WEEKEND METAL UPDATE

You can’t stop the metal. Making headlines this weekend were CANDLEBOX, QUEENSRYCHE, Henry Rollins, ex-BUSH frontman Gavin Rossdale, Gilby Clarke, and QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE. Details after the jump…

CANDLEBOX, everyone’s favorite metal band who decided to wear flannel when it became popular, have posted some clips of new songs on their MySpace page. The songs are from a new album that is tentatively due this summer. In a move that will surely date his band even further into the ground, frontman Kevin Martin has been quoted as saying that the last great musical movement was in the early ’90s.

Seattle prog-rockers QUEENSRYCHE have announced scattered summer tour dates, though a full-on tour doesn’t appear to be in the works.

World Entertainment News Network reports that ex-BLACK FLAG frontman Henry Rollins has become unlikely buddies with William Shatner (Star Trek). Says Rollins:

I’ve been to the Shatner house many times for dinner, for Super Bowl Sunday, for football games. I’m sure this coming September, when the season starts up again, I’ll get the call from his assistant Chris: ‘Mr. Shatner would like to see you at six bells. Can we be expecting you?’ And I head up here.

Ex-BUSH frontman Gavin Rossdale is working on a solo record with producer Bob Rock (METALLICA, BON JOVI), according to the singer’s blog. Hopefully his wife Gwen Stefani has inspired him to write something better than that INSTITUTE crap he foisted on us a couple of years ago.

Contrary to last week’s report that ex-GN’R member Gilby Clarke had left TV supergroup ROCKSTAR SUPERNOVA, the guitarist has denied the report, saying that ET Canada got it all wrong in a recent interview with him. Honestly, is anyone other than us really paying attention? If I were Gilby I think I would’ve just rolled with it…

And finally, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE have posted a new song from their new album Era Vulgaris, which is set to be released on June 12. It sounds a lot like… Queens of the Stone Age.

-VN