Photo: Wargo/WireImage

• Chris Brown enrolled in anger management classes as the fallout from his alleged altercation with Rihanna resulted in Brown’s role getting “erased” from the promotion of his upcoming film. Despite the backlash, Ne-Yo insisted Brown is “still my homeboy” while Kanye West showed some support for the beleaguered R&B singer.

• Slumdog Millionaire and Sean Penn were the big winners at the 81st Annual Academy Awards, as were Styx after being randomly referenced in an acceptance speech. Plus, Rolling Stone movie critic Peter Travers wrote about what sucked and what didn’t at this year’s ceremony. Our personal Oscar highlight? The Jimmy Eat World covers at the Prince afterparty.
• After a decade of waiting, Faith No More revealed plans to reunite for a European tour. Rock Daily also analyzed what other long-shot reunions might happen, and we dedicated our Rock List to 1980s Hard Rock Singles like their “We Care a Lot.”
• The Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger went to Washington for a hearing in front of the antitrust subcommittee. The hearing soon became a battle over the Chicago music scene, while Van Halen, Shakira and Seal all voiced their support of the merger. Who doesn’t support the merger? Bruce Springsteen fans, even after Ticketmaster settled that ticketing fiasco with the Attorney General of New Jersey.

Photo: Mazur/VF/WireImage

We are grinning ear to ear, ready to show you the week in photos. Apparently Madonna and Gwen are psyched too, as this picture from last Sunday’s Oscar party illustrates. Did you know that after this pic was taken, Maddy used those biceps to lift Gwen completely over her head… and both of them still looked stunning?

Since there’s free food and cameras, the Oscars brought out no shortage of famous people. Prince threw a wild party to celebrate and — in the tradition of Prince afterparties — it may actually still be going on. Beyoncé and Hugh Jackman brought out their best Mr. Peanut costumes, and Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer couldn’t possibly be a cuter couple unless they started carrying around baby ducks wherever they go.

As for the other six days of the week: The White Stripes said goodbye to Conan, Kid Rock said goodbye to some pesky Mardi Gras beads, and Katy Perry said goodbye to all decorum at a wacky show in London.

• Random Notes: Jonas Brothers, Gwen Stefani, Usher and the Week in Rock

Photo: Mazur/WireImage

This week, hair metal staples Poison, stadium-rockers Def Leppard and classic power-poppers Cheap Trick announced they will be embarking on a huge arena tour this summer. In addition, alt-metal weirdos Faith No More confirmed that they too will be reuniting after 10 years for a trip around Europe. These four bands couldn’t be more different — Def Leppard’s Joe Elliot even takes great pains to distance himself from the frizzy locks of tourmates Poison, telling Rolling Stone, “If we’re hair metal, so are Led Zeppelin.”

But all of them made great unforgettable rock singles in the Eighties. Go round and round in your mind, discern what made you feel the noize, and pour some sugar on our comments section. Tell us your pick for best hard rock single released between 1980 and 1989, and we’ll be back (possibly in black) on Monday with the results. For now, our picks:

• Guns N’ Roses - “Welcome To The Jungle”

• Motörhead - “Ace Of Spades”

• AC/DC - “Back In Black”

• Living Colour - “Cult Of Personality”

• Van Halen - “Hot For Teacher”

Photo: BOUYS/AFP/Getty

As they do every Friday, our fearless interns navigated into the sordid depths we call our comments section to unearth the most thought-provoking statement from the Rock Daily readers. Following last weekend’s Oscars ceremony, our readers lamented Sean Penn’s win over Mickey Rourke, argued whether Slumdog Millionaire was deserving of its dominance and even played the role of Red Carpet Fashion Police. Yet, it was TheVM who took home the Academy Award for Best Comment for this:

Some of you seem to be under the impression that Oscar night is about films. It isn’t. It is simply a mechanism for Hollywood to do what it enjoys more than any other single thing in the whole world…self-congratulate. Does your annual workplace Christmas party serve any nobler purpose? Did you get this emotionally involved in who won Accountant of the Year?

It sounds trite, but if you really want to celebrate film, go to more of them, buy more of them, and for god-sakes MAKE more of them.

Excellent advice, VM. We expect to see you in line for Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience this weekend. As for the rest of you, just don’t go to any of the films Peter Travers put in his Scum Bucket.

Signed memorabilia donated by members of bands like Van Halen, KISS and Velvet Revolver are going to auction to help raise funds for Los Angeles County Sheriff Deputy Kevin Corrales, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia last April. Among the items up for bid is a drum head signed by Eddie, Wolfgang and Alex Van Halen, a Silverton guitar signed by KISS’s Paul Stanley and a guitar signed by Velvet Revolver’s Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum and Dave Kushner. Additional items include a drum head autographed by Rush drummer Neil Peart.

“Several of rock & roll’s royalty immediately stepped up,” sheriff’s Deputy Mike Ascolese, who organized the fundraiser with Deputy John Maio, told L.A.’s Daily News. (more…)

Photo: Ufberg/WireImage

As they’ve done since 2005, the Allman Brothers Band will headline two nights at the fifth annual Wanee Music Festival in Live Oak, Florida, on June 5 and 6th. This year’s Wanee fest is especially noteworthy as it coincides with the band’s yearlong 40th anniversary extravaganza, which includes a 15-night run at New York’s Beacon Theatre. Helping the Eat A Peach rockers celebrate at Wanee are Gov’t Mule, the Doobie Brothers, Toots and the Maytals, the Drive-By Truckers and many more jam-happy artists spread over the fest’s two days. Plus, the Derek Trucks Band will perform a special midnight set on Friday night and the Wailers will perform Exodus in its entirety. Tickets go on sale March 7th. Check out the full Wanee lineup below: (more…)

Photo: Natkin/WireImage

For nearly 10 years, Faith No More fans have mourned the demise of one of the most influential and under-appreciated rock acts of the 1990s — all with the firm understanding that there would be no return. And, well, they’ve never really been given much reason to believe a reunion could ever come to pass, with frontman Mike Patton insisting time and time again in interviews that a reunion wouldn’t be happening on his watch. So imagine the shock this week when fans learned that the band had signed on for a strictly European reunion run.

(Get reacquainted with Faith No More with our career-spanning photo gallery here.)

Unfortunately, Patton’s publicist says Mike, like the rest of the band, will not be talking to the media about the reunion trek, perhaps because it’s one of those monumental reunions that will succeed with or without press. But eight years ago, Patton was talking about Faith No More, telling me he just didn’t think a reunion was in the cards.

“It’s a band I was in, and I had a great time,” Patton said. “It’s not that I’m ashamed of it or anything. I think we made some great music. I just don’t believe in trying to relive that.” (more…)

Rock Daily will be at the Radio City Music Hall this weekend to catch David Byrne’s Everything That Happens tour, featuring the fruits of Byrne’s collaboration with producer Brian Eno. Thus, this week’s Flashback visits Byrne’s oddball interview on the Space Ghost Coast 2 Coast show, with the Talking Heads singer laying down the blueprint on how to act awkwardly when a TV host asks you questions. Just replace the superhero in the white jumpsuit with David Letterman and it’s like the Joaquin Phoenix interview all over again.

Check back Monday for our review of the Byrne show, but until then, click the jump for some vintage 1980 Talking Heads as the band performs “The Great Curve” live in Rome: (more…)

Photo: Mazur/WireImage

Axl Rose’s second official post-Chinese Democracy interview hit the Internet today as the Guns n’ Roses frontman talked with Spinner about his new album, why the group’s original lineup dissolved and why he’ll never reunite with Slash. Even though the interview was conducted by Rose’s good friend and Guns road manager Del James, the questions definitely aren’t softball and, as usual, Axl doesn’t hold anything back.

As Rose clearly stated in his message board rants and Billboard’s interview earlier this month, he really has no intention of ever reuniting with Slash. “There’s zero possibility of me having anything to do with Slash other than by ambush, and that wouldn’t be pretty,” Rose tells James, adding later that, “Slash either should not have been in Guns to begin with or should have left after Lies. In a nutshell, personally I consider him a cancer and better removed, avoided—and the less anyone heard of him or his supporters, the better.” (more…)

Photo: Mazur/WireImage

After selling out countless arenas this decade, U2 are heading outdoors this year with their first U.S. stadium tour since 1997’s PopMart Tour. The band members, who release No Line on the Horizon on March 3rd, haven’t yet announced dates for the tour or details about what they’ll play. But they hope to keep ticket prices unusually low, and they’re already planning an innovative setup that will allow for 360-degree seating around the stage, which will be moved closer to the center of the field than in any other stadium show. “It’s an engineering feat that creates this real physical proximity to the crowd,” Bono tells Rolling Stone, adding that the band wants to maximize space in the enormous venues to accommodate the many young fans it has made this decade with hits such as “Vertigo.” “We’re going outdoors to try to meet that audience.

“We want to play for each other as much as we want to play for the crowd this time,” Bono adds. “You just don’t know how long you will be going to be doing this. I just sat everyone down the other day, because some concerns about the tour had come up, and nobody wants to be away from their families. I just said, ‘This is an unbelievable and rare opportunity to be in this band and to play at this level. (more…)

Photo: DeGuire/WireImage

Before embarking on their reunion tour, No Doubt will reunite on an episode of Gossip Girl on May 11th. Why Gossip Girl? Probably because there’s no more TRL and that entire audience has emigrated to GG. According to the No Doubt Website, Gwen Stefani and the rest of the gang will perform a cover of Adam & The Ants’ “Stand And Deliver,” from the new wavers’ Prince Charming album.

We’re not sure in what context the band will appear, whether they’ll be integrated into the show’s plot or just appear in concert. Gossip Girl lacks a common venue like Beverly Hills 90210’s Peach Pit, which once hosted the Flaming Lips, so it’s possible Blair, Serena and the rest of those Upper East Siders will spend that episode at a No Doubt concert, a plot line stolen directly out of Season 6 of Dawson’s Creek, when that whole WB crew went to see the band perform. Don’t ask us how we know these things. (more…)

Photo: Ochs/Getty

The Beatles, “Revolution 1 (Take 20)” [Unreleased Track]
Take 20? Really? 20 takes? That’s not revolution, that’s just procrastination. No wonder this rendition sounds so weary. Takes 15 - 17: all tuba. Nothing but tuba.

Kings of Leon, “Pistols of Fire” [Mark Ronson Remix]
This is a Mark Ronson remix, so six guesses what it might sound like. Did you say “throwback R&B with brass fanfare and a bouncing bassline”? Then you, my friend, should invest in a lottery ticket. Up next, Ronson turns Foetus’s “Clothes Hoist” into a Four Tops song.

Portishead, “The Rip” [Hidden Cat Remix]
A regular poster on a forum for London DJ Erol Alkan put together this icy and awe-inspiring Portishead remix, transforming the song from desolate to danceable. More importantly, it finally justifies the existence of message boards. (more…)

Photo: Charriau/WireImage

If the material edited out of Kanye West’s VH1 Storytellers is any indication, what the rapper has to say promises to be just as entertaining as the performances themselves. Reuters reports that West spent three hours on a Los Angeles soundstage for the performance, airing this Saturday, February 28th, with only 90 minutes of it making it to television. Left on the cutting room floor is West railing against Radiohead, one of his favorite bands, and telling the audience that everyone should give Chris Brown “a break.”

According to Reuters, the VH1 Storytellers filming came five days after West was supposedly snubbed backstage at the Grammys by Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke. West has constantly declared his love of Radiohead and especially Yorke’s solo album The Eraser. “I don’t listen to rap in my apartment, I listen to Thom Yorke,” Yeezy posted in November 2008. But the snub perturbed the 808s rapper. “So when he performed at the Grammys, I sat the fuck down,” West said of the band’s “15 Step” with the USC Marching Band at the Grammy ceremony. However, two days before Storytellers took place, Kanye posted on his blog “Oooooh Mr. Yorke… You Are Very Much The End All Be All… Amazing” and embedded a video of Radiohead’s “15 Step” from the Grammys.

As for his comments on Brown, West reportedly told the crowd, “Can’t we give Chris a break? I know I make mistakes in life.” (more…)

Photo: Becker/FOX

After 25 million votes were cast, America picked the theatrical Adam Lambert, teenage belter Allison Iraheta and smooth vocalist Kris Allen to join Alexis Grace, Michael Sarver and Danny Gokey in the Top 12 of American Idol season 8. Once again we didn’t find out which male contestant came in first, but it’s safe to conclude that performing last, being heavily featured throughout the previous episodes, and being on the receiving end of endless judge praise leaves Adam Lambert as this week’s winner.

But we could be wrong. (more…)

Photo: McCarthy/WireImage

• Indie rock will get slathered in EVOO at Rachael Ray’s SXSW showcase this March, as the Hold Steady, the New York Dolls, Ra Ra Riot, Semi Precious Weapons and many more will help the 30 Minute Meals host party up in Austin. Rock Daily will be all over SXSW, bringing you video and reports with the biggest names and best new acts, so keep an eye out when the festival begins March 18th.

• The slumping music industry claimed another two victims yesterday as Virgin Megastore revealed plans to close their stores in New York’s Union Square and San Francisco’s Market Street. The Union Square location will shutter at the end of May, while the Market St. store will close by April 30th, Billboard.biz reports. As announced earlier, the Virgin Megastore in New York’s Times Square will close this April as well.
• Ghostface Killah and MF Doom (or just DOOM these days) have collaborated on the theme song for the upcoming video game Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Check out the song and the game’s trailer over at Gorilla vs. Bear.
• Neo-burlesque queen and Marilyn Manson’s ex-girlfriend Dita Von Teese has signed a recording contract with Interscope Europe, E! reveals. Von Teese reportedly told partygoers at Elton John’s AIDS Foundation Oscar Party that she hopes to record Irving Berlin’s “Lazy” for her upcoming album.