BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION — the Anglo/American rock supergroup featuring vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes (DEEP PURPLE, BLACK SABBATH, TRAPEZE), drummer Jason Bonham (LED ZEPPELIN), Derek Sherinian (DREAM THEATER) and blues rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa — has joined forces with Planet Rock, the U.K.’s leading classic rock radio station, to offer rock fans the opportunity to download two exclusive free live BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION tracks.

The songs, “Black Country” and “One Last Soul”, were originally recorded live in front of a specially invited audience at John Henry’s in London, England on September 20, 2010. The live recordings have been exclusively mixed for Planet Rock by BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION‘s producer Kevin Shirley.

To be eligible to download the live tracks, rock fans are being asked to become VIP members of Planet Rock‘s web site by signing up to www.planetrock.com/vip. Once free membership has been activated, fans will have access to the free download, along with other VIP offers. Additionally, fans will also be able to order tickets for BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION‘s forthcoming U.K. summer concerts in July.

BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION is currently mixing its sophomore album for a June release.

BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION performed two long-awaited U.K. concerts in December. Fittingly, the first concert took place right in the heart of the Black Country at the legendary Wolverhampton Civic Hall on December 29, followed by a concert at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on December 30.

Fan-filmed video footage of the London show can be viewed below.

The self-titled debut album from BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION sold 7,100 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 54 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD, which was made available in Europe on September 20, 2010 via Mascot Records and North America on September 21 through J&R Adventures, was produced and mixed by Kevin Shirley (BLACK CROWES, AEROSMITH, LED ZEPPELIN), and mastered by the legendary Bob Ludwig. It was recorded at Shangri-La Studios in early 2010.

BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION initially came to fruition when Shirley saw Hughes and Bonamassa join forces on stage in Los Angeles in November 2009 for an explosive performance at Guitar Center‘s King of the Blues event. Shirley then recruited Bonham and Sherinian for the project, which is named after the industrial area in the British Midlands where both Hughes and Bonham were born and raised.

According to The Pulse Of Radio, Rob Zombie told England’s RockAAA in a new interview that his original band, WHITE ZOMBIE, will never reunite. Zombie explained, “I don’t see the point. I think as with most things people have a memory of something like, ‘I saw them when I was 14 years old and it was the greatest thing ever,’ but if they saw us now they’d probably go, ‘I wish I hadn’t seen that reunion, it was awful.’ The singer added, “It is better to leave it alone and I haven’t talked to anyone from the band except (drummer) John Tempesta in about 15 years.”

WHITE ZOMBIE broke up in 1997 and Rob Zombie went on to launch a successful solo career in 1998. He told The Pulse Of Radio that nowadays a lot of his audience isn’t even familiar with the old WHITE ZOMBIE songs. “The crowds are really, really young and I’ve been noticing that with the set list too, because, you know, as the time has gone on, we’ve really worked the WHITE ZOMBIE material more out of the set, because we’ve been finding that it’s not working like it used to,” he said. “It seems like that those songs just seem now old to people and it’s very strange.”

The history of WHITE ZOMBIE came up when Rob Zombie was asked to comment on the recent publication of “I’m In The Band”, a memoir from ex-WHITE ZOMBIE bassist and Rob‘s former girlfriend Sean Yseult.

In the book, Yseult claims that the departure of drummer Ivan DePrume led to the eventual disintegration of the group.

Zombie said, “I have not seen it [the book] so I can’t comment. I can barely remember those days, so I’m glad somebody can.”

He added, “Everybody likes to make up stories which aren’t true. I don’t think that’s fair. Ivan left the band, John Tempesta came in and the band sounded better than ever, we kept playing and made bigger records and did more tours so I don’t see how that had anything to do with it.”

Zombie is currently on tour in Europe, where he is playing some countries for the first time in more than a decade. He says that rumors about him having a fear of flying and thus not traveling overseas were just an urban myth.

Once his current road trip is finished, Zombie will return home to begin pre-production on his next movie, “The Lords Of Salem”.

Knoxville, Tennessee-based female-fronted metal/hardcore act STRAIGHT LINE STITCH will release its sophomore album, “Laughing In The Rearview”, on March 22 via eOne Music. The follow-up to 2008’s “When Skies Wash Ashore” was produced and mixed by the Grammy Award-nominated producer Johnny K (DISTURBED, MACHINE HEAD, SEVENDUST) and is set to include eleven new songs. Additional work on the album was done by Ben Schigel.

“‘Laughing In The Rearview’ is about hardships in life, and then later on in life looking back you realize things weren’t as bad as you’d initially thought. So you laugh at it.,” says STRAIGHT LINE STITCH frontwoman Alexis Brown.

“Laughing In The Rearview” track listing:

01. Tear Down The Sky
02. Conversion
03. Laughing In The Rearview
04. Cold Front
05. No Tomorrow
06. Bar Room Brawl
07. One Reason
08. Never Surrender
09. Living Dead
10. Sound Of Silence
11. Ashes In The Wind

Behind-the-scenes footage from the video shoot for “Conversion”, the new single from STRAIGHT LINE STITCH, can be viewed below. The clip was filmed with directed by Dale “Rage” Resteghini, who has helmed over 550 music videos since 2003, including clips for such metal bands as MUDVAYNE, HATEBREED, ANTHRAX and SHADOWS FALL. Rage has also helmed videos for some of the biggest names in the hip hop world, including Lil Wayne, Diddy, Snoop Dog and Ice Cube.

Commented Alexis Brown: “‘Conversion’ is one of my favorite songs on the record because it’s about shedding old skin and becoming a whole another being. I’m really stoked that it’s the first single off our new record.”

“Conversion” is available for streaming using the audio player below (courtesy of AOL‘s Noisecreep).

STRAIGHT LINE STITCH will take part in this summer’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival alongside MEGADETH, DISTURBED and GODSMACK. The band will appear on the “Extreme Stage” on all dates along with SUICIDE SILENCE and ALL SHALL PERISH.

“Getting added to Mayhem is definitely a highlight of our careers thus far,” said Brown. “There are so many amazing bands we thought we’d never get the opportunity to play with and now we get to. It’s gonna be a surreal summer for sure.”

Published by rbtaleman

Heavy metal (fiend/friend?) Writer, frustrat(or), frustrat(ee), decorated U.S. Navy veteran, Husband(twice), father(three times), grandfather(of seven), FM radio veteran, Concertgoer, music collector, muscle car aficianado. Grown up since five. Child since 45. View all posts by rbtaleman