Police in Missouri said that a 19-year-old who led them on a high-speed chase last Friday (April 26th) told them he was trying to get away so he wouldn't miss prom. An officer on patrol went after the vehicle after a police check revealed the owner had several warrants out for his arrest. When Daniel Buck noticed police were following him, he sped up to 80 miles per hour and led them on a chase, that eventually ended after police used stop strips to disable the vehicle. The suspect allegedly told them that he knew he had nine warrants out for failure to appear in court but didn't want to go to jail because he had to take his girlfriend to prom the following night. (Patch.com)

A 30-year-old man who was playing a ball-tossing game called "Tubs of Fun" at a carnival in Manchester, New Hampshire filed a police report after losing $2,600 on the game. Henry Gribbohm said he was trying to win an Xbox Kinect for his kids but all he got was a stuffed banana with dreadlocks. Gribbohm said that when he lost his first $300 -- which was all the money he had on him at the time -- he went home and got more money -- $2,300 to be exact. He told reporters, "They explained to me I was going to get all my money back. I was going to get an Xbox Kinect . . . They lied to me." The day after his big loss, Gribbohm headed back to the carnival. After complaining to the game's operator, $600 was returned and he was given a giant stuffed banana wearing a hat and dreadlocks because it was "all they could do." Police are reportedly investigating Gribbohm's claims. The carnival company said Gribbohm didn't spend the amount he claims. (Kotaku)

Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard has some good news for the group's fans: the 10th studio album from the band is nearing completion. Speaking with GuerillaCandy.com, Gossard reported, "It's almost done and as far as what it sounds like, it sounds like Pearl Jam. You're going to hear some rock songs and you're going to hear some quiet songs and you'll hear some song in between. That's all I can really say about it because we aren't talking about it yet, so it doesn't make much sense for me to say anything."

• Gossard did not give any hint of when the record, the first from the band since 2009's Backspacer, would come out.
• Guitarist Mike McCready discussed the disc recently, saying some of the songs were "pretty amazing." He added that drummer Matt Cameron had written "a really cool one that's kind of ethereal meets U2-ness, I wrote kind of a punk rock one and a Pink Floydthing, so there's all these kinds of things going on . . . We'll put all of those things in the Pearl Jam thing, and hit mix, and mix it up."
• The new album will reportedly come out in late 2013 or early 2014.
• Meanwhile, Gossard will release a new solo album called Moonlander on June 25th, his second solo effort and first since 2001's Bayleaf.
• Pearl Jam will play in London, Ontario on July 16th, Chicago's Wrigley Field on July 19th, and at the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans in early November.

Muse plans on doing something special for its upcoming 20th anniversary, with drummer Dominic Howard saying that the band might "play a little club show" next year to commemorate their two decades together. According to Gigwise, Howard told a British radio station, "It's our 20th anniversary year and I can't believe it -- it's February next year or something . . . Hopefully (we'll) do some special shows for it or something. It will be nice to celebrate that and play some little club somewhere and go 'Jesus Christ, can't believe we're 20 years old as a band!'"

Although Muse rarely plays smaller venues these days, Howard told us a while back that he enjoys playing concerts of all sizes: "Just going from one extreme to another is always a great feeling when you're playing live. So I think certainly doing these, like, really big gigs that are kind of overwhelming, with the amount of people that you see in front of you, to playing in front of a few hundred people where you can really see everyone's faces and, like, hear what they're talking about in between songs, and that kind of feeling, that's a really amazing feeling, I think."

• Howard also told the U.K. station that the band, known for their spectacular live shows, are still coming up with new stage ideas after all this time. He explained, "There's always ideas hanging around for shows. We always find ourselves coming up with ideas we probably can't achieve and then we end up scaling things back so there's always a list of ideas that we haven't accomplished yet."
• Muse recently released "Panic Station," the third single and video from the British act's sixth album, The 2nd Law, which arrived last fall.
• The trio will next head out on a summer-long run through the U.K. and Europe, but will come back to the U.S. to kick off a new round of dates on September 3rd in Charlotte, North Carolina.

FAST FACTS

• Muse formed in the town of Teignmouth in Devon, England in 1994.
• Dominic Howard, frontman Matt Bellamy and bassist Chris Wolstenholmeall played in separate bands at Teignmouth Community College until Howard asked Bellamy to join his band, called Gothic Plague.
• They next asked Wolstenholme, then a drummer, to learn bass and join the group. After several other members left, the trio played their first gig under the name Rocket Baby Dolls at a "battle of the bands" contest.
• After changing their name to Muse, they developed a live following around the U.K., released a few EPs and finally issued their debut album, Showbiz, in 1999.

CHECK IT OUT: Watch Muse perform "Uprising" in Atlanta last month:

Soundgarden's upcoming appearance on the PBS concert program Live From The Artist's Den will premiere in July, according to Loudwire. Although an exact broadcast date has not been set, a teaser for the show's sixth season indicates that a slew of new concerts from Soundgarden, Mumford & Sons, the Killersand others will all make their debut that month. A crew from the Emmy-nominated series filmed Soundgarden's February 17th concert at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles, the last gig of a three-night stand there, with that night's set featuring 28 songs from all eras of the band's career.

• The band will begin a new leg of North American tour dates this Friday (May 3rd) in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The trek will include stops at radio festivals and events like Rock On The Range.

• Some of the shows will be with fellow Seattle legends Alice In Chains and Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil told us that the two bands remain friends: "We still speak speak with those guys fairly regularly and see them fairly regularly. Jerry (Cantrell, Alice In Chains guitarist) is back in Seattle, he lives near Sean (Kinney, Alice drummer), and Mike (Inez, bassist)just got married. I was invited to his wedding, it was last spring or two springs ago, and the only reason why I couldn't attend was I think we were on the road."

• Soundgarden has been touring in support of King Animal, its first album of new material since 1996.
• The disc was released last November and features the singles "Been Away Too Long" and "By Crooked Steps." The video for the latter song has been directed by Dave Grohl.

SIDE NOTES: Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell has launched a new web store at ChrisCornell.com that is currently featuring a limited-time sale on merchandise related to Cornell's Songbook solo tour and live album. A portion of net proceeds from the sale of these items will benefit the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation, which was founded in 2012 to raise awareness and mobilize support for children facing tough challenges including homelessness, poverty, abuse and/or neglect.

CHECK IT OUT: Watch the trailer for season six of Live From The Artist's Den:

A Scottish cruise company has insured its tourist boats against potential damage from the Loch Ness Monster. According to reports Jacobite Cruises signed a 1.5 million dollar policy with an insurance company on the 80th anniversary of the first reported Loch Ness Monster sighting. The cruise company's owner, Freda Newton, said, "How silly would we look if it [happened] and we weren't covered for it?" (msnNOW)

Police in India cited a man who allowed his 10-year-old son to drive a Ferrari F430 on his birthday. Authorities cited Muhammad Nisham after he posted a video to YouTube that showed his son Ishaan driving the sports car on his birthday. Nisham said, "We did not expect this kind of furor after we uploaded that video on YouTube... I don't think there should be any problem for a boy to try out a car... especially when we ensure that it is done with utmost safety." He added that the citation won't stop him from allowing his son to drive his new Lamborghini on the empty roads near his tobacco factory. Nisham hopes his son will grow up to be a successful Formula One driver. (UPI)

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo made its first powered flight on Monday (April 29th), breaking the sound barrier in a 10-minute test flight over the Mojave Desert that moves the company closer to its goal of flying passengers on brief trips into space. A special jet carrying the SpaceShipTwo climbed to an altitude of 48,000 feet and released the spaceship, after which the pilot and co-pilot triggered the craft's rocket engine. The spaceship went up to an altitude of 55,000 feet and a speed of Mach 1.2, passing the speed of sound, before landing safely. Until yesterday, SpaceShipTwo had only performed unpowered glide flights.

• More than 500 wannabe space tourists have put down deposits or paid a full $200,000 for an eventual trip 62 miles up on the spaceship. No date has yet been set for the first flight.