An injury has forced Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder to postpone a series of North American tour dates.
Pearl Jam's headline appearance at this year's Isle Of Wight Festival is not expected to be affected by the grunge superstar's ailment.
Vedder had been due to kick off a run of shows in Las Vegas on April 10 but the gigs will now be rescheduled for the autumn because of temporary nerve damage to the rocker's right arm as the result of a back injury.
His show at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival has been cancelled outright.
A statement on Pearljam.com by Pearl Jam's manager Kelly Curtis reads:
"After having worked aggressively with doctors and physical therapists for the last eight weeks to repair the damage, the intensity of the injury and time needed to heal has made it impossible to play the shows as scheduled. There was hope up until the last minute that the treatments would be successful."
The track is going to be released April 20, 2012 on 7"coloured vinyl (already SOLD OUT!) and as digital download via iTunes, Amazon and various other download shops. The release will also include the exclusive IRON MAIDEN cover 'The Number Of The Beast'.
The entire album, 'Phantom Antichrist', will be released June 1, 2012 via Nuclear Blast.
'PHANTOM ANTICHRIST' formats:
Jewel Case CD - 2LP Yellow Vinyl 2LP Bi-Coloured Vinyl (Red/Black): limited to 500 copies, hand numbered 2LP Picture Vinyl - CD/DVD Digi Limited Edition: 2 Digipacks in a slipcase. Limited Mailorder Edition: metallic box including CD/DVD Digi Ltd. Edition, T-Shirt, exclusive CD 'Live In Wacken', Poster, signing card, limited to 500 copies, hand numbered
2012 is a special year for Udo Dirkschneider and his band U.D.O.: firstly they will release "Celebrator" on May 4th, and this double album is a compilation that includes 25 unreleased and rare tracks - expertly timed to coincide with the band's 25th anniversary.
Later in the year, a live DVD/CD from the successful "Rev-Raptor" tour will be released too.
And on top of that, Udo Dirkschneider celebrated his 60th birthday yesterday (April 6th)! Happy belated birthday & all the best to you Udo, from every one of us still wearing combat trousers over here at Uber Rock HQ.
The tracklisting for "Celebrator" is as follows:
CD 1:
01. Stormbreaker (Remix)
02. Tallyman
03. Run! (Remix)
04. Free Or Rebellion (Remix)
05. Bleeding Heart (Remix)
06. The Silencer
07. Bodyworld (Remix)
08. Systematic Madness (Remix)
09. HAMMERFALL feat. Udo Dirkschneider - Head Over Heels
10. Balls To The Wall (Piano Version)
11. Artificialized
12. LORDI feat. Udo Dirkschneider - They Only Come Out At Night
Twister Sister frontman Dee Snider is currently streaming a song, 'I Get A Kick Out Of You', from his forthcoming album on his official Facebook page.
The new solo album, 'Dee Does Broadway', will be released on May 8th via Razor & Tie and features Snider tackling a dozen Broadway standards. The full tracklisting of the album is:
'Cabaret' 'The Ballad Of Sweeney Todd' 'Big Spender' (with Cyndi Lauper) 'Mack The Knife' 'Whatever Lola Wants' (with Bebe Neuwirth) 'Music Of The Night' (with guest violinist Mark Wood) 'The Joint Is Jumpin'' (with Jesse Blaze Snider) 'Luck Be A Lady' (with Clay Aiken) 'I Get A Kick Out Of You' 'There Is Nothin' Like A Dame' (with the stars of Priscilla Queen of the Desert: Will Swenson, Tony Sheldon and Nick Adams) 'Razzle Dazzle' 'Tonight/Somewhere' (with Patti LuPone)
'Dee Does Broadway' will be released on the same day as Snider's first ever autobiography. 'Shut Up And Give Me The Mic', from Gallery Books, is said to be "Filled with entertaining anecdotes and candid confessions. 'Shut Up And Give Me The Mic' takes you through the good times and bad with a heavy metal star who worked as hard as he played, and who did it all for his wife, four kids, and millions of fans. As lead singer and songwriter of Twisted Sister, Dee Snider became the poster boy for heavy metal, hair bands, and the wild side of rock. Now, in his twisted new memoir, he reveals the real stories behind the crazy makeup, the big hair, and badass hits like 'We're Not Gonna Take It' and 'I Wanna Rock'."
Former Motley Crue vocalist (we're not even gonna bother with the 'best ever Crue vocalist' jibe as it is so obvious) John Corabi has made a two track sampler CD available at this location.
The limited edition disc features the song 'Father, Mother, Son', taken from Corabi's last ever live performance with previous band The Scream, and the track 'If I Never Get To Say Goodbye...' which will feature on his forthcoming unplugged album.
An official release date for the acoustic album has yet to be announced.
The full tracklisting and details of digital bonus tracks featured on the forthcoming album from The Hives have been announced.
'Lex Hives', produced by the band themselves, will be released on June 5th and feature a dozen songs, with a further two songs being available with the digital edition.
The full tracklisting for 'Lex Hives' :
'Come On!' 'Go Right Ahead' '1000 Answers' 'I Want More' 'Wait a Minute' 'Patrolling Days' 'Take Back The Toys' 'Without The Money' 'These Spectacles Reveal The Nostalgics' 'My Time Is Coming' 'If I Had A Cent' 'Midnight Shifter'
Bad Sam, the punk outfit from Newport, South Wales who are fronted by former Cowboy Killers 'singer' Beddis, have released the video for the track 'Black John Wayne'.
Filled with handsome gentlemen and the kind of beautiful noise that we all love, the video is a must-watch! So watch it below!!
Exit_International have announced a series of UK tour dates for April and May prior to touring Japan, alongside Hawk Eyes, as support to Ginger & Friends.
Catch Exit_International at:
APRIL
21ST: NEWPORT, LE PUB 23RD: LONDON, MACBETH (W/ STRAIGHT LINES) 24TH: CARDIFF, THE MOON CLUB (W/ STRAIGHT LINES)
MAY
1ST BIRMINGHAM, BULLS HEAD 2ND DERBY, VICTORIA INN 3RD GLASGOW, STAIRWAY 4TH RUGBY, THE VAULT 8TH LONDON, ISLINGTON BAR ACADEMY 9TH LIVERPOOL LOMAX 10TH MANCHESTER, STAR & GARTER 11TH HUDDERSFIELD, THE PARISH 12TH BRIDGEND, HOBOS
JUNE (JAPANESE TOUR W/ GINGER WILDHEART, HAWK EYES)
17TH - OSAKA, NAMBA ROCKETS 18TH - TOKYO, DUO MUSIC EXCHANGE
Andrew Elstner, guitarist with Torche, whose new album 'Harmonicraft' is due out April 24th via Volcom Entertainment, is being treated for rabies in St. Louis after a bat urinated in his eye, Pitchfork reports:
"The story begins in St. Louis. Elstner was with a friend's touring band, staying with a former roommate at his old home - a rustic house built in 1824 with 70 acres and a horse pasture. When Elstner turned on the lights in one room, he discovered a trapped and frightened bat, zooming around. 'As it passed by my head a fourth time at light speed, it managed to piss on my right eye,' Elstner wrote in an email to Pitchfork. He laughed, rinsed his face, and went to sleep.
But the next day, he told his parents, and they 'proceeded to have a meltdown,' he said, 'and were convinced I had rabies.'
Although it's impossible to contract rabies from bat piss, Elstner said he was recommended to get vaccinated, due to 'exposure,' by 'everyone from the local vet, to our family doc, to Animal Control, to my friend who's an eye surgeon, to the nerds at the CDC in Atlanta.' With rabies, there is a small window for treatment, after which it is pretty much always fatal.
Elstner entered the emergency room at St. Luke's Hospital on March 30 to begin the rabies vaccination process. More treatments are to come. 'Feel like I'm getting treated for a unicorn bite,' he wrote, and later added, 'I didn't feel like rolling the dice any more than I already do.'"
The hard rock super team of The Demon, Starchild, Spaceman, and Catman are back in a new ongoing series from IDW Publishing, beginning in June. The latest incarnation of "Kiss" in comics will be written in alternating arcs by IDW Chief Creative Officer and Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall and Tom Waltz, with Jamal Igle and Casey Maloney switching off on art. The series will take a superhero approach to the costumed personas adopted by the original Kiss lineup of Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, with humans throughout history accepting the power of the Kiss talismans. The band has made multiple comic book appearances since its formation in 1973, first in a series from Marvel Comics and most recently in a four-issue arc in the pages of "Archie." Comic Book Resources caught up with Ryall, who is writing the first arc of the new "Kiss" series, about IDW's plans for the iconic rockers.
Ryall's long history as a Kiss fan helped form an enthusiastic appreciation for the band that would form the foundation for acquiring the comics license. "Kiss was one of the first bands I ever listened to," Ryall told CBR News. "I had an older brother and we had to share a room, so as the younger brother I had no say over the music we listened to or what comics I was allowed to read. In fact, in that regard, I was only allowed to collect things he didn't buy. He called dibs on 'Spider-Man,' so I was given things he didn't care about like 'Fantastic Four.' It was a total monarchy in that bedroom, and every night we'd listen to Kiss, all [through] growing up, all throughout my childhood. So I got into it early on -- the stuff you listen to every day, the stuff your brother likes you somehow want to like, too.
"I was all into it, too, the Kiss magazines he had and the 'Kiss Meets Phantom of the Park' movie that aired on TV, and from there all the action figures, and it all just went on from there."
Though Ryall first considered bringing Kiss to IDW several years ago, circumstances got in the way. "It's funny, we first approached Gene about Kiss comics a few years back, and that was when they had made the deal with Platinum -- it was before it was announced, but it was too late for us to get on board," Ryall said. "That's when we partnered with him to do the Simmons comics line, but we always had it in the back of our heads that the thing we wanted to do was Kiss comics, too. And nobody had ever really collected the old Kiss stuff, so those old Marvel magazines were really hard to find, and when they were collected they were only ever put out in that giant 'Kiss Compendium' book, but they've never been out in trade paperback. So over the years, partnering with Gene, we kept talking with him about that, and when Platinum went... the way they went, we started having that conversation with Kiss again."
This time, however, there was another potential conflict -- Archie Comics, which had also approached Simmons for the Kiss license. "I actually brought up the idea of a joint co-licenseship (there's probably a more official word for that)," Ryall told CBR. "I'm fine with sharing the license with somebody like Archie, I think they hit a good audience on their side and we hit somewhat of a different audience, and the two of us together are just two ways for Gene and the band to reach the widest comic audience possible." Archie recently published the four-part "Archie Meets Kiss" story in its flagship title.
For the IDW version Ryall proposed a return to the roots of Kiss comics. "My whole pitch to him was, I wanted to do Kiss comics the way I remembered them as a kid. I wanted to do them like the old Marvel comics that Stan Lee worked on with John Buscema and then John Romita, Jr. They were just these teenage, young guys who got these talismans that powered them up," Ryall said. "It was like a superhero comic concept, which I always dug. That's my background as a reader. When Kiss did comics in the '90s, hell, it was like everything in the '90s. It was so overblown and big and cosmic, and there was such a strong Todd McFarlane influence on the art. And I could never quite relate to them. Kiss became these cosmic deities that were overseeing... I don't know. They weren't necessarily to my taste. So when we got involved wanting to do them now, we wanted to take it back to a more human level and get more of a superhero-ish feel, but also keeping some of the stuff fans liked in the '90s, too. We're telling stories set in different decades and different centuries, but with the focus being more on human characters who are empowered by Kiss talismans."
Ryall developed IDW's approach to "Kiss" with fellow editor Tom Waltz, with whom he will share writing chores on the series. "Tom's an equally big Kiss fan. We worked together on the Gene Simmons stuff and we both talked about what we'd like to do with 'Kiss.' We had this all plotted out before we'd even ever signed the deal with Gene -- probably a year before, even when Platinum was still doing Kiss comics," Ryall said. "We started putting together a 'here's what we'd do if we ever had the chance.' So when we had the chance, we had this pretty fully-formed idea already. It involves me writing two issues, Tom writing two issues, alternating back and forth. But we have the benefit of working in the same office, so we're often working on each other's scripts together, reading each other's and making notes, making sure it's a cohesive thing.
"We wanted it so every two issues drew a storyline and imagery from a classic Kiss record but also was a good jumping on point for people. So you don't have to know any mythology, you're not going to have to follow all this lore to know what's going on," he continued. "Every other issue is the start of a brand-new story line, that's telling a bigger story all together."
The first arc, "Dressed to Kill," is based loosely on the 1975 album of the same name, and subsequent arcs will follow suit with other classic Kiss albums. "[The cover of 'Dressed to Kill'] is the band just standing there in full suits, but with the makeup on. And I thought, that's kind of a cool image, imagine if they were gangster-era," Ryall said of the album's relationship to the first "Kiss" arc. "So we started thinking maybe we could transport Kiss back to these different times and then use characters and titles and names that have been referred to in a lot of their songs. They've introduced a lot of character names, so we thought, well, why don't we make real characters out of these? Long-time fans will pick up the book and they'll recognize the imagery and they'll recognize the characters and it'll give them all these inside nods, but if you know nothing about Kiss, you're just meeting a lot of different characters. You don't have to know it, but it sort of rewards you on different level, as well."
Though the first arc is set in the 1920s and uses gangster imagery, Ryall said the story won't be heading in the direction some fans might think. "It's funny, when our solicits came out, the message board at one of these other comics sites -- a comic rumors site, if you will -- had somebody saying, 'Kiss fighting Al Capone? That's the stupidest thing ever!' And I'm like, where did it say that?" The writer added that, even though the series will feature several different sets of humans getting the Kiss powers, there is a larger story as well, one that draws on godlike entities called the Elder and the Destroyer. "It's sort of like God and the Devil, in broad terms, and they're both sort of fighting it out for Earth. In this two-parter, you find out why, what's going on, how these people are given the Kiss abilities and what that means," Ryall said. "They're discovering these powers for the first time at the same time the reader is, so it moves along and catches everybody up to speed right away. Like I say, it takes place in the '20s, but it also goes into Hell, and they're not just Kiss with tommy guns fighting gangsters. That was imagery that was the basis for the storyline, but it goes in a very different direction from there."
The second arc, Ryall said, is based on "Music from The Elder," the band's ninth studio album. "It jumps back to the Dark Ages so you get sort of a sword-and-sorcery version of Kiss," Ryall said of the Waltz-penned arc. "Then we go forward and there will be a female version -- we're taking the concept in ways it hasn't been used in comics before, but just having a lot of fun with it and hopefully doing things that people will enjoy."
Like the writers, the artists will also rotate every two issues, with Jamal Igle tackling Ryall's opening arc and Casey Maloney, who also drew Gene Simmons' "Zipper," working with Waltz on the follow-up. "Gene loved his art and wanted him to come back, too," Ryall said of Maloney. "Jamal's been great, he brings a nice superhero aesthetic to the book. He's the guy that's drawn big DC books, he knows how to tell a story, he knows how to move action along, he really knows how to bring this stuff to life," he added of his own artistic collaborator. "He's the perfect person to kick this off, because if we do get this book into the hands of people who like superhero comics, I think they'll really like what they see, and hopefully they'll dig the story as well."
When bands, actors, and other celebrities decide to put their brand on comics, the degree to which they are involved with the project can vary greatly. But Kiss's Gene Simmons is a noted comic book fan, and Ryall said the man behind the "Demon" persona takes a special interest in what IDW is doing. "Gene's a huge comic fan, and any chance he gets, whether he's talking publicly about this stuff or you're talking to him one on one, he'll name-drop every comic creator and comic reference he can just to let you know how much he knows, which is a blast," Ryall said. "It's fun talking about old issues of 'Strange Tales' with him, or which inker he liked best on Neal Adams. He really does know this stuff. So it's fun to be able to talk to him on this level.
"It's really not just Gene putting out another Kiss product. Comics are something he always cared about," the writer continued. "As he likes to tell everyone, Gene used to do fanzines with Marv Wolfman back before he was ever in Kiss. I know there are a lot of Kiss products out there, but there are some that mean a lot more to him, and I know that having good Kiss comics out there means a lot to him. So he's very involved as far as what we're doing, where the stories are going, how the characters look, and so on. And he's been great, he's been a lot of fun to work with on this stuff. It's sort of fun to remember that I'm sitting there talking about comic books and geeky references with the god of thunder that I grew up watching on TV or seeing in concerts. It just amuses me that he's doing this, because he doesn't have to to the degree that he does, but he digs it."
"Kiss" #1 by Ryall and Igle takes the stage in June.
Garbage have released the video for their comeback track, 'Blood For Poppies', and you can watch it right here!
"We piled into a transit van with the ridiculously talented team of Matt Irwin and Aaron Brown and hopped around little pockets of Los Angeles creating a gorgeous surrealist dream." Shirley Manson commented on the video shoot. "We ate ice cream sandwiches in the sunshine and laughed a lot. I didn't want the shoot to end."
The black and white video was directed by fashion photographer Matt Irwin and shot in Los Angeles. The video takes inspiration from surrealist artists, film makers and photographers such Rene Magritte, Maya Deren and Francesca Woodman and includes a gory reference to the famous eyeball slitting scene in Luis Bunuel's cult 1929 film Un Chien Andalou.
'Blood For Poppies' will be released for Record Store Day on April 21 as a special edition red 7" vinyl record, alongside the single, 'Battle In Me'.
The new Garbage album, 'Not Your Kind Of People', will be released on May 14th.
The original line up of mighty British Heavy Metal band Wolfsbane, who reformed in 2011 to record their first studio album for 17 years, 'Wolfsbane Save The World', released in January 2012 to huge acclaim, have confirmed a nine date October UK tour.
Dates are:
Weds. Oct. 17th - The Musician, LEICESTER Thurs. Oct. 18th - Bootleggers, KENDAL Fri. Oct. 19th - Eric's, LIVERPOOL Sat. Oct. 20th - The Attic, RUSHDEN Sun. Oct. 21st - The Corporation, SHEFFIELD Weds Oct. 24th - Fibbers, YORK Thurs. 25th - The Garage, LONDON Fri. Oct. 26th - The Cathouse, GLASGOW Sat. Oct 27th - Robin Hood 2, BILSTON
Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian is in his Serjical Strike Studios in LA putting the finishing touches on his third solo studio album, Harakiri, the follow-up to 2010's Imperfect Harmonies, which will be released this summer on Serjical Strike/Reprise Records.
Much of the new record was written in 2011, which was an incredibly busy year for the diversely talented musician and what Serj describes as "the busiest, most productive year of my life so far." In February, the rock musical Prometheus Bound, which he composed all of the music for, opened at the Oberon Theater at Harvard in Boston to rave reviews. 2011 also saw Serj release his second poetry book, Glaring Through Oblivion. He toured with System of a Down across three continents, performed with the Opera Orchestra in Yerevan, Armenia, where he also had political meetings with heads of state and hosted non-profit events. He then performed his first ever concert in Lebanon, the place of his birth, with the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra. When he returned to the US, he finished writing four records: a jazz record, an electronic record he wrote with his friend Jimmy Urine of Mindless Self Indulgence, a full classical symphony called Orca, and the new solo rock record that he is currently mastering.
The new album is slated for a summer release, and is all performed, written, produced, and engineered by Serj. The album will also feature performances by Serj's touring band, The F.C.C. - Dan Monti on guitar, Mario Pagliarulo on bass, and Troy Zeigler on drums. Dan Monti is also co-mixing and co-engineering the album with Serj. The album will be mastered by Vlado Meller (Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kanye West, Beastie Boys.)
Expect an album announcement and new music from Serj in the very near future.
Former Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley's new project, Sylver Tongue, will release their debut single - a song entitled 'Creatures' - on May 21st.
The outfit, which Hatherley says is inspired by the 1980s output of Japan, Tom Tom Club and Talking Heads, will play London's Shacklewell Arms on April 14 and London's The Waiting Room on April 28.
Last year, Hatherley played her first show with Ash in five years as they kicked off their 'Free All Angels' anniversary tour in Dublin in October. She has released three solo albums under her own name, 2004's 'Grey Will Fade', 2007's 'The Deep Blue' and 2009's 'New Worlds', and also played alongside Bat For Lashes and KT Tunstall.
It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of our beloved founder and leader for the past 50 years, Jim Marshall. While mourning the Guv'nor though, we also salute a legendary man who led a full and truly remarkable life.
Jim's ascent into the history books as 'the Father of Loud' and the man responsible for 'the Sound of Rock' is a true rags-to-riches tale. Cruelly robbed of his youth by tubercular bones, Jim rose to become one of the four forefathers responsible for creating the tools that allowed rock guitar as we know and love it today to be born. The ground breaking quartet also includes the late, great trio of Leo Fender, Les Paul and Seth Lover - together with Jim, they truly are the cornerstones of all things rock.
In addition to the creation of the amps chosen by countless guitar heroes and game changing bands, Jim was also an incredibly humble and generous man who, over the past several decades, has quietly donated many millions of pounds to worthy causes.
While the entire Marshall Amplification family mourns Jim's passing and will miss him tremendously, we all feel richer for having known him and are happy in the knowledge that he is now in a much better place which has just got a whole lot louder!
Rest in Peace & thank you Jim.
Your memory; the music and joy your amps have brought to countless millions for the past five decades; and that world-famous, omnipresent script logo that proudly bears your name will always live on.
News Updates
Former Motley Crue vocalist (we're not even gonna bother with the 'best ever Crue vocalist' jibe as it is so obvious) John Corabi has made a two track sampler CD available at 
appearances since its formation in 1973, first in a series from Marvel Comics and most recently in a four-issue arc in the pages of "Archie." Comic Book Resources caught up with Ryall, who is writing the first arc of the new "Kiss" series, about IDW's plans for the iconic rockers.
'20s, but it also goes into Hell, and they're not just Kiss with tommy guns fighting gangsters. That was imagery that was the basis for the storyline, but it goes in a very different direction from there."