Motley bassist Nikki Sixx wrote in an online posting on Satureday, "Tommy [Lee, drums] messed up his hand pretty bad, and yes, accidents do happen, and yes, frustration does happen to everybody, including Tommy, who would rather play drums (even with a damaged hand) than just about anything in the whole world. But following doctor's orders for a few shows is what we have to do right now (or cancel shows).

So he produced "a couple of sort of sketches," titled "Embryo No. 1" and "Embryo No. 2" that the Led Zeppelin founder says represent the first step for some new music in the not-too-distant future.

A Blabbermouth.Net user by the name of "metalfanBKP" has submitted the following eyewitness account from the event: (full account at the full story link, here are some of the highlights) someone threw a large object that hit Paul Allender in the lower back. He grimaced and put his hand to his back, immediately leaving the stage. The rest of the band continued playing the song without him and, eventually, they all left the stage.

Routing will take ZZ Top to many of the markets that had been on that cancelled tour's itinerary, giving fans a second chance, in a manner of speaking, to see the band after all. ZZ Top affirms a commitment to scheduling as many dates as feasible as soon as possible with more specific details relating to markets, venues, ticket sales, etc. to be revealed shortly.

Allen was a founding member of Lit over two decades ago and was able to perform with the band until last fall. In a statement from Kevin Baldes, Jeremy Popoff, and A.Jay Popoff, the band had this to say of their longtime friend Allen:

"It's important for kids to know who Les was because when I first started playing, I thought Les Paul was the name of a guitar. I didn't know it was a real person..."

Attorney Brandee Faria said she talked yesterday with Aerosmith's lawyer, Jay Handlin, and was assured the band would perform.

There is speculation that Radiohead will issue a new digital EP as early as Monday (Aug. 17), following the leak of a track online assumed to be a new song by the band. Fan site At Ease reports that "These Are My Twisted Words" was posted on its message board and it has since appeared on YouTube. According to At Ease, the source file includes the title "Wall of Ice" and the release date Aug. 17 more

Bob Mehr has this sad news: The North Mississippi Allstars have lost their father, Bob Dylan has lost a "brother," rock and roll has lost one of its great cult heroes and Memphis has lost a musical icon with the death of Jim Dickinson. The 67-year-old Dickinson passed away early Saturday morning in his sleep. The Memphis native and longtime Mississippi resident had been in failing health for the past few months and was recuperating from heart surgery at Methodist Extended Care Hospital. more

Poison the Well have announced a month-long headlining tour with Canadian rockers Billy Talent.more

Bassist Rex Brown will rejoin his Down bandmates on the road starting with the August 24, 2009 show in Austin, Texas.more

Ian Jones, original guitarist for New Wave Of British Heavy Metal legends Blitzkrieg, passed away on August 10 after a long illness. more

Gallows has scrapped their previously announced Australian and New Zealand tour dates, instead opting to tour the U.S. with AFI.more

Rare Beatles audio will appear throughout the upcoming Beatles: Rock Band video game.more

Halloween is back and so too is writer-producer-director Rob Zombie, who once again puts his own twisted twist on the soundtrack. Halloween II � Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Hip-O/UMe), to be released August 25, 2009, and co-produced by Zombie, manages to bring together dialogue from the film as well as music from Motorhead, The Moody Blues, Scream (sans future member Dave Grohl), Rod Stewart, the MC5 and Foghat, alongside new psychobilly band Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures.

AM Conspiracy, the band fronted by former Drowning Pool vocalist Jason "Gong" Jones, has parted ways with guitarist Mike Farole.more

ORBS, featuring members of Between The Buried And Me and Fear Before, among others, will tour the East Coast briefly this month. Dates are here

Original San Francisco bay area thrash masters Sacrilege BC have released their blistering 1986 Party with God recording officially on November Fire Recordings. The seventeen track package includes the bands first demo and has been remastered from the studio session tapes. Sacrilege BC was on the crest of the crossover movement that emerged from the birthplace of California thrash. For more information or to order the digipack visit www.sacrilegebc.com also available on itunes.

God Seed � the Norwegian band featuring former Gorgoroth members King (bass; real name: Tom Cato Visnes) and Gaahl (vocals; real name: Kristian Espedal) tells Blabbermouth: "It has been rumored that Gaahl and King have disbanded God Seed. However, this is not the case. Gaahl has chosen to retire from metal music." more

We end with a couple mailbag items. Jesse writes: John Shanks only confirmed "We Weren't Born To Follow" as the new Bon Jovi smass (single that is). The album is called The Circle, confirmed by Obie on the official Bon Jovi website. Single "we weren't meat to follow" end of august. album The Circle November 10th. [Apparently the "tweet" where that info came from was unclear on this point but was clarified later. Chalk it up to being like when KISS was going to call their album "Condemnation" and ended up going with "Cheesy Nights" instead.]

City of Fire's debut album was released on the band's website, www.cityoffire.com, on Saturday August 15th, with a full-scale release to be announced shortly.

While it took a rather long while to launch this entity, TENET are now set to mercilessly explode onto the global metal scene with a high quality, furious thrashing old school metal album