August 2007 Archive

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Rewind: The Week in Rock Daily

8/31/07, 6:03 pm EST

  • It was a wild week for one Miss Britney Spears: First a choreographer leaked word that her Video Music Awards performance is a go, then her first new single dropped, she had custody woes and that dress she wiped her chicken-greased fingers on went up for auction.
  • U2 collaborator Daniel Lanois told us that the band’s next album is progressing well, and that he and producer Brian Eno have been invited to write with the band this time around.
  • Bruce Springsteen announced a fall tour to support his forthcoming album Magic. Bonus: Amazon will debut the video for “Radio Nowhere” on Tuesday, September 4th.
  • We showed off some nice photos of Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fall Out Boy and more big names rocking the U.K.’s Reading and Leeds festivals.

Austin Scaggs Answers Your Questions: Last Call!

8/31/07, 5:42 pm EST

In the last Smoking Section, Rolling Stone’s Austin Scaggs caught up with Jack Johnson, discovered new favorite band Vampire Weekend and jetted to the Hamptons with James Blunt. Now’s your chance to email Scaggs questions about the art of the rock & roll interview and what really goes on behind the scenes. Send those queries to askscaggs@rollingstone.com by Monday night, then check back later next week for answers.

Fall 2007 Movie Preview: Watch Peter Travers Take on “American Gangster,” “Sweeney Todd,” Steve Carell, Tom Cruise and More

8/31/07, 5:33 pm EST

Watch Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers talk about the biggest releases coming out in the “freaky-deaky fall” of 2007 as Hollywood tosses aside its summer Nanny Diaries for serious, Oscar-contending work like the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men starring Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem and American Gangster, featuring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Don’t miss Travers’ take on the rest of the bruality-themed fall lineup, which includes everything from David Cronenberg’s gritty Eastern Promises to the six films focusing on Iraq or Afghanistan (like The Kingdom and Lions for Lambs starring Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep) to the season’s bigtime comedies (Steve Carell in Dan in Real Life and Noah Baumbach’s Margo at the Wedding starring Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh) to musicals (Johnny Depp in Tim Burton’s bloody Sweeney Todd, the Todd Haynes’ Bob Dylan film I’m Not There). And to read Rolling Stone’s Fall Movie Preview — which includes a first look at Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited and George Clooney’s Michael Clayton, among many more films — click here.

Levon Helm Battles Back From Cancer and Tragedy, Returns With His First New Studio LP In Twenty-Five Years

8/31/07, 4:00 pm EST


The last ten years have not been easy for legendary Band drummer and vocalist Levon Helm. In 1998, he had surgery to remove throat cancer and underwent twenty-eight radiation sessions. His barn-turned-studio in Woodstock, New York, was obliterated in a fire and had to be rebuilt, and former bandmate Rick Danko passed away. In spite of all these roadblocks, Helm was inspired to record, and on October 30th he’ll release his first solo studio album in twenty-five years, Dirt Farmer. “The last few years have proven to me that we truly live in an age of miracles,” the singer writes in the album’s liner notes.

Though cancer treatments compromised Helm’s voice, he slowly regained the ability to sing via late-night concert sessions held at his Woodstock studio with friends and family. These so-called Midnight Rambles were inspired by the Southern medicine shows Helm remembers from childhood in rural Arkansas, and featured guests like Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Nick Lowe and Warren Haynes. The Midnight Rambles influenced much of Dirt Farmer, and the album includes several traditional songs as well as Helm’s interpretation of tracks by Steve Earle and J.B. Lenoir, among others. Multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell (who has played with Lyle Lovett, Solomon Burke and Bob Dylan) worked closely alongside Helm and his daughter Amy on the LP, and Helm plays drums, mandolin and acoustic guitar in addition to handling all the lead vocals. (more…)

Panic! At the Disco’s Ryan Ross Talks New Album As He Turns Legal at Pete Wentz’s Bar

8/31/07, 3:19 pm EST


Last night Panic! at the Disco’s Ryan Ross turned twenty-one in New York City at Angels and Kings, the East Village “dive bar” owned by labelmates Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes, the Academy Is …, Cobra Starship and their management, Crush. Ross was in town between last weekend’s gigs at the Reading and Leeds festivals and this weekend’s Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival in Seattle. After that, it’s back to work on the band’s sophomore disc, which is Ross’ main focus: “We’re trying to finish up in the next month, month and a half,” he says. After Bumbershoot and San Diego Street Scene at the end of September the band plans to head into the studio with a release slated for February or March of 2008.

The scene at the bar last night was suitably carnival-esque for the dramatic Panic! guitarist.
Ross’ girlfriend, Keltie Colleen (of Pussycat Dolls-esque troupe Sugar and Spice) planned the ordeal: She hung mini versions of Ross’ high school yearbook photo (which she found on the Internet) from the ceiling by ribbon, commissioned Ross’ friends to wear T-shirts sporting the image of a twelve-year-old Ross holding a fish, and planned her own midnight surprise: having fellow Sugar and Spice members wheel her out in a wrapped box. (more…)

R.E.M. Nearly Done With New Album, Lil’ Kim Pulled Over in NYC, B.I.G. Role Still Open for Casting

8/31/07, 2:31 pm EST

  • Recent Rock and Roll Hall of Famers R.E.M. are “two-thirds to three-quarters” done recording their new album. The band has been hard at work in Dublin working on the “guitar-dominated, hard-rocking” record, with hopes that it will hit music stores, whatever those are, by Spring 2008. To pad the wait, as we already told you, the Georgia band will release the CD/DVD R.E.M. Live, a recording of a 2005 Dublin concert, on October 16th.
  • Tired of losing street cred to Foxy Brown, Lil’ Kim was pulled over in New York City yesterday for driving a Lamborghini around town without license plates. After being stopped, the NYPD also discovered Kim forgot her driver’s license. Thankfully, her lawyer came to the rescue to drive his client and her car away from the scene.
  • Despite having both a number-one hit and the required roundness, “Beautiful Girls” singer Sean Kingston has not been cast to star as the Notorious B.I.G. in the late rapper’s biopic. While Kingston has expressed a desire to play Biggie in Notorious (which we’re pretty sure won’t be a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock film), producer Wayne Barrow insists that the role of B.I.G. is still open for casting.
  • Kings of Leon hope to re-enter the studio sometime around Valentine’s Day to start work on their fourth album. The band, surprised by the success of their recent release Because of the Times, tell XFM that “this is gonna be like a Wham! album.”
  • PJ Harvey has announced two live dates: October 10th at New York’s Beacon Theatre and October 15th at Los Angeles’ Orpheum. Harvey’s new album, White Chalk, is due September 25th.

Weekend Rock List: Best Songs About Working

8/31/07, 1:56 pm EST


In honor of Labor Day, and the fact that Rock Daily will be taking Monday off (we know you’ll miss us), we’re devoting this weekend’s rock list to songs about the daily grind. Here are five of our favorite job-related jams to get you started:

  • “9 to 5,” Dolly Parton
  • “Working for the Weekend,” Loverboy
  • “Bright Future In Sales,” Fountains of Wayne
  • “Working Class Hero,” John Lennon
  • “Workin for a Livin,” Huey Lewis and the News

Britney Spears Comeback Tracker: It’s On! New Single, Album Release Date, Custody Battle, Chicken-Dress Auction

8/31/07, 1:36 pm EST


Britney Spears got us all a little something for the holiday weekend: An official new song, “Gimme More,” (which is currently streaming on New York radio station Z100’s Web site) that opens with Spears breathing, “It’s Britney, bitch.” The track is produced by Nate “Danja” Hills, the Timbaland protégé who worked on Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds. Jive Records confirmed to People that the full album will arrive November 13th, and a source told USWeekly.com that a video for “Gimme More” can be expected early next week. “Don’t judge the whole album by the song,” the source added. “It is just a first glimpse but the whole album and the stuff on it surpasses it. This album is amazing and has something for everyone. It will blow people away and people won’t question that she is back.” According to New York’s Daily News, Spears will perform the song while renegade illusionist Criss Angel makes her seem to disappear at September 9th’s MTV Video Music Awards. (more…)

Ben Gibbard Turns To Kerouac As Inspiration For New Death Cab for Cutie Album

8/31/07, 1:11 pm EST


Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard is following in Jack Kerouac’s footsteps in search of inspiration for his band’s next record. But fans expecting a rollicking ode to debauched living will be disappointed: It’s not the beat poet’s classic tale of youth and abandon On the Road that’s on Gibbard’s mind — he’s digging Kerouac’s dark exploration of the perils of addiction and arrested development, Big Sur. “I don’t want to be overdramatic about it, but I’m starting to see a lot of my bad habits get the best of me,” Gibbard told the San Francisco Weekly. “Living this life in the same sorta way that Kerouac lived … you get to hang out at shows and drink and you’re able to not really face reality and adulthood the way most of my friends are.” Gibbard worked with Kerouac’s nephew on a documentary about Big Sur that also includes contributions from Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure, Tom Waits and Jay Farrar. Then the singer-guitarist found himself planning a two-week songwriting retreat at the Big Sur cabin where Kerouac wrote the 1962 novel; he plans to hole up and sort through ideas for the next Death Cab record there.

Beatles on iTunes? Touchscreen iPod? The Top Five Rumors About Apple’s Big Announcement

8/31/07, 11:13 am EST


It’s official, the famously secretive Apple will announce something having to do with iTunes, the new iPod or even the iPhone, on September 5th. The company, which is known for its Willy-Wonka levels of secrecy about new products and announcements, sent out invites to a few thousand journalists, analysts and other industry folks that feature a picture of the Cover Flow scrolling-album-artwork feature familiar to anyone with iTunes or an iPhone. So even though that gives us a hint that the announcement will be music-related, we still don’t have a clue what the specific news will be. And neither does anyone else, but this hasn’t stopped the blogosphere rumor mill from swirling, intensely. We scoured the Internet to find what we think are the five most likely Apple announcements next week. Just know that Steve Jobs could surprise us all and do something completely different.

  • Touchscreen iPod: There’s no doubt that the addition of the touchscreen and Cover Flow feature to the iPhone made it the best iPod ever, so it’s time to spread the love to Apple’s non-cell-phone handheld icon. Rumors of a touchscreen à la iPhone have been swirling ever since an Asia-based tech rumor site revealed the Taiwanese company that was to provide the touchscreens for a new iPod.
  • The Beatles catalog on iTunes at last: First Paul McCartney, then John Lennon made it to iTunes (Ringo’s post-Beatles work was added today, and word has it George Harrison is coming up soon). Now that the lawsuit over the Apple name has been long resolved, it’s time for the Beatles catalog to get on iTunes’s virtual shelves. This will likely be the cherry on top of any bigger iPod announcements. The ironic thing is, after years of such careful protection and avoidance of online distribution, the Beatles’ songs will finally get sold in the least protected way possible, with non-DRM tunes from EMI! Get yer CD rippers ready! (more…)

Single Minded: Cool Tracks From Kings of Leon, Nelly Furtado, Kanye West, Cary Brothers and Grizzly Bear

8/31/07, 9:59 am EST


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

Kings of Leon, “My Party” [Kenna & Chad Hugo Remix]
The brothers Followill unite with Kenna and the Other Guy from the Neptunes. The unifying factor behind this remix is, apparently, massive public indifference.

Nelly Furtado feat. K’naan, “Going Away” [Live on MTV]
Nelly and Canadian rapper K’naan scat their way through this patchouli-scented growing-older ballad. Somewhere, Wyclef and Fergie are going, “Oh, it is so on.”

Kanye West feat. Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes, “Can’t Tell Me Nothin’” [Remix]
Lil Wayne: He’s there when you need to get the block, and he’s better when you need to go for the win. He’s like the Shadoe Stevens of hip-hop.

Cary Brothers, “The Skyway” [Replacements Cover]
Aren’t we about due for a Replacements revival? Brothers’ earnest cover makes this Westerberg chestnut sound like secret inspiration for the Goo Goo Dolls. Oh, wait …

Grizzly Bear, “He Hit Me, It Felt Like a Kiss” [Crystals Cover]
Grizzly Bear turn in a shivery rendition of this Phil Spector production. Also known by its alternate title, “Prosecution’s Exhibit A.”

Rock Reality Show Recap: Sebastian Bach, Perez Hilton Nearly Prove Hip-Hop Really Is Dead on “Celebrity Rap Superstar”

8/31/07, 9:50 am EST


Every week on Celebrity Rap Superstar, an odd mixture of C-list stars test their skills (or lack thereof) on the mic, while Rock Daily’s Rock Reality Show Recaps of the series test our skills at analyzing some really awful hip-hop. Here’s our first report:

Sixty Minutes of Mic-Rockin’ Reality in Three Sentences: The premiere of this self-proclaimed “really bad show idea that MTV came up with” (also known as the network’s first series about music in eons) launched with a punishing hour of hip-hop stumbles and a few pleasant surprises. C-list celebrities like “dude from Laguna Beach” and “vote for Pedro guy” got paired up with established MC coaches like Redman and Kurupt, then competed live, American Idol-style, in a bizarre blow-out battle of novice rappers. Contestants included blogger Perez Hilton, Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach, K-Fed’s ex Shar Jackson and five other folks eager to prove hip-hop may really be dead.

8 Mile Moment: Shar Jackson performed Eve’s “Tambourine” with the style and swagger of a seasoned professional. After studying under the tutelage of MC Lite, Jackson had flow like a laid-back Lil’ Kim, and the stage presence of a veteran of verses. Judge Da Brat — who is trying her hand at her third reality show in as many years — said it best: “I know your kids at home are like, ‘I least my momma knows how to rap.’” After Playboy bunny Kendra Wilkinson’s jarring whine and former NFL player Jamal Anderson’s awkward lost-without-a-map freestyle, Jackson’s confidence was refreshing. She just may have clinched the whole competition with this debut performance. (more…)

Smashing Pumpkins and Kanye West to Headline Bang! Fest, Joy Division Biopic Writer Confirms Work on “Lennon,” Concerns Over Nas Lyrics in Canada

8/31/07, 9:25 am EST

  • Smashing Pumpkins and Kanye West will headline Miami’s Bang! Music Festival on November 10-11th. The two-year-old festival is expanding to two days, and in addition to the Pumpkins’ only Florida set of the year, the preliminary performer list includes the Bravery and Riverboat Gamblers (the thirty-act lineup will be announced shortly). Tickets are $75 per day, and go on sale tomorrow morning at all Ticketmaster outlets.
  • Matt Greenhalgh, the writer of the upcoming Joy Division biopic Control, confirmed to the U.K.’s Manchester Evening News he’s working on a new film about John Lennon’s adolescent years. “The producers of Lennon saw Control and then asked me if I’d consider doing their script for them,” said Greenhalgh. “It wasn’t a particularly hard decision for me to say yes.”
  • A Rock the Vote concert in Ottawa, Canada, has been canceled after Nas was announced as the headliner. According to reports, student groups were told the event could not go on due to Nas’ “violent lyrics,” which also caused concern when Nas was added to the bill for next week’s Concert for Virginia Tech.
  • The New York Post is reporting that Amazon.com will launch its anticipated music service in mid-September, though sources familiar with the situation say the date could change. At its launch, the service will offer approximately one million downloads from Universal Music Group, EMI and several indie labels in MP3 format, providing a direct threat to iTunes. All songs will be sold with DRM, and Amazon’s catalog will be missing material from Sony BMG and Warner Music Group.
  • A Scottish man has been sentenced to twenty months in jail after Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page testified at his music-piracy trial last month. Robert Langley was arrested with illegal CDs and DVDs — including more than $20,000 worth of fake Led Zeppelin items — following a record fair in 2005.

Tom Morello Looks Forward to Whupping Your Butt in “Guitar Hero”

8/31/07, 7:00 am EST

Fire up your plastic axe: Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello confirmed to us that he is indeed going to be a character in the upcoming Guitar Hero sequel, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, which comes out in late October. Morello will be one of a few formidable “bosses” that you have to beat to finish the game. Apparently the Rage god is less-than-impressive when it comes to playing Hero in real life, though: “Whenever I play Guitar Hero my opponent always kicks my ass on my own riffs,” he told us. “It’s embarrassing. Now that I’m actually in the game I hope the digital me will win once in a while!”

Lyle Lovett Meets Ghostface Killah: How Rock-Biopic-Spoof “Walk Hard” Got Its Theme Song

8/30/07, 6:19 pm EST


This week, Lyle Lovett released his thirteenth album, It’s Not Big It’s Large. The title is indeed a joke, but probably not the first one that comes to mind. “We had done these arrangements with horn parts, but I’m a folk singer, basically, so the joke was ‘the large band,’” rather than a big band, he explains. “Any time you have a chance to make a joke, you’ve got to take it.” With that credo in mind, the singer-songwriter was perfectly suited to join up with comic genius Judd Apatow on his latest project, the music mockumentary Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Lovett, who has appeared on film several times in the past (remember his turns in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Opposite of Sex?) will be gracing the big screen once again this December alongside Jack White, Eddie Vedder, Jewel and Jack Black in a spoof that tracks the long and strange career of Johnny Cash-style figure Cox (John C. Reilly).

Lovett says he was drawn into the project by its co-writer, Jake Kasdan. “I originally talked to him about writing one of the songs, which I never did,” he says. “I ended up getting to sing [the film’s title song] with Jackson Browne, Jewel and Ghostface Killah, which was really fun, but Marshall Crenshaw actually wrote it.” (more…)


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