Hard Rock

In ever-evolving Palm Springs, a downtown inn will be converted to a Hard Rock Hotel as the desert city continues to crank up its appeal for younger, hipper visitors. By year's end, Hotel Zoso on Indian Canyon Drive is to be turned into a 160-room Hard Rock, where guests can borrow electric Fender guitars to noodle on in their rooms or check out a fancy sound mixer to practice their DJ skills. PHOTOS: The five tallest buildings in L.A. There are Hard Rock brand hotels, casinos and restaurants across the nation and in several countries.

The rap-rock leviathan Linkin Park hasn't played in its L.A. hometown since a small May 2012 benefit show at the House of Blues. Today, the group announced that it will end that absence with a headlining turn at this year's Sunset Strip Music Festival. "We started our career playing clubs on the Strip. It's a thrill to be back where it all began," lead singer Chester Bennington said in a statement. The band's fifth and most recent album, "Living Things," topped album charts when it was released last summer, and it was generally praised for its more thoughtful mix of electronics and emotive hard rock.

Boutique hotel developer Morgans Hotel Group Co. and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners said Monday that they would begin a $750-million expansion of the iconic Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, more than doubling the number of rooms and adding casino, retail and meeting space. The overhaul will add 550 hotel rooms and 400 suites in two separate towers, as well as a new spa and health club, pool area, several restaurants and bars, and a new nightclub.

As spring break nears, Las Vegas is once again on the radar for students looking for a happening destination. Resorts particularly popular with the over-21 crowd, such as Hard Rock and the Palms, are among the venues offering some packages that shouldn't break the budget. The “Breakin' Vegas” deal at the Hard Rock  offers rooms starting at $199 per room per night. Up to four adults are allowed in each room, and the price includes $199 in drink credits at participating casino and pool bars.

Upscale hotel operator Morgans Hotel Group Co. has agreed to buy the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for $770 million in cash from the property's founder and chairman. The sale of the 647-room hotel and 30,000-square-foot casino on 41 acres near the Las Vegas Strip will net Peter Morton more than $731 million, he said Thursday. "It was just time to take the chips off the table," Morton said. "I'm looking to do some different things in my life. That was it."

The founder of the Hard Rock Cafe plans a $75-million hotel-casino here that will be "a walk on the wild side," with guitar-shaped gaming tables and memorabilia to draw a new genre of gamblers. "We did a lot of marketing studies," Hard Rock founder Peter Morton said Wednesday. "Everything gave us an extremely strong indication that there are a lot of 30-year-olds in America who go to Bruce Springsteen concerts and like to gamble."

The most famous timepiece of the Cold War was the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. As the superpowers moved to or from the brink of war, its minute hand would tick toward or away from midnight and the knell of doom. In a bow to the powerful symbolism of the Doomsday Clock, now comes the double meter just set running on the marquee of the Hard Rock Cafe in Beverly Center. The left-hand meter reports acres of rain forest. The right-hand meter reports world population.

When operators of the new Hard Rock Cafe plugged in their guitar--a 40-foot-high neon Fender Stratocaster that lit up the evening sky Saturday--the night life in Newport Beach immediately picked up a beat. "This gives Orange County a new heartbeat," said Jan Seitz, chairwoman of the restaurant's preview benefit party that drew an overflow crowd of about 400 people.

Conjure up the image of a hard-rock band and what do you see? A mane of long hair, black leather, spandex and pointed boots, right? Wrong. At least when it comes to Epic Records' new hard-rockers Living Colour, who wear baggy pantaloons, braided Gumby 'dos, studded waiters' jackets and high-top sneakers! But what makes Living Colour unique isn't their threads, but their color. The new hard-rock quartet is black, a hue rarely associated with hard rock or heavy metal.

In a couple of highly publicized recent court cases, heavy metal performers Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest have vigorously denied any responsibility in the deaths of young fans who committed suicide allegedly after listening to their records. But the members of Stryper, the "heavenly metal" band whose new "To Hell With the Devil" album has leaped into the national Top 40, are only too pleased to take credit for the power their music has over some who hear it.

In ever-evolving Palm Springs, a downtown inn will be converted to a Hard Rock Hotel as the desert city continues to crank up its appeal for younger, hipper visitors. By year end, the Hotel Zoso on Indian Canyon Drive will be turned into a 160-room Hard Rock, where guests can borrow electric Fender guitars to noodle on in their rooms or check out a fancy sound mixer to practice their DJ skills. Hard Rock brand hotels, casinos and restaurants operate across the nation and in several countries.

Add Prince to the growing group of veteran artists releasing new songs seemingly out of nowhere. Like David Bowie and Justin Timberlake before him, the Purple One sprang a new tune -- in this case, a tight little fuzz-rock delight titled "Screwdriver" -- on unsuspecting fans this week, and Pop & Hiss is pleased to report that it's definitely worth your bandwidth. (Watch a lyric video for the tune below.) Prince appears to have recorded the tune with his new backing band, which may or may not be called 3rdEyeGirl.

The Venetian's Bourbon Room serves up hard rock, big hair and even bigger bourbons. Based on the Hollywood club from the musical-turned-movie “Rock of Ages,” the all-'80s fantasy features guitar-pick-shaped tables, leather-and-lace clad cocktail servers/dancers and deejays spinning Poison, Joan Jett and AC/DC. As the name suggests, the libations are heavy on bourbon - there are 60 to choose from - but for those who really want a high school flashback, six types of Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers also grace the menu.

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Aug. 26 - Sept. 1 in PDF format This week's TV Movies   SERIES Home by Novogratz: Courtney and Bob head to Mammoth to meet Tony Hawk, whose 1970s ski lodge is severely outdated and in desperate need of their designer's touch in this new episode (7 p.m. HGTV). Redneck Island: The unscripted competition with a Southern flair wraps its first season (10 p.m. CMT). SPECIALS Katt Williams: Kattpacalypse: Doomsday prophecies, President Obama and other hot-button topics are in the comic's sights in this stand-up special, taped on New Year's Eve at the Nokia Theatre (10 p.m. Showtime)

Given that many parts of Southern California truly experience summer heat for only a few scant weeks, it's unfortunate that two of the area's most prominent specialty music festivals, Rock the Bells and the Sunset Strip Music Festival, opted to book their big outdoor events smack in the middle of the season. But this weekend as the temperature peaks and the asphalt starts to burn, both will celebrate the past, present and future of music -- albeit with little artistic overlap. Rock the Bells has become the premier hip-hop festival for a reason: Its bookers understand that the music in 2012 is an umbrella term that encompasses many varieties and generations of fans, each of which may need a little schooling in the listening habits of the others.

Jon Lord Deep Purple keyboard player Jon Lord, 71, a British keyboardist for Deep Purple and Whitesnake, died in London on Monday of a pulmonary embolism after a battle with pancreatic cancer, said a statement on his official website. Lord co-wrote some of Deep Purple's most famous tunes, including "Smoke on the Water," and later had a successful solo career after his retirement from the band in 2002. The Leicester, England-born musician got his start playing piano, first taking classical music lessons before shifting to rock 'n' roll.

Hard Rock Cafe International Inc., known for its music-themed restaurants, said Monday it is developing two Florida casinos at a cost of $400 million with Cordish Co. and the Seminole tribe of American Indians. Hard Rock and Cordish are building the casinos in Tampa and Hollywood, Fla., on two Seminole reservations. Orlando-based Hard Rock will run the Hard Rock restaurants and shops, while the tribe will operate the casinos, Hard Rock said.

Rita Ryack spent several weeks tangling with Tom Cruise's leather pants. The costume designer for the upcoming 1980s musical "Rock of Ages" (opening June 15) was instrumental in Cruise's conversion into the fictional rock icon Stacee Jaxx, a self-involved guitar-playing idol in the vein of Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose. The coyote-fur jacket, the jewel-encrusted codpiece and the custom-made cowboy hat did wonders in transforming the normally strait-laced Cruise into a drug-addled performer with more in common with Mick Jagger than Ethan Hunt.