Good Monday, I mean, Tuesday! LOL Feels like a Monday, though, doesn’t it?
Hope you had a great long weekend! Here’s the latest: ….Alice In Chains are doing a Reddit IAmA online Q & A session today! It starts at Noon PT/3PM ET today, with the band taking questions from their fans. You can access the chat by visiting Reddit’s IAmA site here or checking the band’s official website for the direct link. Ask Jerry how his shoulder surgery went!…Stone Temple Pilots filed a lawsuit against former frontman Scott Weiland on Friday (May 24th), according to the Associated Press. The suit accuses him of using the band’s name to advance his solo career while claiming that his own poor performances and late arrivals at concerts, in addition to his addiction struggles, harmed the band’s career and that they “endured much strife and lost significant opportunities because of Weiland.” The group also claims that Weiland’s lawyer is trying to interfere with airplay of the new STP single, “Out Of Time,” which features Linkin Park‘s Chester Bennington on vocals. The suit claims that the band owns the name Stone Temple Pilots, as well as its songs, copyrights and trademarks. The suit asks a judge to block Weiland from performing any STP songs in his solo shows and from even calling himself a former member of the band. STP fired Weiland in February after reuniting with him in 2010 for a series of tours and one self-titled album. The band had previously been on hiatus since 2002, primarily due to the singer’s struggles with drugs and alcohol….In the true sense of Memorial Day, Device and Disturbed frontman David Draiman is using his celebrity status to bring the story of one Holocaust survivor to a wider audience. According to Loudwire, Draiman, a resident of Austin, Texas, has teamed with local Hasidic Rabbi Yosef Levertov to bring Leah Johnson to Austin on June 4th to speak at the Dell Jewish Community Campus. Johnson was only 16 when the Nazis stormed her hometown of Lida in the country of Belarus and set it on fire. She and her family found shelter in the forest with the Bielski brothers, three Jewish siblings who set up a hidden camp in the woods that saved the lives of more than 1,200 Jews. Draiman will be on hand at the event to both introduce Johnson and share his own family connection with the Holocaust. Both of Draiman’s maternal grandparents were survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, while many others on his mother’s side were wiped out by the Nazis. The Disturbed song “Never Again,” from 2010’s Asylum album, was written about the Holocaust. The United States Holocaust Museum has featured Draiman in their “Voices On Anti-Semitism” podcasts. Right on, David. You may not be aware, but David once studied to be a rabbi! He once told us, “The level of study that I was at, I was probably only about two or three years away from being ordained as a rabbi, so I really needed to figure out in my head where I wanted to go with things. And I just couldn’t do it habitually anymore. I grew a very strong dislike for the organized aspect of religion over the course of time.”…I love when band’s are ready to help when help is needed. Incubus is working in conjunction with the online information outlet RYOT.org to raise $20,000 for the victims of the Moore, Oklahoma tornado through the band’s Make Yourself Foundation. According to Loudwire, Incubus plans to use Make Yourself to match RYOT’s donations up to $10,000 over the next week. Donors will have the opportunity to win merchandise, autographs and personalized tweets from the band. The top prize is a one-of-a-kind tapestry featuring original hand-illustrated art by the band’s members. The band drew on the tapestry daily while touring behind its last album, If Not Now, When?. The first person to donate $2,500 or more will receive the tapestry. The first 50 people to donate $100 or more will win autographed vinyl, while $25 will get you a personalized “thank you” tweet from the band. $10 or more and tweeting about the donation will enter you into a random drawing to be one of five people to receive a personalized “thank you” tweet. Incubus is currently on hiatus. Singer Brandon Boyd recently completed his second solo album and his third book, while DJ Chris Kilmore has been doing spinning gigs at clubs, guitarist Mike Einziger has been writing a film score and bassist Ben Kenney has been making a new solo record. I’ve been with the band when they make these tapestries and they are really cool, so if you are a fan and have the money, you should consider donating….Slash is looking to reunite with an old friend — a Gibson Les Paul guitar he used back in the early ’90s while in Guns N’ Roses. Slash posted a photo of himself playing the guitar online along with the following message: “I’m trying to find a Les Paul that I used back in the early ’90s. I’ve since lost track of it. It was an 1989/90 Gibson Goldtop, serial #70854. I always loved that guitar and would be interested in buying it back from whomever has it . . . I’ll make it worth their while.” Anyone with information should email SlashGibsonGoldtop@gmail.com. See the photo and Slash’s message at http://tinyurl.com/otm2wh2 …..”Breaking Point” is the new single from our friends Bullet For My Valentine, and they’re giving fans a close-up look at their live show and the behind-the-scenes action in the music video for “P.O.W.,” taken from the group’s fourth studio album, Temper Temper. The Welsh act recently wrapped the successful latest edition of the HardDrive Live tour with Halestorm and Young Guns and will now head to Europe for scattered festival dates. But never fear, they’ll return in the fall!….And last, but certainly not LEAST, Avenged Sevenfold will be headlining the 2013 MONSTER ENERGY DRINK AFTERSHOCK Festival in Sacramento, CA on Sep 14-15. It will be the biggest destination festival to hit California! The line up includes Korn, Shinedown, Megadeth, Papa Roach, Skillet, Volbeat, Halestorm, Device, P.O.D., Pop Evil, All That Remains, Buckcherry, A Day to Remember, HIM, In This Moment, Asking Alexandria, Falling In Reverse, Otherwise, Airbourne, Soil, Heaven’s Basement and more! Tix go on sale Friday, Jun 7th at 10 AM. For more, hit aftershockconcert.com. (Site goes live at later today, so bookmark it!) Meanwhile, A7X have a couple of other festivals, two in July in Wisconsin and Michigan, Musikfest in Bethlehem, PA in August and Pain in the Grass in Seattle in September. In November, A7X matches up with Five Finger Death Punch and Device for a string of European shows. New A7X music is set to drop in July, last I heard! Can’t wait!…Also, today the Carnival of Madness line up was announced. It’s Shinedown, Papa Roach, Skillet, In This Moment and We As Human. Brent Smith of Shinedown posted a tour announcement. Find it here!
