Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl has issued a letter to Metallica, urging them to make their next album "kick ass." The letter, posted on Blabbermouth, reads:

"Dear METALLICA,

Hey, it's Dave! Remember me? Yeah, I'm the guy that's been listening to your band faithfully since 1983. I bought your first album Kill 'Em All from a mailorder catalogue called Under The Rainbow, I think. Actually I can't remember. It was 1983 for Christsakes! But that album changed my life and I've been listening to your albums ever since (even St Anger!).

I can't wait to hear the new s---, and no matter what you guys do I'll always be first one at the shop waiting to hear it. I'm sure you'll come out and blow everybody's f-----' minds, because you're f-----' METALLICA!

Good luck. And don't release it until it's kick-ass.

Yours, Dave Grohl.

P.S. Are you finished recording the drums yet?"

Metallica's new album, their ninth, is due out this fall and was produced by Rick Rubin.

Louisville, Kentucky's My Morning Jacket have announced that they'll take off on a headlining tour of the U.S. beginning in August. Dubbing their shows "An Evening with My Morning Jacket," the band plans to perform "epic, extended" versions of old favorites and new tunes from their June 10 release, Evil Urges.

"That's the problem we always have sitting around trying to make a set list," Jim James told Billboard. "You want to play the new ones, but you also want to do some of the older ones. That's why we keep playing longer and longer."

Leading up to the tour, MMJ will play the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tennessee on June 13 and New York's Radio City Music Hall on June 20. They'll use Louisville as their tour's launching pad on August 16.

Want to win tix to MMJ's Radio City show and a gorgeous Flying V Faded to boot? Enter Here!

June 20: New York (Radio City Music Hall)
Aug. 16: Louisville, Ky. (The Great Lawn at Louisville Waterfront Park)
Aug. 18: Kansas City (Uptown Theatre)
Aug. 19: Council Bluffs, Ia. (Stir Cove)
Aug. 21: Morrison, Colo. (Red Rocks Amphitheater*)
Aug. 23: Dallas (Palladium Ballroom)
Aug. 24: Austin (Stubbs)
Aug. 27: Atlanta (Fox Theatre-Atlanta)
Aug. 29: Miami (The Fillmore Miami Beach @ the Jackie Gleason Theater)
Aug. 30: Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (House of Blues- Orlando)
Aug. 31: Myrtle Beach, S.C. (House of Blues- Myrtle Beach)
Sept. 02: Charlottesville, Va. (Charlottesville Pavilion)
Sept. 03: Washington, D.C. (Constitution Hall)
Sept. 05: Philadelphia (Festival Pier Penn's Landing)
Sept. 06: Boston (Bank of America Pavilion)
Sept. 19: Berkeley, Calif. (Greek Theatre)
Sept. 21: Los Angeles (Greek Theatre)
Sept. 23: Tempe, Ariz. (The Marquee)
Sept. 24: Las Vegas (The Joint)
Sept. 25: San Diego (SDSU Open Air Theater)
Sept. 27: Portland (McMenamins Edgefield)
Sept. 28: Seattle (McCaw Hall)
Oct. 2: Minneapolis (Orpheum Theatre)
Oct. 3: Milwaukee, Wis. (Riverside Theater)
Oct. 4: Detroit (The Fillmore Detroit)
Oct. 9: Chicago (Chicago Theatre)
Oct. 10: Chicago (Chicago Theatre)

Billboard reports today that first day sales of Neil Diamond’s new album Home Before Dark, out May 7, indicate that the singer is set to have his first-ever No. 1 charting album. By close of business yesterday, May 6, the album had sold 30,000 copies and is estimated to sell approximately 125,000 by week’s end, displacing Madonna’s new Hard Candy for the top spot on the chart.

In addition to Diamond’s appearance on American Idol last week, this weekend’s holiday may be swinging things in his favor. Billboard is reporting that “shopping for the Mother’s Day holiday on Sunday, May 11, may amplify the demand for certain sets―like the mom-friendly efforts from Diamond, [Clay] Aiken, [Toby] Keith and [Josh] Groban.”

In Diamond’s 41 year career, he’s had 45 albums chart. Thirteen have made it to the Top 10.

Venerable country singer Eddy Arnold died early Thursday at an assisted living facility outside of Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 89. Arnold's wife of 66 years, Sally Gayhart Arnold, preceded in him in death just a month and a half earlier. Beloved by many, Arnold sold more than 80 million albums throughout his career, and from 1945 through 1983 he had 145 charted songs, including 28 No. 1 hits. His tremendous success is owed to his rich baritone voice and his sweet love songs, somewhat uncommon in an era of singing cowboys more interested in honky tonk than heartache. A staple at the Grand Ole Opry, Arnold is credited in part for introducing country music to a broader audience. The singer leaves behind an estate estimated to be in excess of $40 million. In 2005, Arnold recorded his 100th album, After All These Years.

On April 29, English electronic act Portishead released their first studio album in 11 years, Third. That same week they had an exuberant performance at Coachella—chronicled in this article—and thanked fans for "waiting."

After spending 10 years out of the spotlight and four agonizing over the new album, the band is working at getting its sea legs back. "It was good fun," said Portishead founder Geoff Barrow of the Coachella gig on the band's website, "but I doubt if it looked like we were having any! We were so far away from the crowd it was a bit weird to tell if people connected with us."

Portishead have reported that this isn't just another fly-by-night reunion, but a genuine new start with the best intentions.
 
"We feel like we're in the same place, just progressing," Barrow told the Associated Press. "We just want to keep on working. I'm definitely re-energized. I think we all are."

Welcome back Portishead! In celebration of their return, here's some vintage Portishead to enjoy...

Free download: GRACE POTTER AND THE NOCTURNALS' "AH MARY"

Sounding for all the world like some long-lost sister of the Allman Brothers, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals have proven that it’s possible to entwine brawn and brain—not to mention spirituality and sensuality—and still come out at the top of the jam band heap.

This Is Somewhere, the third full-length from Potter and her rough-and-ready band, offers a more concentrated, higher-octane blend of old-school boogie and slow-simmering soul than they’ve cooked up in bygone days. Grace is the focal point, thanks to both her honeyed vocal rasp and the turns she takes on organ and guitar. When Potter situates herself at the organ on songs like “Ah Mary,” guitarist Scott Tournet seizes the reins and steers the band into territory redolent of vintage Crazy Horse. Ah-mazing. —David Sprague

It's a big news week for former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach. Besides the announcement earlier this week that he'll join season two of Gone Country, VH1’s ratings goldmine, Bach admitted to a Florida radio DJ yesterday that he’s talked to Slash about the possibility of joining Velvet Revolver, which parted ways last month with vocalist Scott Weiland.
 
Not without reservations, Bach said his potential union with Velvet Revolver would be “awkward,” explaining that he prefers his current solo work to the work of Velvet Revolver. "It would all depend on music," Bach said. "I wouldn’t just join the band just to join the band. If we came up with some incredible new songs, then maybe I’d think about it.”

Bach also made it clear that his loyalties are to Axl Rose, who’s maintained a longstanding feud with ex- Guns N’ Roses bandmate Slash.

“I’m very close friends with Axl,” Bach told Tampa’s 98 Rock radio station, “and he sings three songs on my new record … Axl’s been so nice to me—he’s helped me out my whole career. In Skid Row he helped us out, and in my solo band he brought me around the world, and then sang three songs on my new CD [Angel Down], which is pretty mind-blowing. I don’t know … It’s a cut-throat business, but Axl’s been so nice to me, I don’t think I would feel comfortable just joining Velvet Revolver and singing his songs every night. So I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”

Bach is currently shooting Gone Country 2 in Nashville. 

During a press conference in Times Square today, the Police announced that their last concert ever will be held in the Big Apple. The date and exact location of the concert were not revealed. 

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was on hand at the event to accept the Police's pledge to donate $1 million to Bloomberg's MillionTreesNYC initiative, which aims to see one million trees planted across the city by 2017.

"We kicked off our very first American tour at CBGB's in 1978 and this summer, 30 years later, our journey will come full circle as we play our final show here in New York City," Sting said.

Tickets will be sold on the websites of public television stations Thirteen/WNET and WLIW New York. These two stations will receive the proceeds from the last Police concert to bolster their arts programming.

Also during today's ceremony, each member of the Police received a key to the city and the Police bestowed Bloomberg with an All Access pass that can be used at any Police concert. The Police have approximately 50 gigs left to play on their reunion tour of North America and Europe this summer.

Free download: JESSIE BAYLIN "WAS I ON YOUR MIND"

Singer Jessie Baylin is longtime BFF to Scarlett Johansson—who makes no bones about standing front-and-center to support her gal pal when she's giggin' in Tinseltown—and the source of some well-documented inter-band controversy after becoming engaged to Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill.

But neither of these associations are at all necessary to make Baylin the belle of the music industry's ball; that she's capable of all on her own. With a hand from Grammy winner Jesse Harris and Whiskeytown's Mike Daly, the blonde bombshell writes love songs with a bite and delivers each of them with a voice that's washed in twang (a byproduct of her recent relocation to Nashville?) and soulful enough to stand up to Rumours-era Stevie Nicks.

Give "Was I On Your Mind" a listen and see if you agree. Off Baylin's upcoming major label debut, Firesight (due June 24), the track is a plaintive acoustic love song that finds the singer at her best.

A MySpace favorite, Baylin has already accumulated a zillion fans, thanks in part to former touring partner John Mayer, who's long had her positioned as a "Top Friend" on his own MySpace site. Point being, Baylin could name drop 'til she drops, but very soon she'll be name enough all on her own. —Ellen Mallernee