Blink 182 To Tour With Weezer This Summer?

Buzznet.com is reporting that the newly reformed Blink-182 will be hitting the concert circuit this summer with Weezer being their main supporting act.

The site claims that an "inside source" confirmed to them that the rumors of Blink-182 and Weezer touring this summer were in fact true. No tour dates have been announced nor have any labels confirmed the possible "Blinker" tour ("Bleezer" tour? "Wink" tour?), but it wouldn’t be the first time that either band has paired up with another huge act for a set of tour dates.

Blink-182 has co-headlined along the likes of No Doubt and Green Day (another band they were rumored to be touring with this summer) while Weezer participated in the "Foozer" tour with the Foo Fighters in 2005.

In other Blink-182 tour news, bassist Mark Hoppus posted a snapshot of a possible setlist for the upcoming tour. The picture can be seen here. Fan favorites such as "Dammit," "All The Small Things," and "The Rock Show" are all present along with more songs spanning their entire catalog.

Additionally, Blink-182 is working on a new record which is likely to be released in early 2010.

Iron Maiden Planning New Studio Album

According ot Bang Media International, Iron Maiden will start work on its next album this year. The group hopes to have a new album out and be back on tour in 2010.

Guitarist Adrian Smith told Bang showbiz: "At the end of the year we'll be writing again, rehearsing and recording at the beginning of next year. Then we'll be back out on the road again next year. Kevin Shirley [producer] will be working on it with us and we'll probably be doing it somewhere where we've done a lot for recording in the past."

The next Iron Maiden album will be the band's fifteenth studio record, and they face a challenge to follow up their last effort, 2006s "A Matter Of Life And Death" which was received well critically and saw the band tour playing the whole album.

Speaking at the premiere of the band's documentary film "Iron Maiden: Flight666", Adrian added: "There's always a bit of pressure to follow up the last album, in a way it's good because it motivates you.

"We never get complacent; we always try our best for our own sake as much as anything else. As far as pressure for another album, we just do what we do - we've been doing it long enough now, we know what we're doing [laughs]"

Green Day: Release Date For Follow-Up To American Idiot

Reprise Records will release Green Day’s long-awaited eighth studio album, entitled 21st Century Breakdown, on Friday, May 15th, 2009. The album is the best-selling trio’s first studio album since 2004’s two-time Grammy Award-winning punk-rock opera American Idiot, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, spawned five hit singles, and went on to sell more than 12 million copies worldwide.
21st Century Breakdown is divided into three acts: "Heroes And Cons," "Charlatans And Saints," and "Horseshoes And Handgrenades," and follows a young couple, Christian and Gloria, through the mess and promise of the century so far. Songs include "Know Your Enemy", "21 Guns", "East Jesus Nowhere", "Before The Lobotomy", and "Restless Heart Syndrome." In a recent feature, Rolling Stone called the album "even more ambitious than American Idiot" and "a record of die-hard punk ideals…tightly scripted, continually ascending classic-rock excitement."


Singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool have been at work writing, arranging, and recording 21st Century Breakdown since early 2006 and are currently making finishing touches with producer Butch Vig, who is known for his work with Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage, and many others.

The first single from 21st Century Breakdown is "Know Your Enemy," which will impact radio and be available for purchase from all online retailers this April.

Dream Theater: New Album Title, Track Listing

Progressive metal veterans Dream Theater have set "Black Clouds & Silver Linings" as the title of their tenth studio album, due on June 23 via Roadrunner Records. In addition to the standard-version CD, the effort will also be available on vinyl LP, as well as a three-disc, special-edition CD that will include the full album, a CD of instrumental mixes of the album and a CD of six cover songs, the titles of which will be revealed at a later date.

Six weeks prior to the June 23 street date, Roadrunner will release one cover song per week through digital retailers.

Dream Theater commenced work on "Black Clouds & Silver Linings" — the band's second for Roadrunner, following up 2007's "Systematic Chaos" — in October of last year.

Drummer Mike Portnoy and guitarist John Petrucci are once again at the helm as producers, while Paul Northfield mixed the record.

"Black Clouds & Silver Linings" track listing:

01. A Nightmare to Remember
02. A Rite of Passage
03. Wither
04. The Shattered Fortress
05. The Best of Times
06. The Count of Tuscany

A video for the first single, "A Rite Of Passage", will be shot in late March.

Mike Portnoy played a one-minute "teaser" for the band's forthcoming album on the February 27, 2009 edition of Eddie Trunk's "Friday Night Rocks" radio show on New York's Q104.3 FM. The clip is available for streaming here.

Portnoy previously stated about the upcoming CD, "Imagine a Dream Theater album with 'A Change Of Seasons', 'Octavarium', 'Learning To Live', 'Pull Me Under' and 'The Glass Prison'... all on one album... Could You Handle It?? Excited? I sure am!!!!"

The band will embark on a world tour in support of the album beginning in Europe throughout June which will be followed by the second edition of the band’s "Progressive Nation" tour featuring Zappa Plays Zappa, Pain Of Salvation and Beardfish throughout North America in July/August.

Mike Portnoy will guest on "Eddie Trunk Live" on Sirius (channel 19) / XM Radio (channel 53) on Monday, March 16. The program airs from 6:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. EST.

Dream Theater's "Chaos In Motion 2007/2008" double DVD set sold just under 9,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 2 on the Top Music Videos chart.