Van Halen officially reunites with David Lee Roth for 2012 world tour

Hell Yeah ! It is about time.
They may need walkers but what the hell!

NY Daily News
Rock ’n’ roll may never die, but even the ugliest heavy-metal feuds apparently do.

Van Halen announced Monday on its website that the band is going on tour next year with original lead singer David Lee Roth, who left the band during its heyday in 1985, back behind the mic.

Stradivarius violin sold for £9.8m at charity auction

!6 million! for a rare Violin and a good cause.


BBC
A well-preserved Stradivarius violin has been sold in an online auction for £9.8m ($15.9m) to raise money for disaster relief in Japan.

The violin was made in 1721 and is known as the Lady Blunt after Lord Byron's granddaughter Lady Anne Blunt who owned it for 30 years.

It was sold by a music foundation in Japan for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in March.

The price is more than four times the previous record for a Stradivarius.

Proceeds will go to the Nippon Foundation's Northeastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.

Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page celebrated at Mojo Awards

"I'm just looking forward to making some music and surprising people with it," he said.
BBC
Jimmy pages last couple of outings were so so , every time you hear him say something he is working on will be good or "Surprising" it usually is very good !

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has been inducted into the Mojo Hall Of Fame at the magazine's award ceremony...

Page, who last won a Mojo award for the 2007 Led Zeppelin reunion, revealed he was working on new material with a number of different projects.

He has been taken on by Robbie Williams' management company IE.

"I'm just looking forward to making some music and surprising people with it," he said.

"It won't be just teaming up with lots of people who are [big] names. I've got an idea of something which I've had for a long time and now's the time to do it."
Richard Hawley at Mojo Awards Richard Hawley beat Kasabian and Paul Weller to the best album award

But he declined to give further details about his collaborators or his new direction.

RIP Ronnie James Dio.

What a Bummer , The Great Ronnie James Dio Is now gone .
Some of the greatest bands ever had Dio Singing for them , Rainbow , Sabbath , And an awesome solo career , Man will he be missed .

This is Dio back in the day, With probably the best Overlooked Guitar Play Ever in the world , Craig Goldy !

BBC

Jimi Hendrix !

Valleys of Neptune is the reason why Jimi Hendrix was the Best Guitarist of his times ( And still far better than many out there today )
This IMO is the best sounding Hendrix EVER ,(been listening to it for a couple days now).
The instrumental of Sunshine of your love is amazing , as with the rest of the tracks Hendrix absolutely Cut loose on these , except for a wah wah , no effects at all and it sounds like a lot of live cuts (no edits ), just Hendrix doing what he did best , Molest , rape , and obliterate a Stratocaster and a wall of Marshall amps !


WSJ.com
News of a new Jimi Hendrix album could be greeted by fans of the rock guitarist with understandable skepticism. Hendrix only released three studio albums during his lifetime, but more than ten have been issued under his name after his death. Fans want to hear his work, but they also want to see his legacy respected by only putting out material from the vaults that’s worthy of his talent.

“Valleys of Neptune,” the newest new Hendrix album, due out tomorrow, features twelve tracks that have never before been officially commercially available. Some of the songs are covers (such as a version of Elmore James’ “Bleeding Heart” and an instrumental rendering of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love”), others are new takes on already-released songs (including alternate versions of “Fire” and “Hear My Train a Comin”). But the new album also features originals, including the title track, “Lullaby for the Summer,” and “Ships Passing through the Night.”
The bulk of the tracks were recorded around 1969, roughly between the release of the Hendrix album “Electric Ladyland” and his appearance at Woodstock. The sessions captured the final recordings of Hendrix’s band the Jimi Hendrix Experience, which featured bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. (Redding and Mitchell added to their parts on one of the “Neptune” tracks, “Crying Blue Rain,” in 1987, long after Hendrix’s death in 1970.)

“Valleys of Neptune” has a raw, muscular sound. Hendrix gets caught up in the groove, letting his vocals slide into scat and unleashing his guitar. The recordings are largely free of studio trickery, which can date an album by tying it to trends of the moment. This may be as close to a new Hendrix album as his fans will ever get.

Hellraiser !

No that ain't Pinhead , That is my latest toy .
A shiny new , Schecter Hellraiser C-1FR , One sexy Beast !

Avenged Sevenfold drummer dead

....BBC
James "The Rev" Sullivan, drummer for US heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, has died aged 28.

Sullivan, who co-founded the band in 1999, apparently died of natural causes at his home in California on Monday.

A statement on the band's website said Sullivan was "one of the world's best drummers, but more importantly our best friend and brother".

Avenged Sevenfold played the Reading and Download festivals in the UK. Their last album charted in the US top five.

The band picked up a Kerrang! magazine album of the year award in 2008 for their self-titled LP, and were currently working on their fifth studio album.

The statement added: "Jimmy you are forever in our hearts. We love you."

RIP LES PAUL !

An Incredible loss to the Music World , Les Paul , With his own two hands changed the way the world listened to music , His creations in their look , feel , and sound , are responsible for some of the best music ever recorded !
Play on Mr. Paul !

If Les Paul would have ever cranked it up , And played some hard rock he would have blown everyone Away , But in his smooth style he had He was untouchable !
AP
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Les Paul, who pioneered the solid-body electric guitar later wielded by a legion of rock 'n' roll greats, died Thursday of complications from pneumonia. He was 94. According to Gibson Guitar, Paul died at White Plains Hospital. His family and friends were by his side.

As an inventor, Paul also helped bring about the rise of rock 'n' roll with multitrack recording, which enables artists to record different instruments at different times, sing harmony with themselves, and then carefully balance the tracks in the finished recording.

The use of electric-amplified guitars gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1940s, and then exploded with the advent of rock in the mid-'50s.

"Suddenly, it was recognized that power was a very important part of music," Paul once said. "To have the dynamics, to have the way of expressing yourself beyond the normal limits of an unamplified instrument, was incredible. Today a guy wouldn't think of singing a song on a stage without a microphone and a sound system."

"Without Les Paul, we would not have rock and roll as we know it," said Terry Stewart, president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. "His inventions created the infrastructure for the music and his playing style will ripple through generations. He was truly an architect of rock and roll."

A tinkerer and musician since childhood, he experimented with guitar amplification for years before coming up in 1941 with what he called "The Log," a four-by-four piece of wood strung with steel strings. He felt a solid body would give the instrument a different sound from a traditional hollow guitar with an electrical pickup added to it.

"I went into a nightclub and played it. Of course, everybody had me labeled as a nut." He later put the wooden wings onto the body to give it a tradition guitar shape.

....

Student Ordered to Pay $675,000 for Illegal Downloads

At least Tenenbaum faired a little better than Jammie Thomas-Rasset who has to pay 1.92 million for her downloading habits !
Is it the actual downloading they get pissed about or the actual " Re-sharing " of the Files ?Fox News
BOSTON — A federal jury on Friday ordered a Boston University graduate student who admitted illegally downloading and sharing music online to pay $675,000 to four record labels.

Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., admitted in court that he downloaded and distributed 30 songs. The only issue for the jury to decide was how much in damages to award the record labels.

Under federal law, the recording companies were entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement. But the law allows as much as $150,000 per track if the jury finds the infringements were willful. The maximum jurors could have awarded in Tenenbaum's case was $4.5 million.

Jurors ordered Tenenbaum to pay $22,500 for each incident of copyright infringement, effectively finding that his actions were willful. The attorney for the 25-year-old student had asked the jury earlier Friday to "send a message" to the music industry by awarding only minimal damages.

Tenenbaum said he was thankful that the case wasn't in the millions and contrasted the significance of his fine with the maximum.

"That to me sends a message of 'We considered your side with some legitimacy,"' he said. "$4.5 million would have been, 'We don't buy it at all."'

He added he will file for bankruptcy if the verdict stands.

Jury in RIAA Trial Slaps $2 Million Fine on Jammie Thomas

She should have settled when she had the chance ! 24 songs ? 2 Million ? that is pretty steep , especially when you see the Stuff she was downloading ! Journey - Don't stop Believing ? not worth 80,000 , sheryl crow , richard Marx , Bryan adams , and some gloria Estefan ? stuff we all should be paid to listen to !

media & advertising
The Universal Music Group, owned by Vivendi, and other record labels were awarded $1.92 million on Thursday in the retrial of a Minnesota woman accused of swapping music over the Kazaa Internet service.

The federal jury in Minneapolis said the woman, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, of Brainerd, should pay $80,000 for each of the 24 songs that were posted on the site so others could download them.

The first time the case went to trial, in 2007, a jury awarded $9,250 a song, or $222,000.

The Recording Industry Association of America brought more than 35,000 legal actions against people it claimed were illegally sharing music before changing its policy in December. This is the only case that has gone to trial.

....

korn

Korn at one of their best moments ! Best when listened to through Headphones with a lot of volume !

....

Before I forget !

Slipknot , has to be one of the most ultimate bands ever ! The shear brutality of the controlled chaos they create has yet to be rivaled !

I Don't Wanna Work !

Less than five days before I head home for Christmas ! I almost can't take it !!!

Cant stand this weather !

Sent home early today due to shitty weather , I can get this kind of crap in Michigan , but El Paso Texas and snow !

DIMEBAG DARRELL!

Dimebag Darrell - August 20 1966 - December 8 2004 , truly one of the greatest guitar players ever ! His sounds alone were like cleaning your ears with a chainsaw ( and I mean that in a good way )

Mudvayneitis

Wow , what a show , Mudvayne can sure kick ass , But on a work night A real drain !
A real surprise was the opening band "Snot" man did those guys rip it up!

Iron Maiden.

The original lineup of Iron Maiden, with singer Paul Diano !
I never had the chance to see them in this line up , but they kicked Ass with Bruce Dickenson , The several times I did see them !





see more at Report on Arrakis

Madonna makes a political statement

You Know coming from a dried up prune of a performer ,who dumped the United States like a hot potato ,moved to Europe ,and has completely fell off the map,I guess it does not surprise me to here this kind of bullshit from the Old tart...I'm sure her tour will do fine.
from The star ledger


MADONNA, WHO has no peer in the art of overstatement, launched her international "Sticky and Sweet" tour Saturday night in Wales, and among the show's video interludes is a sequence of images linking destruction, global warming, Adolf Hitler, Zimbabwe's dictator Robert Mugabe and our own U.S. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

Later on in the show, another montage shows John Lennon, Al Gore, Mahatma Gandhi and presumed Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama. Reeeeaaaal subtle.
McCain's rep tells Fox News "the comparisons are outrageous, unacceptable and crudely divisive all at the same time."

mudvayne, happy

stupid girl

What happened to these guys?