RM ROUNDUP: DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, ALICE IN CHAINS, DEFTONES, SOUNDGARDEN, HIGH ON FIRE... 9:52pm, 5 Mar 2010

On the day of DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN's London shows - DILLINGER DAY, as it was known - I remember sitting in the office, exchanging a series of ever more excited texts from Dan about his interview with Liam and Jeff, and how psyched he was for the show he was queuing for, their date at the Camden Barfly. So I'm pleased to finally be able to mail you guys our new interview with the boys, plus Dan's review of the show with EXCLUSIVE shots from Pearl. When this album drops later in the month, you're going to be wiping us off the walls.

Elsewhere, SOUNDGARDEN's first material in years will be... a reissue, PETE WENTZ shaves again and 65DAYSOFSTATIC have a zen week. ALICE IN CHAINS finish their story, THE POSTMAN SYNDROME finish their album, DEFTONES finish their tracklist. (DAMN) THIS DESERT AIR tease us, CAESARS ROME wow us, THE AUTOMATIC impress us, and PG. LOST continue to be everything we want and more. And we finally get together some contests for you, courtesy of HIGH ON FIRE and OUTCRY COLLECTIVE.

Click here for the RM Mailer.

…posted by Ruth Midget

Drama Weekend #1: Far vs J-Lo 1:27am, 9 Mar 2010

It's been a bit of a mad weekend in the world of music. First up, a little dispute between Jonah Matranga and J-Lo.

For years, Jonah Matranga has been using the heart? logo for projects both under his own name and the One Line Drawing moniker. Now take a look at the drumkit in that live photo. See anything familiar?

With Jennifer Lopez planning on releasing new album Love? soon, Matranga is talking with lawyers to put together a case against Ms Lopez should the logo resurface.

"Here's where you come in: I've also been told that you can help out by sending photos of ways you've used the image in your life, after you found it through my music. So, if you have a tattoo of it, or you've made drawings of it, or you have anything at all that shows the many ways the little heartquestion has gotten out there, I'd love to see it, and so would the lawyers. You can post your pics (or links to them) here, or send them via any number of internetty ways, or just mail 'em to me."

To help out Jonah's case, click here.

In more positive news (depending on how much you like Filter), Richard Patrick and Far's Shaun Lopez have apparently met up to discuss an upcoming project:

"Met with Richard Patrick from Filter today. Hopefully going to make some music together soon. Hope so, dude can definitely SAAANGGG," he tweets.

Far's new album At Night We Live is out through Vagrant in May.

Click here to watch 'At Night We Live' acoustic

…posted by Ruth Midget

Drama Weekend #2: Killswitch Engage vs the porn star 1:15am, 9 Mar 2010

Next in our weekend of madness, what is rumoured to be the reason for Howard Jones' absence from the current Killswitch Engage US tour.

According to The PRP (dated 6th March), Jones' absence was a result of the frontman allegedly getting pornstar Allie Foster pregnant. A number of rather vicious tweets from Foster alleged that she was four months pregnant with his child, and that he insisted she had an abortion.

Things took an interesting twist the following day, when tweets seemed to indicate first she had been lying, and then afterwards that she had been hacked. Since then, Foster's account has disappeared from Twitter.

Rather admirably in the face of all of this, Jones has remained silent on the matter, and has yet to issue a statement explaining his departure. If this does turn out to be the reason, then the dude deserves some respect for dealing with it with such dignity.

In the meantime, All That Remains frontman Phil Labonte has been filling in for a series of well-received 'Philswitch' dates.

…posted by Ruth Midget

Faith No More back in Europe - good news and bad news 12:34am, 9 Mar 2010

Sorry folks, there always has to be a catch...

The Good News: Faith No More will be back for festivals in Europe this Summer, as will Mike Patton. And there's a picture of the band with Santa... I mean, Tom Jones.

The Bad News: For those outside of Amsterdam, Spain and Portugal, nothing has been confirmed. Yet.

Here's what's lined up so far:

Sonisphere: Madrid (9th) and Barcelona (10th) in July.

Optimus Festival in Portugal on 8th July.

Mike Patton will also be appearing as part of a performance of Luciano Berio's Laborintus II on 18th June as part of the Holland Festival programme.

…posted by Ruth Midget

The Hold Steady join Record Store Day 12:20am, 9 Mar 2010

The latest band to announce their support for record store day are The Hold Steady, who'll be doing a limited vinyl release of new album Heaven Is Whenever on April 17th - that's two weeks ahead of the CD/digital release on May 3rd. The vinyl edition will also come with custom screen printed artwork.

Other bands with special releases lined up include The Get Up Kids, who'll be releasing an EP of their first new material in six years, and Soundgarden, who'll be re-releasing their first single. For more info about Record Store Day and participating stores, head to www.recordstoreday.com

…posted by Ruth Midget

Alkaline Trio UK dates 12:08am, 9 Mar 2010

Shoring up new release This Addiction [RM Review], Alkaline Trio have announced a bunch of UK dates:

Fri 21 May BIRMINGHAM 02 ACADEMY
Sun 23 May MANCHESTER ACADEMY
Mon 24 May GLASGOW 02 ABC
Tue 25 May NEWCASTLE 02 ACADEMY
Wed 26 May BRISTOL 02 ACADEMY
Fri 28 May PORTSMOUTH PYRAMIDS CENTRE
Tue 1 June LONDON ROUNDHOUSE
Wed 2 June NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY

Check out the Alkaline Trio - This Addiction video.

…posted by Ruth Midget