After almost 10 years of anticipation, the Misfits are releasing another album. Set to be released on October 4, the band’s new album “The Devil’s Rain” will deliver the horror and sci-fi themes that their fans love.

The album was produced by Ed Stasium and includes founder Jerry Only on vocals/bass, Dez Cadena on guitar and Eric “Chupacabra” Arce on drums.

Beginning in 1977, the Misfits have had a large influence on the punk movement. Their songs have been covered by bands such as Metallica, Guns ‘n’ Roses and My Chemical Romance.

The Misfits will begin their worldwide tour in September. Songs from the album are intened to appeal to old Misfits fans and newcomers alike.
 
09/16:  Rome, Italy @ Piper Club
09/17:  Harelbeke, Belgium @ Rat Rock Festival
09/23:  Pittsburgh, PA @ Altar Bar
09/24:  Lancaster, PA @ Chameleon Club
09/29:  Santa Clara, CA @ The Avalon
09/30:  Ventura, CA @ Majestic Ventura Theater
10/02:  Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
10/03:  San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
10/04:  West Hollywood, CA @ House of Blues
10/05:  Tucson, AZ @ The Rialto Theater
10/06:  Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
10/07:  Scottsdale, AZ @ The Canyon
10/08:  Albuquerque, NM @ Historic El Rey Theater
10/09:  Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall
10/12:  Murfreesboro, TN @ Gilligan’s
10/14:  Poughkeepsie, NY @ The Chance
10/15:  Auburn, ME @ Club Texas
10/16:  Danvers, MA @ The Palace Ballroom
10/20:  Newport, KY @ The Historic Southgate House
10/21:  Cleveland, OH @ Peabody’s
10/22:  Detroit, MI @ Harpos
10/26:  Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theater
10/28:  Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
10/29:  Toledo, OH @ The Omni
10/31:  New York, NY @ B.B. Kings
11/03:  Rosedale, MD @ Recher Theater
11/04:  Allentown, PA @ Crocodile Rock
11/05:  Clifton Park, NY @ Northern Lights
11/06:  Springfield, VA @ Jaxx
11/09:  Mobile, AL @ Soul Kitchen Music Hall
11/10:  Houston, TX @ Stereo Live
11/11:  Oklahoma City, OK @ Samurai’s
11/12:  San Antonio, TX @ Backstage Live
11/14:  Dallas, TX @ Trees
11/17:  Orlando, FL @ Firestone Live
11/18:  Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Culture Room
11/19:  Daytona Beach, FL @ Sickboys
11/20:  Pensacola, FL @ Vinyl Music Hall

NEW YORK — As the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon drew to a close Saturday night, there was a palpable sense of giddy relief among festival-goers in Lower Manhattan. After five days of organized chaos, it was clear by Saturday afternoon that the artists and their management crews were focused solely on having a good time, like kids on the last day of school.

Kicking off the afternoon was the Brooklyn Vegan showcase at Piano’s, which featured a slew of bands (as well as free Miller and bloody marys until about 3 p.m.). The standout act was Canada’s Still Life Still, who’s hook-laden indie repertoire contains as much distortion as possible to still be called pop. It might be considered shoegaze, but more than likely your feet would be tapping so fast you wouldn’t be able to focus. The tiny performance space completely absorbed their fuzz-rock wall of sound, particularly drummer Aaron Romaniuk’s Animal-like pounding, that surely left plenty of ears ringing at the end of the set.

As evening fell and a monsoon drenched the city, Blast headed over to the Village Underground to catch Lisa Bianco. The local singer/songwriter, unlike many CMJ acts who brought out the bells and whistles, played straightforward Sheryl Crowe-esque rock backed by a full band.

On the opposite end of the musical spectrum, next up was Spleen United, an electro-rock outfit from Denmark who created their own four-person mosh pit on the downstairs stage of Santos Party House. Their pulsating, industrial sound is reminiscent of early Depeche Mode, but they were followed by Lemonade, whose psychedelia-inspired noise rock was a little too avant garde for our tastes.

Not avant garde AT ALL was our final stop of the festival, the Tribute Wars showcase at Le Poisson Rouge, which featured heavy metal tributes to the Bee Gees and Michael Jackson (yes, you read that right) and an all-female Metallica cover band called Misstallica.

The Bee Gees act, known as Tragedy (tagline: “The Number One Heavy Metal Bee Gees Tribute Band in the Tri-State Area”), employs shlock in the best way imaginable, with a stage setup that featured female backup dancers (one donning feathery angel wings) and an abundance of glitter. The band members exploited basically every ’80s hair metal stereotype, down to the ostentatious screens in the background that blared “TRAGEDY” in flaming typeface. Heartfelt interpretations of classics like “How Deep Is Your Love” and “Night Fever” had the crowd in stitches, with singer “Robin Gibbens,” clad only in pink feather boots and white boxer briefs, gyrating around the stage with a not insignificant beer gut unabashedly on display. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, they brought out a cowbell for closing number “Stayin’ Alive.”

After a quick costume change, some of Tragedy’s members teamed with other musicians for “Dangerous,” a heavy metal tribute to Michael Jackson whose members include “Neverland Raunch” and “Blanket Peterson.” Formed before Jackson’s death in June, the band seamlessly incorporated snippets of metal classics like “Whole Lotta Love” and “Sister Christian” into the end of songs like “Smooth Criminal” and “Billie Jean.” They finished with “We Are the World,” which featured what can only be described as the opposite of an all-star cast, including several audience members, up on stage. As crowd members looked on with a mix of amusement, confusion and horror, it’s fair to say that the rendition may have had a unifying effect equal to that of the original’s.

Less comical but equally mind-blowing was the final act of the evening, Philadelphia quartet Misstallica. Recently named one of the top five all-female tribute acts in the country by Gibson.com, they offered note-by-note replications of early Metallica classics like “Seek and Destroy” and “Master of Puppets.” Singer/guitarist Gina Randazzo offered a spot-on imitation of James Hetfield, even mimicking his distinctive hunch over the microphone, and lead guitarist Gigi Gleason made Kirk Hammet’s brain-melting guitar solos look effortless. For anyone who can’t afford a high-priced stadium ticket to see Metallica nowadays, these girls are a worthy substitute.

It’s been an exhausting week, but we loved every minute of it. Finally, here’s a wrap-up of the marathon overall:

Best Acts: Casxio, Still Life Still

Worst Acts: Hunter Valentine, Lemonade (sorry)

Pleasant Surprise: Via Tania

Biggest Disappointment: The Fire and Reason

Best New Discovery: Dangerous: A Heavy Metal Tribute to Michael Jackson, the banh mi at Santos Party House

Best Venues: Le Poisson Rouge, Santos Party House

Photography by Sarah Be for Blast

Nine years ago today, a federal judge made a decision that changed music — changed the Internet — forever.

For all intents and purposes, Napster died nine years ago today

Judge Marilyn Patel, of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, granted an injunction filed by the record industry against Napster, forcing it to cease all operations.

That was the death of Napster, though two days later an appeals court granted the peer-to-peer file sharing service a stay of execution, which ended on February 12, 2001, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit announced a decision in A&M Records v. Napster, which upheld the RIAA’s injunction saying Napster was participating in copyright infringement.

Napster’s legal counsel tried to argue the VCR case, citing the Audio Home Recording Act and throwing out phrasaes like “fair use.”

They failed.

The following article appeared on ReviewCenter.com on July 26, 2000.

Here Today … Gone Tomorrow — Is Napster Really Dead?
By Christina Warren, Review Center Staff

On Wednesday, a Federal Judge sided with the Recording Industry Association (RIAA) of America, and ordered a temporary injunction on the popular music program Napster. Napster allows its users to share music files in the form of MP3s without regard to copyright.

When the program gained astounding popularity, the recording industry and a group of vocal artists took exception and filed suit against the company, alleging that the trade of MP3s violated copyrights held by the artists and their recording companies.

“Napster is enjoined from copying or assisting or contributing to the copy or duplication of all copyrighted songs and musical compositions of which the plaintiffs hold rights,” US District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ordered at a hearing in San Francisco federal court.

This ruling will no doubt shock the many users of Napster, as well as supporters who did not think the program would be shut down so quickly.

“When the infringing is of such a wholesale magnitude, the plaintiffs are entitled to enforce their copyrights,” Patel said. Patel ordered that the injunction go into effect at 12 a.m. PDT on July 28, 2000. Patel’s ruling in favor of the RIAA strongly suggests that the trial that will take place against Napster at the end of the year will also find in favor of the RIAA.

The creator and CEO of Napster held a live web broadcast at 7 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, addressing the courts ruling and the future of Napster. Essentially, the message was that while they adamantly opposed the ruling by Judge Patel in the hearing, they would comply with the court’s order. What does that mean?

This means that as of midnight on Friday morning, Napster will basically cease to function as we know it.

The question then becomes for Napster’s users, “What next?” Programs like Gnutella sprouted up as soon as the RIAA filed suit against Napster in December. These programs are even more dangerous to copyright holders, because they allow not only the transfer of music, but of video and text files as well.

It will be hard for anyone to stop people from sharing files. The MP3 format is hardly new, even if it has been making a lot of news with the advent of Napster and the subsequent trials. MP3 files were around before Napster, and they will continue to exist in the wake of this judgment.

Websites are already in the planning stages of trying to keep Napster alive. www.napigator.com has already started posting un-official Napster servers that can be used with the current Napster clients. This will allow Napster users to continue to use Napster after the Friday injunction, but without logging onto “official” servers. As these services become increasingly popular, it is going to be difficult to shut Napster down completely.

Users will have to await a final ruling when the case against Napster goes to trial this fall. The RIAA represents major acts like Metallica and Dr. Dre and represents companies such as Universal Music, BMG, Sony Music, Warner Music Group and EMI.

Most advertisements these days are overly invasive and atrociously annoying, however, when the execution is spot on and the message is conveyed correctly, they are wholly effective.‚  ‚ ‚ Such ad campaigns are few and far between but one that succeeds so very well are the Guitar Hero: World Tour advertisements, you know, the ones featuring Heidi Klum in her underwear and famous sports stars Michael Phelps, Derek Jeter, Tony Hawk, and Alex Rodriguez all rocking out in the fake backdrop of a living room?

This past weekend during the prominent college basketball games, Activision began airing a commercial promoting Guitar Hero: Metallica based on the same concept of the originals, but this time featuring famous basketball coaches humorously dressed and eventually confronted by members of the stern faced Metallica metal group.

The commercial is hilarious and features famous college basketball coaches Coach K, Bob Knight, Rick Pitino, and Roy Williams, with Knight taking the lead role belting out “Old time rock and roll” by Bob Seger.

If you’re a fan of college basketball and watched the games this past weekend you no doubt saw this funny commercial quite a few times, and it is a sure fire bet we’ll see much more of it this weekend during the conclusion of March Madness on CBS.

Head on over here for the commercial.

A former Brewster cop faces possible jail time after authorities said he exposed himself to and urinated on a 17-year-old girl and a 21-year-old guy from Connecticut during a Metallica concert at the TD Banknorth Garden.

They say he had been drinking.

Joseph Houston, 29, faces two counts of assault and battery and a count of open and gross lewdness after the Jan. 18 incidnet.

According to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, Houston was arrested by MBTA Transit Police at North Station, adjacent to the Garden after Houston was ejected from the concert and refused to leave. During the incident, Houston allegedly flashed his police department badge and referred to one of the security guards trying to escort him out of the concert as “Obama.”

Admittedly, I have a strong bias regarding absolutely anything involving Metallica, but Guitar Hero fans craving fast paced, fret busting, face melting guitar tracks and the foot stomping prowess of Lars Ulrich, can satiate that thirst today with the Guitar Hero: Metallica free demo exclusively available for Xbox Live Gold members.

The demo measures up to a little over 1GB of storage space and is packed full with four tracks from the game, complemented by the new stage designs, the new camera angles that are so very overdue, and single-player and band quickplay, head-to-head, Face-Off, Pro Face-Off and Battle gameplay modes.

The four tracks are:

No Excuses – Alice In Chains

Sad But True – Metallica

Seek & Destroy – Metallica

Stone Cold Crazy – Queen

Start your download via the Xbox Live web marketplace here.