Jay- Z took the Glastonbury festival by storm last weekend, making Noel Gallagher of Oasis, who made a spectacle last month by protesting Jay-Z's presence at the festival, saying hip-hop didn't belong a Glastonbury, eat his words. The HOV dominated the 140,000-capacity crowd at a festival most commonly known for its guitar-based rock acts, opening with a cover of the Beatles-wannabe's "Wonderwall" before tearing through a blistering set.
You may recall recent reports of a bunch of tweaking hippies pissed off that Kanye West made them wait more than two and a half hours - until 4:30am - before he went on at Bonnaroo. His set was shortened and his performance unusually lackluster, despite forcing bands on other stages to cut their sets short far before he went on to avoid "competition." Well, Kanye seems to have had enough of people's shit about his failure to deliver at the Tennessee festival. Not only is he pissed enough to pull an all-caps, 94-exclamation-point assault on the interwebs, but he's subtly blaming Pearl Jam, who's blisteringly rockin' set ran an hour long: "This Bonnaroo thing is the worst insult I've ever had in my life. This is the most offended I've ever been… this is the maddest I ever will be. I'm typing so fucking hard I might break my fucking Mac book Air!!!!!!!! JUST SAY THIS OUT LOUD IN A ROOM FULL OF PEOPLE, "KANYE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT GIVING A GOOD PERFORMANCE." CAN ANYONE HONESTLY SAY THAT ????????? PEARL JAM ENDED ONE HOUR LATE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AT THAT POINT WE'RE RACING AGAINST THE SUN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" End quote. Waaah. If your music weren't so awesome we'd totally hate you.
Beck is whipping fans into a frenzy of anticipation for the July 8th release of his next album, the Danger Mouse-produced Modern Guilt. In addition to a new website (ModernGuilt.com) that includes information about the album, tour dates and clips of new songs, Mr. Hansen has taken to MySpace and iLike to stream album tracks"Chemtrails," "Gamma Ray" and "Orphans."
Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's got rocker support for miles, with public endorsements from the likes of John Mellencamp, Green Day, Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Arcade Fire, Usher, Springsteen, John Legend, Jay-Z, R.E.M., Will.i.Am, Pearl Jam (whose abominable "Rock Around Barack" makes this embarrassed fan thankful that Vedder sat this one out) and several others. I hear McCain gets the crowds pumped at Toby Keith shows.
The recently-announced and highly-anticipated Rock Band 2 promises to have “the biggest and most diverse soundtrack ever,” comprised entirely of master recordings. In terms of instruments, improvements are expected on drum and guitar peripherals, but the previous game’s instruments will still work, as well as all tracks purchased for the first installment of the game. Rock Band 2 will debut exclusively on XBox 360 in September before moving to additional systems later in the year.
Snoop Dogg confirmed recently that Dr. Dre's much-delayed Detox album is finished and ready to go. The legendary rapper/producer has been holed up for what seems like decades, working on his physique (seriously - should music superstars be tested for performance-enhancing drugs? Hell, may as well just shut the whole thing down now) as well as what's been called the rap equivalent of Chinese Democracy. “That record is real, it’s coming,” Snoop Dogg said, having recently recorded tracks for the album. “I was starting to doubt it myself and then I went up in there and he played so much music for me it knocked my head off. I see what he got them waiting for, it’s on and poppin’.” Snoop also revealed that Dre will produce his next record, the follow-up to Ego Trippin’.
Nas has taken some interesting steps to promote his new album, inking a one-year partnership with athletic apparel company Fila, who will offer reciprocal financial support for Nas' print and TV ad campaign, as well as his upcoming tour. In return, Nas will... wear Fila. His "Untitled" album is due July 15 on Def Jam. "My best friend Will and I loved Fila," Nas tells Billboard, laying it on real thick. "It represented prestige and everything that was cool to us. When Will passed, we buried him in a black Fila sweat suit, so doing a deal with them has a lot of significance for me."
Incubus is going on vacation. The band just completed a nearly two-year touring marathon in support of their 2006 album Light Grenades, and the guys just want to catch up with the rest of their lives for a while. Guitarist Mike Einziger will play a concert at Royce Hall on Los Angeles' UCLA campus on Aug. 23, unveiling a new orchestral piece. The concert will serve as a precursor to his enrollment in Harvard's music school to study composition next year.
"There's a lot of normal life stuff going on right now -- school, babies, mortgages," Singer Brandon Boyd told Billboard.The band is set to play the VH1 Rock Honors salute to the Who on July 12 in Los Angeles before disappearing for a while, playing alongside Pearl Jam, the Foo Fighters, Flaming Lips and Tenacious D.
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