You have til 11:59PM tonight to file your taxes, whether it’s online or at the post office. If not, the IRS boogiemen will find you. You can be assured!….Had a hell of a day yesterday with three great band interviews. The Dead Letter Circus guys, singer Kim Benzie, drummer Luke WIlliams and bassist Stewart Hill were fun and funny, and I hope more people will get into their music, because it is really good! The album out here now is “This is the Warning” and they are in progress writing new songs they plan to record when they get back to Australia. See them if they are coming to your town with another band I fancy called Fair to Midland. Good stuff that deserves an eye and ear…..Then I had Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park on the hotLine. We talked about the new single “Burn It Down” and the forthcoming new album, “Living Things.” Listen for Mike as Linkin Park will be our Featured Artist of the Week on hardDrive XL with Lou Brutus week of Apr 30th and on hardDrive the weekend May 5th. I’ve posted the dates on their Honda Civic Tour with Incubus and Mutemath (tour starts in August 11) in Road Rage and you can also keep an eye on the Linkin Park website. If you pre-order “Living Things” (out Jun 26th) you can buy tix to the tour two days before on sale date. Good stuff…..Then Hellyeah’s Chad Gray, Vinnie Paul Abbott, Greg Tribbett, Tommy Maxwell and Bob “Zilla” Kakaha entered the hardDrive studios and the fun and games ensued! I always enjoy their company and got great stuff about their new album, “Band of Brothers.” There’s a song on there about the West Memphis 3 called “WM Free,” as Chad told me he was totally inspired by the story of the 3 kids from West Memphis, AR, who were charged with the brutal murders of three young boys and they served 18 years in jail for crimes they did not commit. Chad said he even met Damien Echols at the Golden Gods Awards. Anyhow, the album is gonna be great and definitely the most heavy of the last two Hellyeah outings as the guys are no longer keeping their previous rock bands in the closet. I think it’s evidenced in the new release “War in Me.” The album will be available everywhere Jul 17th and a new tour will be announced soon. See Road Rage for the current Hellyeah tour! I also talked to Vinnie about Pantera and the newly discovered “Piss” track from the original “Vulgar Display of Power” sessions. So be listening to hardDrive weekend May 5th and hardDrive XL week of Apr 30 for some segments with the guys….Our friends at Rock on the Range have now announced the Rock Allegiance Tour, Sep 01 in Hershey, PA at Hersheypark Stadium. Headliners are Stone Temple Pilots, with Three Days Grace, Seether, Bukcherry, Daughtry, Fuel, Puddle of Mudd, Black Stone Cherry, Foxy Shazam, Redlight King, Otherwise and more TBA. Tix on sale Fri, Apr 20th at 10 AM. Hit the tour website for more…..Soundgarden have made their new song “Live to Rise” available as a free download on iTunes as part of the promotion of the new film Marvel’s The Avengers, in theaters May 4. The soundtrack the song appears, “Avengers: Assembled,” is out May 1…I have been saying this woman will be the most sought-after singer for a duet for years now, and news today that our own Lzzy Hale of Halestorm will record a song with Phil Labonte and All That Remains for the new ATR album. Should be awesome! (I have always said to David Draiman that he and Lzzy should do something together! Hope he takes her up on it!)…Two things you need to watch: There’s a lovely story about an autistic Metallica fan in his efforts to meet Lars Ulrich made into a documentary called “Mission to Lars” and the other is promo for a photo book 30 Seconds to Mars Jared Leto has put together chronicling his journey to Haiti to document the aftermath of the earthquake. Check them out here and here….Happy 48th to tool/Puscifer mainman Maynard James Keenan.
