Supernova Seeks New Bassist
Mood:  blue
Now Playing: Tommy Lee's Supernova seeks to replace an injured Jason Newstead by the start of thier tour.
Topic: Modern
VANCOUVER -- Tommy Lee's supergroup Rock Star Supernova is back on the hunt for a star performer.

Bassist Jason Newsted has been sidelined by injuries to his left shoulder, right bicep and right rotator cuff, the band said Wednesday in a release posted on its website. The former Metallica member, who was injured trying to catch a 40-kilogram piece of equipment that had fallen from atop of his amp, is scheduled for immediate surgery and a rehab schedule that could last up to nine months.

That has the band - also made up of ex-Guns N' Roses member Gilby Clarke and Canadian front man Lukas Rossi - scouring for a new bassist in time for their inaugural tour beginning New Year's Eve in Las Vegas, says Lee.

"We've got a few monster guys in mind, any one of which can hit the ground running. Stay tuned," Lee says on the website.

The blow comes a little over a month after the band selected Toronto's Rossi to helm the so-called supergroup.

Rossi beat out 25,000 other entrants in the summer TV reality show "Rock Star: Supernova".

He and Clarke will make their first Canadian appearance together as the featured musical guests at the Gemini Awards on Nov. 4.

The 60-minute televised show will also feature presenters including "Lost" star Evangeline Lilly, "Corner Gas" funny man Brent Butt, former "Da Vinci's Inquest" star Nicholas Campbell, and "X-Men" star Shawn Ashmore.

Next year, the band Rock Star: Supernova will visit 27 cities including Montreal on Jan. 23, Toronto on Jan. 24 and Vancouver on Feb. 19. Their debut album is scheduled to be released Nov. 21.

Courtesy of www.ctv.ca

48 Hours Interviews New Supernova Frontman
Mood:  surprised
Topic: Modern
He may be a reality TV star, but twelve hours after the Rock Star: Supernova finale, reality had yet to set in for winner Lukas Rossi. "It's mind-blowing," he told us in a hangover haze while sitting poolside at new bandmate Tommy Lee's house, where he's crashing. "I'm just surprised anyone cares about a little punk from Toronto."

So are we! But like the hundreds of thousands who tuned in to see Tommy, Gilby Clark and Jason Newsted critique a glorified karaoke contest of freaks and geeks, we too were secretly captivated by the show and its two front-runners: the deep-voiced and dreadlocked South African Dilana Robichaux, and the emotive Lukas, who impressed both the judges and viewers with his intense delivery covering songs like Radiohead's "Creep" and the Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony." Sure, he must have ravaged the local Sephora for eye shadow and glittery lipstick on a weekly basis, and maybe the whole sunglasses-at-night thing is a bit played out, but the act paid off for the twenty-nine-year-old high school drop-out. And Tommy, for one, called it early on. "As soon as I first saw him, I thought, 'That's our man.' It wasn't necessarily about finding the best singer or the right look, it was about finding the guy -- or girl -- that could front this band . . . and Lukas is that person."

Judging by his behavior at the show's wrap party later that night, it seems Lukas has taken to his new rock star role quite naturally. Flanked on all sides by L.A.'s dimmest and drunkest, Lukas handled the ladies like he'd been negotiating groupie advances forever. To say that he liked the attention would be a major understatement. Even growing up, Lukas tells us, he didn't have pictures of his favorite bands the Cult or Smashing Pumpkins on his bedroom wall. "I wanted to be the one on the poster!"

And now that he may have that chance, this former line-cook at Hooters isn't wasting any time. He'll soon head into an L.A. studio to lay down vocals to almost a dozen already-written songs and one or two of his originals. And after that, the Supernova tour, which kicks off in December and features Dave Navarro's Panic Channel and the ridiculously rockin' Rock Star house band (fronted by the season's four runner-up contestants) as openers.

No doubt, it's a dream come true, but fame has its price and even on this first celebratory evening, Lukas paid it when he was accused by TMZ.com of leaving his girlfriend stranded outside of the Geisha House doors. Not cool, right? So being the stealth journos that we are, we tracked Lukas down the next night in the smoking section of the Henry Fonda Theatre where he, Dilana and finalists Tony Rand and Magni Asgeirsson came to see Supernova producer Butch Walker play with his band, the Let's-Go-Out-Tonites. Lukas's response to the item? "No comment." Tommy Lee has taught him well, indeed.

Courtesy of www.rollingstone.com

Wolfmother Will Tour America
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Wolfmother, a blues/heavy metal oriented modern rock trio, returns with a US tour.
Topic: Modern
Aussie power trio, Wolfmother, will roll their unmistakable brew of tripped out rock across North America through November and December. The group will headline major cities from New York to San Francisco. These shows will see the band playing venues that are ten to twenty times larger than those they were playing in the same cities just seven months ago, capping an amazing year in which their self titled debut album has sold over 800,000 copies globally so far.

Wolfmother recently completed some arena dates in Europe opening for PearlJam. In Spain Eddie Vedder joined them onstage to add vocals to their epic "Minds Eye", Mike McCready jammed on "Woman". In Belgium frontwolf, Andrew Stockdale, sang with the headliners on a memorable encore of the Who's "Baba O'Riley" and Temple Of The Dog's "Hunger Strike". It was a trip.

Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, Wolfmother's new single, "Joker & The Thief" can currently be heard in trailers for the forthcoming movie "Jackass Number 2". Johnny Knoxville's notorious crew are also featured in the kinky video for the song that's currently generating loads of buzz both on and off line. Check it out via http://www.wolfmother.com

"Joker & The Thief" isn't the only Wolftune to be making waves right now. The band's first single -- "Woman" -- is featured in the latest version of the massively popular "Madden Football" game and the opening track from their album -- "Dimension" -- is the theme for comedian Dane Cook's HBO series. All this on the heels of a recent iPod campaign featuring the grooves of "Love Train".

But it's on the road where this band has really made its mark with acclaimed performances over the summer at festivals from Coachella through Lollapalooza. This current run of dates will continue through until the end of this month including appearances on Baltimore's V Festival and San Francisco's Download Festival. Their September 28 gig at the famous 3,400 capacity Hollywood Palladium sold out last month as have several other shows later this month ... hence the new November/December dates which were announced today.

To experience Wolfmother live during 2006 you need to be at the following venues on the following dates:

September
Wed 13 The Norva Theatre, Norfolk VA
Fri 15 House of Blues, Orlando FL
Sat 16 Jannus Landing, Saint Petersburg FL
Mon 18 Center Stage Atlanta (Earthlink Live), Atlanta GA ALREADY SOLD OUT
Tue 19 New Daisy Theatre, Memphis TN
Wed 20 Exit In, Nashville TN ALREADY SOLD OUT
Fri 22 Mr. Smalls Theatre, Pittsburgh PA ALREADY SOLD OUT
Sat 23 V Festival, Pimlico Racecourse, Baltimore MD
Thurs 28 Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles CA ALREADY SOLD OUT
Fri 29 Viejas -- Concerts in the Park, Alpine CA
Sat 30 Download Festival, Shorline Amphitheatre, Mountain View CA

November
Tue 21 Electric Factory, Philadelphia PA
Wed 22 Hammerstein Ballroom, New York NY
Fri 24 Majestic Theatre, Detroit MI
Sat 25 Riviera Theater, Chicago IL
Sun 26 Mississippi Nights, St Louis MO
Tue 28 Meridian, Houston TX
Wed 29 Gypsy Ballroom, Dallas TX

December
Sat 2 Roseland Theater, Portland OR
Sun 3 Moore Theatre, Seattle WA
Mon 4 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver BC
Thu 7 The Joint, Las Vegas NV
Fri 8 Marquee Theatre, Tempe AZ

Courtesy of www.prnewswire.com

Jet Prepares For North American Tour
Mood:  surprised
Now Playing: From vh1.com
Topic: Modern
Hey, remember when Jet kept talking about that "whirlwind tour of the U.S." they were going to launch in support of their upcoming Shine On album? Well, it turns out they were lying.

They were actually plotting a whirlwind tour of North America.

On Monday (August 21), Jet announced 10 stops on that jaunt, which kicks off on September 20 at La Zona Rosa in Austin, Texas, and wraps with an October 7 gig at the Joint in Las Vegas. The news comes just days after the band revealed the track list for Shine On, due October 3.

Tickets for some dates go on sale as early as Friday, with additional on-sale information being announced over the coming days on the band's official site, JetTheBand.com. But if you're not lucky enough to snag tickets to the shows, don't fret: The band's label, Atlantic Records, promises that dates are already being lined up for a "full-blown" tour sometime in November.

Jet tour dates, according to Atlantic Records:

9/20 - Austin, TX @ La Zona Rosa
9/21 - Dallas, TX @ Gypsy Ballroom
9/22 - Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
9/25 - Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
9/27 - New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
9/29 - Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
10/1 - Toronto, ON @ The Guvernment
10/4 - Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
10/5 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Music Box at Fonda
10/7 - Las Vegas, NV @ The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel

Courtesy of www.vh1.com

Jet's New Album
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: Jet reveals the news about their new album.
Topic: Modern
Jet are on course to release the as-yet-untitled follow up to 2003's 'Get Born'.

The band worked with producer David Sardy, who helped the band whittle down 40 songs to 15.

Songwriting for the album began in the Barbados in December of 2005 and then moved to Melbourne when family tragedy struck.

Frontman Nick Cester and Jet drummer Chris Cester's father passed away from cancer, which affected the tone of songs on the album.

"The ballads are a lot deeper," Nick Cester told Rolling Stone. He said that new track 'Shine On' was written for his brother and his cousins.

He added: "It's all resulted in a journey. It was a way to vent a lot of issues, feelings and anger. We ran a whole gamut of emotions over the last few years. You don't bury dad and go out and write the fucking party classic."

Tracks set to be included on the album include 'Eleanor' described as "having an Everly Brothers vibe", the Captain Beefheart-esque 'Holiday' and 'Stand Up' described by Cester as: "the biggest rock song you've ever heard".

The band also felt pressure after the success of their debut. Nick admitted: "The first time around, we were a pop band from Melbourne, and this time around we're playing much bigger venues. We wanted to make sure the new album was going to be five times better... Obviously, we're still Jet. We're still a rock band."

The album is scheduled for release on 3rd October 2006.

Courtesy of www.jettheband.com

Wolfmother Says Their Sound Not Intentional
Mood:  surprised
Now Playing: Wolfmother insists that their 70's sound is not intentional.
Topic: Modern
Popworld.com recently conducted an interview with drummer Myles Heskett of the Australian trio WOLFMOTHER. A couple of excerpts from the interview follow:

Popworld.com: Have you always had the sound you have now?

Myles: "No. It's really funny 'cos everyone always compares us to LED ZEPPELIN and BLACK SABBATH and all the '70s bands but when we met we were into BEASTIE BOYS and BECK. None of us really had one instrument we could play so we'd just swap around and have these really crazy funk jams. We've got all these computer hard drives full of these weird funk, electro things. But when we went to play live we thought we'll play rock because it's exciting and powerful.'

Popworld.com: Your sound is very '70s rock. Is that intentional?

Myles: "It's not really intentional, it's more like when you go into a room with three dudes and you try to come up with something that feels right and sounds right. It's like you can either drive a brand new car that's just been made in a factory or you can drive a cool old car from the '70's, and we'd rather drive a cool old car from the '70s. We even buy old drum kits and old amps that have that old sound."

Popworld.com: Last band that tried to recreate a classic sound was THE DARKNESS. What do you think of them?

Myles: "I think it's totally cool. It kind of is a joke but I think they're totally aware of that. It's flamboyant, it's exciting. I mean it's not really the style of music I would sit down and listen to but I think they're fun."