As expected, the Dave Matthews Band opened at #1 on the Billboard Charts last week with Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, selling 424,000 copies.
Eminem's Relapse dropped to #2 this week after a very solid initial showing. 141,000 copies of his album were sold last week.
Meanwhile, 311's Uplifter debuted at #3 with 60,000 copies sold - so there's proof that 60,000 people have ungodly taste in music. Have you heard this album? It's so bad I couldn't even bring myself to review it. I've never heard something so terrible from a band that gets such undue credit/adulation. Except maybe Nickelback.
Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown fell to #4 with 52,000 copies sold, and the soundtrack for Hannah Montana: The Movie rounds out the top 5 by refusing to go away, moving 50,000 copies in the past week.
Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker spoke recently about what the band's been up to in the studio:
"All the stuff we've done since we last played and recorded, it will influence the new stuff," Barker said. New song "Up All Night" "feels like it could've been on the last record, or right where the last one left off," Barker said. "It's kind of heavy, if you mixed Box Car Racer and Blink. It all makes sense. The pieces are all together."
Of course. What did you expect him to say? "Hey guys! Check it out! We're still droppin' the frat jokes and dancing around like idiots"? Blink is hoping to get started on a new album during their summer reunion tour. "We just started practicing for the tour, going through the old shit, playing the greatest hits — only we'd start experimenting on them a bit, working on different versions," Barker said. "So, it ended up that some of the old songs have new flavor to them, and then we also got around to making four demos, including one song that's pretty much complete."
In other words, more music we can ignore.
U2 recently spoke about Bono and the Edge's upcoming musical, "Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark", which opens on Broadway in seven months. Because rumor has it, there's no such thing as "selling out" anymore.
"We were open to the idea of musical theater, but Spider-Man, that's a different thing again, because that's comic books, and there's a whole series of relations between punk rock and rock bands and comic books, that goes back years," Bono says. He says he and the Edge were eager "to mess with all these aspects of pop culture, put them in a blender and see what comes out on the other end."
"Every rock & roll star probably started out as the geek who got bullied on in school, and eventually their form of revenge was to write songs or learn to play guitar." Bono jokes, "I was more of a Green Goblin." Whatever the hell that means.
Coldplay singer Chris Martin responded recently to questions about a solo career, that someone was evidently bored enough to ask.
So will the thiefilicious singer ever set out and do a solo record? 'It would probably mean I've been dumped by my wife and I desperately need the money. Hell would not only have to freeze over but be skated over and closed up. The Pope would have to declare it didn't even exist. I cannot think of anything worse."
He also talked about Coldplay's next album. "We may put out a record without quite so much fan fare. I think the next one will be quite stripped down and based upon this story idea which I can't talk about because it might be bad."
Well, Chris, we can pretty much guarantee it's going to be shiteous any which way you cook it, so you may as well let the cat out of the bag.
A perfect next step: Word on the street now is that Britney Spears is dating her agent, Jason Trawick. "They are totally and definitely dating," a source says. "Her dad loves him. He's the best thing that happened to her." Clearly this "source" hasn't seen the glory that was the head-shaving, pap-fucking, car-smashing, child-neglecting maniac that was Britney circa two years ago.
Trawick has been photographed with Spears several times over the past month, including on a trip to the Bahamas.
"They're very sweet together," the source says, adding that Spears "always had a crush" on Trawick, one of her brother Bryan's best friends. "He makes Britney really happy, and he's great with the boys."
Guess who's got a new daddy!!!
The Black Eyed Peas' new album The E.N.D.(Energy Never Dies), one of the most anticipated albums of the summer among those with questionable taste in music, came out Tuesday. The set features the #1 single "Boom Boom Pow" - not to be confused with Kevin Federline's "Popo Zao".
It's currently Amazon.com's "Daily Deal", which means you can download the entire album for only $4.99. I'd say you're still getting jacked, but what do I know?
Where are you, Ted Dibiasi!? Stone Roses bassist Mani claims that the band will reform if someone offers them enough money. Both Ian Brown and John Squire stated a few months back that the band would never play together again.
"Ian and John have to get it sorted out and take it from there," Mani told The Sun. "For all the morals and principles that people have, you wave fucking £20m in front of somebody and they change their mind. You'll see how their philosophies soon change."
Of course, Mani also said that he has "very nearly given up" on trying to put together a reunion. I, for one, don't care and would personally feel a bit of joy if this reunion never materialized. Haven't we seen enough ill-fated nostalgia-run reunions?
The Smashing Pumpkins (aka Billy Corgan) have apparently hired 19 year old Mike Byrne as their new drummer, replacing Jimmy Chamberlin. Byrne is the drummer for an Oregon band called Moses, Sell the Roses. The Pumpkins held auditions for the position before apparently settling on Byrne, who has been working with Billy Corgan on what's supposedly yet another Pumpkins-free Smashing Pumpkins record.
Def Leppard concerts this summer will feature something relatively new: fans at the shows will be able to connect to a Wi-Fi spot and download free, unique Def Leppard content at each tour stop, including album art wallpaper, voice tones, and video clips. There will be no charge for the content, data or minute usage.
Let's take a quick look at this - because a quick look is really all it deserves. It's all fine and good that the band want to offer something unique, but who in the hell thinks that they're getting anything exclusive, much less anything actually cool, by going to a Def Leppard concert? A ridiculous notion through and through - unless you take into account the obvious enthusiasm this will garner among the '80s Aqua Net holdouts - but they likely don't really know how to use these fancy schmancy computer things.
The band is touring this summer with Poison and Cheap Trick. The dates begin later this month. Stock up on your STD meds and hairspray.
Yay! More sacrilege! Alice In Chains have signed a new record deal with EMI's Virgin Records and will release their next album, their first studio album in 10 years, this September. The band has been working with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Foo Fighters) since October 2008. So far there's been no official word on whether or not the band has dug up former frontman Layne Staley, replaced his rotted lungs with an accordion-style vocal projector and affixed a microphone to his skull, but chances are that anything less would be an insult to the deceased rocker.
Bret Michaels ran into a set piece on Sunday night's Tony Awards broadcast, knocking him to the ground, breaking his nose and busting his lip. Michaels' split lip required three stitches and he's since gone back for a CAT scan just to be safe. Still, the Poison frontman was in good spirits following the accident.
"He told me, 'All I remember is Shrek and the donkey helping me up, and Liza [Minnelli] giving me a towel,'" said a rep. "And Bret was laughing when he heard [Tonys host] Neil Patrick Harris said he gave new meaning to 'headbanging.' " Oh, those crazy jokesters.
"Bret did not walk off the stage angry or in a hissy fit. He was honored to be asked to participate and be amongst Broadway royalty, like Liza and Sir Elton [John]. He did the red carpet, and he was taking pictures with Angela Lansbury backstage. He was so happy to be there."
"By all means, he did not miss his mark," says his rep. "He did exactly what they asked him to do in rehearsal, where everything went fine. And when the sign came down [at the show], it smacked him on the head."
"He may have to cancel his next show – we'll see," says his rep. "Bret is a tough son of a bitch, but he's really banged up."
Oddly, Lady Gaga has recruited tranny clown Marilyn Manson to contribute vocals to the remix of her dance-floor anthem “LoveGame.” Perez Hilton is streaming the hyperactive remix now, and posted some photos of the pair in the studio. Check out the track here.
Rolling Stone first caught wind of the remix during their Hot Issue photo shoot when Manson showed up, absinthe in hand, to throw morbid pickup lines at Gaga and to proclaim his love. “I was most impressed by her paparazzi shots. I thought that it looked the way that rock stars should look, as exciting as something that Warhol or Dali would do,” Manson told RS. Keep sippin that elixir, big guy. It's clearly doing you some good.
Given the direction of Manson’s arguably shark-jumping The High End of Low, especially the LCD Soundsystem-esque “We’re From America,” a collaboration between the two creatively appareled musicians, even though they occupy two completely different genres, is fitting. As Manson said to RS, “She’s very smart, she’s not selling out, she’s a great musician, she’s a great singer, and she’s laughing when she’s doing it, the same way that I am.” The “LoveGame” remix isn’t the only thing you’ll hear out of the pair this year: RS reports that Gaga has also lent her vocals to an upcoming remix for a song off of The High End of Low.
Are you ready for this? At the Drive-In have maintained a massive punk-prog following since the band's 2001 split, which gave way to Sparta and, of course, The Mars Volta. Eight years ago the band announced an indefinite hiatus spurred by what’s been described as a combination of surplus hype, obvious artistic differences, exhaustive touring and dangerous road habits. The resulting years have seen an explosion of popularity in The Mars Volta, leading many to assume that a reunion was forever off the table.
Now, it appears frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala is singing a different tune. In past interviews, the enigmatic vocalist has taken responsibility for the split, saying he felt At the Drive-In was holding him back creatively. In an interview with Drowned in Sound, Bixler-Zavala was once again asked about the possibility of an ATDI resurrection, and his response, while fuzzy, is likely to give fans renewed hope. Find out more here.
Modest Mouse will release “Autumn Beds” as a limited-edition run of 4,000 7″ singles on June 23rd. The record’s B side is “Whale Song.”
