Backstage Pass

The Beastie Boys have cancelled all their upcoming tour dates, including their headlining spot at the All Points West Festival next week, and pushed back their "Hot Sauce Committee Part 1" album, after Adam Yauch was diagnosed with cancer of the salivary gland.

In a video statement (below) released this morning, Yauch said the cancer is treatable and will not affect his voice. He will have surgery next week to remove the tumor and will need several weeks of further treatment.

"It's a pain in the neck (sorry had to say it) because I was really looking forward to playing these shows, but the doctors have made it clear that this is not the kind of thing that can be put aside to deal with later," Yauch said in a statement.

No word yet from All Points West organizers on how the cancellation will be handled.

UPDATE: EMI issued a statement, saying, "‘Our thoughts, love and prayers are with Adam Yauch, his family and the Beastie Boys. The most important thing is to allow Adam to focus on staying healthy. We wish him all the best and a speedy recovery."

So Mariah Carey's much-anticipated video for "Obsessed" -- which may or may not be her return volley in her beef with Eminem -- will debut tomorrow night on NBC's "America's Got Talent," which just happens to be hosted by hubby Nick Cannon. The folks over at Pet Rock believe they have the "official" video, check it out here.

Apparently, MTV and the other video channels have so little music content these days that record companies are looking for other venues to host video premieres. Last week, The Dead Weather debuted their video for "Treat Me Like Your Mother" debuted on Cinemax, which also hosted an Eminem video earlier this year. It seems like an odd strategy for both sides, doesn't it?

Shouldn't "music channels" want the hottest music videos? And shouldn't record companies want to put them there?

    Whitney Houston plans to release her first new studio album since 2002's “Just Whitney” on Sept. 1 through Arista Records, the seventh studio album of her career.
    Houston certainly has a lot of personal experience to draw on for the new album. Since her previous release, Houston has divorced Bobby Brown, ending their tumultuous relationship that was even documented for a time by a reality show, and admitted to using cocaine, marijuana and various medications.
    Though the album announcement offered no details on what songwriters and producers Houston had worked with, Clive Davis, Sony Music’s chief creative officer and Houston’s longtime mentor, has previously mentioned collaborations with R. Kelly and David Foster.
    “The same way her debut album took a while to put together, you just don't do it by going into a computer. You wait for the material to justify a new album,” Davis told MTV earlier this year. “Pretty much, it's come in.”

PHOTO: Whitney Houston by Patrick Demarchelier for Arista Records.

   Tomorrow is Record Store Day and, despite the ongoing music industry slide, there's actually a whole lot to celebrate.

    Though it's getting harder and harder to find any retail chain that has a decent inventory of CDs -- especially after the exit of Circuit City and the soon-to-be-closed Virgin Megastores -- independent record stores are starting to make a comeback. (Our pal and boss Kevin Amorim surveys many of Long Island's best record stores here.)

    And across the country, musicians and record stores are banding together tomorrow to celebrate record-store culture, that magical place where fans can interact and get introduced to new music that can change their worlds.

   Aside from musicians' in-store appearances, there's also lots of limited-edition offers tomorrow that will hopefully nudge folks into their local record store.

   Here are some of the best:

• Taking Back Sunday, "Carpathia" b/w "Catholic Knees (Live)" (Warner Bros.): While we wait for June 2 and the release of the full "New Again" album, "Carpathia" offers a pretty great idea of where the band's heading with its harder-but-catchier sound and some nifty three-part harmonies.
• Flaming Lips, "Borderline" b/w Black Keys, "Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles" (Warner Bros.): The Flaming Lips' quiet, electro-poppy take on Madonna's "Borderline" should be reason enough, but the Black Keys' reworking of the Captain Beefheart classic is a stomping thrill.
• Bruce Springsteen, "What Love Can Do" b/w "A Night With the Jersey Devil" (Columbia): The A-side is from "Working on a Dream" and the B-side has been floating around the Internet since Halloween when The Boss offered it up as a free bluesy treat.
• Lykke Li, "After Laughter (Comes Tears)" b/w El Perro Del Mar, "(At Best) You Are Love" (Rhino): Lykke had been doing the Wendy Rene chestnut as part of her recent set -- wouldn't her version of A Tribe Called Quest's "Can I Kick It?" been cooler? -- and El Perro Del Mar takes a pretty turn on the Isley Brothers' classic.
• Tom Waits, "Lucinda/Ain't Goin' Down to the Well" b/w "Bottom of the World" (Anti-): Waits teams up with Lucinda Williams for the A-side, recorded live from his "Glitter and Doom" tour. The B-side is another live track from the tour.
  

With iTunes’ introduction of tiered pricing last week, there’s been a lot of talk about how the price hike will affect sales. We’ll get a better idea tomorrow when sales figures are announced, but Billboard has an early analysis that shows a slight, negative effect.

The 53 songs priced at $0.99 rose an average of 1.66 places on the chart; 24 rose on the chart, 18 dropped and 11 remained even. The 47 songs priced at $1.29 lost an average of two chart positions; 11 rose on the chart, 27 dropped and nine remained even.

Of course, record labels aren’t very interested in chart position these days if the overall strategy nets them more cash, so the willingness to trade a few sales for a 30 percent price increase makes sense. What doesn’t make sense, though, is why record labels haven’t dropped the prices of large chunks of their back catalogues to 69 cents a track to drive some sales. Wouldn’t it make more sense to sell more tracks at 69 cents than no tracks at 99 cents?

Indie labels have been using Amie Street for years, with its dynamic pricing system, where songs start out free and then prices raise as the tracks get more popular, with a cap of 99 cents. Shouldn’t major labels try this out on iTunes?

Major labels are testing sales of some tracks at a lower price, with iTunes helping them out with “Great Songs at a Great Price” playlists – including some great bargains like Blue Oyster Cult’s “Godzilla,” The Clash’s “London Calling” and Nine Inch Nails’ “The Perfect Drug” for 69 cents. However, Amazon.com has become the leader in sale-priced downloads, including “Swoon,” the hot new album from Silversun Pickups for $3.99, and “Emo is Awesome/Emo Is Evil 2" a compilation that is currently free.

PHOTO: Silversun Pickups from Dangerbird Records.

    Only the music industry would think pushing through a 30 percent price hike on its most popular items during the worst economic downturn in decades would be a good idea. Maybe that’s because the music industry will likely be able to get away with it.
    Starting today, the price of many of music’s hottest songs – and even some that are not so hot – jumped from 99 cents to $1.29 on iTunes, as Apple’s music download service gave into years of pressure from the music industry to raise its prices.
    That means that if you want to buy the new Black Eyed Peas single “Boom Boom Pow,” currently No. 1 on the iTunes chart, it will cost you $1.29, unless, of course, you go to Amazon.com, where it’s still selling for 99 cents. The same goes for Flo Rida’s “Right Round,” though it’s bargain-priced over at WalMart.com for 74 cents.
    However, most people won’t make that switch, says Russ Crupnick, an analyst covering the entertainment industry for The NPD Group. “The reality is this is not a two-horse race,” he says. “If I don’t like WalMart, I can go to Target... But in this case, Amazon is a very distant No. 2. A lot of people wouldn’t even know you could download music at WalMart.”
    According to NPD, about 87 percent of downloaders use iTunes, while only 16 percent use the No. 2 service from Amazon.com.
    Crupnick says that today’s price hike will have very little impact on download sales at iTunes or on its market share. “I think for most consumers, they see $1.29 for a song they want as a reasonable price,” says Crupnick, adding that since many iTunes customers use gift cards to pay for their purchases – as many as 60 percent of teens’ purchases, according to NPD research – the higher price will not result in customers laying out additional money. “Thirty cents is really not a big incentive for change.”

Continue reading "Boom! Boom! Pow! iTunes prices climb" »

After 20 years of often-contentious in-fighting, Spandau Ballet announced today that they plan to reunite for a world tour this fall.

The new-wave pioneers -- best known for hits “True� and “Gold,� but probably more importantly for leading the New Romantic movement in the early ‘80s with Duran Duran – will start in Dublin on Oct. 13 and make their way through England. Further dates are expected, as well as possible new music.

One of the most underrated bands of the ‘80s, Spandau Ballet never really got credit for the way it incorporated dance music and even hip-hop elements into new wave, not to mention fashion (though considering the crazy kilts and pirate eye patches, that might be a good idea). Hopefully, this time around they may actually get their due.

Spandau Ballet announce reunion [BBC]

PHOTO: Spandau Ballet from The Outside Organisation

Below: The Top 5 Spandau Ballet songs that aren't "True"

Continue reading "Spandau Ballet reunites! (This much is true-ooh-ooh.)" »

    Move over, gold and platinum album awards. Here come the black, silver and white awards for sales of Internet downloads.
    Starting next month, TuneCore – the Brooklyn-based music distribution service that allows independent artists to sell their songs on iTunes, eMusic, Amazon.com and other Internet retailers – will start handing out sales awards of its own to celebrate the successes of the new business model.
    Nine Inch Nails will receive the first black TuneCore award for selling more than 500,000 songs from its “Ghosts I-IV” album set at Internet retailers.
    However, the recipients of the silver awards (for 250,000 download sales) and white awards (for 100,000 sales) are a mix of music veterans and newcomers, who are achieving their sales with little or no outside support. What makes artists so excited about TuneCore distribution is that they simply pay a flat, onetime fee to the company for the access to sell on the Internet retail sites and then all the money that comes in afterwards belongs to them – instead of the previous model where record companies would get a percentage, generally a large one, of every sale.
    The first silver TuneCore award winners include hitmakers Jay-Z, for the re-release of his “Reasonable Doubt” album, and Jason Mraz, for his live album “Jason Mraz Live and Acoustic 2001.” But they also include the unusual soundtrack to “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” and Kelly’s novelty hit and YouTube sensation “Shoes.”
    The first white TuneCore award winners include Public Enemy’s album “How You Sell Soul To a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?” and Secondhand Serenade’s single “Awake.”

Full list below

Continue reading "TuneCore rolls out new awards to compete with RIAA's gold, platinum" »

With U2's new album "No Line on the Horizon" already leaked long before its Mar. 3 release date, the band has put the entire album up on MySpace Music today so everyone can hear it.

"No Line on the Horizon" is the band's 12th studio album, featuring the revved-up single "Get Your Boots On."

U2's "No Line on the Horizon" preview [MySpace Music]

M.I.A., "Sunshowers"

M.I.A. announced yesterday on her MySpace page that she had a baby boy on Wednesday and that her labor began shortly after her Grammys performance last week.

"Sunday nite I came home from The Grammys still in the mood to party," she wrote. "I coulda easily gone out but I went home instead. Lucky I did! Coz my early stage labour kicked in around 2 a.m."

M.I.A. didn't reveal the name of her son, her first child with musician Benjamin Bronfman, and it's also not clear whether she will perform at the Oscars next Sunday, though she is scheduled.

She did reveal some plans, though, writing, "Me and baby are putting our tour dates for 2010 together and making mix tapes and figuring out a way to break out of the hospital."

In response to R&B singer Chris Brown's arrest for an alleged assault reportedly against his longtime girlfriend Rihanna in Los Angeles, WBLI (106.1-FM) plans to pull all of Brown's songs from its rotation Friday and poll listeners on whether they should be reinstated.

"Yes, you are innocent until proven guilty," said Jeremy Rice, WBLI's program director. "But right now, he looks pretty damn guilty. He hasn't given any statement. He hasn't come on BLI or a station in Los Angeles to explain. If it's true, we need him to do an A-Rod. We need a little bit more from him right now."

WBLI joins stations in Cleveland and Indianapolis in pulling Brown's music from their air waves. "It's a big risk for us to pull off an artist that helps us with our ratings," said Rice, adding that the station is currently playing "Forever" and "With You." "I don't think I know everything that happened. But we're going to let listeners decide."

(Currently, the vote is 51 to 49 percent against banning Brown's songs. Rice said his staff was divided on the issue as well.)

The station is also planning a "Shred Your Ex" demonstration at its West Babylon studios on Friday morning, inviting members of Rihanna's fan club to shred Brown's CDs and posters. "Whether you're a Rihanna fan or not, we can all empathize with being with someone who caused love to go wrong," said Nancy Cambino, WBLI's operations manager.

Los Angeles prosecutors have asked police for more evidence before deciding what charges should be brought against Brown regarding the incident early Sunday morning, according to The Associated Press. Brown remains free on $50,000 bail on felony charges of making threats.

After the incident, both Brown and Rihanna canceled their Grammy appearances. Brown has also canceled his appearance at this weekend's NBA All-Star Game, and Rihanna has pulled out of a concert in Malaysia, and her 21st birthday party in New York next week has been canceled.

-Click here to see photos of Chris Brown through the years

-Click here to see photos of Rihanna

-Click here to see 44 photos from the Grammys red carpet

PHOTO: Rihanna and Chris Brown in happier times, performing at Madison Square Garden in December. Photo by Evan Agostini for The Associated Press.

What makes Sunday night’s arrest of singer Chris Brown over a reported domestic dispute in Los Angeles so strange is that the 19-year-old singer is known for his wild dance moves, not a wild lifestyle.

Brown, who was released on $50,000 bail late last night, has previously had a squeaky-clean image, both in his music – best known for tame, lovey-dovey hits like “Kiss Kiss” and “No Air” – and in his personal life, which has mainly been his relationship with 20-year-old singer Rihanna. (Though the Los Angeles Times is reporting that the charge of making felony threats stems from an incident early Sunday morning involving Rihanna, neither the Los Angeles Police Department, nor Rihanna’s spokespeople have confirmed that it does. Police do say in a statement that additional charges may be filed.)

Since his debut in 2005, Brown has built his reputation as a teen phenom in the Michael Jackson vein, making sure strong choreography accompanies his sugary pop hits. He gained attention at the MTV Video Music Awards for leaping from table to table during his performance and for writing his recent hit “Forever” as a reworking of a jingle for Wrigley’s Doublemint Gum, which has been using the song in its recent ad campaign.

His hit duet “No Air,” with Jordin Sparks, was nominated for a Grammy last night, but did not win. Both Brown and Rihanna were scheduled to perform at last night’s ceremonies but abruptly canceled, pressing Al Green and Justin Timberlake into service, performing “Let’s Stay Together” with Boyz II Men and Keith Urban to fill their performance slots.

Brown and Rihanna have been linked for more than a year, though they have been reluctant to discuss their relationship. Early on, Brown reworked Rihanna’s hit “Umbrella” into “Cinderella.”

On Brown’s website, his fans are taking a wait-and-see attitude before making their judgment. On Rihanna’s site, though, some have already made up their minds. “Send the right message to your fans to leave any boy who would hit you,” one poster tells Rihanna. “He does not deserve you. I will never buy another of his CDs regardless.”

UPDATE: Wrigley  announced that it was suspending the campaign after "the serious allegations made against Chris Brown."

-Click here to see photos of Chris Brown through the years

-Click here to see 44 photos from the Grammys red carpet

-Click here to see 26 photos of Grammys performances, and winners

PHOTO: Chris Brown for Jive Records.  

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Phish and the Beastie Boys headline this year’s edition of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, as the Manchester, Tenn., festival continues to move away from its jam band roots.

Tickets for the festival, set for June 11-14, go on sale at noon Saturday through bonnaroo.com.

This year’s Bonnaroo will feature 120 bands and 20 comedians on 13 stages. Also making the cut this year: TV on the Radio, Nine Inch Nails, Snoop Dogg, Wilco, Animal Collective, Lucinda Williams, Al Green, David Byrne and Elvis Costello. Parts of the four-day festival will be covered live by Fuse.

PHOTO: The Beastie Boys by Nathaniel Hornblower for Capitol Records.

The rollout of Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You" couldn't be going better. Tomorrow, she will take over the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100 charts, setting a new record by jumping from No. 97 to No. 1 in one week by selling nearly 280,000 copies.

Tonight, she unveiled her video through AT&T, though why the company makes you install new video software just to watch it makes you feel like it's a bit of a bait-and-switch tactic to get more people on that video platform and to drive traffic to Sony BMG's myplay.com site.

Lucky for them the video makes it worth it. We're back to Playful Kelly again, happily destroying stuff in well-appointed apartments a la "Since U Been Gone." PK's got a boyfriend this time, though, and they seem happy chucking stuff out windows and otherwise kidding around, as "My Life" becomes more and more irresistible.

Judging by reaction to the single, Clarkson's "All I Ever Wanted" album, which got its release pushed up to March 10 by RCA execs today, is going to be an all-out smash right out the gate.

PHOTO: Kelly Clarkson from "My Life Would Suck Without You" for RCA Records.

Like nearly every other piece of President Barack Obama’s inauguration, picking Beyonce to sing “At Last� as the First Couple’s first dance was part-logistics, part-symbolism – reinforcing many of the day’s themes.

The song itself is 68 years old, first released on the soundtrack to the Glenn Miller movie “Orchestra Wives� in 1941, though most believe the definitive version belongs to Etta James, who turned it into a hit in 1961. Beyonce covered it last year for “Cadillac Records,� the movie in which she plays James.

Choosing her to sing it, instead of James, plays into Obama’s ongoing theme of giving young people the reins, but making sure they know their history and excel at what they do. It goes hand in hand with Michelle Obama choosing a gown from 26-year-old designer Jason Wu, who many say updates the work of Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera. Or, you know, having a head speechwriter, Jon Favreau, who is 27.

For her part, the normally unflappable Beyonce had to fight to keep it together, holding back the tears as the enormity of the moment -- not to mention watching the Obamas dance in front of her – started to get to her. "I was thinking [about] all of the sacrifices Obama and his wife and his children have made, and at last he's here,� she told ABC News afterward, adding that she was embarrassed by her emotions. "It's probably the most important day of my life, and I'm so grateful."

"America's Song," the Oprah-sanctioned collaboration between will.i.am and David Foster created to celebrate Barack Obama's Inauguration Day, is available for free today at oprah.com. Featuring Bono, Mary J. Blige, Faith Hill and Seal, it's certainly got plenty of star power and it's simple enough to sing along the first time around.

Following their appearance at the Obama-welcoming "We Are One" concert yesterday, U2 rolled out its upcoming single "Get on Your Boots" this morning. "Boots," the first single from "No Line on the Horizon," won't be available from iTunes until Feb. 15, but with U2 chatter high, it seems like a good time to introduce it.

During the verses, "Get on Your Boots" sounds more like Radiohead covering "Ball of Confusion" than the chiming U2 anthems we're used to. Bono's at the upper end of his register, floating over Adam Clayton's fuzzed-out bass and The Edge's oddly retro guitar riffs. By the time the big chorus kicks in, though, it's clear who it is.

Lyrically, though, "Boots" is a bit of a red herring, as Bono claims to be for escapism, singing "I don't want to talk about wars between nations -- not right now" before commenting, "Sexy boots."

In any case, it does explain why the "We Are One" appearance seemed a bit off. There wasn't enough drums and bass in the mix. Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr.'s unassailable rhythms have always given Bono and The Edge the cover to say and play what they want. Without them, U2 seems much more ordinary.

Hear "Get on Your Boots"

"Stars welcome Obama" [Newsday]

The "We Are One" live-blog [NDMusic]

PHOTO: Bono and The Edge from "We Are One" by Kevin Mazur for Getty Images.

Garth Brooks, "We Shall Be Free"

Garth Brooks stole the show with the good-time medley of "American Pie" and "Shout," which might have worked so well because it was so different from all the stately songs that came before it. But it was all a set-up for his own post-racial anthem "We Shall Be Free."

The great Bettye Lavette brings the first amazing moment of "We Are One," as she fills "A Change Is Gonna Come" with fire, dueting with Jon Bon Jovi. They even rewrite the final chorus to say "Change has come." With all the history that's being rewritten, might as well rewrite some lyrics too.

Bruce Springsteen's version of "The Rising," backed with a massive gospel choir was strong, as was Mary J. Blige's "Lean on Me." But she needed more backing singers so she could vamp. You could tell she was just getting started.

PHOTO: Bettye Lavette and Jon Bon Jovi by The Associated Press. 

"We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration" -- featuring Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, James Taylor and more -- starts at the Lincoln Memorial at 2:30 p.m. It's airing on HBO live (you don't even need to be a subscriber) and at 7 p.m. You can also watch it at hbo.com and you can listen to it on WNYC2 on HD radio and at the WNYC website. (We'll be live-blogging it here.)

Springsteen, who was an early supporter of President-Elect Barack Obama, is expected to sing his post 9/11 anthem "The Rising."

After all the issues with her last album “My December,” Kelly Clarkson isn’t taking any chances with her Clive Davis-sanctioned comeback single. “My Life Would Suck Without You” (RCA), which made its debut this morning on Elvis Duran's Z100 show, is everything the last album wasn’t. It’s upbeat and uptempo, coming across a bit like a “Since U Been Gone” remix crossed with a synthesizer surge for the anthemic, sing-along chorus and a bit of Metro Station’s “Shake It.” While “Life” isn’t exactly an artistic step forward for Clarkson, it’s also not the all-out sell-out many feared. It’s a good-natured compromise that doubles as a pretty good time.

Kelly Clarkson World Premiere [Z100]

Can't wait until Sunday to hear Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy"? Of course, you can. You've waited 14 years already, what's a few more days? But Axl Rose ended the suspense this morning, letting his entire magnum opus stream on the GN'R MySpace page.

“Chinese Democracy” is a good effort and it would’ve seemed even better if it came out in a decent amount of time, say, you know, a decade ago. The hard-hitting title track is potent, but whatever shock value it may have had has been diminished by what has come in the meantime, with Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor perfecting that industrial snarl years ago and System of a Down dominating virtuoso metal guitar solos for at least two albums now. “Better” is a stronger song, maybe the album’s best chance for a radio hit with its grand hook and Rose’s impassioned vocals, but even that sounds a little retro.

Sometimes, it sounds like Rose knows he went too far with this album. “It was a long time for you, it was a long time for me,” he sings in the overstuffed “There Was a Time,” with its choirs and elaborate strings parts. “It'd be a long time for anyone, but looks like it's meant to be.”

Tears for Fears, "Memories Fade"

Still making my way through Kanye West's "808s & Heartbreak," which, I must say, is way better than I expected. It can't be dismissed as "The AutoTune Album." And it really does have some grand moments despite the simplicity. The biggest surprise has to be his use of Tears for Fears' "Memories Fade" as the core of "Coldest Winter."

On a sort of related note, 'Ye has teamed with imeem to roll out a bunch of remixes. (Playlist below.)

Continue reading "Kanye West and Tears for Fears, together at last!" »

Like Jay-Z, 50 Cent isn't a businessman. He's a business, man.

And when the set-up for his new "Before I Self Destruct" CD didn't look right, he pushed the whole project back from Dec. 16 into early next year. "I decided to push my record back because I have so much more to offer the public as part of my presentation," he told me backstage at the "TRL" finale. "In hip-hop music, the big bang comes the first week. If you set a strong impression up front, then you can actually win big because people know that it’s good enough to actually go out and get it."

In addition to the album, the early pressings of "Before I Self Destruct" will be bundled with a movie of the same name, starring Fitty, and a documentary about Jam Master Jay that he produced.

"R&B records, they can actually take their time to actually grow -- if the company actually believes in the artist in their system, maybe single four on the album will be the one to make you decide, ‘I’m going to actually go and buy this record,’" Fitty said. "Hip-hop artists don’t make it to single four if they’re project isn’t successful. They have to hit with the first record and be in tune with the audience. Hip-hop has a youth-driven audience, people who determine whether it’s a hit have a short attention span."

However, he's happy with the reaction the album's first single "Get Up" is getting. "‘Get Up’ is actually performing better at radio than ‘I Get Money,’ which I felt was a record that was dead right, so I gotta say I’m in a pretty good space," he said. "I’m not going to hurry to put the record out because I want it to be perfect."

Fitty is also focusing on his new MTV reality show, "The Money and The Power," shrugging off criticism from Donald Trump, who claims it's a rip-off of "The Apprentice."

He said he counts Trump as a friend, adding that his show is currently the No. 1 show on MTV.

"I want to talk to him about selling one of my properties," Fitty added. "We all know we’re in a recession. Real estate isn’t one of the best businesses to be in. I think Donald Trump may want to be 50 Cent."

Fitty then busted into an impression of Trump doing "In Da Club" that was, while disturbing, far better than the real thing would ever be. Let's hope the Trumpster doesn't take that piece of advice.

PHOTO: 50 Cent at the "TRL" finale. Photo by Peter Kramer for Associated Press.

Though industry estimates peg her as a sure-thing No. 1 and run as high as 600,000 for first-week sales of her sophomore album "Fearless," Taylor Swift told me backstage at MTV's "TRL" finale last night that she was worried about its release last week.

"The night before it came out, I stayed up the whole night thinking, ‘Is anyone going to buy it at all?’” she said. "You always have those last-minute jitters."

Nevertheless, she's happy with the way "Fearless" turned out. "If I were to have the No. 1 album next week, I would be so excited," the teen sensation said. "I can’t believe that people have been so wonderful to me and gone out and bought the album. I’ve never been more proud of anything in my life than this album. I wrote every song on it. I co-produced it. So to have people actually go out and buy it? It’s wonderful."

Swift said she isn't sure how she's going to celebrate her first No. 1 album, but "I'm sure it'll involve my mother... or maybe I'll go to dinner with my record label." A good plan considering their massive push for sales.

PHOTO: Taylor Swift by the Associated Press.

    The end of the “TRL” era may have officially come Sunday night, as MTV shutdown production on the countdown show that used to be teenage America’s go-to guide for music, style and fashion. But its influenced started to wane years ago, coinciding with the rise of broadband Internet connections and video-on-demand sites like YouTube, MySpace and MTV.com.
    Carson Daly, longtime host of “TRL” and current host of NBC’s “Last Call With Carson Daly,” said after the show’s finale that no one TV show has that sort of singular power today and there may never be another one like it again.
    Not only has the music mainstream fractured into numerous niches, but it’s getting so that those niches don’t even interact any more. For example, on “TRL,” rockers and popsters and hip-hop heads would check out the show each afternoon to see whose song would come out on top and maybe get introduced to something outside their favorite genre.
    For example, Fall Out Boy singer Patrick Stump said that Blink-182's “All the Small Things” video “single-handedly changed the trajectory of ‘TRL’,” showing rock could hold its own against pop and hip-hop. “It was a totally democratic thing,” Stump said backstage. “People just voted on the videos.”
    So where are teenagers heading to replace the guidance “TRL” once provided?
    “The Internet – a lot of different places, niche sites online,” Daly said. “They’re not going to one central place, which is the whole 2.0 thing. The world is a different place. Ten years ago, we were that place. We were the hub, the destination spot, the place you had to go. Now you can sit in the back of your classroom and find out the Top 10 videos on your cellphone.”

PHOTO: Carson Daly and Damien Fahey at the "TRL" finale Sunday night. Photo by Peter Kramer for Associated Press.

"American Idol" David Cook's debut shows off his considerable promise, even if it does sound a bit uneven, sorta rushed and slightly schizophrenic. Check out the album's impressive middle -- the power ballads “Life on the Moon” and “Mr. Sensitive,” which should prove even more durable than the smash “The Time of My Life,” and the boundary-pushing metallic grinder “Bar-Ba-Sol.”

It's streaming early on ClearChannel's IHeartMusic.com here and is in stores Tuesday.

PHOTO: David Cook by Ron Cadiz for RCA Music Group.

Beyonce unveiled her "I Am... Sasha Fierce" album in its entirety today on her MySpace page, a week before it hits stores, including the songs from the deluxe edition that didn't leak online last week. Guess we can all give up on those Chris Gaines references now.

• See more photos of Beyonce
  
• Watch the "Cadillac Records" trailer

PHOTO: Beyonce/Sasha Fierce from Columbia Records

Kanye West, "Heartless"

Heartless from kwest on Vimeo

Nearly everything about the rollout of Kanye West's "808s and Heartbreaks" album has been unusual. Most albums are finished months before their release so that marketing plans can be developed and media gatekeepers can be wooed. But not Kanye.

His new album was finished early last month, after he unveiled the stark, AutoTuned first single "Love Lockdown," only days after it was completed, on the MTV Video Music Awards in September. The song was essentially released to radio and made available at iTunes simultaneously -- another rarity in music -- and it immediately shot to No. 3 in its first week on the strength of its sales before sliding out of the Top 10 as it waits for radio plays to lift it up again. Though these days it isn't unusual for songs to take months to build a radio presence, West isn't waiting. He's already released a second single "Heartless," which also has a Hype Williams-directed video (above) and is sure to debut high on next week's charts.

West has also moved up the release of "808s and Heartbreak" twice, from Dec. 16 to Nov. 25 and, earlier today, from Nov. 25 to Nov. 24. Though most album releases are on Tuesdays, Island Def Jam announced yesterday that it would move albums from West, The Killers and Ludacris up one day to take advantage of the run-up to the Thanksgiving holiday sales. However, it may also be a way to get an extra day of sales against Guns 'n' Roses' long-awaited "Chinese Democracy" album, which is released exclusively at Best Buy on Nov. 23.

    Before Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was plucked from near-obscurity to become Sen. John McCain’s running mate, indie-rockers Portugal. The Man were the most important pop cultural thing to ever hail from Wasilla, Alaska.
    It’ll take some doing for the quartet – singer/guitarist John Baldwin Gourley, bassist Zachary Scott Carothers, drummer Jason Sechrist, and keyboardist Ryan Neighbors – to catch up again, but their new album “Censored Colors” (Equal Vision) certainly won’t hurt. A mix of Beatlesque indie rock and dreamier soundscapes, “Censored Colors” should hook anyone who might check them out as “the band from that place.”
    Gourley told Newsday’s Glenn Gamboa about the weirdness of that dynamic, as well as growing up in Wasilla, as the band left New Orleans on their current tour, which stops at Bowery Ballroom Friday night.

It’s a weird thing to say, but a lot of people will owe their discovery of you to Sarah Palin. How do you feel about that?

What a bummer! We immediately got associated with her the second she jumped on the scene. We didn’t really have a choice... But I’d rather not be associated with her. It’s crazy, but how many people come from Wasilla? We posted that blog [where Gourley outlines why he’s against Palin] and we got so many emails saying, “Oh, now you’re trying to cash in. Your album comes out in two weeks and you’re playing it up.” We were like, “[Expletive] man, that is the biggest [expletive] coincidence of all time.”

As if you knew she was going to be picked as a VP candidate all along.

Right. I don’t even think McCain knew she was going to be the candidate until it was announced.

Continue reading "Portugal. The Man, Wasilla, Alaska's other breakout stars" »

    Are the days of deep-discounting new music releases coming back?
    It wasn’t that long ago that music fans could count on low, low prices –  sometimes as low as $6.99 – for hot new albums, as retailers tried to use them as ways to draw customers into stores to buy other things. Before that, you could find new cassette singles discounted as much as 85 percent – down to 39 cents, in many cases – so superstars could make big splashes on the charts with big initial sales. (For a while, every Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston single was 39 cents in its first week.)
    As part of the music industry’s ongoing collapse, those sale prices have gone the way of, well, sales. This year’s trend, in fact, has been to try to get fans to pay more, with some hoping that they could raise album sales by curbing the availability of singles.
    But maybe that’s about to change. This week, Snow Patrol’s new album “A Hundred Million Suns” became Amazon.com’s Daily Deal, a deep-discount designation usually reserved for older catalog albums, making the British rockers’ latest release available for $3.99. The move worked, pushing the album into Amazon’s Top 10, which, like the iTunes Top 10, tends to influence new sales, as casual visitors check out the top-sellers.
    Given the country’s current economic state, offering music fans legal bargains – instead of pushing them toward illegal downloading by raising prices – could be the industry’s way to help boost sales.

PHOTO: Snow Patrol for Geffen Records.

Well, well. Apparently, “Saturday Night Live”’s current hot streak isn’t just helping generate publicity for presidential candidates or aiding NBC’s Thursday night’s ratings. (Maybe it’ll even help Tina Fey with “30 Rock”!) This Saturday’s ratings bonanza, thanks to an appearance by Gov. Sarah Palin and a gangsta rap from Amy Poehler, also ended up helping musical guest Adele.

The singer hasn’t matched the success of fellow British newcomers Leona Lewis and Duffy so far, even though her “19" album and live show is just as powerful. But that may be changing thanks to “SNL.” The day after her appearance, Adele’s “19" album rocketed to No. 1 on iTunes and the Top 5 on Amazon.com, while her single “Chasing Pavements” jumped into the Top 25.

It’s almost like the good ol’ days, back in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s when there was always a noticeable “SNL” bump, when even reruns of the show could push an album into the Top 10. The pop culture landscape is more fractured now, but as Adele’s boost shows, it’s still possible to unite it every now and then.

PHOTO: adele.tv

So Aubrey O’Day and D. Woods are out of Danity Kane. Or something.
    Last night’s finale of “Making the Band 4" really didn’t offer a lot of answers beyond confirming what the Internet has been buzzing about for a couple of months.
    But is their exit permanent? Or are they gonna fix it, fix it, fix it?
    After declaring, “I am not the bad guy,” Diddy was a bit noncommittal. “If there was a situation where the Aubrey that I signed ever showed up, I don’t know what the future could hold,” he said in a live interview with MTV’s Sway. “That young lady that was in front of me, that wasn’t really respectful of me and respectful of everybody else, I didn’t have any interest of going forward and working with that person.”
    He went on to say that he had no problem with working with D. Woods again. Um, OK.
    When O’Day arrived (Woods was a no-show), she was styled in the same colors as the rest of the group and mysteriously said, “There is something that is going on with us that y’all will never know.”
    That was after she said she had walked out of the building after hearing what Diddy had to say about her. But then she came back to say, “This isn’t about me. This is about life. We’re all trying our best every day. I know how many people are out there – people are criticizing you at your job, your friends are calling you things, people are telling you you’re something you’re not – and you fight those struggles every day to just prove who you are.”
    Her confrontation (via satellite) with Diddy was also odd, as he told her she was heading to a cold and lonely place because of her attitude, while she complimented his “I Heart Michelle Obama T-shirt.
    It all feels like some sort of WWE stunt. Or at least drama for drama's sake, especially after Sway announced there would be another season of “Making the Band 4,” meaning that this could all just be some sort of manufactured cliffhanger. Or not.
    Diddy said his focus was Levittown’s Donnie Klang. “I love Donnie Klang,” he said. “Donnie Klang is about his business. Y’all need to get that Donnie Klang album. He works hard. He ain’t got no ----  in the game.”

PHOTO: Atlantic Records

Fall Out Boy has pushed back the release of its "Folie a Deux" CD from Nov. 4 to Dec. 16 to steer clear from what the band felt could be seen as an Election Day gimmick.

"Six months ago we thought it would be a fun idea to release our album on Election Day but this is not the election to be cute," the band said on its Web site. "This is the most important election of our time and, as much as the record is a social commentary and the term 'folie a deux' is relevant to the candidates, we felt as though rather than making a commentary we were only riding the wave of the election. This seemed less and less like what we intended to do and more of a gimmick."

Because release dates are packed this year in the run-up to the holidays, Fall Out Boy's decision to move the album's release off its original date resulted in a serious delay. However, the band says it will make up for the switch by playing "extremely small clubs" in November, with shows being announced the same day they take place. The delay may also mean that a rumored Elvis Costello collaboration may make the final album.

"While we have all individually expressed our positions on the candidates that we support we feel that many of the interviews and press for the record have skewed us into a partisan band," the band said. "While it may be obvious where we standm we never intended to be the band that shoved our ideas down peoples throats. We only hope people look at the bigger picture and investigate the issues further on their own."

Fall Out Boy plans to continue its rollout, which has already resulted in a strong first single "I Don't Care" and an even stronger follow-up, "Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet," which is a fantastic collection of rock surprises, from Patrick Stump sounding like Duran Duran's Simon LeBon on verses to unexpected horn sections and a powerful chorus.

"We are extremely sorry but we feel that we are doing this for reasons that suit our ideals and are unselfish," the band said.

PHOTO: Fall Out Boy by Pamela Littky for Island Records

For Danity Kane fans, last week’s cliffhanger on “Making The Band 4" was a doozy. Diddy has a summit with the “Damaged” gals and tells Aubrey O’Day, “I don’t want you in the group no more... Anybody else that want to go with her can go with her.” Then, in the previews for Tuesday’s episode, he says, “She’s not going to be in Danity Kane. There’s nothing else to talk about.”

Did Diddy really ax Aubrey, arguably the group’s most recognizable member? Or is it a stunt for publicity. I’d bet on the latter, but who knows? When I talked to Danity’s Dawn Richard in August – around the same time this meeting went down – the plan was for the group to be on the road in October. They aren’t.

At the time we were talking, I obviously didn’t know about the meeting. But looking back on our conversation, there really weren’t any signs of a breakup. Here are some highlights:

Q: You’ve got some stuff on your own coming up. Is that where you’re heading or will it always be the group first?

A: I always put Danity Kane first. I speak for myself with this, but I will always put Danity Kane first. Danity Kane will be here as long as Danity Kane wants to be here. It’s hard for me and the girls, for everybody, to have the same agenda, but for me, no matter what, it’ll be the group... It’s my baby. There’s so much to conquer in this industry.

Q: What’s up next?

A: We have a tour that we’re supposed to get on in October. We’re working with Dollhouse Jeans. The Danity Kane comic book is coming out. We’ve got a lot going on. Agendas. Between us as a group and individually, Danity Kane as a brand is doing great things.

Q: With all that you’ve accomplished, when Diddy comes around and starts giving you guys grief ...

A: Everybody has a different relationship with Diddy. I don’t really get grief from Diddy. When we talk, we’re cool. He’s like “What’s the next project you’re working on? Do this with this hook or do that.” When I have a conversation with Diddy, it’s always musical. Everybody knows the relationship between him and Aubrey. They have the headbutt-to-headbutt relationship. Everyone’s different. It may be the boss to client. It may be just a faraway kind of thing. Either way, he’s always going to bother us because he’s Puff. (Laughs)

PHOTO: Danity Kane for Bad Boy Records/Atlantic.

Janet Jackson plans to restart her tour on Saturday in Uncasville, Conn., but she has postponed her Madison Square Garden show on Oct. 16 until Nov. 1. Her show on Oct. 17 at the Izod Center is so to go on as scheduled.

Jackson has postponed several dates on the tour due to an unspecified illness. She said in a statement released yesterday that she is excited about getting back on the road and  "being able to share with her fans what she feels is one of her best stage shows ever."

Like Heart before them, the Foo Fighters are calling for Sen. John McCain to stop using their song "My Hero" in his presidential campaign without their permission.

"It's frustrating and infuriating that someone who claims to speak for the American people would repeatedly show such little respect for creativity and intellectual property," the band said in a statement. "The saddest thing about this is that 'My Hero' was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential. have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song. We hope that the McCain campaign will do the right thing and stop using our song--and start asking artists' permission in general!"

What does it say about McCain's campaign that they have such a hard time finding suitable music from artists who support him that they have to stoop to using songs from artists who are actively against him?

PHOTO: Foo Fighters -- Chris Shiflett, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel -- by Ben Watts.

Considering how overwhelming Beyonce’s lead singles usually are, her new single “If I Were a Boy,” which world premiered this morning on Elvis Duran’s show on Z100, is stunningly understated. (Hear it here.)

Even back to her days with Destiny’s Child, Beyonce has always picked the biggest, brassiest songs to trumpet the arrival of her albums – “Crazy in Love,” “Deja Vu,” “Lose My Breath,” “Independent Women,” “Bills, Bills, Bills.” At the very least, those songs were so distinctive they stuck out in their surroundings, either sonically, lyrically or in production. At their best, they changed the way radio sounded for months at a time.

That’s what makes “If I Were a Boy” so unusual. It’s, well, normal. It’s a midtempo, acoustic number, in the “Irreplaceable” vein, but much smaller-sounding, about how men and women approach relationships differently. “If I were a boy, I think I could understand/How it feels to be a girl, I swear I’d be a better man,” she sings.

It’s pretty and quiet and understated and a perfectly fine little song. Eventually, B stands up for herself, as she always does, but it’s done without the usual sass, without coining new catch phrases and without the usual dominant strutting that generally comes with her lead singles. “Boy” isn’t uniquely B, it could be sung by any number of today’s hitmakers on the pop, R&B or even country charts.

Up to now, Beyonce has kept her new album, still untitled, under wraps, not releasing info on producers or co-writers or guest stars, aside from, possibly, Justin Timberlake. She recently wrote on her website, “I have taken risks here. I am not afraid and my music will explain it all. There is no label or tag on my sound.”

Perhaps the risks will show up on the other lead single, “Single Ladies,” which is scheduled to debut on Oct. 14. (UPDATE: Ryan Seacrest at KIIS (and soon to be of Z100 as well) debuted "Single Ladies" today. He has it here. It's upbeat and dancey, but not exactly risky.) Her album is set to drop on Nov. 18.

PHOTO: Columbia Records

After two decades of being one of the most underappreciated groups around, De La Soul is getting a bit of its due tonight at VH1's Hip-Hop Honors at Hammerstein Ballroom.

"They were poets of that time and were the basis for a lot of other movements," the show's executive producer Lee Rolontz told me earlier this week. "It's long overdue that they be honored."

I'm heading to the show and plan to tweet from the Strong Island celebration, which will feature Chuck D and Flavor Flav and EPMD paying tribute. (You can follow along here if you don't wanna get a Twitter account.) The show will also honor Cypress Hill, Naughty by Nature, Slick Rick and Too $hort.

De La Soul, "A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays"

Robin Thicke’s new album, “Something Else,” hits stores today. (More on that from the Newsday preview here.) But the ardent Barack Obama supporter also had more to say about race in America and how he picks his collaborators, including Glen Cove’s Ashanti.

I read somewhere that you’ve said, “Everything now comes down to race in America.” Is that true?

I think I was talking about the presidential election. The whispers about it are all around. There are still people asking, “Are we ready for an African-American president?” It’s kind of interesting that we’re still asking that question. But, across the country, people are changing their tunes. There are groups like the Hell’s Angels who said they’re going to vote for Obama because they can’t afford things to keep going the way they are... It’s only 45 years since the “I Have a Dream” speech. I think what Americans don’t realize is how electing Obama would change the perception of America in the rest of the world. To go from Bush to a black president? That would show why we are leaders in the world.

Do you feel that race affects you in your career? That because you’re white you can’t sing soul music?

Normally, only white people say that. (Laughs) It’s like Jimi Hendrix playing rock and roll. I think if the artist lets that get in the way, they’ll never accomplish anything. If you keep making great music, that’s what gets into peoples hearts. If you make great music that I want to listen to, then I’ll let all those other bygones be bygones... Depending on the room I walk into I could catch a lot of hater energy or I could catch a lot of “You’re the real thing and people are finally getting to know it.” It depends which corner I turn.

Well, considering all the collaborations you’ve done recently – Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, Jennifer Hudson, Ashanti – you’ve certainly won some respect with artists. How did you come to work with Ashanti?

She came to a listening session that I was having for my album. She came in smiling and looking beautiful and she played me this record that she wanted me to be on and we did it right there. When those things happen organically, it’s great. People always say, “You should do a record with this person because it will help your career.” I never do it for those purposes. I only do it because I’m excited about the artist or I’m inspired.

PHOTO: Robin Thicke from Interscope Records.

File this under: Things I Can't Wait to Hear.

Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger and David Javerbaum, executive producer of "The Daily Show," have written an hour-long musical called "A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All," which will air Nov. 23 on Comedy Central nd be released on DVD.

The eight new songs include: "There Are Much Worse Things To Believe In," a duet between Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello, "Nutmeg," which pairs Colbert with John Legend, "Little Dealer Boy," which teams him with Willie Nelson, and "Hanukkah," where he joins Jon Stewart. Toby Keith will handle "Have I Got a Present for You" and Feist will sing "Please Be Patient."

A portion of the proceeds from the DVD sale will go to Feeding America.

PHOTOS: Elvis Costello by Zach Cordner for THE WORD magazine; Stephen Colbert for Comedy Central. 

Britney Spears and David Cook staked their claim on increasingly scarce fourth-quarter release dates yesterday, with Spears picking out her birthday, Dec. 2, for her album "Circus." The first single "Womanizer" hits radio Monday.

Cook, the current "American Idol," will release his major-label debut Nov. 18 on 19/RCA, with hit-maker Rob Cavallo as the producer. Cook's single, "Time of My Life," has proven surprisingly durable, climbing to No. 1 on the adult contemporary chart this week, after being linked to the Olympics and showing up on "Oprah" last week.

However, Cook will have to battle Beyonce on Nov. 18, when she releases her still-untitled album, which includes a collaboration with Justin Timberlake and features only songs that she co-wrote and co-produced. The first singles, "Single Ladies" and "If I Were a Boy," hit radio Oct. 7.

And will there be another Kanye West vs. 50 Cent battle? Well, at the moment, 50 Cent's new album "Before I Self Destruct" is due Dec. 9 and West's "808s & Heartbreak" arrives Dec. 16, but you never know.

PHOTO: Victorious Britney Spears at the VMAs. MTV Photo.

Oasis has canceled its "secret" show at Terminal 5 tomorrow night due to the injuries Noel Gallagher sustained after being tackled onstage at a concert Sunday night. However, fans can still get a sneak preview of songs from the band's forthcoming "Dig Out Your Soul" album at several subway platforms tomorrow, performed by New York street musicians.

The musicians will get the sheet music and rehearse four new songs from the album -- "The Turning," "Bag it Up," "(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady," and the new single
"The Shock of the Lightning" -- and then go out to more than a dozen subway platforms, including the LIRR corridor at Penn Station from 1-3 p.m. and 6-9 p.m.,  to perform them. [Full list of times and locations]

PHOTO: Oasis by Andrew Macpherson for oasisinet.com

Remember when we (along with pretty much everyone else not working at Atlantic Records) said pulling Estelle's album "Shine" off of iTunes was a bad idea? Well, apparently someone at Atlantic realized that this strategy was, um, flawed.

Guess what the ad on top of the iTunes store is right now? Yes, it's Estelle's "American Boy." Imagine that. The song has already rebounded to No. 20 on the iTunes chart today. However, the momentum it had two weeks ago when it was at No. 11 on Billboard's singles charts has been sapped.

And did yanking it from iTunes spur sales of the "Shine" CD as Atlantic execs hoped it would. Um, not exactly. "Shine" sales did jump 16 percent last week, moving about 5,400 copies, but those aren't really Kid Rock numbers.

In exchange for those sales, Atlantic funneled about 100,000 sales to the Studio All-Stars' knockoff version of "American Boy" and another 7,000 sales to the Starlite Singers' knockoff version, according to Soundscan. It also knocked Estelle's "American Boy" from No. 11 to No. 57 in two weeks. Fair trade?

PHOTO: Estelle for Atlantic Records.

Maybe MTV will be able to make next year's Video Music Awards even more disjoint and off-putting because, apparently, that's what America wants. This year's show, much like last year's Britney-fueled debacle, was a ratings winner, according to the network.

The show landed an 8.1 rating among the cherished 12-to-34 demographic, up 26 percent from last year and 37 percent higher than the 2006 show, with about 23 million tuning in at some point Sunday night. The VMAs also funneled 18 percent more visitors to MTV.com compared to last year's event.

Perhaps the strategy of telling how many minutes were left to the next performance and Russell Brand's ongoing recap of what had just happened were exactly what intermittent viewers wanted, even though those who stuck with/were forced to watch the show all the way through found that annoying. The bait-and-switch with the Britney Spears opening, however, will probably not work again next year. Or will it?

PHOTO: Russell Brand by MTV.

Oasis' Noel Gallagher was taken to the hospital Sunday night in Toronto after a man jumped onstage and pushed Gallagher from behind, causing him to fall on his monitor speakers. Gallagher was examined for a possible rib fracture and ligament damage.

The band said it is unclear whether tonight's show in London, Ontario, will go on. It is not clear whether the band's "surprise" show set for Terminal 5 in Manhattan on Friday, drumming up publicity for the forthcoming "Dig Out Your Soul" album, will be affected.

No word on the motive for the attack, which came as the band played "Morning Glory." The unidentified man was tackled as he headed for singer Liam Gallagher and the band took a five-minute break to regroup before continuing with the show.

Ever outspoken, Noel Gallagher's most recent beef has been with Jay-Z over whether the rapper should have been the headliner at this year's Glastonbury Festival.

PHOTO: Oasis by Andrew Macpherson for oasisinet.com

What is going on with the VMAs? Aside from Rihanna's crazed attack of mutant dancers for "Disturbia," her duet with T.I. on "Live Your Life," and Christina Aguilera's bizarre new single "Keeps Getting Better," it's kind of been a snooze. That must be why Russell Brand keeps reminding us of the things that just happened because after the commercial break we've pretty much forgotten that they've happened. And the clock that tells how many minutes until some other boring thing only encourages people to go check out "Entourage" and come back. This is only made worse by the fact that they have actual nominees playing the bumper music into commercials, even Katy Perry.

Also, the Kanye West song "Love Lockdown" may be one of those that grow on you, but initially it reminds us that he's a much better rapper than a singer.

Anyway... The winners:

Continue reading "The VMAs are falling apart" »

For those waiting for a repeat of last year’s MTV Video Music Awards debacle, Britney Spears offered a different kind of letdown.

    Her much-hyped opening of the show last night, which involved no singing, was limited and straightforward. Then, she won her first VMA after 16 previous nominations, taking home best female video for “Piece of Me.”

    “I’m speechless,” said Spears, wearing a far classier, far more flattering dress than last year’s outfit. “This is an honor. I just want to thank God first and foremost for blessing me like this, my beautiful family, my two beautiful boys for inspiring me everyday and my fans, this is for you.”

     Yes, her comedy bit with Jonah Hill was a bit flat, but that wasn't really her fault. But otherwise, Spears performed quite admirably.

Gnarls Barkley's "Run" won two VMAs -- for best art direction and best choreography.

Also winning pre-show awards:

-- The White Stripes' "Conquest" for best cinematography

-- Erykah Badu's "Honey" for best direction

-- Kanye West's "Good Life" for best special effects, meaning Kanye won't be shut out again this year 

MTV’s Video Music Awards were always less about the awards and more about creating a spectacle, but now the awards part is almost an afterthought.

The evening’s nominations leaders – inexplicably The Pussycat Dolls’ “When I Grow Up� video (below) which landed six nods – aren’t even set to perform. (That may be a contract thing, though, since they will be on “Fashion Rocks� on Tuesday.)

The other big nominees – Chris Brown and Katy “I Kissed a Girl� Perry, who both have 5 nods, – will perform, though, Perry is expected to pay tribute to Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.� This is expected to be horrible. (Side note: Rihanna’s tribute to Madonna’s “Vogue,� which will be part of “Fashion Rocks� on Tuesday, was actually quite good live.)

Denis Leary, who hosted “Fashion Rocks,� offered his own preview, saying his show was “gonna be a lot like the VMAs only with actual real musicians.� He added that he would launch his own tribute to Britney Spears: “I’m gonna chug a bottle of Nyquil, shave my head, make out with a member of the paparazzi and leave my kids with Lil Wayne for three and a half weeks.�

Spears is set to open the show tonight by “saying hello� to her fans – whatever that means. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Pussycat Dolls, "When I Grow Up"

While folks were still reeling about the "surprise" of Britney Spears opening the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday night (um, she was part of the ad campaign promoting the show, how could she not be involved?), MTV dropped a real surprise yesterday, announcing that Kanye West would close the show.

Yes, Kanye "I Will Never Return to MTV" West has apparently gotten over his snubbing at last year's awards, though it's not really clear why. The notorious tantrum-thrower actually had a point when he questioned why a clearly not-ready Spears got the opening slot instead of him, in the wake of his massive "Stronger" hit. He also had a point about being forced to perform in a suite, while Justin Timberlake and others performed on the main stage. And yet he's signed on again and is still not opening the show. Why, 'Ye, why? (You know, other than the chance to promote your new single "Love Lockdown" and forthcoming album.)

Christina Aguilera was also announced as a performer, joining Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne Pink, T.I. with Rihanna, and Katy Perry doing Madonna's "Like a Virgin." Sadly, that's serious.

After last year's train-wreck ratings bonanza, though, people will, no doubt, have to tune in Sunday at 9 p.m. And yes, we'll be live-blogging the nightmare here as well.

PHOTO: West from last year's VMAs from MTV.

The new charity single “Just Stand Up� is a great idea, a way to raise funds for cancer research and awareness for the “Stand Up to Cancer� special to be aired on ABC, CBS and NBC on Sept. 5.
In practice, though, the song, produced by L.A. Reid and Babyface, is a bit of a diva pile-up, with 15 singers crammed into a song that clocks in around three-and-a-half-minutes. And telling one from another, especially in the middle, gets a bit dicey.

So here’s a handy guide to tell who’s who:

Beyonce is clearly the opener, followed by a pop-sounding Carrie Underwood. Next is Rihanna, with her cute accent and distinctive phrasing that makes her lines sound a bit like “Umbrella,� and a line from Sheryl Crow. Crow and Beyonce team up for the first pass through the chorus.

The second verse starts with Fergie’s distinctly not-cute accent, before she starts trading lines with Leona Lewis and then Keyshia Cole. Rihanna returns for her bit, trading lines with Miley Cyrus, before handing off to LeAnn Rimes and Natasha Bedingfield. Underwood picks up the Sheryl Crow line and they all head into the chorus together, with some powerful vamping from Melissa Ethridge.

Mary J. Blige handles the first half of the bridge, with some support from Ciara, Rihanna and Underwood. Mariah Carey takes over for the second half, supported by Ashanti – leading to an All-Long Island oasis. Then Mary and Mariah head back into the chorus, ad libbing over the group, complete with Mariah’s trademark high-register notes.

Fergie comes back for the outro and we’re out.

"Just Stand Up" goes on sale on iTunes on Sept. 2 and will make its live debut during the Sept. 5 special.

The futures of two popular ways for adventurous music-hunters to find new artists are now threatened.

Muxtape, the easy-to-use mixtape creator and sharer, took down the site yesterday saying they needed time to "sort out a problem with the RIAA."

Pandora, the Music Genome Project's streaming radio site, may fold because of the higher royalty rates for webcasters that the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board enacted last year. Thanks to lobbying from SoundExchange, an arm of the RIAA, the board doubled the rates, even though terrestrial radio doesn't pay any fees and satellite radio pays fees that are far less per song than webcasters are now being charged.

Pandora founder Tim Westergren told The Washington Post that the company will now pay 70 percent of its revenue to webcasting fees. "We're approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision," he said. "This is like a last stand for webcasting."

Maybe the thriving record industry feels it doesn't need all the help it can get introducing music fans to new artists. Oh. Wait. Hmm.

The convention line-ups are set -- well, at least the musical ones.

Daughtry, Everclear and up-and-comers Flobots will appear at the Democratic convention on Aug. 26, as part of the Grammy Foundation's "Rock the Conventions," an attempt to convince conventioneers of the importance of music education and lobby them on other "issues that affect the creative community."

For the Republican convention, they have Brett James, who wrote Carrie Underwood's "Jesus Take the Wheel," and singer-songwriter Greg Laswell on Sept. 2. Um, really, Grammy Foundation? Was Ted Nugent not available? Are there really no musicians willing to even hang out with the Republicans?

After all, the Creative Coalition Gala at the Republican convention will have Spike Lee, Susan Sarandon and Maggie Gyllenhaal on Sept. 3.

UPDATE: Rage Against the Machine will play the Denver Coliseum on Aug. 27 as part of the Tent State Music Festival, with Flobots, The Coup and Wayne Kramer. Tent State is meant to confront the Democratic convention about stopping the war in Iraq.

PHOTO: Daughtry by Danny Clinch for 19/RCA

De La Soul, "Me, Myself & I"

De La Soul, the Amityville-based trio that broke the barriers of hip-hop with its breakthrough album “3 Feet High and Rising,� is among this year’s honorees for VH1's “Hip Hop Honors,� along with Cypress Hill, Naughty by Nature, Slick Rick, and Too Short.
Tracy Morgan was announced as the event’s host yesterday, but performers for the event, set to air Oct. 7 on VH1 and VH1 Soul, have not yet been named. “‘Hip Hop Honors’ has come to represent the pinnacle of innovation and achievement in hip hop music,� said Tom Calderone, VH1's executive vice president and general manager.

Diddy is nothing if not pre-emptive.

Sensing MTV News' James Montgomery was going to trash Donnie Klang's new video "Take You There" on "FNMTV," the way he has criticized videos from Klang's "Making the Band 4" co-stars Danity Kane and Day 26, Diddy rushed the stage to lean on Montgomery to do the chorus of Maino's "Hi Hater."

When Montgomery tries to gingerly say there was nothing new in the video, Diddy, who is featured in the video and on the track, says, "Who are you? Where did you come from? What hit records have you ever made? The guy is a star! Donnie Klang is a star!"

Time will tell who's right. Klang's debut "Just a Rolling Stone" hits stores on Sept. 2.

Diddy Goes After MTV News' James Montgomery on 'FNMTV' -- Why? [MTV]

PHOTO: Diddy gives Jordin Sparks a kiss after trying to "intimidate" MTV's James Montgomery (left) into saying something nice about Donnie Klang. Photo by Chris Polk for MTV.

If there's one thing U2 has plenty of it's confidence. And that serves Bono and company well nearly every time. The band is releasing remastered deluxe versions of its first three albums next week, but instead of hiding all those bonus tracks away due to worries that sales of the albums will suffer, U2 has made them all available at a special imeem site today. Not 30-second samples, not a handful of tracks, all of them in their entirety, with embedding not disabled.

U2 is banking on fans being so excited about the new albums that they'll buy them in all their enhanced glory even if they've heard the previously unreleased songs. That's a pretty good bet. And it just goes to show that confidence in your work and your fans can still pay off.

Here's the expanded "War" edition in its entirety:

Continue reading "U2 puts remastered "Boy," "October" and "War" on imeem" »

After being criticized for being unmarried and possibly being pregnant, Erykah Badu took to the OkayPlayer forums to set some anonymous commenters straight. "I've never been so disgusted in all of my life. There is no other place I used to enjoy more. I post nowhere else.
You guys have taken an all time low, tho."

As with so many Internet battles, even her supporters are divided over whether she should have taken on the criticism or not. Some wish she wouldn't have bothered letting it get to her. Others say her well-crafted response was the right move.

In either case, Badu boldly says she doesn't care if she loses fans over her personal decisions or her decision to speak out. "WHO NEEDS YOU... CERTAINLY NOT ME... KICK ROCKS ... CALL TYRONE ..." she writes. And her sign off is even better: "If this post is not clear, kiss my placenta."

Okayplayer.com Boards [via Idolator]

PHOTO: Erykah Badu by Marc Baptiste for Universal Motown Records

Whether it's good enough to launch a serious music career remains to be seen, but Ali Lohan's new single "All the Way Around" is light years better than her big sis Lindsay's debut. Not only does Ali roll out a nice pop song that's decently song, but it's age appropriate and will serve as a good introduction for what her album may be like.

One of the most impressive pieces in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum collection is John Lennon's handwritten lyrics to "Imagine" because of its simplicity.

For me, it's always been moving to see how a few words scrawled on a piece of paper can be turned into a work of art that somehow changes the world.

Apparently, other folks feel the same. Yesterday, the handwritten lyrics to "Give Peace a Chance," which Lennon gave to then-teenager Gail Renard when she snuck into the Montreal bed-in in 1969, were sold at Christie's auction for $833,000.

Lennon told her "one day they will be worth something." He was right in more ways than one.

PHOTO: Lyrics to "Give Peace a Chance" from Christie's rock memorabilia auction.

Though 50 Cent has been remarkably quiet about the fire that destroyed his Dix Hills mansion in May and the ongoing battle with his ex-girlfriend Shaniqua Tompkins over their son, Marquise, he did open up to MTV yesterday about why. "I really don't wanna talk about it, because my son at some point will have the opportunity to see the tapes," he said. "She's still his mother, and I'm still his father, regardless. He's gonna love both of us."

He also talks about missing Marquise on tour. "In the summertime, for the first two years I was successful, my son has traveled with us on those tours," Fitty said. "He was on the Rock the Mic Tour, he was on the Anger Management Tour. This summer, when he's free, it's, like, no communication. It's tough."

Asked how he wants this all to turn out, he said: "I'd like to be able to just see my baby."

50 Cent opens up about strained relationship with his ex after house fire [MTV]

So Kanye West took to his blog last night to bat down rumors that he's in anger management classes, saying, "I have never had any conversations about anger management. If anything, I need anger enhancement!! lol!" Um, OK.

He then goes on to say, "I don't know if everyone has realized this yet but I don't do interviews. If there's anything I wanna say I'll say right here on my own blog." Now Mr. West has had a rough year and maybe he's just stressed out or jet-lagged (he blogged from Hawaii), but it'll be interesting to see how long this "no-interview" thing holds up once he's promoting the follow-up to "Graduation" ("Master's Degree"?) or some other project he wants attention for.

Are people going to hold him to this pledge? No. Just like no one really expected 50 Cent to retire after his album's opening sales week lost to West's opening week.

PHOTO: A portion of the magazine covers West has been on recently from www.kanyeuniversecity.com

Girl Talk (a.k.a. Gregg Gillis) finished his new album "Feed the Animals" earlier this week and he put it up on the website for his label Illegal Art this morning, available for download for whatever price people want to pay.

If you pay more than $10, you get a copy of the CD when it's released in September, access to the album as a single, uninterrupted file (the way Gillis would want you to hear it) and high-quality MP3 versions. For more than $5, you get the single file and all the MP3s.

Now the buzz of hearing 300 different samples in a little over 50 minutes is a bit dizzying, but "Feed the Animals" is as much fun as Gillis' breakthrough "Night Ripper" and, if nothing else, a great party trick. Who can resist the mix between Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" and Nine Inch Nails' "March of the Pigs" on "Here's the Thing," which opens with Quad City DJs' "The Train" rapped over Chicago's "Saturday in the Park"?

PHOTO: Girl Talk's "Feed the Animals" on Illegal Art

Though Coldplay's "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" is a bit of a mixed bag, the roll out for it has been pretty much a perfect primer for the Music Industry 2.0.

They gave away the first single "Violet Hill" for a week on their website to generate free publicity and then announced free concerts in London and at Madison Square Garden to promote it further. Then, they saved the hotter single "Viva La Vida" for use in an iPod commercial, letting Apple (and its way deeper pockets for advertising) to drum up even more publicity for them.

The results so far have been huge. "Viva La Vida" is now the band's biggest American hit ever, poised at No. 2 to become their first No. 1 single here. And first-week sales of "Viva La Vida" in their United Kingdom base may be their biggest ever, though because of the release date, it will be split between two weeks on the chart. Nevertheless, in its first three days of sale in England, the album went platinum, selling 300,000 copies and selling more than the rest of the Top 5 albums combined.

(All those sales came with many leaks of the album available on the Internet and the band has made the entire album available on I Heart Music for days.)

It's been great news for EMI, which has been the major label that has been struggling most with the changing music industry landscape. Whether Coldplay's results are good enough to save the company remains to be seen, but they are certainly off to a good start.

Hear "Viva La Vida or Death and All is Friends" here 

PHOTO: Coldplay -- Will Champion, Guy Berryman, Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland -- by Stephan Craneanscki for Capitol Records.

Joan Jett and Gibson Guitar announced the launch of the Joan Jett Signature Melody Maker guitar line today, making Jett the first female artist to have her own Gibson signature model.

“This is my guitar -- Gibson was successfully able to replicate my custom velvet hammer pick ups which have not been available for 20 years," Jett said in a statement. "For those of you performing live, you may understand the value of being able to shave off those split seconds between playing and interacting with the audience, especially if you use your hands to communicate. I can move between the killswitch, which mutes the guitar, and playing, and then back again without a lot of in-between motion."

The model, based on the Melody Maker version the Long Beach rocker used on "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" and "Do You Wanna Touch Me," is also similar to the Les Pauls of the late '60s.

“Joan Jett is a true icon of rock and roll," said Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar, in a statement. "Since the beginning she has been a groundbreaking artist and a trailblazer for women in the genre. Gibson is proud to be working with such an influential guitar player."

PHOTO: Joan Jett for Gibson 

While The Academy Is... and a few journalists listened to "About a Girl" from the band's still-untitled forthcoming album, singer William Beckett raised his hands over his head during the future hit's impossibly catchy chorus, a sign that he's already thinking about performing the song for big, big crowds.

It's a good plan, since the handful of songs I heard last week at Fresh Kills studio in Greenwich Village shows the band embracing its poppier side and looking to make another quantum leap in their careers. "About a Girl" is a smash in the making, a straight-up power-pop gem with loud guitars and clever lyrical twists. Another song, possibly called "His Friday Girl," is nearly as infectious.

Beckett says the new album, currently slated for an Aug. 19 release on Fueled by Ramen, is "a celebration of youth" and filled with songs about enjoying life. The band plans to unveil a couple of new songs during its sets on the Warped Tour, which stops at the Nassau Coliseum parking lot on July 26. Hopefully, including "About a Girl."

They may even have a title for the album by then, which Beckett says is important "for a band whose last album was called 'Santi.'" Producer Sam Hollander joked that since the bulk of the album was recorded at the Manhattan studio where Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" and Madonna's "Like a Virgin" was done, they try "Born a Virgin," which struck a chord with the band, though maybe not as a title. It's probably more likely than "Santi II," though. 

For those who somehow missed it, Ashanti has a new album "The Declaration" and today she is seemingly everywhere promoting it.

She started at "Good Morning America," where she talked about still living in Glen Cove and performed "The Way That I Love You" and, unexpectedly, "Always on Time" with Ja Rule.

Then she was on "Live With Regis and Kelly," where she also sang "The Way That I Love You," and, unexpectedly, did a cooking segment where she taught Regis and Kelly how to cook her "Good Good" Grilled Teriyaki Salmon with Grilled Asparagus. (Want the recipe? Of course you do.)

And if that's not enough, she heads back to Glen Cove at 4 p.m. to present a donation to the Glen Cove Boys and Girls Club, 113 Glen Cove Ave.

According to Hits Daily Double, Ashanti seems on track to sell 80,000 copies of "The Declaration" this week, landing her a No. 4 or 5 debut next week.

Ashanti, "The Way That I Love You"

For some reason, Amy Winehouse just can't let herself have a good week. After making history by landing two nominations in the top Ivor Novello category, she reportedly went out and headbutted a guy who helped her hail a cab and punched another guy. She was arrested on suspicion of assault today, but has not been charged.

Amy Winehouse arrested over assault claim [Telegraph]

Will the Ukraine girls really knock him out? (Ooh-woo-ooh-ooh)
Paul McCartney will play a free concert at Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, on June 14 that will also be broadcasted live on Novy TV, which means plenty of coverage on YouTube for all of us.
"We're going to have to a great evening and we hope to see you there," McCartney said in a statement. "So come along, its going to be great evening hopefully for the Ukraine. Pull together, groove, rock and roll all together."
Victor Pinchuk, Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist saw it in broader terms.
"One could not imagine this 30 years agon" he said in a statement. "Nobody could even dare to hope for this 20 years ago. One could only dream about it 10 years ago. 5 years ago we could only envy our neighbours for whom this became a reality. And finally the day has come. For the first time we have the opportunity to hear the songs that changed the world and created a new culture. The songs that we grew up with and became who we are."

Amy Winehouse became the first artist ever to land two nominations in the best song, lyrically and musically, category of the Ivor Novello songwriting awards, for "Love Is a Losing Game" and "You Know I'm No Good."

She's up against "Let Me Out" by Ben's Brother in that category. Her song "Rehab" is  nominated in the best-selling British song category, against Mika's "Grace Kelly" and Beyonce and Shakira's "Beautiful Liar."

The awards will be announced in London on May 22.

Winehouse gets three Ivor Novello nominations [Reuters] 

For the first time in 17 years, the original Jane's Addiction lineup -- drummer Stephen Perkins, singer Perry Farrell, bassist Eric Avery and guitarist Dave Navarro (above) -- will play together again, celebrating receiving NME's "Godlike Genius Award" on April 23.

Avery, who released his latest solo album "Help Wanted" (Dangerbird) last week, has been the holdout for years, not participating in previous Jane's Addiction tours or the 2003 album "Strays." However, he thought the NME award, which has previously gone to the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, New Order and The Clash, was different.

"I have always considered reunions to be a way to make a quick buck, and it sells short my own experience of it the first time around," Avery said in a statement. "The reason I started to even consider this is because it's honoring the past instead of trying to recreate it."

PHOTO: Jane's Addiction for Warner Bros. 

Kellie Pickler picked up three "Buckles" at the CMT Music Awards last night, including breakthrough video and performance for "I Wonder." Her emotional performance of the song at last year's CMA Awards also won the Tearjerker Award.

Taylor Swift's "Our Song" won Video of the Year and Top Female, while Trace Adkins won Top Male. Sugarland won Top Group and Brad Paisley's "Online" was Best Comedy Video.

The entire show, hosted by Billy Ray Cyrus and Miley Cyrus, is streaming here.

Kellie Pickler, "I Wonder" (Live at 2007 CMA)

Mariah Carey debuted her new single "Bye Bye" on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" today, ensuring a huge opening for it when it goes on sale at iTunes tomorrow along with the rest of her "E=MC2" album. (As Oprah repeated often "E=MC2" is Carey shorthand for "Emancipation equals Mariah Carey to a higher power.")

Carey also explained how the song is, in part, about the loss of her father, Alfred Roy Carey, though the song's theme is about dealing with any sort of loss.

Much of Carey's "Oprah" appearance was dedicated to her recent weight loss, though she did take time out to show off the lingerie closet in her Manhattan apartment, where her undergarments are organized by color.

And she also addressed her recent honor, becoming the solo artist with the most No. 1 singles in the modern music era, passing Elvis Presley when "Touch My Body" became her 18th chart-topper. "I didn't do this," she said of the honor. "This is not me. It’s the grace of God. I also have to thank the fans."

PHOTO: Island Def Jam

FULL REVIEW: On 'E=MC2," Mariah Carey has no equal [Newsday]
 

File this under: Wha?

So Jermaine Dupri, through Island Def Jam, has launched a new label with TAG. Yes, the body spray people. Why?

"To provide new artists with a chance of a lifetime" and "to make history in hip-hop," Dupri says in a statement, adding that artists on TAG Records will receive ten times the typical marketing support. Um, OK.

This partnership will help the Procter & Gamble subsidiary break into the urban market and it will give new artists a bigger marketing budget. But if this label was really for serious stars, wouldn't the label happily give them more marketing money knowing it would generate more sales and profits for them without giving the body-spray people a cut?

I guess we'll find out when the label announces its first signing next month.

Well, at least it's staying in the rock and roll family. The CBGB Gallery space on the Bowery, next to the legendary punk club, will soon be another Morrison Hotel Gallery space, in addition to the rock photography galleries already in SoHo, L.A. and La Jolla.

The first show is set to be "Rockers," an installation from rock photog Bob Gruen, including shots from the heyday of CBGB and Max's Kansas City. Part of the exhibit, which will open April 24, will transform the gallery's main space into a teenager's bedroom.

CBGB, which was the epicenter of the New York punk scene in the '70s, and its gallery next door, closed in 2006 after a lengthy lease dispute with its landlord.

ABOVE: Artist rendering of the new Morrison Hotel Gallery storefront. 

Release dates? Who needs 'em?

Gnarls Barkley announced yesterday that they would move up the release of their new album "The Odd Couple" from April 8 to, well, today. The album is already on sale at iTunes, Rhapsody and Amazon for download and will be in stores this week.

Why the move? According to a band spokesman, "With the shifting seasons, furtive romantic entanglements and fierce college basketball rivalries, the latter half of March can be confusing. People need to be soothed and inspired now."

Hmm. Well at least Gnarls Barkley has the hot single "Run" to drive interest in the album.

Last night, the Raconteurs announced that they finished a new album, "Consolers of the Lonely," earlier this month and it is coming out in all formats on March 25. The first single is "Salute Your Solution" and the video for it comes out -- you guessed it -- on March 25.

What does it sound like? Good question, but no one knows. The band isn't doing any press or giving anyone an early listen to the album. "We wanted to explore the idea of releasing an album everywhere at once and THEN marketing and promoting it thereafter," the band said in a statement. "The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it."

It's an interesting bit of logic there from Jack White and Brendan Benson because unless all the Raconteurs' fans all run out and buy it in the first week, which they say is not a priority, wouldn't reviews and promotion end up "defining" the album anyway? (I, for one, don't think critics "define" any album for anyone ever, since music fans are smart enough to make up their own minds. But maybe I should just graciously accept the Raconteurs' hype of my profession's power.)

In the movie world, when companies refuse to allow critics into a movie beforehand, it's usually a sure sign that it's terrible. But given White and Benson's track records, that isn't necessarily the case. We'll all just have to wait and see together.

PHOTO: Gnarls Barkley by Jeremy and Claire Weiss for Atlantic 

     In chaos, there is opportunity. And yes, cynics, that even applies to the free-fallin’-sales chaos of today’s music industry.
    Just ask Trent Reznor.
    The Nine Inch Nails mastermind racked up $1.6 million last week from his "Ghosts I-IV" project -- including $750,000 when he sold out 2,500 copies of his “Ghosts I-IV” project at $300 apiece through his website. All in all, more than 780,000 copies of "Ghosts" – four albums of instrumentals that range from rockish to experimental – were distributed or ordered. Depending on their interest, fans could get nine tracks for free, get them all for a $5 download, a $10 double CD and a $75 deluxe package that provides a Blu-ray disc high-quality version and all the songs in multi-track format to be remixed to their hearts’ content.
     Radiohead was smart to release its “In Rainbows” album in the groundbreaking, pay-what-you-will model as well as the high-priced super-deluxe versions. But “In Rainbows” was a commercially viable album from one of music’s top bands that would have been a hit no matter what way it came out.
    But Reznor’s project is nothing short of brilliant. Four albums of instrumentals, even from a known hitmaker like Nine Inch Nails, would never have found a big audience in the traditional music industry release system. What Reznor has done may end up being the turning point for artists who want to follow their muse wherever it takes them and still get compensated for the journey.
    And they don’t necessarily have to handle the whole thing themselves. Though Reznor did set up sales through his nin.com website, he also used the artist-friendly service TuneCore – which allows any artist to sell their music on iTunes, Rhapsody, or, in Nine Inch Nails’ case, Amazon.com, for a flat fee – to take the songs to a broader audience.

PHOTO: nin.com 

That L.A. Reid is a crafty guy. When Janet Jackson went down with the flu on Tuesday, forcing her to back out of this week's "Saturday Night Live," he replaced her quickly with Island Def Jam's other diva, Mariah Carey.

The switch keeps one of TV’s prime music performance spots in the Island Def Jam family, as the label gets ready to release “E=MC2,” the follow-up to Carey’s multi-platinum comeback “The Emancipation of Mimi,” on April 15. Carey is expected to perform the album’s first single “Touch My Body,” already rapidly climbing the charts, and another new track.

Jackson’s exit will unfortunately hurt sales of her “Discipline” album, which falls from No. 1 to No. 3 this week after a 68 percent sales decline, even as her single “Feedback” breaks into the Top 20 for the first time.

Public Enemy will headline the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago on July 18 at Chicago's Union Park, celebrating the 20th anniversary of "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" by playing it in its entirety.

Also set for the three-day festival, which runs through July 20: Vampire Weekend, Animal Collective and Dizzee Rascal on Day Two and M. Ward and Spiritualized on Day Three.

Tickets are $30 for each day and $65 for the whole festival. They go on sale at 1 p.m. Wednesday. 

From the too-crazy-to-be-made-up file:

Mick Jagger was the target of an assassination attempt on Long Island in 1969, as the Hells Angels launched an amphibious assault on Jagger’s Hamptons home, a former FBI agent tells the BBC in a new documentary airing today.

The motorcycle gang was apparently seeking revenge for Jagger’s stance banning them from doing security for the Rolling Stones after the death of a fan at the band’s infamous Altamont concert.

To avoid Jagger’s security detail, members of the gang planned to attack him by taking a boat and sneaking onto his property from the ocean. However, a storm threw them all overboard and they abandoned the plan, according to the documentary.

The would-be attackers survived, but no word on whether they received an emotional rescue. Haha ah haha ah haha ha.

Hells Angels plotted to kill Mick Jagger [Telegraph] 

PHOTO: Rollingstones.com 

Janet Jackson will be all over Times Square all day tomorrow, rolling out her new "Discipline" album. And all the events will be open to the public if you do some preparation tonight.

She will do a concert at the Nokia Theatre at Times Square, 1515 Broadway, with appearances starting around 7 a.m. To get tickets to that, you need to buy "Discipline" at the Virgn Megastore in Times Square at tonight's midnight sale.

Jackson will be on "TRL" at 3 p.m. and, as every MTV fan knows, you may be able to get a peek at her if you line up outside 1515 Broadway and scream a lot.

And she will wrap up her day with an appearance at Best Buy, 529 5th Ave., at 6 p.m. if you buy "Discipline" at that store's midnight sale tonight.

Continue reading "Janet takes Manhattan" »

Nearly three years after their 2005 major-label debut "Plans" for Atlantic Records, Death Cab For Cutie will release "Narrow Stairs" on May 13. The first single will be "I Will Possess Your Heart," an eight-minute track with a lengthy instrumental prelude.

That may not sound like a recipe for success, but "Plans" sold an unexpected 90,000 copies in its first week to debut at No. 4 on the Billboard chart.

Produced by guitarist Chris Walla, who also produced "Plans," the new disc features a mix of upbeat rockers ("No Sunlight," "Long Division") and more pensive numbers like "3 Days" and the voice-and-guitar finale "The Ice is Getting Thinner," according to a report in Billboard.

Here's the full tracklist, announced on Death Cab's Website:

1.    Bixby Canyon Bridge
2.    I Will Possess Your Heart
3.    No Sunlight
4.    Cath…
5.    Talking Bird
6.    You Can Do Better Than Me
7.    Grapevine Fires
8.    Your New Twin Sized Bed
9.    Long Division
10.  Pity and Fear
11.  The Ice Is Getting Thinner

An eight-date West Coast tour, including a stop at Coachella on Apr. 26, begins in Bremerton, Wash. on Apr. 18. No other dates have yet been announced.

PHOTO: Ryan Russell, DeathCabForCutie.com. 

Mariah Carey's new single "Touch My Body" hits radio tonight and it's nice to have her doing what she does best. “Touch My Body” (Island Def Jam) is in that “We Belong Together” sweet spot, a midtempo R&B ballad that lets MC show off her vocal abilities, but not too much.

Crafted by Carey, with help from The-Dream and C. “Tricky” Stewart, “Body” has just enough streetwise touches to sound current and just enough balladry to make a bid for timelessness. It’s probably the best opening single she’s had since “Heartbreaker” introduced “Rainbow” in 1999, which is a good sign for her much-anticipated album, now titled "E=MC2" (which is slightly better than the previously rumored "That Chick," I guess) and due in April.

UPDATE: Hear it here

Eagle-eyed reader Paul Berger, a salesman from Nassau County, dropped a bit of knowledge on me, after reading today’s package on the “Thriller” 25th anniversary release. It turns out “P.Y.T.” has a Long Island link. It was inspired by producer Quincy Jones’ wife at the time, Peggy Lipton, the Lawrence native best known for her work in “The Mod Squad.” (Or for you "Office" fans, Rashida Jones' mom.)

James Ingram, who co-wrote “P.Y.T.” with Jones, told Ebony recently, "Quincy's wife Peggy [Lipton] brought home some lingerie called 'Pretty Young Things' and Quincy, being the genius that he is, said that would be a good title." Soon after that, the song was written and Jackson was singing and dancing to it in the studio.

PHOTO: Peggy Lipton in her "Mod Squad" says. 

(If you have your 3-D glasses, the 3-D version is here.)

Missy Elliott, "Ching-a-Ling/Shake It Like a Pom Pom" (2-D Version)

Feist's "The Reminder," featuring the surprise hit "1234," wins this year's Shortlist Prize, as the best album of 2007 that has not yet gone gold.

"It’s modern and classic all at once," said judge Gary Lightbody, of Snow Patrol. "There are so many kinds of beauty in this record."

Feist was chosen out of 10 finalists, over albums from Arcade Fire, Burial, Justice, LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A., Spoon, Stars, Wilco and Working for a Nuclear Free City. 

 PHOTO: Feist for Interscope Records.

The death of UGK rapper Pimp C was ruled accidental, caused by a combination of his sleep apnea and the codeine in cough syrup he had taken, according to the Los Angeles County coroner. UGK is up for a best rap song Grammy on Sunday for the standout single "Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You)."

Cough syrup cited in Pimp C's death [LAT] 

PHOTO: David J. Phillip for Associated Press

The New York Giants will certainly have the edge during the pre-Super Bowl performances, with "American Idol" Jordin Sparks, daughter of former Giants cornerback Phillippi Sparks, singing the National Anthem, and Hell's Kitchen native Alicia Keys playing a few of her hits.

The NFL didn't reveal what Keys would be singing on Sunday, but we can guess she'd be dedicating "Fallin'" to Tom Brady and that she'd be hoping the Giants are thinking of Super Bowl rings as she belts out, "No one can get in the way of what I feel for you."

PHOTO: Jordin Sparks for Jive Records. 

Though it's been in radio limbo for a few weeks, the "World famous" WLIR won't be coming back to 107.1 FM and its groundbreaking new wave/alternative format is, unfortunately, a goner too. Starting Monday, 1050 ESPN New York will take over the 107. 1 FM frequency.

Off-and-on for 26 years or so, WLIR developed a format that focused on new music, introducing countless bands to Long Island long before they made their way to other stations. Its cultural power grew so wide that it has even become part of memoirs and novels. The station also took great pride in supporting the Long Island music scene, playing local bands in regular rotation, alongside the biggest stars of the day to show that there was little if any drop off in quality in music produced here and produced elsewhere.

In recent years, though, WLIR, which moved from its powerful 92.7 FM frequency in 2004 to the new frequency that served only Suffolk County, has struggled to maintain a large enough forward-thinking audience. Like many younger-skewing rock stations around the country, its listeners have moved away from radio to iPods and the Internet to find new music. Though the switch was likely inevitable, it doesn't make WLIR's passing any less sad.

PHOTO: WLIR fave Depeche Mode. Did any other station in America play them as much for as long?

Hot on the heels of EMI's announcement that it was cutting up to a third of its workforce as wall as its promotion budgets, the Rolling Stones plan to take their next album from EMI to Universal.

It could also be a sign that the legendary act may have already recorded its final album for the company. "Shine a Light," the soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese documentary filmed at the Beacon Theter in Manhattan in 2006, will be released on Universal in March. (The movie is set for release on April 4.)

The Rolling Stones' contract with EMI ends next month and will be able to negotiate with other companies (or go out on their own) after that. Now, the Stones really haven't been a big seller of recorded music in years and EMI could argue this album won't be a major shift of the company's fortunes in either direction. However, because the band owns its own back catalog, wherever it goes all its previous big hits go with it -- and that could be a big problem for EMI.

Stones sign one-album record deal [BBC] 

 PHOTO: Rollingstones.com

EMI, home to Norah Jones and Coldplay, plans to cut its workforce by more than one-third, consolidating support services and restructuring the company to eliminate up to 2,000 jobs, according to several British newspapers.

The Telegraph is reporting that Guy Hands, whose Terra Firma equity firm bought EMI last year, plans to invest in new talent scouts and supporting new acts, while reducing marketing. The Times is reporting that Hands plans to focus on the fact that half of the company's profits come from its back catalog -- from The Beatles, Rolling Stones, David Bowie and others -- even though that portion of the company employs 4 times fewer than the new music end of the company.

Hopefully, Hands recognizes that those back catalog hits required a great number of marketing and back office people to turn them into the hits that they were and that they have become. If he doesn't, the once-mighty EMI may become a past-obsessed shadow of its former self very quickly.

PHOTO: Norah Jones by Danny Clinch for EMI. 

    Live Nation rolled out its plans to launch its own ticketing business next year in a conference call today, but the most interesting part wasn’t how the company planned to compete with Ticketmaster but how it planned to compete with ticket reseller StubHub.
    Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino and its president of ticketing Nathan Hubbard talked about how ticket prices would soon become more like hotel prices or airfares. By moving into the ticket resale market in 2009, Live Nation plans to use more “dynamic pricing” for its tickets, meaning higher prices for sought-after tickets, but also lower prices for less-popular tickets.
    The plan is to “sell through every ticket,” Rapino said, adding that ticket prices could change hourly or daily. The company will apparently look to fill seats at its venues – including Nikon at Jones Beach Theater and North Fork Theatre at Westbury – at lower prices rather than have them go empty and keep the original ticket prices intact.
    The Live Nation system, which will launch after its current agreement with Ticketmaster ends at the end of this year, would also have a leg up on ticket resellers like StubHub because it would be able to immediately reissue tickets to secondary buyers once the initial buyers confirmed that they were selling them. This would eliminate the worries about whether the tickets were counterfeit or not or how the exchange would take place. Through Live Nation, it would all be automatic. How come? Well, they would charge a fee for the sale, natch.
    According to the company, the new ticketing business will add about $25 million in revenues annually, even without the reselling business and sponsorships and other programs it can sell now that it controls ticketing in its venues. If all the new businesses work out, the revenue increases could total up to $50 million.

PHOTO: Madonna's new pals have a new business plan. 

    Aretha Franklin will be honored as MusiCares Person of the Year on Feb. 8 in the run-up to this year's Grammy awards. Among those set to pay tribute: R&B stars John Legend and Robin Thicke, her current duet partner Fantasia, best new artist nominee Ledisi, gospel greats Shirley Caesar and BeBe & CeCe Winans, Backstage Pass fave Lil Mama, as well as Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi as The Blues Brothers.

     Franklin will also perform at the event. When I talked to her in the fall, she told me how much she loved Thicke's hit "Lost Without You" and how she wanted to sing it with him, even though she was a little worried about him feeling like she was stepping on his signature song. Trust me, Miss Franklin, he'd be thrilled to sing it with you. And so would music fans everywhere.

    This year, the MusiCares auction goes online on auctionnetwork.com with items that include a replica of a pink Cadillac from Franklin's "Freeway of Love" video, a saxophone signed by Bill Clinton, a private painting lesson from Tony Bennett, "Stairway to Heaven" sheet music signed by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, and other items from John Lennon, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and others. Proceeds go to the MusiCares Foundation.

    Add R.E.M. to the growing list of veteran rockers turning to the South by Southwest Music Festival to help launch their latest album. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers have signed on to play the Austin, Texas, festival, which runs from March 12-16 this year, to help set up the forthcoming “Accelerate” album, due April 1 on Warner Bros. Records.
    “Accelerate,” which features songs that the band hashed out during a concert stint in Dublin last spring, has a rockier edge, aided by production from Jacknife Lee. Singer Michael Stipe told Uncut magazine that the album marks a return to strong communication in the band. “We didn’t talk to each other for a couple of records – as friends or as bandmates,” he said. “And we reached a point before this LP where we sat down at a table and hashed it out.”

PHOTO: Warner Bros. Records 

Paradigm shifts can be so confusing. So Radiohead's "In Rainbows" album is now available in stores and online at iTunes and Amazon.com, after being available on the pay-what-you-want download system months ago and in super-cool boxset form last month. Excellent.

Now here's the weird thing. "In Rainbows" is now the No. 1 download at Amazon, where it sells for 89 cents a track, and is No. 51 on iTunes, where it sells for 99 cents a track. Why the big difference? Sure, iTunes has a far bigger market share than Amazon, but that really shouldn't change the relative percentages of purchases that much -- just the number of units sold.

Are iTunes users so much more tech-savvy than the Amazons that they already downloaded their Radiohead and don't need to buy it? Are Amazon's readers a better fit for Radiohead marketing? Are Radiohead fans flocking to Amazon to save the extra dime a song?

No one knows. Radiohead has been great at creating new questions with the release of "In Rainbows," but offers few answers. One thing is certain, though, Thom Yorke has no problem beefing with former label EMI, saying there was no request for $10 million to re-up with the label and saying on the band's blog that the label acts like "confused bulls in a china shop."

Regardless, "In Rainbows" seems a shoo-in to debut at No. 1 in England, according to Billboard.com.  

The space that currently holds the Virgin Megastore in Union Square will be put on the market by a real estate broker for 2009, according to Billboard.biz.

Winick Realty has already sent out packages highlighting the massive store's features, which include 28,000 square feet on one floor and 30,000 on another, Billboard reports. Virgin will vacate Feb. 1, 2009, according to The New York Sun.

Back in August, two real-estate firms, Vornado Realty Trust and The Related Companies, jointly purchased the Virgin chain, which owns 11 stores in 6 states, including the Union Square location and another in Times Square. Even then, observers predicted that Vornado-Related would shutter the New York locations in order to rent the spaces to business at higher rates.

Both stores have reportedly benefited from below-market rent thanks to long-term leases.

Mary J. is in a happier place these days as her new "Just Fine" video shows and it carries through the rest of the album. (Full review here.)

Mary J. Blige, "Just Fine"

MORE: Mary J. Blige's effortless 'Growing Pains' (Grade: B+)

For one of its most eclectic classes ever, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will induct Material Girl Madonna, heartland rocker John Mellencamp, British Invasion popsters Dave Clark Five, guitar virtuoso instrumentalists The Ventures and poet-rocker Leonard Cohen next year.

Blues harmonica great Little Walter will be inducted in the Sidemen category. Producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, architects of the Philly soul sound, will be inducted in the non-performer category, which has been renamed the Ahmet Ertegun Award in honor of the late Atlantic Records co-founder who also launched the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

The inductees will be honored at a ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan on March 10 and they will join the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. 

Can't wait to see "Walk Hard," the "Walk the Line" satire starring John C. Reilly and written by Judd Apatow of 'Knocked Up" fame? Well, the first 10 minutes will be streaming today starting at 3 p.m. at the movie website.

Catch Reilly as Dewey Cox, a Johnny Cash-ish singer, on tour and navigating all the temptations that entails. And he sings too.

PHOTO: Columbia Pictures 

Paramore, Jack's Mannequin, Chiodos, I Am the Avalanche and a handful of others have already signed on for next year's Bamboozle Festival at the Meadowlands on May 3 and 4. The rest of the 100-band slate will fill on over the next few months, after the event triumphed this year, boasting Linkin Park. My Chemical Romance and Taking Back Sunday, as well as Weird Al Yankovic.

Two-day passes are already available on thebamboozle.com and single-day tickets go on sale on Dec. 14 through Ticketmaster.

PHOTO: Paramore by Fueled by Ramen. 

Now, Mr. "Blame It on Me" is facing charges of endangering the welfare of a minor and harassment in an upstate New York court in connection with throwing a fan off the stage during a concert this summer. The whole event is caught on tape (below) and, as anyone who has ever had a drunken, stage-diving dude land on them, knows, the people on the ground got the bad end of the bargain.

The woman who the fan landed on says she suffered a concussion, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal.

Forget the whole pay-what-you-want model. The music industry is now buzzing about Rcrdlbl, a new, label-affiliated music blog that gives away free MP3s to draw traffic to its advertisers.
    Unlike most blogs giving away MP3s, Rcrdlabl pays the artists for the use of their songs and the whole enterprise will not draw the ire of the RIAA’s lawsuit-happy attorneys. “In a world where many people get their music for free, we wanted to create a site where bands we loved could put their music out there for free AND get paid for it,” the company says on its site, www.rcrdlbl.com.
    With a bunch of hip indie labels as partners, including Downtown Records, Warp and Modular, Rcrdlbl will likely get a lot of people to check them out initially, especially when it has launched with free downloads of a remix of Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” featuring Mos Def and a Grizzly Bear remake of The Crystals’ “He Hit Me (And It Felt like a Kiss).”
    The trick will be getting people to come back regularly enough to make its big-name advertisers – Nikon and Puma, for starters – happy. The other trick requires a bit of honor. It’s asking other music blogs not to download its MP3s and then put them up on their own sites to boost their own traffic. “Since this is an ad-supported venture the best way to support what we're doing is to visit the site on a regular basis,” the company explains.
    Time will tell if Rcrdlbl’s music blog competitors will live up to that end of the bargain. For the time being, though, consider Rcrdlbl an early holiday gift from the music industry.

PHOTO: Grizzly Bear by Patryce Bak / Warp Records 

The old holiday standards are still popular, but they’re increasingly being handled by a new generation of performers, according to an ASCAP survey of the most-played holiday songs in the past five years.

Topping the list is the Eurythmics’ version of “Winter Wonderland,� written by Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith, beating out Nat “King� Cole’s classic “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire),� written by Mel Torme and Robert Wells.

The Pretenders’ lovely version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas� comes in at No. 3, followed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s rocking “Santa Claus is Coming to Town� at No. 4 and Bing Crosby’s perennial favorite “White Christmas� at No. 5.

Only The Ronettes and Elvis Presley place more than one song on the survey. The Ronettes’ accomplish it with their upbeat, wall-of-sound versions of “Sleigh Ride� (No. 8) and “Frosty the Snowman� (No. 16), while Presley’s mixes it up with a dark ballad “Blue Christmas� (No. 18) and the peppy “Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)� (No. 21).

The most recent addition to the holiday canon is Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Feed the World),� which the all-star cast recorded in 1984 to raise money for those starving in an African famine, earning enough radio plays during the season to come in at No. 24.

This year, new holiday albums from Josh Groban, Amy Grant and Dave Koz will try to push their way onto the list, along with Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You,� which was a surprise top-seller last year.

Donda West, mother of Kanye West and former chairwoman of Chicago State University's English department, died Saturday night of undisclosed causes, according to a spokesman for the rapper.

Jay-Z, at his concert last night at Hammerstein Ballroom, announced Donda West's death and asked for a moment of silence.

Full story

Radiohead will release its "In Rainbows" CD on Jan. 2 through its new imprint TBD Records through ATO Records, the band confirmed in a release today. The band also plans to tour to support the release, with details set to come soon.

The album, released on the band's website for download in a pay-what-you-want model last month, has sparked a great deal of debate about the future of the music industry. However, the deal with ATO Records shows Radiohead will also cover its more traditional bases. It is also planning to release "Bodysnatchers" and "Jigsaw Falling into Place" as singles for radio.

     The initial reaction to Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want experiment as a future business model hasn’t been good, especially after last week’s comScore study that found about 62 percent of the people who downloaded the band’s “In Rainbows” album chose to pay nothing.
    However, a closer look at the numbers shows that those ready to call it a failure, especially major label execs, may be engaging in a bit of wishful thinking.
    According to comScore, about 1.2 million people visited the band’s site in October and a “significant percentage” downloaded the album. Of the 38 percent of fans around the world who paid for the album, the average contribution was $4.64. Now that may not be much compared to the $18.99 charged at the mall record store, but all that money went directly to Radiohead – no split with a record company, no manufacturing or packaging costs, and only a tiny fraction of distribution costs that went toward creating and maintaining the website.
    That also doesn’t count the profit made on the small percentage of fans also purchased the $82 Discbox version of the album, which includes the album and additional music on CD and vinyl, along with digital photos, artwork and other packaging. It doesn’t include the number of new fans the band may have reached by giving the album away and how that will affect their ticket sales on future tours. And it doesn’t count the amount of good well and increased name recognition it received from all the publicity and those following in their footsteps, including singer-songwriter Saul Williams and even Paste magazine for a time.
    “I think it’s fair to say that this model, if executed effectively, can be a very legitimate sales driver,” wrote comScore analyst Andrew Lipsman, who added that conservative estimates put Radiohead’s take at $1 million in October.

PHOTO: Jonny Greenwood / Radiohead 

Considering how long Kristeen Young has been on the road with Morrissey, you’d think the singer-songwriter would know better than to joke about his sexual preference onstage. Apparently not.

Nevertheless, after Young and her band were booted from the tour for her off-hand comment about Morrissey’s sexual prowess, Joan Jett’s protegees Girl in a Coma, signed to Long Beach-based Blackheart Records, quickly stepped in as replacements.

Handpicked by Morrissey himself, on the strength of the band’s Blackheart debut “Both Before I’m Gone� and after he dropped in to see them at L.A.’s Viper Room in September, Girl in a Coma (not be confused with The Smiths’ classic “Girlfriend in a Coma�) was in place on Oct. 25 at Hammerstein Ballroom and will close out the rest of the tour’s sold-out dates this week, after cancelling their previously scheduled shows.

Jett discovered the female rock trio – featuring singer Nina Diaz, her sister, Phanie, on drums, and grade school friend Jenn Alva on bass – in San Antonio, Texas, in 2004 and immediately signed them to the label she runs with longtime collaborator Kenny Laguna, who supervised the final mix of the band’s debut.

As far as Kristeen Young goes, the singer said in a statement on her MySpace page that what she said was “metaphorical and overstated to make an artistic point,� adding, “Maybe the statement was a bit too everyday. Maybe I misjudged… but I meant no harm. I love Morrissey with all of my heart, soul, body, spirit, to the core of my existence and always will.�

Lots of TV shows (is anyone still watching "The Next Great American Band"?) and even more websites have tried to duplicate the juggernaut that is "American Idol" and failed. But "Total Pop Star" claims to be different. The web-based contest, which starts Nov. 12, is looking for "Idol"-wannabes to submit their videos online and then voters will take over, crowning a winner on Jan. 27.

The twist? Well, the six semi-finalists wo get the most votes work with judges Andrew Van Slee, of Universal Music, Joey Lawrence, one-time "Gimme a Break" child actor turned Broadway headliner, and Merrick's own Deborah Gibson. The trio of judges will also write a new single for the winner to perform. (Wouldn't it make more sense for Joey and/or Deborah to keep a new hit single for themselves? Just wondering.)

Anyway, according to the press release, the contest is "sure to unearth the world's next singing sensation." Um, OK. Color me skeptical, but the music industry does need new stars and if this is the way to create one, godspeed. Let's hope whoever wins is better than Tila Tequila.

PHOTO: Deborah Gibson by Ray Garcia Photography / Deborah-Gibson.com 

The setlist for "Rock Band," the full band version of the "Guitar Hero" videogame, was announced today by MTV Games and Harmonix and it looks pretty fun, for the most part. Beastie Boys' "Sabotage," The Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation," New Pornographers' "Electric Version" and Hole's "Celebrity Skin" (above) should keep fans busy once the game is released on Nov. 20 for Xbox and PS3. Long Island Music Hall of Famers Mountain, who made the cut with the great "Mississippi Queen," and Blue Oyster Cult, with "Don't Fear the Reaper," will both surely get a nice bump in sales once "Rock Band"-ers discover them.

However, while there are plenty of songs that would have been great to play, did they have to pick OK Go's "Here It Goes Again" for the game? That song's pretty annoying, unless the game-makers are going to make players jump on synchronized treadmills while they play it. Maybe that's in the "Rock Band" deluxe edition.

Full list on the jump, along with a clip of what it looks like doing "Wave of Mutilation"

Continue reading ""Rock Band" setlist announced" »

“I’m just so happy I didn’t forget the words,� he said, laughing, as he returned to the stage.

Brooks is, officially, still retired, though he has a hot new single, “More than a Memory,� which made history as the first song ever to debut at No. 1 on the country charts, and a big greatest hits album due in November with three new songs. The 45-year-old singer retired in 2001 to focus on his family and says he will not tour until his youngest daughter graduates from high school in 2015.

While he was part of a celebrity pile-up on the red carpet outside of Radio City Music Hall on Tuesday night, arriving behind Gayle King and Babyface and Al Roker and Deborah Roberts, he quietly stood off to the side as others made their way past photographers and reporters.

“I’m just so honored to be here tonight,� he told me, before stepping on the carpet. “I’m honored that they would even ask me.�

Onstage, he was in good voice as he did the classic “Abraham, Martin and John� and his own anthem “We Shall Be Free,� thanking the audience for their applaise, adding, “I don’t get to do his much anymore.�

MORE: Full review of "The Dream"

The band will sell and sign copies of its CD for $10 on Friday at Chose One Collectible Toys, 21 Brookvale Ave., next to the Looney Tunes site. Proceeds will go toward the store's rebuilding fund.

And, by the way, Motion City Soundtrack is celebrating its album release with a free show at The Knitting Factory tonight at 7, but that's first-come, first-serve and kind of a secret.

Barry Manilow canceled his scheduled appearance on "The View" today after producers refused his request to not appear on the show with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

"I had made a request that I be interviewed by Joy, Barbara or Whoopi, but not Elisabeth Hasselbeck," Manilow said in a statement on his website. "Unfortunately, the show was not willing to accommodate this simple request so I bowed out. It’s really too bad because I've always been a big supporter of the show, but I cannot compromise my beliefs."

Manilow’s decision to skip the ABC talkshow means he is also willing to take a financial hit for his beliefs, since his appearance was meant to coincide with the release of his new album "The Greatest Songs of the Seventies" today and "The View" audience would surely translated into thousands of sales.

"He said he’ll appear with everybody but Elizabeth – well, we don’t do that," "View" producer Bill Geddie said on Barbara Walters new Sirius radio show "Barbara Live" last night. "It’s just not the way it works here, we support everybody. He said ‘I’ll do Barbara and Whoopi, or I’ll do Whoopi and Sherri, or some combination, but I won’t sit with Elisabeth.’ And I said ‘Well, then you won’t be on the show, it’s that simple.’"

"And if you disagree with somebody’s political point of view you don’t come on?" asked Walters. "We’re called The View because we have different points of view."

She then broke into a version of "I Write the Songs," changing the words to "I write the songs that make the whole world sing provided they happen to be liberals."

Obviously, producers need to be in control of their shows. However, they do switch their hosts around and it’s not unusual for only two of the co-hosts to interview a guest, especially a musician. (When Kenny Chesney was on last week, Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd were the only ones to talk to him.)

Whether or not Manilow’s public protest starts a movement among musicians to press for Hasselbeck’s ouster remains to be seen.

Continue reading "Barry Manilow, political protestor?" »

So it's looking like Kanye West's "Graduation" will win the sales week showdown with 50 Cent's "Curtis," with a lead of an estimated 120,000 copies from the first day of sales (435k to 310k). (For those rooting for country singer Kenny Chesney, he sold 107,000 on the first day, according to Billboard's new Building Sales Chart.)

However, at last night's 50 Cent show at Hammerstein Ballroom -- the opening night of his 5 Borough Tour -- a bit of 50 strategy suddenly became clear. Best Buy had a booth set up selling the CD for $10 ("Including tax!" one salesman cheerfully exclaimed.) All those CDs definitely count toward 50's SoundScan tally since Best Buy is selling them. And most expect West's lead to narrow over the weekend, as 50's teenage fans and Chesney's young parent fanbase make their weekly trip to Wal-Mart. (Of course, West's appearance on the Emmys on Sunday could help him as well.)

And is 50 above a little gamesmanship like making Interscope buy a huge chunk of CDs at retail and then reselling them through mom-and-pop shops to inflate sales, as so many artists have over the years? Yeah, I didn't think so either. 

As far as The Bet, Fitty has a pretty big loophole -- aside from blaming Interscope, which he has already started trotting out there. When all the international sales are totaled, he will end up with far more than West, though 'Ye is ahead in the United Kingdom and Canada on iTunes. 

PHOTO: Wayne Herrschaft for Newsday

MORE: Full 50 review at Hammerstein

Missy Elliott, A Tribe Called Quest, Whodini, the movie "Wild Style" and the New Jack Swing sound of Teddy Riley and Andre Harrell will be this year's class receiving VH1's Hip-Hop Honors.

Ciara, Eve, Pharrell Williams, Timbaland, T.I., The Game, Common, Busta Rhyems, T-Pain and others will be on hand at Hammerstein Ballroom on Oct. 4 to pay tribute to the honorees. The show will air on Oct. 8, with Tracy Morgan as the host.

PHOTO: Missy Elliott (Courtesy of VH1.)

Kanye West and 50 Cent at the MTV VMAs. PHOTO: MTV.

So Super Tuesday has finally arrived. For the final push, both Kanye West will be in New York, making various appearances, including a joint stop at "TRL" this afternoon.

50 Cent will also do a signing at the Best Buy in Midtown (529 5th Ave. @ 44th St.) at 6:30 p.m. today.

So who's going to win this battle? Well, sales-wise, 50 Cent's "Curtis" and West's "Graduation" are both expected to sell between 500k and 600k this week, with Kenny Chesney's "Just Who I Am" doing about 400k-500k.

Artistically, I'd give the edge (quite unexpectedly) to "Curtis," which uses high-powered guests and top-of-the-line production to build a lot of fun, while "Graduation" is serious, but also much more substantial. [Read my full reviews of both albums here.]

In the end, this whole duel has helped both sides. And though West may be exaggerating a bit when he dubs today "the biggest release date in music history," it will certainly be a much bigger sales day than either of their individual days would have been. And notice how no one is talking about The Bet any more? That's because no one really expects it to be an issue, especially with international sales factored in.

“It’s purely a marketing scheme on my part,” West told MTV. “I decided that we should come out on the same day. It’s one of the most talked about release dates... I don’t have beef with 50 Cent. I don’t have beef with anyone. I don’t do that. I make music. We wanted to do something to create the hype and that’s what we did.”

My prediction: 50 Cent sells 600k (not enough to beat Linkin Park for biggest opening week of the year), Kanye sells 575k and Chesney a solid 525k.

Hear "Curtis" here
Hear "Graduation" here

It was only a matter of time before 50 Cent's full "Curtis" CD made it online.

Fitty, fresh off appearing with Teri Hatcher and introducing Jennifer Lopez last night at Fashion Rocks, put it up on mySpace this afternoon. He'll also add a 10-minute video interview to this site every night at 9 p.m. until "Curtis" is released on Tuesday.

Hear "Curtis" here 

In recent years, Mercury Prize winners (Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Dizzee Rascal) have used the award to generate interest in America. But The Klaxons' distinctively British sound may find a tough sell on this side of the Atlantic, where rave culture never really made it into the mainstream the first time around.

The Klaxons, "Atlantis to Interzone"

Here's what I find thoroughly charming: People actually think that the quality of the albums will determine the sales winner. Isn't that cute?

It's like the people who believe that the best politician wins the election or that the awards shows like the Grammys and Oscars aren't popularity contests. Yeah, dudes, Santa Claus is still coming, I'm sure. He's just really, really late.

The only way quality would've mattered in this case is if "Curtis" was a true brick, which it isn't. In fact, it's far better than "The Massacre." Is "Graduation" a better album? Of course. Will it get more Grammy nominations? Definitely. But will it sell more in a condensed 7-day period? That's unlikely.

It lacks the must-get-now track, like 50's "I Get Money," or, more ominously, Kenny Chesney's "Don't Blink," which is the highest-debuting song ever on the country charts, following "Never Wanted Nothing More," which hit No. 1 on the country charts in only 7 weeks, a split-second in slower-moving country radio time.

By the way, there are a couple of loopholes to watch for regarding The Bet (not that Fitty will likely need them). The most obvious one is that he will roll over Kanye in the rest of the world. Another one to consider is that because of yesterday's leaks, 50 and/or Kanye could move up the release of their CDs to Sept. 7, making The Bet moot. Just a thought.

MORE 50 CENT VS. KANYE: 50 Cent will not lose The Bet

Whatever the reason, the jailing of Foxy Brown bothers me more than Paris Hilton's incarceration and the possible sentences of Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan combined.

Maybe it's because I think Foxy's smarter than them, because she's made more of her life than they have. Of course, she's obviously not that much smarter since she got jailed today on a parole violation after getting stopped for talking on her cellphone while driving in New Jersey on a suspended license.

I guess she'll have plenty of time to think about things as she sits in jail until Sept. 5.

In the meantime, let's remember her in all her "Ill Na Na" glory.

Foxy Brown feat. Jay-Z, "I'll Be"

She basically sings over the original and had super-producer David Foster mix them together. Then, director Tony Kaye (of "American History X" fame) crafted a stunning, spare video that cobbled the two vocals together and threw in lots of alarming footage of babies holding handguns.

The result is a version that both honors the original and moves it forward -- for a good cause, no less. Proceeds from the sale of the song, already available on iTunes, will go to Presley Place, a transitional housing facililty in New Orleans.

"I could've done this ages ago," Lisa Marie tells Spinner.com. "I always find it necessary to make my own path and not ride on his coattails, which I have not done. And the only reason I was OK with doing this [video] is because I've already done a couple of records. People already know who I am on my own. I'm not doing this in a self-centered way. I'm doing this for a bigger cause."

Elvis Presley and Lisa Marie Presley, "In the Ghetto"

The nominations to get excited about are the ones no one saw coming. Like Backstage Pass fave Justice for Video of the Year? Amazingly hip. (Maybe MTV will even show the video on the air some time.)

Justice, "D.A.N.C.E."

Johnny Cash, "God's Gonna Cut You Down"

It's an odd collection: Bono, Iggy Pop, Jay-Z, Kris Kristofferson, Justin Timberlake, Dixie Chicks, Keith Richards, Lisa Marie Presley, Kanye West, Red Hot Chili Peppers and two dozen other stars. They all gathered to pay tribute to Johnny Cash in a new video for The Man in Black's "God's Gonna Cut You Down," from his No. 1 album "American V: A Hundred Highways" (American/Lost Highway).

The clip, directed by Tony Kaye, is dramatically shot in black and white, with each of the stars dressed in black and offering a salute to Cash, who died in 2003 of respiratory failure. And it is one of only a handful of videos ever to debut on MTV, VH1 and CMT on the same day.

The idea for the video came from Kaye; Rick Rubin, who produced Cash's recent work; Timberlake, who worked with Rubin on his recent album, and Mark Romanek, who directed Cash's award-winning "Hurt" video. Like "Hurt," the buzz generated by the "God's Gonna Cut You Down" video has introduced Cash to new audiences through its striking visuals and emotional appearances from numerous stars. However, unlike the almost universally hailed "Hurt," the new clip has generated a bit of backlash against those who appear in the video but had no previous connection to Cash or his music.

In either case, "God's Gonna Cut You Down" should give Cash's album some much-deserved attention, which will likely grow when the video goes on sale through iTunes on Tuesday.

'Love" is a gamble.

The mere idea of it - Remixes? Mash-ups? Cirque du Soleil? Vegas? - raises so many red flags for Beatles' purists, it's a wonder that bulls didn't come charging into the Mirage's ballroom, "Love" headquarters since June.

"We thought there were going to be a lot of people pissed off at this," says Giles Martin, who produced the music for "Love" with his father, George, The Beatles' producer and longtime collaborator. "I wanted to add a note that said, 'No Beatles were harmed in the making of this album.'"

With all the acrobatics and dizzying dance numbers in "Love," Beatles fans may go along with Cirque du Soleil as it puts hip-hop headspins into "I Want to Hold Your Hand" or popping-and-locking in the "Help!" roller-skating extravaganza. They may even accept the way "Blackbird," an anthem inspired by the civil rights movement, has become a bit of comic relief about, well, blackbirds, you know, learning to fly. But tampering with memories is a tricky business, and both Martins took the process of creating "Love" seriously.

"You still have everything you love," Martin says. "This hasn't been some crass marketing experiment. ... It sounds really corny, but the album is born out of love."

PHOTO: © 2006 Cirque Apple Creation Partnership

Full story here

Pioneers of hip-hop, “college rock� and disco lead the slate of finalists for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s inductee class of 2007.

Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five came out of The Bronx in 1980 on Sugar Hill Records and were best known for the groundbreaking single “The Message,� which showed hip-hop was more than just a bunch of party songs.

R.E.M., who released its debut single “Radio Free Europe� in 1981, became the first “college rock� band from the ‘80s to crossover to mainstream success with its Top 10 hit “The One I Love� and its album “Document� in 1987.

Chic, who topped the charts with “Le Freak� and “Good Times,� were big in the Manhattan discos in the late ‘70s, but their funk-jazz roots gained Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards respect in the rock world as well.

Also among this year’s finalists: British Invasion band The Dave Clark Five, girl group The Ronettes, punk-poet Patti Smith, proto-punkers The Stooges, R&B; singer Joe Tex and heavy metal virtuosos Van Halen.

Five of the finalists will become inductees, announced in January. Those five will be inducted into the museum at a ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria on March 12.

Watch Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" and Chic's "Le Freak" on the jump.

Watch R.E.M. do "Radio Free Europe" on Letterman below.

Continue reading "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2007 finalists" »

Early this morning, Fabolous was shot in the thigh, as he waited in front of a parking garage near Diddy's Justin's restaurant in Chelsea. After Fab's crew pulled him into their car, they sped off to the hospital, but cops stopped them for running a red light and arrested them all on weapons possession. Fabolous is reported in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital. No arrests have been made for the shooting and there is no word yet on motive.

Full story

From the I-can't-believe-it's-true file: Freestyle/pop queens Jeanette Jurado, Ann Curless and Gioia Bruno -- better known as Exposé -- announced today that they have reunited, with their first appearance set for Miami's American Airlines Arena next Saturday night.

“The chemistry between us is pure magic, plain and simple,� Curless said in a statement. “It’s such a fabulous experience to be back working with these incredibly talented ladies. I’ve got goose bumps already!�

No tour info yet, though the ladies behind "Let Me Be The One," "What You Don't Know" and "Come Go With Me" have too big a following in New York not to pay a visit. Now if only we could reunite The Jets.

Here's the gals' video for "Point of No Return" to tide you over.

And the video for the underrated "Your Baby Never Looked Good in Blue" is on the jump.

Continue reading "BREAKING: ExposĂ© reunites" »

Punk rock's most diabolical toilet will never flush again - at least not in Manhattan.

By this time next week, CBGB, the Lower East Side dive that brought live music to the Bowery 33 years ago and birthed the U.S. punk and new-wave music scenes, will be as lifeless as Johnny Thunders. Or Jerry Nolan. Or ____________ (insert name of favorite dead punk star here). It's a real heartbreaker - we're not kidding. Little Steven Van Zandt, who spearheaded the fight to save CB's last year, isn't giving interviews about it; his press person said he is, in fact, "too heartbroken."

The club's official cause of death will be listed as "rent dispute"; a lengthy disagreement between CBGB and its landlord, the nonprofit homeless aid group Bowery Residents' Committee, could not be resolved.

Hilly Kristal, the venue's owner, chooses to remember the good times instead of the impending end.

Full story

PHOTO: Hilly Kristal and Little Steven during the fight to save CBGB by Associated Press.

On the jump, video of The Ramones doing "Rockaway Beach" at CBGB

Continue reading "CBGBs de-throned" »

DMX, drama. Drama, DMX.

The rapper threw a fit at Hot 97's "Back to School Jam" at Nassau Coliseum late Saturday night. Someone in his entourage threw a metal chair into the audience, which hit a 29-year-old woman in the head and sent her to Nassau University Medical Center.

Now DMX may have had every reason to be upset. J. Edward Keyes says that the sound went out and there was a 90-minute delay between Yung Joc's set and Lloyd Banks taking the stage with 50 Cent and G-Unit, which, in turn, delayed DMX. Then, the sound went out during his set.

Unfortunately, delays and bad sound happen at a lot of hip-hop shows, especially the ones with long slates of performers. The problem at this show was that DMX then began fighting with the sound man, police told Newsday's Jennifer Smith. Altercations broke out after that and then police had to end the show and clear the venue. It's not clear whether Foxy Brown and Jim Jones, who were scheduled to perform, were supposed to have gone on after DMX or not.

Keyes' review here
Smith's news story here
Photo by Wayne Herrschaft for Newsday.

There's a reason why The Skids' punk rave "The Saints Are Coming" never became a hit. Actually, there are many reasons, not the least of which is that it is quite an ordinary song. However, put U2 and Green Day on it and turn it into a bash-it-out anthem to raise cash for the building of post-Katrina New Orleans culture and the surrounding emotion overcomes its limitations -- a metaphor for not only what The Edge's Music Rising charity is trying to do, but for the careers of both bands involved. "The Saints Are Coming" is passion over substance, but U2 and Green Day still make it work.

The real discovery from their Superdome set, though, is the new version of "Wake Me Up When September Ends," which becomes more regal-sounding and indisputable thanks to The Edge's guitar atmospherics and a huge horn section.

Watch the video here (RealPlayer needed)
Buy "The Saints Are Coming" here (Proceeds go to Music Rising, a charity that helps New Orleans musicians replace their instruments lost in Hurricane Katrina)

There's quite the commotion on 23rd Avenue in Astoria for lunchtime on a Wednesday.

Cars are double parking, their occupants excitedly spilling out onto the street. Women of all ages are giggling a little as they say their hellos. Working men offer some "Nice to see yous" as they walk past. There is a lot of waving and a lot of surprised looks. And a lot of running.

"Don't move," says one man, rushing off to get his camera.

Another comes running over, carrying a jug of homemade wine and a stack of plastic cups, offering a taste to everyone around.

Through it all, Tony Bennett smiles. He stands graciously, hands deep in the pockets of his gray slacks until they're needed to greet someone again.

"See what I mean?" he says, laughing. "Would you ever get this in New York?

Tony Bennett loves Astoria, not just because it's where he's from, but because it's part of who he is. "I love this area because it's the firemen, policemen, the teachers, the secretaries - they make New York City wonderful," he says, as he walks across Ditmars Boulevard. "All these people who live here, they make the city work. They make it more interesting."

Bennett comes to Astoria and Long Island City a lot - to visit the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, the public high school he helped found in 2001; to play tennis three times a week with his friend, restaurateur Mario Sirabella; and, on rare occasion, to visit his childhood home on 32nd Street where his famous rags-to-riches story began.

When Bennett gets to the house he grew up in, a modest, square, two-floor building, he points to the roof, where he used to raise pigeons, hoping that every once in a while they would lure a homing pigeon back to his coop. ("I would take that one homing pigeon and go to the pet shop and they would give me money to go to a movie," he says, laughing. "That's how I made some money.")

"I know Thomas Wolfe - the one from the '30s, not the newer one - says, 'You can't go home again,'" Bennett says. "But I find myself going home again and again. I come back here all the time." [More...]

Full story here

Listen to "Duets: An American Classic" here

PHOTO: Tony Bennett in front of his childhood home by Ken Spencer/Newsday.

Continue reading "Tony Bennett, King of Queens" »

Britpop sensation Arctic Monkeys and electronica siren Imogen Heap lead the slate of mtvU nominees announced yesterday, with three Woodie nominations apiece.

Both will compete with rappers Chamillionaire and Lupe Fiasco and rockers Plain White T’s for best new artist, while artist of the year nominees are rapper Atmosphere, rock-rap hybrid Gym Class Heroes and emo-leaning rockers Angels & Airwaves, Panic! At the Disco and The Academy Is… Rockville Centre-based Taking Back Sunday is up for two awards, best tour and most downloaded. Long Island's Nightmare of You is also up for most downloaded.

mtvU viewers will choose the winners on the channel’s website and the winners will perform at Roseland Ballroom on Oct. 25 for a special to be shown on Nov. 2. The show will also run on MTV on Nov. 4.

Full list of nominations on the jump

Continue reading "Arctic Monkeys, Imogen Heap lead mtvU noms" »

The Arctic Monkeys' "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" wins the Mercury Prize, the British equivalent of the Album of the Year Grammy.

"Someone call 999, Richard Hawley's been robbed," singer Alex Turner said, taking the stage to collect the prize.

Full report from The Guardian here

So I’m standing on the MTV Video Music Awards red carpet, minding my own business as I try to keep the casts of “Laguna Beach� and “The Hills� straight, when a giant panda bear approaches from behind and puts me in a headlock. (Yes, Stephen Colbert, I know. I watch the “Threatdown.�)

It turns out it’s some VJ from MTV Chi in a panda suit trying to interview god-knows-who from Nickelodeon. He’s using my shoulder for leverage to move his microphone close enough to the “celebrity,� who he chats with live on air with his big paw around my neck. Oh yeah, Backstage Pass is all about the glamour.

Yes, I know red carpet veterans are saying, “Elbow to the ribs.� But do I really want to be known as the guy who assaulted the panda? No. See the dilemma?

After the interview, Mr. Panda backs off and gives me a thankful thump on the shoulder. (Tyrese had the best interview with him, starting off with, “I love Panda Express.�)

As for my interviews, the Taking Back Sunday guys said they were a bit starstruck by the whole experience. Nevertheless, singer Adam Lazzara did still kid around, saying that bassist Matt Rubano ironed all the clothes. And everyone pointed to drummer Mark O’Connell’s hot new Dolce & Gabbana suit. (To the girls I met at the LIFEbeat benefit, Lazzara had to dye his hair back to his natural color for the new video for “Liar.� The platinum blond color he had been rocking all summer was too close to his skin tone to use on the video. You ask. I get answers.)

(More red carpet with Avenged Sevenfold, New Found Glory and Susan Cagle...)

Photo of Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez, two of way too many stars who posed for pictures but avoided reporters on the red carpet, by Evan Agostini/Getty Images.

Other VMA stories:
Shockingly normal VMAs: With a return to NYC after two years in Miami, MTV brought out the stars and spread the prizes
The winners
Taking Back Sunday’s stroll on the red carpet
Newsday.com's VMA photo gallery

Continue reading "VMAs From the Red Carpet" »

The biggest surprise of the MTV Video Music Awards? No, it wasn’t Black Eyed Peas winning best hip-hop video for “My Humps.� It was the appearance of a smiling, well-adjusted, healthy-looking W. Axl Rose in the press room after his unexpected appearance introducing The Killers on the awards show.

Rose said the new Guns ‘N’ Roses album “Chinese Democracy,� more than a decade in the making, will be out “later this year, finally.� “We plan to put out [this album] and we plan to make music for many years to come,� said Rose, who looked nothing like a man who would get so angry he would bite a Swedish security guard.

He added that he hadn’t seen Kelly Clarkson’s version of “Sweet Child O’ Mine,� but “anyone who covers the songs is a good thing.�

Other news from backstage: Fall Out Boy said The Killers’ new album is good and that their “beef is squashed… it’s like tofu now.� The band said to expect a new single in December and a new album in January… Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda said they are working with producer Rick Rubin and have more than 100 rough mixes of songs completed for their new album, which should arrive some time next year. “It’s the most fun I’ve had recording a Linkin Park album yet,� Shinoda said… Pink said she thought she had no chance to win best pop video for her biting “Stupid Girls� clip. “I was talking while they were announcing the nominees,� she said, adding that she appreciated the irony of receiving the award from Nicole Richie. Pink said her next single will be “U and Yr Hand,� though the song that may get seen more will be “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night,� her reworking of Joan Jett’s classic “I Hate Myself for Loving You,� which will be the theme for NBC’s Sunday Night Football this fall. Why did she do it? "I love Joan Jett and my brother loves football," she said.

Photo of Axl Rose by AP.

In a rare personal statement on his website, Bruce Springsteen said his commitment to wife Patti Scialfa "remains as strong as the day we were married." He said rumors of a breakup are "unfounded and ugly."

"Patti and I have been together for 18 years- the best 18 years of my life," he said in the statement. "We have built a beautiful family we love and want to protect and our commitment to one another remains as strong as the day we were married."

Full statement

Foxy Brown pleaded guilty Monday to misdemeanor assault charges stemming from a fight with salon workers over a manicure. Then, she tried to take the plea back, but the judge ruled that the plea deal would stand. Foxy now faces three years probation and must take anger management classes.

Full story

After a two-year stint in Miami and a decline in interest in the "music" portion of its "Music Television" slogan that goes back even longer, MTV will not only return its Video Music Awards home to New York, it will also celebrate the return of the music video to a place of prominence in pop culture.

Red Hot Chili Peppers (right) and Shakira are this year's top nominees.

Full story
Top VMA moments
Top categories

Taking Back Sunday landed an MTV Video Music Awards nomination yesterday for its "MakeDamnSure" clip, as the channel announced the nominees for its MTV2 award. The winner will be announced during the MTV2 broadcast of the ceremonies on Aug. 31 at Radio City Music Hall. This year marks the first time that MTV2 will show its own version of the awards show, as well as the first time winners will all be determined by Internet voting.

Taking Back Sunday's "MakeDamnSure" is up against 30 Seconds to Mars' "The Kill," Three 6 Mafia's "Stay Fly," Lil Wayne's "Fireman" and Yung Joc featuring Nitty's "It's Goin' Down."

Vote for the MTV2 Award here

Watch "MakeDamnSure" here.

Shakira's truth-telling hips and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' romp through rock history are this year's leading nominees for MTV's Video Music Awards, with seven nominations apiece.

"Hips Don't Lie" and "Dani California" will compete in the video of the year category, against five-time nominees Madonna, for "Hung Up," and Panic! At the Disco, for "I Write Sins Not Tragedies," and four-time nominee Christina Aguilera for "Ain't No Other Man."

Full story

Vote for VMA awards here.

Watch "Hips Don't Lie" here.

Oh (your name here), Jessica Simpson really likes you.

She likes you so much (your name here) that she is willing to sing part of her new single “A Public Affair� especially to you, (your name here). For a mere $1.99 – what’s an extra buck between friends, right (your name here)? – you can download the personalized version from Yahoo! Music to play for your friends.

It’s the same as the single only the name is dropped into the song three times – in the line, “Hey (your name here), I see you looking over here, (your name here), are you gonna keep looking or get up?� and “(Your name here) is stepping out for a public affair.�

The idea is part of Epic Records’ Custom Cuts program, which launched yesterday the company said will spread beyond Yahoo! Music next week. It sounds like backing singers, not Simpson, sat in a studio recording each of the 500 names available in the songs, but in the course of the song, it’s hard to tell. And, in case you’re wondering, (your name here), she sings one to Nick, too.

Listen to "A Public Affair" (unpersonalized) here.