Photo: Verdy/AFP

• Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagan used his Seattle Weekly column to write glowingly about the return of Alice In Chains, saying the band’s our “will cement them as the premier rock band on this planet.” Alice in Chains’ Black Gives Way to Blue is out September 29th, exactly 17 years to the day the band released the grunge-era-defining Dirt.

• Tom Waits, Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, Pete Wentz, She & Him, Aimee Mann and the Black Keys are among the scores of artists that will serve as judges for the 9th annual Independent Music Awards, according to the event’s official Website.
• The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on August 3rd to determine whether to pass a bill that would allow artists receive royalties from when their songs are played on the radio, Variety reports. Under current laws, songwriters and publishers are paid royalties for radio play, but not artists.
• Star Wars: In Concert, or Star Wars: A Musical Journey as it was called when Rolling Stone wrote about the multimedia symphonic event in February 2008, will make its U.S. debut in October, with 40 concerts planned in North America by year’s end, Billboard.biz writes. The production will feature a live symphony performing John Williams’s famed score from the series while footage from all six Star Wars films appear on giant screens.

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