Top 5 Billboard Albums
For the first time ever, an AC/DC album debuted in the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 with Black Ice, moving 784,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Thankfully, the boys from down under kept Disney's High School Musical 3: Senior Year from dominating both the box office and the Billboard chart, holding the genetically engineered teens to #2 with 297,000 units moved.
T.I.'s album Paper Trail stays strong in the top 5, but falls 2-3 with 93,000 copies, a sales decrease of 29%. Kenny Chesney's Lucky Old Sun drops to No. 4 with 88,000, while Metallica's Death Magnetic still manages to hang on in the top 5 with 52,000 albums sold.
In addition to riding strong on the Billboard 200, T.I. continues to tear shit up on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Whatever You Like," a track that's now been #1 for a seventh non-consecutive week, while "Live Your Life," featuring Rihanna, is No. 2.
The Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age rocked the 1,400-capacity Avalon in Los Angeles Wednesday night for a private show to help promote Blackberry's first touch-screen phone, the Storm. Both sets were about an hour long, short and to the point, and consisted of hits and fan-favorites from both bands. Queens played tracks like "Millionaire," "Mexicola," "Little Sister," "A Song for the Deaf" and "Sick, Sick, Sick," before closing out with "Song for the Dead." Grohl, who in the past has filled in as drummer for QOTSA, surprisingly didn't climb behind kit for a little pounding cameo.
The Foos' dozen-song set included "All My Life," "Learn To Fly," "Stacked Actors," "My Hero," Everlong" and the closer, "The Pretender."
Blackberry promoted the event as a "secret show" that fans had to apply for tickets via text message. They only allowed about 800 contest winners into the show, but any overflow had another option: Homme's wife and Distillers frontwoman Brody Dalle unveiled her new band, Spinnerette, just up the street at Spaceland the same night.
The Jackson 5 will reunite in 2009, brother Jermaine Jackson confirmed Wednesday at a TV industry function in Sydney. An enthusiastic Jermaine declared, "It is just the timing, so what we've been doing is working on the music and all the logistics. It is going to be more like a family affair, Janet's going to open and, of course, the original Jackson 5 ... Michael, Randy and the whole family ... We're in the studio, we're planning on being out there next year."
Except, oh wait - the very next day, Michael Jackson denied that he would take part in a reunion of the group. "My brothers and sisters have my full love and support, and we've certainly shared many great experiences, but at this time I have no plans to record or tour with them," said King Weirdo. Jackson said he was instead in the studio, working on "new and exciting projects."
Whoops.
Led Zeppelin reunited last December in London, and it was as if the entire universe stopped moving. Everything was in its right place, and it was amazing. More, the fans beg, give us more!
Sorry, folks, Robert Plant doesn't want to tour as Led Zeppelin. Everybody else in the group does, however, so naturally, sacrilege be damned, they're moving on without him. Bassist John Paul Jones said in a recent interview that he, guitarist Jimmy Page and drummer Jason Bonham "are trying out a couple of singers. We want to do it," he said. "It's sounding great and we want to get on and get out there. But it's got to be right. There's no point in just finding another Robert. You could get that out of a tribute band, but we don't want to be our own tribute band." So that rules out Chris Robinson then, right? Cause as good as Page and the Black Crowes sounded together, it was physiologically impossible to care for more than five minutes.
Plant has been wasting his time on tour with Alison Krauss for most of 2008, and recently said he has no plans to work with the band again. Rumors are already circulating that Alter Bridge vocalist Myles Kennedy is in the running to step in for Plant, which would mean the following: the replacement singer in Creed would be replacing the singer in what's arguably the greatest rock n roll band ever to exist. If the universe folds in on itself one day, you'll understand why.
Linkin Park is planning a concept record! Oooh... The multiplantinum group will start recording in early November, and frontman Chester Bennington is being super secretive on details -- "I'm not sure I'm allowed to say what the big plan is," he tells Billboard.com, adding that Linkin Park "never envisioned ourselves doing a concept record, but we see an opportunity to do something really cool so we jumped on it, and we'll see how it comes out. I think it's a challenge and we'll see if we can rise to the occasion." Oh yippee. Can't wait for a "concept record" by a band that already takes themselves way, way too seriously.
Bennington is also putting the finishing touches on his first solo album, which he hopes to have out next spring or summer. "I'll probably be finished in the next couple months," said the singer, who describes the set as "a lot more straightforward rock, with a little bit of an electronic element to it, lots of keys and snyths and stuff like that. And there are a few elements where I think you'll be able to see what my influence on (Linkin Park) is." Because we don't see that in every single Linkin Park song already. He's not the unbelievably horrible rapper - that's the other guy. Chester's the guy that screams like a pissed 15 year-old all the time in the chorus.
MTV, Harmonix and the Beatles’ Apple Corps. LTD. announced yesterday that they will partner up for a video game based on the music of the Beatles, to be released before the end of 2009. The songs are said to be pulled from the entire span of the Beatles catalog, but the three companies would not clarify whether Beatles content would be available for Rock Band or whether the game would feature the likeness of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. “The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of the Beatles and their music,” Paul McCartney said in a statement. “I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out.”
Let's get one thing clear: Jerry Garcia is dead. Therefore, The Grateful Dead is no more. Nevertheless, the "band" took the stage a few weeks ago to play a benefit concert for Barack Obama at Penn State University. Obama's got plenty of support - we don't need to rape the sacred to make a point. Just sayin'.
Guess what? MTV doesn't play videos anymore. That's news to exactly nobody, as it's widely known that the channel that calls itself Music Television has for years been solely focused instead on reality shows and such bullshit content. Today, the channel announced the launch of MTV Music, a YouTube-type site which will eventually feature the company's entire catalog of music videos.
There are currently 16,000 videos, "Unplugged" performances and exclusive MTV concert footage available.
Slash is making a solo album. Or is it the third Velvet Revolver album? Or is it, maybe, both? The axeman told Billboard that he's "at the very tail end of the demo phase" for the project, which he hopes to start recording early next year. "There's really no particular direction," he said. "I just wanted to take a little bit of a break from all the politics and the democracy that is a band and just sort of do my own thing for a little bit. There will be a lot of stuff I don't have the freedom to do in a band situation." Which is usually guitarist code for "I'm about to make something you'll have no interest whatsoever in listening to." But it's Slash, so there may be an exception here.
So who's gonna sing? He plans to use different vocalists for each of the album's songs, but isn't naming names just yet. "They're all sort of well-known singers," he said. "It's sort of like how I go play on a lot of other people's records, so other people will just play on this one."
Hahaha this shit has nothing to do with real music, but Nickelback: Live At Sturgis is about to hit the shelves, and guess what? It's Nickelback's first new live DVD release since 2002. Six whole years between Nickelback DVD releases. How did we ever manage? The DVD will follow the November release of Nickelback's new album. You don't need to know the name because you're not buying it. No.
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