope to see some of you there!  

The Joint on Pico at Robinson. 8771 Pico Blvd., LA
21 and Over - $8 admission

-Click Here for the Full Story 

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