Today's Day in Rock Stories

Van Halen Documentary Film Is In The Works

"It is with profound sorrow and sadness that Cherry Red Records and Esoteric Recordings regret to announce that Ray Thomas, founder member, flautist and vocalist of the Moody Blues, passed away suddenly at his home in Surrey on Thursday 4th January 2018," reads an announcement on his record label's Facebook page.

"We are deeply shocked by his passing and will miss his warmth, humour and kindness. It was a privilege to have known and worked with him and our thoughts are with his family and his wife Lee at this sad time."

Simmons delivered The Vault over the weekend (Jan. 6) to a group of fans at the first release event at the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles. The full-day event featured live performances, with Simmons being joined by former KISS members Ace Frehley, Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer (via Ultimate Classic Rock).

There was also a special acoustic session with just Simmons and Frehley, with the pair riffing on KISS classics, including "Rocket Ride" and Frehley's solo hit, "New York Groove."

Del Rey confirmed the news via Twitter, following rumors that the British group was taking legal action over similarities between their song and Lana's "Get Free." She wrote, "It's true about the lawsuit. Although I know my song wasn't inspired by 'Creep,' Radiohead feel it was and want 100% of the publishing � I offered up to 40 over the last few months but they will only accept 100. Their lawyers have been relentless, so we will deal with it in court."

Bowie recorded the demo with Nile Rodgers on December 19 and 20, 1982, in Switzerland after Rodgers flew to Bowie's home to work on some tunes. Excited by their progress, they decided to track the songs immediately and scrambled to enlist a band to assist at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland.

Rodgers considers his experiences working with Bowie to be some of the greatest of his life. "I've been blessed with a wonderful career but my creative partnership with David Bowie ranks very, very, very high on the list of my most important and rewarding collaborations," Rodgers said in a press release. "This demo gives the fans a bird's eye view of the very start of it! I woke up on my first morning in Montreux with David peering over me. He had an acoustic guitar in his hands and exclaimed, 'Nile, darling, I think this is a HIT!'"

Rodgers mixed the original demo shortly before Christmas of 2017. In retrospect, he said the song was the first hint of how innovative and exciting it would be to work with Bowie.

The tapes feature early versions of tracks that would end up on Bleach and Nevermind. "This is the first tape Kurt gave to me. Sound quality is not perfect but it's not too bad. It is listenable.

The Summer of Living Dangerously tour is set to include shows in over 30 cities and is scheduled to kick off on May 10th in Charlotte, NC at the PNC Music Pavilion and will be concluding on July 14th in Bethel, NY at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.

The tour will span four month and visit 22 cities. It is scheduled to kick off on June 25th at the famed Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, Ca and will get into high gear at the Hard Rock Event Center in Hollywood, FL on July 24th.

The group will be celebrating the release by doing special appearance on the Sirius XM's Jam On channel featuring keyboardist Joel Cummins joining program director Ari Fink for a track by track for the new album. The episode premiered on Monday and will be re-run during the coming week.

The band will be playing a special home town album release party at The Park West in Chicago on January 14th and will be launching their North American tour on January 11th in Pittsburgh, PA at Stage AE.

Bennington's widow Talinda re-tweeted a message to that effect from a WBR staffer and assured fans that they would still receive the items. She explained that there are currently new tenants in the house, and revealed that a special tribute is planned for Chester's birthday, which is March 20.

"Please go to Warner Bros Records as a place for memorial for @ChesterBe. We will have a special memorial for his birthday but we are still trying to figure out the details. Thank you for all of your love & support," she wrote. "Our family will receive all of your cards and gifts still. And we deeply appreciate them."

Vocalist Eugene Hutz had this to say about "Seekers And Finders (Acoustic)": "It's the duet of the wandering Jew and the roaming gypsy by the campfire, which we represent most perfectly."

The new unplugged track comes as the band prepares to hit the road next month for a West Coast tour which will be kicking off on February 18th at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, BC.

It finds Alex Kapranos and company setting up shop in the heart of the dance floor with a pulsating beating and rhythmic guitars. There's also a pretty great sax solo towards the end of the song.

The album announcement arrived with the first taste of new music, the upbeat and danceable track "Everybody's Coming to My House." While announcing the release, Byrne shared a lengthy explanation behind the inspiration and meaning of this latest project:

"These songs don't describe an imaginary or possibly impossible place but rather attempt to depict the world we live in now. Many of us, I suspect, are not satisfied with that world--the world we have made for ourselves. We look around and we ask ourselves--well, does it have to be like this? Is there another way? These songs are about that looking and that asking," he said in a prepared statement.

This album is indirectly about those aspirational impulses," he continued. "Sometimes to describe is to reveal, to see other possibilities. To ask a question is to begin the process of looking for an answer. To be descriptive is also to be prescriptive, in a way. The act of asking is a big step. The songs are sincere--the title is not ironic. The title refers not to a specific utopia, but rather to our longing, frustration, aspirations, fears, and hopes regarding what could be possible, what else is possible. The description, the discontent and the desire--I have a feeling that is what these songs touch on."

Based on actual phone messages and testimonials, this sci-fi movie explores phenomena from victims of mind control research and features James Duval, Nathan Bexton, Denny Kirkwood, Douchan Gersi, Triton B. King, Carrie Hayes, Roxy Saint, Elissa Dowling, with John Cho and Peter Greene. Zimmerman's film debut will be released via ITN Distribution. Watch the trailer here.

Frontman Jacob Porter had this to say, "I wrote 'Blind' in the middle of the night roughly 10 years ago, but we still feel life and energy from it every time we play it. Those 10 years can definitely be felt on 'Blind' because the new mix takes tiny recordings from almost every member we've had over the years and subtly inserts them throughout the track. We included it on Aphelion because we knew that it was a song that needed to be heard.

"Despite originally promoting another song as the single for Aphelion, 'Blind' was the song that seemed to connect most with listeners, probably because of the back and forth volley of mellow and hard-hitting elements and personal lyrics written so that they can be applied to the listeners' unique situations. That's why we decided to team up with Silent Flight Productions to create a visual to go along with the music.

"Best Friend" came about out of a simple guitar riff that I had written. I was dealing with some personal anguish at the time and I enjoyed the sound of the riff enough to work backwards with it. I had already penned some lyrics the previous year about losing my dad when I was younger.

The riff matched the tone of the song so it gave me the key that I wanted to write the song in. The chords fell into place fairly quickly after maneuvering some song meter around. I knew it was going to work when someone described the feeling the music gave them as "thinking about themselves standing alone in a field pondering life's decisions."

I still think about that when I listen to this song except it has special significance about the loss of a loved one.