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Nugent Chainsaw Accident
AP reports: Ted Nugent was injured on the Texas set of his reality show when a chain saw cut through his leg. 

The outspoken rocker, outdoors enthusiast and star of the VH1 series "Surviving Nugent: The Ted Commandments," required 40 stitches to close the gash in his leg on Sunday, Michelle Clark, a spokeswoman for the cable music channel, said Tuesday. 

Nugent didn't miss any time on the series, which is taping through Sunday and is scheduled to air in April. The 55-year-old rocker is wearing a brace on his leg. 

The original installment of "Surviving Nugent" aired as a two-hour special in October. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Chainsaw accident in Texas? 

Avril Evanescence 
MTV reports: Since Ben Moody's departure from Evanescence in October, many have wondered about the guitarist's whereabouts. Three months after he quit the band without so much as a "Dear John" letter, Moody has resurfaced as a part of Avril Lavigne's 

Moody, who co-wrote all of Evanescence's Fallen, including the hits "Bring Me to Life" and "Going Under," is among the songwriters working with the 19-year-old pop star on her second album, the follow-up to her 2002 debut, Let Go. The collaboration was hatched when Moody contacted Lavigne's A&R rep and volunteered his talents, according to Lavigne's spokesperson. - Click Here for the Full Story 

That's like so punk rawk!

Bono No Go For Superbowl
Launch reports: U2 frontman Bono's hopes for a mention of the global AIDS crisis during the Super Bowl halftime show were shot down last week. According to an article in Friday's (January 9) New York Daily News, National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue reportedly rejected the idea, on the grounds that the halftime show was meant for entertainment, and not to promote causes. Bono had been meeting with NFL officials on and off for two years. 

In 2003, he and Jennifer Lopez recorded a song he wrote, called "An American Prayer," which addressed the African AIDS epidemic. He proposed that the two sing the song at the game in Houston on February 1, and secured the approval of MTV executives. MTV is producing this year's halftime extravaganza. 

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told the News, "We simply decided that we were going to have our halftime show, and we were going to deliver, as we do annually, an extremely entertaining halftime show...we don't believe it's appropriate to focus on a single issue." 

McCarthy added that this was a long-held view, and that Tagliabue was not involved in the decision. He said that NFL officials had continued to meet with Bono "out of their great respect for him." - Click Here for the Full Story 

Trouble in Iced Land
Blabbermouth reports: Former JUDAS PRIEST/current ICED EARTH singer Tim Owens has revealed to Revolver magazine that he was worried that joining forces with ICED EARTH mainman Jon Schaffer was a bad idea shortly after the band started a press tour of Europe in October. No sooner had he and Schaffer arrived in Spain than the guitarist hit the bar and began pounding drinks. "I went to bed at 11 o'clock, and at two in the morning I hear Jon yelling in the hallway," recalled Owens. "He was still drunk when he got up in the morning to fly to Germany, and he pissed me off so bad. He was screaming obscenities in the airport, and on the plane he kept yelling, 'Tim will have prune juice! Tim will have prune juice!' I said to the publicist, 'If he's not sober by the time we do the interviews, I'm not doing them.' If we had been on a boat, I would have pushed him off. I thought, 'Man, I'll never make it through a tour with this a**hole.'- Click Here for the Full Story 

Metal Blade DVD
Metal Blade reports: METAL BLADE RECORDS will be releasing a DVD with bonus CD from the Metal Blade Records 20th Anniversary Party filmed live at the Palladium in Hollywood, CA on December 4th 2002. List price $11.98.- Click Here for the Full Story 

Puddle of Kid Rock
MTV reports: Puddle of Mudd had already lined up their headlining tour with Smile Empty Soul when they got the phone call � Kid Rock wanted the group to open for him at select shows. So Puddle did what any band that has an already busy itinerary would do 

The first of nine shows with the Kid will take place February 19 in Fort Worth, Texas, almost a month after the beginning of Puddle of Mudd's headlining tour. All of the band's dates with Kid Rock were scheduled in two- and three-day stretches so the band didn't have to reconfigure too many of its own shows. Cities include Little Rock, Arkansas; Louisville, Kentucky; Grand Rapids, Michigan; New Orleans and Memphis. The final show with Kid Rock is March 25 in Detroit. The last of 35 performances with Smile Empty Soul will be March 22 in Washington, D.C. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Devy Heavils
Metal Blade reports: The Heavils are currently in Vancouver Canada at Greenhouse Studios with Producer Devin Townsend (STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, LAMB OF GOD, SOILWORK, DECEMBER) working on their sophomore album tentatively scheduled to come out in May 2004. So far the band has completed recording the drums and bass and are set to start on the guitars this week. "So far everything is going great!" exclaims Mossy, "We are working on totally new sounds with the guitars and are breaking new barriers!"- Click Here for the Full Story 

Join Anthrax
Blabbermouth reports: ANTHRAX are looking for all the Southern California metal maniacs to come be a part of the zombie-filled mayhem as the band shoots the video for the song "What Doesn't Die" (the first track off their latest CD, "We've Come For You All") this Monday, January 19 at 6:00 p.m. 

The location of the shoot is the infamous Ambassador Hotel, which is located at 3400 Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles, CA 90010. 

As reported earlier, the video was written and conceived by comic/writer Brian Posehn, know best for his work on "Mr. Show", "Just Shoot Me" and his own stand up routine. Posehn will co-direct the clip with Michael Sarna who has previously worked on videos for 50 CENT, SMASHMOUTH, and COUNTING CROWS. - Click Here for the Full Story 

God Forbid
The PRP reports: God Forbid will be hitting the road in support of Walls Of Jericho in February/March, dates and venues will be announced shortly. God Forbid will release their new album "Gone Forever" through Century Media on February 24th; while Walls Of Jericho will release their new opus "All Hail The Dead" through Trustkill on the same day. - Click Here for the Full Story 

New Danzig
I Ate Your Microphone reports: Following their recent signing with European label Regain Records, Danzig will be entering the studio at the begining of January to complete work on their upcoming 8th full length, the follow-up to 2002's "777: I Luciferi". 

The group are still searching for a label to handle the American side of distribution when the album does get released. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Avril Beats Iraq
Net Music Countdown reports: According to Google's annual Zeitgeist report, (zeitgeist is German for "spirit of the times"), Canadian 'tween popstar Avril Lavinge received more search queries than Iraq. 

Also leading the country were the recently annuled Britney Spears, lad under the stairs Harry Potter, and rapper 50 Cent. 

The report outlines the 10 most commonly queried names and subjects in various countries and categories and offers a unique perspective into the year's major events and trends based on more than 55 billion hits.- Click Here for the Full Story 

The search terms "nude Avril pics" must have help boost those numbers. 

The Vines Jet To America
Net Music Countdown reports: The Vines may head out with Jet on a North American tour later this year. 

After playing February 19th at the Electric Ballroom in jolly old London, England, Aussie rockers, The Vines, may join up with fellow down under rockers, Jet, and cut a swarthy swath across the United States. 

The Vines will be supporting their second album, "Winning Days", due out March 23. The first single- Click Here for the Full Story 

Tears For Fears Again
Ananova reports: Tears For Fears are to release their first single in 14 years in March. 

Closest Thing To Heaven is taken from reunited duo Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith's new album Everybody Loves A Happy Ending. 

The album will be released on Arista Records in April. 

Tears For Fears first hit was in 1983 with Mad World, recently taken to No.1 in the UK chart by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews. 

They split up in 1991 two years after the release of the Seeds Of Love album. Smith went onto pursue a solo career while Orzabal released two more albums as Tears For Fears, 1993's Elemental and 1995's Raoul And The Kings Of Spain. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Everybody wants to rule the Mad World

40 Years of Beatles
Fred Bronson of Billboard reports: Trends build gradually, but sometimes there are pivotal moments in musical history where change is immediate and profound. ...the Hot 100 published 40 years ago. Dated Jan. 18, 1964, it was this Hot 100 that saw the debut of a British quartet known as the Beatles. 

The Fab Four had already charted with six different titles in their native U.K., but U.S. labels had resisted their charms until Capitol finally agreed to issue "I Want to Hold Your Hand." That seminal recording debuted at No. 45 on the Hot 100 of 40 years ago this week. 

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" took only two more weeks to reach No. 1. Amazingly, 11 weeks after the debut of "Hand," the Beatles occupied the top five slots on the Hot 100. Imagine an act making its first appearance on the Hot 100 now -- can you picture it owning the top five only 11 weeks from now? 

That's how quick and dramatic it was. Not only did everything change -- many of 1963's most popular acts couldn't get a hit once the British invasion began -- but the music industry was revitalized, because people were excited to buy music. 

Imagine that happening today. - Click Here for the Full Story 

UK MP3 Swappers Beware
Reuters reports: The British music industry will sue Internet song swappers unless they stop putting their music collection online for others to download, a top UK music official said on Tuesday. 

"We want to increase consumer awareness of the legal implications of file-sharing. We want to introduce new legitimate (online download) services. If these are not working, then there has to be a degree of enforcement," said Andrew Yeates, director general of industry association The British Phonographic Industry (BPI). 

The comments, made on the sidelines of an industry event Tuesday night, is the clearest statement yet that the European music industry is prepared to follow in the controversial footsteps of the United States. 

In September, U.S. trade group The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), launched a legal crusade to stamp out Internet piracy by suing individuals who distribute songs on file-sharing networks. 

Yeates said the legal crackdown would be "proportional," suggesting the BPI would, as the RIAA has in America, go after those who distribute the most songs and leave the occasional file-sharer alone. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Kazaa Filtered
Reuters reports: "Peer to peer" networks like Kazaa could prevent users from downloading music, movies and other copyrighted material if they had any desire to do so, media and technology experts said on Tuesday. 

Kazaa, Morpheus and other peer-to-peer networks are hailed as a revolutionary technology that allows users to swap any sort of digital material directly, but they have drawn withering criticism for their ability to make copyrighted material and hardcore pornography widely available for free. 

In a letter to Congress, an adult-video firm said Kazaa's parent company had the ability to monitor activity on the network and could stop copyright violations if it wished. 

Titan Media's claim was backed up by two independent technology experts, who said such filtering technology exists and could be deployed easily and affordably. 

"If you've got computing power to do the searches, you can also use that computer power to do that filtering directly," said Darrell Smith, who oversaw the Morpheus peer-to-peer network when it shared the same technology as Kazaa.

But existing copyright filters can be easily evaded, said a lawyer for Kazaa parent Sharman Networks. 

Expert witnesses at a trial last year failed to prove that any filtering system could work, said Larry Hadley, outside counsel to Sharman. "When those people were deposed, it turned out to be a house of cards," Hadley said. - Click Here for the Full Story 

Arista Headless
AP reports: Antonio "L.A." Reid, who took the helm at Arista Records nearly four years ago and oversaw platinum successes from acts including OutKast, Pink and Avril Lavigne, has left the label, it was announced Tuesday. 

Reid became president and CEO of Arista in May 2000 after the company's founder and CEO, Clive Davis, left because of parent company BMG's mandatory retirement policy. 

Reid's departure comes at a surprising time; OutKast has the top two songs on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, and "Milkshake" from Kelis, another Arista artist, is No. 3. It also has the top-selling album in the country with OutKast's "Speakerboxxx-The Love Below," which earned six Grammy nominations last month, including album of the year. 

Michael Smellie, BMG's chief operating officer, will be in charge of Arista for now. 

A spokesman for BMG, Nathaniel Brown, said the company's recent announcement of a planned merger with Sony's music division had nothing to do with Reid's departure. - Click Here for the Full Story