Linkin Park Working On New Music, Who The Hell Is Dot Hacker — Angel’s Rock Report

Linkin Park fans can expect the band's next album to sound a bit more like the first two albums. Singer Chester Bennington tells Kerrang magazine, "With this album, we've incorporated a lot of guitar work with big choruses and the heavier electronic stuff to give it that really big wall of sound feeling without getting too metal. This will be more familiar to people than A Thousand Suns was, where we were like, 'We're just going to go bonkers.'"  Bonkers, you heard him.

Alice in Chains singer-guitarist Jerry Cantrell will receive the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award at the eighth annual MusicCares MAP Fund benefit concert on May 31st in Los Angeles. Cantrell, who's a certified interventionist, will be honored "for his commitment to helping other addicts with the addiction and recovery process." Alice in Chains will perform at the event, with more performers to be announced.

Dot Hacker, a band that features Red Hot Chili Peppers' Josh Klinghoffer as its lead singer as well as on guitar and piano, will release its debut album, Inhibition, on May 1st. The experimental band features two touring members of Gnarls Barkley and The Motels -- guitarist-keyboardist Clint Walsh and drummer Eric Gardner -- plus bassist Jonathan Hischke, who's played in Broken Bells. The group, which formed in 2008 -- before Klinghoffer joined the Chili Peppers -- released an EP in February and will do some dates later this year.

Like The Motels that did "Only The Lonely" in the 80's? What the heck is happening right now??

And, a coupla random things...

Trent Reznor is golden -- at least according to the folks at the publishing organization ASCAP, which will present him with their Golden Note Award in an April 18th ceremony.

And last week at South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, The Cult were joined on stage by Matthew McConaughy who played congas on two songs. Which isn't that special as I'm certain you can see Matty rockin' the congas on random hobo street corners all over LA any day of the week, but still fun to see his ass out there with The Cult.