Rock N Roll

And the Canadian band’s message? Kids should stop playing Guitar Hero and start rock bands! Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger shares why they say that, “I feel like there’s not enough rock bands out there, especially when we go on the road. It’s tough to find other bands out there, because either they’re making a record, or they just got done touring. So kids: Start rock bands. Set down the ‘Guitar Hero,’ learn how to play an actual guitar and start a band, because it’s hard to find more bands to put a solid rock-and-roll package together..”

Making “Dark Horse”, Nickelback’s latest album, was no easy task. Chad Kroeger relates that the record took more than six months to create, from conception to delivery, and he adds that he’s pretty sure the band accomplished its stated mission of releasing a record that surpasses its previous offering, 2005’s All the Right Reasons. Kroeger shares, “The bar’s been raised — it’s pretty high, especially if we are going to be looking back at the last record. I think our fans were pretty happy with it, and we made a lot of new fans with that one, and we want to keep ‘em all!”

Beginning February 2, 2009, at Cox Arena in San Diego and wrapping March 18 at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Maine, the veteran rockers will pick up where 40-plus-city North American Crue Fest left off. The 25-city-plus tour will feature support from Hinder, Theory of a Deadman and the Last Vegas (winner of the first Guitar Center On-Stage: Your Chance to Make Rock History contest). Ticket prices will range from $25 to $75, with public on-sales beginning Nov. 21 in various markets.

Kovac, who has served as Motley Crue’s manager since 1994 relates, “These are markets we didn’t play. Rock has always been a middle-of-the-country sport, and you have to go to where your fans are.” After March, Motley Crue will break from touring until the summer, when it will visit European cities in June. From there, the band will return stateside from July through September for the second edition of Crue Fest. Below are Motley Crue’s North American tour dates. Let’s get rockin’!!!

Feb. 2: San Diego (Cox Arena)
Feb. 4: Reno, Nev. (Reno Events Center)
Feb. 6-7: Las Vegas (the Joint)
Feb. 10: Omaha, Neb. (Quest Center)
Feb. 11: Moline, Ill. (iWireless Center)
Feb. 13: Grand Rapids, Mich. (Van Andel Arena)
Feb. 14: Madison, Wis. (Alliant Energy Center)
Feb. 15: Rockford, Ill. (Metro Centre)
Feb. 17: Des Moines, Iowa (Wells Fargo Arena)
Feb. 18: Saint Paul, Minn. (Xcel Energy Center)
Feb. 19: Green Bay, Wis. (Resch Center)
Feb. 21: Nashville (Sommet Center)
Feb. 22: Birmingham, Ala. (Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex)
Feb. 25: Greensville, S.C. (Bi-Lo Center)
Feb. 27: Lafayette, La. (Cajun Dome)
Feb. 28: New Orleans (New Orleans Arena)
March 3: Miami (Hard Rock Casino)
March 4: Orlando, Fla. (UCF Arena)
March 6: Atlantic City, N.J. (Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa)
March 7: Erie, Pa. (Erie Events Center)
March 8: Hershey, Pa. (Giant Center)
March 10: Ottawa, Ontario (Scotiabank Place)
March 11: Hamilton, Ontario (Copps Coliseum)
March 13: Uncasville, Conn. (Mohegan Sun Arena)
March 14: Baltimore (1st Mariner Arena)
March 16: New York (Madison Square Garden)
March 17: Manchester, N.H. (Verizon Wireless)
March 18: Portland, Maine (Cumberland County Civic Center)

Nope, it’s not a greatest hits album. As the band guitarist, Benji Madden, explains: “We just feel like even though we’re in the process of making our fifth album and we have had a lot of hits, we’re a little too young for a greatest hits (album).” Young indeed! Even Bon Jovi is just starting to make their greatest hits and they’ve been around for a looooong time! Adds Benji’s twin brother, Good Charlotte frontman Joel Madden, “We’re not as accomplished as I guess we feel a band with a greatest hits should be.”

And so, instead of a greatest hits album, Good Charlotte came out with “The Greatest Remixes” which is due out this November 25 from Epic. Fifteen songs appear on the standard edition of the album, while another five remixes will be available via iTunes. Good Charlotte also brought a pair of new songs to the project, the socially conscious “WAR” for the iTunes edition and “Anxiety” for both sets. Joel Madden describes it as “probably the most Good Charlotte record we’ve ever written” — more rock and pop-oriented, with fewer dance and hip-hop influences.

But the best news for the rock n roll group? They will become eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum next year! WOW! Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora tells Billboard.com about the upcoming award, “I hope so.. Time flies man, but yeah there’s talk and rumors. Boy that would be nice. It’s something certainly I’ve been shooting for all my life. I think if you have a career in the music business, you want to get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.”

The Bon Jovi member also shared that they have plenty of new projects. Richie Sambora related, “We’ve been filming a documentary and are in the process of mixing a live DVD of last year’s ‘Lost Highway’ concert tour.” He adds, “Also, I think we’re looking at doing a greatest hits album next year. Jon and I are writing some new songs for it and to just load up for the next Bon Jovi record.” The DVD and best-of album is expected for a fall 2009 release.

Yup, New Yorkers will now have their own Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! And it will open this November 24th, sooo exciting! The ANNEX NYC will feature galleries of John Lennon, Madonna, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan. Additionally, it will open its first special exhibit in true punk rock style, honoring the Clash. The ANNEX will also showcase selected items from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s vast collection, including Bruce Springsteen’s 1957 Chevy, John Lennon’s Record Plant Piano, Elvis Presley’s motorcycle jacket, a handwritten poem by Jim Morrison and much more.

The exhibits, including the Roots & Influences, Moments to Movements and New York Rocks rooms, will highlight rock and roll’s impact on music, allowing visitors to discover, or rediscover, their connection to it all. Advance tickets for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ANNEX NYC are on sale exclusively at http://www.rockannex.com or 866-9-ROCKNY (866.963.2569). The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ANNEX NYC is located at 76 Mercer Street. Exhibits are subject to capacity and advance ticket purchase is essential to ensure access for a desired time and date. Go and buy your tickets now!

Frank Iero, the MCR guitarist, has been involved with many bands (Pencey Prep, Hybrid, Sector 12, I Am a Graveyard, the Pole Smokin’ Five, Give Up the Ghost, Reggie and the Full Effect and a Cure tribute band called Love Cats) but was never a lyricist. So being the songwriter of his latest side project, Leathermouth, was a lot of change for him. A couple of his friends, who had been in other bands, were thinking about starting something. They’d already written and made crude recordings of three songs but never managed to write lyrics for it. Frank Iero volunteered and wrote all the lyrics in a week. Leathermouth was born. He shared,

“Two songs on the record, one’s called ‘Murder Was the Case They Gave Me’ … and the other one’s called ‘Bodysnatchers Forever,’ and it was weird, man. I was sitting in my apartment, playing the songs, and the words kind of came to me, and I was really proud of them too.”

Frank Iero explained that people coming to Leathermouth expecting it’ll be My Chemical Romance in sound are in for a rude awakening. He said, “I think that people that get into Leathermouth because of my past bands and stuff like that, I think they’ll be kind of bummed out, if that’s why they’re into it.” The My Chemical Romance guitarist also shrugged off the suggestion that this new band has a very metal kind of sound. He said Leathermouth is “just dirty rock and roll.” Live, “It’s just a lot faster.”

According to the band’s frontman, Chester Bennington, it was a friend’s idea to make a concept album. Though he wouldn’t discuss the concept in detail, he said he was looking forward to the challenge. Linkin Park plan to enter a recording studio before December to track the as-yet-untitled effort and that it will take six weeks to record the new album. Chester Bennington also wouldn’t share what Linkin Park’s upcoming material sounds like. Chester explains,

“Asking someone to describe what something sounds like is like telling a blind person to guess what I look like.. It’s almost impossible. I can tell you that it’s our first stab — and perhaps our only stab, depending on how good we do — at creating a concept record … In terms of describing what it sounds like … it sounds like peanut butter and jelly. It’s sounding delicious.“

Anyway, Chester Bennington relates their concept album saying, “For me, you say the words ‘concept record,’ and the first thing I think of is theater or the opera or something. There’s a story, and everything has to relate to that story … It was an inspiring idea, and it was something we could relate a lot of the things we like to write about to. It couldn’t have come strictly from us — an outside source brought it to us in a way that was exciting.”