I love waking up to news about the Foo Fighters! Pulse of Radio reporting the Foos announced the band will give a special performance at the Record Connection in Niles, OH this Saturday (April 18th), which is Record Store Day. To attend the noon gig, fans in the area must head to the store and pre-order the new Foos EP, Songs From The Laundry Room beginning on Thursday (April 16th). All pre-orders tickets are limited to one per person and require a photo ID upon check-in at the store. Niles, OH is near Warren, Ohio, the town where Dave Grohl was born. Songs From The Laundry Room features early Foo Fighters demos Grohl recorded before the band’s first album, including “Alone + Easy Target,” “Big Me” and the previously unreleased “Empty Handed.” Grohl, who is Record Store Day Ambassador this year, told Creative Loafing about another Record Store Day release he is excited about, saying, “I hear that Metallica is releasing their first demo tape on cassette — and that is f**king rad! I bought the first Metallica album on cassette from a mail-order catalog in 1983 . . . it blew my f**king mind. I will be a diehard Metallica fan until the day I die because of that experience.” Foo Fighters will kick off a major North American tour on July 4th in Washington, D.C…Yesterday I was busy on the hotLine with Jonny Hawkins of Nothing More calling in from Austin, TX. What a great band they have turned out to be. And what a great campaign they have mounted with the #IKNOWJENNY effort to raise awareness and help for folks with bipolar disorder and other mental issues. Hit www.nothingmore.net for more details on how you can help or get help. Watch the video for “Jenny” there as well. Then I had Chris Turpin from Kill It Kid on the phone from England doing a chat about his new band and I found him to be an avid musicologist and yet another English band heavily influenced by American blues from the 1920’s-30’s from artists like Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell . I mean, White Stripes, Jack White, Royal Blood, The Temperance Movement, so many bands who have looked back on the forefathers of rock embedded in the blues and bringing little pieces of that to the rock of today. I find it fascinating. Check them all out …DING DING DING! Another Wes Scantlin ARREST! Pulse reports local TV station TMJ4 reported the Puddle Of Mudd frontman was arrested on Wednesday (April 15th) on charges of disorderly conduct after an incident at Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport. Although the station reported Scantlin spent Wednesday night in jail, his booking agency told Blabbermouth the singer is “currently not in jail” and “will be performing all shows, including this weekend and all upcoming shows.” Puddle Of Mudd is scheduled to perform on Thursday (April 16th) in Wilmington, NC. The sheriff’s office has not released any further details regarding the incident and the nature of what happened has yet to be disclosed. Scantlin was last arrested in January after taking what was described as a “joyride” into a restricted area on an airport baggage carousel at Denver International Airport. He previously made news in April 2014 when he melted down onstage, threw a beer and microphone into the audience, and threatened several attendees with violence at a show in Scottsdale AZ. I know his performance last week in Wisconsin found the singer lip syncing to songs according to a source. I gotta tell ya, it’s one train wreck after another with this guy! His arrests in 2013 included one for vandalism against a neighbor’s property, as well as one stemming from his 2012 cocaine possession case and another on charges of domestic violence. Scantlin has continued to lead an all-new lineup of the band on tour. A single was released last September called “Piece Of The Action.” I feel bad for his band and crew….Pulse also saying Breaking Benjamin has issued a new song called “Angels Fall” from the band’s upcoming album Dark Before Dawn. Both this and current single “Failure” show where Breaking Benjamin is at musically after a six-year break and with a new lineup. Frontman Ben Burnley told us he didn’t want to shake things up too much: “I don’t want to reinvent the wheel. I just want to write good music that’s gonna stand the test of time and I try to do that. Whether I accomplished that is another thing, but at least I try to do that. And I think fans are noticing that the band hasn’t changed just because I’m the main songwriter, I always have been, and my process — it’s not gonna change. All I’m gonna try to do is just write really, really good songs and bring the Breaking Benjamin sound to another level.” Dark Before Dawn will arrive on June 23rd. Burnley dealt with both legal and health issues during the long break, successfully suing two former members of the band who tried to wrest control of the group from him while he was battling a longstanding illness. Burnley unveiled Breaking Benjamin 2.0 last year, with the lineup consisting of drummer Shaun Foist, bassist Aaron Bruch, former Red guitarist/producer/songwriter Jasen Rauch and ex-Adelitas Way guitarist Keith Wallen. Breaking Benjamin will hit the road this spring and summer for a mix of festivals, radio concerts and headlining dates, beginning Friday night in Texas. (Don’t be surprised if you bump into one of them today on South Padre Island!)… System Of A Down singer Serj Tankian has co-written with John Psathas a new song called “100 Years” to commemorate the centennial of the Armenian genocide perpetrated during World War One by Turkey’s Ottoman Empire. Tankian, who is of Armenian descent, said about the song’s accompanying video, “The video is a somber commemoration to honor the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian victims of the first genocide of the 20th century.” Tankian told us a while back the Armenian Genocide has been largely forgotten by history: “You know, I mean, it was all over the media in 1915 when it occurred, but since it’s not put in the books as a genocide and not reviewed and studied like the Holocaust has been, like even the Cambodian genocide has been — you know, we’ve talked about Saddam Hussein’s killing of the Kurds, etc. — all of that is known in modern times, but this is the first forgotten genocide of the century.” System is currently on a world tour to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, during which 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives at the hands of the Turkish government between 1915 and 1918. Turkey has officially denied the atrocity took place ever since. (Even Pope Francis acknowledged the anniversary at a ceremony recently.) The tour, which includes dates in Europe and North and South America, will culminate in Armenia in April 23rd, the day before the annual worldwide observation of the genocide. This will be the first time System Of A Down has ever performed in its home country…Just saw on Blabbernouth Of Mice & Men have released a music video for “Another You.” The clip was filmed in concert during their tour with Linkin Park last year….Blabbermouth posted these two items: .Danzig is touring with Pennywise and Cancer Bats in July. See Road Rage….Finland’s postal service is freaking cool! Where else can you get stamps with BAND pictures?!!! Apocalyptica, HIM, Children of Bodom, Hanoi Rocks, Nightwish and about 30 others are available. Imagine if the postal service here had ones for Metallica, Foo Fighters and Five Finger Death Punch??? Forget about it!……Things are brewing for the next hardDrive Live Tour. Always trying to bring out the best new rock to you guys. Fingers crossed we can announce real soon! As always, stay TUNED!