These are the 11 best and brightest rock tunes of 2011. You listened, you voted, we listened, and here you are:

11.  Bayside – Sick, Sick, Sick
10. My Darkest Day – Porn Star Dancing
9.    Red Light King – Old Man
8.    RHCP – The Adventures of Raindance Maggie
7.    Nickelback – When We Stand Together
6.    Egypt Central – White Rabbit
5.    Awolnation – Sail
4.   Disturbed – The Animal
3.   Blink-182 – Up All Night
2.   Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks
1.   Foo Fighters – Rope

Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian has donned full prosthetics to appear as a zombie in the new series of The Walking Dead.

The musician is a big fan of the horror genre and was delighted to be asked to appear in an episode of the drama show.  Ian happily spent hours in the make-up chair in August  preparing to film his role as a member of the undead and he insists all the hard work was worth it.

In a post on his official website, he writes, “My agent got the call asking if I wanted to come down and get made up to play a zombie… for AMC’s The Walking Dead directed by Greg Nicotero (effects God). I couldn’t say yes to this fast enough… I’ve been wanting to do this my whole life. Zombies have always been my favorite genre of horror and to participate in something as killer as The Walking Dead would just be amazing. Truly my Make-A-Wish moment!”

“I got to the set and headed straight for the makeup trailer. I was told I was getting the full-on zombie ‘hero’ makeup. That means I get the sick head/neck wounds done with silicone appliqués… The whole process was pretty painless, even sitting for 90 minutes was cool because they were putting zombie makeup on me. I would’ve sat for five hours, I was so stoked.”

After filming his scenes, Ian insisted on keeping his make-up on for the journey home.

He adds, “I kept the make-up on after the shoot and headed home. I got some great looks from people in other cars. I wanted to keep the makeup on all week! I got home and fed my eight-week-old son. His reaction was basically, ‘Yeah, whatever, feed me ugly’.”

The second season of The Walking Dead premieres this Sunday, October 16th.

The alternative rock band, R.E.M., has officially split up after 31 years together, having produced 15 albums.

What? Oh no! We think we’re gonna lose our religion over this one…

…or at least we would have had this news come out in 1995.

Still, the band was a great one regardless of peak time and deserves a final standing ovation.

From Everybody Hurts to Losing My Religion, the band was best known for their melodic songs accompanied by thought-provoking music videos.

After their breakthrough commercial success in the 90s, R.E.M. began experimenting with other sounds in the early 2000s. Although their music dropped off the Top 100 charts, fans and critics still held them on a high pedestal of respect.

In 2007, they were deservedly inducted into Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame.

On their website, they released an official unified statement announcing the split, followed by individual messages:

We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.

Michael: A wise man once said – ‘the skill in attending a party is knowing when it’s time to leave.’ We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we’re going to walk away from it.”

Mike: There’s no disharmony here, no falling-outs, no lawyers squaring-off. We’ve made this decision together, amicably and with each other’s best interests at heart. The time just feels right.

It’s a sad day for their most dedicated of fans, but the music they gave the world will transcend time on dozens of movie soundtracks.

Thank you, R.E.M., for your amazing musical gifts! We wish you each the best of luck in your future endeavors.

Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis admits the band have done poor work in the past – but upcoming album I’m With You isn’t in that category.

The band are poised to release their follow-up to 2006′s Stadium Arcadium, featuring new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, who replaced John Frusciante when he refused to return after their two-year hiatus.

Work began in November 2009 and the finished album is due out on August 30. The band are planning to tour for an extended period once it’s released. Kiedis tells Rolling Stone: “I know when we write mediocre stuff and when we write good stuff. I can’t wait to go out and play this.”

Slipknot’s Corey Taylor says the band’s upcoming festival shows will help him decide if he can continue after the death of bass player Paul Gray.

According to the Daily Express, Taylor is still unsure whether the band can continue. He said: “There’s a part of me that’s ready and there’s a part of me that’s not.”I have a lot of trepidation about it. I don’t know how to feel. I know a lot of the guys in the band are trying not to show that side, and I can’t.”

While Gray’s bass duties will be handled by the band’s original bassist, Donnie Steele, Taylor is unsure whether Gray can be replaced. “Without Paul Gray, there would have been no Slipknot, and I mean that sincerely… It’s strange for me to think about the future of Slipknot without him.

“This tour coming up is definitely going to be like baby steps… It’s going to be a long time before I feel OK about it. I’m not saying that I’m not open to it. I’m just saying that I’m not there yet, and I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to get there. So we’re just going to have to see what happens. Only time will tell.”

1. My Chemical Romance – Sing
2. Papa Roach – Burn
3. R.E.M. – Discoverer
4. Young The Giant – My Body
5. Apocalyptica – End of Me (ft. Gavin Rossdale)
6. Maroon 5 – How
7.Cage The Elephant – Shake Me Down
8. Red Carpet Rats – going to Hell
9. My Darkest Day – Move your Body
10. Kopek – Cocaine Chest Pain

On this day in 1982, the wild man of rock, whose life was threatening to run out of control, did something at a concert in Des Moines that would turn into one of the great rock and roll tales of all time.

Ozzy Osbourne was touring America in support of the Diary of a Madman album with his Night of the Living Dead tour. The album title was strangely apt since stage shows had become more and more outrageous. At the end of a gig Ozzy would catapult meat (mostly intestines from a butchers shop) into the crowd. Naturally, Ozzy fans started to get into the spirit of the event and started bringing their own meaty offerings to shows. One fan was turned away from a concert for bringing in a whole Ox’s head. On top of that, word was out that at a meeting with his record company in Los Angeles, Ozzy had bitten the head off a dove and fans were now beginning to bring small creatures of their own to gigs.

But that was the tone of relations between Ozzy and fans. So on this otherwise unremarkable night in Iowa, someone at the Des Moines concert threw a bat on stage. The bat, stunned by the bright lights, lay seemingly dead on the ground. Ozzy, always the showman of course, picked up the animal and bit into it. When the bat reacted by flapping its wings, Ozzy knew it was alive and, more importantly, a real bat (he later said he had presumed it was made of rubber). Ozzy was immediately rushed to hospital for rabies shots – not the best end to an evening.

Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has blamed his addiction to prescription pills for his devastating stage fall in South Dakota in 2009 – revealing he was snorting sleeping pills at the time.

The singer stunned fans during a performance at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally when he fell off the stage and broke his shoulder, forcing the rockers to cancel the remainder of their North American tour.

Tyler previously put the accident down to a mis-timed dance move, but he’s now come clean about the real reason behind the incident.

He tells talk show host David Letterman, “I guess it’s not any news about my drug use and addictions in the past… So a couple of years ago I was doing Lunesta (sedative) because I had some problems with my feet… That’s the tip of the iceberg. I was snorting that, I fell off the stage… That shows you what kind of a drug addict I was.”

“Only the finest for me… I was looking for any excuse to get high and I should have been using my band because my band is the strongest drug I’ve ever had.”

Tyler checked into rehab four months after the accident to kick his addiction for good.

Pan Caribbean Broadcasting has purchased a rock station in Alabama for dirt cheap. We checked in with their morning team, Dominator Mustachride and Trailer Trash Trish to see what they’re chatting about!!!

Listen HERE

This morning, Joey Hamilton, Executive Director of the St. Thomas Swimming Association dropped in on the Morning Dizzaster and was interviewed by Web.  The St. Thomas Swimming Association is the only public pool on St. Thomas or St. John which offers a variety of aquatic programs and enrolls students in recreational, competitive and water safety programs.   The STSA Aquatics Programs are available to everyone, need based scholarships may be available upon request.  Some of the options included as part of the Aquatics Programs are the Learn to Swim Program for children 6 months up to adult beginners and private lessons which are open to anyone and all abilities.  There is also the Stingrays Swim Team.  The STSA also offers an Aquatics Rehabilitation and a Masters Swimming Program.

Also touched upon in the interview was children’s water safety, to reduce the risk of drowning- more specifically, The Kids Alive Program. For those who aren’t familiar with Kids Alive-Do the Five this means:

1        Fence the Pool

2        Shut the Gate

3        Learn to Swim

4        Supervise

5        Learn to Resuscitate

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The Buzz is proud to be an official sponsor of The STSA and Kids Alive. We firmly believe that by doing so we are raising water safety awareness, preventing injuries, and helping to make beaches and swimming pools a safer and more fun place for our children.  For more information or to sign up today call the STSA at (340)779-7872 or log on to www.sttswimming.org.