“It’s been a long road to get here, man. There’s a lot of miles to go.” Thus spake Alice in Chains singer/guitarist Jerry Cantrell as his resurrected, new-look band previewed its first studio album in 14 years at a listening party in Hollywood on Tuesday.
    
Cantrell (second from left), accompanied by new singer/guitarist William DuVall (right), bass player Mike Inez (left) and drummer Sean Kinney, performed a three-song acoustic set at the Montalban Theatre, including the title track from the new album, “Black Gives Way To Blue,” due in stores on Sept. 29.
    
Cantrell described the song as a “deep” tribute to DuVall’s predecessor, Layne Staley, who lost his lengthy battle with drugs in 2002. It includes a glockenspiel turn by Kinney. The band also played another new song, “Your Decision,” and “Down in a Hole,” from its 1992 breakthrough “Dirt.”
    
Beforehand, guests heard the entire album on the PA system after checking in their cell phones at the door to prevent piracy. The heavy guitars, submerged vocals and thunderous rhythm section quickly assured fans that the band has lost none of its menace. The new video, “A Looking in View,” also played in a loop. It boasts full-frontal female nudity. Among those in the audience were former Guns N’ Roses bass player Duff McKagan,
    
During the 1990s when Seattle was at the epicenter of the “grunge rock” phase, Alice in Chains spearheaded the gloomy genre with a string of dark, druggy albums. Four of them hit the top 10 of the Billboard 200, including the chart-toppers “Jar of Flies” (1994) and its self-titled studio swan song the following year.
 
But Staley’s chronic heroin problems hampered the band’s progress, and it ended the decade on an enforced hiatus. After Staley’s death, the survivors eventually regrouped and recruited punk-rock veteran DuVall. A 2006 tour engendered a surprisingly strong reception, and the emboldened band started recording its new album in Los Angeles last October with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Foo Fighters).
    
“Black Gives Way To Blue” marks the band’s first release for Virgin/EMI; all its previous albums were handled by Columbia Records. Virgin will also host a listening party in New York next Tuesday.

Back in their youthful heyday, the members of Aerosmith indulged in every sort of hedonistic pursuit backstage after their concerts. These days, they head straight to the tour bus and surf the Web to see what their fans thought about the show, says lead guitarist Joe Perry.
    
The feedback is important in the early stages of a tour, such as the one that began last Wednesday in St. Louis, as the band struggles to regain match form after a 20-month absence from the stage.
    
“They don’t hold anything back,” Perry said of the comments on sites such as the official Web site, aeroforceone.com. “It’s a lot of fun to read it. Some of it isn’t so much fun, but it still gives you good feedback … We can take care of the technical stuff and what we expect out of ourselves, but the most important thing is how it affects the fans.”
 
With just two shows of the tour under its belt, the set list will undergo some major changes, and fan input will be an influence, Perry told Reuters on Sunday, calling from the bus taking him from Milwaukee back to the band’s Boston hometown.

“The bottom line is we’re entertainers. We want to keep the fans happy. We’re not these egotistical artists that dictate, ‘Well you must listen to this one and you must like it whether you applaud or not.’”

The centerpiece of each show on the new tour is the performance of an early album in its entirety, front to back. For at least the next two weeks, that album is the 1975 smash “Toys in the Attic,” which features the hits “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion.” (The album closer “You See Me Crying” is currently absent from the set list because it is “one of the toughest songs probably in our catalog,” Perry said, and vocalist Steven Tyler needs two more shows to get his throat into shape).
    
Once the band settles into a groove, it will probably dust off its 1976 follow-up “Rocks,” which features the top-40 tunes “Back in the Saddle” and “Last Child.” The band’s first two albums, its 1973 self-titled debut and 1974’s “Get Your Wings” are also candidates for a revival.

But what Perry really wants to do is exhume is the unloved 1979 album “Night in the Ruts,” recorded during the band’s lengthy, drug-fueled nadir. Perry plays on only some of the tracks because he left the band before the album was released.
    
“I think there are probably two songs on there that we could play pretty much right off the bat,” he said. “The rest of them we’d have to sit down and really take them apart, relearn all the guitar parts. There are some rockin’ songs on there and it would be fun to play them live.”
    
So far on the tour Perry takes to the microphone for the “Rocks” cut “Combination,” and he envisages adding other solo outings such as “Bright Light Fight” (from 1979’s “Draw the Line”) and “Walk on Down” (from 1993’s “Get a Grip”).
    
In the meantime, he started mixing a new solo album on Sunday, and hopes to premiere some new music during the summer ahead of an official release in September or October. The nine-track disc was recorded during a frantic 40-day burst of activity after sessions for Aerosmith’s long-delayed album were postponed when Tyler came down with pneumonia.
    
The album, with the working title of “Freedom,” will be credited to the Joe Perry Project, a combo he formed during his five-year hiatus from Aerosmith.
    
Perry does some vocals, and also brought in a singer in the bluesy Paul Rodgers mold, whom he declined to identify. One of the tracks Perry sings is called “Oh Lord,” which he likened to a Jim Morrison-style prayer set to music. Some high-school choristers, including his son Roman, are featured on the tune.
    
“That’s the kind of thing I really don’t hear on an Aerosmith record,” Perry said.

Alice in Chains, the Seattle rock band silenced by the slow drug-fueled demise of late singer Layne Staley, will release its first studio album in 14 years on Sept. 29. 

“Black Gives Way To Blue” marks the band’s first release with new singer/guitarist William DuVall (at right in picture) who shares vocal duties with guitarist Jerry Cantrell (second from left). It will also be the band’s first release for Virgin/EMI; all its previous albums were handled by Columbia Records.
 
During the 1990s when Seattle was at the epicenter of the “grunge rock” phase, Alice in Chains spearheaded the gloomy genre with a string of dark, druggy albums. Four of them hit the top 10 of the Billboard 200, including the chart-toppers “Jar of Flies” (1994) and its self-titled studio swan song the following year.
 
But Staley’s chronic heroin problems hampered the band’s progress, and it ended the decade on an enforced hiatus. Staley eventually died of an overdose in 2002.

Just when it seemed like Alice in Chains would be no more, Cantrell, bassist Mike Inez (left) and drummer Sean Kinney (second from right) recruited punk-rock veteran DuVall to fill in for Staley, and started touring with him in 2006. The reception was surprisingly strong, and the emboldened band started recording its new album in Los Angeles last October with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Foo Fighters).

But bands with new singers invariably face a tough challenge regaining their past glory. Deep Purple, AC/DC and Van Halen all thrived after personnel shifts. Other groups like the Doors, Queen, INXS, Anthrax and Motley Crue struggled. In the case of Alice in Chains, DuVall won’t face the harsh glare of the spotlight by himself: The lead vocals are a 50/50 split with Cantrell, who often harmonized with Staley and sang lead on such nuggets as ”Heaven Beside You.”

(photo credit: James Minchin)

Rocking out with Aerosmith can be hazardous for your health. Four out of five of the veteran group’s members have disclosed major medical problems in the last three years. The most recent addition to the sick list is guitarist Brad Whitford. 

The band’s publicist said on Monday that Whitford, 57, is recovering from “recent surgery,” and will miss an unspecified number of dates on the band’s tour, which begins on Wednesday in St. Louis. She declined to comment on Whitford’s ailment. Bobby Schneck, who has played with Green Day and Weezer, will fill in for him. 

Here’s an update on Whitford’s bandmates:
    - Singer Steven Tyler, 61, underwent throat surgery in 2006, forcing the band to cut short a tour. Tyler, who has long battled substance abuse, checked into rehab last May saying he wanted “a safe environment” to recover from a series of painful foot surgeries.
    - Guitarist Joe Perry, 58, was forced to undergo emergency knee surgery earlier this year after developing “unforeseen complications” with a replacement knee.
    - Bassist Tom Hamilton, 57, underwent a seven-week course of radiation treatment for throat cancer in 2006.

That leaves drummer Joey Kramer, 58, who famously set himself and his Ferrari on fire at a Boston gas station in 1998. Later this month, he will release a memoir detailing his emotional breakdown in 1995 and his battles with depression and anxiety.

Of course, Aerosmith’s members are lucky to be alive after their hard-partying heyday in the 1970s, when they ruled the charts with tunes like “Dream On” and ”Walk This Way.” Since regrouping in the late 1980s with the help of drug counselors, they have largely kept to the straight and narrow. They have slowly been recording their first album of new material since 2001’s “Just Push Play,” but there is no word on a release date.

Summer’s almost here, and the time is right for Aerosmith’s first North American shows in almost two years.

America’s rock ‘n’ roll bad boys, sidelined last year by singer Steven Tyler’s rehab stint and guitarist Joe Perry’s bad knee, said Monday they would begin a three-month amphitheater tour in St. Louis on June 10. 
    
The trek will take the band to 33 cities, including Washington on June 21, Houston on July 17, Chicago on Aug. 28, Toronto on Sept. 3, and finally Detroit on Sept. 16. Opening act ZZ Top will join the tour on June 16, when Aerosmith play to a hometown crowd in Boston.

The band is taking a break from recording its first album of new material since 2001’s “Just Push Play.” A band spokeswoman said there was no scheduled release date yet.
    
Aerosmith last toured in 2007, playing 20 countries between April and September. It was forced to scrap a planned festival show in Venezuela this past February because Perry, 58, had to undergo emergency knee surgery caused by unforeseen complications from a total knee replacement in March 2008.
    
Tyler, 61, went into rehab last May, saying he needed “a safe environment” to recover from a series of foot surgeries that proved to be more painful than expected. He will be the top draw at the upcoming Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp, which allows civilian rockers to jam with and learn from their heroes. It runs from April 29 to May 3 in Hollywood.
    
Both Perry and Tyler — nicknamed “the Toxic Twins” — and their bandmates were infamous for their hard-partying ways during the 1970s. Since a carefully engineered comeback in the late 1980s, they have largely been models of sobriety.

U2 lead singer Bono dropped the mike to take up the pen.

The Irish rocker's first opinion column for The New Times appeared on Sunday, and it wasn't about debt, poverty or Aids in Africa -- causes on which he has long been outspoken.

No, his initial incursion onto the op/ed pages is an ode to the Chairman of the Board.

Frank Sinatra's defiant voice singing "My Way" is a "foghorn" at a time of world uncertainty in business, love and life, Bono writes.

Bono says he was struck by Sinatra's lack of sentimentality in the song, when listening to a deafening chorus of Irish "rabble-rousers" sing "I did it my way" midst the revelry of a crowded Dublin pub at New Year's.

"Is this knotted fist of a voice a clue to the next year?" the U2 frontman asks himself.

"In the mist of uncertainty in your business life, your love life, your life life, why is Sinatra's voice such a foghorn -- such confidence in nervous times allowing you romance but knocking your rose-tinted glasses off your nose, if you get too carried away."

Bono has joked that he was "never great with the full stops or commas." To that end, the 48-year-old rock star recorded a podcast to accompany the column.

The New York Times says its new guest columnist will occasionally write about a diverse range of topics and major issues facing the world.

Bono has campaigned to lessen the debt burden on the world's poorest countries and fight poverty and AIDS in Africa.

Writing a review for an AC/DC concert is about as straightforward as the band’s blues-based metal. Just dig up a report from any of their shows in the last 28 years, change the date, venue and name of the new album, and no one will know the difference.

The veteran Anglo-Australian rockers, who played the third official show of their “Black Ice” world tour in Chicago on Saturday, are nothing if not consistent.

The same props are used on each tour. A bell descends from the rafters for “Hells Bells,” although it seemed a bit smaller this time; a half-dozen cannon fired throughout show closer “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)”; a giant blow-up doll added some heft to “Whole Lotta Rosie”; guitarist Angus Young stripped out of his schoolboy uniform during “The Jack,” and rolled around on his back atop a raised platform during “Let There Be Rock.”

Young and his bandmates came onto the stage at the Allstate Arena following a mildly sexual cartoon video that culminated in a life-sized train crashing onto the stage. The usual pyrotechnics ensued.

“Me and the guys are gonna mix it up tonight,” singer Brian Johnson said at the outset. “Come along for the ride.”

The band played five of the 15 tracks from their new chart-topping album “Black Ice,” including the title track and the show opener “Rock ‘n’ Roll Train.” 

The rest of the set list was basically unchanged since 1980. Some fans may grouse about the proliferation of unfamiliar material, while others despair of AC/DC ever dusting off old album tracks. For example, while they play “For Those About to Rock…” every show, why not dig deeper into the album of the same name and play “Evil Walks” or “C.O.D.,” a fan complained while we endured the public transport to the venue.

It’s not like AC/DC were short of time. They raced through 18 songs — the same ones also played on the first two dates — in exactly 100 minutes, and quickly exited at 10:10 p.m. Perhaps it’s the inevitable limitations of Johnson’s raspy vocal cords. I shouldn’t complain about his difficulty hitting the high notes of “Back in Black” and the rare late-era catalog entry “Thunderstruck,” when I was coughing after chanting “Oy!” “Oy!” at the start of “TNT.”

His colleagues, who largely ignored each other, endured less of a workout: Angus’ older brother, Malcolm, on rhythm guitar; drummer Phil Rudd, whose kit is twice as big as necessary; and bass player Cliff Williams, who recently told Rolling Stone that he play the same chords in every song.

One aspect of the show is hilarious no matter how many times it’s been done. During “The Jack,” a wistful ode to venereal disease, the giant video screen shows random unsuspecting women in the audience as Johnson sings “She’s got the jack” over and over.

- Posted by Dean Goodman. Photos by Reuters.

Buzz band The Hold Steady combines a classic-rock sound with druggy coming-of-age tales set in singer Craig Finn’s native Minneapolis. Characters with names like Gideon and Hallelujah stagger through nightclubs and parties, cropping up from song to song and album to album. 

We talked to Finn recently for a story, and below he answers some additional questions about his creative process.

Q: Many of your songs feature recurring characters and recurring themes. When you set out to write lyrics for a record, do you think ‘OK, this is going to be the theme for this record’?”

A: Absolutely. … I tend to think of things in albums. Much more than I think a lot of bands would today. When it kind of comes out, I think, what am I trying to say with this album?”

Q: Do you have a giant map to keep track of all the characters and stories?

A: “Yeah, like an arc that I think of the whole thing, and really it’s like, almost a tree. You’re just hanging stories on it like Christmas ornaments. So there’s this big structure that I can fill in details on.”

Q: Where do you see the stories going over your next couple of records?

A: “I’m actually deliberately not talking about that. Because I think on this record there’s more of an effort to obscure. There is a story, but there’s more of an effort to use less proper names. I think I made up my mind early that I was going to keep it that way, at least for this one.

Q: Is too much specificity a bad thing?

A: “I think so. I think what people get out of songs is a different thing than what people get out of novels. I think you want to protect that a little bit. There’s an economy of words, so there’s more fill-in-the-blanks with your mind. I think having people guessing what happens is infinitely more fun than explaining it to them. I think in some ways I’d be doing myself a tremendous disservice to spell it all out, at least at this point. Maybe I’ll do so further down the line.

Celine Dion has come top of a magazine poll on the world’s worst cover versions. Total Guitar magazine said the Canadian singer’s rendition of  AC/DC classic  “You Shook Me All Night Long” put her in the No. 1 slot of the list published in its July issue.

Dion never released the song as a single but performed what the magazine called the “offence” against music at a Las Vegas concert six years ago in a duet with Anastacia.

In second place was a Sugababes and Girls Aloud version of “Walk This Way” which was a huge hit for Aerosmith and rappers Run DMC. Third was Westlife’s version of Extreme’s “More Than Words.”

Will Young’s cover of The Doors’ ”Light My Fire” came fourth, while The Mike Flowers Pops’ reworking of “Wonderwall” by Oasis was ranked fifth.

Jimi Hendrix’s cover version of the Bob Dylan song “All Along the Watchtower” came top of the contrasting list of most successful cover versions. This was followed by The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” which was first recorded by The Top Notes.

Guns N’ Roses version of the Wings’ song “Live and Let Die”, Nirvana’s “The Man Who Sold the World” that was first sung by David Bowie, and Muse’s “Feeling Good” were also featured in the top five.