AJ Pero, best known as the drummer for heavy metal band Twisted Sister, has died. He was 55.

The news was posted on the official Twisted Sister Facebook page this afternoon. No cause of death was given.

As usual with Super Bowl commercials, the ones that have aired during this year’s Big Game have not disappointed, but a standout for sure has to be the Radio Shack one, in which almost every single icon from the 1980s is represented in a quick montage after a Radio Shack store receives a phone call from, as the clerk, puts it, “The 1980s, who said they wanted their store back.”

We won’t spoil the fun of what memorable visuals and icons are in the commercial, but pay close attention, some of them jump out at you and some you have to kind of squint to see them! Check out the commercial here below. (Updated to include also the extended version.)

Amazon is currently offering for FREE the MP3 version of Twisted Sister‘s cover of the holiday classic tune “Deck The Halls” from their Christmas album A Twisted Christmas.

Yes, FREE. Just follow the link and download the song and then it’s yours, you own it, no strings attached.

The entire album, A Twisted Christmas, which contains 10 metalized holiday songs, is available on MP3 for only $5.99, while the CD is only $4.99.

Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan chose to take the stage at a Pennsylvania rally with Twisted Sister’s 1984 hit “We’re Not Gonna Take It” blasting in the background and Twisted Sister front man Dee Snider is none too pleased.

In a statement relayed through his manager, Snider said, “I emphatically denounce Paul Ryan’s use of my band Twisted Sister’s song, ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It,’ in any capacity,” adding that, “there is almost nothing he stands for that I agree with except the use of the P90X.”

Rock of Ages
Directed by Adam Shankman
Starring Tom Cruise, Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Malin Åkerman, Mary J. Blige, Alec Baldwin
Warner Bros. Pictures
Rated PG-13 | 123 Minutes
Release Date: June 15, 2012

“Ain’t lookin’ for nothin’ but a good time, and it don’t get better than this.” – Poison

Disclaimer: I am a 27-year-old man with an affinity for musical theatre and ’80s glam rock. I am not ashamed to admit I have shed a tear or two during Glee or the occasional off-Broadway production of Rent. Musicals aren’t for everyone, but for all the Drama Nerds, Band Geeks, and Glee Kids out there, this one’s for you.

From director Adam Shankman (Hairspray) comes Warner Bros. Pictures’ big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical Rock of Ages. The year is 1987. Movies like Fatal Attraction, Moonstruck, and Beverly Hills Cop II blow up the box office while Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, and Bon Jovi play to sold-out stadiums across the country. In this alternate reality of 1987, however, rock god Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) is responsible for every ’80’s anthem and power ballad – an amalgam of every legendary front man in rock’n’roll history.

Rock of Ages features Julianne Hough (Footloose, Burlesque) as Sherrie Christian, a small-town girl who leaves Tulsa, Oklahoma to follow her Hollywood dreams. There she meets rock’n’roller Drew Boley (Diego Boneta), a bartender at The Bourbon Room, one of Sunset Strip’s hottest concert venues.

Today’s MP3 album deal of the day is Dee Snider‘s Dee Does Broadway for only $5.99.

The album has Snider performing 12 popular Broadways tunes, some of which contain guest appearances by the likes of Cyndi Lauper and Clay Aiken, as well as Broadway veterans like Bebe Neuwirth (best remembered for her role as Lilith on Cheers and Frasier). It’s definitely not the kind of album you’d expect from the Twisted Sister frontman, especially something like a cover of “Mack The Knife,” but it’s a nice change of pace, plus he rocks the hell out of “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd.” Speaking of “Mack The Knife,” the MP3 album comes with a video for this song, as well as the digital booklet.

If you’d like a physical copy of Dee Does Broadway, the CD is available for $9.99.

Amazon is currently offering for FREE the MP3 version of Twisted Sister‘s cover of the holiday classic tune “Deck The Halls” from their Christmas album A Twisted Christmas.

Yes, FREE. Just follow the link and download the song and then it’s yours, you own it, no strings attached.

The entire album, A Twisted Christmas, which contains 10 metalized holiday songs, is available on MP3 for only $5, while the CD is only $6.90.

It’s not often I’m compelled to write about another site’s Top 10 list, but when I saw Ozzy Osbourne‘s Bark At The Moon made Yahoo’s list of Ten Worst Heavy Metal Albums of All-Time, I was flabbergasted.

Seriously, Bark At The Moon? Worst of ALL TIME? No way!

According to the intro to the Yahoo! list, which also bafflingly includes Iron Maiden‘s Fear Of The Dark, to be considered for inclusion the band has to be “somewhat famous,” stating “After all, why kick a band when it’s down, who were never up in the first place?” That means, heavy metal bands people aren’t really familiar with really wouldn’t qualify, which makes their number 6 choice, Raven‘s The Pack Is Back, an odd selection considering they were less famous than their counterparts Anvil BEFORE the Anvil! The Story Of Anvil award-winning movie was released. So, until Raven!: The Story Of Raven becomes the breakout hit at Sundance, I’d say leave the band alone in their obscurity.

The official website for Gibson guitars has released what they perceive to be the top 50 metal songs of all time. Gibson.com’s writers and editors worked on compiling the list over several weeks, releasing 10 entries at a time, and recently released the top 10, which declared the number one metal song to be “Master of Puppets” by Metallica.

In some ways, the number one spot for Metallica is fitting, considering 2011 is the 25th anniversary of the release of their Master of Puppets album. Having said that though, metalheads are notorious for having fierce and strong opinions about what they consider to be their “top songs,” on top of their fierce and strong opinions about what bands are or are not even metal.

I have no idea how these folks managed to do this, but the people behind Norwegian television show Gylne Tider somehow gathered a whole group of celebrity icons from the Seventies through the Eighties and into the Nineties to sing/lip dub Let It Be by The Beatles. Essentially, this video below is a whole bunch of WTF mixed with a session of “Where Are They Now?” — or more accurately, a video version of the 4chan game “You Nostalgia, You Lose”.

Featured in the video are a few of our geek icons, such as Dee Snider from Twisted Sister, Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk), Roger Moore (James Bond), Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street), Mickey Rourke (Whiplash from Iron Man 2), and Dolph Lundgren (The Punisher, Masters of the Universe, Rocky IV, The Expendables).

Not only that, but the video also features people, like Alfonso Ribeiro from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, who have been subjects of numerous internet memes over the years. This could also be the last official media appearance of the brilliant Leslie Nielsen who sadly passed away recently.