In a short press release from Sony Music it has been confirmed that AC/DC will release a new single entitled "Run Away From Black Ice" next month, on Aug. 24. The song is the lead single from the first new AC/DC studio album in over eight years, an album that has been christened "Dirty Rhythm" and is set to be released in late October of this year. As well as Run Away From Black Ice "Dirty Rhythm's" track listing will also include "Heat It Up", "The Legacy", "Rock 'N Roll Defenders" and nine more classics.
 
AC/DC's World Tour will kick off in New York City on Jan. 1, 2009. More details soon.

North Carolina rockers Pyromatic will release their highly anticipated debut album entitled “Reels & Stills” on August 12, 2008. The album will be released under the band's own label Rock Room Records and will be available for purchase in compact disk and mp3 formats through the band's online store located at www.pyromatic.net along with other online music distributors and retailers.  An agreement with Blastzone Entertainment Group for national and international release is expected to be revealed later this year.

Reels & Stills brings a melodic rock sound that is currently gaining popularity in the mainstream rock and pop genres. The songs range from a heart touching ballad to fist pumping rockers and everything in-between. Any fan of rock & roll will be truly engulfed by this rock masterpiece. The full track listing for Reels & Stills is as follows:

Angel no More, Falling in and out of Love, Take a Chance on Me, Prince Poison, New Bad Habit, Promise Worth Keeping, Different Way, Over the Edge, Taste of Love and Remember When.

For more information on the album or Pyromatic log onto www.pyromatic.net 

Story Of The Year will head back to Europe in October, with the 2008 Rockstar Energy Drink Taste Of Chaos tour. The band, who are currently playing the main stage at the Warped Tour in the US, will play alongside Atreyu, As I Lay Dying, MUCC and Horse The Band on the European leg of the tour, which kicks off on 9th October in Hamburg.

Rockstar Energy Drink Taste of Chaos , the only worldwide lifestyle festival tour, is coming to Europe again after over 260 worldwide dates in the past 4 years and playing in over 23 countries which have included the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Mexico and many others.

John Reese (co-founder) states, “We have succeeded in giving a world audience an action-packed lineup for the past four years. The success of the tour on a worldwide level has allowed a lot of great bands to continue their success around the globe”. Bassist Adam Russell from STORY OF THE YEAR adds, “We're so excited to be back on the Rockstar Taste of Chaos this year. It took us to a lot of new places in 2005, and we're ready to see lots more this time!”

Story of the Year’s new album, The Black Swan, is out now on Epitaph Records.

Taste Of Chaos 2008 Tourdates:

Oct 15 London  Astoria
Oct 16 Lincoln  English Shed
Oct 17 Norwich  UEA
Oct 19 Cardiff  Uni
Oct 20 Nottingham  Rock City
Oct 21 Birmingham  Academy
Oct 22 Leeds  Met Uni
Oct 24 Hull  Uni
Oct 25 Edinburgh  Picturehouse
Oct 26 Dundee  Fat Sam Live
Oct 27 Glasgow ABC
Oct 29 Preston  53 Degrees
Oct 30 Manchester  Academy
Oct 31 Oxford  Academy

Rock’n’roll icon, guitar genius, interactive progenitor, consummate singer/songwriter and record producer, Todd Rundgren, returns to the UK shores for his first concerts since 2005.

Todd Rundgren, the man who gave us classic albums like Something/Anything?, A Wizard, A True Star, Todd, Faithful, Hermit of Mink Hollow and 2004’s critically acclaimed Liars, will play four rare UK concerts that will follow the September 29th UK release of his long awaited new studio album .

"Arena is a definite return to riff-oriented guitar rock," says Rundgren. "It's supposed to make you reflexively pump your fist and wave a lighter in the air.” The Arena Tour band will consist of Jesse Gress (guitar), Rachel Haden (bass), Matt Bolton (guitar and keyboards), Prairie Prince (drums), and Todd Rundgren (guitar and vocals). “The concerts will be a straight-ahead, guitar-rock extravaganza," assures Rundgren. “We can't afford the flamethrowers yet, but we'll make up for it with aggression." Rundgren is universally hailed as the most innovative rock star on the planet. He was the first pioneering recording and performing artist responsible for interactive audio and video. In 1981, his video for the song Time Heals was the second video ever aired on MTV in America.

By 1992, Todd focused his creative energies on the ground-breaking No World Order, rock’s first interactive music album on the CD-i format. The album enabled music enthusiasts to create their own mixes of the album, something unheard of in the early nineties. Appropriately, when Rundgren filmed the world’s first interactive concert tour for video release in 1994, London’s Forum was the venue of choice, making this November’s show a homecoming of sorts.

Two years later, Rundgren proved that he was two steps ahead of the music technology game by releasing what was to be rock’s very first full-length Enhanced CD, The Individualist, which featured the combined song and interactive video game Cast The First Stone.

In 1998 he was the first artist to launch an online music service entitled PatroNet, years before Apple launched iTunes. PatroNet enabled its online subscribers to directly download new, previously unreleased songs, cutting out the major record labels. Sounds familiar?  It was Rundgren who predicted the future, and now, with , his rockiest guitar album in decades, he’s back to rock the house. Always the innovator, Rundgren continues to enhance his reputation as the ultimate Wizard, A True Star. 

The four dates confirmed for the tour are as follows:

6th November - Manchester Academy 2
7th November - Edinburgh The Picture House
22nd November - Norwich The Waterfront
23rd November- London Kentish Town Forum

Backyard Babies return with their highly anticipated 6th studio album ‘Backyard Babies’ released through Spinefarm Records UK on August 18th 2008.

With 20 years of hard rocking behind them, Backyard Babies have not only developed into one of Sweden’s best loved bands but they have stamped their mark on the world – with an impressive catalogue and a fearsome live reputation.

The self-titled latest offering was recorded during 90 days and nights in Polar and Big Island Sound studios in Stockholm with producer Jacob Hellner (Rammstein,). From lead single, the sleazed out scuzzed up rock of “Drool” to no nonsense album opener ”Fuck Off And Die”, from punk-ed up “Zoe Is A Weirdo” to the self explanatory “Back On The Juice”, from the Pistols-esque “The Ship” to the acoustic instant classic of “Abandon”, this is a band at their very best…

The album is packed with taut rhythms overlaid with driving guitars and the unique vocal take of Nicke Borg. Lead guitarist Dregen states “This record feels most like Backyard Babies. It was about time that we finally make an album that has all the ingredients that a classic rock album should have!”

An established live draw, Backyard Babies will be touring the UK in support of “Backyard Babies” album this September. Expect the unexpected….

September
Tuesday 2nd Birmingham Academy 2
Wednesday 3rd Nottingham Rock City
Thursday 4th Newcastle Academy 2
Friday 5th Glasgow Cathouse
Saturday 6th Sheffield Corportation
Sunday 7th Manchester Academy 3
Tuesday 9th Brighton Barfly
Wednesday 10th Southampton The Brook
Thursday 11th Newport T.J’s
Friday 12th London ULU

Voodoo Six, the British band formed by ex-Dirty Deeds bassist Tony Newton, will embark on a UK tour in September. Confirmed dates are as follows:

Sep. 04 - Limelight - Crewe
Sep. 05 - Roadhouse - Manchester
Sep. 06 - Junktion 7 - Nottingham
Sep. 07 - Queens Hall - Nuneaton
Sep. 11 - Yardbirds - Grimsby
Sep. 12 - Trillians - Newcastle
Sep. 14 - Cathouse - Glasgow
Sep. 18 - Sawyers - Kettering
Sep. 19 - Twist - Colchester
Sep. 20 - Little Civic - Wolverhampton
Sep. 21 - White Rabbit - Plymouth
Sep. 22 - Barfly - London
Sep. 24 - Junction - York
Sep. 25 - The Park - Peterborough
Sep. 26 - The Rigger - Stoke
Sep. 27 - Marlboro Club - Ilfracombe
Sep. 29 - Freebutt - Brighton
Oct. 01 - Joiners - Southampton

Ephrat, a new and extremely promising, 4-piece, progressive rock act from Israel whose songs represent a successful balancing act between traditional elements and the future of the genre, will release a new album entitled No One's Words throuhg InsideOut on August 25th.  The band has already found high profile supporters in Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), who mixed the album and guest vocalists Daniel Gildenlöw (Pain Of Salvation) and Petronella Nettermalm (Paatos). The album delivers a colourful mix of European influences with the atmospheric tone sequences of the Middle East.

Mastermind, guitarist, flautist, keyboard player and sole composer of the group is Omer Ephrat, who describes his creative vision as follows: “It’s sophisticated, progressive music that’s driven by a rock ‘n’ roll feel. But I really think that my music sometimes slips from those definitions and creates a new entity. The main influences range from the progressive rock groups of the seventies, such as Yes, Rush, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and King Crimson to newer metal bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater and many more.”

The cherry on the cake of this album of haunting tracks is the warm, transparent mix courtesy of Steven Wilson. “His mix makes the album what it is. He understands music and knows how to handle it to get it where it belongs.”