Horrors! I just saw a news report on tv saying women’s handbags and wallets are huge germ breeding grounds! ARGH! Where are my Clorox wipes!??!! Big night tonight in the world of rock! First, Stone Temple Pilots with their new singer Chester Bennington, will perform with Slash and Duff McKagan, sort of a Stone Roses Park, maybe? No, but they’ll do some tunes at this year’s MusiCares Map Fund ceremony in LA at Club Nokia. Chester, along with Tony Alva, legendary skate boarder, are being honored for their work to help themselves and other beat drug and alcohol addiction. Funny, Scott Weiland has never won that award. Anyhow, it will be a special night. Also tonight in Oklahoma City, Killswitch Engage will donate not only a portion of the proceeds from their show there, but also they have a special tshirt were 100% of the proceeds will go to the Regional Food Band of Oklahoma. Pretty nice gestures from our friends from New England. I think we will see more bands start to help out and you can help by donating to the United Way of Oklahoma…. Pulse reports Alice In Chains‘ fifth studio album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, is likely to sell between 60,000 and 65,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week of release, according to industry web site Hits Daily Double. The estimate is based on one-day sales reports compiled after the record arrived in stores on Tuesday (May 28th). The new disc follows up 2009’s Black Gives Way To Blue, the group’s first all-new collection of material in 14 years, which racked up first-week sales of 126,000 units back in October 2009 to land at Number Five on the Billboard album chart. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell told us that he feels confident in the new album’s chances for success: “I think this record is as good if not better than the last one, and I think that last record stands up to anything that we’ve put out, so we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing. We’re hitting a highwater mark that we hit before, for us personally, and you know, now it’s time to let it go and that’s the thing you don’t have any control over. But we’ve had pretty good luck with people that have supported us for a lot of years, and I think they’ll like this record too.”….This is news I hadn’t heard previously. Before he became the bass player for Soundgarden back in 1990, Ben Shepherd told Denver Westword in a new interview he almost became the lead guitarist for another iconic Seattle band: Nirvana. Shepherd explained, “I was supposed to play lead guitar for them . . . The first time Kurt (Cobain, Nirvana frontman) and I met, we were at a party in Olympia, and we were the two loners on the end of the couch, and there was a guitar there. I would always find a guitar at a party because I didn’t like parties much. So I would find the guitar and space off by myself, you know? Kurt was the same way, so we wound up sharing a guitar that night, an acoustic that was there.” Although Nirvana ended up staying a three-piece until Pat Smear joined some years later, Shepherd did sort of end up providing Nirvana with an early drummer. He recalled, “Chad (Channing), my old friend, we were in a band together, and I was the singer for a band . . . When we played with this band a couple of years later, there was Krist (Novoselic, Nirvana bassist) who said, ‘Hey, Ben, dude, do you think your drummer would let us use his drum set?’ ‘I didn’t know you were in a band, Krist, cool. Sure, man.’ . . . So they did, and that’s how they met Chad, and he ended up joining the band.” Channing was eventually replaced in Nirvana by Dave Grohl, while Shepherd went on to become the bassist in Soundgarden. Interesting. I had no idea!….Drowning Pool posted a video of their recent visits and performances at three US military bases in the UK and Germany. Those guys always have time to do special things for service men and women, especially their tireless work for the Wounded Warriors. Check out the video here……Our friends at Loudwire posted a video interview from their feature called Head’s Korner. Head and Fieldy from Korn interviewed Josh Todd of Buckcherry. Check it out here. (Warning: contains language some people may find objectionable, but not me!) ….Happy 49th today to my pal Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine and The Nightwatchman. Happy 42nd to Patrick Dahlheimer of Live and The Gracious Few, and definitely Happy 58th to Topper Headon, the amazing drummer from The Clash. Lemme tell ya, back in the heyday of The Clash, saw them in NYC at the now long gone theater The Palladium. Their sound was SO FREAKING LOUD, I had to leave my 10th row seat and go to the lobby! It was so intense! I wonder how Topper’s hearing is today.
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