CD:

Alice Cooper – Welcome 2 My Nightmare
Jimi Hendrix – Winterland (5-CD box set)
Jimi Hendrix – Winterland (single-disc)
Jimi Hendrix – Hendrix In The West (reissue)
Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton – Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton Play the Blues
Queen – Flash Gordon (remastered with bonus CD)
Queen – Hot Space (remastered with bonus CD)
Queen – Game (remastered with bonus CD)
Queen – Jazz (remastered with bonus CD)
Queen – News of the World (remastered with bonus CD)
Queen – Queen 40 Limited Edition Collector’s Box Set Volume 2 (10 CDs)
Beatles – 1 (remastered)
Peter Gabriel – Live in Buenos Aires 1988
Anthrax – Worship Music
Blondie – Panic Of Girls
Johnny Cash – Hayride Anthology
Iggy Pop and the Stooges – Detroit Tapes

DVD:

Queen – Live At Wembley Stadium
Jimi Hendrix – The Dick Cavett Show
Jimi Hendrix – Blue Wild Angel Live at the Isle of Wight

     Alice Cooper has hired Michael Jackson’s one-time guitarist and Carlos Santana protege Orianthi Pangaris.  Pangaris is known for her song “According to You”, as well as her work with Steve Vai.

     Pangaris is replacing Damon Johnson, who has left Alice Cooper to join Thin Lizzy.  This is Johnson’s dream job, as he says “the music of Thin Lizzy is the absolute biggest influence on my entire career…to be even a small footnote on the list of great guitarists that have been in the band over the years is one of the highest accolades of my life. I am honored and beyond excited!!”

     Two of the guitarists on that list are Vivian Campell and Richard Fortus.  Campbell has left Thin Lizzy to return to Def Leppard, and Fortus is now leaving Lizzy to resume his commitment to Guns N Roses as they line up a concert series this fall.

     Alice Cooper has released the first video from his upcoming album Welcome 2 My Nightmare.  Here is “I’ll Bite Your Face Off”:

     Alice Cooper’s next album, a “sequel” of sorts to his classic Welcome To My Nightmare, will be released September 13th.  Now, a couple of tracks from the upcoming Welcome 2 My Nightmare (“I’ll Bite Your Face Off” and “Caffeine”) are available for preview at Amazon.UK.

     First, he popped up on stage with the Foo Fighters to play “School’s Out” at Milton Keynes on the weekend.  (Queen’s Roger Taylor also popped up for a song at the same show.)

     Then, in a much stranger pairing on Tuesday, he appeared onstage for the encore in pop star Ke$ha’s show in Oslo, Norway to duet on the same song (although in this case it was Ke$ha’s popped-up version of “School’s Out”).

     Just in time for the 4th of July, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have been named the Greatest American Band of All Time by Gibson.  For the past week, Gibson.com has been running down the top 50 list, which looks like this:

1. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

2. Aerosmith

3. Nirvana

4. The Ramones

5. Metallica

6. Van Halen

7. The Byrds

8. R.E.M.

9. The Beach Boys

10. Allman Brothers

11. Guns N Roses

12. The Doors

13. The Eagles

14. Creedence Clearwater Revival

15. The Stooges

16. Lynyrd Skynyrd

17. The Velvet Underground

18. Pearl Jam

19. Wilco

20. Buddy Holly and the Crickets

     Some other notable names are the Grateful Dead at #21, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at #24, KISS at #26, ZZ Top #30, The Flaming Lips (at Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest tonight) at #37, Buffalo Springfield #40, Cheap Trick #42, Alice Cooper #44, and Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention at #49.  For the full list, click here.

CD:

Various Artists – Rave On Buddy Holly (featuring Paul McCartney, Lou Reed, etc)
Buddy Guy – Buddy And The Juniors
The Kinks – Arthur (remastered with bonus CD)
The Kinks – Face To Face (remastered with bonus CD)
The Kinks – Something Else (remastered with bonus CD)
Marianne Faithfull – Horses & High Heels
Paul McCartney – Run Devil Run (reissue)
Robbie Robertson – How To Become Clairvoyant (deluxe edition)

Box Set:

Alice Cooper – Old School 1964-1974 (4 CDs, DVD, vinyl, book)
King Crimson – Scarcity of Miracles – A King Crimson Projeckt (deluxe edition, CD + DVD)

Vinyl:

Black Crowes – Amorica (reissue)
Black Crowes – Shake Your Money Maker (reissue)
Eddie Vedder – Longing To Belong
Iron Maiden – From Fear To Eternity: The Best Of 1990 – 2010

DVD:

Blu-Ray:

Eddie Vedder – Water On The Road

     Sunday night at the 100 Club in London England, Alice Cooper played a rare, intimate club gig.  The 200 fans who were able to snag tickets were in for a number of surprises – Cooper played covers of songs by many of the bands who have played the legendary club over the years – the Animals, the Yardbirds, the Kinks, the Stones, and the Beatles.  Then, the biggest surprise of all came when he announced his special guest – Johnny Depp, who was in town shooting Tim Burton’s new movie Dark Shadows.  Depp joined Cooper on stage for “I’m Eighteen” and “School’s Out”.

     It seems like an odd pairing, but it’s now being called a “perfect fit”.  Metallica and Lou Reed have recorded a studio album together.  In a quick series of recording sessions at Metallica’s San Francisco studios, they have laid down 10 songs written by Reed and arranged by the metal giants.  Rolling Stone says the songs are reminiscent of both Reed’s classic album Berlin and Metallica’s classic Master Of Puppets.

     Another collaboration that may, at first, seem odd – Paul McCartney joining forces with electronic hip-hop group The Gorillaz.  Sir Paul says he has met Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn a few times to discuss a project, but timing has not yet allowed it to take place.

     Alice Cooper will be playing a club show in London on June 26th.  His gig at the 100 Club will be the first small-venue show he has played in a very long time.  Says Cooper, “it’s been a while since we played such an intimate venue. But strip away the theatrics and we are a pedal-to-the-metal rock band, born in clubs like the 100 Club.”

     Carl Gardner, the lead singer of The Coasters, died on Sunday.  Gardner, whose voice carried the biggest hits of the band in the 50s, including “Yakkity Yak”, “Poison Ivy” and “Searchin”, was suffering from congestive heart failure and vascular dementia.  He was 85 years old.

     Alice Cooper says he was pleased to see Lady Gaga hang herself during a performance at the MTV Awards.  Cooper’s brand of shock-rock has influenced hundreds of theatrical musical acts for the past 40 years, and he tells Download “Lady Gaga told me, ‘Thanks for letting me steal your show,’ but I said, ‘I see the influence but you didn’t steal anything.’ Then she hanged herself at the MTV Awards. I think that was a tribute to me.”

     Lindsey Buckingham has big news.  The former Fleetwood Mac star will be going on tour and releasing a solo album this year.  Seeds We So, Buckingham’s sixth solo album, will go on sale September 6th, and his 31-city North American tour will kick off immediately afterward.  So far, Buckingham has announced only one Canadian stop, a Vancouver show in October.

     It is being reported that John Lennon and Paul McCartney almost reunited for an appearance on Saturday Night Live in the 70s, but decided against it because they were enjoying a night off.

     The Metal Den has unearthed some very rare Van Halen from 1975.  This is audio of the group performing “I Live With Fools”, off their 1980 album Women And Children First, live in concert:

     A reunited Buffalo Springfield played the Bonnaroo Festival on Sunday, a set which included a 10-minute guitar jam off the back of “Blackbird”.  Neil Young addressed the crowd saying “we’re Buffalo Springfield!  We’re from the past!”  When the band played “For What It’s Worth”, Young introduced it as “our hit.  We had one.”  They closed out their show with a performance of Young’s solo hit “Rockin’ In The Free World”.