The Led Zeppelin reunion is off again and this time it doesn’t look like it will ever be on again - at least with all three living members. Former Honeydrippers lead singer Robert Plant posted a missive on his website stating clearly that he won’t be part of a Led Zeppelin reunion tour in 2009.

After those dates, Robert has no intention whatsoever of touring with anyone for at least the next two years. Contrary to a spate of recent reports, Robert Plant will not be touring or recording with Led Zeppelin. Anyone buying tickets online to any such event will be buying bogus tickets.

“It‘s both frustrating and ridiculous for this story to continue to
rear its head when all the musicians that surround the story are keen to get on with their individual projects and move forward,” Robert Plant said.

“I wish Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham nothing but success with any future projects,” he added.

It’s clear that Jimmy, JPJ and Little Bonham are dying to tour together, but I really hope that doesn’t happen. Who can possibly fill Plant’s shoes?

• Previously on HT: Yet Another Led Zeppelin Reunion Post

The Led Zeppelin Reunion is on!!!*

* - According to a tabloid that keeps getting the story wrong

For those of you who have been waiting for Brooklyn’s Sam Champion to release their new album on September 2, your wait is over. For the next three days, you can purchase Heavenly Blender for the bargain basement price of $3 over at AimeStreet. Now THAT’S a Slick Deal. For a taste of Heavenly Blender, check out this MP3 of the gritty rocker Be Mine Everyone. Good stuff!

[Photo of the Day = Under The Hood of a Hammond B-3 via Electric Mud]

• Longtime Jimmy Page comrade and legendary photog Ross Halfin recently accompanied his friend to Beijing where Jimmy ripped Whole Lotta Love with Leona Lewis at the Closing Ceremonies. Halfin shares a number of insane anecdotes from their trip to China on his blog. [HT - Randy]

• The Associated Press profiles Vincent Moon’s intensely beautiful Take-Away Shows, which feature stripped down performances from the likes of Arcade Fire, R.E.M. and Andrew Bird. We’ve come along way from the days of corny lip-sync’d videos on MTV to the age of Music Video 2.0.

Last night, Radiohead treated the crowd at the Hollywood Bowl to a terrific cover of Neil Young’s Tell Me Why. The rhythm section sat this one out as it was just Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood performing the tune on their acoustics. Check out a clip of their performance below:

Radiohead - Tell Me Why

• Providence’s Badfish, Ron Jeremy’s favorite cover band, returns to NYC for a just announced gig at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Saturday night for an evening chock full of Sublime favorites. These guys got together in 2001 and have gone on to sell out venues across the country thanks to their faithful renditions of Bradley Nowell’s classic tunes. Tickets for this show are currently available at Ticketmaster. Check out Badfish.com for a full list of tour dates.

• It’s been a while since we’ve heard any news out of the Led Zeppelin camp, but this story’s a doozy. Jason Bonham, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones recently entered the studio to record a batch of songs destined for a new Led Zeppelin album. Robert Plant, who has been busy touring with Alison Krauss, hasn’t been involved in any of the sessions. No tour dates yet.

Once again it’s time for a special guest to take the reigns of the B List. This week, guitar-maker Andrew Olson of AO Guitars discusses his favorite axes of all-time. AO Guitars makes high-quality instruments for the discerning musician…

This article first ran on January 10, but we liked it so much we’re running it again while we get up to speed this morning after seein’ Wilco last night.

I am a full-on guitar addict — there’s no denying it, and I’m okay with that. It’s cool, however, because my job is guitars. By that rationale, if your work is also your addiction, you win as far as I’m concerned. So when I got the call from Master Scotty B to do this killer column on my top 10 Favorite Guitars, I thought it was going to be a piece o’ cake. The problem is, I’ve been in love with so many guitars over the years that picking 10 is damn near impossible.

I tried to compile actual players’ guitars for this list, as opposed to off-the-wall axes, because they have that certain mojo that gets you fired up and ready to do the power-slide across the stage, ala Pete Townshend or Jables. The ordering is also debatable — depending on what I’m currently listening to, any of these guitars cold be at the top of the list, but the top four (being handmade, one-of-a-kind guitars) really stand out to me due to their inspirations on me and the building of my guitars. Enjoy, and go hug a guitar. Read on for Andrew’s Top 10…

The summer concert season reaches its crescendo this upcoming weekend when three of the longest running festivals in the nation take place. Out in Chicago the promoters of Lollapalooza defended themselves from accusations that their radius clauses are killing the local music scene. Meanwhile, the schedule for the Newport Folk Festival came out, and there are plenty of maddening conflicts. For those of us unable to attend next weekend’s other major festie, the Gathering of the Vibes in Bridgeport, CT, you can follow the action on iClips.

We’ll have plenty of news, reviews and photos from all three festivals.

Let’s see what else is goin’ on as we gear up for another busy week:

• After a chaotic start, Canada’s Pemberton Festival went very well
• Bready of Fresh Bread shares some stellar photos of Black Kids
• NPR checks in with the kid from the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind
• Heaven and Hell have started recording new material for a box set
• Les Claypool prepares his first video game score for Mushroom Men
• The Police look forward to finishing their tour in a little over a week

It’s been at least two weeks since we’ve heard any Led Zeppelin reunion tour rumors, so we thought we’d share the latest. Gigwise reports that the reason the band hasn’t moved forward is due to a rift between Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. Come on guys, bury the hatchet and let’s get it on before you’re too old.

Conde Nast’s Portfolio magazine recently settled many bar room bets when they researched the value of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven. According to Portfolio’s analysis the total value of Stairway To Heaven is $572 million or more. We certainly knew the tune brought in money hand over fist for Led Zep, but a half a billion dollars?!?!? Just imagine if they actually released the tune as a single.

Here’s a list of ten other songs that have earned over half a billion dollars…

1. Lost In Your Eyes - Debbie Gibson
2. Opposites Attract - Paula Abdul (w/ MC Skat Kat)
3. Don’t Treat Me Bad - Firehouse
4. Let’s Put The X in Sex - KISS
5. Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me Now - David Pomeranz
6. Blame It On The Rain - Milli Vanilli
7. At The Playground - Another Bad Creation
8. Hobo Humpin Slobo Babe - Whale
9. I Adore Mi Amor - Color Me Badd
10. Sample And Hold - Neil Young

[Hat Tip to Ace Cowboy]

Can you imagine if you’re in a band going up against Radiohead a major festival? Thankfully the promoters of Lollapalooza spared someone the embarrassment of playing for an empty field by announcing that Radiohead will play unopposed on Friday night. Here’s the rest of the schedule for those hitting Chicago’s Grant Park on August 1 - 3. There aren’t too many conflicts at first glance.

• Jimmy Page backs off from his earlier statements about a Led Zep tour
• Earvolution unveils Grace Potter and the Nocturnals’ new song: Sugar
• The Baltimore Sun examines the explosion in the popularity of festivals
• Girl Talk discusses his new album, Feed The Animals, with Pitchfork
• Rolling Stone looks at Iron Maiden’s recent MSG gig by the numbers
• If you think high gas prices suck for you, try bringing a band on tour
• Spoon covers Paul Simon’s Peace Like A River for a Daytrotter post
• EMusic raises their subscription rates from $9.99 to $11.99 per month

Finally, the guys at iClips continue to keep themselves busy this summer. On Thursday they head to Winter Park to webcast the Sonic Bloom festival, while they are also broadcast the Popped! Music Festival direct from Philadelphia. After a few weeks off they head to Minnesota for the 10KLF on July 23-25.

• The White Stripes, known for their cheeky sense of humor, were back at it again in Detroit this past weekend. Jack White brought Meg White out on stage during the encore break of Saturday night’s Raconteurs concert at the Fillmore Detroit. I’m sure the crowd was hankering for a White Stripes mini-set, but instead they got a case of blue balls. After an introduction from Jack, Meg left the stage while the rest of The Raconteurs filed onto stage and performed their encore.

• Speaking of encore breaks, Dave Grohl returned to the stage before the encore of the Foo Fighters’ second of two shows at Wembley Stadium and announced: “playing Wembley Stadium is an honor, and if we didn’t take advantage of this opportunity, the greatest fucking night in our band’s lives… for all 86,000 of you motherfuckers, it isn’t gonna be any other show.” Then, he welcomed Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page to the stage for a rollicking version of Rock and Roll and a gripping Ramble On…

• Since it’s Bonnaroo Week at Hidden Track, let’s finish with a story about the festival. The fine folks at Buzz’d have teamed up with the festival’s promoters to offer the Bonnaroo Mobile service. Using the mobile web feature on your phone, you can use Bonnaroo Mobile to keep in touch with your friends, sign up for alerts, access performance schedules for specific artists, ‘buzz’ people with showtimes, give real time reviews of the music and report on what is happening across the venue for free. Festival-goers can register for the free service by selecting the “Bonnaroo Mobile” link on the festivals’ website, or by texting “BM” to 96321. [Hat Tip goes out to John Condon]

Just the other day I was thinking about how there hasn’t been any Led Zeppelin rumors flying recently. Well, before I could put my thoughts to paper another report of a Led Zeppelin reunion tour surfaced. The Sunday Mirror claims that a tour is now inevitable and could take place as early as the end of this year.

Meanwhile, the latest “friend” of the band to claim stake to the opening duties is Whitesnake’s David Coverdale who told the Mirror that a LZ tour is “very likely,” and that he’s anticipating a call from Jimmy Page asking Whitesnake to open. So that makes Velvet Revolver, the Foo Fighters, and The Cult among the bands claiming to be opening for Zeppelin. Does a LZ gig really need an opening act?

Here’s a recap of shit that went down this weekend:

• The Zappa Trust take a break from lawsuits to put out Wazoo
• Partyin’ Peeps compiles the best videos from The Jammys
• Foo Fighter/Fanboy Dave Grohl writes Metallica a letter
• Vivid Entertainment, the purveyors of the Jimi Hendrix sex tape offer 100k for proof the tape isn’t real
• The New York Times previews the summer festival season
• Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi: the newest species of spiders
• Nedstalgia looks back at three Phish shows from 1993

We recently came across an interesting blog called Brand Upon The Brain, which reveals the stories behind rock’s most iconic logos. You gotta love this post on the history of Megadeth’s Vic Rattlehead. [via LHB]