The White Stripes have announced the release date of their upcoming album, Icky Thump. The album is scheduled for release on June 18th in Europe and UK and June 19th in North America. They album art was also released. Further details can be found here and here.

Tracklist:
1. “Icky Thump”
2. “You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You’re Told)”
3. “300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues”
4. “Conquest”
5. “Bone Broke”
6. “Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn”
7. “St. Andrew (This Battle Is in the Air)”
8. “Little Cream Soda”
9. “Rag and Bone”
10. “I’m Slowly Turning into You”
11. “A Martyr for My Love for You”
12. “Catch Hell Blues”
13. “Effect and Cause”

Click here to preorder The White Stripes – Icky Thump

Over the past few days on the myspace blog, myspace.com/chadamlives, a story has been unraveling. You may notice the character Chadam is also featured on the album cover of the new The Used album, Lies For The Liars, scheduled to hit stores on May 22nd. Many are confused on the story of Chadam, who he is or what its about. Could it be about a couple guys? Chad and Adam? Only time will tell. Well here’s his story….the first 3 parts anyways.

Part 1
I wasn’t always like this.
Well, I mean?I WAS, I guess.
Maybe my eyes were closed.
Maybe my eyes were just…lying.
But the FEELING was always there, constantly bubbling in the dent of my chest.
I always felt that my insides were too big for my skin. Like any minute my skin would start to separate and let out my organs and my bones, which were dying to escape. I was a water balloon, on the brink of exploding, saturating the hands of whoever was dumb enough to keep filling me, testing my elastic sheath. Other people exaggerate and claim that they can see their heart beating ferociously out of their chests, pushing their skin out like a cartoon when they are scared, or excited, or when they catch Zoe kissing Stan in the back of the video store. Well?fuck those people. Because its not just my heart that I could see trying to escape. It was my lungs, my stomach, hell, sometimes I even saw the forms of chewed potato chips poking out through my throat as gravity and muscle contractions force them to descend to the hell that is my intestines. And it wasn’t just when I was scared. It was when I was awake…
It was painful to watch. But not nearly as painful as not being ABLE to watch. When I think about it, my eyes never had the benefit of seeing the beauty that was painted on me all along. At least, not until HE came. I didn’t know his name, hell I don’t even know what he looked like (she? No, it wasn’t a she?those dissipating footsteps weighed at least a good 200 lbs. and the only 200-pound woman I can think of who would be a delivery-man is Wanda Sykes but I’m pretty sure she’s out on the road somewhere telling fucking retarded, high pitched jokes about the men who fail to bow down to her). Was he Cee-lo sized or was he that tall skinny fuck from road trip? Or if he was even human for that matter. At this point though, I don’t think anyone is fully human. But I remember his knock. God, his knock. If I got robbed for 300 bucks, a book full of clich?s and a starter jacket by a KNOCK and had to pick it out of a line up I could do it with my ears closed. There was such a distinguishable tone to it. Like the sound of an empty snapple bottle bouncing on a rotting pier. 3 knocks. And those 3 knocks changed everything?.

Part 2
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
It was quick. I was caught off guard. And for that reason alone I will never know WHO (or WHAT) knocked. And even though I like to let my imagination run wild and picture a 2-headed chimera galloping with the grace of a bulimic gazelle up to my doorstep and knocking his porcelain fangs against my front door, I guess WHO knocked isn’t that important right now. But what they left on my door mat, is.
I was writing at the time. I do that a lot. A LOT. I’m not a writer. I like to pretend I am, though, disguising a shitty journal entry by dressing it up in a ton of over-descriptive similes and adjectives. Maybe at least this route would take me to Hollywood to write for Gillmore Girls if I ever showed anyone. But I won’t, because I know who I am. Actually, scratch that. I know what MY ABILITIES are. I have the ability to imagine. That’s it. Unfortunately nowadays, the ability to imagine can only get you a room full of people telling you to stop because its not medically sound. Imagination is a sickness, I guess. An ancient taboo. So I keep it to myself. And I write. And I write. And I write. Probably poorly, but I don’t mind.
Though I have a good idea, I forget exactly WHAT I was writing at the time of the knock because everything following it happened so quickly. The light. The fear. The rooftop. The pain. I think I was furthering the adventures of a character I created called “Manda”. Yah, you guessed it. He’s a man with a Panda head. Manda gets into all sorts of perilous and ridiculous situations because he’s caught between 2 worlds. Part of him wants to chew on bamboo leaves and live alone, while the other part of him wants to PARTY! He’s the world’s first endangered MAN. Hunters are chasing him, conservationists want to help him and study him, and girls want to marry him. I told you I wasn’t a writer.
When I heard the knocks, my bic hit the paper, and the adventures of Manda the Panda-man stopped faster than Mario and Luigi when they switch directions in the first Mario bros game. And my adventure began?

Part 3
…The left half of my body practically lunged to the peephole of my apartment’s front door after the knock, out of sheer terror, but my right half stood its ground and held down the fort like any good Texan would have done during those first 12 days at the Alamo. I was startled, to say the least. Fresh venison in the headlights of a hatchback. You see, I don’t get many visitors where I live. And when I do, its either someone looking for the meth lab 2 doors down, or the kids from 415A scratching their names in my doorframe as their knees accidentally hit the door. Needless to say, after the initial shock of hearing 3 distinctive, heavy, (almost magical) intentional knocks, I wrangled both halves of my brain into the same bullpen, and became instantly curious about who that heavy hand was attached to. Excited, almost.
My apartment’s small enough to where 4 steps makes a huge difference in the location of my body. I used to make myself laugh by calling my apartment my “12-Step Program” because it only takes 12 steps to circumvent the entire thing, including that sick yellow toilet of mine. I never DID figure out if that thing was originally white when it was installed, or if it really was genuine yellow porcelain. The window shades were yellow when I moved in too, but I was told that was because the woman who died here before I moved in smoked 4 packs a day for 30 years, and the shades, over time, got painted with huge brush strokes of emphysema.
2 and a half steps north of my desk and I was at the door. I leaned in and tilted my head at just the right angle to get the widest field of vision as I glanced through the peephole.
No one.
I put my ear to the door and listened. I mentally switched on my selective hearing and disregarded the incoherent rustle of the regular cretins who camp out in the hallway and focused strictly on feet of the mysterious knocker. I heard Wanda Syke’s male counterpart walk further away from my apartment and I flew into a hurried conniption as I struggled to undo the 4 locks on my door and remove the duct tape from around the rim of the doorframe. Even if it was just some recovering crackhead pretending to sell Miracle Cleaner so he can get inside my apartment to case the joint, I still needed to put a face to those hypnotizing knocks.
FUCK. As I began to rip off the tape, a corner of it shoved itself in between my ring finger and my ring FINGERNAIL, separating the nail a millimeter or 2 from the skin. Not enough to whine about, but enough to startle me and halt the removal process. And possibly enough to abet Father Time in his act of robbery, because when I finally hurled the door open?.he was gone completely. Looked left. Gone. Looked right. Gone. Like a prequel to that fucking retarded car-stealing Nic Cage remake, he was Gone In Less Than 60 Seconds. But when I looked down, there was a small box on my door mat. And it looked like it was leaking?

Continue the story at myspace.com/chadamlives and make sure to pick up The Used new album Lies For The Liars on May 22nd.

Recently posted by the band itself:

After several years of touring and quite a few album releases we have decided that it is time to go our seperate ways. We have been a band for a very long time and feel good about everything we were able to accomplish. At this point in our lives and our careers we feel its time to move on to something fresh and new. Weither it be music, touring or just being at home to live and enjoy life. We would like to thank all of our fans, friends and families for all of the great support over the years. We would also like to thank all of the bands we have shared the stage with and everyone who has ever worked with the band, opened a door or reached out a hand. We will be playing our final two shows in April. One in San Diego and one in Orange County. Come rock with us one more time.

This is sad sad news.

Tomorrow would mark the date for From Autumn To Ashes new album Holding A Wolf By The Ears is released. Today would mark the date of their worldwide tour with Haste The Day, The Sleeping, Maylene and The Sons of Disaster, & Alesana

US Dates:

04/09/07 Little Rock, AR The Village
04/10/07 Cordova, TN Skate Park Of Memphis
04/11/07 Nashville, TN Rcktwn
04/12/07 Atlanta, GA The Masquerade
04/13/07 Saint Petersburg, FL State Theatre
04/14/07 Fort Lauderdale, FL Culture Room
04/15/07 Lake Buena Vista, FL House Of Blues
04/17/07 Charlotte, NC Tremont Music Hall / The Casbah
04/18/07 Norfolk, VA The NorVa
04/19/07 Towson, MD Recher Theatre
04/20/07 New York, NY Irving Plaza
04/21/07 Philadelphia, PA Theatre of the Living Arts
04/22/07 New Haven, CT Toad’s Place
04/24/07 Portland, ME The Station
04/25/07 Boston, MA Axis
04/26/07 Clifton Park, NY Northern Lights
04/27/07 Montreal,QC Centre Artistique Fractale
04/28/07 Toronto, Ontario Fun Haus
04/29/07 London, Ontario The Salt Lounge
05/01/07 Cleveland, Ohio Agora Ballroom
05/02/07 Skelletones Grand Rapids, Michigan
05/03/07 Louisville, Kentucky Headliner’s Music Hall
05/04/07 Millvale, Pennsylvania Mr. Smalls
05/05/07 Poughkeepsie, New York The Chance

w/ Shadows Fall
05/08/07 Allentown, PA Crocodile Rock Cafe
05/09/07 Providence, RI Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel

UK Dates:
w/ Drop Dead, Gorgeous

20-May-07 UK Cardiff Barfly
21-May-07 UK Yovill Ski Lodge
22-May-07 UK Brighton Pressure Point
23-May-07 UK Birmingham Academy 2
25-May-07 UK Manchester Academy 3
26-May-07 UK Leeds Live @ Leeds (venue tbc)
27-May-07 UK Glasgow King Tuts
29-May-07 UK London Islington Academy

In leau of Linkin Park‘s new release to Minutes To Midnight, he band is rewarding fans who preorder their forthcoming album through iTunes with a deluxe digital version of the set.

That package will include:

• bonus tracks
• the first 15 episodes of LPTV
• a behind-the-scenes series that followed the band for the past four years

If you’re interested in this head over to iTunes to preorder the album now!

A recent press release follows as below:

We regret to announce that I Killed The Prom Queen will no longer continue as a band. The final nail in the coffin came when Jona was asked to join USA Metal group Bleeding Through as second guitarist. This, coupled with our inability to find a replacement vocalist, aided the decision to end the band.

We would all like to sincerely thank all our friends and family and our label’s Stomp, Metal Blade, Golf and Howling Bull records for their ongoing support of IKTPQ and most of all we would like to thank all the fans that made the last 7 years the most amazing years of our lives. We feel that we made a good impact on the Australian and world wide music scenes.

We also apologise for the cancellation of our upcoming USA tour-dates.

The band will announce a final farewell Australian tour in the coming months.

Each member issued the following personal statements:

Jona’s statement

For anyone who doesn’t know, IKTPQ has been my life for the last 7 years. I was a co-founding member, active songwriter and the band’s manager for the past 2 years. A lot has happened in those 7 years mostly good, some bad, but I would not trade any of it for anything in the world.

Thanks to IKTPQ I got to live out not just one, but many of my dreams and aspirations. Everything from playing to fans who love our music to meeting and supporting my heroes’ band’s on tour and seeing parts of the world I thought I would never see. Best of all was having the chance to meet new and awesome people all over the world who I am proud to call my friends.

JJ Peters, Kevin Cameron and Sean Kennedy are my 3 closest friends. I have lived in a room, studio, van, bus, car, aeroplane with these guys for 5 years now and I know them better then I know myself. These guys continue to surprise me every day. They are all amazing people, incredible musicians and songwriters and the best friends anyone could ever hope for. I couldn’t have asked for a better team. This causes me a great deal of pain, making my decision to leave the band so difficult.

I wish my friends, JJ, Sean and Kev the best of luck in their future endeavours and I have no doubt that they will be 1000 times as successful than we ever were with IKTPQ and I want everyone to know that I will always be their number one supporter.

A huge thanks to everyone who ever supported us in anyway and lastly please never forget I Killed The Prom Queen?

Sean’s statement

I’d like to thank every single person who has supported i killed the prom queen over the many years, it has been the most amazing time in my entire life and i am so appreciative that ive had the opportunity to share the stage with my brothers and share all the same experiences… thank you.

JJ’s statement

In the past 7 years playing with IKTPQ I have seen the world many times over, met some life long friends, experienced things I would never have dreamed of, shared the stage, van, hotel, bed, floor, bus with some of the best friends ill ever have and played to the greatest fans any band could ever ask for.

As sad as I am to see it end, I am more great full for all these things then anything else.

I would like to say thank you to everyone and anyone who has supported us through all these years and made IKTPQ what it is. I sincerely thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Peace. JJKTPQ.

Kevin’s statement

It’s so hard to compress every feeling about this into a short statement, and as anyone who knows me would know I’ve never been one to say a lot.

As much as this is a disappointing end, I’m glad we haven’t carved a malicious eulogy to a reasonably successful career, one which I feel as though exceeded any expectations the four of us ever had, when years ago going interstate for more than a week was a big deal to now when most our years were spent away from home, playing our music to thousands of appreciative fans the world over.

I feel we made quite an impact on the Australian music scene, paving the way for countless new bands over the years, and whether they admit it or not I feel we introduced a lot of people to this type of music which may now be a huge part of their lives, and I think that’s something to be proud of.

Just as I didn’t think I would be writing this so soon, I honestly never thought by age 20 I would have been to basically every part of the globe, and especially just from standing behind a guitar.

In retrospect I wish I had appreciated this far more: doing things most people only dream about and meeting some amazing people along the way who I hope will still remain my friends, band or no band. I’m grateful for all the experiences along the way. It’s been a great ride! Thanks

Darren Cherry from the bands label Stomp Entertainment commented:

This is a HUGE blow for Australian heavy music and the tens of thousands of IKTPQ fans around the world. The band were just beginning to hit their stride and I feel that the best was yet to come. Having said that it was a pleasure to work with such an enthusiastic and dedicated band and their achievements speak for themselves. I’m sure it’s not the last we have heard from these guys either as a collective or as individuals.

Tokyo Rose will be releasing The Promise in Compromise on July 31st. The tracking listing has been listed as follows:

Track Listing
01) Less Than Four
02) The Promise in Compromise
03) We Can be Best Friends Tonight, But Tomorrow I’ll Be …
04) A Pound of Siler Is Worth Its Weight in Blood
05) Right as Rain
06) 611 Life Lessons
07) Can I Change Your Mind?
08) Swimming with the Sharks
09) Call It What You Like, Just Leave Us Out Of It
10) I Won’t Say
11) Seconds Before the Crash

Some recent news was posted by Dan of Between The Buried And Me:

Hey guys…

We are just about done writing for our next record. We start tracking the last day of this month and we’ll be in there all of May. We’re all really excited about the new material and cant wait to start playing it out. Our summer tour plans are still up in the air, but we do plan on being out after we’re done recording. It got real cold and briefly snowed the other night in NC (what the hell??). We’re all kind of sick because of it, but nothing a little Emergen-C cant cure!

And I swear the bass book is ALMOST done!! I’m just going over everything right now and making sure it’s correct and then it’s off to the printing press. Believe me I want it done as much as you do!

So hang tight, you’ll be hearing from us before too long. Expect some studio updates…

-dan/btbam