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Avril Stalker Arrested
AP reports: Police arrested a man for allegedly stalking teen pop star Avril Lavigne. 

James Speedy, 30, was booked into jail for investigation of stalking after police searched his Seattle suburban home Wednesday — the same day the 19-year-old Canadian singer and Grammy nominee played a free concert at a mall south of Seattle. 

He later posted $5,000 bail and was released. 

Officers have been investigating the case since last summer, when they were contacted by Ontario, Canada, police about harassing letters and e-mails sent to Lavigne, Detective Jerry Reiner said. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Prince Sued By Fan
AP reports: A college student has sued Prince and his bodyguard for allegedly assaulting him after he took a picture of the rock star getting off a flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. 

Anthony Fitzgerald of Edina filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court. 

It states that Prince's bodyguard, identified only as "Trevor," lunged at Fitzgerald on Dec. 29 "in an aggressive, threatening manner," then grabbed his digital camera, leaving him "stunned and humiliated." - Click Here for the Full Story 

Love Lashes Out
Sun Times reports: Love is facing... serious allegations in Max Wallace and Ian Halperin's Love & Death -- a book about Love's late husband, Nirvana rock icon Kurt Cobain. The authors have been making the TV talk circuit further fueling their book's claim that Love may have played a part in Cobain's 1994 death -- from what officials deemed a self-inflicted shotgun wound. 

After days of silence, Love has issued a statement vehemently denying the book's charges. The entertainer states the authorities ruled Cobain's death a suicide ''10 years ago, and nothing has changed for them to change that.'' 

A spokesman for the Seattle Police confirms Love's point ''at this time,'' and indicated the office ''had yet to receive sufficent evidence to reopen the case. ... Of course, that could change, if evidence warrants it.'' 

Love called Wallace and Halperin ''opportunistic'' and attacked them for using ''the anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death to promote their ongoing campaign of greed and exploitation of what remains an unbearable tragedy for us all.'' - Click Here for the Full Story 

100,000 Join SOAD in Plea for Justice
antiMUSIC contributor Argie Plakas recently spoke with System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian about a range of topics including when fans can expect a new album to the first Axis of Justice concert that took place in Los Angeles on March 31st and the interview also addressed the upcoming "SOULS" concert that will commemorate the anniversary of the Armenian genocide and how the band and others have used the Internet to encourage the United States Senate to speak out against the genocide. 

Below is an excerpt for the interview (see the full story link to read the rest of the interview) 

Argie Plakas for antiMUSIC: Let's talk a little about the upcoming "SOULS" benefit concert, which is on April 24th in Los Angeles. This day is the anniversary of the Armenian genocide. What does that day mean to you personally? 

Serj: April 24th to me is a day that pleads for and insists upon international humanitarian justice. 

AP: I know you and rest of the band sent out a mass mailing, encouraging everyone to mail out postcards to Senate leaders to speak out against genocide. Is there any way of knowing what kind of response you've had so far? 

Serj: Based on the number of postcards that have been downloaded off the ANCA, (Armenian National Committee of America) and ones mailed, we know we've been effective in reaching more than 500,000 people and have produced more than 100,000 postcards sent to Congress. 

(ed note: according to the ANCA website 135 Reps. have cosigned a letter to Pres. Bush urging him to keep his campaign pledge and properly characterize the Armenian Genocide as "genocide" .) - Click Here for the Full Story 

Szuter-Fest
Day In Rock reports: Las Vegas rockers Magna-Fi have landed a spot on Ozzfest. The group's debut album, "Burn Out The Stars", will be released in June. The album was orginally supposed to hit the streets on Gold Circle records but just as the first single was getting heavy airplay and it looked like the band was going to hit big, the label went under and the CD was postponed until they got a new deal. 

The band's history goes back even further than that. In a previous incarnation (The Szuters) the group released three albums "The Szuters", "American Pop" and "Last Band Standing". In fact, "American Pop" made our Best of 1998 list and they were our April of 1999 artist of the month. They took a bit a change in musical direction when the turned into Magna-Fi but it's great to see Mike and boys finally getting their big shot. [see full story link to visit their website]- Click Here for the Full Story 

Weiland Ok To Tour
Billboard reports: Embattled vocalist Scott Weiland, who has run into legal problems as he battles a heroin addiction, has been cleared by California authorities to tour with his bandmates in nascent supergroup Velvet Revolver. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: Billboard also has news on Elvis Costello, Tori Amos, Prince and more click here to check it out

Antitrust Channel?
Miami Herald reports: A federal antitrust lawsuit accusing media giant Clear Channel Communications Inc. of "monopolistic and predatory practices" is set to go to trial Aug. 2 in Denver. 

U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham this week scheduled a four-week jury trial after ruling an independent Denver concert producer known as Nobody In Particular Presents had enough evidence. 

NIPP says that Clear Channel, whose subsidiaries make it the largest radio station owner and concert promoter in the nation, has denied airplay time on its Denver radio stations for acts that hire NIPP and won't let NIPP publicize its concerts on the air. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Croce Facets
AP reports: Jim Croce's first album was supposed to end his musical career before it ever got started. In 1966, the young folk artist was planning to marry his sweetheart, Ingrid. As the oldest son of a large Italian immigrant family in the Philadelphia area, Croce was expected to use his college education for a respectable, financially stable line of work. 

His parents gave Croce $500 as a wedding gift, with one stipulation: It must be used to record an album. Croce's parents figured the task would be so difficult that he would give up on music. 

But the plan backfired — 500 copies of the album quickly sold out among fans who heard Croce play at local bars, and Croce then devoted himself to music. 

Now, 31 years after Croce's death in a plane crash, Ingrid Croce and their son — also a musician — are re-releasing the album, "Facets," along with a DVD of his performances, an early session recorded at the family's kitchen table, and a collection of photos paired in a hardcover book with the lyrics to "Time In A Bottle" and family reminiscences. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Vince Not So Motley
Electric Basement reports: In an Exclusive interview with Electricbasement.com, guitarist JASON HOOK (Vince Neil band) insisted that bandmate VINCE NEIL's heavy drinking did not affect the recent tour, "I don’t have a problem with Vince on a personal level. Yes, he can drink his ass off, and the rest of the band doesn’t really drink that much, so I think he’s more compelled to care about what we’re doing, because the rest of us are sort of “on target.” I haven’t had a problem with the guy—he’s always been really nice and friendly to me. I think he’s a really sweet man, actually. 

"The problem is, with some of these rock stars that I’ve had the opportunity to work with—they have tremendous power. And when things upset them, they tend to get a little exaggerated with their temper. Add alcohol to that and you’ll get these sort of flare-ups; the drinking makes him normal for where he’s been. I have certainly worked with some other people that have been a LOT worse. Vince is primarily a nice, generous, and easy-going guy." [see full story link for the entire interview]- Click Here for the Full Story 

Drug Exodus
Electric Basement reports: In an Exclusive interview with Electricbasement.com, EXODUS guitarist GARY HOLT explained how vocalist PAUL BALOFF's death caused the band to rethink their ways and get to work on a new album, "fourth-fifths of the band - myself included - were fucked up all the time and just not capable of doing [the album]...it took Paul's [Baloff] death to serve as a wake up call for achieving sobriety…to ever make this happen. None of these songs, other than "Impaler," "Sealed with a Fist," and "Throwing Down," [the latter of which] were two War Dance songs, none of it ever happened until we turned over a new leaf, so to speak." [see full story link for the entire interview]- Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: Electric Basement also has news on Foreigner, Kevin DuBrow, Andrew W.K. and more click here to check it out

Year of the Split
I Ate Your Microphone reports: With much turmoil, Year of the Rabbit have finally disbanded due to frontman Ken Andrews' involvement with Filter. Ken wants to focus on Filter's new album which will release later this year. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Tool'ing Around
I Ate Your Microphone reports: With Tool's Maynard James Keenan focusing on his side project A Perfect Circle, remaining band members Danny Carey (drummer), Adam Jones (guitarist) and Justin Chancellor (bassist) have been formulating the next batch of tunes. Their work has amounted to framework for 10-12 songs which they will begin retouching in mid June when Maynard returns from tour with A Perfect Circle. The songs will be finished and recorded at this time and due out for a release either at the end of 2004 or early 2005.- Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: I Ate Your Microphone also has news on Cannibal Corpse, Alkaline Trio, Deftones, Moments In Grace and more click here to check it out

Carson Daly Award?
New York Daily News reports: Carson Daly is getting long in the tooth - old, that is - for the MTV crowd. How old is he? So old, that at 31, he's going to get a Lifetime Achievement award at MTV's upcoming TRL Awards.- Click Here for the Full Story 

Pam & Tommy Pt II
Ananova reports: Pamela Anderson is reportedly planning to remarry her rocker ex-husband Tommy Lee. 

According to America's Star magazine, Lee said: "My family is all back together. 

"Pam and the kids are home good." - Click Here for the Full Story 

Allman Bros Roll on
liveDaily reports: The Allman Brothers Band, who are celebrating their 35th anniversary this year, are set to play a series of U.S. concert dates that run from July through September. 

The outing gets underway with a July 3 co-headlining show with The Dead at Washington State's Gorge amphitheater, and also includes a two-night stand in the Denver area with The String Cheese Incident. - Click Here for the Full Story 

B-52's Return
liveDaily reports: The B-52's haven't released a new studio album in more than a decade, but that's not stopping them from hitting the road to work their catalog of classics. 

The group has a handful of April and May shows scheduled, and additional dates stretch into early September; the bulk of the currently confirmed shows are concentrated in June and July. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Tori DVD
liveDaily reports: Singer-songwriter Tori Amos will issue her first commercially available concert DVD on May 18, along with a six-song bonus CD of previously unreleased songs. 

The DVD, titled "Welcome to Sunny Florida," was recorded on Sept. 4, 2003, at Sound Advice Amphitheater in West Palm Beach, FL, during Amos' tour in support of 2002's "Scarlet's Walk." 

Bonus footage on the 5.1 Surround Sound, PCM-Stereo DVD includes full-length interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, as well as a "tour yearbook" with candid photos. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: liveDaily also has news on Beastie Boys, Elvis Costello, Kenny Loggins, Travis Tritt and more click here to check it out

Get Up Kids Civic
RIFTrock reports: The Get Up Kids have been added to the Honda Civic Tour with Dashboard Confessional and Thrice.- Click Here for the Full Story 

Source: RIFTrock also has news on Tool, My Dying Bride, Good Charlotte, Deicide and more click here to check it out

New Artist Friday - Jason Shand
Press release reports: Ask newcomer Jason Shand what his musical influences are and he’ll answer with a single word, “broad.” The singer/songwriter’s smooth vocals and sophisti-cated songwriting make him an heir apparent to the adult contemporary throne formerly occupied by the likes of Seal and Annie Lennox. Yet, Jason is also quick to point out what makes him different, “I’ve heard my music be compared to those artists. They are definitely influences and the comparisons are very flatter-ing. My music is probably best described as soulful pop, but I’m also influenced by everything from ABBA to ACDC. So how do you classify that?” 

Jason’s voice is as distinct as his musical taste is eclectic. Emotional, passion-ate and powerful, Jason’s voice first got attention when he fronted Boston alter-native rock band Hybrid Minds. After signing to British record label Freestyle Re-cordings (a BMG subsidiary) and spending six years developing his craft, Jason left the band, and Boston, to return to his hometown New York City and pursue a solo career. - Click Here for the Full Story 

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