For our last post of 2007, the blog crew did some tedious counting so we could share the Rock Daily Review, which tallies up the most mentioned names, most commented posts, most popular Rock Lists and much more. Who was more blogged about: Britney Spears, Radiohead or Led Zeppelin? How many times did we break out the term “Douchebag” in a headline? How many posts did we devote to crazy-wigged, gun-toting, possibly-murderous record producers? Find out after the jump.

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• Happy new year, record industry! Oh, bad news: That lucrative concert market is no longer living up to its billing, despite blockbuster reunion tours from the Police and Van Halen. Some industry insiders blame so-called underpriced tickets for the decline. Perhaps they haven’t, you know, purchased a ticket lately.

• If your ears tell you new music sounds like ass, they’re right. Rolling Stone brought you a special report on the death of high fidelity and the declining quality of sound in the MP3 age.

• The search for The Next Great American Band came to its underwhelming conclusion. And despite what Rock Daily readers think, we’re fond of the Clark Brothers over here. Bring on the American Idol!

• Looking to rock on New Year’s Eve? Rock Daily compiled a helpful guide to concerts and music-related TV shows going on around the U.S. Check back next week for photos of all the big shows, from Kanye West and Nas to Velvet Revolver and Flaming Lips.

• Rolling Stone wrapped up our 2007 listmania with a super-sized look back at the best of Random Notes. Click here for a handy page that boasts all our lists of the best songs, albums, reissues, movies, DVDs, TV moments and gadgets of the year (as well as Bill Maher’s “worst of ‘07″ homage to the Dickheads of the Year).

Mary J. Blige stopped by the Rolling Stone offices just before her eighth studio album, Growing Pains, made its splashy debut on the charts this past week to chat about one of the big topics she tackles on the LP: the pleasure and pain of personal growth. The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul also gushed about her “oh my goodness” moment at last year’s Oscars, discussed the inspiration behind relationship-gone-wrong track “Nowhere Fast” (”It’s not a Mary J. Blige story”) and mused on how her Apple ad will impact her career. Click above to watch the interview.

With the ball set to drop in less than seventy-two hours, Rock Daily has the comprehensive list of all the best concerts and must-see rock TV going on New Year’s Eve across the country. Whether it’s Nas in Los Angeles or Radiohead Webcasting via Al Gore’s channel, here’s our New Year’s Rockin’ Guide, conveniently organized by city:

Concerts:

New York
Patti Smith @ Bowery Ballroom
Velvet Revolver @ Hammerstein Ballroom
Slick Rick, Kudu, Moby (DJ set), Holy Ghost (DJ set) @ Studio B
Earl Greyhound, The Big Sleep @ Mercury Lounge
moe. @ Radio City Music Hall
Gov’t Mule @ Beacon Theatre

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Last week, we celebrated the year’s best music videos, so now, in an attempt to honor yet another dying art form, we’re focusing on the best album covers of 2007. The worst covers of the year have been debated at length, so we’re going to honor those artists who kept it real with their artwork. Tell us your picks, and on Wednesday (Happy New Year’s, kids!) we’ll reveal the top covers of the year. After reluctantly eliminating our own Britney Spears’ Blackout gallery, these are our picks to spark your memories:

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Panda Bear – Person Pitch
Ghostface Killah - The Big Doe Rehab
Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
Kanye West - Graduation

Plus, see how these choices stack up against our Favorite Album Covers Ever.

Every Tuesday Single Minded highlights new tracks hitting stores (or the Web) this week. On Fridays, come back for rarities, remixes, mash-ups and more.

Ghostface Killah, Jackson Browne, Jewel and Lyle Lovett, “Walk Hard” [Nah Right]
From the guys who brought you Superbad and Knocked Up comes this once-in-a-lifetime all-star performance, featuring Ghostface slow-rapping while Jewel yodels in the background.

Led Zeppelin, Live Reunion Concert at London’s O2 Arena on 12/10/07 [Nargo the Bort]
Here it is: The concert took nineteen years to happen, yet only forty-five minutes to download. This is the cleanest recording of the show we’ve heard yet.

Super Furry Animals, “The Gift That Keeps Giving …” [Super Furry Animal’s Web Site]
The Welsh genre-benders are celebrating Christmas by offering their latest single as a free download, along with a new present — in the form of MP3s, YouTube videos and giveaways — every day until New Year’s.

Wilco, Live at Troutdale, Oregon, August 23rd, 2007 [Rbally]
Jeff Tweedy and Co. whip out obscure B-sides, Sky Blue Sky tracks and some of their greatest hits in this pristine recording of one of the best concerts of 2007.

Foreigner, Live in Atlanta, 1979 [Smuggled Sounds]
Listen, we know nearly every time you visit Rock Daily, you’re hit by Foreigner’s “Juke Box Hero” exploding out of the ad to the right of these words. To make amends, here’s a Foreigner bootleg from 1979 without that song (but with “Cold As Ice”).

• While Radiohead were asking fans to pay what they thought In Rainbows was worth, the band was telling EMI what they thought they were worth to re-sign: £10 million. According to reports, the group also asked for the rights to their six-album back catalog. EMI countered with a £3 million offer and a refusal to give up their stock in Radiohead’s previous output. The band ultimately signed with TBD Records and XL Recordings for North American and international distribution, ending their ten-year relationship with EMI.

• The original Kinks lineup reportedly have plans to reunite for the first time in nearly four decades. Despite the fact that Dave Davies had a stroke in 2004 and bassist Pete Quaife has suffered from kidney problems, singer-guitarist Ray Davies say the band, along with drummer Mick Avery, are keen to hit the road in 2008.

• To put the final exclamation point on a bad year for music sales, in the holiday buying frenzy between Thanksgiving to Christmas, CD sales were down nearly twenty-one percent from the same time period last year, as only 83.9 million albums were sold compared to 2006’s 105.28 million.

• Earlier this week, Jay-Z announced his exit from Def Jam’s executive offices; now he’s having trouble with his Las Vegas 40/40 club, as the venue failed to pass inspection, putting its New Year’s plans in doubt and forcing the ownership group to refund tickets to the club’s planned opening.

• Investigators in Las Vegas are heading to Los Angeles to see if they can dredge up any new evidence in the murder of Tupac Shakur. The revitalization of the investigation may have been spurred by the documentary Tupac Assassination: Conspiracy or Revenge, which claims that Death Row CEO Suge Knight and security chief Reginald Wright Jr. are to blame for Tupac’s murder. Wright denies involvement with the crime, and has agreed to take an investigator’s $100,000 polygraph challenge.

From vintage San Francisco psychedelia to indie-rock futurism, here’s Rolling Stone’s list of the year’s best reissues as ranked by David Fricke. Looking for the rest of our year-end wrap-ups? Click here for a gallery of the best live photographs of 2007, here for the year in Random Notes, and here for a handy page compiling all our lists of the best songs, albums, movies, DVDs, TV moments and gadgets of the year (as well as Bill Maher’s “worst of ‘07″ homage to the Dickheads of the Year).

At their recent shows, Franz Ferdinand have been playing a song that sounds like nothing they’ve ever recorded. The track, “Turn It On,” throws a big, buzzy synth riff from guitarist-keyboardist Nick McCarthy on top of a Cavern Club beat, with frontman Alex Kapranos repeatedly purring Bryan Ferry-style: “It ain’t easy being this kind of lover.”

That one, it’s clear, is a keeper. And Franz have thirty-four or so other new songs in various stages of completion — as well as an idea about the overall direction of their new record. “When we did the second album, the dance and synthesizer side of what we do maybe went to the side and the rock side came to the fore a little bit,” says Kapranos. “I suppose we’re heading back to the idea of dance music. It’s more of a dance record than a rock record.”

And after blazing through the writing and recording of its second album, 2005’s You Could Have It So Much Better, the band is taking its time on the follow-up. “There was a real, almost frantic frustration within the band to get back into the studio when we did that second album,” says Kapranos. (more…)

The world of online shorts has been emptier — or perhaps merely less smooth — since the initial departure of Channel 101’s Yacht Rock a year and a half ago. The show, which hilariously depicted Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Toto and other stars of 1970s and ’80s lite rock struggling to create their oh-so-smooth tunes in five-minute webisodes, ended its run in summer 2006. But on Thursday night at New York’s Knitting Factory, (fake) Loggins, (fake) McDonald and other cast members were in tow to debut the show’s eleventh episode. Spoiler alert: The song in question is one of Loggins’ more memorable movie themes (okay, fine, it’s “Footloose”), and the episode features a cameo from a skateboarder turned primetime sitcom actor who at one point offers around a “Me-L-T” sandwich.

As a bonus, perhaps the smoothest, most Yacht Rock-friendly musician to not yet be included in the show — Mr. Jimmy Buffett — finally makes an appearance, and his machinations ultimately lead to blood pouring down storm drains. Seriously. According to co-producer Hunter Stair (who portrays Loggins), there are more episodes in the pipeline. Expect Yacht Rock 11 to be online within a month. For now, click above to check out one of our favorite episodes, which tells the tale of how Van Halen got Doobie Brothers producer Ted Templeman to help create “Runnin’ With the Devil” (warning: these shorts are funny, but feature some NSFW language).

• Amy Winehouse must report to a court in Norway at the end of February to appeal a fine for marijuana possession. The singer and her currently incarcerated hubby, Blake Felder-Civil, were arrested in October for possession, but were released without charges after a night in prison and a 500 euro fine. Winehouse’s father later claimed she had been tricked into signing a confession, although authorities maintained she was assisted by fluent English speakers.
• Want press for your little-known group? Give Robert Plant an award. That’s what the Beard Liberation Front has done, bestowing the Led Zeppelin frontman with 2007’s Beard of the Year title for his blond-and-gray goatee. “The winners this year have stylish beards and are promoting a new twenty-first century image of the hirsute,” organizer Keith Flett told the BBC.
• More bad news for Ozzy Osbourne: His memoirs, originally scheduled for release before the end of 2007, have been pushed back to May 1st. Earlier this year reports indicated Osbourne had missed his deadline for publisher Little Brown, with whom he signed a reported $2 million deal almost two years ago.
• Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to announce a partnership with Fox and Disney to introduce movie rentals on iTunes at January’s MacWorld conference, Variety reports. The rentals are expected to be priced between $2 and $5 for a 24-hour viewing window, and will be able to be transferred to iPods — the key difference between iTunes’ service and Blockbuster, Netflix and other rivals.
• It’s been a slow album-release week, however iTunes is offering a free download of Regina Spektor’s cover of Peggy Lee’s “My Dear Acquaintance (A Happy New Year)” (click here to check it out), while Lil Wayne quietly released a five-song EP called The Leak on Rhapsody and Amazon. Weezy was expected to release a full mixtape titled Tha Carter III: The Leak this month but never did. Tha Carter III LP is still due February 18th.

When you look back at 2007, will you remember that time Britney Spears found out “Gimme More” had leaked and bugged out in her car, or when Queens of the Stone Age donned their best holiday sweaters for an appearance on Anthony Bourdain’s cooking show? Maybe you’ll recall Bill Clinton spending some QT with David Bowie, or Amy Winehouse and her husband walking the streets of London bruised and bloodied, or Korn turning midtown Manhattan into a cornfield. If you can’t picture any of these vital 2007 events, fear not: 150-plus party pics, news photographs and highly unusual shots are compiled right here for you in our Year in Random Notes photo gallery.

Need more year-end goodies? Click here for a gallery of the best live photographs of 2007, and here for a handy page compiling all our lists of the best songs, albums, movies, DVDs, TV moments and gadgets of the year (as well as Bill Maher’s list of Dickheads of the Year).

Rolling Stone movie critic Peter Travers saves a year’s worth of vitriol for his final reviews of 2007: National Treasure: Book of Secrets, a sequel to his most-hated movie of 2004 that is only (slighly) rescued by Helen Mirren, who follows her Academy Award-winning performance in The Queen in this awful Nicolas Cage vehicle; The Bucket List, “one soppy, sentimental, awful thing” starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman; and Aliens Vs. Preditor: Requiem, a film that makes Travers pray to the gods of cinema that this is the last time two great franchises will be besmirched by bad sequels. Bottom line: people of America, stop going to these movies.

>> Watch every episode of our weekly Peter Travers video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click “Launch application”). Every Friday, a new episode will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don’t have iTunes, download it here.]

• In a move that may help their uphill battle against iTunes, the Amazon music-downloads store has acquired the right to sell Warner Music’s catalog in their now 2.9 million-song-strong DRM-free MP3 shop. It’ll take more than the addition of Green Day and Madonna tracks to stop iTunes, however, as Apple’s stock posted a new high of $200.96 thanks to an insane amount of iPods under Christmas trees.

• Hip-hop’s latest trend: Showing up late for court. A week after snow delayed R. Kelly, Yung Joc was seven hours tardy for an arraignment in Cleveland on charges he attempting to board a flight with a semi-automatic weapon. An arrest warrant was issued, then rescinded after the court learned Joc was late, not skipping town. No word whether anyone managed to snap any cell phone pictures of the MC at court.

• Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn has called for the banishment of “celebrity culture,” saying “it’s creating a mindset that suggests you can get something for nothing and that it’s easy to acquire status and fame.” The first thing that needs to go, according to Albarn, is The X Factor, the U.K. equivalent of American Idol.

• One Sacramento family received a special Christmas surprise when they popped their newly-unwrapped Disney Channel Hits CD on: the expletive-laden first track from Dipset’s first group album Diplomatic Reunion (sample lyric: “I’m grinding sharing my pain, fuck, where is the fame”). The parents were obviously upset, pointing the finger at Toys R’ Us for the error.

• Billy Joel will perform live with a full orchestra for the first time on January 28th in Philadelphia. Joel and the Philadelphia Orchestra will play songs from his thirty-year catalog to celebrate the city’s 151st anniversary of their Academy of Music.

If the Rock Daily TiVo hadn’t malfunctioned, right now you’d be watching an astonishingly weird clip of Brian Wilson being celebrated at last night’s pre-taped Kennedy Center Honors. After a touching look back at the Beach Boy’s life narrated by Art Garfunkel, Lyle Lovett warbled “God Only Knows.” Then the words, “Ladies and gentlemen, Hootie & the Blowfish!” echoed through the theater and Darius Rucker and Co. took the stage in matching green and blue flannel shirts to perform passable versions of “I Get Around” “Fun, Fun, Fun” and “California Girls” (which were noteworthy mostly for the reaction shots of George Bush jerking his head off-beat in the balcony). An English boys’ choir wrapped things up with a sweet rendition of “Love and Mercy” and as beach balls floated down from the ceiling, Wilson’s neighbor Diana Ross — who was honored by Jordin Sparks, Ciara and gospel star Yolanda Adams, and spent much of Wilson’s tribute stealing his camera time with exaggerated gasps and crazy eyes — reached out and plucked one from the air for him. It was a touching moment. …

But seriously, Hootie? Brian Wilson is the patron saint of indie rock, so certainly they could have found anybody else to come play this gig. Paul McCartney? John Cale? Animal Collective? (We can imagine the post-show now: “Mr. President, I’d like to introduce you to Panda Bear.”) Heck, even John Stamos has proven himself more devoted to the Beach Boys’ catalog.

Related Stories:

• Brian Wilson’s Next Career Move: Camp Counselor
• Brian Wilson May Hit the Studio
• Wilson/McCartney Duet Rumor Debunked: No London Collaboration