Famed Guitarist Dave Navarro at
Guitar Hero II Midnight Madness Signing at Best Buy in Los Angeles

Attendees to line up to be the first to purchase highly anticipated
PlayStation 2 video game Guitar Hero II

WHO: Dave Navarro, guitarist from legendary bands such as Jane's Addiction and The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and RedOctane, publisher of the original Guitar Hero video game, which has sold more than one million units to date worldwide. Guitar Hero II features licensed tracks from the biggest and baddest Rock Gods of all time including:

o (Stop� as made famous by Jane's Addiction

o (Shout at the Devil� as made famous by Motley Crue

o (Heart Shaped Box� as made famous by Nirvana

o (Monkey Wrench� as made famous by Foo Fighters

o (Sweet Child O' Mine� as made famous by Guns N' Roses

o (Free Bird� as made famous by Lynyrd Skynyrd

WHAT: RedOctane and Dave Navarro celebrate the release of the highly anticipated sequel to one of the most popular games of the past year – Guitar Hero II at the Best Buy store in West Los Angeles. Dave will be there to greet fans and will be on hand at midnight to sign Guitar Hero SG guitar controllers for fans who purchase Guitar Hero II.

For more information about Guitar Hero II, please visit the
community website at: www.guitarherogame.com

VISUALS: -Limited interviews with Dave Navarro
-Huge line of video game fans clamoring for this season's hottest
product
-Dave Navarro signing Guitar Hero SG controllers, Guitar Hero game copies, T-shirts and posters
- Demo kiosks of players rocking out to Guitar Hero II with the help
of on-site Best Buy (blue shirt� gaming experts

WHERE: Best Buy W.L.A.
11301 W Pico Blvd. (at Sawtelle Blvd.)
Los Angeles, 90064

WHEN: Monday, November 6, 2006 10:30pm – 12:30am
Media Call Time: 10:00 p.m.
Guitar Hero II Product Signing: 12 AM (November 7, 2006)

...hmmm, doesn't have the same ring as P. Diddy's Vote Or Die....

NOVEMBER 1, 2006

Non Profit Headcount.org teams up with Dave Matthews Band and other musicians to reach millions with a coordinated (Get Out And Vote� Email campaign.

NEW YORK, NY Non-partisan, non-profit voter registration organization HeadCount.org has enlisted the help of its artist partners to generate over one million e-mails to music fans reminding them to vote.

Dave Matthews Band kicked off the campaign on Tuesday, one week before the election, with an e-mail sent directly to the hundreds of thousands of fans on the band's private e-mail list.

(ELECTION DAY IS ONE WEEK AWAY,� the e-mail read. (Dave Matthews Band wants to encourage everyone to let your voice be heard by remembering to vote on Election Day.�

The message also contained a link to headcount.org, where users will find information on polling places, absentee ballots and how to verify voter registration.

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If you’d like to win a pair of tickets to the Bang! Music Festival in Miami on November 11th leave us a comment telling us which Synthesis feature piece has been your favorite and why. Best answer wins these puppies next week! Good luck.

Slayer, whose latest album Christ Illusion is very critical (as one would imagine) of the US’s role in Iraq, will be visiting the 52nd Services Squadron located on the Spangdahlem U.S. Air Force Base in Germany on Wednesday, November 8, during their Unholy Alliance European Tour. Slayer will spend a couple hours meeting with soldiers, signing autographs and maybe even checking out some fighter planes.

Slayer will be back in the States just before Thanksgiving, and will be spreading the love to the following North American cities. Dates and venues still to be confirmed.

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I’m all for Satan- and Dungeons & Dragons-influenced rock ‘n’ roll, but I’m not sure what to make of Danava. Did they roll d20s and paint miniatures as kids or are they just fashion-forward impostors like those dudes in Wolfmother? I’ll leave it up to you to decide. Check out their media player here to hear music (it’s growing on me) and watch video of the band live (they’re really fucking loud). They definitely don’t rule as hard as The Sword does, but then again, there aren’t many who do. After the jump: tour dates for Danava on the road with Witchcraft.

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This special Band of the Week was nearly lost to THE PILE. I recieved an announcement email about The Pernice Brothers along with about 150 spams about potential stocks, my presumably inadequate genitals or home morgage rate. Then when the album arrived, it went straight into THE PILE:

(THE PILE is a daunting place. A scary and terrible place for new bands.)

The fact that the disc didn’t have final artwork, or even a cardboard slip case, resulted in it getting misplaced in THE PILE. Then forgotten. But as fate would have it, as I reached for another CD in THE PILE, The Pernice Brothers accidentally got stuck to it. I thought to give it a chance, fully expeciting to give it the rudimentary 30-second, 3 track sampling before sending it to the wasteland of passed-on discs. However, it actually ruined my CD listening for the rest of the day: I stuck Live A Little on repeat and let it ride for about 4 hours straight.

Imagine literary smart-pop ala The Decemberists, but instead of a flair for the baroque, the music more resembles Nick Lowe on a Rubber Soul kick. You should click on their MySpace Page for samples. I reccomend starting with the album’s first track, “Automation.”
Feel free to peruse The Pernice Brothers Site as well.

(This is Joe Pernice. His brother Bob is occasionally in the band…they make good pop music. There’s much to be said for writing good pop music.)

You should probably see them live. Tour dates after the jump:

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