Music News & Videos

No Doubt Reunites For 'Today' Show

Fans weigh in on the band's comeback performance at Rockefeller Center.

The-Dream takes the epic battle of Love Vs. Money out on the road, Stellastarr* announce their first jaunt in three years and Fleetwood Mac extend their Unleashed Tour. Full dates for all three treks, after the jump.

The-Dream
May 13 - Cincinnati, OH @ Aronoff Center
May 14 - Milwaukee, WI @ Riverside Theater
May 15 - Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theater
May 16 - Detroit, MI @ Fox Theater
May 17 - Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue
May 19 - New Orleans, LA @ House Of Blues
May 21 - Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theater
May 22 - Greensboro, NC @ Special Events Center
May 23 - Atlantic City, NJ @ Mark Etess Arena
May 24 - New York, NY @ WAMU Theater
May 26 - Boston, MA @ House Of Blues
May 28 - Washington, DC @ Constitution Hall
May 29 - Richmond VA @ Landmark Theater
May 30 - Norfolk, VA @ Ntelos Pavilion
May 31 - Columbia, SC @ Township Auditorium
June 2 - Newark, NJ @ NJPAC
June 3 - Cleveland, OH @ State Theater
June 5 - Atlantic City, NJ @ Borgata
June 6 - Baltimore, MD @ Pier Six Pavilion
June 7 - New York, NY @ Summerjam
June 11 - St. Louis, MO @ Fox Theater
June 12 - Southhave, MS @ DeSoto Civic Center
June 13 - Dallas, TX @ Nokia
June 14 - Houston, TX @ Reliant Arena
June 20 - Los Angeles, CA @ Nokia Theater
June 21 - Oakland, CA @ Paramount Theater

stellastarr*
July 15 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
July 16 – New York, NY @ Highline Ballroom
July 17 - Washington, DC @ Rock ‘N’ Roll Hotel
July 18 - Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
July 20 - Cincinnati, OH @ 20th Century Theatre
July 21 - Columbus, OH @ The Basement
July 23 - Chicago, IL @ Double Door
July 27 - Austin, TX @ The Parish
July 30 - San Diego, CA @ Casbah
July 31 - Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
August 1 - San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s
August 3 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
August 4 - Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey

Fleetwood Mac
April 30 - Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
May 2 - Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
May 3 - Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center
May 5 - St. Louis, MO @ Scottrade Center
May 7 - Omaha, NE @ Qwest Center
May 8 - Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
May 10 - Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
May 12 - Calgary, AB @ Pengrowth Saddledome
May 13 - Edmonton, AB @ Rexall Place
May 15 - Vancouver, BC @ GM Place
May 16 - Tacoma, WA @ Tacoma Dome
May 18 - Sacramento, CA @ Arco Arena
May 20 - Oakland, CA @ Oracle Arena
May 21 - San Jose, CA @ HP Pavilion
May 23 - Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center
May 24 - Phoenix, AZ @ US Airways Center
May 28 - Los Angeles, CA @ Staples Center
May 30 - Las Vegas, NV @ MGM Grand Garden Arena
May 31 - San Diego, CA @ Cox Arena
June 3 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Credit Union Centre
June 6 - Winnipeg, MB @ MTS Centre
June 8 - Milwaukee, WI @ Bradley Center
June 10 - Baltimore, MD @ 1st Mariner Arena
June 11 - New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
June 13 - Atlantic City, NJ @ Boardwalk Hall
June 17 - Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena

Seattle is famous for Starbucks, the Space Needle, and, of course, grunge, the early-Nineties movement responsible for producing rock icons like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. For his new book, Grunge is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (released earlier this month on ECW Press), author Greg Prato interviewed more than 130 of the city’s musicians, journalists, industry executives and concertgoers to compile a detailed oral history of its unique scene. The list of voices includes Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament, Mark Arm, Matt Cameron, Chad Channing, Jack Endino, Duff McKagan and Hiro Yamamoto.

“I wanted to tell the story from the very beginning of how grunge began,” Prato says. Arguing that the scene’s roots stretch back to bands like the Wailers and the Sonics, Grunge is Dead traces Seattle’s progression from the Fifties and Sixties garage-punk groups to West Coast punk influences in the Seventies and Eighties. By the end of the Eighties, groups like Malfunkshun and Screaming Trees were incubating a new “Seattle sound” that eventually became grunge. “That’s when I think Seattle rock music was at its peak,” Prato adds.

While scoring an interview with Layne Staley’s mother gets an honorable mention, the most significant interviewee has to be Pearl Jam’s Vedder, whose band has become Seattle’s last great surviving grunge ambassadors. In a lengthy phone interview with Prato, the notoriously guarded Vedder, calling from Hawaii, opened up.

“At one point, he was speaking to me while sitting on the beach and looking out at the sunset over the water,” Prato remembers. “He first got the tape from Jeff [Ament] and Stone [Gossard] to write some songs for Pearl Jam, he went out surfing that day and he came up with two or three songs, including ‘Once’ and ‘Alive.’ [Eddie] said that he can pretty much thank his whole career to that one day of surfing that put him in the right state of mind that he was able to come up with those two great, classic songs.”

Prato’s book takes its name from an iconic picture of Seattle’s most recognizable figure — Kurt Cobain, who was snapped wearing a shirt proclaiming “Grunge is Dead” while holding his infant daughter Frances Bean. The interviews provide vivid perspective on many events throughout the city’s musical history from house parties to the catastrophic deaths of Cobain and fellow Seattle icon Andrew Wood. Grunge Is Dead wraps with some of the artists’ reflections on how the scene’s music holds up over time. “I’m always pleasantly surprised when I heard something that I haven’t heard in a while,” Ament told Prato. “I feel like there were a couple of things that I would maybe change,” Vedder said, referring to his own band, “but I’m not ashamed.”

For the past five years, the music industry has been sorely missing something. That something is No Doubt.

After taking some time apart — to have babies, start families, launch a solo career and just spread their wings outside of the band they have all been in for 23 whole years — the group that captured the world’s attention with a unique blend of ska/punk and rock/pop is reuniting and hitting the stage for a 55-date tour.

So early yesterday morning, the team and I hit the road to Atlantic City (in a van that only Chili Palmer could make look cool) to conduct the first interview with the whole band together in five years.

The venue was the newest (and most golden) hotel on the horizon — the Borgata Hotel and Casino — and before rehearsals, we caught up with the band to talk about why now is the right time for No Doubt to get back together, the upcoming tour, support act Paramore, a cameo on “Gossip Girl,” the first live-TV performance since taking time off and, yes, the new album that is in the works.

Gwen was the first to arrive. Always the fashionista, she wore white jeans and a neon-green bra under a T-shirt that said “Too Much Too Young,” with big square shades and a gold Stefani necklace completing the look. The boys followed soon after, and they all took their seats ready for the interview. Surprising for a band as established as No Doubt, there was no manager or publicist trying to force us into a line of questioning — which you have to respect.

The big boss was present, though: Zuma, Gwen’s 8-month-old, kept a watchful eye on things. Over the past few years, the No Doubt family has grown. All the bandmembers, with the exception of bassist Tony Kanal, have young kids, and there’s no doubt that this will not only be reflected in their new material, but will also have an effect on the tour. As Gwen said, one thing she always loved about touring was that she could sleep all day after partying the night before. But now, with the kids in tow, Gwen is slowly facing the fact that she’s going to have Kingston and Zuma there to wake her up each morning — very early!

After the interview, the band took to the stage to run through a few songs. It was one of those moments that, as a fan of music, I won’t be forgetting anytime soon. It was up there with the time I sat through Prince’s closed-set rehearsal or even seeing Jay-Z rehearse in an empty Madison Square Garden — this was something special.

By Kathleen Newman-Bremang

If you’ve tuned into CNN or any other major media outlet in the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard a thing or two about Somali pirates. Well, Somali-born rapper K’Naan thinks the coverage of piracy has been a little one-sided.

When the MC sat down with MTV News this week to discuss his album Troubadour, the rapper/activist accused the media of taking a “sensationalist” approach to reporting the recent hijackings — including the capture of a U.S. ship captain — as well as the continuous violence taking place off the coastline of his home country.

“I don’t think [the media] have been fair and accurate. [They show] a bunch of crazy black people in the water with guns: ‘Oh look at that!’ ” he said. “That’s about all major media has been doing. CNN has the resources to go in a little bit deeper than that, and Anderson Cooper as a journalist knows that there’s got to be something more to this scenario.”

This isn’t the first time K’Naan has spoken out about piracy. After Captain Richard Phillips was kidnapped by Somali pirates, resulting in a five-day hostage standoff that ended in the deaths of three Somali men, piracy was pushed to the forefront of public awareness. And In the wake of the incident, K’Naan became somewhat of an unofficial spokesperson for the issue of piracy in Somalia.

“I feel like I owe it to myself and to my people to adjust your reality a bit,” he said. “If not me, who?”

The rapper even penned an impassioned essay for the Huffington Post titled “Why We Don’t Condemn Our Pirates,” in which he called the situation “complicated.” He also detailed the history of piracy in Somalia, which he says began when men started patrolling the coastline in efforts to stop European ships from dumping nuclear waste into Somali waters.

While K’Naan is not condoning the recent actions of these pirates, he is offering a side of the story that’s a lot less glamorous than the eye-patch-wearing, sea-bandit image some might associate with pirates.

“Yes, I’m really happy [Captain Phillips] is free, but I’m not celebrating that there’s this young teenager who’s just been shot. If it meant the safety of the captain, OK, then fine. But what is causing 16-year-olds to get into a boat and risk their lives? What does it mean to that kid who’s [doing it] to find food?” he said. “Piracy is not good, [it's] not condonable, but it has reasons, it has roots. So why don’t we please look into that as well?”

This afternoon I got an e-mail from a colleague alerting me to the fact that the term Joonas.net seemed to be a hot Internet search term, and being that the Jonas Brothers have a very similar name we initially thought this must be a new fansite dedicated to Nick, Joe and Kevin.

When I went there, I found that to be the exact opposite of what it actually is. You see it appears to be some robot-like site that generates the message: “The requested document is totally fake. Even tried multi. Nothing helped. I’m really depressed about this. And it goes on and on in about being a depressed robot or web server or something you seems to be having some sort of identity crisis: I mean, it’s not your job to listen to my problems, and I guess it is my job to go and fetch web pages for you. But I couldn’t get this one. I’m so sorry. Believe me!”

OK, OK, we believe you. And we’re actually just sort of bummed that it’s not a Jonas site, but instead some mysterious site run by a guy named Joonas in Finland. (This is true. We did our research.) Unfortunately that’s all we know at this point, but we’re thinking he’s either an artist who is pranking us, or that Joonas is really some sort of depressed Web server. If it’s the latter, we’re here to talk!

Yesterday, Rolling Stone brought you part one of Norwegian rocker Ida Maria’s exclusive acoustic set (”Keep Me Warm” and “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked”). Maria also broke out a version of “Drive Away My Heart” from her debut Fortress Round My Heart, and gave us a special treat: “This song, I’ve never played it for anybody else,” she says. Check it out after the jump:

“Untitled”

By Melanie Wolfson

It’s no secret that going to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is an all-day event. It begins in the parking lot midday with beers, subs, footballs and stereos blasting songs by the Boss. People reminisce about decades of shows past and their expectations for the night ahead — and yesterday’s show on the Working on a Dream Tour at the Wachovia Spectrum in Philadelphia was yet another astounding performance. After scoring a pair of floor-level tickets back in February, I knew I would be in for an incredible night and, truth be told, I was left nearly speechless afterward and couldn’t think of where to begin with summarizing the show. I have narrowed my long list of reasons for why the show rocked down to five highlights, so check them out!

5. Springsteen playing the Spectrum for the final time. The Boss noted that the first arena he ever played was the Spectrum back in 1973, when he opened for Chicago. And, with the upcoming plan to tear down the venue, last night marked the final time that the Spectrum would ever host Springsteen and E Street.

4. “Streets of Philadelphia.” The gang played the song that pays homage to the city for the first time this tour, not to mention for the first time since 2003. The Philly crowd seemed pleased, and even the Jersey girl in me was moved.

3. The talented new guy on drums. Drummer Max Weinberg retired from the stage about mid-set and handed his sticks over to his son, Jay. At just 19 years old, Jay has been performing with E Street here and there since last summer and will tour with the band in Europe while Max stays behind to take on the role as bandleader when Conan O’Brien takes over “The Tonight Show” in June.

2. “London Calling.” No, the Clash didn’t appear as the latest guests to accompany Springsteen and crew onstage — instead, the Boss went into the crowd and took a number of signs fans were holding up, picking out one that read, “London Calling: did it stump E Street?” Without hesitation, Springsteen led the gang into playing the song, which was done as flawlessly as if it were the Clash themselves. (Well, minus the British accent.)

1. Bruce’s mom. During “Hungry Heart,” Springsteen made his way over to stage right, where he wrapped his arm around a little older lady who held onto the mic and sang along. Word spread through the crowd that the precious woman sporting a knit sweater and hair pulled into a neat bun was Springsteen’s mom, Adele. She looked incredibly happy and proud, but hey, if Bruce were your son, you’d be beaming too.

It was bad enough on Wednesday when TMZ tried to convince us that someone had snapped a picture of a very lively looking Tupac Shakur — who was gunned down in Las Vegas in September 1996. Granted, the unidentified dude hanging out and looking very mellow after downing a few hand grenades at a bar in New Orleans does kinda resemble ‘Pac, down to the small stud in his left nostril, the bushy eyebrows and goatee-with-unattached-mustache.

Then they went and confused us today when they posted a second set of pictures of an alleged Tupac, who they’re not even sure is the same ‘Pac from the day before. To be honest, the second undead Tupac doesn’t look as much like the rapper as the first one, though the picture is pretty blurry. And if you look at the additional image of him, he sort of resembles Tim Meadows.

The first guy is convincing and the photo certainly got lots of people talking as far away as Singapore, where The Straits Times weighed in on the matter, and as close to home as the Weekly World News, which did TMZ one better by posting an interview with the alleged zombie rap legend.

According to that, ahem, “newspaper,” Shakur’s label paid off medical examiners to claim he was dead so the embattled rapper could escape his would-be killers and legal issues, allowing him to retire to a more sedate life under an assumed name in rural Pennsylvania.

Asked how he spends his time now, the rapper explained, “Ya know, same old same old. Shop at the Farmer’s Market. Keep my bees, get some honey. Flirt with the girls at Dairy Queen. Nothin’ big.”

You know, come to think of it, there was a kinda heavy dude in my Pilates class the other day that was a ringer for Biggie Smalls …

Photo: AndreasTischler.com

Beyoncé became the victim of yet another prank — her second in a week — when an Austrian radio station sent a Sasha Fierce doppelganger to a Vienna museum to pose as Mrs. Jay-Z. When photos of the faux-Beyoncé at the Albertina art museum began circulating online yesterday, it appeared that the singer sent what looked obviously like an impersonator to the gallery while the real deal simply shopped.

According to Earth Times, the fake Beyoncé was hired by Kronehit radio, which also arranged the private tour of the museum that celebrities like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have enjoyed in the past. Someone pretending to be Beyoncé’s manager called the museum asking for the private walk-through within 30 minutes, and then the fake model arrived. “Her face was extremely similar, but her body was totally different,” said Verena Dahlitz, the museum’s spokeswoman. “We had a grain of doubt that it might have been her because she avoided eye contact with the director, and she acted a little bit strangely.” That, and the fact that she looks nothing like Beyoncé.

Last week, Beyoncé was Punk’d by a doctored, off-key audio clip of soundboard recording allegedly from her Today performance last year. Like the case of the Beyoncé doppelganger, that too was quickly exposed as a hoax. “I was just trying to make a point. I wanted to show people how easy it is to manipulate someone’s voice,” prankster Matthew Zeghibe told Rolling Stone. “If I can do it with a clip I pulled off of TV, imagine what they are doing on records and during live performances. The entire industry has been so manipulated, because there’s such an emphasis on perfection, so when something like this happens, it causes such a stir.”

As for the Austrian hoax, MTV reports that the radio station said they just wanted to see how people reacted when they saw their replica Beyoncé. So why is B the victim of all these pranks? Rolling Stone’s movie critic Peter Travers would argue this is her punishment for starring in the “crazy-ass awful” Obsessed, which he gave zero stars.

Related Stories:

Beyonce “Today” Hoaxer Says He Was Trying To Make A Point

Beyonce Puts Rumors to Rest With Fierce “Letterman” Performance

Beyonce Calls “Today” Show Singing Scandal “Ridiculous”

By Matt Wenzel

Matt Giraud finally had to face his fate last night on “American Idol.” Check out our recap of the show, and see how fans of Kris Allen and Adam Lambert reacted to the front-runners’ appearance in the bottom three.

Check out our analysis of the trailer for Eminem’s rather bloody upcoming “3 A.M.” video.

Heidi Montag is done shooting her music video in Mexico, and it’s time for Speidi’s honeymoon. Will they Tweet throughout that too?

Forget all the hype about Susan Boyle, we’d like to concentrate on Allison Iraheta, the original underdog with the amazing voice.

Aren’t 7-Eleven Slurpees delicious? Hmm, are they still delicious when there are Terminator robots stuck to the straws?

“American Idol” used to be so squeaky-clean with the guest appearances from middle-of-the-road acts like Neil Diamond, Rod Stewart, Tony Bennett, Martina McBride, Barry Gibb and Dolly Parton.

While their songs are fun for the whole family, the show dodged a bullet on Wednesday night when this week’s mentor, Jamie Foxx, had to perform a foreshortened version of his ode to the pants-loosening effects of alcohol, “Blame It.” See, after recent results shows on which Lady Gaga sang about bluffin’ on her “muffin” and rapper Flo Rida paid tribute to strippers and/or oral sex with “Right Round,” Foxx’s song avoided controversy from edgy verses that might have inspired shouts of “ear muffs!” from parents across the country.

As it is, Foxx sang his lascivious lines about “feeling on your butt,” a seemingly easy shawty, getting a healthy buzz on and his desire to show his new friend “what you been missing in your life when I get inside.” (Inside the club, of course, you perv!)

But thanks to missing-in-action collaborator T-Pain, the couplets “couple more shots/ you open up like a book,” “now she got her hands on my legs/ got my seats all wet in my ride” and “then my pants got bigger” were left out.

While the potentially offensive lyrics didn’t appear on the show, there’s no telling if those kids who saw Foxx perform the #1 song in the country might go seek out the full, unexpurgated version, right?

Photo: Desmond / The CW

With No Doubt set to reunite with a pair of concerts this weekend, Gwen Stefani and bassist Tony Kanal sat down with MTV to discuss the often-overlooked subplot of their first tour in five years: To work on a new album, penciled in for a 2010 release. “We’re calling it ‘the procrastination tour’ … well, I am, at least. I’m the biggest procrastinator,” Gwen Stefani told MTV. “It’s not their fault, it’s my fault, because I had this whole game plan: ‘OK, I’m gonna go on tour with my last record, I’m gonna come home, I’m gonna get pregnant, I’m gonna have a baby, but while I’m pregnant, I’m gonna make the No Doubt record.’ That was, like, the plan, but it all didn’t work.”

With the band struggling to craft new songs, No Doubt’s drummer Adrian Young admitted that the album wouldn’t be ready by 2009. As Stefani said on the band’s Website in November 2008, “I think if we go out on tour it will inspire us to write. I need to see the fans out there.” “You know, it all made sense. We were in the studio, trying to write. Things weren’t coming,” Kanal told MTV. “Gwen was feeling like she couldn’t find the place where she wanted to start the writing process. I think she always goes through this and I think we just need to find ourselves. We just need to get out on the road.”

When they decided to embark on a tour, Kanal says, “It was like four adults became four little kids again. We’re giddy about it.” No Doubt will play a pair of New Jersey shows this weekend, first at Atlantic City’s Borgata on May 2nd and the following day as the headliners at the Bamboozle Festival at East Rutherford’s Meadowlands. From there, the quartet will cameo on Gossip Girl to play their cover of Adam & The Ants’ “Stand and Deliver” on May 11th, then the reunion tour goes full throttle on the West Coast. Get the full tour dates here. Rock Daily will be at Bamboozle this weekend, so check back Monday for the full report.

Related Stories:

• No Doubt Go New Wave With “Stand And Deliver” Cover
• No Doubt Tell Stories Behind Their Biggest Hits in New Video Series
• No Doubt’s Sweet Deal: Buy a Concert Ticket, Get Their Entire Catalog

As you probably know by now, earlier this week, Paramore invited MTV News into the studio, where they’re working with producer Rob Cavallo on their third album, tentatively due in September.

Now, while we’re not allowed to write about everything we saw (and heard) just yet, we’d be remiss if we didn’t share one bit of top-secret studio story with you: Paramore are pretty terrible at basketball.

See, the “studio” they’re working in is actually attached to Cavallo’s house, and right next to it is a regulation hoop, which means that after laying down a vocal track, Hayley Williams can wander outside and shoot some free throws. Zac Farro can record a guitar solo, then drain some threes. This is theraputic … a break from the monotony and minutiae of making an album.

And since they’ve been doing this for more than a month now, you would think they’d be getting pretty good at basketball. Well, you’d be wrong. And we have photographic proof of this, which you can see after the jump.

After wrapping up our interview, 60 percent of the band — guitarists Farro and Taylor York, plus drummer Josh Farro — headed out to the court to shoot some hoops (Williams went to the bathroom, bassist Jeremy Davis took a phone call on a skateboard), and invited me to play with them. Luckily, I had my camera.

You can click on the picture to see what happened next … After clanging about 15 layups off the backboard, York decided his time would be better spent scaling the hoop, then swatting away jump shots. He didn’t get a ton of work, though, because the Farro brothers were busy tossing up an assortment of bricks and airballs, much to the delight of Paramore’s manager and Cavallo’s studio crew.

It was 15 minutes of the most technically unsound basketball we had ever witnessed … one-handed jumpers, six-inch verticals, dribbles off the foot … just ugly (kind of like the just-wrapped Nuggets/Hornets playoff series). Pretty soon, everyone just gave up and got soft-serve ice cream from Cavallo’s garage.

And that was probably a wise choice. Because … sometimes, practice doesn’t make perfect. Paramore could spend the next year at Cavallo’s crib, and it’s probably not going to change the following sentence: As basketball players, Paramore are a pretty great band.

Every week, Hype Monitor wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet to find the ones you need to hear now.

The Band: Finale
The Buzz: Detroit rapper tells his life story against a backdrop of hazy R&B and scuffed-up soul.
Listen If: You’re just as exhausted with Flo Rida as we are.
Key Track: “A Pipe Dream and a Promise,” where Finale nimbly spells out his mantra as a lonesome trumpet lows in the distance.

The Band: Electric Owls
The Buzz: Ex-Comas frontman writes songs that pair heartwrenching howls with cascading keys and breathless acoustic strums — arid and engaging.
Listen If: You’ve got nothing against heartfelt balladry, you just want it to be done with the proper dash of weirdness.
Key Track: “Magic Show,” a dizzying electro-psych song powered by groaning synths and Andy Herod’s desperate yelp.

The Band: New Ruins
The Buzz: Grim Goth-country band yawns out dire prophecies over bleak, rolling guitars.
Listen If: You use GarageBand to listen to Uncle Tupelo records at half their proper speed, or you were the first of your friends to discover the National.
Key Track: “<a
href="http://www.parasol.com/downloads/New%20Ruins%20-%20Lake.mp3">Lake,” a sepia-toned ballad with a heartsick refrain about a “mouthful of poison.”

Photo: Winter/Getty

“Fix My Hat,” another track from Lil Wayne’s Rebirth, has hit the Web. Described as “an homage to vintage Beastie Boys” in our Spring Music Preview, the 808-soaked song is devoid of the nu-metal guitars and Auto-Tune we’ve come to expect from Rebirth’s previous singles “Prom Queen” and “Hot Revolver.” In fact, “Fix My Hat” sounds like it would fit more comfortably on Run-DMC’s beat-heavy Raising Hell than their own heavy metal-tinged LP King of Rock. Get the goods over at Nah Right.

As Rock Daily reported earlier this week, Rebirth producer Dre of Cool & Dre told MTV, “There’s some rock records on there, but there’s also some records where he’s rapping. It’s a Lil Wayne album. It’s what you expect from Lil Wayne, where he’s at creatively.” “Fix My Hat” fits into the “where he’s rapping” category, with Weezy spitting straight rhymes before launching into a chorus that alternates between “Let me fix my hat” and “Let me fix my gat.” According to Nah Right, the track was produced by Spliffington Management’s Drew Money, a.k.a. Pro V, who previously served as engineer on songs like Jay-Z’s “Hello Brooklyn 2.0″ and Chris Brown & Kanye West’s “Down.”

Rebirth, originally targeted for release this month, has been pushed back to June 23rd. “Wayne knows some people aren’t gonna feel this,” manager Cortez Bryant told Rolling Stone for our Spring Music Preview. “He don’t care.” Dre compared Rebirth to OutKast’s Aquemini, saying, “It’s still a rap album, but was it really a rap album compared to all the other rap albums at that time? André Benjamin was evolving artistically to where he’s at now — Wayne is doing the same thing, and he’s not afraid to show you his growth.”

Related Stories:

• Lil Wayne’s Producers Compare “Rebirth” to OutKast’s “Aquemini”
• First Listen: Lil Wayne Embraces Skate-Punk, Auto Tune On Rock Record “Rebirth”
• Lil Wayne: The Story Behind the Story

After just two days on sale, Rolling Stone cover artist Bob Dylan’s latest album Together Through Life is already on pace to top next week’s sales charts, Billboard reports. Together Through Life will likely finish the week with sales upward of 100,000, but will be hard-pressed to match the 192,000 copies Modern Times sold in its debut week in 2006. The LP would mark the fifth time Dylan has landed a Number One album.

According to Billboard, Dylan’s first chart-topper in America was 1974’s collaboration with the Band, Planet Waves. Number Ones for 1975’s Blood on the Tracks and 1976’s Desire quickly followed, and 30 years later Dylan accomplished the feat again with Modern Times. Dylan’s last official non-album release, Tell Tale Signs, debuted at Number Six in October 2008.

Douglas Brinkley followed Dylan to Europe for the new issue of RS, on sale now, speaking to the songwriter about American icons like Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry, George Bush, finding the ideal guitarist and collaborating with Robert Hunter on the lyrics for his new LP. Take a look back at his previous appearances in RS in a gallery of Dylan’s Rolling Stone covers, and experience his paintings in a collection of Dylan’s artwork. Tomorrow, we’ll have a guide to Dylan’s greatest collaborations.

Related Stories:

• The New Issue of Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan’s America
• Bob Dylan Talks About Working With Robert Hunter On “Together Through Life”
• Dylan, Mellencamp and Nelson Line Up 2009 Ballpark Tour

Photo: Winter/Getty

• In a new NME interview, the Killers’ Brandon Flowers complained that American audiences haven’t embraced the band like Europeans have. “[In America], people are still so obsessed with Led Zeppelin and Nirvana, those sorts of bands, that nobody else is allowed [to grow],” Flowers reportedly said. “It’s not just us; there are a lot of great bands that have been held down or confined by the influence of these people that we’ve put up on pedestals. I’m tired of it, you know? I just want to knock them all off!”

• Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and E Street band saxophonist Clarence Clemons will help open this year’s BookExpo America in New York City on May 28th. Tyler, who penned his own autobiography Does The Noise In My Head Bother You?, will be interviewed by writer Chuck Klosterman at the event, Live Daily reports.
• Vern Gosdin, nicknamed “The Voice” of country music, died April 27th after recently suffering a stroke, Billboard reports. He was 74. Gosdin penned hits like “I Can Tell By the Way You Dance,” “Set ‘Em Up Joe” and “Chiseled in Stone,” which won the CMA Song of the Year Award in 1988. Gosdin was also in the band Golden State Boys, which featured the Byrds’ Chris Hillman.

What’s a potential pandemic without a catchy anthem? M.I.A. did wonders for Bird Flu with her clacking anthem named after the 2004 global scare (Sample lyrics: “Bird flu gonna get you made it in my stable/from the crap you drop on my crop when they pay you”). When she posted the tune on YouTube in 2007, M.I.A. noted the song was so-named because “THIS BEAT GON KILL EVERYONE!!” But is it too soon for the new mom to whip up a beat for H1N1? Rock Daily says no! Especially considering the virus’ sonic competition:

This morning CNN reported on Stephan Zielinski, a California blogger/programmer who took the genetic sequence of one of the proteins in the so-called Swine Flu and fed it into a computer algorithm to turn it into a song. Zielinski told CNN it took approximately six hours to equate each kind of amino acid with an instrument (hear the song, a slow ambient piece, on Zielinski’s site).

CNN is also kind enough to point us to some of YouTube’s biggest Swing Flu songs (evidently one user gave the Jonas Brothers’ “Lovebug” some grotesque new lyrics: “I can’t get your snout out of my mouth/I’m sick to my stomach all the time”). A radio station called Z99 has also posted a Swine Flu song — a lame country diddy. And the lyrics to Cream’s “Strange Brew” have been replaced by “Swine Flu” over at AmIRight.com (”Swine flu, will gut the pride in you”).

Eminem took to his Twitter this morning to introduce fans to the bloody new trailer for his new Relapse single, “3 a.m.” The song is a gruesome serial killer tale, and the video trailer is a mini horror movie; the full clip, which was directed by Syndrome, will debut on HBO’s sister movie channel Cinemax this Saturday, May 2nd, at 10 p.m.

Based on the trailer, “3 a.m.” will be the polar opposite of the campy “We Made You” video, which makes sense considering the new song’s gory lyrics: “I remember the first time I dismembered a family member, December.” The trailer is eerily reminiscent to the visuals of the VHS tape that killed people in The Ring, consisting of a series of images that combine into a terrifying montage: A nurse wheels a cart down the hallway of an abandoned mental hospital, Eminem sits naked in a room and runs through the woods, corpses, scribbled notebooks and finally, Slim Shady with a butcher knife standing behind a security guard as blood literally climbs up the wall a la The Shining.

Syndrome are a three-person video-direction team that spawned from an L.A. art collective and took on the clip for Estelle’s “American Boy.”

As Rock Daily reported earlier this week, Relapse will feature 20 tracks, including the Dr. Dre-and-50 Cent collaboration “Crack A Bottle,” which was at one point destined for Fiddy’s own Before I Self Destruct. Two more singles, “Old Time’s Sake” with Dr. Dre and “Beautiful,” will also precede the album on May 5th and 12th respectively, with Relapse finally hitting stores on May 19th.

Related Stories:

• Eminem’s 20-Song “Relapse” Track List Hits the Web
• Eminem Goes Dark on Killer Second “Relapse” Single, “3AM”
• Eminem Opens Up About “Relapse,” Acting in Shade45 Interview: “I Am Back”

No matter how many octaves Adam Lambert can screech, there’s only one contestant this season that I call my “American Idol,” and, ironically enough, her initials are A.I.: Allison Iraheta!

The newly 17-year-old singer had me from her first crazy interview, in which she acted like she’d stumbled off the set of “Intervention.” She solidified that love minutes later with a knock-your-ass-to-the-ground-and-now-your-butt-bone-hurts-but-you-don’t-care-cuz-it-was-that-brilliant rendition of Heart’s “Alone.” Allison was the original Susan Boyle — a girl who, on first impression, you thought was a loon. But then when she opened that bedazzled-braces-clad mouth, you were blown away.

Allison’s run on “Idol” has been super impressive so far. She’s had more “wow” moments than judges’ faves Matt Giraud and Danny Gokey combined. “Alone,” “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and, most recently, “Come Rain or Come Shine.” With each performance, Allison reveals a new layer of musicality, understanding and maturity.

But here’s the frustrating part: Simon Cowell clearly has something against Allison. He’s only unabashedly gushed over her twice on the main stage, and those were her two weakest performances. Every time she delivers a song worthy of the “Idol Hall of Fame,” Simon dismisses her outfit. Or draws on Paula Abdul’s face with a crayon. Or knocks Allison’s “lack of a personality.”

That particular critique really gets my blood boiling. Allison’s quiet-but-goofy demeanor is quintessential teenage outcast. She’s no Jordin Sparks femmebot or David Archuleta eunuch. She’s an honest-to-God TEENAGER. We’ve never seen the likes of a no-holds-barred my-hormones-are-crazy-and-I’m-gonna-make-a-joke-about-cutting contestant on the show, and her willingness to be herself makes me love her even more. Lack of a personality? Hardly. Lack of a phony, prepackaged bubbly self-image? You betcha.

But who cares? I don’t know many people who would invite Beyoncé over to a dinner party, yet they’d pay $1,200 for front-row tickets to her concert. “American Idol” is supposed to be about the voice, dummy, and as far as contemporary recording artists go, Allison Iraheta is ready for prime time.

So why has Allison been dropped in the dreaded bottom three, three times this season? (Last week Allison just barely escaped elimination. The horror!) Perhaps she’s getting overshadowed by Adam Lambert’s hair streaks and hair-metal shrieks. And without a sob story, she isn’t getting any of those sentimental votes either. America, it’s time to embrace the rocker chick and get her to the finale. (Wouldn’t you kill to see an Allison/Adam showdown? It’s the only way it would be fair.)

Therefore, in honor of my favorite contestant (and in hopes of getting more Iraheta stories on MTV’s site … I’m all Lamberted out), I whipped up a bonus “Idol in 60 Seconds” recap this week. Check out everything you need to know about Allison Iraheta, in 60 seconds.

Adam Lambert made his first-ever appearance in the bottom three on last night’s American Idol results show, but ultimately once-saved Matt Giraud was pushed out the door as the Season Eight field narrowed to four. The episode began with a bright note — a Ford commercial featuring the Apples in Stereo’s perky “Energy” (last week the crew sang a Lykke Li song, begging the question, Who on the Idol staff likes quirky indie pop? We won’t hold our breath for the “Aeroplane Over the Sea” cover). And for once the group number had more juice than the star performances: the five remaining hopefuls made a tight quintet, ably handling “It Don’t Mean a Thing” and “I’ve Got Rhythm.”

But before long, things went wrong: we were subjected to a silly clip of the Top Five food-fighting while baking a cake, and Ryan Seacrest presented worst-offender Danny Gokey with a $6,000 cleaning bill (hey, whatever happened to Idol Gives Back, by the way? Or has world hunger diminished during the recession…). Then Allison Iraheta and Danny Gokey were separated from Kris Allen and Matt Giraud, forcing Adam Lambert to awkwardly predict which pair represented the top two. He picked the right group, but put himself in the wrong place, learning that he’d earned fewer votes than ever before.

So what could brighten the mood? Snoozy performances by Natalie Cole, Season Five winner and perpetual Idol punching bag Taylor Hicks, whose slide-guitar-heavy hootenany was kind of a disaster (the look on Simon’s face when Hicks told the singers about the importance of “making the right moves onstage” was beyond sour). Then came Rat Pack Week mentor Jamie Foxx, or the Auto-Tune robot he sent to “sing” in his place. Hey, Beyoncé hoaxer! We’ve got a new target for you.

Giraud exited gracefully upon receiving the bad news (”I’ll remember being the cat with nine lives,” he said) and for once the show was under time rather than over, so Seacrest did the only logical thing: threw to Paula Abdul for a few words of wisdom.

Wolverine Takes A Stab At 'X-Men Origins'

Those involved break down the characters of the new movie.

Wolverine Takes A Stab At 'X-Men Origins'

Those involved break down the characters of the new movie.

By Lisa Gonzalez

Chris Brown was expected to appear in court today in Los Angeles but ultimately didn’t show, with his lawyer revealing that he’s trying to get the case dismissed. Every media outlet in the greater L.A. area, however, did show up — though most of them had swine flu on the brain.

I arrived at the courthouse at 7:30 a.m. to cover Brown’s court appearance, along with my camera guy Erick. We circled the building repeatedly, checking every possible entrance, but found no sign of Chris. Now, I find it difficult to form thoughts before my morning cup of coffee, so it took me awhile to realize there were no other press outlets there. Or protesters. Or even paparazzi! (And those guys always show up anywhere in L.A. a celeb might be.)

By this time, we got word that Brown wasn’t coming, but I noticed several media trucks gathering at another courthouse. The first thought in my caffeine-free mind was: “Rihanna must be here!”

We high-tailed it five blocks with all our gear and stepped right into a media circus. Another crew told me the lawyers were issuing a statement in 10 minutes. Great! We got our camera ready, wedged our news mic onto the podium, and we were ready to go.

Then I heard rumblings about swine flu. The next slow-forming thought surfaced: “The swine flu?!? This isn’t for Rihanna?!?” Apparently the other big story at the courthouse today had something to do with the swine-flu epidemic.

Two breaking-news stories at the same location — what were the chances? Eventually, we got our story as we made our way to the other courthouse just in time to catch Rihanna’s lawyer exiting the building. All in a day’s work!

Photo: Shearer/WireImage

Alice Cooper invites you to be his Frankenstein as he terrorizes Fairgrounds this August, plus Blue October set out in support of Approaching Normal and producers Diplo & Switch go from behind the studio console to in front of an audience with Major Lazer. Full dates for all three treks after the jump.

Alice Cooper
August 1 - Columbus, OH @ Ohio Expo Center
August 2 - Sylvania, OH @ Centennial Terrace
August 4 - Clearfield, PA @ Clearfield County Fairgrounds
August 6 - Wausau, WI @ Valley Fair Grandstand
August 7 - Kansas City, MO @ Ameristar Hotel & Casino
August 8 - Davenport, IA @ Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds
August 9 - South Bend, IN @ Morris Performing Arts Center
August 11 - Jackson, MI @ Jackson County Fairgrounds
August 13 - Sioux Falls, SD @ W.H. Lyon Fairgrounds

Blue October
May 1 - New York, NY @ Webster Hall
May 2 - Providence, RI @ Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel
May 3 - Boston, MA @ House of Blues
May 4 - New Haven, CT @ Toad’s Place
May 6 - Cheswick, PA @ Gravity
May 7 - Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
May 9 - Frisco, TX @ Pizza Hut Park
May 10 - The Woodlands, TX @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
May 14 - Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave Eagles Club
May 15 - Hammond, IN @ The Venue at Horseshoe Casino
May 16 - Mount Clemens, MI @ Emerald Theatre
May 17 - Columbus, OH @ Crew Stadium
May 19 - Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
May 20 - Montreal, ON @ Metropolis
May 23 - Maryland Heights, MO @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
June 12 - San Antonio, TX @ Sunset Station Lonestar Pavilion
June 13 - Corpus Christi, TX @ North Beach
June 21 - Sioux Falls, SD @ Ramkota Exhibit Hall
June 24 - Des Moines, IA @ Hoyt Sherman Place
June 25 - Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
June 26 - Fargo, ND @ The Hub Entertainment Destination
June 27 - Winnipeg, MB @ Canad Inns Stadium
July 25 - Tulsa, OK @ Dfest

Major Lazer
June 13 – New York, NY @ SOBs
June 18 - Boston, MA @ House of Blues
June 19 - Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
June 20 - Washington, DC @ Rock And Roll Hotel
June 24 - Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
June 25 - Seattle, WA - Neumos
June 26 – San Francisco, CA @ The Grand Ballroom
June 27 – Los Angeles, CA @ Memorial Coliseum
July 10 - Austin, TX @ Stubb’s
July 11 - Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
August 7 - Chicago, IL @ Congress Theatre
October 31 - Inglewood, CA @ The Forum