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Limp Bizkit Worst Band of 2003
Reuters reports: Limp Bizkit, which suffered slow sales of its long-awaited new album, has been named worst band of the year by readers of Guitar World magazine. 

Creed, another act that draws sharp reactions, came in at No. 2 even though the Christian combo took the year off. New York rockers the Strokes were No. 3, followed by "all pop-punk bands" at No. 4 and pop-punk band Good Charlotte at No. 5. 

Limp Bizkit's "Results May Vary" has sold one million copies after 13 weeks, and ranks No. 64 on the U.S. pop charts. Its previous release, 2000's Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water," ranked No. 5 after 13 weeks with sales of four million copies. 

Metallica's poor-selling new album, "St. Anger," was named biggest disappointment, but it also came in at No. 2 as the best metal album, ranking behind Black Label Society's "The Blessed Hellride." Click Here for the Full Story 

Friedman on Megadeth Reunion
BW&BK reports: Former MEGADETH guitarist MARTY FRIEDMAN's website has posted a lengthy interview where he touches upon rumors of a possible Megadeth reunion. 

When asked if he was in touch with Dave Mustaine (former Megadeth singer/guitarist) and David Ellefson (former bassist), he countered, "What reunion? I'm sure I answered this somewhere in the FAQ, but I don't know anything about any plans for that. I am on good terms with both of them and I hope only the best in whatever they want to do. I was flattered to be asked by Mustaine to participate in a solo project that he's working on, but as much as I'd like to, I decided not to mainly because I wouldn't want to take away any thunder from a full fledged possible Megadeth reunion, if that were to ever come to pass in the future. I hear through the grapevine that his new music is gonna be killer." 

Mustaine's solo effort is due out through Sanctuary later this year.Click Here for the Full Story 

Evanescence 04 Tour
Digital Noise reports: Evanescence have announced a number of tour dates beginning in February. The tour dates include the make-up dates for the band's previously postponed concerts from earlier this year. 

Dates are as follows: February 11th - Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern LG
February 12th - Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
February 13th - San Jose, CA @ Event Center Arena
February 15th - Reno, NV @ Reno Hilton
February 17th - Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
February 20th - Saint Cloud, MN @ Halenbeck Hall
February 21st - Madison, WI @ Alliant Energy Center
February 22nd - Fort Wayne, IN @ Allen County Memorial Coliseum
February 24th - Champaign, IL @ Assembly Hall
Click Here for the Full Story 

A.F.I., Coheed And Cambria to Tour 
Digital Noise reports: A.F.I. and Coheed And Cambira will be heading out on the road beginning in mid-February. 

Dates for the tour as as follows:
February 18th Bakersfield, CA @ Convention Center (Feat. A Static Lullaby, The Bled)
February 21st San Bernardino, CA @ National Orange Show (Feat. A Static Lullaby, The Bled) 
February 24th Tulsa, OK @ Cain's Ballroom (Feat. A Static Lullaby) 
February 28th Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle (Feat. Thursday) 
March 01st Pensacola, FL @ Bayfront Auditorium (Feat. Thursday) 
March 02nd Jacksonville, FL @ Plush (Feat. Thursday) 
March 08th Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House Of Blues (Feat. Thursday) 

More dates are expected to be announced in the coming weeks Click Here for the Full Story 

Cobain Guitar Controversy
Blabbermouth reports: Terri Theodore of Canada.com is reporting that a businessman who thought he had a guitar belonging to late NIRVANA frontman Kurt Cobain is suing a Washington state man for fraud. 

The lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court claims Earnest "Guitar" Bailey falsely represented a left-handed Fender Stratocaster guitar as Cobain's. 

Phil Gross, a resident of North Vancouver, traded his own six-string Gibson S.G. electric guitar for the guitar, believing it was used by Cobain in one of his band NIRVANA's last concert tours before Cobain's 1994 suicide. 

His plans to market the guitar at several auction houses were squashed when a famous British rock-collectibles auction house found out the claim was false. 

Gross is suing Bailey for negligence and wants special and punitive damages. 

Bailey lives in Gig Harbour, Wash., and was the guitar tech for NIRVANA during the 1991-92 Nevermind Tour. 

The suit alleges a conspiracy to defraud. Click Here for the Full Story 

US CD Sales Slump
Reuters reports: U.S. album sales fell once again in 2003, but there were some signs that the music industry could be pulling out of its long-running slump, retail tracker Nielsen SoundScan reported on Wednesday. 

Sales of compact discs, which make up 96 percent of all sales, fell 2.1 percent to 635.8 million units. But the decline in 2002 was a much steeper 8.7 percent, the firm said. 

The best-selling albums came from diverse acts, led by rapper 50 Cent, jazz singer Norah Jones and rock band Linkin Park. 

For the last three months of the year, when many labels roll out their biggest releases, CD sales rose 5.6 percent from the year-ago period. 

Overall music sales -- including singles and increasingly popular online downloads -- were up 10.5 percent for that period, Nielsen SoundScan said. Click Here for the Full Story 

Queen + Sabbath + Zep = Quartz 
BW&BK reports: Sanctuary Records is reissuing the self-titled debut album from Birmingham's QUARTZ in early 2004. Quartz was part of the legendary NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) movement. Guitarist Mike Hopkins had previously played with LED ZEPPELIN drummer John Bonham's WAY OF LIFE, while second guitarist Geoff Nicholls would join BLACK SABBATH in 1979 as keyboardist. Drummer Malcolm Cope was involved with preproduction for Black Sabbath's Born Again. 

Originally issued on Jet Records in 1977 the album has never, until now, seen a CD release. The album was produced by Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and featured OZZY OSBOURNE, QUEEN guitarist Brian May and soon-to-be Sabbath keyboard player Geoff Nicholls. The Sanctuary reissue (release date to be confirmed), features many bonus tracks, including �Circles', and liner notes from Garry Sharpe-Young.

Over their career Quartz toured heavily, playing the Reading Festival three times ('76, '77 and '80), and touring as support to the likes of UFO, IRON MAIDEN, SAXON, GILLAN and RUSH. The band released two other studio albums: Stand Up And Fight (1980) and Against All Odds (1983). Click Here for the Full Story 

Ozz...No PriestFest
siN's metal news reports: Over at the Wacken Festival website they have a list of bands that they tried to get and so on and so forth. The interesting thing is that they have JUDAS PRIEST listed their and have behind them "nein, spielen ozzfeste". Which translates to, no, playing Ozzfest. So take that for what you will as nothing is obviously official.Click Here for the Full Story 

Mad Not Spice World
Ananova reports: Victoria Beckham looks likely to be denied a number one record this weekend by Gary Jules. 

The former Spice Girl is on a publicity blitz in a bid to shift copies of her double A-side single, This Groove/Let Your Head Go. 

But midweek sales figures show that she is currently at number three. Gary Jules is outselling her by two-to-one and looks set to have a third week at the top with Mad World. 

Ozzy Osbourne and daughter Kelly are currently in second place with their duet Changes. Click Here for the Full Story 

Poor Posh, her insipid, uninspired, heavily studio processed voice was no match for the haunting ballad recorded for $50 in a basement. Sometimes the good guys do win and all the glitz and marketing don't mean a thing.

World Idol Kurt
Reuters reports: Norway's "Pop Idol" Kurt Nilsen moved a step up to "World Idol" on Thursday when he triumphed in a singing competition with winners from 10 other nations 

"American Idol" Kelly Clarkson won second place, and Belgium's Peter Everard came in third when the vote was announced on Britain's ITV television Friday evening following a Christmas Day broadcast of the international singing competition. 

"This is totally amazing," said a thrilled and tearful Nilson. "I love you guys," he told the 10 other competitors. 

The competitors are all winners of the first season of the "Idol" series in their respective countries.

Nilson, a 25-year-old plumber, won the Norwegian version of "Pop Idol" in May. His single, "She's So High," went straight to No. 1 in the Norwegian singles chart and is the country's biggest-selling single to date. 

The young Norwegian won maximum points from nine of the 11 countries that voted in the contest for his rendition of the U2 track "Beautiful Day." Click Here for the Full Story 

All That Remains In March
The PRP reports: All That Remains are now eyeing a March 23rd release date through Prosthetic for their upcoming new album "This Darkened Heart". The tentative track listing for the effort is as follows: 
01 - "And Death In My Arms"
02 - "The Deepest Gray"
03 - "Vicious Betrayal"
04 - "I Die In Degrees"
05 - "Focus Shall Not Fail"
06 - "Regret Not"
07 - "Passion"
08 - "For Salvation"
09 - "Tattered On My Sleeve"
10 - "This Darkened Heart"
Click Here for the Full Story 

Wal-Mart Music Downloads
AP reports: Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s foray into downloadable music sales is a respectable effort. The song selection is decent, though pesky playback restrictions and a few online kinks sound a few false notes. 

In launching its music service, Wal-Mart enters a world ruled by Apple Computer Inc., purveyor of the iTunes online song service and the iPod music players. The landscape is thick with iPods waiting for tunes. 

So while Wal-Mart's price is right - songs for 88 cents apiece - it's only for PC users equipped with Windows 98 or better. There's no support for Apple or Linux machines. 

For your 88 cents you'll get a file in the Windows Media Audio format, stuffed with some license requirement verification that "phones home" to make sure you're the authorized listener who has rightfully purchased the tunes. You can also buy a complete album for $9.44. That's cheaper by 11 cents per song and half a buck per album than iTunes and competitors MusicMatch and Napster, both of which, like Wal-Mart, use the WMA format. 

The sound quality of the files is good, 128 kilobits per second. That's not near the digital detail of a store-bought CD, but good enough for the average music fan. 

But kids looking for surly rap tunes laden with profanities are out of luck here. Only clean, edited version of such songs are available. I counted 14 tracks among Wal-Mart's top 100 that came "clean" instead of the "dirty" album versions, including Murphy Lee's "Shake Ya Tailfeather" and Staind's "So Far Away." 

There are limitations to what you can do with your downloaded music. Wal-Mart allows you to download the songs to only three different computers. I downloaded some songs at an office computer, and had to re-download them at home (at no additional charge). Wal-Mart also limits to 10 the number of times you can burn the original downloads to a CD. However, I was easily able to burn four purchased downloads to a blank CD, then rip the songs to the MP3 format and convert them to "wav" files and do whatever I wanted with them - on a multitude of devices. 

Here's one catch that bugged me. The songs I listened to at work would not play initially after I downloaded them again at home. I had to call Wal-Mart's toll-free customer service number and have the license reactivated for that song for my second computer. Click Here for the Full Story 

Classical Bizkit
Blabbermouth reports: A string quartet tribute to LIMP BIZKIT, titled "Break Stuff", is scheduled for release on January 27, 2004 through TMRPro.com. Pre-orders are now being taken and usually ship about three weeks prior to release, according to the web site. 

The complete track listing for "Break Stuff" is as follows: 

01. Rollin'
02. My Way
03. Eat You Alive
04. Faith
05. My Generation
06. Build A Bridge
07. N 2 Gether Now
08. Counterfeit
09. Pollution
10. Break Stuff
11. Nookie
12. Ventilation Management (original composition by Todd Mark Rubenstein) Click Here for the Full Story