ROCK 102.3 - pure rock radio Burlington VT

Thursday, July 29, 2010

• 'OZZFEST' OFFERING 'UNHOLY MATRIMONY' PACKAGES

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  Ozzy Osbourne's upcoming Ozzfest tour is offering prospective brides and grooms a chance to tie the knot at one of the stops on the tour through a new offering called the Unholy Matrimony Package. The promotion will provide 10 general admission pit tickets for the happy couple and eight guests, an official wedding ceremony performed by Ozzfest MC and ordained minister Big Dave, an Ozzfest cake and a champagne toast. The wedding party will also get early entry into the venue and a pre-show backstage tour, plus access to the VIP lounge.

  Also included will be specially designed Ozzfest tour shirts, numbered and limited tour posters, Sony earbuds and official Ozzfest guitar picks.

  Each couple will also be eligible for a special Ozzfest wedding gift from the Unholy Matrimony bridal registry and supplied by the tour's sponsors, including a refrigerator and a guitar.

  The Unholy Matrimony Packages have already been sold for the California, Connecticut and New Jersey shows, but are still available for Chicago on August 17th, Pittsburgh on the 19th and Boston on the 24th.

  Couples must provide their own marriage license.

  This year's six-show Ozzfest excursion will feature Ozzy in the headlining slot, along with Motley Crue, Rob Halford, DevilDriver, Nonpoint, Drowning Pool, Black Label Society and others on two stages.

  'OZZFEST' OFFERING 'UNHOLY MATRIMONY' PACKAGES
• AVENGED SEVENFOLD HEADED FOR NUMBER ONE DEBUT?

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  Avenged Sevenfold's newly released fifth album, Nightmare, is on track to sell between 160,000 and 175,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week of release, enough to debut at the top of next week's Billboard album chart. According to Hits Daily Double, that estimate is based on one-day sales reports compiled following the record's arrival on Tuesday (July 27th). The band's previous effort, its self-titled fourth album, sold 94,000 copies when it arrived back in November 2007.

  The video for the record's first single and title track, "Nightmare," was recently the second most popular clip on YouTube. The song itself is a Top Five hit on rock radio.

  Nightmare the album was completed following the death last December of drummer Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs and alcohol.

  The group recruited Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy to play on the album. Portnoy has also signed up for all the band's 2010 tour dates, and made his live debut with Avenged Sevenfold last Sunday (July 25th) in Montreal, Canada.

  AVENGED SEVENFOLD HEADED FOR NUMBER ONE DEBUT?
• DISTURBED PLANNING LIVE SHOW FANS HAVE 'NEVER SEEN BEFORE'

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  Disturbed began rehearsals in Chicago on Wednesday (July 28th) for the upcoming Uproar Tour, which will be the first time the band has played together onstage since the end of the touring cycle for its 2008 record, Indestructible. Singer David Draiman told us that fans can expect a Disturbed show bigger than anything the band has done before: "The production for this touring cycle is turning out to be really, really amazing, really impressive. I can't really give away too much, but I will say that it is a aspect that no one has ever seen from Disturbed live -- very theatrical, very dramatic, very visually stimulating -- so we're very much looking forward to letting people see a Disturbed performance they've never seen before."

  Disturbed will hit the road on this summer's Uproar Tour with Avenged Sevenfold, Stone Sour, Hellyeah, Halestorm and others beginning August 17th in Minneapolis.

  The band's new album, Asylum, will arrive on August 31st and features the single "Another Way To Die."

  A limited edition CD/DVD version of the record will come with concert footage, instructional videos and the hour-long "Decade of Disturbed" documentary.

  AUDIO: DISTURBED'S DAVID DRAIMAN ON THE BAND'S NEW STAGE PRODUCTION
  
  DISTURBED PLANNING LIVE SHOW FANS HAVE 'NEVER SEEN BEFORE'
• GODSMACK SINGER SETS RELEASE DATE FOR SOLO ALBUM

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  Godsmack frontman Sully Erna has set September 14th as the release date for his long-in-the-works debut solo album, titled Avalon. A first single from the disc, called "Sinner's Prayer," will arrive at rock radio stations next week. Erna finished work on the record in early 2009 but has held off on releasing it until after Godsmack completed and issued its fifth studio album this year, called The Oracle.

  Erna told us his solo effort doesn't fit into one musical genre: "I'm not sure what category it falls in. I think ultimately, you know, it's somewhat of a rock record, but it's not really a rock record. It's very eclectic and it's very spiritual and it's very hypnotic and primitive. It'll be interesting to see how the public reacts to it. But all in all, people I have played it for so far have been honestly blown away by it."

  Godsmack has scattered dates lined up for the rest of this summer, including August 7th at Rock On The Range Canada in Winnipeg, August 9th in Sturgis, South Dakota at the annual Sturgis Bike Rally, and August 14th in Madison, Wisconsin.

  A full tour is in the works for either fall or early 2011.

  The band's fifth studio album, The Oracle, debuted at Number One on the Billboard album chart in May with 117,000 copies sold in its first week of release.

  The latest single from The Oracle, called "Love Hate Sex Pain," follows up the chart-topping "Cryin' Like A Bitch."

  AUDIO: GODSMACK'S SULLY ERNA ON HIS SOLO ALBUM
  
  GODSMACK SINGER SETS RELEASE DATE FOR SOLO ALBUM
• DRUMMER: SLIPKNOT WILL NOT REPLACE LATE BASSIST

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  Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison, who's out touring with Rob Zombie, has confirmed that the band will continue making music despite the death in May of bassist Paul Gray. While Slipknot is only in the very earliest stages of planning its next record, Jordison says they've already decided they will not recruit a new bassist: "There will be no other bass players besides Jim (Root, guitarist), Mick (Thomson, guitarist) and me, more than likely. Everyone actually kind of plays guitar in the band, so I think we're all gonna play bass on the record. We're not gonna have anyone come in. But live, we'll deal with that when it comes."

  A new Slipknot album is not likely to come out until 2012 at the earliest.

  Jordison is touring with Zombie and releasing a new album from his side band, Murderdolls, next month.

  Singer Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root also have a new album due out in September from their other act, Stone Sour, called Audio Secrecy.

  Gray's body was found on May 24th in a suburban hotel room outside Des Moines, Iowa. A medical examiner ruled that the 38-year-old died of an accidental overdose of morphine and a synthetic form of morphine.

  AUDIO: SLIPKNOT'S JOEY JORDISON SAYS BAND WILL NOT REPLACE BASSIST
  
  DRUMMER: SLIPKNOT WILL NOT REPLACE LATE BASSIST
• BLACK CROWES TO UNVEIL WEB SERIES NEXT MONTH

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  The Black Crowes plan to unveil a web series, called 20 Years Of Tall Tales, in conjunction with the August 3rd release of Croweology -- their first-ever double album of all-acoustic material with new arrangements of classics and deep cuts.

  Throughout the month of August, the band will release one webisode per day on BlackCrowes.com. In the clips, they'll answer questions about the band's highs, the lows, controversies, arrests, feuds and more. The series was filmed earlier this month at Chris Robinson's Los Angeles home.

  Black Crowes are celebrating the release with an extensive tour this year. They're on the road through the end of 2010 on what will likely be their last road trip for a while. Earlier this year, the group announced it would ber going on a lengthy hiatus once the Say Goodnight To The Bad Guys tour wraps with A six-night stand at The Fillmore in San Francisco this December. Singer Chris Robinson tells us why they decided to take a break: "The real story is is you know, it's been five solid years of touring, you know three records and DVDs. And I think it's more about just having a little bit of space and taking our breath away from the thing. It's hard because it's easily been the most fulfilling and progressive time in the band, in you know, 20 years."

  AUDIO: CHRIS ROBINSON OF BLACK CROWES ON HIATUS
  
  BLACK CROWES TO UNVEIL WEB SERIES NEXT MONTH
• RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE SOUNDS OFF ON IMMIGRATION LAW

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  With Arizona's controversial immigration law slated to go into effect on Thursday (July 29th), Rage Against The Machine played its first hometown show in a decade last week in Los Angeles as part of a campaign to have the law blocked and overturned. Rage guitarist Tom Morello told Spin.com, "We are against this law because it is about racial profiling, and makes an entire race of people suspects first, and people second. It's just a license to discriminate."

  At press time, the law's most controversial sections, which required police to arrest and detain anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant, had been put on hold by a federal judge. But Morello said that the entire debate is a distraction from bigger issues, explaining, "It's really convenient for the right wing to say 'Well, forget about the banks flushing your life's savings down the toilet,' and, 'Forget about the huge corporations whose malfeasance has put the economy in the dumper,' and 'Let's focus on these undocumented workers' . . . The real criminals are the ones who have sabotaged our economy for their own profit, not undocumented farm hands."

  A National Day of Non-Compliance and civil action against the law was set to take place on Thursday, although those plans may have been changed by the judge's hold on the law.

  Spearheading the campaign against the law has been the Sound Strike, an organization launched by Rage frontman Zack de la Rocha and supported by dozens of musical acts.

  Rage Against The Machine has no other dates on its schedule for the rest of the year for now, although some South American shows could be in the works.

  RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE SOUNDS OFF ON IMMIGRATION LAW