AEROSMITH entered the studio on Tuesday, July 5 with producer Jack Douglas to begin recording its long-awaited 14th studio album. “One word bout 1st day n studio ‘Inspiring.'” drummer Joey Kramer tweeted yesterday. He added, “No words can describe how inspired I’m feeling in the studio right now. It’s a beautiful thing.” He also tweeted a photo of himself in a recording studio with Douglas(see below).In a videotaped message that was released via AEROSMITH‘s official web site, bassist Tom Hamilton stated about re-teaming with Douglas, “For those of you who don’t know who Jack is, he’s the guy who we worked with, producing our best albums of the ’70s — ‘Get Your Wings’, ‘Toys In The Attic’ and ‘Rocks’. And it’s really gonna be cool, because there’s no one that knows more about the soul of this band and the creative part of this band [than] Jack. We worked with him on [2004’s covers CD] ‘Honkin’ On Bobo’, but that wasn’t all original material — most of that was not original material. This time it’s gonna be all-new AEROSMITH songs.”He continued, “When people say, ‘What was it like to work with Jackback then?’ all I can say is we just laughed the whole time; there was always laughter going on, and fun, but at the same time really digging deep to get performances that were even better than we thought we could do.”AEROSMITH‘s new CD is being recorded in the Massachusetts studio that the band built six years ago, will be AEROSMITH‘s first set of original material since 2001’s “Just Push Play” and first studio offering since 2004’s covers CD, “Honkin’ On Bobo”.

The plan to resume work on a new disc follows the completion of singer Steven Tyler‘s first season as a judge on “American Idol”. The band, minus Perry, did get together for a week earlier this year in Los Angeles to work on new material.

AEROSMITH and Tyler almost went their separate ways in late 2009, but reunited and toured last year. However, Tyler then stunned his bandmates by taking the “Idol” job, which pushed back work on the already-delayed new record.

L. Kent Wolgamott of the Colorado Springs Independent recently conducted an interview with GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On how he thinks GODSMACK will measure up against co-headliners DISTURBED and MEGADETH at the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival:

“I truly believe in my heart that, pound for pound, GODSMACK is one of the best live performances out there. We’ve spent the last 15 years performing. We are good at it, great at it. . . I believe we can go up against anybody live. FOO FIGHTERS, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, those guys are unbelievable live. They’re so good, so intense, so powerful. I think we’re that good. We take a lot of pride in what we do and put on the best show we can.”

On whether fans can expect any new music from GODSMACK in the near future:

“We just finished doing ‘The Oracle’ and I just got the solo record [‘Avalon’] out. For me, the biggest reward is doing the live performance and touring. I’m always writing. But the short answer is ‘no.’ I’m not going to write for a while, and just enjoy the tours.”

On shuffling touring activities between GODSMACK and his solo project:

“It’s ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’. That’s what it is. It’s an extreme change to jump from one to the other.”

“[The solo project is] a huge part of me. I need GODSMACK to be loud and crazy and bring the chaos. I needed the solo project for the spiritual, seductive side. I need both for balance. There’s no way I can be on 10 all the time, but there’s no way I can be on two all the time, either.”

On the impetus for his solo project’s more open, confessional lyrics:

“Over the years, I stuffed a lot of stuff inside me. I wanted to use it as therapeutic, a release through art.”

Read more from the Colorado Springs Independent.

Video footage of GODSMACK performing live at the Carolina Rebellion in Charlotte, NC on May 7, 2011 can be seen below.

If you’re a serious music fan you have a handful, maybe more, bands that you really miss. I know I do.

Led Zeppelin is probably at the top of just about any hard rock and heavy metal fans list but that reunion can never happen with Gonzo jamming with Jimi and Janis for the past thirty plus years.

Here are the criteria I used to make my list:

• All original members from the bands considered must be living in order to qualify.
• Pre-requisite two, they are already legendary with one or more masterworks of hard rock and/or heavy metal to their credit.
• Thirdly, they haven’t done a true all original studio album in at least ten years with their original, classic lineups.
• Fourthly, they were massively popular when at their peak of popularity.

Here are the four I’d be most excited to see releases from in  2011/2012. What are your thoughts?

Who would you like to see do an all new, all original, sparkling new studio album? Is it one of the four bands below or some other legendary band? Write in your thoughts in the Other box if there is someone other than these titans you’d like to see reunite and put out one final masterpiece and recapture a bit of their glory days.

I can’t wait to see your ideas!