AC/DC Officially Announce New Album

Black Ice will be sold in the U.S. exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club retail locations at the special price of $11.88. Online, the CD will be available with free shipping and handling via the band's website, www.acdc.com. It will also be sold at Walmart.com and Samsclub.com.

Black Ice is currently available for pre-order at www.acdc.com and Walmart.com.
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Jared Leto Responds to Virgin Lawsuit

Band Statement reports: To our Friends and Fans, Despite rumors to the contrary, 30 Seconds to Mars is NOT calling it quits. We are incredibly happy, healthy and very much together here, in Los Angeles, recording our new record. Besides this ridiculously overblown lawsuit (courtesy of Virgin/EMI), we are having one of the most inspiring, wonderful and exciting times that we've experienced to date. (More on that later...)

Beyond this distraction, we are so incredibly grateful to all of you around the world that have supported us so passionately. We would never consider stopping this just yet. These past few phenomenal years have been beyond imaginable and we owe every single bit of it to you. Thank you all for that!

So, as you may have heard we are being sued by our former record company for the ridiculously oversized, totally unrealistic and pretty silly (but slightly clever) sum of $30,000,000. Insane? Yea that's what we said too. - he's not done yet.

Virgin Vs 30 Seconds to Mars, Limp Manson, Jerry Wexler RIP, Ozzy Not Retiring, Nine Inch Nails More Dates, Oasis Arena Tour and more

antiMusic reports: Apologies that today's Day in Rock report is so short, this is due to a death in the family. Thank you in advance for your understanding. Here are today's quicks to kick things off:

Virgin Records has sued the band 30 Seconds To Mars for alleged breach of contract and damages "in excess of $30,000,000", according to the lawsuit filed Friday (Aug. 15) in Los Angeles Superior Court. Virgin accuses Jared and Shannon Leto of not delivering three of the five albums under the band's contract more

Marilyn Manson played its first show with new guitarist Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit, Black Light Burns) Friday night (August 15) at the ETP Festival (Eerie Taiji People Festival) in Seoul, Korea. more

Music industry legend Jerry Wexler, who kick-started his career as a Billboard journalist in the late 1940s and went on to cultivate the careers of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Led Zeppelin while a partner at Atlantic Records, has died at the age of 91 at his home in Siesta Key, Fla. more

Nine Inch Nails have expanded their Fall tour plans yet again with another run of North American dates this Roctober thru December. Blabbermouth will hook you up with the dates

Oasis have announced details of a huge UK arena tour for the later this year. It starts the day after new album Dig Out Your Soul comes out on October 7th. They're playing 18 shows in total. more

A murder retrial for music producer Phil Spector can go ahead in October despite defence attempts to stop it, an appeals court in California has ruled. more

Ozzy Osbourne just signed a new deal with Sony for three more albums more

The start of the new series of The X Factor pulled in an average of 10.2 million viewers on Saturday night. At its peak, the show was watched by more than 11 million people, capturing half the total television audience. more

Trumpet player 'Dizzy' Johnny Moore, a founding member of pioneering Jamaican ska and reggae act The Skatalites, has passed away. Moore died at his home in Kingston on Saturday after being released from a hospital where he was being treated for colon cancer. more

Although Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, the principals of English pop-rock band Squeeze, have reunited and will soon embark on a U.S. tour, they have no plans for a new Squeeze album. more

Peter Criss gave an interview recently and explained why he quit KISS: "[Ace leaving] was it for me,'' he said. "That was like: Ace ain't here. This ain't the original band. I said to Gigi, 'I can't do this with these guys. I made this band what it is. I'm one of the founding fathers. No matter who they get to put stuff on their face, it ain't us. You can take the mask off the Lone Ranger and put it on someone else, but it ain't the Lone Ranger.'" - more

GNR Close To Wal*Mart Deal for Chinese Democracy?

Billboard reports: The June leak of nine allegedly "mastered, finished" tracks from Guns N' Roses' long-delayed "Chinese Democracy" spurred a renewed round of chatter about whether the Axl Rose-led band will finally release the 14-years-in-the-making album.

But some concrete signs are finally emerging that the album's release could be imminent. That's because, according to sources, negotiations are underway for "Chinese Democracy" to come out as an exclusive at one of the big boxes -- either Wal-Mart or Best Buy.

Negotiations are also ongoing to have conventional record company distribution, another source says. [one reader wrote in and discounts this since the album would have to be "clean" in order for this to happen. but read more about this latest rumor - here]

Master P Plans Family Friendly Cable Network

Billboard reports: Hip-hop entrepreneur Percy Miller, a.k.a. Master P, is launching a family- friendly cable network, Better Black Television.

The network will provide "positive content for a black and brown culture," according to a company statement.

BBTV, set to launch in 2009, will be a general entertainment channel running a wide range of scripted, unscripted and news programming, including drama and comedy series, movies, animation, reality, politics, sports and entertainment news, children's educational and teen programming, as well as "responsible hip hop music and videos." - more on this story

MTV Kills The Credible Stars

antiMusic reports: Idolator is wondering what in the hell is up with this year's VMAs. We've been wondering that for over a decade but they do make some very fine and valid points in the following mini-rant: MTV announced two more slates of Video Music Awards nominations today, and while the nominees for Best Rock Video have a few OK contenders among them (Fall Out Boy's "Beat It" cover, Paramore's "crushcrushcrush"), a couple of the contenders for Video Of The Year—you know, the big prize—are worthy of a head-scratch or two.

Sure, I can buy the idea of Britney Spears' road to redemption culminating with her winning a moonman for her self-mocking "Piece Of Me" clip. And the Jonas Brothers' "Burnin' Up" isn't groundbreaking, but those kids sure do know how to mobilize their fanbase.

But the other three videos in the category would surely be considered also-rans in any other year. You've got Chris Brown's stealth gum ad "Forever"; the Ting Tings' "Shut Up And Let Me Go," which looks like a film-school synthesis between the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" and that Justice clip that got nominated last year; and the Pussycat Dolls' "When I Grow Up," which is such a steaming piece of all-around garbage that I have to think there was some sort of coordinated street-team effort by Interscope to fool people into thinking that Nicole Scherzinger was still worthy of attention. All five clips are after the jump, so you can judge for yourself. - see them here

Dillinger Fall Tour Plan Escape Plan

Blabbermouth reports: The Dillinger Escape Plan has pulled out of the previously announced fall 2008 tour with Suicide Silence, Emmure, and Beneath The Massacre.

THE band writes on its MySpace page, "Due to circumstances beyond our control (no we're not breaking up so don't believe anything that might start floating around on the Internet), we will not be taking part in that tour.

"We wish every other band on the tour well, and hope that it is a great success for them and for the people behind the scenes working hard to make it a great tour." - more on this story

Misheard Lyrics of the Day: Pearl Jam

antiMusic reports: Who hasn't misheard a song lyrics. We thought it might be fun to feature some favorites here for you to enjoy.

Today's misheard lyric is to Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" and the line "Jeremy spoke in class today." That lyric has been misheard as "Jeremy's smokin' crack today"

If you have a misheard lyric we'd love to hear from you. See the contact link at the bottom of the page for how to get a hold of us to tell us about your favorites. If you want to check out more misheard Pearl Jam song lyrics like this one you can go - here

Karma Hits The RIAA

Business Week reports: After a looong drawn out battle, the recording industry paid Tanya Andersen's lawyers' fees. The RIAA sued her for copyright infringement, but finally dropped the case after Andersen spent two years defending herself in court. She's since sued them under conspiracy laws and is trying to get class action status.

Now, nearly a year after the court ordered that the recording industry pay her lawyers fees for her defense, the industry finally cut the check, according to an Aug. 12 court filing by Lory Lybeck, Andersen's lawyer.

The judge finally set the award at $107,834 in May. Which, after more back and forth between the two, the RIAA finally paid this month. Along with $117.03 in interest. - more on this story

Scars on Broadway North American Fall Tour

HER reports: Dates and venues are announced today for Scars on Broadway's first-ever North American headline tour.

Guitarist/vocalist Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan will be joined by guitarist Franky Perez, keyboardist Danny Shamoun and bassist Dominic Cifarelli on the six-week, cross-country trek which kicks off Sunday, October 19 in Atlanta, taking the band into late November.

The tour is in support of Scars' self-titled debut which was released July 29 (Interscope). - more on this story

Fear Before The March Of Flames Tour

Equal Vision reports: Fear Before The March Of Flames have just announced a headlining run, kicking off September 5th in the band's hometown and wrapping up October 28th in Salt Lake City, UT. Support for the tour will include I Am The Ocean and label-mates, Damiera.

The 7-week trek marks the first full US tour for the band since their support slot with Circa Survive in late '07. In addition to the shared general excitement of being back on the road, the band also feels particularly close to this tour because of its DIY elements.

The band members and a close friend booked the tour themselves - without the assistance of an agent - at smaller, intimate venues and threw away any sort of rider. "For this tour we decided to go back to the organic roots of why we started this band. It was to play with friends and see the country. After being on such a light touring schedule for the last 9 months we really had time to think about where we want this band to fit. This tour encapsulates our mind frame for playing music," affirms Madruga. - more on this story

Talking Sound and Fury

PR reports: The latest episode of "Talking Metal" features an interview hosts Mark Strigl and John Ostronomy conducted with Sound and Fury vocalist Luke Metcalf.

Topics include Bon Scott, Airbourne, The Misfits, Danzig, New York City, Toronto, and Sound and Fury's music video for the track "18."

Additional podcast topics include Guns N' Roses, Stuck Mojo, Gene Simmons, Henry Rollins, Ian Christe, Richard Christy, Talking Metal's participation in Fuse's Big Blog Thing, and IFC's ZRock. Pictures as well as the podcast can be downloaded at - http://www.talkingmetal.com

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