There are many ways to tell if you're a popular rock band: No. 1 albums, Grammy awards, headlining gigs at big festivals. But another strong indicator is if there's interest in a documentary about your group. Well, it looks like the Black Keys, which have been boosted by the huge success of recent albums Brothers and El Camino, could be heading to the big screen in 2013.

Spin spoke with Noah Abrams, a photographer who's making the Black Keys documentary. "A lot of music documentaries spend too much time trying to make people look cool," Abrams said. "I'm fortunate enough to know both these guys pretty well and their relationship is pretty incredible and very funny." In fact, he's described his intention for the film to be a "buddy comedy" that plays off the duo's back-and-forth rapport. "The comedy is usually endless with those two," he said.

Right now, according to Spin, the plan is for Abrams to get the documentary ready for "next year's film festival season," which could mean Sundance (which happens in January) or Toronto (which takes place in September). Either way, film festivals have been a receptive launching pad for music-centric documentaries, with everyone from Paul Simon to Pearl Jam lately having movies made about them. Abrams indicates that he'd like to line up a traditional theatrical release, but even if that doesn't happen, Black Keys fans can be sure they'll be able to get it on DVD.

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Photo: Danny Clinch/Sacks & Co.

After two albums on Virgin, Saving Abel have switched labels for their newest, Bringing Down the Giant. The disc will drop July 17 through eOne Music.

For the Mississippi quintet, Bringing Down the Giant looks to continue the success of the band's 2008 self-titled debut, which went gold thanks to the radio hits "Addicted" and "18 Days." Saving Abel's sophomore offering, 2010's Miss America, was a less-compelling collection of generic hard rock, and the record failed to match the sales of Saving Abel, although it did peak higher on the Billboard album chart. Now that they've moved to the indie eOne, Saving Abel are no longer part of a major label, and I wouldn't be surprised if they have a chip on their shoulder about that. I wonder if the title Bringing Down the Giant might have some bearing on that label switch.

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Photo courtesy eOne.

It's been four years since Scott Weiland and Velvet Revolver parted ways. Since then, Weiland has gotten back together with his original band, Stone Temple Pilots, and Velvet Revolver have looked in vain for a new singer. Early this year, Weiland and his old mates in Velvet Revolver played together for a benefit show, but the assumption was that it was just a one-off. Apparently, no one told Weiland.

The singer was interviewed by ABC News Radio, and he said that he has reunited with Velvet Revolver and that they were going to start work on their follow-up to 2007's Libertad. "They gave me a couple of songs, and myself and [guitarist] Dave [Kushner] and [bassist] Duff [McKagan] are gonna be getting together for a songwriting session next week," Weiland claimed. Also, the frontman revealed that the group would hit the concert trail perhaps by the end of the summer.

Needless to say, this announcement was a surprise. Granted, Stone Temple Pilots didn't sound like they had immediate recording or touring plans, but there had been no indication that Weiland was ready to bolt. Well, it turns out it wasn't just a surprise for fans -- it also shocked Slash, one of Weiland's Velvet Revolver bandmates.

Slash, who's currently promoting his forthcoming solo album, Apocalyptic Love, was asked about the Velvet Revolver news. Slash didn't have any idea about it.

"What? No, he's out of his mind," said Slash, in an interview (tracked down by Spin) with the Minneapolis radio station 93X. "Maybe [the other band members] know something I don't know... [but] I have absolutely no intention of going back to that." Slash further rained on everyone's parade by informing listeners that he's got tour plans that go throughout the rest of 2012, so there's little chance that any version of Velvet Revolver would be able to tour this year. (For what it's worth, McKagan took to Twitter to write, "April Fools? Oh wait.... Its half-way through May. Nevermind...... #huh?")

So what happened, exactly? No one knows yet, but it is one of the odder chapters in this band's odd history. And, don't forget, this is a group who recorded a full album's worth of songs with Corey Taylor, only to decide that they didn't want to work with the singer. At this point, you can understand why Slash is just about done with frontmen. Just last month, he had to deal with the endless drama of whether Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose was going to bother showing up for the band's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony. (He ultimately decided not to.) The guitarist would probably prefer just to focus on Apocalyptic Love and not think about anything else.

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Photo: David Livingston/Getty Images.

"Somebody That I Used to Know" stays at No. 1 for a seventh nonconsecutive week on the Billboard Rock Songs chart, as Gotye holds off challenges from the Black Keys ("Gold on the Ceiling") and Linkin Park ("Burn It Down"). But the other big news is that "Lonely Boy" finally falls out of the Top 10. For 14 weeks, that El Camino track was the king of the countdown. Well, now we have a new king. Check out my rundown of this week's Rock Songs chart to see where your favorite tunes ranked.

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Photo: Cybele Malinowski/Universal Republic.