Sunday, March 4, 2012 at 09:17AM Guitar genius Ronnie Montrose has died. He was 64. A cause of death has not been released, but Ronnie had been battling cancer for several years.
The Montrose debut - simply called Montrose - is a rock n' roll classic - and I don't think you'll find many folks that will disagree about the album's significance to the genre.
Behold one of the best songs of all time: "Rock Candy."
Sunday, March 4, 2012 at 12:01AM 
Metallica is not Glam but it's been my experience that even the most hardcore hair metal fans also love Metallica. I attribute that to the 80s connection and also the fact that Metallica has created some awesome songs. Now Metallica has some cool plans to celebrate records - you know, music old school style. The band will release the EP Beyond Magnetic on vinyl in celebration of Record Store Day, which is April 21. You can also buy the record online at the band's official website. Here's all the details. I collect records, so I'll be picking this one up for sure.
March 2, 2012 - Los Angeles, CA - Metallica has announced that its Beyond Magnetic EP, will be released on silver vinyl on Record Store Day, Saturday, April 21, 2012. Fans can purchase the vinyl at indie record retailers and at www.metallica.com. Originally released via all digital retailers on December 13th and on CD worldwide on January 30th, the EP features four tracks recorded during the sessions for 2008's 2x-platinum Death Magnetic, the band's fifth consecutive No. 1 album.
Said the members of Metallica of Beyond Magnetic: "During the Death Magnetic album sessions in 2007 and 2008, we originally recorded 14 songs. When it came time to pick the songs for the final album, we decided on 10 songs that you've all come to know over the last three years. Some of you may have heard bits and pieces of those other songs on 'Mission Metallica' (remember 'Mission Metallica'?!) or heard rumors about them during the recording process, and wondered, 'What ever happened to those other four songs???.' We kept them in the vault and decided to pull them for our 30th anniversary celebration last month, so here are the four leftover tracks from the Death Magnetic sessions. They are ROUGH mixes, unfinished to their original degree of mixing from March '08. These four songs were released as gift to our closest fans, the members of our Fan Club, to enjoy. Now they're being made available to you."
Metallica celebrated its 30th anniversary as a band in December 2011, performing four shows at the Fillmore Theatre in San Francisco, CA, exclusively for members of their fan club, the Metallica Club.
BEYOND MAGNETIC TRACKLISTING:
1. Hate Train
2. Just A Bullet Away
3. Hell And Back
4. Rebel Of Babylon
Additionally, on June 23-24 Metallica will headline Orion Music + More in Atlantic City, NJ at Bader Field. Orion Music + More was founded by Metallica with their friends at C3 Presents. Orion Music + More will feature multiple live music stages plus a lifestyle element that reflects each of Metallica's band members many personal interests. Metallica will headline both nights of Orion Music + More and play "The Black Album" in its entirety one night and Ride The Lightning in its entirety the other. This will be the only time the band will perform these albums in North America in 2012. The lineup for Orion Music + More will span multiple musical genres. From punk to country, over 20 bands will perform, including: Arctic Monkeys, Avenged Sevenfold, Modest Mouse, The Gaslight Anthem, Cage The Elephant, Fucked Up, Best Coast, Hot Snakes, Titus Andronicus, Gary Clark Jr., Lucero, Roky Erickson, The Black Angels, The Sword, Liturgy, and more to be announced in the coming weeks.
Tickets are currently on sale for $150 for a 2-Day Pass including all fees. Visit www.orionmusicandmore.com to buy tickets.
Saturday, March 3, 2012 at 12:01AM Lara Logan of CBS will air a profile of Aerosmith on 60 Minutes next Sunday, March 11 at 7 p.m. ET. Lara interviewed the band on their last tour and some of that footage will be included in the piece.
Aerosmith is actively recording and apparently the new stuff sounds just like Rocks-era Aerosmith. If this is true, I'll be over the moon. Rocks is my favorite album of all time and while I don't believe lighting strikes twice (yes, I just made an Aerosmith pun), I do believe the Bad Boys of Boston + producer Jack Douglas have what it takes (another pun!) to knock it out of the park record-wise once again.
Aerosmith is supposed to tour starting in June. I'm really hoping the 60 Minutes special will lead to the official tour announcement with dates. I want to plan a trip around an Aerosmith show so I'm hoping for some cool cities to choose from... and quite frankly, the sooner the better.
Friday, March 2, 2012 at 12:01AM This is insane. I was on YouTube watching some videos a certain Metalboy! emailed me about...and I ended up watching Alice Cooper clips. You know, as you do. And I was struck by something... Alice Cooper does not age. I mean, for sure he is older now than he was back in the day... but man. He still looks the same in the face and his stage mannerisms and moves are just as sharp. It's a little scary, which is apropos, right?
Compare 2011 Alice Cooper vs. 1971 Alice Cooper on "I'm Eighteen."
Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 12:01AM I would be remiss if I didn't mention the passing of Davy Jones, lead singer of the MONKEES. Davy was 66 and died yesterday after a heart attack. Many of my friends happen to be huge MONKEES fans and the band is a part of rock n' roll history.
Davy was the star of what was probably the first-ever pop group created just for a television series. Davy was cute, he was British and he could sing. Basically that's a winning combination in any day and age but especially so in the 1960s.
I love the Brady Bunch episode that features Davy Jones. All Marcia Brady wanted was for Davy to perform at her high school prom! As president of the Fillmore Junior High Davy Jones Fan Club, Marcia really did have reason to brag, right? When Marcia couldn't get a hold of Davy (and really, it is hard to reach a famous musician just randomly on a Tuesday after school), she busts into a recording studio, pleads her case to Davy's manager... and gets no where. By the end of the episode, Davy has showed up on Marcia's doorstep to save the day and cemented the episode as just about the single most popular in the entire Brady Bunch series.
Davy Jones wasn't even old when he died yesterday. He didn't feel well, ended up having a heart attack and basically that was that. He had tour dates planned in the coming months and the MONKEES continued to tour off and on over the years. Relive the joy of "Girl," as performed by Davy Jones on the Brady Bunch.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 12:01AM Pretty much my two favorite things just converged into a new commercial for the LAIR at the L.A. Zoo: Glam metal + Betty White. The duo made five spots in total.
In case you didn't know, The Golden Girls is my favorite television show of all time and of course Betty White was one of the stars of the ensemble cast for that award winning show. Now Betty stars in the TV Land original sitcom Hot in Cleveland, which I also love. (And in case you didn't know, Valerie Bertinelli is another star of Hot in Cleveland and there are tons of rock/Van Halen jokes on the show). Anyway, imagine my excitement when I first saw the Betty + Slash commercial. The duo teamed up to promote LAIR (Living Amphibians, Invertebrates, and Reptiles), a new attraction that will feature 60 species of rare and endangered amphibians, invertebrates and reptiles at the L.A. Zoo.
Betty White is a big time animal lover. She's always been involved with zoos and she even recently wrote a book about her life in the zoo. I'm sure you're already aware of Slash's love for reptiles... so really, the pairing makes sense all things considered, right?
Betty is a board member for the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association... and Slash earned recognition from zoo officials for contributions to the wildlife center. Check out a couple of the ads.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 12:01AM Concert season is coming up again, and every dedicated Iron Maiden fan knows they did a new album and tour over the past few years, so now it's time in the cycle for a "classics" tour.
I admit to being a little mystified, because the Somewhere Back In Time tour, based around the DVD release of Live After Death, included songs from Somewhere Back In Time and Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, rather than take in only songs from that DVD, but now they are touring on the DVD release of Maiden England, which was shot on the Seventh Son tour. The setlist from that DVD is as follows:
Moonchild
The Evil That Men Do
The Prisoner
Still Life
Die With Your Boots On
Infinite Dreams
Killers
Can I Play With Madness
Heaven Can Wait
Wasted Years
The Clairvoyant
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
The Number Of The Beast
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Iron Maiden
As you can see, they did a lot of these songs last time. But Bruce Dickinson is saying they will do 2/3 of this setlist, with some surprises, so I can hope that may mean "Flight of Icarus" and "Children of the Damned." Either way, I am hitting the fan club pre-sale this week, and planning on seeing the final two shows of the tour in Texas this August.
Will you go and see Iron Maiden in 2012?