--Pearl Jam's Mike McCready Promises Album In 2013

Mike McCready says 2013 will be Pearl Jam fans' lucky year.  The guitarist tells "Rolling Stone" the group hopes to have the follow-up to their 2009 effort "Backspacer" in stores "this year, for sure."  McCready estimates that they're about halfway through the new set.  He explains that they have seven songs "relatively completed," with another 15 and anything else frontman Eddie Vedder brings in still left to "weed through."  But McCready isn't offering too many other details about Pearl Jam's tenth album, noting that whatever he says about it probably won't make sense until people hear the music.  Nevertheless, he did call it "kind of a logical extension" of "Backspacer" with "a little bit more experimental stuff going on."


--Aerosmith's Tyler And Perry Heading To Songwriters Hall Of Fame

Rock and Roll Hall Of Famers Steven Tyler and Joe Perry are heading into another Hall of Fame.  The Aerosmith bandmates will be among those inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York on June 13th.  Tyler and Perry's collaborations as a songwriting duo go back 40 years with hits like "Sweet Emotion," "Dream On" and "Livin' On The Edge."  The Songwriters Hall of Fame will also welcome Mick Jones and Lou Gramm of Foreigner whose hits include "Jukebox Hero" and "Cold As Ice."  JD Souther, who worked with the Eagles on a number of their hits, and Holly Knight who wrote songs for Pat Benatar and Tina Turner, are also among this year's inductees.  The Songwriters Hall of Fame celebrates composers and lyricists.  Established in 1969, the Hall has more than 300 inductees.


--Steven Tyler Talks Costly Cocaine Habit

Steven Tyler estimates his past cocaine habit probably cost him upwards of five million dollars.  In an interview with Australia's "60 Minutes" this week, the Aerosmith frontman told the TV program he "snorted half of Peru" in his early days as a rock star and probably spent between five and six million dollars to do it.  Tyler was responding to a claim he made in his memoir "Does the Noise In My Head Bother You?" in which he said he spent 20-million-dollars on cocaine in the 1970s and '80s.  He told the show this week that the number in the book was exaggerated, offering up the adjusted numbers as more realistic.  Tyler has been candid about his former drug addiction in recent years - the highs and lows of it all.  In a 2011 interview with Matt Lauer for NBC's "Dateline," the 64-year-old rocker said at his worst he "needed cocaine" but added that it also took his children and his marriages away.  Having had more than a few stints in rehab over the years, the former "American Idol" judge  considers himself sober these days.


--Ace Frehley Defaulting On Mortgage, Taxes For Yorktown, NY Home

Ace Frehley is reportedly in danger of losing his Yorktown, New York home.  "The Journal News" says the lender, U.S. Bank National Association, filed a foreclosure notice on the three-bedroom, three bath single-family home on February 15th, claiming the former KISS guitarist stopped repaying the loan nearly two years ago.  Bank reps say they haven't received any payments from Frehley since March 2011.  He reportedly owes more than 700-thousand-dollars on the property.  The bank is looking to recoup both the loan balance as well as late fees, interest, and other costs.  But the mortgage isn't all that Frehley owes.  Local tax records show that the rocker's last tax payment was received in December 2011.  He's said to be behind on town and county taxes for 2011 by more than five-thousand-dollars, and owes more than 13-thousand-400-dollars in town, county, and school taxes for 2012.


--Santana Reuniting Early '70s Band For Next Album

That collaboration between Carlos Santana and Journey's Neal Schon is taking shape in the form of a Santana reunion.  Carlos tells Australia's Noise11.com he'll be recording his next album with his early '70s band.  The guitarist says that in addition to Schon, "the two Mikes" -- drummer Michael Shrieve and percussionist Mike Carabello -- are also on board, and he's "pretty sure" singer-keyboardist Gregg Rolie is "going to do it."  The only band member unaccounted for is percussionist José "Chepito" Areas.  Bassist David Brown passed away in September 2000.  Santana adds that their upcoming album will be reminiscent of his first three records, explaining that they've been "checking out a lot of African music, African patterns."  But Santana says it'll be at least a year before the album is ready for release.  He explains that they'll start working on the project once he finishes his 2013 tour, which begins in Honolulu on Tuesday.

The Honolulu show and a concert Thursday in Maui are the only U.S. dates on the 2013 Sentient Tour.  Santana will visit Asia, Australia, and New Zealand in March, and perform throughout Europe over the summer, bringing the tour to a close in Poland on August 3rd.  But Santana does have some U.S. performance on his schedule.  He'll be playing a 16-date run of his "Greatest Hits Live" show in Las Vegas from May 1st through June 2nd.


--Strokes Have Not Plans To Tour Behind New Album Yet

The Strokes' "Comedown Machine" isn't due to hit the road following its release next month, or at least not yet.  Bassist Nikolai Fraiture recently told BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe that he'd "love to tour" behind the new album, but there are no dates currently on the schedule.  With or without a road trip, however, Fraiture is looking forward to the band's future.  He said they've just finished recording and he feels good about the new album and the "atmosphere in the band," which he hopes continues.  He adds that part of that good feeling has to do with the fact that Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas worked on the album in the same room as the rest of the band, which wasn't the case for 2011's "Angles."  The Strokes' "Comedown Machine" is scheduled to hit stores on March 26th.


--Mastodon, Other Rockers Help New Baroness Relief Fund

Baroness' fellow rockers are coming to their aid.  Mastodon, Neurosis, Napalm Death, and other bands are donating a variety of items to raise money for a recently launched relief fund.  The project was launched by Baroness' sound engineer Loopy Fiasco, Relapse Records' Rennie Jaffe and others to help the band with medical expenses following last summer's bus accident.  Rock-related items -- including signed albums, instruments, and more -- will eventually go up for auction.  Anyone interested can see pictures of the donations and find updates on the benefit auction on the Baroness Relief Facebook page.

In the meantime, Baroness is gearing up for it's first post-accident performance at Bonnaroo.  The festival takes place June 13th through the 16th in Manchester, Tennessee.


--Today's Birthdays

X frontman John Doe is 59.
Smithereens drummer Dennis Diken is 56.
The Alarm frontman Mike Peters is 54.
The Used singer Bert McCracken is 31.


--Today In Rock History

In 1984
Van Halen's "Jump" hit number one on the pop singles chart.

In 1985
U2's album "War" was certified Platinum.

In 1992
Pearl Jam's album "Ten" was certified Gold.

n 1993
Marshall Tucker Band guitarist Toy Caldwell died of respiratory failure at his home in Spartanburg, South Carolina.  He was 45.

In 1997
Eddie Van Halen was among the winners of the 1997 Orville H. Gibson Guitar Awards.

In 2002
Dave Matthews purchased more than 12-hundred acres from the University of Virginia Foundation, in a move to promote organic farming and conserve trees.

In 2003
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne and Coldplay made the list of the top ten wealthiest British rockers, released by "Heat" magazine.  Former Beatle Paul McCartney topped the list.

In 2004
The Sex Pistols' 1976 single "Anarchy in the UK" was named the Most Influential Song Of The 1970s by Britain's "Q" magazine.

In 2008
Twisted Sister, Tesla, Stryper, and Staind frontman Aaron Lewis were among the artists who performed at a benefit in Providence, Rhode Island.  Money raised went to help those still recovering from the 2003 fire during a Great White concert at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island.

In 2009
Barenaked Ladies singer Steven Page announced that he was leaving the group.

In 2011
Motley Crue's Vince Neil was released from the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas after serving two-thirds of his 15-day sentence in conjunction with his guilty plea to a DUI charge.  The singer was let out early because he volunteered for kitchen duties that had him rising at 3:30 in the morning each day to serve breakfasts to his fellow inmates, and he had to complete his sentence under house arrest.

The Grass Roots drummer Rick Coonce died of heart failure at a Vancouver, British Columbia hospital.  He was 64.