Video: John Mayer’s Surprise Performance at Eddie’s Attic

John Mayer made a surprise visit to Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, Georgia Tuesday night.

Eddie’s Attic is an amazing establishment that has acted as a launching pad to a lot of artist including John Mayer, so it was nice of him to come back and show Eddie’s some much deserved love.

LFO Lead Singer Dies at 35

TMZ reported earlier that Rich Cronin, lead singer of 90′s band, LFO died on Wednesday.

According to Rich’s brother, he suffered a stroke after a long battle with leukemia.  It is reported that he passed away in a hospital yesterday afternoon.  LFO sang the 1999 beachy hit single “Summer Girls,” best known for the chorus “I like girls that wear Abercrombie & Fitch.” Their follow-up video for “Girls on TV,” featured Cronin’s then-girlfriend Jennifer Love Hewitt. The band split in 2002 and in 2005, Cronin was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. Two years later, when his cancer was in remission, Cronin — along with former boy banders Jeff Timmons (of 98 Degrees), Bryan Abrams (of Color Me Badd), and Chris Kirkpatrick (of ’N Sync) — starred in the VH1 reality series Mission: Man Band, about the foursome’s struggle to start a new band.

In 2006, Entertainment Weekly quoted Cronin saying, “I am truly thankful for the success I had. And if it happens again, that’d be really nice. I’m just that same guy writing pop songs to make people happy. And I still only like girls in Abercrombie & Fitch.”

Cronin was 35.

Blind Guardian Announces Sacred Worlds And Songs Divine 2010 World Tour

Blind Guardian has announced the North American portion of their “.” The trek will feature support acts Holy Grail and Seven Kingdoms.

Triumphantly returning to North American shores in support of the Billboard-charting new album At The Edge Of Time, we are pleased to announce the western hemisphere’s portion of the Sacred Worlds And Songs Divine 2010 World Tour, commencing on November 19^th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and concluding on December 22^nd in West Springfield, Virginia.  Support acts are California’s Holy Grail and Florida’s Seven Kingdoms.

Hansi checks in from the secret Blind Guardian bunker about the upcoming trek:

“Christmas will be a little earlier this year, ‘cause The Guardian is coming to town in November and December!  The band is really excited to announce this upcoming tour.  Finally, we will get the chance to preach our Sacred Words and play our Songs Divine somewhere near your neighborhood.  We have prepared a nice package of music and bands for our Northern American followers.  Our friends from Holy Grail and Seven Kingdoms will join us on this glorious mission and will have their part in these magical nights to come.  Both bands are underground now, but I can feel that the future is theirs. They really carry the spirit of a new American Power Metal generation.  Touring the U.S. and Canada does always means a tremendous amount of fun, so we are really anxious to see if the people in Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and Albuquerque – where we have not played before – can scream as loud as their brothers and sisters in New York, Quebec, Toronto, or Hollywood.  We’ll soon find out when we meet you at the edge of time.

[Read more]

Video: Kings Of Leon’s New Video for ‘Radioactive’

Kings Of Leon premiered the video for their latest single ‘Radioactive’ today.

“Radioactive” is the first single off the upcoming album, Come Around Sundown, out everywhere October 19.  Take a look and let us know what you think in the comment section.

Mike Portnoy Quits Dream Theater

Drummer Mike Portnoy of progressive metal giants DREAM THEATER has released the following statement:

“I am about to write something I never imagined I’d ever write.
After 25 years, I have decided to leave DREAM THEATER… the band I founded, led and truly loved for a quarter of a century.

To many people this will come as a complete shock, and will also likely be misunderstood by some, but please believe me that it is not a hasty decision…it is something I have struggled with for the last year or so….

After having had such amazing experiences playing with HAIL!, TRANSATLANTIC and AVENGED SEVENFOLD this past year, I have sadly come to the conclusion that I have recently had more fun and better personal relations with these other projects than I have for a while now in DREAM THEATER.

Please don’t misinterpret me, I love the DREAM THEATER guys dearly and have a long history, friendship and bond that runs incredibly deep with them… it’s just that I think we are in serious need of a little break.

DREAM THEATER was always my baby…and I nurtured that baby every single day and waking moment of my life since 1985… 24/7, 365… never taking time off from DREAM THEATER’s never-ending responsibilites (even when the band was ‘off’ between cycles)… working overtime and way beyond the call of duty that most sane people ever would do for a band.

But I’ve come to the conclusion that the DREAM THEATER machine was starting to burn me out…and I really needed a break from the band in order to save my relationship with the other members and keep my DREAM THEATER spirit hungry and inspired.

We have been on an endless write/record/tour cycle for almost 20 years now (of which I have overseen EVERY aspect without a break) and while a few months apart from each other here and there over the years has been much needed and helpful, I honestly hoped the band could simply agree with me to taking a bit of a ‘hiatus’ to recharge our batteries and ‘save me from ourselves’…

Sadly, in discussing this with the guys, they determined they do not share my feelings and have decided to continue without me rather than take a breather… I even offered to do some occasional work throughout 2011 against my initial wishes, but it was not to be…

While it truly hurts for me to even think of a DREAM THEATER without Mike Portnoy (hell, my father named the band!!), I do not want to stand in their way…so I have decided to sacrifice myself and simply leave the band so as to not hold them back against their wishes.
Strangely enough, I just read an interview that I recently did that asked me about the future of DREAM THEATER and I talked about ‘always following your heart and being true to yourself’… Sadly, I must say that at this particular moment, my heart is not with DREAM THEATER…and I would simply be ‘going through the motions,’ and would honestly NOT be true to myself if I stayed for the sake of obligation without taking the break I felt I needed.

I wish the guys the best and hope the music and legacy we created together is enjoyed by fans for decades to come… I am proud of every album we made, every song we wrote and every show we played….

I’m sorry to all the disappointed DREAM THEATER fans around the world… I really tried to salvage the situation and make it work… I honestly just wanted a break (not a split)… but happiness cannot be forced, it needs to come from within.

You DREAM THEATER fans are the greatest fans in the world and as you all know, I have always busted my ass for you guys and I hope that you will stay with me on my future musical journey, wherever it may lead me…. (and as you all know my work ethic, there will surely be no shortage of future Mike Portnoy projects!)” (Blabbermouth)

Video: Mastodon Orange Amplifiers Video

Check out Mastodon’s Orange Amplifiers Video. Orange Artist rep, Alex Auxier, sits down with Troy, Bill and Brent from Atlanta’s own Mastodon. Let them tell you why they love their Orange amps and cabs.

Mastodon is gearing up for the blackdiamondskye Tour with Alice in Chains and Deftones
This will be one of the best tour packages of the year!

Reprise Records  also released an exclusive EP of six of Mastodon’s tracks from the film Jonah Hex score on June 29th. For their first film scoring experience Mastodon recorded the tracks for Jonah Hex by viewing movie footage and actually composing the score spontaneously on the spot in the studio. This method of experimental and immediate composition proved to be a daring, daunting and ultimately fun way of creating music together over a short period of time. The resulting sessions yielded incredibly exciting results produced in a completely different way than they normally would approach writing and recording for a Mastodon album

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Machine Head’s Robb Flynn Gear Stolen – Reward Offered

Guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn of San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD has posted the following message on the band’s official web site:

“Today, [Tuesday] September 7th, between the hours of 1:15 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. [PST] while I was picking my son up from school, my house [which is located in the Martinez/Virginia Hills area of California] was broken into and many priceless items were stolen. Items include my wife’s jewelry, laptops, wakeboards, cash, and most importantly four of my guitars, including the guitar that I recorded [MACHINE HEAD's] first album, ‘Burn My Eyes’, with. Also stolen was a guitar that is priceless to me that was a gift from [late PANTERA guitarist] Dimebag Darrell [see pictures below]. The cocksuckers even stole my son Zander’s mini Flying V I got him for Christmas.

“I am offering a $1,000 reward for the return of the black Ibanez Strat along with many stickers, a ‘Designated Drinker’ sticker. Additionally I am also offering a $2,000 reward for the safe return of the blue Washburn Dimebolt prototype.

“An APB has been put out to every Guitar Center in Northern California and the police were able to get several fingerprints off of the two acoustics that the thieves handled, yet bizarrely left behind. Sightings of two suspicious vehicles have been reported, one a green/teal U.S.-make pickup truck, the other a white pull-side work van.

“If anyone sees or hears of anything on Craigslist, eBay, at their guitar shop… anything, anywhere! Please contact us at mike@machinehead1.com immediately.”

Disturbed’s ‘Asylum’ Debuts at No. 1 On the Billboard Charts

I guess David Draiman’s call to fans at the Uproar Festival to take down the pop empire by buying ‘Asylum’ worked because the band’s album has debuted at #1.

Asylum is the band’s fourth consecutive studio album to debut at No. 1.

The album also debuted at #1 in New Zealand, #2 in Australia, #4 in Germany, #3 in Austria and #7 in the UK.”

Disturbed’s current single “Another Way to Die” is getting plenty of play on the airwaves as the Chicago foursome promote the album while headlining the Rockstar Uproar tour.

Read the Uproar show review by clicking here.

John Lennon’s Killer Denied Parole

John Lennon’s killer was denied parole in New York, almost 30 years after gunning down the Ex-Beatle in front of his home.

A parole board decided against releasing Mark David Chapman after interviewing him on Tuesday. This was his sixth time before the parole board.

A number of people opposed the release of Chapman, including Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, who has stated that she fears for the safety of her family and herself if Chapman was to be released.

Chapman will eligible for parole again in 2012.

Corey Taylor: ‘Conflicted’ About Slipknot’s Future

When speaking about he future of Slipknot, Corey Taylor said “right now”  he’s “conflicted” following the death of bassist Paul Gray last June.

In an interview with FMQB radio Taylor said, “It’s kind of a gray area right now. Everybody is still feeling it. It’s too soon to tell. I’m very conflicted about whether or not I want to do anything with Slipknot, because to me, Paul was such an integral part of the band. He was the whole reason that the band was the way it was… Paul was the glue and the orchestrator behind some of the best music we ever wrote. He was the soul of the band.”

Corey Taylor is currently touring with Stone Sour and promoting their new album “Audio Secrecy”, which was released September 7.

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