Sad news has surfaced today for the Rock and Roll community. Pink Floyd founding member Richard Wright passed away Monday evening after a long battle with cancer.

The family does not wish to release any further information.

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Shirley Manson of Garbage is one of my favorite bad ass rock chicks.  Always has been, always will be.

We  haven’t heard much from her lately and that’s probably because she has quietly been plotting her move from rock star to action star.

News just in that she’s landed herself a part on The Sarah Conner Chronicles as a Terminator.

How very perfect for her.

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You all know that Vicarious loves themselves good ‘ole 90’s rock-and that means we love the legendary Alice In Chains. 

After the tragic passing of Lanyne Stanley we were hesitant to accept a reunion with a new lead singer.  It’s no secret that is HARD to pull off-both stylistically and with die-hard loyal fans.

We were pleasantly surprised by William DuVall, who although looks NOTHING like Layne, has a voice that bears a striking resemblence.  His tone is there, but fortified with a blues intensity-we thought he was pretty good and did the classic Alice In Chains material justice.

Over the past 3 years the new line up has toured several times, of course sparking the question if new material would ever surface. Well, for the first time in 13 years the band is back in the studio working on new material for a brand new album.

No title or release date have been set.  We don’t know how we feel, so leave us a comment and let us know your opinion.

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A LETTER FROM THE FRONT: 30 SECONDS TO MARS / EMI (THE LAWSUIT)

To our Friends and Fans,

Despite rumors to the contrary, 30 Seconds to Mars is NOT calling it quits. We are incredibly happy, healthy and very much together here, in Los Angeles, recording our new record. Besides this ridiculously overblown lawsuit (courtesy of Virgin/EMI), we are having one of the most inspiring, wonderful and exciting times that we’ve experienced to date. (More on that later…)

Beyond this distraction, we are so incredibly grateful to all of you around the world that have supported us so passionately. We would never consider stopping this just yet. These past few phenomenal years have been beyond imaginable and we owe every single bit of it to you. Thank you all for that!

So, as you may have heard we are being sued by our former record company for the ridiculously oversized, totally unrealistic and pretty silly (but slightly clever) sum of $30,000,000. Insane? Yea that’s what we said too.

A little history…

We had been signed to our record contract for 9 years. Basically, under California law, where we live and signed our deal, one cannot be bound to a contract for more than 7 years. This is widely known by all the record companies and has been for years. In fact, so aware of it are they that they desperately try to make deals outside of California whenever possible. It is a law that protects people from lengthy, unfair, career-spanning contracts. This law also gave us the legal right to explore other possible opportunities.

Yes we have been sued by EMI. But NOT for failing to deliver music or for ‘quitting’. We have been sued by the corporation quite simply because roughly 45 days ago we exercised our legal right to terminate our old, out of date contract, which, according to the law is null and void.

We terminated for a number of reasons, which we won’t go into here (we’d rather not air any dirty laundry) but basically our representatives could not get EMI to agree to make a fair and reasonable deal.

A few things to note…

If you think the fact that we have sold in excess of 2 million records and have never been paid a penny is pretty unbelievable, well, so do we. And the fact that EMI informed us that not only aren’t they going to pay us AT ALL but that we are still 1.4 million dollars in debt to them is even crazier. That the next record we make will be used to pay off that old supposed debt just makes you start wondering what is going on. Shouldn’t a record company be able to turn a profit from selling that many records? Or, at the very least, break even? We think so.

That, and other issues, like the new regime at EMI firing most of the people we know and love, wanting to place advertisements on our website, EMI owning 100 percent of the masters of our record…forever, and basically having a revolving door of regimes at the company made it easy to not want to continue as is.

As the result of this takeover - and the firing of over 2000 employees - we have lost many of the people that were near and dear to us at Virgin/EMI and crucial to the success of 30 Seconds to Mars. A few of the great ones are still there, but it is hardly the same company we have known. After more than 5 regime changes in 9 years you’d think we would be used to the inconsistency, but the team that took the journey together for A Beautiful Lie was a very very special group of people and it’s a huge loss that so many of them are gone. (Quick fact: There is not a single employee at Virgin Records who was working at the company when we signed.)

FYI Virgin/EMI was not required to make this lawsuit public or to list such an egregiously and stupendously large amount of mullah. In fact, they were not required to set any price even close to this. We did not want to take this public, but we felt it best to explain our point of view to you, our
friends and fans, in hope that you can better understand our point of view.

We would always do our best to avoid a fight, but sometimes it’s important to stand up for what you believe in. We hope that by doing what’s right we can help to change things for the better, for ourselves and possibly others.

P.S. We will always remain grateful to the people at Virgin/EMI who were so integral to our success. And we hope that, above all, we can find a resolution to this in as civil and kind a way as possible.

There are certainly more important things out there in the world to spend time and energy on.

To be continued…

Jared Leto
30 Seconds to Mars

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Ugh!

With news spreading around about Pam Anderson’s alleged secret relationship with a memeber of the Abu Dhabi royalty, I guess no one can deny the rumors that Tommy Lee is shacking up with Rock of Love 2 reject Daisy de la Hoya.

First she sinks her skanky little teeth into Dave Navarro…

And now Tommy Lee? Can someone say STAR FUCKER??? Click here to see the always classy Daisy ever so graciously flash her boobies for Tommy Lee/Motley Crue’s Tit E Cam.

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We at Vicariousmusic want to take a second to shout out our friends at Rock & Roll dog clothing company Psychedelic Fur. Not only do they make ass kicking gear for the furry sect. a la their “Rage Against the Maltese” T-shirts & “Purple Rain” coats, but have now spawned quite the politically correct sister site www.petsvote.com.

Rock your pets right to choose the best candidate by purchasing them a Bark Obama or John McCanine t. They’re even tabulating the purchases as votes and will be announcing their “president” come November.

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The Brakes released their debut full-length on HYENA Records on May 6th, 2008. The album, Tale of Two Cities, is a collection of 12 southern blues-inspired rock songs reminiscent of The Derek Trucks Band. The album, while containing few surprises, is largely a success and is best-suited for summer drive on an open highway.

Unfortunately, on May 4th, just two days before the album’s release, Josh Sack, the band’s longtime drummer, lost his battle with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. It’s a shame that his passing came so close to the release of Tale of Two Cities, but fans, friends, and family should feel some sense of satisfaction knowing that Josh’s talent and creativity and hard work are well documented on an album that many will enjoy for years to come.

For those interested, the Sack family has requested that donations be made in Josh’s Memory to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

BrakesBand.com
myspace.com/thebrakes
HyenaRecords.com

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On the heals of another freely posted NIN song, and amidst talks of Metallica giving away digital tracks…Coldplay announces their “happy medium” between the labels and fans.

Coldplay has decided to give away a free digital download of their first single “Violet, 4:11″ off their soon to be released new album Viva La Vida or Death and all His Friends (June 12th).

The track will be available for free for ONE WEEK ONLY beginning tomorrow at 7:15AM EST.

Great idea, and a fabulous compromise. 

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Another rock & roll marriage is in the works…the third for Carmen Electra.

Carmen and now fiance Rob Patterson, the guitarist for Korn, have confirmed reports that a wedding is on the horizon. 

Reportedly Rob made it official with a black diamond surrounded by white diamonds-keeping the tradition while adding a little of their personal style. 

This is Carmen’s third engagement, and if she makes it there, will be her third wedding. 

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(right now) I’m obsessed with Motley Crue.  I know, totally late to the party.  If this was 1983, that would probably be a very cool statement, but I missed to boat.

However I have a reason;  I’m reading The Dirt,which I STRONGLY recommend you all jump on Amazon.com right now and purchase.  It is the craziest account of what really went on in the era of 80’s rock decadence…the epitome of Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll….

That being said, I am now informed of Nikki Sixx’s life battles, and must say even though who knows if this is “true love” as they are calling it, I’m happy that at the moment he’s sober and in love with tattooed vixen, and professional rock star-girlfriend, Kat Von D.

Oh, and while we’re in purchase mode…Sixx has a new band; Sixx AM and their stand out track “Life is Beautiful” is definitely worth the $.99

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