• Joe Satriani Sues Coldplay For Plagiarism
• Hot Production Duo: S*A*M & Sluggo
• All of Britney’s Videos, Featuring “Circus”
• Stephen Colbert “Humbles” Kanye West
• Rock List: Best Album Covers of 2008
• Random Notes: John Mayer, Paul McCartney
• The Top DVDs of 2008
• Tom Morello Says RATM Won’t Record
• TV Flashback: Slash Is Magic
• Comment of the Week: Stapp or Stop?
• Study: Troubled Times Call For Sober Songs
• Musicians Rock For New Orleans
• Britney Spears Song Title Angers Parents
• News Ticker: Killers, Boy George, NIN

Top stories from the last three days:

• Lil Wayne, Coldplay Lead Grammy Nominees
• Oasis, Ryan Adams Open U.S. Tour
• Grammy Nomination Show Live Blog
• Hot Band: MGMT
• Neil Young Says Toast Is Done
• Peter Travers Reviews Cadillac Records
• Busta Rhymes’ Controversial “Arab Money”
• Hot Scene: Laurel Canyon
• Grammy Noms: The Odd and the Snubbed
• Slash, Melissa Etheridge Protest Prop 8
• U2 Premiere “Father Christmas” Video
• Charts: Kanye West Tops Axl Rose
• Folk Singer, Civil Rights Activist Odetta Dies
• Flash Forward: The Music Industry In 5 Years
• Hayley Williams on Next Paramore Album
• Inside the Rock Hall Annex Opening
• Breaking: The Annuals
• Dr Pepper Responds to Guns n’ Roses Suit

Scroll down for full news stories, commentary and much more in Rock Daily.

Photo: Bedder/Getty

• All eyes on Britney Spears, in the center of the ring, just like a Circus. We profiled the rise, decline and return of Brit, woke up early to attend her birthday performance on Good Day America, watched all of her music videos, collected her Rolling Stone covers and reviewed her new album. Spears, meanwhile, angered parents, announced tour dates and probably got a phone call from her ex-husband asking for bail money.
• The Grammy nominations were revealed, with Lil Wayne and Coldplay leading the pack. We live-blogged the nomination show and took a look at the snubbed and the more peculiar nominees. The question now is, if Chris Martin and gang win for Song of the Year, do they have to give the award to Joe Satriani?
• The good news: According to Ron Wood, the Faces reunion tour is “ready to go.” The bad news: So is the Creed reunion tour, almost. At least our readers remained pretty good-humored about the threat of more Stapp.
• Perhaps looking to sell more Chinese Democracy and more beverages, Guns N’ Roses and Dr Pepper continued fighting over free soda. In the battle for charts supremacy, Axl Rose came out of seclusion to finish third behind Kanye West and Taylor Swift.

Photo: Winter/Getty

The excitement over the Grammys began this week with a live concert on CBS, which featured Celine Dion, Foo Fighters and a pretty excellent duet between John Mayer and B.B. King. It was another great week of tag teams in the name of celebrations, as Paul McCartney duetted with drag queen Peter Kay (aka Geraldine) for the unveiling of the Christmas lights at a Stella McCartney store and Justin Timberlake feted his general awesomeness on the golf course with Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Click below for these and the rest of the week’s biggest stories in photos.

• Random Notes: John Mayer, B.B. King, Britney Spears and the Week in Rock

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Our look back at the year that was begins with this weekend’s Rock List, dedicated to the Best Album Covers of 2008. Even though people are buying fewer albums and thus experiencing less album art, thankfully the artists weren’t skimping on the cover art. Let us know which albums caught your eye before catching your ears and on Monday, we’ll reveal the Readers’ List. And no, In Rainbows doesn’t count. Here’s our favorites:

Nas - Untitled
Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak
Weezer - The Red Album
Lil Wayne - Tha Carter 3
Metallica - Death Magnetic

Related Stories:

• Q&A: Nas

• How Lil Wayne Became a Superstar

• Metallica: Louder, Faster, Stronger

Photo: Getty

The Hot List has been a Rolling Stone tradition since 1986. All this week, Rock Daily takes a look back at the people and trends that stayed smoking and the ones that cooled off. Today, we visit 2005.

Hot Hit: Franz Ferdinand. Rolling Stone checked in with the boys from Franz Ferdinand on the eve of the release of their second album You Could Have It So Much Better. Though that record didn’t exactly take the world by storm, the Scottish dance-rockers continue to be one of the more vital bands in indie rock, and their third album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is one of the more hotly-anticipated releases of 2009.

Hot Miss: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. (more…)

Britney Spears‘ new Barnum & Bailey-themed video for her new album Circus‘ title track has been unleashed. The clip features roaring lions, stilt-walkers and a gorgeous shower of sparks — but how does it stack up to some of Brit’s most iconic clips? Spears played a saucy spy in “Toxic,” simulated a paparazzi-fueled suicide in “Everytime,” dueled Madonna in “Me Against the Music” and sweated up a storm in the uber-sexy “Slave 4 U.” Flip through all 27 of her clips here and take a look back at the pop star’s rise, fall and comeback via her videos:

• Britney Spears: The Complete Video Guide

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Photo: Miller/Getty

Despite reuniting for a tour and multiple festival appearances, Rage Against the Machine have no plans for a new album, says guitarist Tom Morello. “There are no plans for that,” Morello told Billboard. “We’ve had a wonderful year and a half of playing shows, and I don’t see any reason to not play more shows. The thing is there’s only so many hours in the musical day, and mine are very occupied right now.” Rage’s last album of original material was 1999’s The Battle of Los Angeles. (more…)

“You’ve shown us what happens when people rise together, work together and dream together,” Brer Rabbit of indie hip-hop group Flobots said at Tipitina’s in New Orleans Thursday night. He was one of 10 musicians who visited the Crescent City for an activism workshop that concluded with “Musicians Bringing Musicians Home IV,” a benefit for the non-profit group Sweet Home New Orleans.

Will Oldham (Bonnie “Prince” Billy), J. Tillman of Fleet Foxes, Nicole Atkins and Los Lobos‘ Steve Berlin were just some of the artists brought to New Orleans by the activist group Air Traffic Control and the Future of Music Coalition to explore ways to use their stature for social good. Three years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans remains a vital place to consider the ways that people can help, as well the ongoing need for it. Touring the city, Berlin said, “had heartbreaking moments followed by heartwarming moments as you see what people can do.”

The show started with a short, hushed acoustic set by Tillman, and included a live dub set by the Bomb Squad’s Hank Shocklee, and Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah performing his songs rearranged for the three-trombone lineup of the backing band, New Orleans’ Bonerama, along with a version of the classic “St. James Infirmary.” (more…)

Photo: Miller/Getty

With Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy likely teaming up with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham soon, it seems likely that the remainder of Alter Bridge will get back together with Scott Stapp to reform Creed. Opinion was decidedly mixed, with reader YES! declaring “I am sure the world will embrace this amazing event with arms wide open!!!!” while mikeky simply responded “has this country not suffered enough?” The gold medalist in this week’s commenting Olympics goes to Joe, who brought up a frightening reality that Rock Daily hopes never comes to fruition: “Are Kid Rock and Scott Stapp gonna do a reunion porno tape?” If there was ever a case to be made to keep Stapp away from the spotlight, that’s it.

• Creed Reunion Taking Shape

Related Stories:

• Scott Stapp Apologizes For Throwing a Bottle at His Wife’s Head

• Could a Plant-Free Led Zeppelin Work?

• Album Review: Creed, Weathered

Against all logic, Penn and Teller have remained a television staple in one form or another for two decades. In the mid 1990s they hosted a variety show that brings us today’s flashback. It’s a short clip, but fantastically brilliant: Slash shows up (billed as being “from the Snakepit”), plays some hot licks, does a magic trick with his hat and laughs awkwardly. No wonder he was so desperate to get it back when it was stolen!

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Stephen Colbert fired back at Kanye West in the latest stage of “Operation Humble Kanye” on last night’s edition of The Colbert Report. After Kanye posted “Who the fuck is Stephen Colbert?” on his Twitter, Colbert produced pictures of himself and the rapper together following the Emmy Awards. “Mr. West, I ain’t saying you’re a gold digger, just don’t understand your last Twitter,” Colbert joked on his Comedy Central show, “Why buy Kanye’s album? You can basically hear it for free, just put a tin can to your ear and lean against the Pac-Man machine.” Colbert relished in the fact that, thanks to a combined effort with fans, his album, A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All!, managed to pass Kanye’s 808s & Heartbreak on the iTunes Top Albums chart. (more…)

In a recent study published in Psychology of Music, two researchers plotted the association between popular songs and the American social and economic landscape. What they found was that the songs that topped the Billboard charts tended to contain more “meaningful” lyrical content during troubled times. Click below for examples of their findings, including several exceptions to the rule, including the ubiquity of “Macarena” during a period of inflation and the current success of T.I.’s “Whatever You Like” during this wintry economic climate.

• Research Shows Troubled Times Call For Sober Songs

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The long-awaited new season of Lost gets underway in January, so it’s time you got caught up with the fourth season on DVD, which hits store shelves this Tuesday. Click above for a conversation with composer Michael Giacchino about the importance of music on the show, and click below for the rest of Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers’ picks for the best DVDs of the year, including The Dark Knight, WALL-E and Wanted.

• The Top 12 DVDs of 2008

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The go-to producers for the teen-centric pop-punk of Fall Out Boy, the Academy Is… and Cobra Starship have very simple tools of the trade. “It’s just a room with some guitars, a bong and a vocal booth,” explains Dave “Sluggo” Katz, one half of the in-demand team. Click below for more on S*A*M and Sluggo, and click above to check out the duo describing the albums that inspired them.

• Hot Production Duo: S*A*M and Sluggo

Related Stories:

• The 2008 Rolling Stone Hot List

• Album Review: The Academy Is…, Fast Times at Barrington High

• Album Review: Cobra Starship, While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets

Photo: Getty

Beyoncé vs. Tom Petty, “If I Were a (Free Fallin’) Boy” [Mashup]
Can we somehow get Beyoncé to shoot a video for this in a shopping mall? Or maybe one with Johnny Depp as a disenfranchised rocker? We sort of wish this was the original version of the song — the rigged up give-and-take vocal between B & P is some kind of internet magic. Related note: after a few years of backlash, we’re totally fine with mashups again.

The Cure vs. The Commodores, “Easy Heaven” [Brat Mashup]
This week’s must-hear quick-win. Seriously, whatever you are doing, it is not as important as listening to this. Balancing some kind of budget? Not as important. Pitching some kind of teenage vampire movie to a high-powered studio exec? Not as important. Finalizing your cabinet selections? Not as important.

The Jackson 5, “I Want You Back” [Game Over Remix]
Say what you will about Michael Jackson, he still wields a ridiculous amount of clout. If he says the Jackson 5 reunion isn’t happening, poof, it isn’t happening. If he goes into a Burger King and sighs disapprovingly at the BK Fish Sandwich, poof, it’s off the menu. And if he got angry at the instant this remix goes from short-circuiting Atari sounds to intergalactic funk, we’d all be sitting at our work computers hoping our boss doesn’t catch us listening to silence. (more…)