Archive for May, 2010

HEAVEN & HELL drum and bass technicians Andre Bargmann and Terry Welte toured the world for several years with the famous metal band fronted by the late Ronnie James Dio and also featured fellow BLACK SABBATH legends Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass) and Vinny Appice (drums).

KPLR-TV, channel 11, is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, spoke with Bargmann and Terry Welte, who describe a side of the singer that many might not know about.

Fans may prefer that Nikki Sixx work with Motley Crue rather than any other musical outfit, but they certainly took a shine to Sixx:A.M., his band with James Michael and DJ Ashba.

The trio’s companion album to Sixx’s 2007 memoir, “The Heroin Diaries,” sold more than 300,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and the song “Life Is Beautiful” was a rock radio hit.

And Sixx promises there’s more where that came from.

“We’ve got a lot of songs,” the bassist says, “and we’re in the final home stretch of buttoning all those songs up. It’s definitely going to be this year — or in a perfect world, it will be this year. I don’t want to jinx it.”

The new album will be another concept piece, but Sixx isn’t revealing the storyline yet. “As a lyricist, I’m really trying to raise my level of quality,” Sixx says. “Being able to say something lyrically, to say something that will do more than just be words, is really hard. It’s easy to do when you’re writing a chapter of a book or writing poetry, but it’s really hard to do when you’re confined to a melody line.”

To read the complete article visit BILLBOARD

Slipknot bassist Paul Gray was found dead this morning in a hotel near Urbandale, Iowa. He was 38. According to the Des Moines Register, police found no evidence of foul play in Gray’s death, but the investigation is ongoing. The Polk County, Iowa Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct an autopsy and toxicology test tomorrow to determine the cause of his premature death. Gray’s body was found by a hotel employee at around 10:50 this morning and witnesses report seeing items removed from his room early in the afternoon. Slipknot’s manager confirmed the death to Rolling Stone but did not offer further details.

Gray, known to fans as “#2″ and “The Pig,” co-founded Slipknot in 1995 with drummer Joey Jordison and percussionist Shawn Crahan and the band released their debut Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat in 1996. The group has gone on to become one of the most successful and beloved acts in metal, earning legions of fans for their electric shows, over-the-top costumes and dark, anthemic brand of thrash music. Their 2008 album All Hope is Gone went to Number One and the band, who have been nominated for seven Grammys, took home an award in 2006 for Best Metal Performance.

To read the complete article visit ROLLING STONE

As much as they ever went away (the band recently celebrated their 34th anniversary), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers return June 15 with Mojo, their first album since 2002′s The Last DJ.

You might have seen the band perform new song “Jefferson Jericho Blues” on last weekend’s Alec Baldwin-hosted SNL season finale, but you can only stream the (Baldwin-free) studio version here.

To hear the new song visit ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Ronnie James Dio, a singer with the bands Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Dio, whose powerful, semioperatic vocal style and attachment to demonic imagery made him one of the best-loved figures in classic heavy metal, died on Sunday morning, according to an announcement on his Web site by his wife, Wendy. He was 67.

No cause was given in the announcement, but Mr. Dio had been suffering from stomach cancer, and recently his band Heaven and Hell canceled its summer tour because of his health. The Houston Chronicle reported that Mr. Dio was being treated at a hospital in Houston.

Mr. Dio was born Ronald James Padavona in Portsmouth, N.H., and grew up in Cortland, N.Y. He began his career in rockabilly bands in the late 1950s, but by the mid-1970s, when Ritchie Blackmore, the guitarist of the British band Deep Purple, hired him to sing for his new band, Rainbow, Mr. Dio had become a heavy-metal purist, and he became known as much for his vocal prowess as for his Mephistophelean stage persona. He is widely credited with popularizing the “devil horn” hand gesture — index and pinky fingers up, everything else clenched in a fist — as a symbol of metal’s occult-like worship of everything scary and heavy.

To read the complete article visit THE NEW YORK TIMES

Fore more information visit DIO

Whoa there, slow down, Candlebox is NOT breaking up we are just taking some time to focus on our other projects we’ve been working on over the past few months.

As some of you may or may not know Pete & Scott have started “LOTUS CRUSH” with the incredibly talented Scotsman Terry McDermott from Driveblind. Their record is done and ready to rock & roll so keep checking in with them for their tour dates and record release dates.

As for Kevin & Sean, they’ve started a new project with Chad, Pat & Chad of “LIVE” called
“THE GRACIOUS FEW.” The record is finished and will be rolling out on July 27th. Tour dates starting in September.

We will also be readying ourselves for GUITAR HERO in June re-tracking Far Behind, You, Change, Cover Me & a few other gems from our debut release as well as tracking a few new CBOX #’s for our next release we’re hoping to have out to you by the end of this year. Keep checking in with us at CANDLEBOX ROCKS for all the pertinent info.

You can still write to us via this EMAIL address (candleboxtmi@gmail.com) and we’ll try to answer any questions, concerns, requests etc. you may have and ask that in return you just forward this email on to some of your close friends to see if we can’t spread the good word that is Candlebox around the world!

All the Summer dates we have can be found below with a link to each page to purchase tickets. NO VIP Packages will be available for any of these shows.

CANDLEBOX SUMMER 2010

MAY 14 DALLAS TEXAS WILDFLOWER FESTIVAL DALLAS 5/14
MAY 15 HOUSTON TEXAS SCOUT BAR HOUSTON 5/15
MAY 16 SAN ANTONIO TEXAS SCOUT BAR SAN ANTONIO 5/16
JULY 10 WILSON NORTH CAROLINA  EASY RIDER RODEO 7/10
JULY 15 HAMMOND INDIANA FESTIVAL OF THE LAKES 7/15
JULY 17 CADOTT WISCONSIN ROCKFEST 7/17
JULY 23 ST. CLAIR MICHIGAN RIVERFEST 7/23
AUG 1 FREDERICK MARYLAND OUTLAW JAM 8/1
AUG 6 BAY CITY MICHIGAN LABADIE PIGGIG 8/6
AUG 21 FLOWERVILLE MICHIGAN EASY RIDER RODEO 8/21
SEPT 4 CHILLICOTHE OHIO EASY RIDER RODEO 9/4
SEPT 5 INDIANAPOLIS INDIANA RIB AMERICA 9/5

For more information Visit Candlebox on MYSPACE, FACEBOOK, WEBSITE, THE GRACIOUS FEW, LOTUS CRUSH