ALICE IN CHAINS will perform four special acoustic-only shows during the coming months. These AIC "The Acoustic Hour" dates will feature just ALICE performing some of their most loved songs unplugged. The lucky cities that will be hosting these shows are Milwaukee, WI (The Rave) on August 31; St. Louis, MO (Pageant) on September 1; Austin, TX on September 29 and New Orleans, LA on October 1.

ALICE IN CHAINS will kick off a North American tour with VELVET REVOLVER on August 5 in Baltimore.

As previously reported, ALICE IN CHAINS is writing songs for its first new studio album in 12 years, according to a source close to the band. A person named "the Baldy," who says his job is "to travel the world with ALICE IN CHAINS and send photos, videos and blog entries back to (the webmasters) at AliceInChains.com," recently provided this update: "I've been (in Los Angeles) for five days, sat through three rehearsals and one demo recording session, listened to several other demos, and I can happily report that the new stuff is kicking my ass right out of my pants." There is no word on whether William DuVall, who sang with the group on last year's reunion tour, is also handing vocals for the new material, and there's also no official info on when an album might be released.

Guitarist Jerry Cantrell, drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Inez reunited in 2005 at a tsunami benefit in Seattle before heading out last year on full European and North American tours with DuVall singing.

Cantrell told Launch last year that while new music wasn't out of the question, the band wasn't ready to commit to anything. "It's gonna be cool to see what happens," he said. "I'm just really excited about the possibilities, 'cause there's a lot of possibilities open. And that's a pretty cool place to start and it's a good place to just leave it there, rather than just making a bunch of claims of what we're gonna do and not living up to them (laughs)."

ALICE IN CHAINS performed at the second annual "VH1 Rock Honors", which was taped on May 12 in Las Vegas. This year's show honored OZZY OSBOURNE, HEART, GENESIS and ZZ TOP, with performances and tributes from QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, NICKELBACK, KEANE and others.