Catching up for Christmas with Myron of the Dirty Americans… new D-Am album hitting June 2003. Q – Top 5 albums of the year and why? 1. The Eminem Show 2. White Stripes 3. Queens Of The Stone Age 4. Foo Fighters 5. The Cult (I think this was released this year) Cuz they all know how to keep it cool… Q – Christmas plans? Rehearsing for the new album. Q – The ideal Christmas gift? A remote car starter for my Jeep, it’s fuckin freezing here in Michigan and I hate getting into a cold car. Or an electric toothbrush. Q – How will you see the New Year in? We’ll all be at a private party that Kid Rock’s new DJ (Paradime) is throwing in Detroit. Q – Any New Year resolutions? No more resolutions! Q – An end-of-year message? We’re coming back soon so buy stock in Guinness.

Courtesy of our U.S office comes this little interview update with Rumblefish… Upon speaking with guitarist Jason DeCosta Monday afternoon (Dec 2), here is the outcome: Roadrunner Records: Where are you right now? Jason DeCosta: Right now, I’m in West Hollywood. I’m not gay, but this area is actually called ‘Boystown.’ It’s funny, cuz the guy doing our sound, his grandma used to sell real estate around here. I told here, í¢ä‰åñI live on Fountain and Fairfax.í¢ä‰åŒ Her first question was, í¢ä‰åñare you gay?í¢ä‰åŒ (all laugh) RR: So, where exactly is Fountain and Fairfax? Jason: About a block and a half away from Sunsetí¢ä‰åŒ_ya know, where the Rainbow, the Whiskey, where all those places areí¢ä‰åŒ_and the Roadrunner office too. RR: Well, they are all homos in the LA office. And of course, that is meant in the nicest possible way. So, what time did you get up today? Jason: Ahhh, I was up at about 8 this morning. RR: And what have you accomplished thus far? Jason: Ran a bunch of errands, and was about to take a nap before you called. Our A&R guy Kevin is doing this new postcard, so I had to do some photoshop stuff for that. Then, we have this live tape from our show on Friday which came out spectacular – we sound like the Bee Gees singingí¢ä‰åŒ_ (rude interruption) RR: You sure you’re not a homo? (go to laugh track) Jason: So I had to get him (Kevin) a tape of that, then get money from our business manager because our rent is late, then pick up my guitars from the Roxy (where Rumblefish played this past weekend), then here to lay down and wait on your call. RR: And come the end of the day what will you have accomplished? Jason: Probably will have been to the Rainbow for a couple drinks, then to this club on top of the Roxy (called On The Rox) where I have it worked out to get free drinks, then rehearsal, then home, then back on the computer for some designs, then hit the sack around 4amí¢ä‰åŒ_ RR: Onward and upward. Your band’s name, RUMBLEFISH – there has been some changes in the spelling, and at one point even possible talk on changing it entirely. So, the spelling, is it ‘UL’ or ‘LE’ (i.e. RumbLEfish or RumbULfish)? Burn it in our brainsí¢ä‰åŒ_ Jason: ‘LE.’ It’s final. I guess the 2 other bands that had trademarks on it agreed to let it go. It’s Rumblefish, with the ‘LE’. RR: And where does that name come from? Jason: From the movie ‘Rumblefish.’ RR: And I would have heard of that where??? Jason: It’s a cult type movie, with Matt Dillon. RR: You sure you’re not a homo? Jason: HAHA! Well, I’m not the one that came up the name, it was our singer! I don’t know if he’s a bone smuggler, I hope not. Chicks seem to like him, and he seems to like chicks. RR: Everyone, make note í¢ä‰åäóì Rumblefish with an ‘LE.’ So, Jason, what do you know about Roadrunner? Name 5 bands. Jason: That we like? Spineshank, Soulfly, Fear Factory, for sure Slipknot, andí¢ä‰åŒ_.ummmmí¢ä‰åŒ_I like downthesun. I thought that was a really great albumí¢ä‰åŒ_also the Anyone albumí¢ä‰åŒ_and there’s also a band I really like that you no longer have, Earth Crisis. RR: Earth Crisis? You sure you’re not a homo? Purely, purely kidding. Great band, and enough with those types of comments alreadyí¢ä‰åŒ_SO, you guys played your first live show since you started and finished the recording of your debut. What was Friday’s show (11.29) like? Jason: Yeah, 9 months it has been. The show was insane. 800 people through the door, and the club can only fit 450. I had a load of calls the next day from people who couldn’t get in í¢ä‰åäóì I told them to buy on ticketmaster, but it was only a $10 tix, and they were charging a 4 dollar service feeí¢ä‰åŒ_ RR: The homosí¢ä‰åŒ_ticketmaster, that isí¢ä‰åŒ_and I promise that will be the last time. Jason: So I didn’t know what to tell them (those who couldn’t get in)í¢ä‰åŒ_But the show was insaneí¢ä‰åŒ_. Dino from Fear Factory, Roy from Soulfly, all the Spineshank guys were thereí¢ä‰åŒ_ RR: And the music? Jason: We rocked 8 songs. Opened with í¢ä‰åñOpen Wound,í¢ä‰åŒ ended with a track called í¢ä‰åñIgnorance.í¢ä‰åŒ It’s the hardest track on the albumí¢ä‰åŒ_we could play it with Slayer! RR: Okay. two more questions for the day. First, what’s the tattoo situation? Jason: Me? I only have one tattoo, and I got it when I was 17. I always wanted more, but never didí¢ä‰åŒ_all the tats and body piercings in the world can’t cover up the truth í¢ä‰åäóì if you’re lame, you’re lameí¢ä‰åŒ_if you’re cool, you’re cool. But do what you like. RR: And last, most classic tattoo: MOM or an anchor on the forearm? Jason: Ahh shití¢ä‰åŒ_I think mom. I think Mom in a heart. We thank Jason for his time, patience, humor & truth. More to come from the world of Rumblefish.

Just a heads up that the new Spineshank record will be hitting shop shelves sooner than you thought. The release has been pulled forward a month, to mid May. More info to come…

The Murderdolls are currently touring the UK… arriving just a couple of days ago. Metal-Sludge.com are publishing Wednesday 13’s tour diary through the dates, and here’s his first entry. The flight- So we flew from Chicago to the UK, which was a 8 hr flight. It was a usual flight for us surrounded by screaming babies, retards and guys that look like potential terrorists. We flew coach, which was tight and cramped especially our drummer the Ghoul who is fucking 8 feet tall, you’d think the big wigs in label-land would fly us first class. It was a long restless flight but we finally arrive in London at 10:30 in the morning. The tour bus- Holy shit…I’m not lying we have a pink fucking bus. It looks like a Malibu Barb tour bus…people who called us fags before will definitely do it now. This looks like the Tigertailz custom bus. The show- We played in Wolverhampton England and were greeted on arrival by a shitload of our fans at 2 in the afternoon. Now the fact that we have a pink bus is hard enough but some kids found it cool to write all over our bus with a fucking sharpie. Now we have a pink bus with fucking graffiti. Well, minus the bus incident the show was fucking great 800 kids singing every single word to our dumb 3 chord songs. I always scout the audience hoping I’d see someone from Wrathchild UK, Tigertailz, or Zodiac Mindwarp. I actually heard that Roky Shades from Wrathchild UK was at our first London show…and just think he could have signed my copy of Stakk Attak…oh well maybe one day… until then I’ll just be happy w/ my Tuff autograph poster. Aftershow- Typical aftershow shit, we get cleaned up, eat, drink, break shit, and talk to the fans. I passed out around 3:00 am… Until next time I’m outta here like Contrabands career… Ps: why didn’t you ask the SR71 guy about their drummer being in Childs Play? I’m not part of the rat race. If you wanna see what you’re missing, make sure you check out the Murderdolls VIDEO page for 2 exclusive live video clips of the Murderdolls on their previous dates here with Papa Roach.

For those of you planning to catch ex-RR artist Glassjaw on tour in the next few days, the tour has been cancelled. The official press release is as follows: Daryl Palumbo suffers relapse – all UK shows cancelled Glassjaw vocalist Daryl Palumbo was rushed to a London hospital this morning following a serious relapse of Crohn’s Disease forcing the cancellation of Glassjaw’s UK tour and promotion that was due to start tomorrow in Glasgow. Further news will announced as soon as it is available. The UK dates affected are as below. As of yet, there is no confirmation as to whether the dates will be rescheduled. December 6th – Glasgow G2 7th – Manchester Hop & Grape 8th – Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall 9th – London Astoria In addition, it also looks likely that Glassjaw’s dates in Germany, France and Italy will also be cancelled. We wish Daryl a speedy recovery.

The top feature in our VIDEO section right now is the latest from Sinch. The band just returned home from a tour run with Stone Sour, and this video was shot on that tour run. During shows in Philly and NYC, live footage of the band was captured, along with their on stage visuals. Put them together, and short of seeing the band live, this is the best representation of Sinch you will ever see. No glitz, glamour, or extras, this video was shot on a shoe string budget, literally. This piece was done purely for the love of the music. Check out the new Sinch video, “Tabula Rasa.”

Here at Roadrunner Towers we regularly get email in from fans of various bands. Some even write to us on a regular basis. One such person is Sam Proctor, and she happens to be a fan of Nickelback. Recently on eBay, there was a very rare charity auction to win VIP tickets and backstage passes for an exclusive invite only Nickelback radio show for just 1077 guests in New York on January 23rd. It just so happens that the winning bid of $3200 was Sam’s and she & a guest will be flying to NY in January to be met by Ryan Peake’s wife Treana for the show and to meet the band! Between now and after, we’ll be sharing Sam’s tale as she gears up for an adventure of a lifetime! You can check out the auction HERE. And now over to Sam… Congratulations! Probably The Best Day of My Life (Until January 21st 2003 That Is!) Several things run through one’s mind when you see a rather nice looking dessert on a sweet trolley Should I? Shouldn’t I? Will I regret it? bla bla bla…. Seeing the VIP Concert tickets in the ICA Charity Auction was one of those moments. It took me a week of pondering and running all the possible scenarios that may or may not happen, in order to decide that I would actually make a bid. I left it right to the last few minutes of the auction (I set my alarm for 5.30am) and logged into the site. The bid amount had gone up slightly in the last few days. I was a little bit shocked at this point and started to think that it was totally out of my grasp. Then I thought – what the hell! How many other opportunities am I going to get like this? So I made a bid – $50 more than the current bid figure. Pretty much straight away the site came back with the notice that I had already been outbid! Not to be outdone at such a critical point in my life, I upped the bid by another $50. At this point, there was only about 1 minute left on the auction. I waited a few more seconds before clicking the Submit button and then waited for the reply. YES! I am the highest bidder. I looked at my PC clock and noticed that by my calculations the auction should be over. I hit F5 on my keyboard to refresh the screen and waited……. I was still the highest bidder….. I hit F5 again……… The item had disappeared from the Items I’m Currently Bidding On….. The auction was over…… I scrolled down the page waiting to see where the item had moved to. Would it be in Items Lost or Items Won…… OH MY GOD…..ITEMS WON…..VIP NICKELBACK CONCERT IN NEW YORK…… I just sat there in silence for a few minutes, not actually believing what I had just done. I went back to the bedroom and my boyfriend looked at me and said ‘I guess you won then!’ Obviously my face said it all. I am now so exicited I could explode. I have constant waves of thoughts crashing through my mind, but the overwhelming one is ‘I’m going to meet Nickelback. I’m actually going to touch (Ooo Err misses!) and speak to Chad. I just hope that I can think of something to say. I ‘ve had some congratulatory emails from Ryan Peake’s wife and when they get home from the UK later in the week I should receive more details about the concert. In the meantime, I’m going to do my best to stick to day to day things, such as trying to sleep and do my job! I’m 30 in February so you could say that this is the ultimate 30th Birthday present! AND…. to top it all I’m going to achieve my number one thing on my ‘Things To Do Before I’m 30’ List – which is…. ‘Meet rock star(s) and hopefully become life long friends!…..cool! Tune in for the next installment which is entitled…. ‘Things To Panic About and Do Prior to Meeting International Rock Stars’!!!! 🙂

The lovely Jill Dixon sent us in the following email, and we thought we’d share it with you. Thanks for the line Jill! Hi Roadrunner! Thought you might be interested in this from my local paper. I was at the show and had a fantastic time. The crowd were really up for it – singing and jumping along. Never Again nearly took the roof off. I hope the band enjoyed it as much as we did. Please don’t take too long to come back to Newcastle!!! We love ya Nickelback!! Rockers Wow The Arena Nov 27 2002 By The Evening Chronicle With a flash of leaping flames and pyrotechnics, Canadian rock band Nickelback exploded onto the stage of the Telewest Arena.And after the crowd had been sufficiently warmed up by the impressive supporting act Default, the chart-toppers kicked into action with an appropriate Woke Up This Morning.They continued into the night with a mix of old and new songs from The State album and the more recent Silver Side Up, working the crowd up into a jumping frenzy. We even got a taste of yet-to-be-released material.But as my knees began to ache from all the leaping around to the popular rock anthems Never Again and the recently released single Too Bad, it was time to take it easy with an acoustic version of the Spider-Man film theme Hero.My time-out was short lived as Nickelback came back with a crowd-roaring encore of their biggest hit, How You Remind Me, with frontman Chad Kroeger encouraging the crowd to sing along.And, in an even more impressive explosion of pyrotechnics, the good times were gone all too soon.By my reckoning the group were on stage for less than an hour. They have a wealth of material and could have treated us to a tad more on-stage time.That said, a good time was had by all – it’s just a pity it was over as quickly as it was. DAWN ARMSTRONG

Yesterday we gave you Joey Jordison’s top 10 records of the year. Today, we share with you Burton C. Bell’s Top 5: 1. Damage Manual – Blue 2. Interpol – Turn on The Bright Lights 3. Tindersticks – Trouble Everyday Soundtrack 4. Ben Bell – Devil On a Sunday (demo) 5. Swans – The Great Anhillator (from 1995) ps…the state of music is sad, so I must resort to the classics to hear something decent…. Burton

Last night’s Nickelback show at Wembley Arena in London sold out, selling an astounding 11,000 tickets. Prior to the show announcements were overheard warning ticket hopefuls that counterfeits were on sale such was the demand! With astonishing pyrotechnics for the entire duration of the set, and fireworks(!) to conclude, not to mention every soul in the building singing along to ‘Hero’ and ‘How You Remind Me’, and hearing a brand new as-yet-unrecorded Nickelback song it really was quite a show to remember. And to help you do just that, or at least see what you missed this tour, we’ve just posted up 24 exclusive live photos from the show. Check them out in the Nickelback PHOTO GALLERY.