Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford Working on Joe Bonamassa’s New Album

Joe Bonamassa has posted the first of 10 behind-the-scenes videos from session for his new album.

The first episode in the series, called Countdown to Daylight, features clips from the forthcoming album – Driving Towards the Daylight – and interviews with Joe, producer Kevin Shirley and Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford, who plays on the record.

In addition to Whitford, the album includes guest spots from Blondie Chaplan (guitar), Anton Fig (drums and percussion), Arlan Schierbaum (keyboard), Michael Rhodes (bass), Carmine Rojas (bass), Jeff Bova and The Bovaland Brass, Pat Thrall (guitar) and Brad’s son Harrison Whitford (guitar).

Whitford, speaking from the studio in Vegas, recently said, “This is definitely more influenced by the stuff that the guys and musicians in this room love, early ’60s English and American rock and blues. I guess we’ll never get that out of our system and it’s fun to come in here and find our own path down that highway.”

An official music video and free download for title track “Driving Towards the Daylight” will be unveiled on May 1.

Producer Kevin Shirley says: “We’ve taken some really traditional old blues songs – the Howlin’ Wolf song ‘Who’s Been Talkin’?’ and the Robert Johnson song ‘Stones in My Passway,’ and we’ve tried to imagine how they would do them in a rock context. It’s a very exciting return to the blues in a very visceral way. It’s vibrant and it’s gutsy and it’s really, really rugged.”

The album also features four Bonamassa-penned originals, including “Dislocated Boy,” the title track, “Heavenly Soul” and “Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go.”

Bonamassa plays a double-neck Gibson, like Jimmy Page, in video, which you can see here.

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Lou Reed: Working with Metallica was “Instinctual”

Lou Reed says that making Lulu, his collaborative album with Metallica, wasn’t as odd as it appears from the outside. In a just-published interview with M – Music & Musicians, the legendary rocker revealed that the disc, which is based on two century-old German plays, also involved a lot of improvisation. “[Working with Metallica] was all instinctual,” Reed said. “Nobody thought about anything. It was just a great opportunity to play together. I had a certain sound in my head that I wanted to try to get, and I got it. The way we did this is that if everybody didn’t agree, we didn’t do it. It wasn’t majority rules—it was all together or nothing.”

Reed was also asked if Metallica pushed him into musical terrain that was different from his usual style. “They’re into heavy metal, I’m into heavy guitar, so it was no big stretch,” he replied. “They were so ready to go, it was thrilling. It’s like someone gave you a Ferrari for free.”

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Public Image Ltd. Working on First Album Since ’92

The guys in Public Image Ltd. have confirmed that they are writing and recording their first album in nearly 20 years, according to the Quietus. The reunited band’s last studio release was 1992’s That What is Not.

Frontman John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols) said that PiL are in a studio that is “in the outskirts of nowhere.”

The post-punkers reunited in 2009 and toured extensively in 2010. Lydon did advertisements for Country Life Butter in order to fund the band’s recent tours and studio time.

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Green Day Working on ‘Ton of New Songs’

While the band has yet to announce anything formally about recording a new album, it appears that Green Day are doing just that. Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong recently broke the news via his Twitter account, according to NME.com.

“OK. Here's the scoop,” Armstrong wrote. “Green Day has been jamming new songs everyday. There’s a ton of new songs. The direction is fresh and high energy. Feels great.”

The songs could be part of the band’s ninth studio album, and the follow-up to 2009’s 21st Century Breakdown.

“I don’t want to give away too much but just know that me, Mike [Dirnt, bassist], Tre [Cool, drummer] and Jason [White, touring guitarist] are collaborating and having the best time playing music.”

Green Day’s most recent release was the live album, Awesome as [Expletive], which came out earlier this year.

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Berry Gordy Working on Motown Musical with Diana Ross and Smokey Robinson?

Motown Records founder Berry Gordy is apparently attempting to tell his life story in a Broadway musical. The New York Post is reporting that he’s working with Universal Music CEO Doug Morris and Rent producer Kevin McCollum on the project.

The musical would be set during Motown’s glory days of the 1960s and tell the story of the Detroit label’s rise to prominence. Motown stars Diana Ross and Smokey Robinson will probably be involved in the musical, which will draw on the label’s catalog of hits. Gordy owns most of the rights to that music.

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Muse Working on ‘Soft Rock’ Album?

Muse members Dominic Howard and Chris Wolstenhome said that fans might want to prepare for a big shift in the band’s sound on their next album. The drummer and bassist said that Muse’s next full-length release will likely come out in 2012.

“Matt [Bellamy, singer and guitarist]showed me a few chords recently,” Howard told NME.com. “Who knows, it might be softer rock, but then it’s up to me and Chris to make it heavy again. A heavy rock lullaby! But I’m sure it will move forward in some way.”

The band have been jamming on some of the new ideas while on the road, according to Wolstenhome.

“We’ve got Reading Festival in August and maybe a few weeks off after that. So September, October time we’ll get into the studio and start writing and working on the songs.”

Neither musician had a specific idea regarding the album’s release date, because they didn’t know how long the recording process will take.

“It takes as long as it takes really, because you have to love it before you can just chuck it out there and into the real world,” Howard said. “But definitely next year.”

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