The next generation of our popular Hot Rod series tube amps is now available in the retooled-and-refueled form of the five new Hot Rod III guitar amplifiers.

The new amps are the Hot Rod DeVille™ 410 III and Hot Rod DeVille 212 III, Hot Rod Deluxe™ 112 III, Blues Junior™ III and Pro Junior™ III. Affordable, reliable and loud, they deliver unmistakable Fender tone and provide a perfect platform for musicians to craft their own signature sound. Hear for yourself in these demo videos and for more product details, click here.

Fender signature artist Richie Kotzen has gone from peaceful to angry, following up 2009’s Peace Sign with a new song called “Angry Boy.” Click here to sample his latest tune.

Kotzen has also confirmed an Oct. 8 appearance at the Viper Room in Los Angeles. Tickets can be purchased here.

For more on the rocker, watch these exclusive Fender Vision videos, “In Conversation with Richie Kotzen.”

“I don’t know how you feel, but I feel like I’m in heaven.” – Buddy Guy during his set with Jonny Lang and surprise guest Ron Wood at the 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival.

Guy’s quote appears in Premier Guitar’s September issue, which includes every little detail about Eric Clapton’s 12-hour gala, as well as photos of the action. Get it here.

Apple unveiled the new iPod lineup, Apple TV and iTunes 10  during a special event in San Francisco on Wednesday, and then surprised attendees with Coldplay’s Chris Martin, who debuted a new tune of his own called “Wedding Bells.”

Wearing a Flaming Lips T-shirt, Martin sat at the piano and introduced his new song with a bit of Apple humor.

“This is a new song that we’ve been working on called ‘Coldplay 2.6′,” he said. “It has a lot of features. It features seven different kinds of chord, including a new one that even our closest rivals have no idea about, which [Apple's legendary designer of the iMac, iPod, etc.] Jonathan Ive designed. It’s the chord of I-minor.

“It might not even ever come out so this could be the only time it ever appears. It’s the beginning of a story kind of thing that starts sadly, but that’s the way these things … It could go terribly wrong, but f—k it.”

Martin also performed “Yellow” and “Viva la Vida.”

Paul Simonon smashes a Fender Precision Bass on the album cover.
The broken P Bass is featured on pg. 26 of the RS Collectors Edition.

In the recent Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time Special Collectors Edition, they share the background stories behind rock’s classic songs. Coming in at #15 is “London Calling” by the Clash.

In 1979, the uncompromising British punk band was without management and racking up debt in a country that was crashing around them. Out of that turmoil, Joe Strummer and guitarist Mick Jones wrote the lasting title track to their third album, London Calling, named after the call signal of the BBC’s World Service broadcasts.

“We felt that we were struggling,” Strummer tells RS, “about to slip down a slope or something, grasping with out fingernails. And there was no one there to help us.”

Its lyrics contained nods to a series of disasters. For instance “the nuclear error” refers to the March 1979 meltdown of a reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.