The family name may have been long besmirched by - among other things - molestation charges(he was acquitted) and 'wardrobe malfunctions' - but the Jackson Five reunited at an industry convention sans Michael this week in Los Angeles. Janet presented her bros with the lifetime-achievement BMI Icon Award, and while Jacko and his brother Jermaine were not present, their brother Marlon had the line of the night: when asked where Michael was, he responded, "I don't know - I think he's in Egypt riding a camel or something." Awesome. At the same event, T-Pain, who apparently owns the charts these days without my ever having heard his voice, was named the top songwriter. [R&R]

Seven Mary Three still write and record music. This would be the 7M3(acronyms!) that brought us 'Cumbersome,' which dominated rock radio in the Year of Our Lord 1995, and to which I still know all the lyrics.

They seem like they're really prolific - or rushed: Maylene & the Sons of Disaster will enter the studio in December to work on their third album, which they'll hopefully have out next summer. Didn't II just come out?? [Decoy]

The first guitar Hendrix ever set ablaze on stage was auctioned off this week for $128,000. The '65 Strat was burned at the stake - so to speak - in 1967.

Another '90s flashback for this post-Gen-Xer: Alice in Chains complete with new singer William DuVall(who?), are making a new record.

Tom Morello's new album is streaming online, so go get yourself some ear candy. The Rage guitarist spent his week, of course, in Minneapolis protesting at the Republican National Convention(see our last blog post for more on that).

A band that gives me chills: Keane have a new single online over here. I saw some HDNet made-for-TV concert of theirs a few years ago and they blew me away.

They kinda reminded me of Queens of the Stone Age crossed with Isis during their set at Ottawa's Bluesfest earlier this summer - in a good way. Brooklyn's Secret Machines are touring this fall with Canadian band The Dears Small Shins; check their myspace page for the deets.

Featuring ex-Taken guys(great band!), Mikoto played a tiny dive here in Ottawa a couple years ago, and besides commenting on my admittedly very old Eighteen Visions shirt, rocked a killer set...and then I never heard their name again - until now. Torque Recs in Saskatchewan have signed the band and will put out We Are the Architects October 14th. Good move!

As if The Loved Ones, MxPx and Hot Water Music's Chuck Ragan weren't awesome on their own, they're uniting for a tribute - to Johnny Cash, the Man in Black himself. It's called All Aboard!, due out before Christmas. PS: I've listened to little else but HWM's Caution record all week.

She's a brick, and I'm drowning slowly: Ben Folds Five, who were ridiculously good in their time, are reuniting for some Myspace thing, and they'll perform The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner in its entirety. Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere!

Word is that arguably the biggest MC in the world - if not the best - may have a new album out sooner rather than later - Kanye West is working on new material he could have out by the end of Oh Eight. [Billboard]

Nickelback have a new album coming out this fall. On that woeful day, feces will rain from the heavens upon all of us hapless citizens. And to make matters worse, U2's new album has been pushed back to 2009 by the Powers That Be. Dammit! There is a silver lining to this nickel-filled cloud, though: Bono and co. apparently have between fifty and sixty songs to choose from for inclusion on their first album in what will be five years.

I don't have to read past the pullquote on this story: one of the yowling voices of my youth, Chris Cornell(in his Soundgarden days), has a new album in November produced by...Timbaland. It's the clash of the titans! LOOK OUT!!!! My favourite quote from the piece: "As to be expected with Timbaland behind the boards, these songs move Cornell in a much more R&B-oriented direction..." Superb.

Proving there's still some semblance of hope in popular music, Slipknot's new single bumped The Game out of top spot on the Billboard 200 chart last week. Word to your mother.

I know you love news about lawsuits - so here's some legal-beagle news concerning Akon, Great White and Ne-Yo! Wheee!

One of the latest - and myriad - reasons why Rage Against the Machine are one of the most important bands around, and very welcome back in 2008: after their attempt to take the stage outside the Republican National Convention going on in Minnesota this week was stopped by police, the band simply did shit old-school - a capella!

Props to Ryan for the link.

Watching Tiger Woods and Conan O'Brien battle each other on Tiger's new EA Sports videogame was classic television - one of the myriad reasons I love late-night TV. Go watch it quick before the suits at NBC yank it off Youtube!

This depresses me - but the comments underneath are awesome! Thanks to Scallen for the heads-up on yet another attempt by Christians to flog Jesus for cash.

Some interesting radio-biz news in the Ottawa area today - if you're into such things. It's kinda what I do for the scrilla - Lord knows bloggin' don't pay. Anyway, Astral Media, who own our friends at 106.9 the Bear here in town, have received another license to operate a soft-AC station(adult contemporary - think Rod Stewart and Elton John) at 99.7 FM, one adjacency from where yours truly slaves six nights a week at CHRI, spinning rad tunes and running my mouth. As well, looks like Kingston, Ontario native and lifelong blues man Dan Akroyd's intervention at the government hearings several months back worked: a new blues station will soon be on the scene at 101.9 FM in Ottawa. Welcome to the fam! [MMU]

And just in case you wondering when the supposed dominance of subscription-based satellite radio was going to take effect over traditional terrestrial radio, well, not anytime soon. Ha!

The boys went out on top: Ottawa's own Fully Down played their final show over the weekend at the venerable Zaphod Beeblebrox nightclub in downtown O-dot - the site of the band's first show back in 1999. They were a very different-sounding band back then, with just four members and a pop-oriented sound that was replaced by a more cutting-edge, triple-guitar assault that won the band a deal with Fearless Records, who released Don't Get Lost In a Movement in 2005. The Down toured the US and Canada relentlessly, going as far abroad as Japan for sold-out shows in the Pacific Rim, and it's all officially over. Registering three vocalists over their ten-year run, they helped put Ottawa on the rock and roll map. Thanks fellas!

Incidentally, a band the Fully Down toured with, I Am the Avalanche, are going on the road this fall with Four Year Strong and This Is Hell:
Oct 14 Tempe, AZ @ The Clubhouse
Oct 15 La Jolla, CA @ Porter's Pub
Oct 16 Hollywood, CA @ Knitting Factory
Oct 17 Palmdale, CA @ Palmdale Vets Hall
Oct 18 Anaheim, CA @ Chain Reaction
Oct 19 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
Oct 20 Portland, OR @ Satyricon
Oct 21 Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Oct 23 Salt Lake City, UT @ Avalon Theater
Oct 24 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre
Oct 25 Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck
Oct 26 Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock
Oct 28 Aurora, IL @ Doug's Rockhouse Grill
Oct 29 Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick

With "the album of their careers" now out, Norma Jean are hitting the bricks as well, going out with labelmates Haste the Day and Mychildren Mybride - and as a personal favour to me(apparently), Children 18:3, one of my new favourites, will be joining the caravan from October 3rd-26th! Excitement. Check out the various myspaces for details. No Canadian dates listed as yet. Bummerific.

In a move reminiscent of Cartel's Band In a Bubble experience a couple years ago, Saosin have partnered with Hurley to record their new album in the hurley.com studios, which will be outfitted with a ton of cameras for a 100%-live internet feed, six days a week. Should be interesting. [AP]

Some details are out concerning Copeland's 'comeback' album on Tooth & Nail, after their brief stay with Columbia Records resulted in exactly zero output with that company. You Are My Sunshine will be out October 14th on the Nail - my brother's birthday! Happy early birthday Dan!!

Dragonforce have bestowed upon us all a gift direct from the gods of metal: a full album stream of their new opus Ultra Beatdown. How awesome are Dragonforce?? The album officially comes out tomorrow, the 26th of August - my mom's birthday! Happy early birthday, Mom! (I'm not kidding.)

Some sad news: producer Jerry Finn, who worked with the likes of Offspring, Sparta, AFI, Bad Religion and tons more, died last week at the very young age of 39; Finn had suffered a massive brain hemorrhage in July and was taken off life support August 9th. Our condolences to his family - and his extended family, our scene. [SPB]

Hooray! Down By Law - haven't heard their name in quite some time - have a new song online; an accompanying statement reads, "Dave and Sam have been working on new Down By Law songs. They've got several recorded and mixed, and they are now actively looking for a label. The new songs sound great." Agreed!

I was in the shower early this morning - I'll delve no further into that scenario, I promise - and on my little battery-powered FM radio I got at last Christmas's Chinese-gift-exchange work party, I heard what sounded like...new Metallica?? No way. Truth! The new single, 'The Day That Never Comes,' is now available for streaming. At least those god-awful tennis-ball kick drums from St. Anger are gone.

Florida edge crew Call to Preserve have posted a badass new tune from their upcoming new record From Isolation, due out soon on Facedown. Check it out!]

It was pretty trippy to see the likes of Leona Lewis, soccer god David Beckham and Zeppelin mastermind Jimmy Page rocking out on raised platforms at the closing of the Beijing Olympics - next stop London, hence the English presence in China. What'd you think of the Beijing Games overall? Shoot us an email!

Cheech & Chong are bringing their Light Up America tour to the masses, their first in some twenty years. First stop? Right here in lil' ol' Ottawa, September 5th at the National Arts Centre downtown. Amazing! [RS]

John Mayer has been quite the stagecrasher lately; the man who makes his money creating pop dreck so that he can fulfill his soul doing fiery blues joined Billy Joel at the big Shea Stadium sendoff concert two weeks ago, and last week Wednesday he contributed licks and vocals to Paramore on 'When It Rains' in Pittsburgh, PA(you can Google the video footage). If you haven't seen the Crossroads Festival DVDs curated by Eric Clapton, the 2007 edition featuring Mayer and his trio is a revelation.

The music industry(read: major labels) are hoping the fall of Oh Eight will help reverse the irreversible slide of control of music into more able, knowledgeable hands - and with releases from Jay-Z, Metallica, AC/DC(!), Dr. Dre and the mighty U2 on the slate, who knows? It just might. But unlikely.

Well, it's been almost a month since we found time to blog - summertime! vacations! work! real life! rock and roll! tour! - but all's well that ends well, as they say, and we're back with some terrific news: Copeland have signed with Tooth & Nail Records, who will release the band's new album in October! We're stoked on this here, as Copeland are longtime faves at the D, and there had been much speculation on their future, with the exit of bassist James Likeness and the dropped-from-Columbia-Records thing. Congrats, fellas!