Guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn of San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD has scheduled five acoustic solo shows around his appearance at this year's NAMM (National Association Of Music Merchants) show, which is being held January 25-27 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. Robb will play at various bars and intimate clubs in the greater Orange County/Los Angeles area. He will be performing a mix of cover songs and re-interpreted MACHINE HEAD songs.

The dates are as follows:

Jan. 21 - Hollywood, CA - On The Rox
Jan. 23 - Riverside, CA - Mission Tobacco Lounge
Jan. 24 - San Diego, CA - Brick By Brick
Jan. 25 - Anaheim, CA - NAMM
Jan. 26 - Fullerton, CA - The Slidebar Rock-N-Roll Kitchen

MACHINE HEAD guitarist Phil Demmel told The Nervous Breakdown in a recent interview that the band is planning to start compiling ideas for the follow-up to last year's "Unto The Locust" at the start of 2013 for a tentative early 2014 release.

"After [the recent] tour [with DETHKLOK], we want to get in and start writing," Demmel said. "We've got a couple of things for next year, but for the most part we want to get in and hopefully start recording before the end of the year next year. Have we thought about directions or any of that? It hasn't really been agreed upon yet. I think we're just going to write like we have been."

He added, "Our formula has been to just come up with something and see what happens. Nothing contrived, you know? That's how [MACHINE HEAD's latest single/video] 'Darkness Within' happened, and that's how a lot of the stuff on the last album happened, so we'll just see how we progress. [MACHINE HEAD guitarist/vocalist] Robb [Flynn] took classical lessons before the last record, so I think it's just going to be an amalgamation of everything we've learned so far. We keep evolving, and it's not going to be 'Blackening II' and it's not going to be 'Unto The Locust II'. I think it's going to be our strongest record."

"Machine Fucking Head Live", the new live album from MACHINE HEAD, sold 3,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release. It's the band's second live effort; "Hellalive" came out in 2003.

MACHINE HEAD is currently seeking a new label home following the expiration of the band's contract with longtime record company Roadrunner Records.