With Slipknot gigs announced for the late spring/early summer, the question remains who will play bass guitar in place of the late Paul Gray who died last year. "It's one of the things that we're talking about right now," Slipknot singer Corey Taylor told the Artisan News Service. "Whatever we do will make sense at the end of the day. He'll never be replaced, and it'll never be anything that will be Ok, basically, but when the time comes, we'll figure it out." more

In a recent interview with Billboard, Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine expressed some frustration in the lackluster sales of the band's latest album 'Hands All Over' and says a new album may be coming sooner than was originally planned. more

Former Survivor singer Jimi Jamison has teamed up with ex-Toto vocalist Bobby Kimball. The pair are currently working on an album more

According to ThePRP, the Deftones and The Dillinger Escape Plan will head out together on tour in the spring. more

A tirade, along with others Courtney unleashed on social media platforms including MySpace and Etsy.com against Dawn Simorangkir, a fashion designer who was demanding payment for a few thousand dollars worth of clothes, form the basis of a groundbreaking lawsuit headed to court in Los Angeles on Jan. 18: the first high-profile defamation trial over a celebrity's comments on Twitter. more

Skinlab have once again parted ways with guitarist Mike Roberts. Comments Skinlab bassist/vocalist Steev Esquivel: "We've basically been contemplating our next move, having recently parted ways again with our brother Mike Roberts. more

Eden's Curse will return with its latest and third studio CD, "Trinity", on March 18 via Afm Records. Dream Theater vocalist James LaBrie. LaBrie lends his backing vocals to the entire album and also duets with Eden's Curse frontman Michael Eden on "No Holy Man", which is also set to be released by Afm Records as a digital single on February 25. more

Japan bassist Mick Karn has died of cancer after battling the illness since June last year. He was 52. more

According to the Late Night TV Page, The Damned Things - featuring Fall Out Boy's Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley, Anthrax's Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano, and Every Time I Die's Keith Buckley - will be guests on ABC-TV's Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday, January 13th (show actually airs the morning of Friday, January 14th). more

Titus Andronicus have announced that founding bassist Ian Graetzer has left the group. more

The Steve Miller Band are to release four more albums in a special digipack format over the next couple of months. more

Cannibal Corpse are tentatively scheduled to release a new two-disc DVD set, "Global Evisceration", on March 15 via Metal Blade. more

The Allman Brothers Band have just added the final five dates to their run at the Beacon Theatre in NYC. more

Back in 1986, Slayer released their landmark album Reign In Blood that helped shape the sound of metal for decades to come. 25 years later, it's high time to give that album the credit it's due, and ESP is doing just that with the limited-edition Slayer-2011 guitar. more

Destruction will embark on a North American headlining tour in April/May with support from Australia's Destroyer 666. more

Threat Signal has officially added guitarist Chris Feener and drummer Alex Rudinger to their line-up. The pair replaces Adam Weber and Norm Killeen, respectively, who parted ways with the band last year. more

Wavves, and Best Coast have announced that, in conjunction with their upcoming co-headlining "joint" tour, they will be releasing a split 7″ exclusive to the tour. more

You thought Axl Rose was bad? Lauryn Hill showed no remorse after keeping devotees waiting for almost four hours at a recent comeback concert in New York, telling disgruntled fans she was "worth the wait". more

Lecherous Nocturne will enter Mana Recording Studios in St. Petersburg, Florida on May 8 to begin recording its new album, tentatively titled "Myth Manifest". more

Toronto's own answer to Screeching Weasel, The Roman Line, have officially called it a day. more

On this day in 1973, Bruce Springsteen released his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ.

On this day in 1979, Prince made his live debut at the Capri Theatre, Minneapolis.

Rafferty passed away at his Dorest, UK home peacefully early Tuesday morning, with his daughter Martha by his side.

Idol premieres January 19, but you can check out the full crew - Tyler, Jennifer Lopez, Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest � on The Tonight Show this Monday, January 10.

McKagan joined in March after original member Eric Avery departed. The ex Guns n'Roses bassist said he intended to be a full-time member of the band � but months later he left again with the band's thanks for helping write their long-awaited fourth album.

The BBC reports the legendary rock group recently won a court ruling against the label over whether a deal signed in the pre-download age could be applied to digital sales.

The song's title is reportedly a direct reference to a black Labrador
retriever that was seen wandering around the Headley Grange studios during the track's recording.

"How To Become Clairvoyant" � co-produced by Robertson and Marius de Vries - will feature several guests, including Eric Clapton (who co-wrote three tracks and plays on six), Steve Winwood (organ on two songs), Tom Morello, Robert Randolph, Trent Reznor and more.

The James Hetfield Snakebyte is a brand new body style for ESP and LTD in 2011. It has a set-neck construction at 24.75" scale, with a mahogany body and neck, and an ebony fingerboard with 22 XJ frets.

BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat reports that Grohl told Radio 1's Zane Lowe that he and the band were currently in New York mastering the tracks that they recorded in Grohl's garage.

Guitarist Tom Dumont shared the news on the band's Twitter page, explaining that he, Gwen Stefani, Tony Kanal and Adrian Young had already written a batch of songs. On Monday, he wrote: "Holidays over. 2010 done. 10 new songs written. No Doubt's 2011 New Year's resolution: to record our new album... beginning today!"

Wylde shares what really goes on behind tour bus windows and backstage doors. The twenty-five year music veteran of the Ozzy Osbourne band and Black Label Society details his survival techniques for maintaining a life on the road, managing a band of raging vikings, and somehow making it on stage and blowing the crowd away night after night.

According to VintageVinylNews.com, the majority of the two-disc set will spend time on Cash's early career. The first CD will be devoted exclusively to the country legend's time in Memphis. Among the treasures from Cash's vault: a radio show hosted by Cash, 11 demos and seven outtakes from sessions at Sun Studios. Disc two will focus on the star's tenure Columbia Records from 1958-69. It will include non-album singles, B-sides and outtakes.

Rushisaband.com reports it first hit the film festival circuit back in early 2008 and made its theatrical debut last fall.

As the current lineup of the band prepares for a European tour, the members of Thin Lizzy took a look back to remember their old friend, via Blabbermouth.net. "25 years on and I still miss the guy. Hell, we all miss him," guitarist Scott Gorham wrote. "It's a major reason why we go out and play the songs. But standing next to him for 11 years through all the ups as well as the down periods always brings back memories, especially at this time of year.

On January 5, 1976 a drunk, Valium-popping Evans called John Hoernie, the collaborator on his memoirs, and told him to make sure he and his assistant finished the book. A concerned Hoernie went to Evans' motel/apartment at 8122 West 4th Street to talk with the obviously depressed man. During their brief talk, Evans picked up a rifle.

The 32-city "On Your Side" tour will launch on March 15th at The Chance in Poughkeepsie, New York, and then continue through late April (see attached itinerary).

The band will support Truth & Salvage Co. on the ten city tour commencing on January 12th in Charleston, SC. A Thousand Horses also performs on the 2011 Simple Man cruise -- the ultimate southern rock & rebel party on the open seas, sailing from Tampa to Grand Cayman January 20-24th on the Carnival Inspiration along with Lynryd Skynyrd, Blackberry Smoke and Black Stone Cherry among others.

Today we learn that the reformed lineup will be heading into the studio in early January to record the follow up to their Rise Records self-titled debut.

After Owens left his previous band, which he had fronted since 2001, he turned his energy toward creating a new project that would eclipse anything he'd done in the past by founding Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows. "Over the last 12 months I've done a lot of growing as a human being, as far as figuring out who I am," Owens says. "The idea for this band stemmed from the fact that I wanted to do this right; I wanted to make the biggest band I possibly could, and that's exactly what I've done here."

Included in the collection are photos of the band's first show with bassist Cliff Burton, the band's final show in the Bay Area with Dave Mustaine and Kirk Hammett's debut with the group in San Francisco.

The footage shows a backstage tour of the wardrobe rooms and interviews with staff and band during KISS' Spring 2010 Sonic Boom Over Europe Tour.

4. "California Girls" - David Lee Roth: The Beach Boys' original version of this song is an undisputed classic, and its musical and cultural influence cannot be underestimated or overstated. But David Lee Roth's 1985 cover had just as much of an impact, albeit in a different way. In his autobiography, Crazy From the Heat, Roth explains that the video's unique, color-saturated look, for which he won the Cinematographer Award from Kodak, was a direct result of the glacier goggles he refused to take off during editing. "I did not see the video till a month later, when it shows up on MTV, and it looks like somebody nuked the set," Roth writes. "It looks like Chernobyl meets Chuck Jones. It's electrifying." Roth claims the video directly influenced the look of subsequent videos by many other artists.

The late winter tour will take the bands through Canada this February into March.

Sony provides everything but the cue cards: the original vocal, bass, guitar and drum tracks, plus tracks performed by other artists. Fans also can record their own music to combine with the other elements.

For slide guitarists in particular, Krieger is a beacon for expanding a blues-based vocabulary. He drew mostly on open tunings in his Doors days: primarily open D, dropped D and open E. "The first slide guys I heard were the classic blues guys like Blind Willie Johnson, Robert Johnson� all the Johnsons," he related in an interview with Gibson.com last August. "I didn't want to play like those guys. I wanted to take it somewhere else, like on 'Moonlight Drive.' There are elements of blues in my playing, but I wanted the slide to make a different kind of sound rather than try to play blue notes with it."

Krieger etched his place in rock history with his classic early recordings with The Doors. They include "Light My Fire," "Love Me Two Times," "Touch Me" and "Love Her Madly," all written by Krieger. And many of those chestnuts were popped with the 1967 SG Standard that's still his main axe and has been immortalized by the Gibson Custom Shop as the Robby Krieger SG.

The performance will take place at Brooklyn's Club Europa this Thursday January 6, 2011. Additional support will come from Judas Priestess and Bezoar.