According to Reuters, the Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience tour grossed $2.1 million after playing 38 cities and cracked the top 50 of trade publication Pollstar's annual top tours list. Bonham is expected to launch a second leg in the spring, although details have not been announced. more

Nine Inch Nails posted a searing live performance of Somewhat Damaged from the band's farewell tour. Maximize the window, turn your speakers up and enjoy the hell out of another tasty Christmas present here

Skwerl at Antiquiest uncovered a rather big Christmas gift from Radiohead: In addition to a new full-length Gorillaz album, a new Klaxons EP, an awesome Nine Inch Nails live HD video, and a few other little stocking stuffers sure to turn up, we just unwrapped a big one: A complete video of the benefit for Haiti Radiohead played at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles in January, available for download (in DVD and 1080p MP4 formats), for free! more

Former members of Nirvana have reunited at a secret Foo Fighters gig in the US. Dave Grohl, former bassist Krist Novoselic and guitarist Pat Smear performed together for the first time since Kurt Cobain killed himself in 1994 at the Paladino's club on Tuesday (December 21). more

The Bronx have launched a new website promoting their alter-egos Mariachi El Bronx at mariachielbronx.com. The second Mariachi El Bronx record is currently in the works more

Alternative Addiction recently caught up with Better Than Ezra lead singer Kevin Griffin to talk about the band's upcoming Mardi Gras event called, Krewe of Rocckus, as well as the band's plans for releasing a new album in 2011. more

Independent musicians, graphic artists, and a computer graphics demogroup have collaborated on a grand scale multimedia tribute to former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, in celebration of over a quarter of a century of highly influential musicianship. The multimedia tribute appears in the form of a free three disc digital album, interviews, and some stunning music videos more

Quiet Riot bassist Chuck Wright tells fans. "I'm currently working on a CD package for a Tommy Bolin 'Teaser' re-issue and was in the studio laying down bass tracks for singer/song writer David Victors latest solo effort." and "The first shows back with Quiet Riot were a huge success. You can see the band perform Metal Health "Bang Your Head" at our show in Denver." check out a video here

Metal Mind [Productions] will bring out the Sinister box 'Altered Sins Birth' including nine CDs, the live DVD 'Prophecies Denied' and a full-color book with the history of the band and many many pictures. more

Uriah Heep have entered Liscombe Park Studios in Buckinghamshire, England to begin recording their next album of all-new material for a 2011 release. more

Fu Manchu will be reissuing a number of titles via At The Dojo Records. They are as follows: In Search Of... (1996) on limited colored vinyl to be sold at upcoming shows. Godzilla's/Eatin' Dust on white vinyl/gatefold LP and CD. more

Blitzkrieg have began pre-production/writing for a new album, to be released in 2011. The as-yet-untitled follow-up to 2007's "Theatre Of The Damned" will mark the band's 30th anniversary. more

Widespread Panic is planning to keep "a pretty high profile" in 2011, as the Georgia jam band marks its 25th anniversary. more

Aborted will begin pre-production for their next Century Media Records release in early-January. more

Before The Dawn have inked a deal with Nuclear Blast Records. The band's sixth album, "Deathstar Rising", is scheduled for release on February 25, 2011. more

No Turning Back just wrapped up recording their new full-length effort, "Take Control" which will see a release on American soil on April 19th. more

Doro has announced a string of tour dates for South America and a show in Mexico set for April 2011 more

On this day in 1969, Led Zeppelin II were at #1 on the U.S. album charts, it went on to sell over six million copies in the U.S. Find out what else happened on this date in music history here

Billboard reports that Linkin Park's "Waiting for the End" rises 2-1 on Alternative Songs, granting the group its 10th leader on the list. The band breaks a tie with Green Day more

Oh, Sleeper bassist Lucas Starr has posted a new cover track online, under the name At Night We Strike, in a collaboration with his girlfriend Hannah Cook. The duo perform an acoustic, dark-folk version of Lady Gaga's hit single 'Bad Romance.' You can view the cover version here

Slash has released his iTunes Session EP featuring Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge). The set is a mix of Slash originals and performances of songs by Guns N' Roses, Led Zeppelin and Velvet Revolver. more

Metal vocalist Jason McMaster (Dangerous Toys, Broken Teeth, Ignitor) is set to make Texas history, as the first metal artist honored by the 'South Texas Music Walk Of Fame' in his hometown of Corpus Christi in June/2011. more

Within The Ruins has revealed the dates for its forthcoming headline tour in early 2011, as well as two festival appearances. more

Las Vegas rockers Sin City Sinners will perform on New Year's Eve with special guests Gasoline featuring drummer Vinnie Paul (Hellyeah, ex-Pantera). The show takes place in Las Vegas at Club Madrid (inside Sunset Station) and is free. more

The Bouncing Souls wanted to spend the holidays at home, only with a couple hundred of their closest friends in their annual Home for the Holidays party at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The weather, however, had other ideas. more

The Word Alive announced the departure of bassist Nicholas Urlacher. more

On this day in 1956, Elvis Presley made chart history by having 10 songs on Billboard's Top 100.

The German-born Minnemann has produced several highly acclaimed solo albums, as well as an award-winning collection of instructional books and DVDs. He has worked with a variety of artists, including Kreator, Paul Gilbert and Necrophagist.

Skylar Neil died at the age of four after a long and painful fight against cancer in 1995. The experience sent the frontman into a spiral of intoxicated numbness, until Skylar's ghost woke him out of a stupor one night.

The 40-year-old stripper's body was found naked in Oakland, California last week, and police are continuing to investigate the circumstances. California investigators say Abbott suffered a panic attack and was taken to hospital, from where she called friends for assistance. But less than 48 hours later her body was discovered in a part of Oakland she didn't know.

The New Jersey rockers had the #1 tour of the year, according to figures released Tuesday by Pollstar magazine.

"We just finished a record a couple of weeks ago," he said. "Jason Bonham played drums and Carmine Rojas played bass. It sounds a lot like a refined A New Day Yesterday."

Di'Anno appeared on the metal icons' first two albums before being replaced by Bruce Dickinson in 1981. Over the years he's made some strong statement suggesting his dislike for Maiden and the band's moneymaking policies, but he now suggests his feelings were misguided.

7. Van Halen, "Baluchitherium": Eddie Van Halen has never recorded a solo instrumental album and it doesn't look like he plans to do so any time soon, so "Baluchitherium" from 1995's Balance might just be the closest thing we'll get to such a release. A huge, stomping track named after a lumbering prehistoric creature (also known as Paraceratherium or Indricotherium, for the paleontology buffs), "Baluchitherium" boasts a veritable menagerie of animal sounds during its end section, most of which appear to have been achieved by combining volume knob swells with natural harmonics and the whammy bar � although Van Halen noted to Guitar World at the time of Balance's release that this section of the song does include one real animal � his dog, Sherman.

3. Ozzy Osbourne, "No More Tears": Zakk Wylde throws a wide range of techniques into "No More Tears," including slide, a dropped tuning and fast arpeggios, but the song is also notable as one of the more famous examples of a guitarist who not only wails, but whales, too. During the orchestral-sounding interlude before the guitar solo, Zakk turns his volume control down, hits a note, turns the volume up and bends the string for a series of mournful, moaning notes which reinforce the lonesomeness of the track's theme. They also set the listener up for a killer build-up before the solo's rapid-fire blues licks.

Ronnie James Dio, May 16: Heavy metal giant Ronnie James Dio, legendary vocalist for Elf, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell and Dio, succumbed to stomach cancer. Tributes poured in for the much-loved singer including this from Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi: "Ronnie was one of the nicest people you could ever meet, we had some fantastic times together. Ronnie loved what he did, making music and performing on stage. He loved his fans so much. He was a kind man and would put himself out to help others. I can honestly say it's truly been an honor to play at his side for all these years; his music will live on forever."

Paul Dedrick Gray, May 24: The 38-year-old bass player with Slipknot died in a hotel in Urbandale, Iowa. Police did not suspect foul play. Gray was a founding member of the metal band, in which he was also known as The Pig and #2. Gray also played with Unida and Reggie and the Full Effect.

Speaking soon after the 30th anniversary of Lennon's murder in 1980, Ono tells the Daily Mail: "When I met John I was blamed for breaking up the Beatles, I was blamed for ruining John and I was painted as a dragon."

They are slated to be reuniting for a string of large European festival dates in June 2011.

"Back in White Zombie days, it was very unusual for me to be up there playing in a heavy band of guys, and not being a sexy front woman singer. To be honest, I think I was the only one doing that at the time we were touring, and people were confused, to say the least," she said.

The new studio album will be Heep's first disc of all-new songs since 2008's Wake the Sleeper. Earlier this year, the group released Celebration, a 14-track album that featured 12 re-recordings of their best-known songs, plus two newly written compositions.

According to the Daily Express, the house at 9 Madryn Street, Liverpool, is still threatened with demolition.

"I taught myself to play," he once recalled in an interview. "I would go to see all the other drummers who played in the circuit. I would go out to all the different clubs and watch every one of them because everybody, good or bad, has something to offer. Another drummer might do some little lick that is really good, and so I took everybody else's ideas."

As reported by The Amherst Bulletin, on Nov. 20, a 46-year-old East Brunswick, New Jersey, man entered an Amherst pizzeria a few hours after Dylan had performed at a nearby venue.

Whitesnake with special guests Mr. Big, have been confirmed for next year's edition of the Sweden Rock Festival, set to take place June 8-11, 2011 in S�lvesborg in southern Sweden. more

2010 was tough for the concert business as high prices kept many fans at home. Promoters now say they plan to make shows more affordable in 2011. But they'll also try to sell more T-shirts and other merchandise to make up for lost revenue more

Billboard reports: There's no denying Bob Dylan is a legend, and until recently, some Amherst, Mass. folks thought he was a pizza prankster as well. Dylan's name was used in a cruel joke involving pizza on Nov. 20, when a man ordered 178 gourmet pizzas while posing as a roadie for Bob Dylan. more

Dream Theater Guitarist John Petrucci says the biggest lesson he learned in year was "Don't let your drummer fill in for another band."

Former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler's group Adler's Appetite have released two new songs digitally. These are titled Stardog and Fading. more

Former Construcdead and current Carnal Forge members have joined forces in a new band called Godsic. The group, which features Peter Tuthill (vocals), Rickard Dahlberg (guitar), Chris Barkensj� (drums) and Thomas Wallander (bass; ex-Construcdead), has spent the last month or so recording songs for its upcoming debut album more

The Jimmy Crespo Project - featuring former Aerosmith guitarist Jimmy Crespo - has decided to continue with a new singer and an announcement will be made soon. more

Mob Rules announce that they are parting ways with keyboardist Sascha Onnen and have lined up new shows for 2011 more

Jungle Rot have recruited 21-year-old Newark, Delaware native Jesse Beahler (Her Virgin Womb, Nightfire) as their new drummer. more

The Consequence Of Chaos has announced the addition of vocalist Norman Skinner (Tramontane, Utopian Trap, Machine.Called.Man, Imagika) and bassist Jim Pegram (Imagika, Nitemare, Baphomet, Harum Scarum) to the group's ranks more

According to NME.com, they played "Marigold" with Grohl on drums and vocals.

The boa-wearing frontman would then dine with Mike Myers (presumably the Wayne's World one and not the fictional slasher), Tim Rice, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones, Sylvester Stallone, Rob Zombie, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney � with McCartney eating a "big thick steak" in his honor. All of this would be followed by a jam session with his dinner guests � to be made into a live album. And then? "I think you just go to sleep," said Cooper. "I can't imagine a long death."

In a new interview with undercover.fm, Walsh discussed the yet-to-be named album, his first since 1992's "Songs for a Dying Planet."

The country rock superstars will play dates in Shanghai and Beijing in March 2011.

Metalkrant: Besides making good solo-records, you also are one of the lead-guitarist in Guns N' Roses. Is it hard to combine your solo-work with being in Guns N' Roses? Thal: Yes, the more we tour the less time there is for everything else. The last thing I did was put out my own 'Abnormal' album and acoustic 'Barefoot' album in 2008, while GNR's 'Chinese Democracy' was in its final stages to be released. I spent most of 2009 living out of a hotel room in LA, prepping with GNR for this past year of touring � took a break over that summer and wrote & recorded a batch of my own music, toured with Lita Ford for a few months, then got back to bizz with GNR, hit the road end of '09 and have been touring since.

"Twenty-five years is kind of a milestone to keep a band together through all the things we've been through. We've never had a chance to sit back and go, 'God, there's a lot of gigs under the belt.' So it'll be a good time to go, 'OK guys, we've made it a lot farther than anyone could have imagined'...and take a good hard look at how we can take this further, how we can continue to evolve as a group of people, not only musically but spiritually and hopefully in a positive way."

Planet Bluegrass director of communications director Brian Eyster said that Plant is one of the biggest singers in music and that "it's a huge deal. It's going to be another great year."

The surf, ironically, took the man who had celebrated it to millions for over two decades. But truth be told, Dennis Wilson had set a course for his final voyage many years before.

Lips frontman Wayne Coyne told Rolling Stone that the band intend to record and release new songs each month of 2011, while filming the whole process.

Speaking to Ireland's Independent newspaper he said: "You've always had two parallel ways of doing things. You have Top of the Pops or The Old Grey Whistle Test on one hand, and New Faces [British TV talent show from the '70s and '80s] or Opportunity Knocks [British TV talent show from the '60s and '70s] on the other.

Ono and Gaga performed together in October during concerts commemorating what would have been Lennon's 70th birthday. Lady Gaga received some criticism for wearing a transparent stage costume at those shows, but Ono comes to her defense in the interview. "Lady Gaga has a very pretty bottom. She performed with me on stage wearing a see-through lace cat suit and people thought it was an insult because you could see her bottom. I'm the lady who did an exhibition of bottoms. How could hers offend me?"

The track is from the band's forthcoming debut, "Different Gear, Still Standing," set for release February 28.

"This past year, our experts reviewed over 200,000 autographs submitted by collectors and dealers worldwide," said PSA/DNA's president, Joe Orlando, "PSA/DNA does not often receive obvious forgeries, so if our rejection rate for a particular autograph, such as Babe Ruth and Elvis Presley, approaches or exceeds 50 percent, you can only imagine how high that percentage might be in the overall marketplace."

Philip Selway of Radiohead chose an Edwyn Collins album, Losing Sleep. He said, "I remember going to the hairdressers, aged 15, with a picture of Edwyn Collins and saying, 'I want to look like him.' Sadly, my hair let me down that day, as it has continued to do over the years. The same cannot be said of Collins' songwriting. Brimming with vitality, Losing Sleep is a collection of songs that are as astutely observant and melodically infectious as anything he has written. Together with an amazing cast of musicians and a cover filled with his own beautiful illustrations, this has been the most affecting and uplifting record of my year."

"The new songs are in the very familiar and recognizable Whitesnake territory of soulful, bluesy, melodic power rock, with a couple of ballads thrown in for good measure. It can't be a Whitesnake album without ballads, mate!

Shults is going to restore the Ridglea to its original glory, with everything to be totally renovated all throughout the popular landmark. It truly is a historic theater and they just don't make buildings like this anymore.

According to Music-news.com there's no chance she'll work in a musical environment with Martin: "God no. No. We just can't, like, merge. His career is there and mine is there."