On “Death of Communication”, the lead single from Company of Thieves’ sophomore effort, Running From a Gamble, vocalist Genevieve Schatz proclaims that “Everything we’ll ever need is deep inside of our limitless beings / We struggle and we fight ‘cause it feels good to wonder why our lives are happening”. Although cluttered and a bit too frank to translate well into a rock song, these lyrics do seem to sum up the ideas permeating throughout the album. Schatz has said that the album is “a coming of age adventure about the mysterious, passionate, and painful transition from dependence and enchantment to autonomy and awareness.” It goes without saying that this is no small task to pull off, especially for a fairly new band that still hasn’t exactly nailed down its own sound.

Two years ago, Company of Thieves were riding high on their brilliantly orchestrated single “Oscar Wilde” from their debut album Ordinary Riches. The success of that song set into motion a whirlwind of TV appearances and slots on high-profile indie rock tours that enabled the band to grow and become one of the more compelling live performances around. There’s no denying that Schatz’s vocal abilities along with guitarist Marc Walloch’s axe skills are a promising combination, but one great song and one pretty darn good debut do not make a career. Thus comes the inevitable pressure of following up such promise with an even better sophomore effort. Running From a Gamble isn’t a bad album; it’s just not as good as it could have been.

To read the complete review visit POP MATTERS

As anyone who’s either watched American Idol this season or paid attention to rock music over the last 40 years can attest, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler is capable of some outrageous behavior. Naturally, his memoir, Does The Noise In My Head Bother You? (Ecco), is loaded with enough badass tales of sex, drugs, and rock’n'roll mayhem to make Keith Richards’ autobiography Life look choirboy-cute by comparison. Is it a sharply written masterpiece? Far from it. Is it a fun read? You betcha. For the benefit of all you CliffsNotes fans out there, we’ve compiled the book’s wildest and weirdest revelations.

1: Did the dude look like a lady? Tyler isn’t saying, but he does admit to having a homosexual tryst in his youth. “Gay sex just doesn’t do it for me,” he reveals. “I tried it one time when I was younger, but just didn’t dig it.”

2: Tyler was rehab buddies with rock royalty (sort of). In December 2009, after another drug relapse, Tyler checked into a Betty Ford clinic. When he arrived, Tyler recalls being greeted by Ivan Followill, the father of the Kings of Leon’s Caleb, Nathan, and Jared. “His kids didn’t like the way their dad was behaving,” Tyler writes. “He’d remarried and they hated his new wife, he was getting drunk all the time, running trucks and buses off the road — he was the band’s tour manager — just fucked up shit. So they sent him to rehab, and so I spent the next month in the best of company with the Kings of Leon’s dad.”

3: Tyler was contacted by Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page in 2008 with an offer to form a band with ex-Zep members Page and John Paul Jones, as well as John Bonham’s son Jason. The quartet rehearsed once, “but I soon realized it wasn’t going to work,” writes Tyler. “Not that I couldn’t sing the stuff, I could do Led Zep in my sleep, but I wasn’t Robert Plant, and Robert wasn’t anything like me. Fans want to hear ‘Percy’ [Plant's nickname] wail on ‘Whole Lotta Love,’ ‘Communication Breakdown,’ etc. It never would have been the same.”

To read the complete article visit SPIN.COM

To order the book visit AMAZON.COM

Metal fans will get another chance to catch Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax performing in the U.S. together thanks to the addition of a Big 4 show in New York.

Steven Tyler and the rest of Aerosmith: Can this marriage be saved????

The “American Idol” star threw guitarist Joe Perry under the bus yesterday, saying he and his erstwhile Toxic Twin got high together a couple of years ago — decades after the 12 Steppers supposedly had sworn off drugs. Tyler also had a few digs for the rest of the band, saying two members, whom he didn’t I.D., were “using” in 2009.

We have three words for this mess: Paging Tim Collins . . .

You may recall that Aerosmith’s former manager was credited with getting Tyler and Perry off heroin and putting the band back together back in the ’80s — the last time they were this screwed up. He steered the Bad Boys of Boston through some of their most tumultuous times to some of their greatest successes. As thanks, he was canned back in 1996 in a 14-minute meeting at the fab Four Seasons.

To read the complete article visit BOSTON HERALD

Just days after the one-year anniversary of the BP oil rig explosion and resultant ecological disaster, Rise Against – one of the most unabashedly opinionated bands around – will be performing a song at Sunset Cove Amphitheatre west of Boca Raton that will likely hit home.

“Help Is On the Way” illustrates not only the plight of the victims of disasters, but also the lack of response from the United States government, according to lead singer Tim McIlrath.

“I wanted not just to paint a picture of what happened in New Orleans with everything from Hurricane Katrina to the BP disaster,” McIlrath said, “but also paint a picture of how much of those disasters were man-made. I wanted to connect some dots, and show how the lack of spending and planning in New Orleans is what really hurt people, and where a lack of response in both cases is where our government failed gigantically.”

To read the complete article visit THE PALM BEACH POST

RATT’s charismatic frontman STEPHEN PEARCY has announced that he will be hitting the road this June with the METAL IN AMERICA tour including warm up dates throughout the month of April and May.

PEARCY’s touring band includes an impressive pedigree of  rock alumni consisting of   drummer Greg D’ Angelo (ex-White Lion), guitarist Greg Walls (ex-Anthrax), bassist Mike Duda of W.A.S.P. and guitarist Erik Ferentinos of Antidivision (Top Fuel Records).

The METAL IN AMERICA tour is expected to run through end of summer and will include material from RATT’s deep catalog of classic rock anthems and Pearcy’s impressive solo material.

For tour date information visit www.stephen-pearcy.com

In other recent news, Pearcy will be teaming up with renowned New York City Chef Chris Santos, who is a judge on the Food Network’s Chopped, to create his own BBQ Sauce and Hot Sauce for High River Sauces.

Pearcy recently signed with the booking agency Popular Music fronted by music veteran Michael Rand.

For further information visit STEPHEN PEARCY

For further information about High River Sauces visit HIGH RIVER SAUCES

For further information about Popular Music visit POPULAR MUSIC