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ANTHRAX members CHARLIE BENANTE, FRANK BELLO, and SCOTT IAN did several meet-and-greet sessions including one at the Jackson/Akai booth. They postponed their U.S. tour while their label sorts out new distribution, but they're going to Spain on April 2 for some festivals and meanwhile Charlie and Scott will be recording with S.O.D. starting this Monday. Guitarist JOEY Z of LOA, who joined them for the NAMM appearances, is excited about the major changes in his band, namely the departure of WHITFIELD CRANE and bassist ALAN ROBERT taking over on vocals, and COREY LOWERY from STUCK MOJO joining up on bass. "It wasn't meshing well. We were colliding a bit," Joey confided. "We discovered Alan's voice--he was making the demos and we didn't know he could sing so well. Alan's totally into it. We heard Stuck Mojo were having problems and Corey said he was free and loved the idea," he said. "We're strong and we're staying true to our gut. Everyone will understand why we did it." DOKKEN's JEFF PILSON, appearing at the Dean Markley booth, told me he almost got arrested on the way to NAMM--he was trying to get into a parking lot, made a wrong turn, drove onto some train tracks, and was pulled over by a cop. Fortunately he was released without penalty and made it to the show on time. Now recording new music with the band, Jeff says that new guitarist REB BEACH "has been our saving grace. He plays great and it feels so much better than it ever did, like night and day. It's a band for the first time." Though there are a few scattered shows coming up (including Lancaster, California on February 12), Slaughter will soon start concentrating on recording, according to drummer BLAS ELIAS, who was meeting fans at the Ludwig booth. "We'll do some recording here, some in Florida, where JEFF [BLANDO] knows some people with studios. We want something fresh, to get away from the familiar environment," he said, noting another reason: "We don't want to record where we were with TIM [KELLY]." Drummer JOHN TEMPESTA was looking forward to the February 26 start of ROB ZOMBIE's tour with KORN. "I can't wait. I'm already fidgety," said John, who will be kept busy this week at least when the Rob Zombie band films a video for "Living Dead Girl." "Rob has some crazy ideas," John noted. "We did a live video for the song for the Psycho soundtrack but we wanted to do our own." Guitarist GARY HOEY, who put a new 24-track digital studio in his house, is working on a new studio record and the third (and final) installment of his Christmas album series Ho Ho Hoey, which will be out in December. BRET MICHAELS packed 'em in to the Peavey performance room for a lively set that relied heavily on his solo album material ("Party Rock Band," "Angst Mary," "Sounds of Sex," "Little Willy") but had plenty to please POISON fans, including the familiar cover "Your Mama Don't Dance" and "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," and joined by drummer RIKKI ROCKETT, "Unskinny Bop, "Nothing But a Good Time," and "Talk DIrty to Me." Rikki also sang the finale, a cover of KISS' "Rock And Roll All Nite," with Bret, much to fans' delight. Afterward, Bret was in a great mood and looking forward to the summer tour. "We're definitely doing it, we're stoked, and we're getting along great," he said, mentioning RATT, DOKKEN, GREAT WHITE, and SLAUGHTER as likely tour participants. Before the targeted Memorial Day kickoff, Bret will be busy directing the movie The Famous Final Scene, which goes before the cameras March 26. His already completed No Code of Conduct should be out late spring/early summer. STEVE RILEY, autographing photos at the Ludwig booth, has been busy recording two L.A. GUNS albums: one album with the original band (including singer PHIL LEWIS, bassist KELLY NICKELS, and guitarist MICK CRIPPS in addition to TRACII GUNS), which starts recording Tuesday, and one album with the current lineup (featuring vocalist JIZZY PEARL) that's almost done--it may be called Shrinking Violet, and should be out in late April/early May. Guitarist GILBY CLARKE is producing it, and he's enjoying concentrating on that rather than recording his own music for now. He did, however, participate in the Dean Markley/GMP Guitars/Lace Pickups showcase at the Whisky in W. Hollywood on Saturday night, and rocked out with a band that included L.A.G.'s TRACII GUNS, ERIC SINGER on drums, and bassist STEFAN ADIKA. They entertained the celeb-studded crowd (including MIKE INEZ, BOBBY BLOTZER, MICK BROWN, UNION's BRUCE KULICK, JOHN CORABI, and BRENT FITZ, VIK FOXX, JERRY DIXON, and JESSE CAMP of MTV) with tunes from Gilby's solo discs like "Wasn't Yesterday Great," "Punk Rock Pollution," "Cure Me or Kill Me," and "Tijuana Jail," plus a cover of "Mercedes Benz" (with TEDDY ANDREADIS on keyboards) and KISS' "Nothin' to Lose," sung by Eric Singer (who did a great drum solo). Earlier in the night, JANI LANE (who's more than six months sober now and looks great), RICK STEIER, and DANNY WAGNER (switching back to keyboards) of WARRANT warmed up the crowd with a great acoustic set that began with a medley of their hit ballads ("Heaven," "Blind Faith," "Sometimes She Cries," "I Saw Red"), segued to "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and "Stronger Now" before ending in a cool cover of "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away." Next up was DAD'S PORNO MAG, fronted by singer guitarist RYAN ROXIE (who has toured with ALICE COOPER and now plays in SLASH's SNAKEPIT) and also featuring MIKE FASANO on drums, STEFAN ADIKA (yep, he did double duty at this show) on bass, and filling in on rhythm guitar, KERI KELLI of PRETTY BOY FLOYD. The operative word for their set was fun--plenty of high-energy rock in the CHEAP TRICK mode that kept the audience moving. Finally, DUFF McKAGAN debuted his new band, a punk quartet that surprised those expecting music in the GN'R vein. Due to NAMM exhaustion and the late hour, I didn't stay for his entire set Will there be a POISON tour this summer? C.C. DeVILLE, looking fit and trim, says "Maybe, If we can all get along. We'll see." However, flyers announcing BRET MICHAELS' Saturday live performance at the Peavey booth read, "Poison tour starts Memorial Day with special guests RATT, DOKKEN, GREAT WHITE, and SLAUGHTER," and directed those interested to www.bretmichaels.com for more information. Friday's big draw at the aforementioned Peavey booth was EDDIE VAN HALEN, on hand to promote his 5150 amp by playing licks and answering questions for a selected few who scored entrance to the small performance room. As fans called out requests, Ed forgot a lot of his own licks and often asked for reminders. "How does that go?," he asked more than once, chalking the lapse up to being in songwriting mode--VAN HALEN just started work in the studio two days ago. While he wouldn't offer any hints about the musical direction of the next record, he admitted that the last album may have been a bit experimental, especially as the first with GARY CHERONE, but believes it will be more appreciated down the road. He also proudly stated that his son WOLFGANG has two scaled-down guitars and is beginning to play. MIKE INEZ said that he'd just recorded two new songs with ALICE IN CHAINS and mixmaster TOBY WRIGHT in Seattle for the boxed set coming out this spring, and that he'd been jamming with CHRIS DeGARMO and SEAN KINNEY in a to-be-named project. GEORGE LYNCH's Smoke This album won't be in stores till late March, but he's taking orders for it through his Website, www.georgelynch.com. He's not planning any live shows right now, but leaves Monday for Japan for four days of clinic appearances. MARK SLAUGHTER was in town for NAMM and recording sessions--he had a Friday night stuES was taking the loss of $500,000 worth of production and equipment belonging to his band FEAR FACTORY, SYSTEM OF A DOWN, and SPINESHANK very well, under the circumstances, though some of the stolen gear is irreplaceable. "We called up all our endorsement companies and they're making us new stuff," he said, thankful for insurance coverage but definitely missing his custom guitars and a head he's had since 1988. "I've had 20 girlfriends since then but I had that same head. The guy who modified it is in Germany somewhere now," he sighed. While the stolen equipment truck was found in flames in a New Jersey warehouse, Dino still hopes some of the gear turns up. "All the pawn shops and music stores in the area and the cops have the serial numbers. We did everything we could do." Dino believes it was a professional heist. "Someone obviously scoped it out and hotwired the truck when everyone was asleep at the hotel. We think it was an inside job," he said, though nobody at the hotel had any information when questioned. But with "Descent" doing well at radio, a February 6 date at the House of Blues in W. Hollywood (with DOWNSET, STATIC X, and PUYA), and a trip to Japan for four shows on February 9 followed by two gigs in New Zealand and nine in Australia, "We're gonna come back bigger and better," Dino vowed. "We're back here March 8 for a U.S. tour with SYSTEM OF A DOWN, HED (PE), and SPINESHANK. We'll be touring all this year. We did a remake of GARY NUMAN's 'Cars' that will be a single and video, with Gary in it that will be out this summer. Our goal is to do 250,000 [sales] or more." JEFF LaBAR of CINDERELLA said that the band's live disc for Deadline/Cleopatra is mixed and mastered, and will be out next month. As for the new studio record, TOM KEIFER is writing on his own while Jeff, FRED COURY, and ERIC BRITTINGHAM have been writing together in Nashville (where Fred lives). "We want to get on the road this summer even if we're still recording," noted Jeff, who already misses playing. "That was such a fun tour," he said, offering a reason: "Everyone's older, wiser, and sober." WARRANT's remix album for Cleopatra, Latest & Greatest, will feature three new songs, according to JERRY DIXON. "We start in the studio on Tuesday." As for live plans, there's talk of touring with POISON, "but if not with them, we'll be out with someone." Jerry joined MICHAEL ANTHONY, BILLY SHEEHAN, MIKE INEZ at the Ampeg booth to celebrate the company's anniversary. Each received a commemorative clock. JESSE DUPREE of JACKYL was in town to work with a variety of songwriters. "We'll probably start recording soon," he said, but looked forward to performances as well. Jackyl will appear at the Cherrry Blossom Street Festival in Macon, Georgia on March 27 along with the SCREAMING CHEETAH WHEELIES and other acts. "We'll definitely go back on the road after that," he said.
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