Hollywood Undead, Chuck Biscuits, and more!

- Say what you will about Hollywood Undead, but they have a nonstop and peerless marketing machine. That said, the band is going all out, pushing the presale for their upcoming CD/DVD "Desperate Measures" before going on tour with Atreyu in just a couple short weeks. The release is slated to contain six live tracks, six studio tracks, and sixty minutes of unedited band video. "Desperate Measures" goes out the door November 10th.

- It has been a long time (maybe ever,) since I have been as excited for a musical collaboration as I am for Them Crooked Vultures. The superstar trio just keeps making me wait though, and s making it worse by releasing additional tracks on their MySpace page, and offering up "Mind Eraser, No Chaser" as a no-strings attached free download on iTunes. Album is available for presale, ships on the 17th.

- I was all set to write up a very sincere obituary of Chuck Biscuits, but it turns out he's not dead. Or at least, probably not dead. I'm sure no one is more thrilled to find this out than Chuck himself, wherever he may be. There's a whole side rant I can go on here about journalistic integrity and how it's been sacrificed to the greedy, insatiable claws of the 24-hour new cycle and the consequence free-environment of internet blogging, but I'll keep it in my back pocket for now. Besides, I keep getting as far as "greedy, insatiable claws," and I get sidetracked by thoughts of "I call him Gamblor!"

- This could be my favorite story of the season. This means that if the universe had been in a slightly different mood, Metallica's bass players could have been Cliff Burton, Les Claypool and Hulk Hogan. How different it all could have been.

Live Loud.