Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood was arrested by British police late on Wednesday on suspicion of assault and released on bail after questioning on Thursday. Surrey police said the 62-year-old rock star was arrested on suspected assault "in connection with a domestic incident." He was released "until a date in January pending further inquiries." more details and comments from Wood's camp

What do Savage Garden, Razorlight and Maroon 5 have in common? Not much, none of them are the worst band in the world. Instead, that distinction belongs to Nickelback, according to 20% of the readers of the U.K.'s Word Magazine. more.

Say what you want about Nickelback but you can't call them cheap when it comes to putting up big bucks for causes they believe in. How does a half a million dollars grab you? Case in point: Nickelback Donates $500K In Support Of The Obakki Foundation. Details about that here

The All-American Rejects have landed themselves on daytime soap One Life To Live. Their appearance will air Friday (Dec. 4) and Monday (Dec. 7) on ABC. Perhaps they are targeting an older audience? more details here

There is now official confirmation of the sad news we brought you yesterday: An agent says Eric Woolfson, co-founder of the 1970s British progressive rock group Alan Parsons Project, known for the hits "Eye in the Sky" and "Don't Answer Me," has died of cancer. He was 64. more

The songwriter behind the Elvis Presley hit "It's Now or Never" has died. A publicist for Aaron Schroeder says the 84-year-old died Tuesday. Dale Olson said Schroeder had been suffering from a form of Alzheimer's disease. more

Celebrating its 12th anniversary, Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp has announced the rock stars confirmed for its February 2010 session in Hollywood, CA. Those names include: Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, Vince Neil, Ace Frehley and more

A feature film about The Kinks is set to be made. Tentatively titled 'You've Really Got Me', the film is set to explore the rocky relationship between bandmates and brothers, Ray and Dave Davies. more

The Lemonheads' Evan Dando has announced plans to tour North America. Beginning the tour in New Jersey on January 31, Dando will zig-zag across America and into Canada more

The Key Club along the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles has reportedly closed its doors on Nov. 29. But the venue's president Keith Pressman says that the venue could reopen in a couple of months. more

A longtime bluegrass bass player and singer with Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys has died. Jack Cooke was 72. more

Gwar will be gracing your television screens yet again this coming Monday December 7th at 9:00 PM EST (6:00 PM PST). The fine folks over at Fuel TV's "The Daily Habit" had no idea what they were in for when they invited the Scumdogs of the Universe to perform on their show. If you want to see this amazing performance for yourself, make sure you check your local listings for Fuel TV and see what channel "The Daily Habit" airs on in your market

Guitarist Ryan Hansen and bassist Jon Frost - both of who used to play in San Francisco's Light This City - are on the hunt for a vocalist to sing in their new, as yet un-named band. more

Fresh on the heels of Ace Frehley's Anomaly which is approaching 60K in U.S., look for a new DVD release from Ace in January. more

Blabbermouth had this: Marilyn Manson has parted ways with longtime record label Interscope following the disappointing sales performance of the shock-rocker's latest album, entitled "The High End Of Low". "We've just been released from our record contract with Interscope so I think a lot of the creative control on which my hands were tied on a lot of choices � the music videos � things like that," Manson told U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine. "And the first example is the newest video, they clearly wouldn't have allowed me to make that video. So we started writing new songs on the road � a bit like [David Bowie's album] 'Aladdin Sane' � I think people can expect a new record a lot sooner than we [expected]. more on how the label held him back.

Recorded at The Lair in Los Angeles, the album was produced by Matt Squire (Taking Back Sunday, The Used, Saosin) and mixed by Neal Avron (Linkin Park, Weezer, Fall Out Boy).

Some could argue that Metallica's "The Unforgiven III" isn't really metal since the song is mellower, so it makes sense that they be nominated for the hard rock Grammy and not the metal one. While the song is mellower, it definitely qualifies as a metal ballad based on the guitar solo section alone. That's a judgment call but with an industry that is so quick to use the punk label on pop bands, it curious to see them call Metallica hard rock. Sure they've mellowed over the years and metal has gotten heavier but their name is Metallica not Hardrockica!

Fueled by the chart-topping track, which hit No. 1 on the Modern, Active and Rock formats and was hailed by Spin magazine as "one of the catchiest songs of Alice In Chains' history," the album entered Billboard's Top 200 Albums Chart at No. 5, with first-week sales exceeding 126,000 copies.

Dave Matthews is keeping his plate full when he's not mocking Ozzy Osbourne on SNL (he nailed it btw - see below). Matthews has announced solo appearances at a Benefit for the Jane Goodall Institute (Tim Reynolds also appearing), taking part in the MusiCares Benefit show and playing with the full Dave Matthews Band as headliners at the Hullabalou Music Festival. Here is the info on all three events

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds will perform A Benefit for the Jane Goodall Institute on Thursday, May 20, 2010 at D.A.R. Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. The benefit concert is part of a year-long celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Jane Goodall's work.

Though early in our career, the song "Your Signs" was pretty much a venting outcry to the big scary machine that we like to call THE MAJOR RECORD LABEL that the direction they wanted us to go in was not what we wanted as a band.

We had just gotten off Ozzfest and THE LABEL was eager to get new music in the hands of our newfound fans. With the success that bands in the pop rock genre were having at the time on our label (Blink 182, New Found Glory, etc.), there was a fair amount of pressure from the label to hash out another record, containing what they always like to refer as a massive brain dead radio hit. Being that it took us nearly two years of our lives to fine tune the songs on our first full length "Statement," it seemed next to impossible for us to try to do it in the 3 months the label was giving us to deliver.

But, with a lot of convincing from our managers at the time, mounted with an offer from the label to purchase a $15,000 Protools system including the computer and the outboard gear to write on the road while finishing our tour cycle on "Statement" (which at the time was something only bands of gold and platinum status did). So we said yes. MISTAAAAAKE!!

The more we wrote, the more we were reminded, Write a hit.. Write a hit.. Write a hit.. That song's cool, but it's not a hit. I like the chorus, but it's not a hit. The more we forced it the more upset and annoyed we got. Writing a rock record on a bus is no easy task. Daily distractions. Bus noise bleeding into tracks. Having to record around the late night tour schedule. Members being half into the writing process. Comments from outside sources swaying our intentions and natural influences. We felt like we were under a microscope. Right when we felt like we were on to something, management or the label wanted something else. The clock was ticking and we didn't know what direction we were going. What are we doing here? What the hell do they want and expect from us.

Soooo.. We get home from the tour.. We've got 8 songs.. We immediately get into the practice spot and start to play what we got for our managers. Toward the end of the tour I came up with the chorus lyric "your signs are pointing to nowhere" and really hadn't put it to anything because it came to me towards the end of the writing process during the peak of our frustration with everything. Then it happened. The guys started jamming a song they were just improvising, and I remembered I had that lyric and just started singing it. Holy ----. Everything stopped. We immediately got excited and i remember us pretty much finishing it that day.

The following day we called in our manager at the time and played him the song.. As soon as I sang, "Your Signs!! are pointed to no where.." He stood up, raised his hands like a referee after a successful field goal kick. And for one of the few times during that draining, frustrating process I smiled on the inside. Not because I was happy that I pleased the manager and the Label. But because it took a song about them pressuring, rushing, and trying to change us into a band we didn't want to be for us to write a song they liked enough to hurry the record out.

Granted that now, I look back with pride and a sense of accomplishment when I think about that record and song, there's still a little piece of me cracking up on the inside saying, "Hey genius, the songs about you!"

Support will come from from Voivod, Nachtmystium, Evile, Lazarus A.D., Kataklysm and Lightning Swords Of Death (support lineups vary from city to city; see listing below).