With the Bonnaroo Festival less than a month away, and they’re working on a new record with producer Brendan O’Brien, Pearl Jam probably won’t be unveiling any new songs. “[The record] is in the infant stages,” McCready said during a phone-in press conference. “It has to grow up a bit. We’ll [play] some obscure B-sides. We might get into some sort of jam.”
After months of speculation, the official Ozzfest site announced the date, site and lineup for this year’s Ozzfest. The event will take place on August 9th and will be held at the Pizza Hut Park in Dallas, TX. Ozzy Osbourne himself tops a bill that also includes Metallica, Serj Tankian and Jonathan Davis on the main stage. This is the first year in its twelve year history that Ozzfest won’t be a touring festival, and unlike last year’s version fans will actually have to pay to get in. Tickets go on sale on Saturday, May 31st.
Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington debuted his new band, Dead by Sunrise, during an anniversary party for his tattoo parlor chain, Club Tattoo, at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, Arizona, on Saturday. The band, which includes Bennington and members of the group Julien-K (which contains several members of Orgy), is a traditional rock outfit that is more straight-ahead and melodic than Linkin Park. Bennington also said he hopes to have a Dead by Sunrise album out by 2009, barring other commitments to other bands. “I want to make sure the record gets the chance to do what it can do.”
There are rumblings that not all is well in the Oasis camp. Drummer Zak Starkey and guitarist Noel Gallagher have been at odds and that Starkey is rumored to not be joining the group when they return to the road. Starkey was with the group through their recent recording sessions. No official announcement from the group has been made, so treat the Starkey exit as rumor at this point.
Metallica have launched “Mission: Metallica.” The site currently features a trailer for what’s to come and the option to sign up for e-mail alerts, but the band promises that users will be able to watch footage of the band in the studio and a chance to enter to win backstage passes for concerts this summer. The band is also advertising something called “Mission: Metallica Platinum,” which will provide downloads of live shows and delivery of the physical album the day it comes out, though there is no indication of how much this service will cost.
With their new album to be released this summer, Coldplay announced the first leg of a massive world tour that’ll see the band play roughly 150 shows. Additionally, there’s that free concert at Madison Square Garden on June 23rd, to which you can win tickets by going the band’s official Web site.
Jack Black and Gnarls Barkley's Cee-Lo have teamed up for a cover of Carl Douglas' 1974 hit "Kung Fu Fighting" for the soundtrack to "Kung Fu Panda," an animated film in which Black stars. The track will hit digital outlets on May 27, with the full soundtrack, due June 3rd. "Kung Fu Fighting," which also boasts the voice talents of Jackie Chan, Angelina Jolie and Dustin Hoffman, opens June 6 in U.S. theaters.
The release dates for two high-profile summer albums got adjusted today. Nikki Sixx announced that the new Mötley Crüe album Saints of Los Angeles would be available a week later than expected so the band could record a new song written during the rehearsals for their press conference performance from a month ago. Saints of Los Angeles, which is based on the band’s best-selling autobiography The Dirt, will now be available on June 24th. Meanwhile, Weezer announced through their official website that their new self-titled “Red” album would be available on June 3rd because of the “intense reaction” to their first single “Pork and Beans.”
Metallica got extra loud in their first live set in a year this past Wednesday, headlining a benefit concert in Los Angeles for Flea’s music school for kids, the Silverlake Conservatory. That meant no ballads and no new songs from the band’s upcoming Rick Rubin-produced album. Metallica played for nearly two hours in front of 2,000 fans who had paid $300 for a rare chance to see the band in a smaller venue.
Coldplay is one of the major bands still sticking with their record label, choosing not to join the likes of Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and others in testing new waters. But still there had been rumors of the band moving on earlier this year. Singer Chris said, “It’s obviously an outdated model, because of the Internet, but we really love the people we work with. If we knew the solution to everything, then we’d do it.” Martin says the band has respect for the Radioheads and Raconteurs of the world and their release strategies, but they remain under contract and will continue to make the most of the time and people they are working with.
The Foo Fighters current tour roster can be seen on the Smoking Gun.com and it’s 26 pages of comedy. For example, they ask that signs be posted from crew entrance to catering because their fat roadies need food as soon as possible. They also ask for unopened boxes of cereal, wacky colors of Gatorade, bags of Pirate’s Booty (but not Johnny Depp’s), and that all films starring Jamie Kennedy and Martin Lawrence be banned from the backstage area.