Hey y’all! I’m back but got smacked with a terrible case of bronchitis! BUMMER! It capped off a tremendously successful trip to LA and Las Vegas! Our contest winner Joe M. and his lady Amanda and I had a blast at the Korn Koncert at the Pearl at the Palms Hotel. They got to be in the KORN KAGE on stage, met the band and hung out with JD after the show on his bus to play Call of Duty. And they won money gambling! Then it was off to LA for me and some meetings and personal time with some former associates at the music video production company I once worked for. Then back to Vegas for the RadioContraband Rock Radio Convention and Awards! I “3-peated” my Non-Traditional Programmer of the Year AND I was honored with the Impact Award, which is “presented in recognition of going beyond the call of duty and outstanding participation in the rock community.” I was overwhelmed when they called my name! It was also awarded to Avenged Sevenfold and to our national Warner Bros Records rep Heather Luke. Right on! And our very own LOU BRUTUS won his first DJ OF THE YEAR award and he was the master of ceremonies, so I wrangled Rick Dejesus of Adelitas Way to announce Lou’s award (the MC can’t award it to himself, after all!) Congrats to Lou for a well-deserved award! Meanwhile, Rick and I had lunch and he played me a bunch of new songs. Hello! Next level for the band! Can’t wait for them to be released in the new year! “Dog On A Leash” and “Stuck” were two stand outs! Also got to see Trivium perform (they were awesome!,) hung out with David Draiman who did the keynote address at the convention, and with the guys from Eve to Adam, Royal Bliss, Emphatic, Trapt, Pistol Day Parade and Lou interviewed Wicked Wisdom’s Jada Pinkett Smith! Good times in Vegas!…..Three Days Grace has scored its 11th Number One single at Active Rock radio with “Misery Loves My Company,” the latest track released from the band’s fourth album, Transit Of Venus. The song follows “The High Road,” which also hit the top spot on the chart earlier this year. Three Days Grace has now broken its own record of 10 chart-toppers, which it set last spring, and continues to hold the title ahead of Linkin Park and Shinedown, who each have nine Number Ones….Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor told Artist Direct in a new interview that while the band has yet to get together and begin hashing out ideas for its fifth studio album, he already has a sense of what direction the set might head in musically. He explained, “(2004 album) Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) is a bit of a peek at what I think the next album will be. It’ll be a cross between (2001 album) Iowa and Vol. 3 in a lot of ways, while also evolving the way we always have. The stuff I’m writing right now is really dark. The stuff Clown (Shawn Crahan, percussionist) is coming with is beyond. It’s going to be cool to get the alchemists in the same room and see what happens.” Can’t wait!…..Rise Against drummer Brandon Barnes recently sent a letter on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to his alma mater, the University of Colorado at Boulder, urging the school to discontinue and replace undergraduate science experiments using live animals. According to Alternative Press, Barnes wrote, “Treating other sensitive, intelligent beings like disposable laboratory equipment is wrong, and . . . I know that there must be better ways to teach undergraduates than by having them needlessly torment, maim, and kill hundreds of animals.” Barnes noted in his letter than the Denver campus of the University of Colorado offers the same lessons without hurting or killing any animals. Rise Against has been working with PETA for years. The band shot a video in 2006 for its song “Ready To Fall” that featured secretly filmed scenes of horrific animal abuse….. Three different versions of Metallica‘s recently released concert film, Metallica Through The Never, will be contained on the Blu-ray/DVD release of the film, according to Blabbermouth. In addition to the theatrical version, the disc will feature a separate cut of just the narrative portion of the film, which stars Dane DeHaan as a Metallica roadie named Trip sent on a mission for the band in an increasingly dangerous urban landscape. The third cut will be just the footage of the band in concert, with three or four songs added that were not seen in the theatrical edition. The standalone narrative footage from the movie will feature an all-new soundtrack composed by Metallica and producer Greg Fidelman. The package will also contain ‘Tallica Parking Lot, an animated film created by Robert Trujillo and Titmouse Animation Studio. A release date for the Blu-ray/DVD has yet to be announced….Stone Temple Pilots and new singer Chester Bennington will stream an upcoming concert online for free. The webcast will be presented by streaming site EVNTLIVE and streamed live from the group’s concert at the Hard Rock Live in Biloxi, MS on next Friday night, Nov 1st, beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET. Reserve free “tickets” for the event and get more info here…..Happy 51st today to Saul Goodman of Breaking Bad, aka Bob Odenkirk! Better Call Saul!
