The Ace to Space Team is pleased to announce that after 10 months of research and development, we have been given the "green light" to pursue our mission to put legendary KISS founding member Ace Frehley, known as "The Spaceman", into outer space where he will become the first musician to go into, perform in, record in, and broadcast a live performance from outer space.

Phish's summer tour will be preceded by a trio of concerts (March 6th, 7th and 8th) at Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia. The shows at the 13,800-capacity venue sold out just seconds after tickets went on sale last fall. They will mark the group's first concerts since its August 2004 performance at the Coventry festival in Vermont.

[Here are the absolutely key parts of the timeline.] 10:52am 1/7/09: An interview with Jimmy Page's manager Peter Mensch pops up on BBC 6Music. Apparently Led Zeppelin will tour and record a new album without original frontman Robert Plant. 12:55pm
The news spreads like wildfire, with the NME, MTV and Rolling Stone (to name but a few) quoting the BBC interview.

[14:45pm MusicRadar's Joe Bosso gets a hold of Mensch to confirm the report and here is what followed: ] JB: "Hey Pete, nice interview with the BBC, who's replacing Robert Plant, then?"

PM: "What interview? I haven't spoke to those guys for like four months or something."

JB: "So Led Zeppelin are not going to tour and record?"

PM: "No chance."

But any relief for the quadriplegic from a multimillion-dollar lawsuit is still a year or two away in a case that has entangled the concert promoter, the arena owner, the people who poured the booze and even Edmonton's chief of police.

Gregg- I'm feeling great and lookin forward to gettin back out with some of my old friends for this holiday tour. I just had some melanoma spots removed from the sun but they were benign so I'm sporting a couple of shiners. Now that you mention it 2008 did kick my ass but I'm a survivor, I beat the Hep C and finally took care of my sciatic nerve in my leg, after all that I'm feelin great.

Ross CAT-While I understand the Hepatitis C treatments you underwent where extremely taxing physically, what was the down time like for you creatively, were you able to write?

A number of metal superstars are set to lend their voices to the game, including Rob Halford from Judas Priest, Lemmy Kilmister from Mot�rhead and Ronnie James Dio from Black Sabbath.

Country star Merle Haggard has sued an environmental awareness group, claiming it illegally used his name and likeness to raise money. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Chancery Court against the Green Train, a Nashville-based organization, and its founder, Robert K. Wolf. It seeks unspecified compensatory damages. more

"Lily Allen would like to state unequivocally that she does not condone illegal drug use and has every sympathy with individuals and families whose lives have been blighted by drugs." more

Live Nation Ticketing is live. The bulk of the world's largest promoter's 10-year contract with Ticketmaster has expired and the company has now launched its in-house ticketing company. [Wonder if they'll follow Ticketbastard's example and spam customers and ignore remove requests in violation of Federal law while they wait for the inevitable class action lawsuit to be launched against them? ] more

Megadeth drummer Shawn Drover issued the following update: 'So now it is official, we have started to record our 12th record yesterday. more

Testament will play their classic first two albums � "The Legacy" and "The New World Order" � for one night only at Islington Academy in London, England on March 25.more

Pharrell Williams has stepped forward and offered to produce the new Lindsay Lohan album. From release dates mentioned last year, the actress should have already recorded and dropped her third album by now, but has recently confessed to not being ready. more

Two Tongues, the new band featuring Max Bemis and Coby Linder of Say Anything along with Chris Conley and David Soloway of Saves The Day, have posted "If I Could Make You Do Things" on Pure Volume. The track is from their self-titled debut that is due out February 3 on Vagrant. check it out

Attn Crackberry Slackers: Slacker, Inc. today announced the availability of the free Slacker Mobile application for BlackBerry. BlackBerry smartphone users can now hear their favorite Slacker radio stations wherever they go, whether they are connected to a wireless network or not; a Slacker Mobile feature exclusive to BlackBerry smartphones. The application, which is compatible with BlackBerry; Device Software version 4.3 and higher is available as a free download by visiting Slacker.com from your BlackBerry smartphone.

Jamey Johnson has been confirmed to perform on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Thursday, February 5th.

Have five minutes to waste that you'll never want back? This one is for you: Forget Britney. An army of personal trainers and personal chefs got her back in music video shape. Instead, Saint Bernadette presents you with a video pep talk guaranteed to keep you on your resolutions this new year. Set to a live mash up of two of the 80s best self-improvement anthems, watch members of Saint B and a crew of their friends go from flabby to fabulous, from two-left feet to double knee slides, ending up in a final production number worthy of Bob Fosse. more

The assets of Death Row Records, once the thriving home to artists such as Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg, are going back on the auction block Jan. 15 as part of a Chapter 11 proceeding.more

The 17th annual Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco has announced a few artist additions to their growing lineup. Bob Mould of Husker Du recently signed on to the week-long fest as well as The Ohsees, Thao, Sleepy Sun, Ra Ra Riot, and From Monument to Masses.more

Carrie Underwood was a big winner at the People's Choice Awards last at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium, picking up favorite female singer, country song for "Last Name," and star under 35 years old. more

Wolves in the Throne Room will be touring Europe in January and February of 2009. This tour will be in support of 'Malevolent Grain' e.p. which is being released by Conspiracy Records as a limited edition picture disc more

If you thought auto-tune opened the door to untalented hacks. Get a hold of this little tid bit from Billboard: " Microsoft unveiled the Songsmith software package, an application that automatically generates a musical accompaniment to whatever songs the users sings." The only silver lining is the fact it comes from Microsoft so it probably doesn't work that well.

Seems Devildriver has made another deal with the devil. Devildriver, the group fronted by former Coal Chamber singer Dez Fafara, has re-signed with Roadrunner Records after previously issuing three [poorly promoted] full-length albums through the label. more

Guitarist Jonas Khalil has left the German death metal band Disbelief. He explained in a statement, "We decided to part ways due to problems regarding our schedules. As a professional (classical) musician, I cannot allow myself to focus only on one project but instead have to be able to do any projects more

This list is subject to change. This is only a portion of the bands that will be performing at the SXSW Music Festival.

You can list White Stripes guitarist Jack White as a recent influence as well.The Edge spent considerable time hanging out with White and Page when the trio took part in filming the documentary It Might Get Loud.