Good morning! We’re starting our winter day out with 23 degrees. Now THAT’s more reasonable, eh?…..Pulse of Radio reports it’s been a long time coming, but Slipknot has finally entered a recording studio and guitarist Jim Root has offered photographic evidence for anyone who might not believe it’s true. Root posted a photo on Instagram of his arm, with a guitar in his hand, poised over a mixing board. The caption, “Sig love on the API,” was followed by the hashtags “#fenderguitar,” “#work,” “#thecoffeesucks” and “#slipknot2014.” The new Slipknot album will be its first since 2008’s All Hope Is Gone and the first since the 2010 death of bassist Paul Gray and the recent dismissal of drummer Joey Jordison. Jim Root told us late last year — before the news about Jordison broke — he was feeling the urgency to make a new Slipknot album: “You know, we haven’t done a record since Paul’s been gone and it’s been pushing six years. And there’s a lot of people in Slipknot and a lot of fans and me myself kind of feel like it’s time for that hurdle to be overcome. And for me, that’s really like my number one priority and the most important thing for me right now.” Slipknot has not disclosed the reasons for Jordison’s exit, although the drummer issued a statement recently saying that he did not quit the band. A replacement has yet to be named. Root is sitting out a tour with his other band, Stone Sour, so that he can concentrate on starting the new Slipknot record. The trek begins on January 14th in Florida. Slipknot/Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor and Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan have both indicated that 2014 will be a comeback year for Slipknot, and this girl is laying down money in Vegas the band might be on some of those U.S. festivals this year. Looking forward to checking out Jim’s Stone Sour stand-in when the band kicks off their tour next week with Pop Evil Meanwhile, Slipknot DJ #0 Sid Wilson sent me a track called “tHe LoVe iNsiDe.” He recorded it under his DJ Starscream moniker. It’s pretty cool in that crazy hip hop way! Find Sid and all in craziness on his Facebook….Speaking of Pop Evil, the next single from their “Onyx” album will be “Torn To Pieces.” Listen for that in a couple of weeks on the World Famous hardDrive!….The Black Keys are among the latest batch of acts confirmed to be performing during Super Bowl Week. According to Billboard, the indie rock duo will perform a special concert for Citi cardholders. Other newly announced artists include John Legend and Band Of Horses. They join previously confirmed performers such as Foo Fighters, Imagine Dragons, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Roots and Bruno Mars. All the concerts will take place in New York City during the week before the Super Bowl, which will be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on February 2nd. The date of the Black Keys’ show has not been finalized yet. Foo Fighters will play on February 1st, while Imagine Dragons perform on January 31st and Fall Out Boy appears prior to the game on the 2nd. But last I heard, the Foo Fighters show was going to be on a cruise ship. Maybe I heard that wrong, or maybe not. Will update…..Coachella 2014 line up was announced yesterday. The two-weekend festival in the desert in Indio, CA outside of Palm Springs is set for April 11-13 and 18-20. Muse, Arcade Fire, Outkast, Lorde, AFI, Bastille, Grouplove, the Cult, Beck,Foster The People, the Replacements, Broken Bells, Bryan Ferry, the Afghan Whigs, MS MR, Crosses, Queens Of The Stone Age, Skrillex, MGMT, Nas, Cage The Elephant, Chvrches, Capital Cities, The Naked And Famous, The 1975,Motorhead, Beady Eye and dozens more. Outkast, the rap duo who have not recorded or toured much together in years, will headline on the 11th and 18th, supported by Bastille, AFI, the Cult, the Replacements, Bryan Ferry and Grouplove, among others. April 12th and 19th have Muse supported by Queens Of The Stone Age, Cage The Elephant, Skrillex, Lorde, Foster The People, MGMT, Chvrches and many more. The third night on April 13th and 20th will be headlined by Arcade Fire, topping a bill that includesBeck, Motorhead, Neutral Milk Hotel, Disclosure, Lana Del Rey, Beady Eye, Fishbone and more. Tickets for both weekends will go on sale tomorrow (Jan 10th) at 10:00 a.m. PT. Ticketing info can be found at the festival website…..Pulse also reports Evanescence singer Amy Lee may not be recording a new rock album for her label anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t making music. The vocalist told MTV News she’s just completed her first film score, with collaborator Dave Eggar, for the movie War Story. The film will premiere later this month at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah and Lee said the music will be unlike anything she’s done before. Lee explained, “It’s going to surprise my fans. It’s not what you’d expect; the film is very dark, very introspective . . . There are moments of playing, and it’s musical, but there are a lot of moments where Dave and I just built walls of sounds, out of blaring cellos and trombones and synthesizers and harp, all on top of each other. Sort of creating new sounds. It’s not, like, a soundtrack. it’s an atmosphere.”…Shinedown are getting down to the task of working on new material for their next album. Brent Smith told me just before the holidays the band plans to take their time on this one, will probably work with a new producer and don’t expect the record to be ready til next year. Brent also told me he has this very ambitious idea of not only documenting the creative process of this one, but also plans to produce a full-blown movie. We’ll have to wait and see…..Alice In Chains has partnered with Linkin Park‘s Music For Relief organization to raise money for victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. As part of the fifth annual Alice In Chains & Friends Fantasy Football League Charity Auction, the group will auction off one-of-a-kind items and memorabilia, with 100 percent of the proceeds going toward helping the survivors and aiding Music For Relief in delivering medicine, emergency medical services, water, sanitation and disease prevention efforts to the 12 million people impacted by the storm. The 17-day-long auction includes collectible items donated by league participants and friends. It includes original paintings by Alice In Chains guitarist/singer Jerry Cantrell, a trip for two to New York City to attend the Porsche Design Fall/Winter 2014 Runway Show during New York Fashion Week with Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington, a custom Gibson Les Paul guitar signed by Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong, a Fender acoustic guitar and acoustic bass autographed by Alice In Chains bassist Mike Inez and more. Check it out on the website here…..Legendary Texas act Toadies will release a 20th anniversary edition of their million-selling debut album Rubberneck on April 1st. The record, first released in summer 1994, has been remastered and will include three additional songs from the Rubberneck recording sessions as well as rare live versions of “Tyler” and the first-ever performance of the album’s massive single, “Possum Kingdom,” making it the earliest existing recording of the song. Drummer Mark Reznicek said, “We never dreamed people would still be listening to the album 20 years later or that it would become a staple on radio after all this time. So, as a thank you to all our fans for supporting us through the years, and as a way to celebrate this milestone, the time seemed right to remaster and reissue the album.”…And lastly today, here is a really insane story I saw at RollingStone.com! Insane Clown Posse, along with four fans, are suing the Department of Justice and the FBI, demanding the agency remove “Juggalos” from their list of gang members. The complaint, filed in federal court in Detroit, reads “Organized crime is by no means part of the Juggalo culture.” Lawyers for ICP and the ACLU claim the profiling of Juggalos — based on their distinctive clown makeup and Hatchetman tattoos — lacks evidence of gang affiliation. Last July, a plaintiff who drives a semi-truck sporting a Hatchetman logo was stopped, searched and detained by a Tennessee state trooper. In 2012, an Army recruiter refused to enlist a different plaintiff unless he covered or removed his Hatchetman tattoo, and an army corporal who has served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Korea, is “in imminent danger of suffering discipline or an involuntary discharge” because of the tattoos he got years before Juggalos were deemed a gang. Crazy stuff!…Missed these two birthday boys from Five Finger Death Punch this week! Tuesday was Ivan Moody’s 34th, and yesterday, Jeremy Spencer was 41! Today, the incomparable Jimmy Page turns 70! WOW!
