Joel Madden in "Head Case"
Photo: MTV News

Joel Madden needs to see a shrink — in an upcoming episode of the new Starz comedy "Head Case," that is. The Good Charlotte frontman and new dad will appear on the February 13 episode of the show, which revolves around a judgmental psychotherapist (Alexendra Wentworth) who sees celebrity clients when she isn't out shopping. If you're already psyched for the show, go to Amazon.com's Unbox section to check out the original short-form episodes that launched it. ...

Thank your lucky stars — the Grammy Awards ceremony will go on this year as planned, according to an interim agreement announced Monday (January 28), The Associated Press reports. While the Grammy telecast was still good to go following last week's announcement that the striking Writers Guild of America would not protest it, the interim agreement means content for the show will be written under a WGA contract. "In the interest of advancing our goal of achieving a fair contract, the [WGA West] Board felt that this decision should be made on behalf our brothers and sisters in the American Federation of Musicians and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists," WGA West President Patric Verrone reportedly said in a statement. "Having our talented writers on the team further ensures the highest level of creativity and innovation, something our audience has come to expect every year," Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow reportedly said in a statement of his own. ...

Miley Cyrus' Saturday show in New Orleans had a bit of a hiccup when the singer otherwise known as Hannah Montana announced that she wasn't feeling well and left the stage, according to a video posted on TMZ.com. Cyrus returned to finish her set, albeit in a seat, and dad Billy Ray sang with her. ...

Rivers Cuomo, Adam Sandler, Tony Hawk, baseball player Nomar Garciaparra and Andy Samberg kicking around a soccer ball together on a Saturday afternoon? According to ESPN.com, that was the scene over the weekend when the celebs took the field at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, for Garciaparra and wife/ ex-soccer pro Mia Hamm's charity Celebrity Soccer Challenge. Cuomo scored his team's first goal, and he later reportedly said, "It was a dream come true. Passing with [the L.A. Galaxy's] Landon Donovan and going against Mia Hamm — it's just unreal. I was terrified, but I was so excited that the excitement overcame the terror." Milo Ventimiglia, Elisabeth Shue, Seth Meyers and others also participated in the event, the proceeds of which went to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles. ...

Jim Jones is reissuing his Harlem's American Gangster mixtape, hosted by Dame Dash and featuring the Byrd Gang crew, February 19. Fans are already familiar with the tape, which was previously available in limited form, but it has since been remixed, remastered and bolstered with new tracks, including "Rockefeller Laws." "Some people do soundtracks to the movies about Harlem," he said in a statement. "We do soundtracks to the streets of Harlem, which made us who we are today." His new studio LP will drop in the summer. ...

Modest Mouse and the National have something special to jot down on their calendars: opening dates for R.E.M. The tour will launch after the release of Michael Stipe and the gang's April 1 album, Accelerate. The cities are as follows: Vancouver, British Columbia (May 23); Los Angeles (May 29); Berkeley, California (May 31); Morrison, Colorado (June 3); Chicago (June 6); Toronto (June 8); Raleigh, North Carolina (June 10); Columbia, Maryland (June 11); Mansfield, Massachusetts (June 13); Wantagh, New York (June 14); Philadelphia (June 18); New York (June 19); and Atlanta (June 21). ... Hot Chip, Spank Rock, Peaches and others are liberally reworking classic tracks by the Pharcyde, Masta Ace, Tone Loc and others for a new collection, Delicious Reimagined, due early this year. Raunchy electro-clash singer Peaches — who has collaborated with everyone from Pink to Iggy Pop — remixed Loc's "Wild Thing" almost 20 years after the song originally came out, adding her own new vocals along the way. ...

Hayden Panettiere spoke about the warrant for her arrest — which she was slapped with in the fall after confronting Japanese fishermen to protest the hunting of dolphins — at a related demonstration in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. According to The Washington Post, the "Heroes" actress and Save the Whales Again! Campaign spokeswoman told a crowd, "I was wearing a wetsuit and shoes. I was like, if I'm going to jail, I ain't going to jail in a bikini." ... peta2 has a few new friends you might know: MTV News' own John Norris, as well as the stars of "Rob & Big." Norris stars in a new online video for the youth animal-rights organization that explains why he went vegan, while Rob Dyrdek and Chris "Big Black" Boykin appear in an ad with their dog, Meaty, along with the statement "Have the Balls to Spay or Neuter Your Dog." ...

Black Lips have drooled out an exclusive iTunes Live Session EP that the so-called "flower punk" band recorded over the summer in San Francisco. The Lips are also in the running for Yahoo's User's Choice program, the winner of which will play a performance in the company's studio in Santa Monica, California. And they've also lined up a run that will start February 4 in Seattle and end March 22 in Atlanta. ... The second half of Thrice's four-disc concept album will be in stores in the spring. The Alchemy Index, Vols. III & IV: Earth & Air, is scheduled for release April 15. ... From Autumn to Ashes drummer Jeff Gretz recently suffered two broken bones in his foot and will be forced to sit out the band's tour for the next few months. Flood of Red's Graham Griffith will fill in for Getz for most of the tour's remaining stops. ...

New Kids on the Block fans are going to have to keep "Hangin' Tough" — despite reports over the weekend, the old-school boy band is not planning to stage a comeback. While the once-hugely popular teen heartthrobs' Web site has apparently relaunched, bandmember Danny Wood wrote on his MySpace page on Monday morning, "I wanted to address the rumors of the NKOTB Reunion Tour. There has been no talk of this and you are getting it from the source directly. ... You can't believe everything you read." Still, he added, "Never say never!" Let's keep our hopes up.

1.25.08

Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Whoopi Goldberg and Jessica Biel are among the celebs captured in a new Disney installment of work by esteemed Vanity Fair photographer Annie Leibovitz. In the images, Lopez is portrayed as Jasmine and Anthony as Aladdin in a "Whole New World" scene, while Biel is dressed as Pocahontas, running through a forest. "I was a huge Disney fan growing up as a kid, and Cinderella, Snow White, Pocahontas, Ariel — all those characters were huge for me," Biel said in a statement. The "Disney Dream Portrait Series" will be featured throughout the year at Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida. ...

Gnarls Barkley don't have a release date or name yet for their second album, but it's nearing completion, according to Billboard.com. Danger Mouse is busying himself with other projects in the meantime, including lending production to the Black Keys' Attack & Release; Martina Topley-Bird's The Blue God; and Shortwave Set's new LP, which is tentatively titled Replica Sun Machine. ...

Mary J. Blige recently spoke with MTV Base about the ongoing New York steroid probe in which she was recently named. "I really don't want to clear anything up, because I've been spoken about for so many years — rumors I'm pregnant, I'm a man, I'm this, I'm that, why? At the end of the day, I have nothing to prove to anyone. I am Mary and that's that." A report that surfaced in the Times Union last week claimed Blige was among tens of thousands of people who might have used or received prescribed shipments of steroids and injectable human-growth hormone in recent years, although law-enforcement officials said they don't have any evidence that laws were violated. ...

Krist Novoselic, the former Nirvana bassist who has been politically active in Seattle in recent years, has voiced his support for a 2008 presidential candidate, and it's ... Ron Paul? Novoselic alluded to the Republican long-shot candidate in his Seattle Weekly column earlier this month, saying, "The Internet is already doing this with campaign phenomenon like Howard Dean in 2004, and this year with Ron Paul." The Web site PoliticalBase.com shows that he made a $250 contribution to the candidate in mid-September. ...

Björk has nixed her planned appearance at the Big Day Out on Friday night (January 25) in Sydney, Australia. "Doctors have advised Björk to rest due to swelling of the vocal cords," Ken West and Vivian Lees, who produce and direct the festival, said in a statement posted on the Icelandic singer's Web site. "This is a great disappointment to Björk, who is on her first tour of Australia in 12 years." She is slated to rejoin Big Day Out on Monday for a show in Melbourne, followed by performances February 1 in Adelaide and February 3 in Perth. ...

The Reminder (Feist), Kala (M.I.A.), Neon Bible (the Arcade Fire), Cross (Justice) and Sound of Silver (LCD Soundsystem) have all made the cut as finalists for the Shortlist Music Prize. Also in the running are In Our Bedroom After the War (Stars), Sky Blue Sky (Wilco), Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Spoon), Businessmen and Ghosts (Working for a Nuclear Free City) and Untrue (Burial). The winner will be announced in February. ... Dem Franchize Boyz will bounce back on April 1 with their third effort, Da Point of No Return, which is anchored by the first single, "Talkin' Out Da Side of Ya Neck." Also look for featured appearances by Mannie Fresh on "Mr. Feel Good" and Blaze on "Turn Heads." ...

Marvel Studios is the latest company to reach an agreement with the striking Writers Guild of America, it was announced Friday. "Marvel Studios' signing of an interim agreement with the Writers Guild is more good news for our membership," WGA East President Michael Winship and WGA West President Patric Verrone said in a joint statement. "Marvel is committed to fairly compensating their writers and now they can move forward with their planned production schedule." ... Yes! Will Ferrell has received the James Joyce award in Ireland, where he has been traveling with his dad and brother to trace their family roots, according to The Associated Press. The "Blades of Glory" actor accepted the award — which has been given to Jesse Jackson and others in the past — on Wednesday night and addressed more than 1,000 students at the University College Dublin. "As I perused my leather-bound volumes of 'Ulysses,' 'Finnegans Wake,' 'Dubliners,' 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,' standing in my mahogany library, a lot of feelings ran across my mind. Like: 'Damn, I should have read these books,' " he reportedly said. ...

My Morning Jacket — who sold out their June 20 show at NYC's Radio City Music Hall in just over 20 minutes — have arrived at a title for their new album. Evil Urges, the band's fifth LP, is due June 10. ... Bono hailed Bill Gates on Friday when the Microsoft chairman announced that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will spend $306 million on environmentally friendly technology and farming techniques to help aid millions of impoverished Africans. "It's a very special moment in time, I think, for Davos, and people here," Bono said in the Swiss city, according to The Associated Press. "This is Bill Gates' last trip to Davos as Microsoft leader, and I think it is an extraordinary thing that this man has not just changed the world once, but has now set aside the next act of his life to change the world again, and I think we should just mark this moment." ...

The summer music-festival scene just got a bit less crowded. Less than two months after announcing their plan to host a three-day camping music festival on a 500-acre farm in Vineland, New Jersey, the forces behind Lollapalooza (C3 Presents) and England's Reading Festival (Festival Republic) have announced that they've pulled the plug on the event. Originally scheduled for August 8-10, the Vineland Festival, which never announced a lineup and had faced considerable opposition from area residents concerned about noise and traffic, will now attempt to launch in 2009. Organizers cited "overall festival traffic in the Northeast"— apparently referring to the just-announced All Points West Festival, which is scheduled for the same weekend in Liberty State Park, New Jersey, and is being coordinated by the people who bring you Coachella every year. Organizers also noted big bands touring the area around the same time as the reason for scrapping the event. ...

Heads up, straight-edge hardcore fans: Ex-Minor Threat drummer Jeff Nelson has thrown up for auction on eBay a bunch of rare and unique items from the band and other hardcore acts. Items include fliers, posters, 7-inches and more. ... Want your name to appear in a Saosin release? The band is launching a contest with mobile marketing company Mozes that will give fans the chance to have their name featured in the credits of the booklet that will accompany their forthcoming "Saosin Live" DVD/CD package. Interested? Text SAOSINDVD to 66937 and join the band's mobile list and follow the prompt. ... UB40 might want to rename themselves "UB39," at least for the time being: The British group, which was huge in the '80s, has lost its frontman. "No words can express how upset I feel today that I have been forced to make this decision," Ali Campbell wrote in a Friday post on his Web site. UB40 said in a statement of their own that they will continue without Campbell, a founding member of the band.

• Joel Madden
• Good Charlotte
• Rick Ross (Hip-Hop)
• Black Lips
• Rivers Cuomo

The 2007 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
Photo: MTV News

On The Record: Braving Bonnaroo

Up until Monday afternoon, I was living in a tent. Showering with bottled water. Wandering aimlessly through a dust bowl, looking for shade, water and food. Fighting for survival, skin bubbling and lips cracked. Hallucinating. Dying.

For four days, I was on assignment down in Manchester, Tennessee, camping out with the unwashed masses at Bonnaroo. I got sunstroke, I got covered in dust and I ate a lot of stuff out of cans (or in burrito form). I also had a great time — I believe in my half-dusted haze I may have even called Bonnaroo "probably the best [festival] in America" (see "Bonnaroo Recap: White Stripes, Police, Lily Allen Bring Heat To Already Scorching Fest").

Somewhere in between all the heatstroke and the hyperbole, I began to jot down notes about my experience, and since I just got back into the office late Monday (via helicopter, 'cause that's how MTV News rolls), I've decided to turn my innate ramblings into this week's edition of BTTS (lucky you!).

I've edited out all the gems like "Friday — 2:47 p.m.: Tempeh not just city in Arizona, Seitan not just Lord of Darkness," but what's left is a pretty good look at my dance with death at Bonnaroo 2007, not to mention a convenient way to take potshots at hippies and link to photos like this and this. Read on if you're looking for the inside scoop on the 'Roo (or if you have five to 10 minutes to kill at work).

Thursday, 10:45 a.m.: JetBlue flight 1043 touches down at Nashville International Airport. Instantly, some doped-out hippie toward the back of the plane bleats, "Bonnnarooo!" I already regret my decision to come here.

11:30 a.m.: Rent car, make trip to Wal-Mart. They have an entire section devoted to biscuits here. No lie. Also, Master P's clothing line, P. Miller, is sold here, and if that isn't an apt metaphor for his entire career, then I don't know what is.

3:47 p.m.: Arrive at Bonnaroo. Survey scene at my campsite.

3:49 p.m.: Want to leave Bonnaroo.

5:31 p.m.: Finish pitching tent in "Guest Camping," which is really only "camping" in the loosest sense of the term ... after all, I have showers nearby and I'm actually sleeping like 5 feet from my rental car. Yet, despite these facts, I will spend the entire weekend A) telling everyone within earshot that I'm "totally camping out"; and B) complaining about the fact that "I only have a tent and an air mattress to sleep on." Also, I decide to keep my hair product packed away in the trunk, as I don't want the heat to make it all gooey.

5:32 p.m.: Question my own masculinity.

8:33 p.m.: The Black Angels totally scare the crap out of anyone on any sort of psychedelic drugs with a droning, terrifying set, one made only more droning and terrifying by the sheer number of helicopters hovering in the night sky, whisking talent on and off the Bonnaroo grounds. I'm not even on acid and I'm scared to death.

10:41 p.m.: Purchase an ironic tie-dyed T-shirt. Feel somewhat bad about doing so. On the flipside, I now have something to wear in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, this summer.

11:10 p.m.: The National take the stage roughly 30 minutes behind schedule, still totally kill it. No joke here: The National rule.

11:30 p.m.: Clutch are, inexplicably, playing Bonnaroo. Begin searching crowd for Bam Margera, as he is required by law to remain within 150 yards of the band at all times.

Friday, 8:02 a.m.: Wake up, sun baking my tent. Totally hate life. One of the kids camping next to me apparently decided to sleep on his cooler last night. It's my first up-close-and-personal interaction with a partied-out "Wookiee," which someone tells me is a term of endearment for jam-band fans with "unshaven faces, long hair and a lack of personal hygiene." (There's even a Web site dedicated to their passing out — complete with awesome Chewbacca sounds.)

8:15 a.m.: Brush teeth. Spend next four hours trying to find shade. Consider crawling under car and dying.

3:50 p.m.: Kings of Leon rock out. Later on in the weekend, a writer who did a story about them will tell me that one of the Kings' mom tailors all their jeans for them, so they're extra tight. Apparently, there are "hidden zippers" involved.

6:12 p.m.: I get a henna tattoo of a unicorn (or, if you ask the woman who gave me the sorta-tat, "A horse with a knife on its head"). I spend the next day walking around with my sleeve pinned up because the henna needs to dry. Get sympathetic looks from several hippies.

9:04 p.m.: Tool. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

11:59 p.m.: Super Jam — an annual Bonnaroo tradition — begins. This year, we've got ?uestlove from the Roots sitting in with John Paul Jones and Ben Harper. At the same time, Sound Tribe Sector Nine — a "five-piece electronic jam band fusing live instruments with electronica," according to their Web site — start up nearby. I begin to wonder if I am allowed to bill MTV for hazard pay.

Saturday, 2:37 a.m.: Sounds like Super Jam is ending. I think STS9 are done too. Of course, I can't be sure, as I am sitting in my tent complaining.

12:30 p.m.: A jam-packed day gets off with a bunch of action in some of the 'Roo's smaller tents, but I am nowhere to be found. Rather, I am debating the merits of R. Kelly with my producer Monty on a shaded picnic table. (He's not crazy about R, but I maintain he's "definitely eccentric. Possibly a genius.") Then we start talking about summer festivals in relation to "Peanuts" characters. We decided that Bonnaroo would definitely be Pigpen, and the Lilith Fair is either Peppermint Patty or Marcie, but we really couldn't decide — oh, wait ... sorry, I think my brain shut off for a minute there.

5:30 p.m.: The Hold Steady finish up a triumphant, fist-pumping set at That Tent. Some drunk guy from Louisville, Kentucky, tries to fight me, then launches into a tirade about how he'll "never come back to Bonnaroo" because security confiscated an ice pick he was trying to bring into the campgrounds. This sucks doubly, because the ice pick was "a family heirloom" and if dude wanted to "f--- someone up, [he] definitely wouldn't need an ice pick to do it." Terrifying.

7:55 p.m.: Franz Ferdinand are totally ruling the Which Stage with a spiky set of tunes both new and old (plus a cover of LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends"). Meanwhile, aged fans (and a surprising number of actual police) are trooping over to the What Stage to catch the fest's most hyped set — a purported two and a half hours with the mighty Police.

10:40 p.m.: The Police wrap, a scant 50 minutes before their set is supposed to end. Roughly 77,000 people shuffle off into the night, dreams crushed (I covered the Police's disappointing set in greater depth here). Sting and company presumably hop into gold-plated helicopter, hightail it the eff out of the sticks.

11:22 p.m.: Monty turns to me, asks, "Dude, do you think the Police are even in Tennessee anymore?"

Sunday, 12:12 a.m.: The Flaming Lips prove once again that they're the absolute kings of style over substance (and that they're probably the most underappreciated guys in rock) with a mind-melting, shambling, psych-heavy set that featured a spaceship landing onstage, Wayne Coyne's omnipresent bubble, dancing Santas, hand puppets, confetti and balloons. It's so great that you don't notice that Coyne hasn't been able to sing properly since about 2003. Their set wraps at roughly 2:15 a.m., which makes it the longest performance of their 24-year career.

8:15 a.m.: I finally take a shower.

2:30 p.m.: Hey, Wolfmother are playing! And playing the same songs they've been doing for roughly a year and a half now!

4:40 p.m.: I interview the White Stripes. During the end of our chat, Jack White makes a crack about how people at summer festivals shouldn't wear baseball caps. "Have some self respect," he laughs. Incidentally, Monty is wearing a Yankees cap, and he will spend the next four hours threatening to punch Jack White if he ever sees him in public.

5:00 p.m.: I am officially running out of steam. My notes from this time read like this: "Decemberists = Linen Suits" and "Good too see Jeff Tweedy still looks like the Singin' Hobo." Perhaps my brain is cooked.

8:45 p.m.: With a "God bless Bonnaroo, God bless Tennessee!" the Stripes exit the stage, having just rocked the hemp outta 80,000 or so 'Roo heads. At this point, Monty and I decided we've had about all we can take of Bonnaroo. So we skip Widespread Panic — and miss out on what someone described as "possibly the best 20-minute bass solo you'll ever see" — and decide to get ready to leave.

Monday, 11:20 a.m.: My super-charged helicopter lifts off from Bonnaroo.

As we leave the rolling countryside behind us, I feel myself changing from a sun-kissed, sorta-blissed child of the earth back into the jaded, elitist pr--- that I know I really am. Feels good to be headed home.

B-Sides: Other Stories I'm Following This Week

Seriously, has there been a more hotly anticipated major-label release in recent memory with worse pre-release buzz than Kelly Clarkson's My December? (see "Kelly Clarkson's My December: Rumors Aside, LP Isn't A Radical Departure")

Boy, that Slayer/Manson tour sure sounds like it's getting off on the right foot. (see "Slayer's Kerry King Warns Marilyn Manson About Co-Headlining Run")

A piece that combines the theory of German psychiatrist Hugo Münsterberg, the musings of American critic H.L. Mencken and, uh, the stupid crap of something called "The Beaterator." Stephen Totilo rules. (see " 'Grand Theft Auto' Of 1916; Launching 'Traxxpad'; 'Halo' Toys & More, In GameFile")

Questions? Concerns? Drop me a line at BTTS@MTVStaff.com.

• Bonnaroo Blitz: Lily Allen, White Stripes, Franz

• Bonnaroo 2007 Performances
• The Tribe Of Bonnaroo '07

• The National
• The White Stripes
• The Police
• Kings Of Leon
• The Roots

Bonnaroo 2007 Performances

• The National
• Lily Allen
• Damien Rice
• Regina Spektor
• Damian "Junior Gong" Marley