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Day in Rock Report for 09/04/2015



Guns N' Roses Member Unsure Of Band's Future

(Classic Rock) Guns N' Roses bassist Tommy Stinson admits he has "no idea" what the status of the band is. Rumors that a reconciliation between singer Axl Rose and founding guitarist Slash could lead to a classic-era lineup reunion have been doing the rounds, but so far no official announcement has been made either way.

Stinson - who is a also a member of The Replacements - hasn't spoken to Axl Rose since the band's April 2014 gig in Las Vegas and he doesn't know what the future holds.

He tells the Star Tribune: "I reach out once in a while to that crew of people - a lot of whom are also my good friends - but I really have no idea what's going on. I didn't quit the gig or walk away from it. We just all sort of left it in Vegas."

The bassist adds that he would be happy to work with GNR again if asked. He says: "I'll be honest with you, Axl was always very good to me, and it was always a really good gig." Read more here.

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Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx Slams 'Morons' At Miami Concert

(hennemusic) Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx is slamming fans who were busy taking selfies in the front row during the band's final show in Miami on Wednesday.

"Stop taking selfies and be AT the concert idiots. #morons #FrontRow #Miami" tweeted Sixx after the concert at the American Airlines Arena. "People have their ear/eye glued to their phones," responded a fan. "No longer interacting with live people in front of them. Self-absorbed society."

The fan's reply prompted Sixx to tweet, "Missing living in the moment at a concert is a crime." Various Motley Crue supporters on Twitter report Sixx was seen spitting on fans in the front row during the Miami show, with one posting a video clip of the bassist's interaction with the offenders.

Drummer Tommy Lee added to the sense that something was amiss in Miami, posting, "I want to apologize for the sh*tshow tonight! Well ...I played good!", to which a fan replied "aftr 31 yrs and 19 shws +/ur solo tour...u need 2 talk 2 the bass guy...spitting on the audience throughout the show? not happy." Read more here.

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Keith Richards Thinks Metallica and Sabbath Are Jokes

Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards doesn't hold back when he was asked his opinion of various styles of music by the New York Daily News as he shared his disdain for metal, rock and hip-hop.

According to the paper, Richard shared this view of rock, "It sounds like a dull thud to me. For most bands, getting the syncopation is beyond them. It's endless thudding away, with no bounce, no lift, no syncopation."

Two of the biggest names in heavy metal were also singled out by Richards. "Millions are in love with Metallica and Black Sabbath," he said. "I just thought they were great jokes."

But he saved his biggest criticism for hip-hop. "Rap - so many words, so little said," he said with a laugh. "What rap did that was impressive was to show there are so many tone-deaf people out there.

"All they need is a drum beat and somebody yelling over it and they're happy. There's an enormous market for people who can't tell one note from another."

Read the full interview
here.

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Black Sabbath Launching Farewell Tour

Black Sabbath made big news on Thursday with the announcement of their farewell tour. We ran an immediate story but for those that missed it earlier in the morning in the Day In Rock report, we are reprinting it below:

Sabbath has been hinting about retiring for some time, but now they have made it official. On Thursday, Black Sabbath announced that they will be launching their farewell tour next year.

The band revealed the initial dates for their final trek including legs in North America as well as in Australia and New Zealand. The band plans to announce additional dates next month.

It appears that the tour will not include original drummer Bill Ward who left the group prior to the release of their reunion album, "13," due to a contract dispute.

As it stands now, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler will kick off the North American farewell tour leg on January 20th in Omaha, NE at the CenturyLink Center and conclude the trek on February 25th in New York City, NY at Madison Square Garden.

The tour of Australia and New Zealand is scheduled to begin on April 15th in Perth at the Perth Arena and wrap up on April 30th in Dunedin at the Forsyth Barr Stadium. See the announced dates here.

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Tom DeLonge Shares His Version Of Split With Blink-182

(Radio.com) During Radio.com's recent lengthy interview with Tom DeLonge about his long list of entrepreneurial accomplishments (which include his soon-to-be-released Poet Anderson novels, comic books, music and a major motion picture in the not-too-distant future), the Blink-182 co-founder also discussed his former band. In fact, he discussed the very moment his time with the band ended.

The decision to re-prioritize his life, putting Blink-182 on the back-burner was a difficult, and life-changing one. "You know what? It was you guys," DeLonge says with a chuckle referring to a press release given to posted by Radio.com station KROQ in Los Angeles."It was when you guys released a press release that I knew nothing about." The release was penned by the band's publicist at the request of his former Blink bandmates Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker.

"Up to that point, I was so stressed on trying to handle everything. In many ways, the decision got made for me. I was thinking, okay cool, now I don't have to stress any more. Because I was juggling all of it and I knew for about five months prior to that, that s-- was going to hit the fan. And it was going to hit the fan when everyone says 'Okay, we're ready to go record, okay, we're ready to go tour, okay, where you at, what are you doing, come on, what are your priorities-what's your priorities?'" DeLonge repeats that last part for emphasis, as if he is about to be crushed under the weight of the question.

"I was stressing because I was in the middle of a whole bunch of contracts with authors and animators and filmmakers and I was getting my company off the ground. I had just hired ten people, we got our space and we were doing construction, we were getting ready to launch a retail store� and then all of a sudden KROQ let out the announcement and I was like, okay, well, s-t, it's gonna make it much easier now."

"But the decision to do it happened probably a year ago," he says. "I hit a very specific part in my life," confesses DeLonge. "I'm 39 years old. If I was to continue to stay in the studio for a year to write a record that I need to rehearse for eight weeks to go on tour for another six months, and it's only about those twelve songs I'm going to be severely limited in what I can achieve artistically and I'm going to be looking back when I'm 50 kinda going, 'F--, I really love all these other forms of art, I really wish I could have done something with it. So what happened was that I decided that� [pauses] just to do it." Read more here.

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AC/DC's Rock Or Bust Lands High On Hot Tours Chart

(hennemusic) AC/DC's Rock Or Bust trek is among the highest-grossing active live shows and has landed the band as the highest ranking rock group on Billboard's Hot Tours chart.

Billboard reports AC/DC appear at No. 3 on the "Hot Tours" list of top-grossing tours behind Nicki Minaj and Shania Twain with $4 million in ticket sales from a single outdoor performance at the Plaines d'Abraham in Quebec City on August 28.

Promoted by Live Nation and Montreal-based event producer Evenko, the concert drew 48,588 fans. The Quebec performance is the first of three outdoor events staged in Canadian markets during AC/DC's current North American tour, which will wrap up at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on September 28. Read more here.

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Slayer Release Behind-The-Scenes Footage Of 'Repentless' Video

(Classic Rock) Slayer have released a behind-the-scenes video shot during the making of their Repentless promo. The eight-hour session took place last week, featuring Machete star Danny Trejo and a host of other big-name guests, The final results are set to be seen in the near future.

Trejo, who plays a leading character in a prison riot scene, says: "In prison there's only two kinds of people - predators and prey. Being a Slayer fan, I'm a predator."

Guitarist Kerry King tells Rolling Stone: "It's probably the most excited I've ever been for a video. It's very real, it's very street." Repentless is the title track from Slayer's 11th album, which is released on September 11. Watch the behind the scenes footage here.

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Blink-182's Travis Barker Announces Autobiography

(TeamRock Radio) Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker will release his memoir later this year, it's been announced. Titled Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death & Drums Drums Drums, it'll be issued on November 19 via HarperCollins and recounts the stickman's ups and downs throughout his career with the pop punk icons.

In the 272-page book, Barker touches on "rock stardom, fatherhood, death, loss, and redemption, sharing stories shaped by decades' worth of hard-earned insights."

In March, Barker said he wouldn't rule out reconciliation with estranged Blink frontman Tom DeLonge after their acrimonious split in January - but felt the singer's actions were "childish." Read more here.

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Alice Cooper Once Given A Month To Live By Doctor

(TeamRock Radio) Alice Cooper feels justified in celebrating the dead members of his Hollywood Vampires drinking club - because he once came within a month of joining them.

The shock-rock icon has recalled how his doctor warned he only had weeks to live if he didn't stop drinking, after he'd started throwing up blood in 1982.

Until that point he'd been the leader of the Vampires, who met in the Rainbow Bar And Grill in Hollywood and included Keith Moon, John Lennon, Harry Nilsson and others. Most of them had passed away by the time he went to the doctor.

Cooper tells Rolling Stone: "He told me, 'If you want to join your buddies, I'll give you another month. Just keep going how you're going and you'll be with them.'

"I went, 'Uh.' He said, 'You have a choice of stopping or joining them.' At that point I said, 'I'm a little tired of this.' I didn't want to die." He adds: "I guarantee you - Steven Tyler, Ozzy, Iggy, all the guys that are still here went through that decision. That's why we're all still here." Read more here.

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David Gilmour Reveals Lineup Of His Touring Band

(Classic Rock) David Gilmour has named the members of his solo band, and announced plans for his first-ever South American tour. The former Pink Floyd man will kick off a run of five December dates in Sao Paulo, Brazil before visiting Argentina and Chile, in support of solo album Rattle That Lock.

He'll be joined for by guitarist Phil Manzanera, bassist Guy Pratt, keyboardists Jon Carin and Kevin McAlea, drummer Stevie DiStanislao and backing vocalist Bryan Chambers.

Theo Travis will hook up with Gilmour for his previously announced European dates, while fellow saxophonist Joao Mello will play the five nights at London's Royal Albert Hall and on the South American trip. Backing vocalist Louise Marshall will join the band for shows in the UK and Europe. See the tour dates and read more here.

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Cheap Trick Plan New Album Release, Already Half Done With Another

(hennemusic) Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson says the band will release a new album in 2016. Petersson describes the group's first release since 2009's "The Latest" as "vintage Cheap Trick", while revealing they are "halfway to another record already," according to The Macomb Daily.

The bassist explains Cheap Trick are on a determined mission to remain prolific in the coming years. "The thing is we're going to keep going," says Petersson. "We want to record a record every year and just keep them coming out, like in the old days when everybody had a record out every six months, us included. We're writing all the time, so what good is it if those (songs) don't come out."

"We're a working band," the bassist continues. "We're not the kind of group that will take two, three years off to go make an album or something. If we have two or three weeks off, it's a miracle. We work all the time - not non-stop, certainly, but we're back and forth a lot and we do all sorts of different shows." Read more here.

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New Evanescence Guitarist Landed Gig Without Audition

(Classic Rock) Evanescence guitarist Jen Majura says she didn't have to audition for her place in the band. She took over from Terry Balsamo last month for the band's upcoming live shows, with vocalist Amy Lee calling her the group's "missing piece."

And Majura reports that when she was invited to talk to Lee about the position, she was told to leave her guitar at home. She tells EMP Rock Invasion: "I said, 'Would you like me to audition?' She said, 'No, I know you can play - I've seen plenty of videos of you, so just come over and talk.'"

Majura says she was recommended by Testament axeman Alex Skolnick and composer Dave Eggar - who worked with Lee on soundtrack for movie War Story. Read more here.

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Swans Release Limited-Edition Double CD

(Classic Rock) Swans have made a limited-edition double CD entitled The Gate available to buy. It contains demos, work-in-progress material and is packaged in handmade cardboard sleeves created by artist Nicole Boitos. Each of the 2500 copies feature a unique design and are individually numbered.

Money raised from sales will go towards recording the follow-up to last year's To Be Kind. Mainman Michael Gira said earlier this year their next album and tour would be the last with the current lineup featuring bassist Christopher Pravdica, drummer and percussionists Thor Harris and Phil Puleo, and guitarists Christoph Hahn and Norman Westberg.

He says: "I intend to keep the name and ongoing project of Swans active in a different form, drawing sporadically on the myriad list of musical cohorts I've met along the way over the last 30 plus years." Read more here.

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TesseracT Release 'Survival' Video

(Prog) TesseracT have released a new music video for their track Survival. It's taken from their fourth album Polaris, which is launched on September 18 via Kscope.

The new album features the return of vocalist Dan Tompkins, after he was replaced by Ashe O'Hara for 2013's Altered State. The band recently had the following to say about the album:

"Polaris is a different scenario - the first chance for us as a group to stop and take stock of what we are right now, to explore a TesseracT of melody, dynamics, and singular focus. For the first time, too, we feel free from the bounds of genre-specific expectations." Watch the new video here.

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Coheed And Cambria Streaming New Song 'Here To Mars'

(Prog) Coheed And Cambria have released a lyric video for their track Here To Mars. It's taken from their eighth album The Color Before The Sun, their first non-concept title.

The Color Before The Sun is set to be released on October 9 via 300 Entertainment and The band released a video for the track You Got Spirit, Kid last month.

Mainman Claudio Sanchez recently said: "I want people to know that Coheed can write that sort of record. I've always said there's never been a limitation on the band - it makes no sense to me to draw a line in the sand and never cross it." Stream the new song here.

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Motion City Soundtrack Release 'It's A Pleasure To Meet You' Video

(TeamRock Radio) Motion City Soundtrack have released a video for their track It's A Pleasure To Meet You. It features on their sixth album Panic Stations, out on September 18 via Epitaph Records.

The It's A Pleasure To Meet You video was created by David Prindle and pays homage to video games including Pong, Robot Unicorn Attack and old school role-playing games.

The US outfit released a stream of the track Lose Control last month. They've just wrapped up a tour of New Zealand and Australia, and will play a run of dates across the US in October. Watch the new video here.

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Michael Monroe Releases 'Old King's Road' Video

(hennemusic) Former Hanoi Rocks frontman Michael Monroe has released a new music video for the track "Old King's Road", the lead single from his forthcoming album, "Blackout States."

Due October 9, Monroe's 10tth studio effort was produced by Chips Kiesbye (Hellacopters, Nomads) in Gothenburg, Sweden and mixed by Petri Majuri in Helsinki, Finland.

Monroe recorded the follow-up to 2013's "Horns And Halos" with his touring band - bassist Sami Yaffa (ex-Hanoi Rocks/New York Dolls), guitarist Steve Conte (ex-New York Dolls/Company Of Wolves), guitarist Rich Jones (ex-Black Halos/Amen) and drummer Karl Rockfist (ex-Chelsea Smiles/Danzig).

"I'm extremely excited about our new album, Blackout States," says Monroe. "It has all the ingredients of a perfect rock 'n' roll record - strong melodic songs with great meaningful lyrics that defy all clich�s, delivered with a punky, ballsy attitude by a killer band.

"I highly recommend 'Blackout States' to anyone who's even a little bit interested in what real, authentic, high energy rock 'n' roll at its best sounds like today." Watch the video here.

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Bulletboys Release 'Rollover' Video

(Classic Rock) 80s hard rockers Bulletboys have released a new music video for their track Rollover. The song is taken from their album Elefante, which was released back in June.

The new album is their first release feature all original material since 2009's 10� Billionaire. Frontman Marq Torien said: "I put my heart and soul into this music.

"This album has sick peaks and valleys. It is not a linear album." Torien last month said he hated the term "hair metal" and that he considers Bullyboys a hard rock band. Watch the video here.

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Soul Enema's New Album Features Appearance From Arjen Lucassen

(Prog) Arjen Lucassen will appear on Soul Enema's second album, the Israeli outfit have confirmed. They're currently working on Of Clans And Clones And Clowns, the follow-up to 2013 debut Thin Ice Crawling - and the Ayreon mastermind will guest on the track Eternal Child.

The band say: "It's safe to say that for a good couple of decades, Arjen continues to be a never-ending source of inspiration - a creative mastermind and a visionary of his own league, a tasty and emotive guitar player, a humble and friendly person.

"His performance is truly one of those moments of otherworldly beauty, so precious each time when it manages to be transcended onto the tape. Looking forward to that moment, when we can share it with each of you." Read more here.

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Tame Impala Top the First Official Progressive Albums Chart

(Prog) Progressive music is to gain official endorsement for the first time, with the launch of the UK's first Official Progressive Albums Chart which will be published monthly.

The new Official Progressive Albums Chart is being launched as a partnership between the Official Charts Company and Prog Magazine - founders of the Progressive Music Awards in association with currencies.co.uk, which take place on September 3, at the Underglobe at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

From 9th September, Prog Magazine will publish the Official Progressive Albums Chart - a Top 30 of the biggest progressive albums over the previous month - in each of its monthly issues.

With the first ever chart published in the September edition of the magazine, on sale 9 September, Tame Impala are the first ever Number 1 with their album Currents. Read more here.

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Threshold Announce Winter Tour Of Europe

(Prog) Threshold have confirmed a European tour in January, ending with a show in London. Support comes from specials guests Spheric Universe Experience and Damnation Angels.

They'll precede the tour with the launch of a double live album, recorded on the road last year. Entitled The Journey Continues, the 2016 run will see Damian Wilson and co delivering 2014 studio album For The Journey in full, alongside a selection of classics.

Keyboardist Richard West says: "In June we performed the whole of For The Journey for the first time. It was such a good show we thought we'd do it again!"

The 15-track live album, European Journey, is released on November 13. See the tour dates here.

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Jo Harman Returns With 'Dirt On My Tongue' EP

(The Blues Jo Harman has released her first new music since 2012. Found A Place is Harman's first studio release since debut Dirt On My Tongue and is available only on gatefold digipack CD.

Two versions of the title are available - a standard five-track EP and a deluxe edition which includes a second disc containing a 60-minute live concert recording.

The EP will be available at Harman's upcoming shows and via PayPal on address [email protected] subject to availability. The track Two Shades Of Hope will be available on the cover CD of the next issue of The Blues Magazine. Read more here.

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Apocalyptica Announce UK Fall Tour

(TeamRock Radio) Apocalyptica have announced a run of UK shows this November. The six dates have been set up in support of the Finnish outfit's eighth studio album Shadowmaker, which they streamed via through TeamRock ahead of its April launch.

The follow-up to 2010's 7th Symphony was their first album with former Scars On Broadway singer Franky Perez, after previously working with guest singers.

Cellist Eicca Toppinen said: "I think we made a great choice - he really fits into the group. He fits like he's been always around." Support will be provided by Vamps on the tour. See the dates here.

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HRH Ibiza Festival Add More Bands

(Classic Rock) The organizers of next year's HRH Ibiza Festival have added another seven bands to the line-up. The events takes place in Ibiza between May 11-18 2016.

Today's additions include Black Spiders, Vardis, Screaming Eagles, Stoneghost, The Gloria Story, and in-house band Deathwish. Pontus Snibb will be performing a Blues set.

They'll be joining the bands already announced: Hayseed Dixie, Diamond Head, Vardis, Tygers of Pan Tang, Jettblack, Bonafide, Trucker Diablo, Screaming Eagles, Arthemis, Chase the Ace, RSJ and The Gloria Story. Read more here.

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Soundgarden Check In With Fans From The Recording Studio

(Classic Rock) Soundgarden have checked in with fans online by posting a new picture on Facebook showing them in the studio working on the follow-up to 2012's King Animal.

Frontman Chris Cornell said last month that work on the band's seventh album was under way, and the image posted on their Facebook page confirms as much.

It includes the caption: "Working on new material this week." Guitarist Kim Thayill predicted in February that the band's next work would arrive in 2016. Read more and see the photo here.

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Singled Out: Madame Mayhem's Monster

Today Madame Mayhem tells us about "Monster" from her forthcoming album, 'Now You Know,' which was produced by Billy Sheehan and features appearances from Ray Luzier, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal and more. Here is the story:

I wrote the song "Monster" with Corey Lowery the first time I went down to his studio in Atlanta. I had heard some of his work and really wanted to write with him, so even though we had never met in person before, I flew down there for 2 days and had 3 completed songs by the time I was on the flight home. It was one of the most fun and productive writing sessions I have ever had. The reward was worth the risk! All 3 songs made it on the album, and I now have a new friend and 'big bro' that I get to keep making songs with for a long time to come.

"Monster", which is now the single off my new album, was the last song we wrote during that trip. While finishing up the songs from the day before, we were talking about my love of hard rock and metal, my personality and my look, how people generally react to that, and my previous experiences in the music world (some good, some not so good), and decided these were things I really wanted to share. It was important to make the music and the lyrics as raw and as real as possible, while embracing who I am as an artist and as a person.

Writing this song helped me overcome a huge cloud of negativity and anxiety from some past experiences that was preventing me from getting out of the temporary rut I was in at the time, and I hope that this song can help others with that as well.

It's also one of my favorite songs to perform because I get to really play into my 'manic' side. It also doesn't hurt that I have such amazing musicians on the album, and the track itself: Billy Sheehan, who produced and played on the record, Ray Luzier, Russ Parrish, Corey Lowery, and Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal, who plays the solo in "Monster", amongst others on the album.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself as you watch the video here and learn more about the album, which is coming out next month, right here!

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