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Courtney Murdered Kurt?
MTV reports: ...A book titled "Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain" is resurrecting the theory that the Nirvana frontman did not kill himself. At a press conference at New York's Hilton Times Square on Monday, authors Max Wallace and Ian Halperin appeared alongside Love's former private investigator, Tom Grant, to play audio tapes from Love's conversations with Grant, whom she hired when her husband went missing.

The authors attempt to prove in their book, out this week, that mysterious circumstances surround Cobain's death, pointing to Love's behavior and statements as being suspicious. Contributing to their theory is that on these tapes, Love talked about a second suicide note that wasn't put into evidence, that Love said Cobain was leaving her, and that Love told Grant she had no idea where her husband was, even though she had actually received a message from him and he had been sighted at their Seattle home.

In their book, Halperin and Wallace attempt to connect those tapes to the forensic evidence and argue that a murder was staged to look like a suicide. They argue that Cobain would not have been able to pull the trigger due to the high amount of heroin in his system, and they question why no legible fingerprints were found on the shotgun. They also question the validity of the suicide note.  [see full story for lots more] .- Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: MTV also has news on American Idol, Outkast, Nirvana, Kelly Osbourne and more click this link to check it out 

Lostprophets Headline
RIFTrock reports: The Lostprophets are currently organizing their first U.S. headlining tour. The tour will be taking place in May and include openers Head Automatica, Kill Radio, and Instruction. Dates will be announced shortly. - Click Here for the Full Story 

In Stores
RIFTrock reports: The following new releases will be hitting stores on Tuesday, April 6th, 2004:
In Flames, “Soundtrack to Your Escape” 
The Beautiful Mistake, “This Is Who You Are” 
Nocturnal Rites, “New World Messiah”
Dead Poetic, “New Medicines”
Audio Learning Center, “Cope Park”
Orphaned Land, “Mabool” 
Folly, “Insanity Later”
Anthrax, “Music of Mass Destruction” DVD
Propane “Fistful of Hate”
Your Enemies Friends, “You Are Being Videotaped”
Pulley, “Matters”
Devilinside, “Prelude” EP
Local H, “Whatever Happened To P.J. Soles?”
Fear Before The March of Flames, “Odd How People Shake” re-release
Between the Buried and Me, “Between the Buried and Me” re-release
- Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: RIFTrock also has news on Darkest Hour, Rapture, Demonhunter, Blue Sky Mile, Yellowcard cover Nirvana click here to check it out

Canada To Change Laws
Tin Foil Music reports: In an attempt to reverse a stunning move by the Canadian courts ruling that the CRIA had not proved file-sharing was illegal, Heritage Minister Helene Scherrer has vowed to change the laws. 

Federal Heritage Minister Helene Scherrer yesterday promised to plug the hole in Canadian law allowing people to legally download songs off the Internet without paying. Scherrer's announcement won loud applause from an audience of Canadian music industry types at yesterday's Juno Awards opening ceremony at City Hall, which also featured a staged 'surprise' appearance from Prime Minister Paul Martin. 

'As minister of Canadian Heritage, I will, as quickly as possible, make changes to our copyright law,' said Scherrer yesterday. 

The minister offered no details, but she was responding to the challenge posed by a recent federal court ruling that suggested uploading music files into shared folders on peer-to-peer Net networks is quite legal. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: Tin Foil Music also has news on Anthrax interview, RIAA loses in Florida and more click here to check it out

Wilco Delay
Aversion reports: Wilco's A Ghost Is Born is going to have a later birthday than anticipated. 

The band announced that the release date for its latest album was pushed back to June 22 from June 8 by its label, Nonsuch. No reasons were given for the hold up. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: Aversion also has news on Coldplay, Kelly Osbourne, Bad Religion, Piebald and more click here to check it out

Vader US
siN's metal news reports: According to a post on the band's official website, Polish death metallers VADER will "start another trip through US" after their Polish "Blitzkrieg 2" tour which runs through to October 18th. After this, the band will be participating in the European X-mas festivals. Stay tuned for more details.- Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: siN's metal news also has news on Cold, Vehemence, Incantation, Death Angel, Anthrax, RIP Kurt And Layne and more click here to check it out

Sugar Ray Reality Show
AP reports: Sugar Ray is taking their act to the airwaves. 

The rock band will participate in "On the Road," a reality show for Spike TV, singer Mark McGrath (news) told The Associated Press Monday. 

"We thought what the world needs now is another reality show," McGrath joked. The show, set to air this summer, follows eight contestants who go on tour with Sugar Ray. They compete for a job with a music label and a new Kia car. 

"I describe it as `The Apprentice' meets `The Real World,'" McGrath said. 

He said contestants learn the ropes of the music industry, from tuning guitars to promoting Sugar Ray's concerts. At the end of each episode, the band fires one person. - Click Here for the Full Story 

A Kia? Sign me up.

Dylan Bras?
AP reports: New, from Victoria's Secret: the MiracleBob? Bob Dylan appears in a new series of commercials for Victoria's Secret, his grizzled face intercut with shots of model Adriana Lima cavorting though Venice in a bra, panties and spike heels.- Click Here for the Full Story 

Janis Film Fever
Rolling Stone reports: PINK and RENE ZELLWEGER have signed on to play the lead role in two separate biopics about JANIS JOPLIN - Click Here for the Full Story 

Paul Atkinson RIP
Rolling Stone reports: Former ZOMBIES guitarist PAUL ATKINSON, who became a successful label exec by signing ABBA, JUDAS PRIEST and others, died on April 1st in Los Angeles; he was fifty-eight .- Click Here for the Full Story 

Joe Strummer Movie
Rolling Stone reports: Joe Strummer and his friend actor/filmmaker Dick Rude had initially planned to make a film about the former as a means of promoting his 2001 release, Global a Go-Go. Rude and his camera followed Strummer through some of the promotion for the record, culminating with a fall 2002 tour of Japan. Rude's work-in-progress would become a sort of visual epitaph that December, when Strummer died of a heart attack. 

But the energetic live performance footage and vibrant conversations that Rude captured on film will soon be viewable in Let's Rock Again!, which will make its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City next month. [see full story for more]- Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: Rolling Stone also has news on File Sharing Bad Rap?, Britney, Ja Rule, Christine McVie, and more click here to check it out

Punk'd Lives On
E! reports: Howard Stern punk'd you. Ashton Kutcher swears he's not. 

As Stern pretended to be bounced from the air Thursday--make that, April Fool's Thursday--prankster Kutcher announced his return to MTV's air. 

First, the real news: Punk'd is back. 

Nearly four months after the celeb-baiting show was ostensibly retired, the Kutcher-fronted Punk'd will live on for a third season, bowing April 25, MTV said with a straight face Thursday. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: E! also has news on Which stars give to which candidates?, Spider-Man 2, Kelly Osbourne, and more click here to check it out

The Alarm Return
Billboard reports: Thirteen years after the band's last studio album, Welsh rock act the Alarm will issue "In the Poppyfields" later this month. The set is due April 19 in the United Kingdom via Snapper Music and a day later in the United States (distributed by Navarre). - Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: Billboard also has news on Matt Sharp, Dropbox, Christine McVie, Kelly Osbourne and more click here to check it out

New Beastie Boys
I Ate Your Microphone reports: The Beastie Boys' as-yet-untitled new album is scheduled to see a release on June 15th through Capitol Records. A single preceding the effort is expected sometime in May.- Click Here for the Full Story 

Cold Lose Another
I Ate Your Microphone reports: Cold have now officially parted ways with guitarist Kelly Hayes. This follows the recent departure of their other axeman Terry Balsalmo, who was replaced by Eddie "The Kydd" Rendini of Darwin's Waiting Room fame. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: I Ate Your Microphone also has news on 36 Crazyfists, Hearsay, Alien Ant Farm, The Renaissance and more click here to check it out

Darkness Vs. The Press
Net Music Countdown reports: A recent interview with Justin Hawkins of the Darkness was an illuminating one. When asked what he makes of music writers’ constant comparisons to either Led Zepplin or, alternatively, Spinal Tap, Justin minced no words. 

“The only understanding that they have of rock is ‘Spinal Tap’ and ‘Wayne’s World’ and films like that. I’m talking about retarded, inadequate journalists, who really shouldn’t be writing about rock, because they have no understanding of its history. The people who consider us an important are the likes of Brain May from Queen, the guys out of Aerosmith, the guys out of Def Leppard, the guys out of Thin Lizzy…people who know about rock and know what it is. I think that people who only have ‘Spinal Tap’ and ‘Wayne’s World’ as their points of reference shouldn’t be writing about it.”- Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: Net Music Countdown also has news on Outkast, Nickelback, Jay-z and more click here to check it out

Van Hagar Expanded
liveDaily reports: Ticket-demand for Van Halen's first tour in almost a decade with singer Sammy Hagar has led to additional nights in several markets. 

Shortly after tickets hit the box office on Saturday (4/3), the group posted sellouts in Worcester, MA; East Rutherford, NJ; St. Louis; and Las Vegas. Tickets are on sale now for second performances in each of the aforementioned cities. 

Tickets for the first date at Las Vegas's Mandalay Bay Events Center sold out in less than 30 minutes, making it the fastest sellout in the venue's five-year history, according to a press release. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: liveDaily also has news on Willie Nelson, K.D. Lang, and Clay Aiken click here to check it out

Mad World The Video
Day in Rock reports: At long last the video for the hit song "Mad World" by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews has been released. The song was recorded for the cult classic film Donnie Darko and late last year become a smash hit in Europe, topping the charts over Christmas. Jules Universal Records debut was released last month and he is also the featured artist of the month at antiMUSIC (review and interview). You can check out the "Mad World" video by clicking on the full story link below. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Queensryche DVD
press release reports: The extraordinary live show of the progressive metal band Queensryche is captured on the new DVD 'The Art of Live' scheduled for release by Sanctuary Records on April 20, 2004. 

'The Art of Live' was filmed in summer and fall 2003 on Queensryche's tour promoting the Sanctuary studio album 'Tribe.' The summer tour was a co-headlining run with Dream Theater. 

Vocalist Geoff Tate, guitarist Michael Wilton, guitarist Mike Stone, bass guitarist Eddie Jackson and drummer Scott Rockenfield perform Queensryche classics, the finest 'Tribe' songs and a cover encore of The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" featuring Dream Theater. 

The songs on 'The Art of Live' include: "Tribe," "Sign of the Times," "Open," "Losing Myself," "Desert Dance," "Great Divide," "Rhythm of Hope," "My Global Mind," "Roads to Madness," "Della Brown," "Breaking the Silence," "The Needle Lies," "Best I Can" and "Won't Get Fooled Again."- Click Here for the Full Story 

Chris Stamey Returns
Press Release reports: Chris Stamey, a pivotal figure in the history of American alternative rock, will soon unveil his first new album since 1991’s Fireworks -- a long-in-the-works album titled Travels In The South. The musically adventurous, emotionally complex album will hit the streets on Yep Roc Records on June 15. 

Known for his stints in the Sneakers and dB’s as well as his solo albums and duet album with former dB Peter Holsapple, Stamey has also played with Alex Chilton, Bob Mould and the Golden Palominos, and has produced and/or engineered Whiskeytown, Alejandro Escovedo, Ben Folds, Caitlin Cary, Yo La Tengo, Tift Merritt and Squirrel Nut Zippers. 

The new album is something of a homecoming for North Carolina-based Stamey with guest appearances from friends like Ryan Adams, Tift Merritt, Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell, as well as past collaborators like Peter Holsapple and Don Dixon. Even the list of sidemen reads like a who’s who including Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster, ex-Jayhawks keyboardist Jen Gunderman and Greg Readling of Tift Merritt’s band The Carbines – a group loosely dubbed “the Mod Squad” in honor of Stamey’s Chapel Hill-based studio, Modern Recording, where Travels In The South was recorded.- Click Here for the Full Story 

Ween DVD'd
press release reports: The first official visual release from WEEN has finally arrived! Filmed over two nights at The Vic Theater in Chicago in November 2003, this is what Ween fans have been waiting for - 2 hours of all their favorite Ween classics and a killer cover of "All Of My Love". 2003 was a great year for the band as they toured the US and Europe, had a #1 CMJ record for the month of September with QUEBEC, and was loved all over the press from Rolling Stone to The Onion. Available in Amray and CD packaging, the CD contains over 75 minutes of music, and the DVD includes 120 minutes of live concert footage. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Rising Stars - Abloom
Rising Stars is a new feature to Day in Rock that will alternate with Tuesday’s Source.  

Today we have the quick buzz on Abloom. I just got back from watching them rock a full house at the Knitting Factory and what can I say? They impressed even this jaded critic.  The have a perfect balance of power, intensity and melody—very similar to Universal recording artist Ra.  It’s not hard rock / nu metal by the numbers but something along the lines of the next logical evolution. They rock hard enough for purist but are melodic enough to have mass appeal. It’s a tough balancing act but they seem to have perfected it.  

It’s a new group but the members have already proven themselves. The band features Jasan and Levon from Onesidezero, Mikey from Soulfly/ Snot and Marcello and Roy from Soulfly.

Shavo Odadjian of System of a Down discovered them a few months ago and took them under his wing. According to the band’s publicist Shavo is “acting as part manager/ part producer for the group”.  They’re currently recording and shopping for a deal. So expect to hear from them soon but for now you can check out more on the group at their website  - http://www.abloommusic.com/ 

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