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The Rock Dirt Archives

JANUARY 2006

The Rock Dirt
Posted: Fri, Jan 27, 06
VH-1 examines metal, Aerosmith and Cheap Trick team, Mötley’s new star

VH-1 goes in depth with four part series, “Heavy: The Story of Metal,” to air in early May. “Heavy” traces four decades of metal through its 1960s inception in Birmingham, England through the wave of British Heavy Metal and 70s glam to the streets of Hollywood for the hair metal era and beyond. Each hour examines the genres pioneers and its powerful and often misunderstood place in history. “Heavy: The Story of Metal,” premieres in four parts beginning Mon, May 1 at 9pm through Thurs, May 4.
www.vh1.com

Talk about a match made in rock and roll heaven. Aerosmith and Cheap Trick team for dates across North America beginning in March including March 9 at Manchester’s Verizon Wireless Arena. See you there.
www.ticketmater.com.

And scene. Chatter about a pending Smashing Pumpkins reunion at this summer’s Coachella Festival is just that. The band’s label Reprise says the band will not be part of the event. Faux fan site billycorgan.org is touting the "New Pumpkins" will release a record April but don’t be fooled. It’s all hooey and the official Coachella lineup is to be unveiled this week.

Former Pumpkin Melissa auf der Maur isn’t worried. In fact, she just added A&R rep to her already-extensive resume. Melissa has joined EMI Music Canada (her home country) as a scout and consultant for new Canadian acts. She’s also plans to release another solo record in the new year.

Mötley Crüe received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the most appropriate of locations last week. The star is fittingly located across the street from the Erotica Museum and Frederick's of Hollywood.

Nikki Sixx’s charitable organization to help at-risk kids is up and running. “Running Wild in the Night" is a fundraising initiative through Covenant House to help at-risk kids and will act as a creative arts program, with emphasis on music, to assist in Covenant House’s mission to help homeless and displaced kids nurture their talents. Close to $40,000 has already been raised through the sale of Nikki’s personal items, autographed merchandise and memorabilia via www.nikkisixx.net.

Music documentarian Julien Temple will focus his energies on the late, great Joe Strummer of whom he has hours of footage shot before Joe’s 2002 death. He tells MTV that, “It's a film about Joe, about the man, the story of his life, the music before the Clash and after the Clash - as well as about the Clash."

Look for Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band's very first appearance before English fans on Nov 18, 1975 at London's Hammersmith Odeon to be released Feb 28 in double-disc form. The show initially appeared on DVD last year as part of the 30th anniversary edition of “Born To Run.”

This summer’s Ozzfest is shaping up to include Disturbed, Black Label Society, Avenged Sevenfold and Atreyu.
www.ozzfest.com

Sharing is caring. Trent Reznor lends his voice to a new online video PSA for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) exposing the ghastly cat and dog fur trade in China. Viewers be warned. (I couldn't watch the entire thing.)
www.peta.org

And now for another edition of “Who’s Getting the Band Back Together?” This week’s it’s Candlebox. The four original members - singer Kevin Martin, guitarist Peter Klett, bass player Bardi Martin and drummer Scott Mercado - will reunite this summer for a three month tour in support of its upcoming greatest hits record.
www.myspace.com/candlebox

Has Metallica booted long time producer Bob Rock for Rick Rubin?

New Rock Dirt for the New Year!

The Rock Dirt
Updated Fri, Jan 13, 2006
New year marks the return of the Vines, Diamond Dave and the Pogues

Hot for coffee. “Diamond” David Lee Roth made what was a rather seamless transition from international rock star to New York City EMT (seamless because no one cared?). We have our suspicions but it remains to be seen how Diamond Dave will fare in the ratings game as he tries his hand at morning talk radio with “The David Lee Roth Show” making its debut earlier this month on some stations once occupied by the long-running, highly-rated Howard Stern show.
www.thedavidleerothshow.com

Real Star Power. David Bowie, Cream, Blues master Robert Johnson and Country legend Merle Haggard will each be honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards at this year's Grammy Awards celebration on Feb 8.

Zakk Wylde will be honored for his body of work in both Black Label Society and Ozzy Osbourne’s band when he’s inducted into the Hollywood RockWalk this week. Jerry Cantrell and Mike Inez of Alice in Chains, Velvet Revolver's Duff McKagan and Slash, Rob Zombie and Ozzy Osbourne will all be in attendance to mark the occasion.
www.rockwalk.com

Last year’s “Winning Days” from the Vines met with decent reviews but little support and was soon forgotten about. Bad news befell the band before it really got a chance to do anything when singer Craig Nicholls’ was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome (a neurobiological disorder which is a mild form of autism) at the end of 2004. Craig’s doing well and, with a third record nearing completion, the Vines are ready to make a comeback. Tentative plans are in place to release the still-unnamed record by March or early April.
www.thevines.com

The Aberdeen, Wash., childhood hometown of Kurt Cobain has become the site of another film crew. Documentary filmmakers rolled into town recently to begin shooting footage for a film to feature narration by Kurt himself. The audio will be taken from more than 25 hours of unreleased interviews with Kurt before his 1994 death. The project is expected to make its debut on the film-festival circuit next year.

This kid’s life is already f*cked. Not only is she saddled with Blink-182’s Travis Barker and his Playboy playmeat wife Shanna as parents, but she has to deal with the name Alabama for the rest of her life. The little Barker was born on Christmas Eve. You’ll see more of everyone when the second season of “Meet the Barkers” that priemered on MTV this month. Yeay for us.

New-York-by-way-of-Dallas trio, the Secret Machines were holed up over the summer in a converted Catskills mansion on the recommended of David Bowie to record the follow-up to their acclaimed 2004 release, “Now Here Is Nowhere.” The finished product is “Ten Silver Drops” whose release date has been bumped from March to April 18.

New teeth for everyone! The recently reunited Irish rockers the Pogues – featuring toothless leader Shane MacGowan - will play a series of U.S. dates including March 14 at the Orpheum in Boston and March 16-18 at New York’s Nokia Theater in Times Square.

Anngelle Wood - Radio DJ, music & entertainment writer, rock enthusiast, and founder of Anngelle Wood Productions - is keeping her ear to the ground to give you the week in dirt. Got dirt? Feedback? E-mail it: anngelle@gmail.com