Mastodon Illness Sidelines Tour- Bret Michaels To Have Heart Surgery- Rolling Stones Deny Split- Faces Reunion- Aerosmith- Paramore- Elvis- Ian Gillan- The Strokes- more

Stryper announced today that they will be hosting a 10-day tour of the Holy Land February 12-21, 2011. "Oz, Robert, Tim and I are excited to go to Israel and see first-hand the birthplace of Christianity," says lead vocalist/guitarist Michael Sweet. "And to be able to share this experience with some of our fans makes this even more incredible." more -

Slipknot's Paul Gray Found Dead

Slipknot bassist Paul Gray, aka #2 or The Pig, was found dead in a hotel room near the group's home town of Des Moines, Iowa on Monday morning. The cause of the 38-year-old rocker's death is not yet known and at press time, the band had not yet released a statement.

CNN reports that "Gray's body was found by staff members at the TownePlace Suites, said Sgt. Dave Disney of the Urbandale Police Department. "An autopsy, including toxicology tests, will be performed Tuesday, Disney said." The AP reports that "Foul play isn't suspected."

Rock Radio reports that last December Gray announced he was to become a father for the first time and called the pregnancy of his wife Brenna "the best Christmas present". She's due to give birth in September.

Gray had a drug related arrest in 2003 for possession after an auto accident where police found of a small amount of marijuana, "two syringes and a substance that field-tested positive for cocaine," according to CNN. - more on this story

Bono Discharged From Hospital, U2's Tour Postponed Due To Bono's Emergency Surgery

U2 360 North American Tour will be postponed until 2011. U2's Bono has now been discharged from Ludwig Maximilians-University (LMU) Hospital in Munich where he underwent emergency surgery on Friday, following a back injury. In order to fully recover, he is under doctor's orders to start a rehabilitation program and to recuperate for at least eight weeks.

This will necessitate the postponement of 16 shows on the U2 360° Tour from Salt Lake City on June 3rd, through to New Jersey's Meadowlands Stadium on July 19th.

Dr. Muller Wohlfahrt confirmed, "Bono suffered severe compression of the sciatic nerve. On review of his MRI scan, I realized there was a serious tear in the ligament and a herniated disc, and that conservative treatment would not suffice. I recommended Bono have emergency spine surgery with Professor Tonn at Munich's LMU University Hospital on Friday." - more on this story

KISS Announce The Hottest Show On Earth

KISS have announced the humbly titled The Hottest Show on Earth tour, which is set to kick off on July 23 at the Cheyenne Frontier Days.

KISS will perform such classics as "Detroit Rock City" and "Rock and Roll All Nite" as well as hits that they haven't played in the US in many years. The Hottest Show on Earth tour, produced by Live Nation, will trek through a mix of arenas, (state fairs) and amphitheaters throughout North America.

For an opening act, KISS are partnering with Guitar Center On-Stage, an unsigned band competition that will provide emerging artists the chance to open for KISS at 22 of the band's tour stops. - more on this story

Alice Cooper Reunites with Producer Bob Ezrin for New Album

Alice Cooper has begun working on a new album to be produced by Bob Ezrin as part of a new joint venture with Bigger Picture Group. Ezrin has a rich history of hugely successful collaborations with Alice including such groundbreaking albums as Billion Dollar Babies, Welcome To My Nightmare, School's Out and Love It To Death and has, in the past, been described by Alice as "our George Martin."

Ezrin is a partner in Bigger Picture Group, a Nashville based company that has been instrumental in contributing to the success of numerous artists including country music sensation Zac Brown Band, remarked, "I am delighted to be back in business with Alice Cooper and Shep Gordon's Alive Enterprises and our whole company is over the moon about this collaboration. This is not a record deal but rather a partnership that involves virtually all aspects of Alice's ever-expanding universe. And it's a reunion with the first artist I ever produced and the first great manager I ever worked with. I couldn't be happier."

Bigger Picture will contribute to strategy, staging, special products, theatrical projects as well as the production, promotion and distribution of future Alice Cooper releases. The company will utilize its distribution agreement with Warner Music Group when the new Alice Cooper album, projected for release early next year, and other recorded product launches. A tour themed to tie in with the album, the concept of which is being kept under wraps for the moment, is being planned in support of the release. - more on this story

Slash Puzzled by Axl Rose's Latest Move

(Rock Radio) Slash says he's been left speechless after former Guns N' Roses bandmate Axl Rose sued ex-manager Irving Azoff for sabotage.

Rose is chasing $5m in damages, claiming Azoff tried to force a reunion of the classic Guns N' Roses lineup – and when it didn't work the businessman deliberately attempted to destroy Rose's career so the reunion would become his only option.

"I don't know where Axl is coming from," Slash tells WENN.com."I know where Irving is coming from – he's looking for commissions for a tour that he booked. A pretty reasonable kind of thing." - more on this story

Killswitch Engage Turned Into Clay

Killswitch Engage get claymated for their video for "Save Me," latest song off their self-titled album that finds the band in an alien encounter.

Directed by Jim Starace, the video is guitarist Adam D.'s "favorite video shoot EVER!" The guitarist tells craveonline.com, "It took like 1/2 an hour, and we were turned into clay. And who doesn't like claymation and space aliens? They didn't like my suggestion of turning me into a blood-thirsty pterodactyl with laser eyes at the end of the vid, but it's cool. Thanks to all who worked wicked hard on this video...it looks sweet."

Drummer Justin Foley explains, "If you are going to follow in anybody's footsteps, it may as well be Green Jello, right? With the "Save Me" video, we have finally achieved a band goal that we've been striving for a long, long time; shooting a video that we do not appear in. We also get to go into outer space." - Watch it here

Police Shutdown 28 Days Latour Show

28 Days Latour stop in Whittier, CA this past weekend was shut down by the police before And Hell Followed With had even played a note.

"A local band started playing and at some point during their set, the cops came in shut the show down;" said And Hell Followed With guitarist, Kyle McIlmurray. "We think it had to do something about the venue not having an entertainment permit, but we like to joke that it was because the show was too heavy for the place to handle."

Saturday's show, originally slated to be held in a different venue at a nearby location was moved due to the original venue's sudden closing. Despite the circumstances, Kyle and the rest of his band seemed to take it all as a very pleasant experience. "It was good to be hanging around such professionals. The promoter was cool about it all and took care of us and once everything was handled, we were just stoked to be able to hang around Hollywood with the other bands. They're all good guys so it was a fun night out. We all just went and made the best of it with them." - more on this story

Steve Vai Continues VaiTunes Project With New Song Release

Steve Vai has released a new digital track called "The Moon and I," the second release of his VaiTunes project. To explain the project we turn it over to Steve Vai:

It's not uncommon for a musician to record more work than they release. In my case I have a digital ocean of snippets in various degrees of completion. Some are leftovers from assorted project recording sessions, projects that were never completed, sound check jams, demo snippets, etc.

There are enough lonely unreleased notes in my world to fill an "infinity shelf." VaiTunes are tracks that are culled from this melodic abyss, brushed off, sometimes esverely hosed down, and released as digital singles. - more on this story

The Acacia Strain Set New Album Release

The Acacia Strain have completed work on their new album, which will be released July 20th in North American and August 2nd in Europe.

The band recorded the follow up to 2008's "Continent" at Planet Z Studios in Hadley, MA with Zeuss (Hatebreed, Chimaira, Shadows Fall) handling producing, mixing and mastering.

The Acacia Strain will be participating in "Cool Tour" in July/August with As I Lay Dying, Underoath, Between the Buried And Me, Blessthefall, Architects, Cancer Bats and War of Ages. - dates

John Mellencamp Goes Old School On New Album

Rounder Records will release John Mellencamp's new album, No Better Than This, on August 3rd. No Better Than This is an album of all new original songs that was recorded at a variety of historically significant locations around the South. The album was produced by T Bone Burnett who earlier collaborated with Mellencamp on the much-lauded Life Death Love and Freedom.

No Better Than This was recorded over the course of a few break days afforded Mellencamp when he was on a tour of minor league ball parks last year, sharing the bill with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson.

The album was recorded on vintage equipment – a 55 year-old Ampex tape recorder with just one microphone -- in Savannah at the First African Baptist Church, in Memphis at Sun Studios and in San Antonio in room 414 of the Gunter Hotel. - more on this story

Wishbone Ash Give Fans A Reason To Believe Again

Wishbone Ash have released their first new single in over 20 year. The single, "Reason To Believe", is part of an EP that also features an album edit from the forthcoming CD and two remixes which stand out on their own. It is now available for download on iTunes.

"Reason to Believe sums up what we are all about," says founding member and band leader Andy Powell, "both in terms of the ethos of the lyric and in the melodic nature of the song, which is itself enhanced by our classic twin lead guitar sound". - more on this story

Singled Out: Black Sunshine's Once In My Life (Filter/ Theory of a Deadman)

Welcome to Singled Out! where we ask artists to tell us the inside story of their latest single. Black Sunshine released their self titled debut today and to celebrate we asked the band's mastermind Matt Reardon to tell us about some of his favorite tracks from the album. Today he tells us about the first single, "Once In My Life". We now turn it over to Matt for the story:

"Once In My Life" is a song written loosely in third person but also a letter from me to a long time friend of mine who passed away in a tragic skiing accident. At the time we were laying him to rest right around the day after one of our friends who was in town for the funeral had a near death experience and severely broke her neck. This is where the line "heaven sent me away today, I guess I'm lucky for once in my life, I thought I'd see you once again my friend but I guess it's not my time better start thinking twice" The chorus is all about living in the moment and not taking life for granted. At the end of the day we are lucky and blessed to be alive and should cherish each moment like it's our last because you just never know.

One of the first times I ever played the song live was for the Military on the air craft carrier USS Nimitz…it was just Matt Young and I, acoustic and percussion and you could feel how everyone there just back from Iraq could relate.

The song has been recorded several times in different ways and actually was the song that finally got me a publishing deal as a songwriter with Chrysalis. The music was written with a long time friend and old band mate from Germany Werner Ponikowski. Marlette changed a chord once we went in to lay it down and worked on the arrangement in preproduction. I had borrowed one of John 5's vintage acoustics, layered it with a strat for the rhythm then added the Les Paul in the chorus to thicken things up. The clean tone in the chorus came from a mod amp and a cheap danelectro baritone guitar with a lipstick style pick up…super simple….the reverse swell in the beginning came from Marlette's assistant Sidd Riggs….he was dragging the mouse and backing the track up with the speakers on and it sounded great so we started the song that way.

We'll be back with a couple more song stories from Matt but in the meantime, hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album - right here!

Richard Christy and Tim Ripper Owens' Charred Walls Of The Damned Announce Debut Tour

Fans will finally have the chance to watch Richard Christy and Tim "Ripper" Owens perform the songs from Charred Walls Of The Damned's debut album love this July.

They'll be touring from Chicago, through Canada and up to Worcester, MA for a massive show with Dream Theater. The tour will also feature comedian Don Jamieson from VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show"

Richard Christy talks about the tour: "I am Soooooooooooooo pumped to get out on the road and blast some heavy metal with Charred Walls of the Damned this summer! Tim "Ripper" Owens and I are beyond excited about this tour! The response to our debut album has been so amazing and I think people are going to be blown away when they hear these songs live! I'm sweating my buns off in the rehearsal room every day getting tighter and tighter on our songs so that we will be absolutely blistering when we get out on the road in July! Steve DiGiorgio and Jason Suecof have prior commitments and won't be able to join us on this tour but we have the incredible musicians John Comprix (Beyond Fear, Ringworm) on guitar, Dennis Hayes (Beyond Fear, ex-Iced Earth) on bass, and Matt Sorg (Ringworm) on guitar joining Charred Walls of the Damned for this tour! We'll be playing our debut album in full and we'll have plenty more surprises as well! Joining us as host of the tour and also doing stand up at each show will be the hilarious comedian and carrier of the heavy metal torch, Don Jamieson from VH1's That Metal Show! I've known Don for many years and I'm so psyched to have him as part of this tour! Coming soon we'll have more big announcements about the tour including opening bands in each market and other cool surprises! So get ready to raise your fists and bang your heads with Charred Walls of the Damned this summer! See you on tour!" - more on this story

Return To Earth Going Soph in August With Guns N' Roses Mixed Album

Return To Earth have set an August 17th for their sophomore album, Automata. Return To Earth is Ron Scalzo, Brett Aveni, and Chris Pennie (Coheed & Cambria, ex-The Dillinger Escape Plan).

Mixing for Automata was handled by Guns N' Roses' Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal who also happened to mix RTE's first album Captains of Industry and polished up what turned out to be quite an ambitious multi-track recording.

Automata was self produced by Chris and Brett under their new production company, Fight Mannequins. Brett comments: "We wanted complete control over the proceedings, as we felt that only we knew what was best to get the songs across." Vocalist Ron Scalzo adds: "After going about the recording process modestly for our first album, Captains of Industry, we decided to up the ante for Automata - better studios and mics, more tracks, more gear - we wanted to create a heavier, denser sound with more dynamics this time around. Heavier and denser can be a nightmare without the proper mix, and our old friend Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal once again made magic with more tracks than most sane people would dare to blend together to make everything sound cohesive. With file management not necessarily being our 'strong suit', Mr. Thal once again outdid himself trying to piece all the madness together." - more on this story

The Honorary Title's Jarrod Gorbel Announces Solo Debut

The Honorary Title's former frontman, Jarrod Gorbel, will release his first solo album Devil's Made a New Friend August 31 on independent label Burning-house Records and his own imprint, Gorbel Music.

Blake Sennett (of Rilo Kiley and The Elected) produced the album, which features many collaborations and a band made up of members of Rilo Kiley, Black Crowes, Mystic Valley Band, and Azure Ray.

Each song on the new album is accompanied by a live video shot in various locations throughout New York City. In the collaborative spirit of Devil's Made A New Friend, all of the videos feature appearances by other musicians, including celloist Yoed Nir, Nicole Atkins, Portastatic violinist Margarite White and others. - more on this story

Framing Hanley Promise To Burn Today

Framing Hanley's sophomore release "A Promise To Burn" hits stores everywhere today.

The follow up to their 2007 debut, "The Moment", is already taking over the internet and airwaves, with the new single "You Stupid Girl".

The band headed out Monday for a two-month, nation-wide CD release tour promoting "A Promise To Burn". - more on this story

The Island of Disco Ensemble Landing on June 1st

Disco Ensemble returns with their fourth studio full length album The Island of Disco Ensemble set to hit stores on June 1st.

Recorded in a smorgasbord of different studios in the bands native Finland, Disco Ensemble spent time in Petrax studios in Hollola, Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki and Fried studios in Helsinki. The man behind mixing board of the bands fourth and most mature work is producer/songwriter/radio-journalist Lasse Kurki.

Vocalist Miikka Koivisto on the new album, "The Island of Disco Ensemble couldn't have been born in any other time in history than now. The Island of Disco Ensemble is more consistent and accessible but at the same time more uncompromising and unique than our previous records." - more on this story

Cady Groves Inks With RCA

Cady Groves has signed to RCA Records. Cady is on her first nationwide tour this summer as part of the Bamboozle Roadshow, sharing the stage with artists such as All Time Low, Boys Like Girls, LMFAO, Third Eye Blind and more.

Influenced by artists she likes to say "drip with truth," Cady describes her music as, "If Paramore and the Dixie Chicks all had a less talented baby - that would be me." Raised on country music and "whatever was on the radio," Cady will be heading into the studio in the fall to begin work on her debut album.

Cady recently self released an EP, The Life Of A Pirate , which is currently available on iTunes, Amazon and select Hot Topic stores and is featured on an upcoming track from Secondhand Serenade. - more on this story

Lightning Swords Of Death Announce Dates With Abigail Williams

Lightning Swords Of Death are set to release their second album, The Extra-Dimensional Wound, on May 25th.

They've already completed tours with Behemoth and Kreator, but are definitely not ready to slow down. The band will be playing a select few west coast shows with Abigail Williams.

The dates start on June 1st in Tucson, AZ and wrap up on the 6th at the storied Chain Reaction in Anaheim, CA. - more on this story

Lee DeWyze Scores Chart Hit With Pre-American Idol Recordings

Lee DeWyze is receiving a heightened fan base due to his performances on television this season during American Idol. Not only did he find himself in the Top 2, his Wuli Records release, Slumberland, has reached #32 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart!

In addition to this great chart position, So I'm Told is at #70 on the iTunes Top 100 Pop USA Album chart.

Lee DeWyze has two previously released records available for purchase now! The notable records, Slumberland and So I'm Told, feature producers Ryan McGuire and guitarist extraordinaire, Louis Svitek, well known for his work with Ministry, M.O.D. and Mind Funk. - more on this story

Tom Schraeder Announce First of Three 2010 Releases

Tom Schraeder will release Once Lace, Now Cotton on June 5th. The compilation is the first of the three records plans to release this year.

The album was compiled by fans, family and friends from the three records Schraeder recorded and casually (read: unofficially) released over the past year and a half: The Death of St. Thomas, Dear Brooklyn, I'm Sorry... and ...bad things aren't necessarily not beautiful.

Without releasing an album, Chicagoan Tom Schraeder garnered critical praise in 2007 from his live performances at Lollapalooza and CMJ, as well as from demos which began circulating the States. After the positive response, Schraeder booked his third headlining show and released the compilation of demos to a sold out Chicago crowd. He has since toured across the US with his backing band, His Ego. -

Cliff Richard Rare and Unseen DVD announced

MVD Visual and Wienerworld announce the release of Cliff Richard "Rare and Unseen" DVD in North America on July 27.

Cliff Richard "Rare and Unseen" takes an inside look at the talented, charismatic, singer-songwriter and actor who dominated the British popular music scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before and during The Beatles' first year in the charts.

From his UK chart-topping successes to being a TV and film personality, Richard has certainly made his mark in the entertainment industry. He played, he recorded and conquered the planet for five decades - and he is the only artist to have had a number one single in the UK in five consecutive decades, doing so from the 1950s through to the 1990s. - more on this story

The Ninth Annual Reggae in the Desert Concert Coming To Vegas Next Month

The ninth annual Reggae in the Desert concert returns to the Clark County Government Center Amphitheater with a collection of acts including Barrington Levy, Sly and Robbie, Marcia Griffiths, Yellowman, Mystic Roots and local group Haleamano.

The concert is set for June 12 at amphitheater located at 500 S. Grand Central Parkway in downtown Las Vegas. Doors open at 2 p.m. and the event concludes at 10 p.m.

Barrington Levy is called reggae's "mellow canary," because of his strong vocals. He began his professional recording career 30 years ago with his debut track My Black Girl with his band. His first foreign release to the United States and England was A Ya We Deh followed by Collie Weed, which became a major hit. After the release of his first album in 1979, he followed with Englishman on Greensleeves, which had three hit singles and solidified him as a reggae star of the early 1980s. Since then, he's appeared on featured tracks with Snoop Doggy Dogg, Bounty Killer, Lady G, Jigsy King and Terror Fabulous and has shared the stage with Shaggy, Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, Snoop Doggy Dogg and U2. Levy continues to record and tour extensively throughout North America, Europe and Asia and is Jamaica's no. 1 headliner. - more on this story

Tommy Lee's Methods of Mayham Public Disservice

The new Methods Of Mayhem album, now entitled A Public Disservicement Announcement, is set for release on September 21st and features Tommy Lee collaborating with the world.

Lee commented, "When I founded Methods in 1999, the whole purpose of the band was to be all over the place. In keeping with that, this Methods isn't anything like the last one. There's no hip hop and there's no roster of guest stars. This time, it's me, my band, and the world."

Tommy Lee and his team, including producer Scott Humphrey, singer-guitarist J3 and others, wrote and recorded the songs for the new album, then made the core components of each available for download on www.thepublicrecord.com to anyone who wished to add their playing or otherwise re-interpret the music however they saw fit. - more on this story