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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Tuesday Rock Roundup

AC/DC confirmed yesterday that their long awaited new album will be called Black Ice, with a release date of October 28th. The first single, "Runaway Train"...which was almost the album's title...will be out in late August. AC/DC will also hit the road in November, and are expected to give details soon for their inclusion in the next version of the Rock Band video game.

Over the weekend, The Who and a handful of special guests taped a VH1 Honors special at UCLA. The show premieres Thursday at 9, and features Pearl Jam, the Foo Fighters, and other artists...including Jack Black's project Tenacious D. The D perform Squeeze Box. The Who also played a 10-song set that lasted just under an hour. David Duchovny, Rainn Wilson, Margaret Cho, Sean Penn and Adam Sandler introduced the bands, Sandler doing so musically. Should be worth a watch.

Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones were getting together on July 3rd to discuss the possibility of a Faces reunion. Apparently the meeting went well, and keyboardist Ian McLagan told the BBC that Rod Stewart "seems to finally want to do this." Ronnie Wood, by the way, who also of course plays for the Stones appears to have fallen off the wagon. Britain's Sun claims he has left his wife of 23 years, Jo, and taken up with an 18 year-old Russian cocktail waitress.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Magic tour is the second highest-grossing tour so far this year, according to Pollstar, the concert industry publication. It has taken in almost 41 million dollars over 29 shows, with an average ticket price of 99 dollars. Bon Jovi tops the list with 56 million from 39 shows, with an average ticket price of 88 bucks. Bon Jovi wrap up that tour tonight at New York's Madison Square Garden. Van Halen is third on the list with 36 million, and The Police are at number 10 with 23 million.

Speaking of Van Halen, former members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, who bill themselves as The Other Half, are making progress on the debut album from their supergroup, Chickenfoot. Anthony writes on his blog, "It is rocking and we hope to be in the studio finishing it up early September so we can get out there and play." Rounding out the lineup are guitarist Joe Satriani, who turns 52 today, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith.

Now that David Lee Roth has confirmed that he was not the one reportedly having a medical emergency in Canada on May 23rd (a night he was on stage with Van Halen in New York) cops in the small town of Brantford have egg on their face. Constable Larry Plummer, media relations officer for the police department, tells the Hamilton Spectator that the officers who pulled over the imposter for erratic driving never asked to see identification. He says, "They were too concerned with helping a man who was in medical distress." But the cops were not the only ones fooled. After checking out of the hospital, the Roth-a-like took two nurses out for drinks and jumped on stage to sing Van Halen's "Ice Cream Man" with a local band. That group's drummer, Joe Lavergne, tells the paper, "We weren't totally convinced at first because so many people come to shows saying they are someone famous or related to a star. But in Dave's case, he did pretty well." The imposter also gave a private performance to workers at a salon he visited.

Randy Bachman has sold his extensive collection of Gretsch guitars back to the Gretsch company, which had reached out to him when it needed models to use in making replica instruments after a fire. Bachman has long been a Gretch devotee. He used a 1950s Chet Atkins model on The Guess Who's first U-S hit, "Shakin' All Over," and on the B-T-O classic "Takin' Care of Business." Over the years, he'd collected more than 350 of the Georgia-based company's instruments, some dating from the 1920s. Gretsch guitars, by the way, are amazing instruments...I've always been a fan but never owned one.

The Grateful Dead's 1978 shows at the foot of the Great Pyramid in Egypt will be released as a two-C-D, one-D-V-D package on September 30th. Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978 contains unreleased audio and video. Fans who pre-order the set from
Dead-dot-net will receive an exclusive eight-song bonus disc that includes additional unreleased performances from the Egypt run. A digital version that includes all the C-D content will also be also available. Recorded on September 15th and 16th, 1978 at the Gizah Sound and Light Theater, the original 24-track recordings have been re-mastered for this set. The two C-Ds contain 18 tracks featuring more than three hours of music, and the D-V-D has 100 minutes of footage, including 13 songs from the third and final Egypt show, which took place during a lunar eclipse. The set comes in pyramid-inspired packaging and features rare photos from the trip.

NEW RELEASES:

Bruce Springsteen releases four live tracks and their accompanying videos from his Magic tour today through digital retailers. The fours songs on Magic Tour Highlights, all recorded this year with guest artists, are "Always a Friend," "The Ghost of Tom Joad," "Turn, Turn, Turn" (which was performed with Roger McGuinn of The Byrds), and the emotional "Fourth of July, Asbury Park," the late Danny Federici's final performance with the E Street Band, recorded on March 20th in Indianapolis. All of the artists, songwriters and music publishers are waiving their royalties, and Columbia Records is donating all of its net profits to the Danny Federici Melanoma Fund. The I-Tunes Store is donating its first year's net profits as well.

John Mellencamp releases his new album, Life, Death, Love and Freedom, today. It's his first for the Starbucks Hear Music label, but you'll bve able to buy it anywhere. Mellencamp says the album, produced by T-Bone Burnett, is a collection of what John calls "modern electric folk songs."

ALSO:


No End in Sight: The Very Best of Foreigner CD by Foreigner
The Bank Job DVD
2007-2008 NBA Champions - Boston Celtics DVD
College Road Trip DVD
Shutter (Widescreen) (Unrated Edition) DVD
Saving Grace - Season 1 DVD
Eureka - Season Two DVD
Dallas - The Complete Ninth Season DVD