Metallica fronter James Hetfield, in an interview with Billboard, says the band has enough raw material for an new album: "We got out into the room and jammed and we've come up with enough material for a record, for sure. We've gone through maybe one-tenth of the material that's on our riffs CDs."
Trevor Bolder, the one-time bassist for both David Bowie and Uriah Heep, has died of cancer at the age of 62. Bolder recorded four albums with Bowie during the 1970s: Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and Pinups. "Trevor was a wonderful musician and a major inspiration," Bowie posted to Facebook.
Muse has uploaded a video to the band's Facebook page suggesting that it will lend a hand on the soundtrack to World War Z, the upcoming Brad Pitt film. The seven-second clip begins with the band's name centered on the screen. The 'S' changes to a 'Z', and the message, "there will be no warning," then appears.
Radiohead fronter Thom Yorke has been tapped to score The U.K. Gold, an upcoming documentary on the subject of tax evasion in the country. According to a press release, the film centers on "a vicar from a small parish in the London Borough of Hackney as he goes head-to-head with an ancient and mighty heavyweight."
Robin Finck, on-again/off-again guitarist for Nine Inch Nails, has rejoined the band, according to a statement issued by the band's fronter, Trent Reznor. "The addition of Robin to the mix of players I've assembled makes this band incredibly powerful and versatile," Reznor said.
Beck has announced that he will perform his most recent album, Song Reader, for the first time live at London's Barbican on July 4. The new material was released as sheet music only, so it'll be the first time the public hears the album as Beck conceived it. Beck previously announced a short summer tour, which will hit five dates.
Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day was one of many rockers to pay tribute to Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for the Doors, who died on Monday at the age of 74 in Rosenheim, Germany where he was being treated for bile duct cancer. BJ hit Instagram to post a 1960s-era black-and-white photograph of the legendary organist, adding, "#thankyouraymanzarek #thedoors"
System of a Down have released an official statement regarding bassist Shavo Odadjian's public diss of frontman Serj Tankian. Shavo said Serj is holding the band back, but now the group is backpedaling on his remarks. "Earlier today, Shavo posted a few statements on his personal Facebook page that do not reflect the sentiments of System of a Down . . ."
Queens of the Stone Age have released a 15-minute animated short film to promote the release of their upcoming album Like Clockwork. The film puts together several songs and combines them with images by artist Boneface and animator Liam Brazier for an effect that frontman Josh Homme described as "an audio commentary of a manic year."
Both Blink-182 and Fall Out Boy have signed on to appear at this year's Riot Fest in Chicago. The event is set to take place at the city's Humboldt Park and will run from September 13 through the 15. Tickets for Riot Fest are available through the event's official website. Three-day passes are currently listed for $99.
Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington joined the Stone Temple Pilots onstage at the 2013 KROQ Weenie Roast in Irvine, California for a new song, "Out of Time." The band has released a streaming version of the track to SoundCloud. In addition to the new song, the Bennington-led Pilots performed a handful of STP classics.
Fun. and the Lumineers both made the top five of the Official Charts Company's Most Streamed Artists of the past 12 months. Fun.'s hit "We Are Young" took the top spot, while "Ho Hey" by the Lumineers took the three spot. A total of 4.405 billion streams were recorded from several streaming services including Spotify, Deezer, Napster, Zune, Omnifone, Bloom and We7.
The Black Keys' drummer Patrick Carney and Delta Spirit will perform during a series of Rolling Stones tribute shows, known as Stones Fest, set to take place in New York and Los Angeles later this month.
Carney and Spirit are among the musicians set to play tunes from the Stones' catalog at the NYC edition of the event, which takes place May 22-23 at the Bowery.
David Bowie has been nominated for an O Music Award. Bowie's music video for "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" has been nominated in the Too Much A** for TV category and will face competition from Sigur Ros' "Valtari," DIIV's "Wait," Frank Ocean's "Pyramids" and Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines."
Billy Corgan has written an open letter to California Pizza Kitchen's CEO demanding that the restaurant chain stop de-horning baby calves on diary farms. The letter was produced after the Smashing Pumpkins frontman learned about the issue from PETA. The letter begins: "I have viewed the photos and watched PETA's investigative video of these procedures . . ."