The Pixies will not be performing a scheduled date in Tel Aviv this summer, AP reported Sunday. The band released an announcement through a publicist this weekend informing fans that "with great regret" it has decided not to make the trip to Israel. The concert was part of the band's sizable summer tour, which will soon take them to Italy, New Zealand, and back to the U.S. for more than a dozen dates.

News of the cancellation follows last week's raid by the Israeli military against an aid flotilla bound for Gaza, which killed nine pro-Palestine activists. However, the Pixies' publicist in Israel, Shuki Weiss, did not name the raid -- or anything else -- as the reason for the cancellation.

L.A.'s KROQ held its annual Weenie Roast on Saturday, June 5. As is usually the case with the influential station, this year's lineup reflected the current trends in alternative music. What did we learn from the 2010 Weenie Roast? Well, as Courtney Love told Spinner back in December, the '90s are back in vogue. The sold-out show at Irvine's Verizon Amphitheater featured a triple shot of the grunge decade, with Sublime With Rome, Stone Temple Pilots and Hole closing out the day-long fest.

The day began with a side stage anchored by the resurgent Deftones, who had fans sweltering in the SoCal June heat, moshing in front to their thunderous riffs after some early technical difficulties were rectified. Fans also packed the asphalt to hear a strong set from Against Me!, as well as Temper Trap, Passion Pit and others.

On Saturday afternoon during day one of Chicago's annual Do Division Street Festival, the Wisconsin boys of Maritime decided to have a little fun with the crowd. After a fan shouted out approval to singer/guitarist Davey von Bohlen's Milwaukee Brewers baseball cap, von Bohlen addressed the crowd, pointing out the differences between the Brewers and the Chicago Cubs, mocking fans of the Cubs.

Fans didn't seem to mind though, as the small crowd gradually grew larger and Maritime's blend of catchy indie pop bounced down Division Street. The rain showers that had been threatening all day long held off just enough for Maritime to deliver a powerful performance, relying heavily on von Bohlen's howling vocals. The enthusiastic crowd banged their heads and stomped their feet along to a mix of songs that covered most of Maritime's discography. "We're happy to be here...and dry," quipped von Bohlen.

With his raspy, debonair yelping croon -- one of the more distinctive voices of the post-punk era -- Richard Butler has always been part Rat Packer, part Johnny Rotten. Friday night at New York City's Irving Plaza, the singer staked out a logical middle ground, leading his longtime band the Psychedelic Furs through an encore cover of the Roxy Music classic 'Pyjamarama.'

Although the Furs formed in 1977 and started life as a punk act, the Londoners eventually morphed into something more, purveyors of "melodramatic popular song," to borrow an oft-used (and oft-ironic) MySpace genre descriptor. In that sense, 'Pyjamarama' is the perfect cover for the Furs: an artsy, swanky pop nugget that set the template for many of their own hits.

According to Rolling Stone, Ozzy Osbourne will now find the permanent replacement for Zakk Wylde that he was unable to find in 2005.

Rumor had it that Ozzy was looking to replace his long time guitarist before recording the 2007 LP Black Rain. Apparently any auditions that may have occurred were not successful considering that Wylde was present and used during the recording sessions. However, Classic Rock magazine, in an interview with the Prince of Darkness, is now saying that the search is on again, and John 5 from Rob Zombie is the front runner. The following is an excerpt from the interview. “I’m getting a new guitar player as we speak,” Osbourne explained, “and everyone has been saying to me for a long time, ‘Get Johnny 5!’ And I tried him at one time and I didn’t really give him a chance. We’ll see, I don’t know. I haven’t fallen out with Zakk, but Zakk’s got his own band, and I felt like my stuff was beginning to sound like Black Label Society. I just felt like I wanted a change, you know?”
Classic Rock Magazine In the mean time, Wylde seems to have been left out of the loop. On his Twitter account, Wylde posted the following Tweet. “I’m doing [the] BlizzCon [convention in Anaheim, California] with [Ozzy] in August and supposed to finish up the [new Ozzy] CD in September…This is news to me. I haven’t heard anything about this. Until I talk to the Boss, I don’t know. I love Ozzy.” Recording has already begun on Ozzy's latest album. OzzFest 2009 was cancelled by Ozzy in order to complete the recording of his latest project.

After completing their next record, Backspacer, Pearl Jam will once again be hitting the road in the US. Last month, they previewed a song from their album, entitled "Got Some," on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. We posted a video of the performance here.

According to the band's website, "The tour kicks off in the band's hometown of Seattle, WA with two shows at the Key Arena on September 21st and 22nd, and closes with two shows at Philadelphia's historic Spectrum on October 28th and 30th. Ben Harper and Relentless7 will open all dates, except for the Spectrum shows. All dates are subject to change."

Pre-sales for Backspacer begin today for Ten Club members. Visit the band's website for more information.

Weezer recently released a video of their MGMT/Lady Gaga cover using video clips from their tour. The cover is a mix of the songs "Kids" by MGMT and "Pokerface" by Lady Gaga.

After amateur videos of the performance began popping up across YouTube, the band felt compelled to release an official video. The video is embedded here. If you need to hear it live and raw, we have also embedded a fan recording of the performance. Enjoy.

Our friends over at the Consequence of Sound were able to sit down with Ben Kweller to discuss the responses to his latest album, Changing Horses, among other interesting topics. The country-esque nature of his this latest project enabled the musician to connect with new fans and introduced new opportunities. However, it didn't please everyone. The following is a brief excerpt. How have the last six months treated you since the release of Changing Horses? Is it a completely different experience to release a folky, alt-country sort of album album then it is a more pop oriented album?

The experience has been great… It seems like lots of my fans like the acoustic songs anyway and my folky stuff so, I think it’s been a fun album for them. The coolest thing though it has opened my music to lots of new fans… to people who never heard of me before, or heard of me but didn’t like the rock stuff. So, this album has been a real door opener in a lot of ways. The rest of the interview can be seen here.

Limp Bizkit, fresh off of its "Unicorns N Rainbows" tour across Europe which ended July 5 in Paris, is set to return to the USA in Las Vegas. The band will be performing at the Pearl Concert Theater at the Palms Casino for free on July 18.

The tickets are first come, first serve at noon the day of the show, and each individual is allowed a maximum of two tickets.

This is the only scheduled stop in the US before they head back over seas to the Sonisphere Festival in Knebworth in the UK. They are then scheduled to appear in Osaka and Tokyo, Japan for Summer Sonic. Check out the Limp Bizkit website for more details.

Rolling Stone is reporting that the Foo Fighters will be playing a single show on the South Lawn of the White House for President Obama and friends to celebrate the 4th of July. The show will be one of many activities scheduled for the First Family's 4th of July party. This is a slightly unexpected development considering that the Foo Fighters have been on hiatus and David Grohl is currently focused on his new daughter, April, who was born in April. I suppose an invite from the President would change the plans of most people...