PowerBlogs: Rumour Mills

***Rumour Mills will be taking a break next week as Jasmin is off for a week!***

Soundgarden bassist Ben Shepherd denies he’s homeless.

Spin magazine’s recent interview with Soundgarden included a quote from Shepherd in which he says he lives “nowhere” and adds — quote — “I’ve been sleeping on studio couches and at friends’ houses. I’m totally broke.”

He had held up his overcoat and said, “This is my home now.”

Shepherd has posted a statement on Soundgarden’s website saying Spin sensationalized the story and he’s embarrassed for the truly homeless people to be associated at all in any way with the likes of him.
He says while he doesn’t deny what he said, family and friends have helped him out and he doesn’t want fans to be mislead.

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Weezer guitarist Brian Bell is backing off on statements he made regarding the origin of the title of Weezer’s upcoming album, “Hurley.”

Frontman Rivers Cuomo had said the title came from the Jorge (HOR’-hay) Garcia character on “Lost.”

Bell had told freelance writer Emily Zemler surf company Hurley gave the band clothes for a photo shoot and had funded the album.

Bell now posts on the Weezer site the company did not fund the album and Weezer did not get any money for calling the album “Hurley.”

However, the “Hurley” album will be carried in PacSun stores, which also sell Hurley clothes, and the company is working on Weezer merchandise.

The “Hurley” album comes out September 18th.

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It might take a few listens before fans fully get the new Iron Maiden album, “The Final Frontier.”

Drummer Nicko McBrain says it contains some weird time changes and the songs are not easy.

One of McBrain’s favourite tracks is one he did not play on — the album’s intro.

It was a drum machine.

McBrain says the other members of the band asked if he wanted to play on it.

He thought they were teasing him because it called for a double bass drum part and he doesn’t play that.

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Moscow police have detained five Amnesty International activists who were passing out leaflets before U-2’s first-ever Russian concert Wednesday.

The activists were collecting signatures for petitions pressing Russian authorities to investigate the murders of a journalist and a human rights activist.

A Moscow police spokesman says the activists were detained because they did not have the necessary authorization.

They were released after several hours.

The head of Amnesty International’s Moscow office says U-2 management had assured the group before the show that all necessary permits were in place.

Russian police routinely detain rights activists.

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Ozzy Osbourne’s “Scream” album has been out barely two months and he’s already issuing a deluxe version of it.

He’ll put out a two-C-D version of “Scream” that includes seven bonus songs.

Three of the songs are from the “Scream” sessions.

The other four were recorded live during Osbourne’s U-K tour — “Bark at the Moon,” “No More Tears,” “Let Me Hear You Scream” and the Black Sabbath song “Fairies Wear Boots.”

It also includes video content about the making of the album and the “Let Me Hear You Scream” video.

A two-LP vinyl edition will also be released with slightly different bonus tracks.

Both deluxe versions of “Scream” come out October 5th.

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Bon Jovi are releasing a hits collection in time for the holidays.

“Bon Jovi Greatest Hits” will be a 16-song compilation of their biggest songs, plus two new songs.

An expanded package called “Bon Jovi Greatest Hits — The Ultimate Collection” will be a 28-song, two-disc version that includes four new songs.

Jon Bon Jovi says the songs have stood the test of time and they remind us all where we came from, even as we keep our eyes towards the future.

Both collections come out November 9th.

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Bruce Springsteen will finally release the long-awaited deluxe edition of Darkness on the Edge of Town, two years after its 30th anniversary. Titled The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story, it contains three CDs and three DVDs, which includes the re-mastered album, never-before-seen studio and live footage, an 80-page notebook, 21 previously-unreleased songs and a documentary film that will debut at the Toronto Film Festival on September 14th and HBO on October 7th. In addition to the six-disc collection, Columbia will also release The Promise, a double-CD of the complete lost songs from the Darkness sessions. Both will be out on November 16th.

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This weekend marks five years since Hurricane Katrina came ashore in New Orleans, causing one the greatest natural disasters in U.S history. One of the city’s biggest supporters over the years has been R.E.M. The band recorded the albums Automatic for the People and Monster there, Mike Mills has played at various benefits for the city, and Michael Stipe released the In the Sun EP in 2006to benefit Gulf Coast relief efforts.

Stipe says New Orleans definitely left an imprint when R.E.M. worked there. He tells us, “The records that we made there, to me, have that swampy, wondrous mystery that I find in New Orleans and in a lot of the music that comes out of there.”

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When Rock Band Three hits stores on October 26th, fans will get more than just the chance to play a keyboard for the first time — they’ll get songs from the past five decades. The song list starts in the early ’60s and goes through last year. The tracks include:

Queens of the Stone Age - “No One Knows”
Phoenix - “Lasso”
At the Drive-In - “One Armed Scissor”
The White Stripes - “The Hardest Button to Button”
The Vines - “Get Free”
Spacehog - “In the Meantime”
Stone Temple Pilots - “Plush”
Filter - “Hey Man, Nice Shot”
Jane’s Addiction - “Been Caught Stealing”
Marilyn Manson - “The Beautiful People”
The Cure - “Just Like Heaven”
The Police - “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - “I Need to Know”
The Doors - “Break on Through (To the Other Side)”
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - “Crosstown Traffic”
The Who - “I Can See for Miles”

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The Sunset Strip Music Festival takes over Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood tomorrow (Saturday) with performances by Slash and The Smashing Pumpkins.

Billy Corgan says he’s looking forward to playing the area for the first time in almost 20 years and that the first time the Pumpkins played at the Whisky-a-Go-Go he was intimidated.

Slash is no stranger to the area, having lived around the strip for many years and it being the scene where Guns n’ Roses got their start. The guitarist was honored last night with a special tribute show at the House of Blues that kicked off the festival.

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Bon Jovi will release a best-of collection on November 9th. Greatest Hits, available as a single- or double-CD package, is a career-spanning collection. Jon Bon Jovi says, “These songs have stood the test of time, and they remind us all where we came from, even as we keep our eyes towards the future.” The single disc contains two new songs, and the double CD, The Ultimate Collection, has four.

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If you saw Rush’s re-scheduled show outside Chicago this week, you got a special gift — a baseball cap with the Rush logo on the front and the phrase “The Rain Date, Chicago 2010″ embroidered on the back. The original date in July had to be scrapped because of heavy rain.

Rush is in Allentown, Pennsylvania tomorrow night.

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On this day in 1990, August 27th, blues guitar player Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed in a helicopter crash in Alpine Valley, Wisconsin. He was 35. He was headed to Chicago after playing a show with his older brother, Jimmie Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy and Robert Cray. Three members of Clapton’s entourage were also killed.

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Original KISS drummer Peter Criss will participate in the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk-a-thon October 17th in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. He’s a breast cancer survivor.

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Jason Bonham has put his four-bedroom, four-bath Boca Raton, Florida home on the market for $899,000. He paid $750,000 for it in 2005.

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Sammy Hagar has just opened another Sammy’s Beach Bar & Grill, this one at JFKInternationalAirport’s British Airways Terminal 7 in New York. Hagar will dedicate his profits from the eatery to New York community charities.

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Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has collaborated with Ray Davies on a version of The Kinks’ “Destroyer” for Davies’ collaborations album.

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Queensryche have signed to Loud and Proud Records and will release their 12th album in the spring.

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Five Finger Death Punch will open up Godsmack’s fall tour.

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We Are the Fallen have tabbed “Tear the World Down” as the next single from their self-titled debut album.

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Lynyrd Skynyrd have signed on to appear on Jerry Lewis’s Labor Day telethon benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

The city of West Hollywood, California, has declared today Slash Day.

Mayor John Heilman says it’s an honour to celebrate the musical achievements of Slash.

A tribute to Slash will be held tonight in West Hollywood.

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Keith Richards and Jay-Z are going to the library to talk about books — their own.

They will each speak at the New York Public Library’s main branch to promote their autobiographies.

Richards will speak October 29 to promote his memoir, “Life.”

Jay-Z will discuss his book, “Decoded,” on November 15.

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Stone Temple Pilots and Bush will play a benefit concert in Pensacola Beach, Florida, to boost the local economy after the B-P oil spill.

The Pensacola News Journal reports the concerts on October 15-17 will also feature 30 Seconds To Mars, Daughtry, 311, Michael Franti and Spearhead, and country singer Dierks (DURKS) Bentley.

Willie Nelson will headline the third day, which is free.

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Curt Smith of Tears for Fears will be a guest star on the U-S-A Network show “Psych.”

The episode airs September 1.

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David Gilmour is collaborating with ambient music group The Orb on an album.

They first got together on a charity project and liked the music so much they kept going.

The result is a record called “Metallic Spheres,” which consists of two “sides”: the “Metallic” side and the “Spheres” side, which are each five movements.

The album comes out October 12.

The music will be played with a laser show in New York and in Los Angeles, but details have not yet been released.

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Hootie and the Blowfish drummer Jim “Soni” Sonefeld has teamed up with a gospel choir for a new version of “Hold My Hand.”

He re-recorded the song with the Benedict College Gospel Choir.

Sonefeld says he was “blown away” by their a-cappella rendition of the song.

Proceeds from the sale of the song will benefit The Cooperative Ministry, a charity that helps the working poor in Hootie’s hometown of Columbia, South Carolina.

The song is available now on iTunes or WithALittleLove-dot-org.

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Linkin’s Park’s video for “The Catalyst” premiered at midnight last night on MTV.com and VH1.com and has its broadcast premiere tonight at 8:00 (ET/PT) on MTV, VH1 and MTV2. Singer Chester Bennington tells us the video “is a visual representation of this frantic feeling that’s both in the song’s lyrics and music. You’re tryng to not drown or to save yourself from this craziness that’s going on.” To accomplish this, director Joe Hahn had Chester nearly drown in a pool, literally. He tells us, “I had water in every single orifice of my head. It was a horrible experience, but it looks cool.”

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U2 has paid a $22,000 fine to the city of Barcelona for playing too long and too loud last year as they prepared to start their 360-Degrees tour in the Spanish city. Their rehearsals ran over by two hours at decibels above what city officials had set. U2 is in Vienna, Austria on Monday.

In other U2 news, Investment firm Elevation Partners, which Bono is a member of, has reportedly signed a deal to invest approximately $100-million in online music site Pandora.

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Iron Maiden have the biggest debut of their career and John Mellencamp has yet another Top 10 disc on the latest Billboard album chart.

Maiden’s The Final Frontier bows at number four, giving the band its first Top 5 album. And with 63,000 copies sold in its first week, it’s their biggest sales week since SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991. Their previous high came when 2006’s A Matter of Life and Death landed at number nine.

Mellencamp’s No Better Than This bows at number-10, giving the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer his tenth Top 10 album. It’s also his third Top 10 in a row.

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Creed singer Scott Stapp will turn down the volume and do a solo acoustic tour this fall. It starts September 30th in Highland, California and is scheduled to run through late November.  He’s playing 5 dates between Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in October.

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Metallica’s “Big Four” show with Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax that was broadcast to theaters in June will be coming to DVD on October 19th. The Big 4 Live From Sofia, Bulgaria is a two-DVD set that includes full sets from all four bands. There’s also a limited-edition deluxe box set that includes the two DVDs, five CDs with all the music, a 24-page booklet, a poster, photos of each band, and a Big 4 guitar pick.

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At London’s High Voltage festival last month, Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott’s solo set, which featured an appearance by Ian Hunter, was cut short, resulting in a fight with stagehands. Hunter now writes on his website that it was “a combination of errors all of which I had nothing to do with. They did apologize, but it wasn’t all their fault… It’s frustrating to travel 3,000 miles - to rehearse for a 35-minute set — which somehow becomes 10 minutes. The whole thing got blown out of all proportion. I got angry for about 30 seconds. What can you do?”

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V-H-1 is putting out its list of the greatest artists of all time, and while the top may look familiar, the list itself has changed in the past 12 years.

The top five, in alphabetical order, are The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones.

V-H-1 did a similar poll in 1998 and Jackson was only number 40 then.

Artists who didn’t make the cut in 1998 who make it now include ABBA, Journey, Hall and Oates, Rush, George Michael, Mariah Carey, Sade (shah-DAY’) and Cheap Trick.

Hard rock wasn’t represented in 1998, but the new lists includes Black Sabbath, A-C/D-C, Metallica, Judas Priest and Def Leppard.

Some contemporary artists who make the cut now include Beyonce’, Jay-Z, Eminem, Coldplay and Green Day.

V-H-1 will run a “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” special beginning September 6th.

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What’s the best Beatles song?

Rolling Stone magazine says it’s “A Day in the Life.”

That song tops its list of the 100 Greatest Beatles songs.

“I Want To Hold Your Hand” is second, followed by “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Yesterday.”

“In My Life” is number five, “Something” is number six and “Hey Jude” is seventh.

“Let It Be” comes in at number eight, “Come Together” in ninth and number 10 is “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

Just sneaking in at number 100 is “Hello, Goodbye.”

Rolling Stone created its list as part of its commemorative issue to mark the 40th anniversary of the release of the “Let It Be” album.

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Alice Cooper never really dies in his gruesome stage shows, but he has gotten pretty banged up.

Cooper says the guillotine often barely misses him and a few times the noose has been too tight.

He used to do a “West Side Story” knife fight with real switchblades.

He’d get lots of nicks and cuts, but since he was still drinking then, he’d pour whiskey on the wounds and worry about it later.

Cooper says the most frightening thing was wearing platform boots on a high stage after half a bottle of whiskey.

He calls it the most dangerous thing he ever did.

Fifteen Bob Dylan songs that have never been officially released will come out this fall.

“The Witmark Demos” features 47 songs Dylan recorded for his first publisher, Leeds Music, in January 1962, and for his second publisher, M. Witmark and Sons, between 1962 and 1964.

Fifteen of those songs have never been made available to the public, including songs like “Ballad for a Friend” and “The Death of Emmitt Till.”

“The Witmark Demos” comes out October 19th.

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Admission to Bob Dylan’s San Francisco concert tonight will be a throwback to earlier times.

There are no advance sales and no online sales.

Fans must wait in line the day of the show and pay 60-dollars cash for each general admission ticket, and each person is allowed to buy one.

Ticket-holders must enter immediately.

The promoter says this will eliminate the need for ticket fees and cut down on scalping.

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When you think of Jimi Hendrix, you probably don’t picture him being fussy about a refrigerator.

Claire Parker of the Handel House Museum in London says Hendrix was horrified to see an old-fashioned gas fridge in his apartment, so he bought a new one.

She says he frequented a London department store to buy things like carpets.

Hendrix’s apartment was next door to the house where composer George Frideric Handel once lived.

The Handel House Museum uses Hendrix’s old apartment for offices.

It’s restoring it to its 1960’s glory for an exhibit next month.

A museum official says Hendrix once claimed to have seen Handel’s face in his shaving mirror.

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When you pop on Buckcherry’s new album All Night Long, you’ll basically hear what the band sounds like any night that they’re on stage. Guitarist Keith Nelson, who produced the album at his house, says capturing that live feel was easy and that the current line-up of Buckcherry has jelled nicely. “And the more comfortable we become with each other, the right hand knows what the left hand is doing at all times. So it [recording] just kind of becomes very natural.”

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As if Corey Taylor wasn’t busy enough with Slipknot and Stone Sour, he’s now added author to his resume. Taylor has written a book about the seven deadly sins — lust, greed, sloth, gluttony, envy, pride and wrath — and how he feels they’re not sins at all. The book is expected out next spring.

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While U2 wrestles with which album to release next, they have settled on what they’ll offer to subscribers of their website, U2.com. Duals is a specially commissioned collection capturing U2 in collaboration with other artists over three decades. While they have yet to announce who’s on the disc, among the artists they collaborated with are B.B. King, Green Day, Bob Dylan, Luciano Pavarotti and Mary J. Blige.

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Axl Rose is infamous for going on stage very, very late, but the promoter behind England’s Leeds and Reading Festivals swears that Guns n’ Roses have to hit the stage on time when they perform there this weekend. Melvin Benn tells NME that the band won’t be allowed to go on past curfew as they did in 2002. Benn says, “It’s just not an option. I mean, it is certainly an option for them to go on late, but that for me is just about disrespecting their fans. There isn’t an option for them to carry on late, though.”

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One of the first shows Aerosmith announced on this summer’s Cocked, Locked, Ready to Rock tour was the New York State Fair in Syracuse, New York this Thursday. They have reportedly been guaranteed $1-million for the show, but as of now they have sold less than half of the 17,000 tickets, resulting in a $200,000 loss thus far for the fair. The $104 tickets are sold out, but there are still plenty for sale at $94 and $84.

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Crosby, Stills and Nash will rejoin the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ tour for two more shows this week — tonight in Toronto and Friday in Saratoga Springs, New York. When the idea of opening for Petty was first presented to Graham Nash he said, “Are you kidding me? He should be opening for us.” But he says he soon put aside his ego and got on board with the idea. “I think it will be a fun show,” says Nash. “I think the people that see Crosby, Stills and Nash and then Tom Petty will get great value for their money.”

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If you know an All That Remains fan, we’ve got the perfect Christmas present suggestion — the Official 2011 Mike Martin Middle Finger Calendar. Photographer Jeremy Saffer has been taking pictures of the band’s guitarist at gigs for the past five years. He says Martin “has an affinity for flipping off my camera,” and he’s compiled the 12 best examples for this project. The calendar can be ordered online at Lulu.com.

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Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis will take part in the fifth annual Celebrity Expression Session September 11th in Malibu, California. The surf event raises funds for the Surfrider Foundation.

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Queen will mark their 40th anniversary next year with reissues, new studio work and live performances.

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Whitesnake are recording a new album for release next year. Michael Devin — who’s also been playing with Whitesnake drummer Brian Tichy in Lynch Mob — has been announced as its new bassist.

Randy Newman has picked up an Emmy.

The creative arts Emmys were given out over the weekend.

Newman won an Emmy for writing the song “When I’m Gone” for the T-V show “Monk.”

“The 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert” also picked up three Emmys.

The main Emmy show will be Sunday.

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Singer Michael Been of The Call has died.

He suffered an apparent heart attack at the Pukkelpop festival in eastern Belgium over the weekend.

Been was 60.

He was working as the sound man for his son’s band, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

The Call are probably best known for the ’80s songs “The Walls Came Down” and “Let The Day Begin.”

Been also played the Apostle John in the film “The Last Temptation of Christ.”

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The show Simon Cowell wants to bring to the U-S is under fire for using electronic tricks on contestants’ voices.

Cowell left “American Idol” so he could start an American version of his show “X Factor.”

Fans in Britain are in an uproar because of accusations that the British version has been using pitch-correction software to make contestants sound better.

A British tabloid ran a photo of Cowell on its front page with the headline, “X Faker.”

The show’s producers admit some audio changes were made to correct for the interplay of the microphones used in filming.

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The city of Baltimore is going crazy for Frank Zappa.

A bust of Zappa will be unveiled on September 19th, which will also be proclaimed Frank Zappa Day.

That day marks the 25th anniversary of Zappa’s testimony before Congress in favour of free speech for recording artists.

Zappa’s son, Dweezil, will headline a concert after the bust dedication.

A stretch of Eastern Avenue will also be renamed “Frank Zappa Way.”

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Benji and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte want to make girls look good.

They will unveil a limited-edition clothing line for women called Mad Picks at select Macy’s stores and on Macys-dot-com.

The Madden brothers will also perform free concerts on Saturdays in September and October in Philadelphia; Rosedale, Minnesota; Miami; Sacramento and Chicago.

The new Good Charlotte album, “Cardiology,” comes out November 2nd.

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Aerosmith were hoping to follow up their current tour by recording their first album of original material in nine years, but guitarist Joe Perry writes on his Twitter page that it “ain’t gonna happen.” He says the band’s playing better than ever and that he wishes they can go right back in the studio, but apparently Steven Tyler’s reported role on American Idol will prevent them from doing that.

Aerosmith abandoned their recording sessions last year with producer Brendan O’Brien after Tyler came down with pneumonia. Asked if they’ll pick up where they left off with O’Brien, bassist Tom Hamilton tells us, “I don’t know… It’s a bit of the unknown right now.”

Aerosmith perform in Holmdel, New Jersey tonight.

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U2 has a dilemma on their hands — which album should they release next? In an interview with Rolling Stone, Bono says they’re torn between four projects — “Songs of Ascent, which is the meditative work that was meant to complement No Line on the Horizon. We’ve also got a rock album and a club-sounding album. Then we have the ‘Spider-Man’ musical stuff.” As for their last album, No Line on the Horizon, Bono has second thoughts about it, saying it’s “not very accessible, lyrically or musically. We put out a really difficult record — I have to admit that. If I was a teenager, it would be like a European movie. It’s arthouse.” U2 is on a European tour with a show in Moscow tomorrow night.

The other night in Finland, they played their fourth new song on the tour, “Every Breaking Wave.”

U2 will tour Down Under in November and December with rapper Jay-Z in the opening slot.

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Eric Clapton will release a deluxe version of his new album, Clapton. Available on the same day as the regular CD, September 28th, but only through his website, the deluxe version will be pressed on a 24-karat-gold CD with a bonus track of “You Better Watch Yourself.” It will also come with an 11-by-14-inch lithograph of EC’s iconic guitar Blackie and a CD-sized hardcover book, which holds the CD and has 16 pages of photos from the recording sessions. It will retail for 40-dollars.

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Slash will be on the road with his own band through October 6th, when he finishes up their tour with a two-day stint at L.A.’s House of Blues. He tells us that after that the plan is to try again to find a singer for Velvet Revolver and to “work on new material for whatever my next thing is going to be.” As for what that “next thing” might be, he says he’d like to record a whole album with his band’s singer Myles Kennedy — who also fronts Alter Bridge — on vocals. He also expects his band to tour again in early 2011 and next summer.

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Pearl Jam will celebrate their 20th anniversary by playing Neil Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit concerts in Mountain View, California on October 23rd and 24th.

Guitarist Stone Gossard tells Billboard, “The only thing we’ve got going on in October is Bridge School, which is really special. So that’s our 20th anniversary, which is fitting. It’s perfect: not too blown up. It’s not about us, it about all those kids that are on stage with you and about Neil Young and his commitment, his influence.”

Pearl Jam has played the Bridge, which benefits Young’s school for children with disabilities, seven previous times.

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Neil Young has titled his new album Le Noise. It’s due out on September 28th and was produced by Daniel Lanois, who is the only other musician on the album. Young also plans to release an I-Phone and I-Pad app for the album in October.

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Despite the death of singer Ronnie James Dio, bassist Geezer Butler says he’d like to continue working with Heaven & Hell guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Vinny Appice. Butler says, “Heaven & Hell is finished. It could only ever be with Ronnie but I’d still like to carry on with Tony and Vinny doing something.” At the same time, Butler says he’d like to work again with Ozzy Osbourne, Iommi and drummer Bill Ward in Black Sabbath.

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3 Doors Down’s seventh annual concert for their Better Life Foundation will be held November 13th in Tunica, Mississippi. Joining them for the show are Theory of a Deadman and Saving Abel. The event includes an auction as well as a charity bike ride the day before from Jackson to Tunica.

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Jeff Beck will tour South America in November.

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Joe Satriani recently filmed a cameo for the film based on the best-selling baseball book Moneyball.

HBO will air a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Bruce Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town” album in October.

The special will feature never-before-seen footage shot from 1976 to 1978 of home rehearsals and recording sessions.

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Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo has confirmed that the band will indeed play their classic Pinkerton album in its entirety on an upcoming tour — and toss in a bonus. He tells MTV, “We have this really exciting idea to do a tour where we spend two nights in each city, and the first night, we play the entire Blue album, and the second night, we play the entirety of Pinkerton.” The trek is still in the planning stages right now, but Cuomo is asking fans to drum up support by calling promoters.

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Last week was a rough one for Aerosmith. First Joe Perry accidentally nudged Steven Tyler off the stage in Toronto, and then, two nights later, Tyler accidentally clocked Perry over the head with his microphone stand, cutting the guitarist. Perry writes on his Twitter page, “Living through [my recent] motorcycle accident, getting bashed on the head with [the] mic stand [and] almost flying off end of ramp, I know I’m gonna see this through.” As for reports that Perry intentionally pushed Tyler off the stage, a spokesperson for the band says, “Joe wanted his fans to know that he would never deliberately push Steven off the stage.” Perry writes on Twitter, “It’s a contact sport, but when they make me out to be the villain it pisses me off. At least now you just gotta use your own eyes and ears.” Aerosmith are in Holmdel, New Jersey tomorrow night.

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Two of the four original members of Black Sabbath have said they’d like to work again with Ozzy Osbourne. You can now add Ozzy to the list. He tells the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, “We’re talking and that’s a good sign. We’re not at war with each other… I’m trying to get things done right, talking at least.” Ozzy adds that he has spoken to drummer Bill Ward, who is open to the idea, and last week bassist Geezer Butler said the same thing. Only guitarist Tony Iommi has yet to comment.

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Almost as a teaser to this week’s Sunset Strip events, Slash performed a private show for Monster Energy contest winners Friday at the Key Club on the Strip. During the show, Slash told the crowd that “the guy who gave me the name Slash is here tonight” and waved to a man standing in front of the stage. The man was 75-year-old actor Seymour Cassell — a longtime friend of Slash’s dad, who came up with the nickname because he was impressed with the kid’s non-stop energy.

Slash tells us that although Guns ‘N Roses got their start playing the Strip during the ’80s — when it was the center of L.A.’s rock club scene — they avoided playing Gazzari’s, the venue that is now the Key Club. He remembers that the one exception came when their record label — then headquartered across the street — booked them there to perform for their staff.

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Slash is the honoree at this week’s third annual Sunset Strip Music Festival in West Hollywood. The three-day event kicks off Thursday with a Slash tribute concert at the House of Blues, featuring P.O.D., Kix, Unwritten Law and others and features a closing night performance on Saturday by Slash and his band — featuring Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy and a guest appearance by Fergie.

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Finland’s mostly instrumental cello-metal band Apocalyptica releases it seventh studio album tomorrow. 7th Symphony was recorded in California and features guest vocal shots from Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale, Shinedown’s Brent Smith and Flyleaf’s Lacey Mosley.

Cellist and main songwriter Eicca [pr: AY-kuh] Teppinen tells us the group concentrated so much on writing songs for the vocalists that the instrumentals that make up much of the album were composed in a last-minute scramble. But he says that even with time pressures and the use of more studio effects than ever before, it’s their most organic-sounding album yet.

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There was plenty of drama in the touring world last week when a Twitter message went out saying Guns ‘n Roses frontman Axl Rose had pulled the plug on the band’s impending European tour. That turned out to be a hoax, but for a little while concerns even existed inside the band. Bassist Tommy Stinson tells us, “It’s startling to me how this stuff happens. It’s stressful, [but] everything is fine and there’s just some crazy [stuff] going on.”

Guns ‘n Roses kick off their European tour Friday at Britain’s Reading Festival.

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The Snapple flavor Bret Michaels created on Celebrity Apprentice has been such a success that the beverage maker is extending its shelf life. “It’s awesome to see my new Diet Snapple Trop-A-Rocka has received such positive feedback,” Michaels says. “Growing up as a diabetic, diet drinks weren’t always the best-tasting option. That’s why it was important to me to develop a flavor that doesn’t sacrifice taste — it is taste-bud tested and rocker approved.” The low-calorie Trop-A-Rocka Tea blends healthy green tea and tasty black tea with pear, cinnamon and mango flavors.

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Jimmy Page’s pictorial autobiography will be published in Britain on September 27th.

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Eagles Records will release a Ronnie Wood album, I Feel Like Playing, on September 28th. Guests on the disc include Slash, Flea, Billy Gibbons, Kris Kristofferson, Bobby Womack and his Faces bandmate Ian McLagan.

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Costumed cast members from the children’s TV show Yo Gabba Gabba joined MGMT onstage at Radio City Music Hall last week during — what else? — “Kids.”

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Hed (P.E.) will release their seventh studio album, Truth Rising, on October 26th.

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Alain Johannes, who has toured with Queens of the Stone Age, Chris Cornell and — most recently — Them Crooked Vultures, will release his solo debut, Spark, on October 5th.

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In preparation for the release of his solo album Familial, Radiohead drummer Phil Selway has posted three new solo songs to his website.

Tom Hamilton doesn’t have a problem with Steven Tyler taking on a second job as a judge on “American Idol.”

Hamilton tells NJ-dot-com that Aerosmith will just have to work around his schedule.

He says he hopes Tyler’s side job won’t hurt the new momentum Aerosmith has built on their current tour, but at the same time, he says he wouldn’t want to be the one standing in the way of this for him.

He realizes that Tyler absolutely lives to be in front of an audience.

He just wonders if “Idol” will be rock `n’ roll enough for him.

Hamilton says Tyler is absolutely doing “Idol.”

He says the ink is dry on that.

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David Gilmour has collaborated with U.K. ambient group The Orb on a new album. Metallic Spheres, due out October 12th, will feature two tracks, each divided into five movements. The collaboration between Gilmour and The Orb got it start when the duo was drafted to remix Gilmour’s take on Graham Nash’s “Chicago” last year.

The album will be available in a two-CD edition with remixes of both tracks. And special laser light shows created specifically for the release of Metallic Spheres will be shown to the public in early October in New York and Los Angeles

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Eric Clapton has commented on his new self-titled album due out next month, saying, “[Clapton is] an eclectic collection of songs that weren’t really on the map — and I like it so much because if it’s a surprise to the fans, that’s only because it’s a surprise to me, as well.” Clapton co-produced the album with Doyle Bramhall the Second. It features appearances by Sheryl Crow, Steve Winwood, Wynton Marsalis, Allman Brothers Band guitarist Derek Trucks and New Orleans R-and-B legend Allen Toussaint. Clapton, his 19th album, will be out on September 28th.

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Jack White’s Third Man Records is releasing a single and a live album from talk-show host Conan O’Brien. The single is a spoken-word affair, with O’Brien doing a take on the Frankenstein legend on the A side and White interviewing O’Brien on the other. The Live at Third Man LP is the set O’Brien and his band played at White’s Nashville studio complex back in June. Both releases are available through Thirdmanrecords.com.

A limited edition of the single will raise funds for ReTune Nashville, an organization dedicated to helping provide relief for uninsured musicians.

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Bret Michaels has filed a $5-million lawsuit against a Syracuse, New York promoter for postponing a concert without his knowledge. According to the complaint, the Poison frontman was set to perform in Syracuse on August 5th. But when he and the crew showed up, there was no stage at the venue. The promoter, Michael Banks, claimed the show wasn’t going to happen since Michaels scheduled an appearance on NBC’s America’s Got Talent that same night — even though the show had been taped. The suit claims Banks breached their contract and exposed Michaels to public contempt and ridicule with defamatory statements about his schedule.

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A live Slipknot DVD will be out on September 28th. (Sic)nesses was filmed in June 2009 at the Download Festival in England. The disc includes all the band’s videos for All Hope Is Gone and a documentary directed by percussionist Shawn Crahan about the band’s 2008-2009 world tour.

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R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills appears on a new digital-only album to raise funds for a group of New Orleans and Gulf Coast charities. Dear New Orleans, which will be available through digital retailers on Tuesday, sees Mills joining the band Bonerama for covers of Neil Young’s “Ohio” and the MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams.”

The album also includes tracks by Indigo Girls, My Morning Jacket and Steve Earle.

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John Mellencamp recaptured a bygone era in making his just-released No Better Than This album — recording in mono using a single microphone and a tape machine from the 1950s. Maybe he did it because — as he told the audience at L.A.’s Grammy Museum, where he recently performed and was interviewed — he has “a very unpopular view of the future.” Mellencamp stated that he thinks the Internet is “the most dangerous thing since the atomic bomb.” While admitting that it has its good points, he believes that the Internet has already “destroyed the record business,” is “going to destroy the movie business” and has left us open to terrorist activities that could cripple the country.

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With Chickenfoot on hiatus for a while, guitarist Joe Satriani is returning to his solo career. His 14th album, Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards, will be released on October 5th. He’s expected to do a brief U.S. tour behind the album this fall.

It’s not a done deal until the skinny guy signs.

But, a source close to skinny guy Steven Tyler says Tyler is saying he’ll be a judge on “American Idol” next season.

The source tells The Associated Press there is no reason to refute Tyler’s comment.

Fox and the company that produces “American Idol” are not saying anything one way or the other.

It was announced three weeks ago that Ellen DeGeneres is leaving the show and Simon Cowell made it clear in January that he wouldn’t be back for a 10th season.

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Kings of Leon reveal they turned down “Glee” and “Ugly Betty.”

Bassist Jared Followill tells New Music Express “Glee” wanted to use their music in an episode, but the band said no.

He says they were offered a cameo on “Ugly Betty,” but they refused that too.

Followill says they didn’t want to be sellouts.

He adds they turn stuff down constantly.

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The house where Ringo Starr lived as a baby will be torn down.

The city of Liverpool will bulldoze the house where Starr lived for the first three months of his life.

City officials say Starr didn’t live there that long and it would cost about 233-thousand dollars just to keep the house from falling down.

The city will replace the house and several others with new ones as part of the area’s redevelopment.

The Liverpool house where Starr lived for 20 years is still standing and someone lives there.

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Ted Nugent takes full responsibility for not knowing California game laws.

He pleaded not contest last week to baiting a deer and not having a properly signed hunting tag.

Nugent says on his website he should have been better informed about California’s laws on hunting.

He had killed an immature buck during a hunt in northern California for an episode of his show on the Outdoor Channel.

Investigators found the deer had been eating bait before being killed, which is illegal in California.

Nugent paid a fine of $1,750.

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U-2 want to heat up the dance floor.

Bono tells Rolling Stone U2 is working on a “club-sounding” album.

They’re also planning to release a rock album, and a collection of music from the “No Line on the Horizon” sessions called “Songs of Ascent.”

Bono says his back is doing well after having emergency surgery in May.

He says there are a lot bigger problems than what he faced, but he came out of it perfect.

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Soundgarden’s reunion couldn’t have come at a better time for bassist Ben Shepherd. He tells Spin magazine that he’s been basically homeless for the past six months. Shepherd says, “I’ve been sleeping on studio couches and at friends’ houses. I’m totally broke.” Shepherd is part owner of a bar in Seattle, but he’s been taking what little money he gets from it and using it for a solo album he’s been working on since last fall.

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Things have been quiet on the Coldplay front for much of this year as the band has been working on its next album. But the band is getting ready to make a big splash financially when the disc comes out in 2011. Coldplay just signed a new multi-million-dollar publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing that will score them more songwriting royalties than they’ve made on their first four albums. The new Coldplay album is expected out in the spring.

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Brandon Flowers is focusing on his solo album Flamingo on his current tour. But since it has only 10 tracks, The Killers frontman is filling out his set by doing a cover of the 1980s number-one hit “Bette Davis Eyes” by Kim Carnes. Flowers’ solo tour continues tonight in San Francisco. Flamingo is due out September 14th.

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Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society have scored their very first Top 10 album with Order of the Black. More than 33,000 copies were sold last week, giving it a fourth place debut on the Billboard album chart. Wylde and company’s previous chart high was number-15 with 2005’s Mafia.

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All That Remains are teaming up with As I Lay Dying for a fall tour. The two bands start things off September 14th in El Paso, Texas and wrap it up October 10th in Portland, Oregon.  They’ll be in Vancouver October 7th at the Vogue Theatre.

Courtney Love and a management firm have settled a lawsuit over her sale of Nirvana’s publishing catalogue.

London and Company had sued Love two years ago, claiming she failed to share the earnings when she sold part of Nirvana’s catalogue for nearly 20- (m) million dollars.

Court records show attorneys for the firm and for Love told a judge they had settled the case.

The records show the settlement was for one- (m) million dollars.

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The studio crew working with Avril Lavigne on her new album spent last weekend wearing face masks.

That’s because Lavigne has strep throat.

Lavigne says in a video on her website her doctor told her not to sing for 48 hours or she would permanently damage her vocal cords.

She sang a little on Monday.

She says she’s still contagious, but she kept taking off her own face mask in the video.

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When ABBA broke up in the early ’80s, they figured they might make a little money from sales of their old albums and they’d fade away from people’s memories.

ABBA’s Benny Andersson says they had been criticized for their clothes and for appearing like they were a manufactured band.

He has no theory why they’ve endured except that the songs are good.

He says one thing in their favour is that it’s cool to like ABBA now.

Andersson says musicians like Bono, Iggy Pop, Madonna and Alanis Morissette have come out to say they like what ABBA was doing.

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3 Doors Down have started recording their fifth album. After working with Johnny K (Disturbed) on their last two discs, the band has teamed up with Howard Benson (Skillet, Three Days Grace) for this new project. It’s expected out in the spring.

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As we reported, Eric Clapton will release his new album, Clapton, on September 28th. Five songs will hit radio on Tuesday, including the first single, “Run Back to Your Side.” The BBC premiered “Diamonds Made From Rain,” a ballad with Sheryl Crow on background vocals, yesterday.

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With all that Aerosmith have been through over the past year — Steven Tyler’s injury; Tyler wanting time away from the band; Joe Perry’s motorcycle wreck — bassist Tom Hamilton says he is concentrating on the present and not wondering about the future. “I’m gonna enjoy everything one gig at a time. Every show we play is like a pearl on a string, and I’m just gonna stay in the joy of that.” Next up for Aerosmith is a show tomorrow night in Omaha, Nebraska.

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Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler is open to the idea of the band reuniting with Ozzy Osbourne again. Butler says, “You know it would be nice to finish the whole thing off with one last tour, I suppose. We’re all getting a bit old now, so time is running out. It would be nice. I wouldn’t say no.” Sabbath’s last tour with Ozzy was in 2005.

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Eddie Vedder is performing at yet another benefit for the West Memphis 3, a group of three men that their supporters say were wrongly convicted of murder 17 years ago. The benefit, Voices for Justice: A Rally in Support of the West Memphis 3, will be held August 28th at the Robinson Center Music Hall in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz has teamed up with former Killswitch Engage vocalist Jesse Leach for a new side project called Times of Grace. The duo’s debut album, The Hymn of a Broken Man, is due out November 9th.

Leach left Killswitch Engage in 2002 but reconnected with the band this year by doing a couple of shows with them while his replacement Howard Jones was unable to tour.

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The Allman Brothers Band have added more November dates to go along with their three previously announced shows in Boston. The other dates are November 11th at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia and the 13th at the Etess Arena in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

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Bob Seger joined Kid Rock on stage Sunday night in Detroit to sing “Turn the Page.”

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Local H have set a release date of October 19th for the covers disc Local H’s Awesome Mixtape #1 — which includes versions of Pink Floyd’s “Time” and Concrete Blonde’s “Joey” among its tracks.

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Stone Sour’s August 30th show at The Studio at Webster Hall in New York City will be webcast at StoneSour.com.

Some bands put their name on the side of their trucks.

The Uproar Festival tour will put photos of missing children on theirs.

The festival hopes to bring awareness to missing kids by plastering their photos on the side of semi trucks as they wind through the U-S on tour.

Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold, Stone Sour, and Halestorm will perform at the festival.

Stone Sour singer Corey Taylor has recorded a public-service announcement for Child Find of America, in which he reveals he was a runaway.

The Uproar Festival begins today in Minneapolis.

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Kings of Leon are returning to the scene of the pigeon poop.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the band will play there on September 25th to make up for the July 23rd concert.

That was the show where they were hit with pigeon droppings, and Kings of Leon left the stage after three songs.

The concert will be free to those who had tickets for the original show, and 10-dollars for anyone who did not.

Kings of Leon will not take a concert fee.

Venue personnel say they will put up nail boards and paste in the rafters to keep pigeons from roosting, and they will hire an exterminator.

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Jimi Hendrix fans living in Britain can see some of his stuff that will go on display to mark the 40th anniversary of his death.

His clothes, handwritten lyrics and other memorabilia will be shown to the public at the house in London, where Hendrix lived in the late 60’s.

He died in London on September 18th, 1970.

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Somebody hacked into Axl Rose’s Twitter account and sent out a Tweet saying the rest of Guns N’ Roses European tour has been canceled, which is not the case. Rose is apparently not active on the social networking site and this was the first post in three months.

And in other Axl news, the band’s late curtain call on Friday night in South Dakota was not caused by the notoriously late singer. The promoter says it was due to malfunctioning equipment.

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Add Neil Young to the list of artists featured on the new Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. Gene Simmons of KISS narrates the video game, which contains “Rockin’ in the Free World” alongside tracks by Rush, Jethro Tull, Queen, Deep Purple, Styx, Dire Straits, ZZ Top and The Rolling Stones. It will be in stores September 28th.

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Deftones are now in the second week of their own summer tour, which they’ll follow with a stint on the Black Diamond Skye tour, which starts September 16th. One dollar from every ticket sold on this current tour is going to the Chi Cheng Special Needs Trust, which was set up to help pay the medical expenses for their bassist, while he recovers from injuries sustained in a November, 2008 car accident that has left him in a near-coma state. Singer Chino Moreno tells us that they’re optimistic about Cheng’s recovery, but that his medical and homecare bills continue to mount.

Listeners can donate to the Chi Cheng Special Needs Trust by going to http://OneLoveForChi.com.

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Last month, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and David Gilmour reunited for a benefit show in England. Now, the Hoping Foundation, which helps Palestinian children, has posted the video on its website in hopes that if you log on to watch, you’ll make a donation. Commenting on the video, Waters says, “The sound quality is crap, but it was a great night for me and for him and also for ‘Us and Them.’” The close to 30-minute video features the two former Floyd members doing “To Know Him Is to Love Him,” “Wish You Were Here,” “Comfortably Numb” and “Another Brick in the Wall, Part Two.”

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The Pink Floyd albums released after Dark Side of the Moon, including Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall, are no longer available for download. They were distributed by EMI, but their contract covering those albums expired on June 30th. You can still buy them on CD while supplies last. The band’s earlier albums — The Piper at the Gates of Dawn through Dark Side of the Moon — are still available as digital downloads and on CD through EMI. Pink Floyd is looking for a new licensing deal for its catalog, which, since 1991, has sold more than 36 million albums in the U.S.

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Jason Bonham has announced the dates for his Led Zeppelin Experience tour, commemorating the 30th anniversary of his father’s death. Zep drummer John Bonham died on September 25th, 1980. The multimedia tour will start October 8th in British Columbia and wind up in the same Canadian province on November 29th. For more information, go to jblze.com.  It’s in Dawson Creek & Prince George in October…November 29th.

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Aerosmith and the J. Geils Band headlined Boston’s Fenway Park on Saturday, but the two Beantown bands did not play together. According to the Boston Globe, singers Steven Tyler and Peter Wolf had a disagreement the day before over the use of Aerosmith’s ramp that extends into the audience. Aerosmith doesn’t permit its opening acts to use it, including current opener Sammy Hagar, but Wolf insisted. Tyler eventually gave in, but told Wolf that he also needed to get Joe Perry’s permission. Perry reportedly said it was OK. Aerosmith are in Toronto tonight.

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Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman had a run-in with Florida cops over the weekend after he asked fans in Tampa to join him in a post-show jam session, and one officer took exception. Foreman tweeted, “Just got forcefully removed from my own after-show by the police… Officer Fisher grabbed me by the arm and shut us down.” He later told CNN, “The officer last night wouldn’t give me a reason, [but] I respect the authorities. They have a difficult job.”

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A song Steven Tyler recorded with Slash for the former Guns n’ Roses guitarist’s new album has been scrapped. Slash tells Ultimate-Guitar.com, “It was just a huge conflict of interest with Aerosmith. There was no chance the record company was gonna allow us to release it, so we had to let it go.”

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Bob Dylan will release details this week of a special show that he will do on August 25th. He’s is in Park City, Utah tonight.

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David Bowie is denying rumors that he will work with Lady Gaga.

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Linkin Park will premiere the video for “The Catalyst” on MTV on August 26th.

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Daughtry will send travelers out of New York City in style on Thursday. The band will perform at JFKAirport as part of a JetBlue concert series.

Green Day will play the halftime show when the New York Jets host the Baltimore Ravens on September 13th.

They will perform “Last of the American Girls” with the cast of the Broadway musical “American Idiot.”

Nicole Scherzinger will sing the national anthem.

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Singer and actress Hilary Duff and N-H-L player Mike Comrie have gotten married.

They tied the knot at a sunset ceremony in California on Saturday.

Comrie, who played for the Oilers in his hometown of Edmonton last season and is now a free agent, reportedly proposed to Duff during a Hawaii vacation in February.

In October, he told Hockey Night in Canada that he first met Duff at an Idaho resort.

In addition to Edmonton, Comrie has also played for Ottawa, Phoenix, the New York Islanders and Philadelphia.

Duff has appeared in such movies as “The Lizzie McGuire Movie” and “Agent Cody Banks.”

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Drummer Richie Hayward of Little Feat has died.

Hayward had liver cancer and died Thursday in Vancouver after complications from pneumonia.

He was 64.

His publicist says Hayward was waiting for a liver transplant.

Hayward formed Little Feat in 1969 with Lowell George, Bill Payne and Roy Estrada.

He also performed session work with Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan and Carly Simon.

He last performed on July 11th.

Little Feat says in a statement — quote — “The world’s a little quieter and a lot less rhythmic today, although heaven’s a lot funkier.”

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The future of an old railroad trestle that appears on the back cover of R-E-M’s “Murmur” album is up to voters in Athens, Georgia.

The Athens Banner-Herald reports voters will decide in November whether to extend a one per cent sales tax for capital projects that would preserve the trestle.

R-E-M fans got angry in 2001 after railroad company C-S-X Transportation tore down part of it.

Athens-Clarke County now owns it and it’s known as the Murmur Trestle.

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Kid Rock is planning to blast back into action in November with a new album he’s titled Born Free. He’s lined up a formidable array of guests, including Bob Seger, Metallica’s James Hetfield, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and former duet partner Sheryl Crow, who returns for a collaboration on a song titled “Collide.” Appearances by rappers Lil’ Wayne and Eminem are rumored, but not confirmed.

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Stone Sour’s album Audio Secrecy won’t be out until September 7th, which means they’ll have three weeks of shows on the Uproar Festival without fans knowing their new songs. Frontman Corey Taylor says he’s okay with that because he expects fans to pay attention to anything new they play. He believes they’re “really ready to hear the new music.”

The Uproar Festival, which also features Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold and Hellyeah, kicks off tomorrow in Minneapolis.

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Former Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch will continue his spiritual chronicle with Stronger: 40 Days of Rock, Jesus and Salvation. The book, which will hit shelves on November 30th, is described as a daily devotional, in which Welch offers up 40 Bible verses and discusses how they’ve affected his everyday life.

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Pink Floyd singer-guitarist David Gilmour is the executive producer of a Syd Barrett career-retrospective album, which is due out in the U.K. in October. Called An Introduction to Syd Barrett, it brings together some of Barrett’s Pink Floyd songs and his solo material. No word on when or if it will be released in the U.S.

Gilmour replaced Barrett in Floyd in 1968. Barrett died in 2006.

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Robert Plant will be on hand next Monday to help open a new community center near his home in England. The Gateway to Wyre Community Discovery Center features a sensory garden, a bird observatory and classrooms designed to expand people’s knowledge of the region’s abundant natural history. It also houses a recording facility.

Plant releases his new album, Band of Joy, on September 14th.

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Green Day will perform at halftime of the New York Jets’ first game in their new New Jersey stadium, which ESPN will air on September 13th. They’ll join the cast of the musical American Idiot for a version of “Last of the American Girls.”

Slash and Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls are slated to stage a “tailgate concert” before the game, with Nicole also handling the national anthem.

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Evans Blue singer Dan Chandler has established the Keeping Chase Foundation in honor of his late nephew Chase Franklin, who died of a rare brain cancer at the age of 8 and is the inspiration for their current single “Erase My Scars.” The foundation’s first undertaking is raising funds for the band’s friend and video promoter Caprice Carmona, who will undergo breast cancer surgery tomorrow in L.A., but needs to come up with $30,000 to pay for it.

The “Erase My Scars” video, which contains some home movie footage of Chase Franklin, came out last week. Fans can contribute to the Keeping Chase Foundation at www.keepingchase.com.

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Filter release their fifth studio album, The Trouble With Angels, tomorrow. The album is the product of sessions between Filter frontman Richard Patrick and producer Bob Marlette (Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, Seether, Shinedown) with contributions from both current and former band members. Patrick tells us he credits Marlette — who co-wrote all but one song — with pushing his own songwriting “to an even higher level than I was aware that I could achieve.”

Filter play Downtown Hartford in Hartford, Connecticut this Friday and Bowery Ballroom in New York City on Saturday.

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Band of Horses have announced opening acts for some dates on their upcoming tour. Stone Gossard’s revitalized Brad will handle the duties from October 1st through 14th, and Jenny and Johnny — a.k.a. Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice — will open from October 21st through 30th.

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Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr has written the theme song for the new David Cross sitcom The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.

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The old train trestle on the cover of R.E.M.’s Murmur may be preserved as part of a hiking trail if voters in Athens-Clarke County, Georgia approve an extension of a one percent sales-tax hike.

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Ted Nugent will be interviewed and will perform on Lopez Tonight on Thursday on TBS.

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Deep Purple are assembling a documentary chronicling the year leading up to their break-up in 1976. Getting’ Tighter will be out on Blu-Ray and DVD early next year.

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Bravery keyboardist John Conway has joined the ranks of wine-peddling rockers. He’s producing wines at California’s Rancho Arroyo Grande vineyard, and has even built a studio — dubbed Rockus Bacchus — on the grounds.