Shinedown releases its massive new double CD/DVD set, titled Somewhere In The Stratosphere, on Tuesday (May 3rd). The package contains footage and recordings from both the band’s Carnival Of Madness and acoustic Anything & Everything tours from last summer and fall respectively. Also included are interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and a comprehensive look at life on the road with Shinedown.

The band is selling expanded editions of the set at its website, featuring expanded artwork, a limited edition T-shirt, a poster and more goodies.

The track listing includes 18 full electric concert performances and 16 acoustic ones, both on CD and DVD.

The new and acclaimed Foo Fighters documentary Back And Forth will be issued on DVD and Blu-ray on June 14th. The film, directed by Oscar winning documentarian James Moll, chronicles the entire history of the band, from the cassette demos that frontman Dave Grohl recorded during his tenure as Nirvana’s drummer through the group’s early personnel turnovers to their climb to become one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. (FMQB)

Shinedown will conduct a live chat next Monday (May 2nd) at 6:00 p.m. ET at the band’s official website. Frontman Brent Smith and bassist Eric Bass will take part in the chat, which will promote the following day’s (May 3rd) release of Somewhere In The Stratosphere, a CD/DVD compilation of live music and concert footage from their Carnival Of Madness and Anything, Everything tours. Check out the chat at www.shinedown.com. (AntiMusic)

According to Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, he wasn’t the only long-sober member of the band who fell off the wagon in recent times. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Tyler said that he and guitarist Joe Perry got high together in 2008 while attempting to record a new album. Tyler revealed, “It was just like 30 years before. I whipped out mine, he whipped out his and we got high together again. I say to Joe, ‘Wow, man, how you been, it’s been, what, 17 years since we got high together? Joe, you’ve been f***ing running away from me ever since.’ “

The drugs, however, derailed the sessions for the album, with Tyler saying, “Joe was high and he couldn’t play. I couldn’t sing, really, because I was snorting everything, and it f***s up your throat. It was the wrong time.”

Perry did not respond to an Associated Press request for a comment.

Tyler’s alleged fall from sobriety led to an injury onstage, a canceled tour, and tensions within Aerosmith in late 2009. The band patched up their differences early last year and toured, after Tyler spent 90 days in rehab.

Muse, Foo Fighters and Coldplay are among the headliners of the 2011 edition of Lollapalooza, which will take place on August 5th, 6th and 7th at Grant Park in downtown Chicago. Other headliners include A Perfect Circle, Eminem, My Morning Jacket, Deadmau5 and Cee Lo Green. A total of almost 100 acts will perform at the annual destination festival, with Deftones, Cage The Elephant, OK Go, Patrick Stump, the Cars, Bright Eyes, Arctic Monkeys, Big Audio Dynamite, Flogging Molly, Damian Marley and Nas, Sleigh Bells, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals and others confirmed.

Lollapalooza co-founder and Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell will once again have his own stage, named Perry’s, where around 30 electronic and dance music acts will appear.

Following last Saturday’s (April 23rd) first U.S. “Big Four” concert in Indio, California, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has told RollingStone.com that more U.S. dates are on the way. He revealed, “We are looking to book something on the East Coast because of the success of this — it should hopefully come together in a week or two. Maybe we’ll do somewhere in the Midwest and South, too. Still, I don’t think it will turn into a 40-date arena tour; that would make it less special. I like the fact that there’s an element of chaos to the whole thing. It shouldn’t be sterile, streamlined and perfect: it needs an edgy underbelly to remain authentic.”

The all-day event last weekend featured the so-called “big four” bands of the Eighties thrash metal scene — Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth and headliners Metallica — performing together on a U.S. stage for the first time ever in their 30-year careers.

Ozzy Osbourne has told VH1 that the chances of another reunion of the original Black Sabbath seem more remote with each passing day. Ozzy explained, “To be honest, I don’t think we all can physically do it. I’m up for it, I keep fit every day. I can’t speak for the others. I mean, I’ve spoken to (guitarist) Tony Iommi, I speak to Bill (Ward, drummer) from time to time, I haven’t spoken to Geezer (Butler, bassist) for a while, but if it’s meant to happen, it’ll happen.”

Butler recently released a statement via his official web site in which he made it clear that “there will be definitely NO reunion of all four original members of Black Sabbath, whether to record an album or to tour.”

The Smashing Pumpkins will head into the studio next month to record a new album called Oceania, according to a press release. The 10-song effort will be part of the band’s larger, 44-song work in progress, Teargarden By Kaleidyscope, for which the Pumpkins have recorded and issued nine songs online for free. All of Oceania will be made available online in September, with exact details to be announced later. The group will also release one more Teargarden song, called “Owata,” online next week before beginning work on the Oceania record.

Meanwhile, the band has announced an agreement with former label EMI to reissue the entire Pumpkins catalog in fully remastered deluxe versions, each with bonus material, starting this fall and continuing for the next couple of years.

Theory Of A Deadman has set July 12th as the release date for the band’s fourth studio album, titled The Truth Is . . . . The disc will follow up 2008’s Scars And Souvenirs, which was a breakout hit for the Canadian act and went on to sell more than a million copies, earning Theory its first platinum album. The first single from the new record, called “Lowlife,” will arrive at rock radio in mid-May and is already getting road-tested on the current Avalanche Tour.

Frontman Tyler Connolly said in a statement about the new album, “Musically, not too much changed . . . We’ve been a band for over a decade now, and we realized what we’re doing makes sense. There was a lot more confidence. I was able to dig in lyrically and be wide open. When I write, I either want to kiss someone on the lips or punch them in the face. Anything in between is boring.”

The new documentary on Ozzy Osbourne, titled God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, premiered on Sunday (April 24th) at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City and received a positive review from Entertainment Weekly, which said, “What could have been a glossy, fawning tribute to the most visible face in heavy metal music history — especially considering it was co-produced by his son, Jack — actually turned out to be a remarkably evenhanded look at Ozzy’s monumental musical influence as well as his less exemplary life as an addict and often-absent father.”

Critic Joseph Brannigan Lynch added, “God Bless Ozzy Osbourne may not answer the question ‘What makes Ozzy act so… Ozzy-like?’, but it’s hardly a fluffy tribute. This documentary succeeds in offering a balanced portrait of a man who made many mistakes over the course of his addiction-riddled life and also happens to be one of the most influential hard rock singers ever.”

After months of speculation that Stone Sour/Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor was going to become the new Velvet Revolver singer, followed by theories about why the band never eventually pulled the trigger, it now appears that Velvet guitarist Slash was the main holdout against Taylor getting the gig.

Slash confirmed to Vorterix.com that Taylor did work with the group, explaining, “All we were doing was just rehearsing with him and trying him out — auditioning him . . . he did come in and do all that. It just didn’t seem to fit right to me. And he’s great, and I love Corey, but it didn’t seem like the answer to the Velvet Revolver problem.”

Slash blamed social networks for spreading the rumor that Taylor was joining the group, saying, “As soon as that rumor (got around), next thing you know, everybody is saying Corey’s the new singer. It’s just an audition process; it’s the way that we do it.”

Sadly for Velvet Revolver fans, Slash admitted that it doesn’t look like a solution to the “problem” is happening any time soon. He said, “Next year I definitely will make another Slash record with Myles Kennedy and go on tour. So at least for the next couple of years, nothing is going to be happening with Velvet Revolver that I can see ’cause I’ll be focused on this . . . I’m just not really concerning myself with it right now. We had all these different guys try out, all really good singers, but nobody has fit the thing, so, you know, I have to move on.”

Velvet bassist Duff McKagan recently revealed that recordings exist of Taylor singing with the band. McKagan seemed a little more positive about Taylor than Slash, telling Music Radar, “Whether he’s in Velvet Revolver or not . . . I think he’s the best voice of a new generation. The best rock ‘n’ voice out there. He’s got a lot of positive energy. I’d be proud to do anything with him.”