Through all the confusion, U2 has officially remained committed to releasing the LP this year, despite reports that he was not satisfied with the work.

Now, thinking has again shifted, with the band feeling confident about their new material and going ahead with plans to put out their follow-up to 2009′s No Line on the Horizon this year.

According to the Los Angeles Times, trees in Griffith Park have occasionally been destroyed by bark beetles and ladybug beetles. The paper also reported that the pine tree, which grew to be over 10-feet tall, will be replaced, but no timeframe has been given as of yet.

"[Dave and I] just made another record, and it's, like, the 'California Sessions', [Dave] was calling it," John 5 tells Mitch Lafon. "And it's 11 of the greatest songs you'll ever hear, and it's just me and Dave, and we had Gregg Bissonette play drums on it. And it's unbelievable. There's a song called 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow Bar & Grill'. And you know, just great, great songs. And hopefully sometime it'll see the light of day. But he's, of course, busy with Van Halen and all that stuff. But it's an incredible record."

"[The new album with Roth] was made not too long ago - like, probably, maybe, a year and a half ago or something like that," he continued. "'Cause I always go over to his house and we write music and things like that. It's a lot of fun.

"Yes, we are gonna go back and probably do 'Viva! Pyromania'. But it'll not be [until] towards the end of next year, because we've got a new record in the making," Elliott told WKGR 98.7 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

"When this tour [with KISS] ends - this tour ends mid-September - and then we'll take a couple of weeks off to just go see our families and remind them that we exist.

"And then we're gonna get back on the horse and start finishing [the new Def Leppard] album off. We did a month [writing and recording] in February, we did two weeks in May, and then we're gonna spend the rest of the year when the tour is done - most of it, at least - recording this album so we can get it out for springtime."

And he says he has "about six songs" he's really excited about already written. He plans to complete the record once he's done promoting his upcoming memoir Rocks: My Life In And Out Of Aerosmith.

"CALLING ALL FANS!," began the message on Ozzy's Facebook page. "Help unscramble Ozzy's new cover art by using the hashtag #OzzyRules on Facebook and Twitter. The more you share the sooner it unlocks. GO!"

Inspired by this recent success Marr just announced the release of his second solo album. Playland is scheduled for an October 7 release, and is said to continue in the same vein as The Messenger, with Marr once again collaborating with co-producer Doviak.

Said Marr in an official statement: "When The Messenger came out I kept on writing. I liked that the band had a momentum going on tour and a connection with the audience, and I thought that energy would be good to capture on the new record."

The band will be joining the Def Leppard and KISS trek on August 2nd in Atlantic City, NJ at the Boardwalk Hall. The band features Jon Stevens (Noisewoks, INXS and rumour has it a 90s Van Halen audition) on vocals, guitarists Richard Fortus (Guns N' Roses/Psychedelic Furs) and David Lowy (Mink/Red Phoenix), bassist Marco Mendoza (Thin Lizzy/Whitesnake), Dizzy Reed (Guns N' Roses/Hookers & Blow) on keys, and drummer Brian Tichy (Ozzy Osbourne/Whitesnake/Billy Idol).

"I am pretty pumped to hit the road with The Dead Daies and bring some some kick ass, analog rock and roll music to all of you with the legendary KISS and Def Leppard and help make your summer as memorable as possible," says Dizzy Reed. "So fire up the grill, chill the beer and the Jager and get ready to ROCK! See you soon!"

Before joining the Def Leppard/KISS tour, the band will hit the studio with producer Ben Grosse (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stone Temple Pilots, Marilyn Manson, Filter, KD Lang) in Los Angeles to record some new material.

Sambora, who was close friends with Les Paul, took the stage at New York's Iridium last night (June 22), and will perform again tonight. It will be an intimate event at the club, which has a capacity of only 170 guests, and Sambora promises to play a mix of his solo material, Bon Jovi classics, as well as some songs made famous by Les Paul himself.

"Les was my good friend, and he was genius," Sambora told Guitar World. "When I play the Iridium, I know he'll be on my shoulder and I'm gonna do my best to make him proud. This show is not about me-this is my tribute to him and that's how I'm gonna frame it. It's pretty intense, man. I just hope I don't get too emotional!"

The fall trek will include 12 concerts in seven cities. The tour will launch on October 17th in Eugene, OR at the Matthew Knight Arena, which will be the band's first concert in that city in 20 years.

The tour will feature multiple nights in some cities including two shows in Santa Barbara on October 21st and 22nd, three nights in San Francisco, CA on October 27th, 28th and 29th and three nights in Las Vegas that will kick off on Halloween night, continue the next night and then conclude the tour on November 2nd.

Joel had this to say about the honor, "The great composer, George Gershwin, has been a personal inspiration to me throughout my career. And the Library's decision to include me among those songwriters who have been past recipients is a milestone for me."

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington says, "Billy Joel is a storyteller of the highest order. There is an intimacy to his songwriting that bridges the gap between the listener and the worlds he shares through music. When you listen to a Billy Joel song, you know about the people and the place and what happened there. And while there may be pain, despair and loss, there is ultimately a resilience to it that makes you want to go to these places again and again.

"Importantly, as with any good storyteller, the recognition experienced in a Billy Joel song is not simply because these are songs we have heard so many times, but because we see something of ourselves in them," Billington said.

Billy Joel will receive the prize in Washington, D.C., in November and be feted with a series of events, including an honoree's luncheon and musical performances. The Gershwin Prize honors a living musical artist's lifetime achievement in promoting the genre of song as a vehicle of cultural understanding; entertaining and informing audiences; and inspiring new generations.

The eight-track work originally appeared in 2009 and was remastered this year. Prog called the updated version "stoner grunge coupled with pummelling rhythms, lacerating riffs and a dizzy vocal - gobsmacking."

It can be downloaded without charge from their Bandcamp page by choosing a name-your-price value of 0. John Bassett's outfit recently launched a video for the remastered version of Psychoanalyse.

Of all the British bands that stormed America's shores in the British Invasion of the 1960s, none has had a more checkered career than The Kinks. The Kinks weren't as cute as the Beatles or as nasty as the Stones but an odd mix of campiness and raw power, as likely to kiss each other on the lips as they were to have full blown punch outs right there on the stage.

The middle 1970s were tough going for The Kinks until they reclaimed their rock bona fides with a trifecta of revitalized rock, first on 1977's Sleepwalker, then 1978's Misfits, and their biggest seller ever, Low Budget in 1979.

Drummer Armand Majidi says of the follow-up to 2010's Based On A True Story: "I want fans to feel that they just heard a hardcore record that has everything - from blistering speed and bouncing groove, to heavy and pounding and bright and melodic."

Patino's departure sparked a war of words between the two camps, with the bass player insisting he walked away from the band after being offered a "totally ridiculous" salary for his five summer shows.

The keyboard icon joins an impressive list of contributors including Steve Hackett, Francis Dunnery, David Longdon, Nick D'Virgilio, Durga McBroom and others.

Reed, the Magenta mastermind, devised the work as an entirely one-man project, and planned it as his personal version of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.

He recently told Prog: "I wanted to play all the instruments, and for them all to be real - no synthesisers. The next four weeks were a bit of a blur as the music just came out. It turned out to be the most enjoyable album I've made."

The German liquor firm, along with UK company Designworks, have been testing the kit and are looking to introduce the gadget at Bloodstock next month.

On this one we pay homage, emphasis and salute our ancestral paths. The song's simply built around the chorus which later formed the whole lyrical concept and theme of the song.

"Remnant Of The Past" is a tribute to the R�k Runestone which is one of Sweden's most famous rune stones with 760 characters carved it is considered to contain the world's longest runic inscription. The R�k stone is located really close to where we have live and have our rehearsal space and thus it's in our authentic historical proximity. The stone is said to be the starting point in the Swedish literary history as the oldest extant literary work. Erected, by runemaster Varinn to his son, probably already in the first half of the 800s. "Remnant of the Past" celebrates this relic and shows that it yet remains strong despite the ravages of time. Despite the Christians attempt to keep it away from public it still stands. The stone has weathered many adversities and today stand proudly reminiscent of the past and for those who find it interesting also in full vigor higher than those who once tried to push it aside and eliminate its existence. The song's not retelling the story that's carved, it's rather emphasize the reason of why monuments like this came to be, its vigor and strength, strong will and refusal to be trampled on.

Musically it's really aggressive and straight forward which is underlined by the lyrical content and the vengeful attitude we wanted to accomplish, all this breaking out in the very powerful chorus combined with clean and fierce singing. The chorus being sung in both English and Swedish, an interesting move we've never tried before. "Remnant of the Past" showcase the power of this mysterious relic our ancestors left us and vengefulness we feel against what religion has caused such treasures during the ages. We spit in your face and this song is the way of how we do it. In the name of Varinn.

We're pissed and hopefully it shows!