Friday, February 11, 2011 at 12:01AM 
The Rocklahoma announcement is today at 8 a.m. CST. I suspect the bands will be much of the same that were recently announced for Rock on the Range.
Rocklahoma is held annually in Pryor, Oklahoma. This is the fifth year for the event. It is now produced by AEG Live.
Come back at 8 a.m. CST and we'll discuss who is playing the event.
Thursday, February 10, 2011 at 08:16PM AEG Live and Right Arm Entertainment just own the festival business now. If you're around the Carolinas, you might be interested in this one: the Carolina Rebellion. Check it out - here's the release:
Avenged Sevenfold, Godsmack, Three Days Grace and Stone Sour are among the hard hitting rock artists confirmed for the first ever Carolina Rebellion. Set for Saturday, May 7 at Metrolina Expo in Charlotte, NC, Carolina Rebellion will offer fans throughout the Carolinas, and the entire mid-Atlantic region, a full day of non-stop rock on three stages.
The current lineup for Carolina Rebellion is as follows: Avenged Sevenfold, Godsmack, Three Days Grace, Stone Sour, Seether, Bullet For My Valentine, Theory of a Deadman, Alter Bridge, Hinder, Skillet, Saving Abel, Halestorm, Black Stone Cherry, My Darkest Days, Cavo, Rev Theory, Pop Evil, Art Of Dying and more. The festival will feature two main stages for the biggest acts in rock today, both sponsored by Monster Energy.
“Strap yourself in and hold on tight...Godsmack is coming to Carolina Rebellion to kick y'all a new asshole!!” says Sully Erna of Godsmack.
Mark Tremonti of Alter Bridge comments: "We are very much looking forward to performing at the Carolina Rebellion in Charlotte. We are honored to be sharing the stage with many great bands that night and it promises to be a memorable event."
"It seems the Carolinas are in need of a rock festival to call their own and we are honored to unleash the Rebellion to the great rock fans of this area,” says Gary Spivack, co-executive producer of the event for Right Arm Entertainment. “With our partners at AEG we locked into an amazing outdoor venue just minutes from downtown Charlotte. We are so proud of this lineup. From Godsmack to Avenged Sevenfold to Three Days Grace to Stone Sour....it's nonstop...one great band after another."
Joe Litvag, co-executive producer of the event for AEG Live, added, “While we’re excited to be fostering such an incredible lineup of artists, it’s also imperative that we keep the rock fans in mind by delivering a tremendous value with Carolina Rebellion. The credit goes to my partners at Right Arm Entertainment and Allen Corbett, my colleague at AEG Live in the Carolinas, for keeping the vision of an affordable rock experience. To see this caliber of talent for this low of a price is truly amazing!”
Tickets for the general admission festival go on sale Friday, February 18 at 10am EST at all Ticketmaster outlets and at www.carolinarebellion.com. Tickets are available starting at $49.50 for a limited time. VIP ticket and hotel packages will also be available for purchase at this time.
The full details of the 2011 Carolina Rebellion VIP hotel and ticket packages are as follows. Prices are available at www.carolinarebellion.com.
SILVER PACKAGE (2 People)
- 1 Hotel Room - 1 King Bed (Saturday, May 7, 2011)
- 2 Carolina Rebellion General Admission Tickets
- 2 Carolina Rebellion T-Shirts
GOLD PACKAGE (2 People)
- 1 Hotel Room - 1 King Bed (Friday, May 6-Saturday, May 7, 2011)
- 2 Carolina Rebellion General Admission Tickets
- 2 Carolina Rebellion T-Shirts
PLATINUM PACKAGE (4 People)
- 1 Hotel Room - 2 Double Beds (Friday, May 6-Saturday, May 7, 2011)
- 4 Carolina Rebellion General Admission Tickets
- 4 Carolina Rebellion T-Shirts
Metrolina Expo is centrally located off of Interstate 77, between Interstates 85 and 485, just north of downtown Charlotte. For directions to the site, please visit www.carolinarebellion.com.
Carolina Rebellion is proud to be sponsored by Jägermeister and FYE and is produced by Right Arm Entertainment and AEG Live, the same team that produces the highly successful Rock On The Range in Columbus, OH.
Thursday, February 10, 2011 at 12:01AM 
Despite a few push-backs, Stryper is finally ready to release The Covering. The album will be released February 15 via Big 3 Records.
If you haven't heard, The Covering is, of course, an album of covers. Now, I'm going to be blunt: I am not a big Stryper fan. Michael Sweet is a phenomenal musician, but I just really can't heavily get into the band. But, I'm glad I saw them live once (at Rocklahoma) and I can take them in small doses. And, I honestly think The Covering is a brilliant idea because it pairs really famous metal songs with a lesser-known band. What does that equal? Exposure of course.
The first single off The Covering is "Heaven and Hell" (Black Sabbath) and it is basically awesome. You know what else is awesome? The version of "Carry On Wayward Son" (Kansas).
If you check out the album page on Amazon, you can preview the singles. I am going to go out on a limb here and say Stryper's version of the Kansas classic is one of my favorite cover songs...ever. It's just that good. In fact, I'm digging these covers so much I may go back and try to rediscover the Stryper catalog. After all, my whole life is soaring vocals and big guitar solos and Stryper does that pretty well, so maybe I've been shortsighted. It's kind of exciting when I think about it: it's like discovering a band for the first time. Everything is fresh.
Are you planning on purchasing The Covering when it is released?
Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 12:01AM 
How cool is it that one of Eddie Van Halen's guitars is going to the Smithsonian?! First, let me say that I love the Smithsonian complex. I try to visit at least one museum every time I visit Washington, D.C. - and D.C. is my favorite city in America.
The National Museum of American History will be displaying the "Frank 2" - that's Eddie's red, black and white guitar with all the stripes. The name Frank 2 is from Frankenstein of course. You know, Eddie's brilliant guitar that came out of constant work and modifications. Frank 2 was used in Van Halen's most recent tour. It will be displayed at the museum's Division of Culture and the Arts. Apparently it won't be immediately on public display - but I'm sure it will be someday.
And on the heels of the awesome Smithsonian news, there's word the guys in Van Halen are planning an Australian tour. And we all know Eddie didn't want to tour again until there was new material, so I guess a new album is imminent. Apparently the tour starts down under in August. To me this means VH will swing around to the states not long after...woo hoo! This would more than make up for a probable abysmal tour season that we're looking at this summer.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 12:01AM Did you see the Super Bowl ad with Ozzy Osbourne and Justin Bieber? The musical stars are hocking the Best Buy "buy it back" program. The ad itself isn't that great, but Ozzy does a good job playing himself.
I firmly believe the constant use of 80s rockers in modern commercials says something about the popularity of the music we love. Plus, classic rock and metal is just about all that is played at sporting events these days - it's just inescapable. All that exposure only means good things for Glam and metal bands.
How much do you suspect Ozzy (and Sharon) made for appearing in this ad? A few million? Not bad for what was probably one day of work.
I wish I was going to Sweden Rock Fest - I've never seen Ozzy live and he's playing there this year. He's also playing Wacken Open Air...not that I am going to that event either.
Monday, February 7, 2011 at 12:01AM 
Gary Moore, formerly of Thin Lizzy, has died. His body was found in Spain where he was on vacation. A cause of death is not yet known. BBC interviewed Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell after news of Moore's death broke. According to the BBC report, Bell said he was "in shock..." because "Moore was so robust."
While most people immediately recognize Moore from his work with Thin Lizzy, he did have a prolific solo career and worked with a slew of other musicians including Ozzy Osbourne and Jackson Browne. Moore had great blues feel and instantly provided groove to any track he touched. BBG! writer Christian fancies himself a blues guitarist and he weighed in on Moore's passing. Christian says:
"Gary Moore was always one of "those guys." You know, great guitar player, but somehow not on the A-list. He had some great songs, like "Out In the Fields" and "After the War," but, for me, he was more the guy who added some color to a compilations, than someone you followed rabidly. That changed overnight with the release of Still Got the Blues. See, I love the blues as much as I love rock and metal, and overnight, with a sappy ballad that was nine parts "Parissiene Walkways" and perhaps one part pseudo-blues riding high on the charts, he sold a whole generation of guitar players a CD full of incendiary blues playing, and brought players like Albert Collins and Albert King in to the limelight where they belonged. His next CD included a collaboration with BB King, and from there, he played blues for the rest of his life, with great skill and emotion. It was through loving his blues stuff that I went back and really came to appreciate his rock output more, too. As a guitar player, I can say I spent a year learning how to play that first album, and I learned a lot from it. Because Peter Green was being obtuse, the tab book didn't contain my favorite song, "Stop Messin' Round," which forced me to learn how to work out songs by ear. I don't know if I play at all like Gary Moore, but I know I try very hard to. As a lover of guitar music, I can only say I'm shocked and saddened to hear that we've lost a guy who was perhaps never huge in the mainstream eye, apart from a few minutes back in 1990, but who still made a real impact on the genres and on the instrument."
And now, some video requests from our very own Metalboy!
Sunday, February 6, 2011 at 08:46PM