Pink Floyd

Adele Passes Pink Floyd On List Of Best-Selling British Albums

20 Mar 2012 11:34:28 EDT

21 has moved past Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon to take #7 spot on the list.
By Gil Kaufman

Adele just keeps rolling up records. The singer's sophomore album, 21, may finally have lost its perch at the top of the U.S. albums chart, but its continued strong sales in England have helped catapult it above one of the all-time greats on the list of the U.K.'s best-selling albums in history.

According to the Official Charts Company, after recently moving ahead of Michael Jackson's Bad, Adele scooted up another notch on the U.K. list when 21 jumped up to #7, passing Pink Floyd's 1973 prog rock masterpiece, The Dark Side of the Moon. To date, 21 has sold 4.14 million copies in the U.K., putting it within spitting distance of the #6 album, Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms, which is just 12,000 copies ahead. Adele is moving units so fast that the Official Charts Company speculated that she could overtake Straits by week's end.

At that point, though, she could run into some trouble challenging the top five sellers, which have remained virtually untouchable for more than a decade. Queen's Greatest Hits, which has sold 5.83 million, is #1 on the list, with the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band just behind at #2 with sales of 5.04 million. At #3 is Abba's Gold (4.99 million), followed by Oasis' (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (4.52 million) and Jackson's Thriller (4.27 million).

NME reported that Adele's 21 and her debut, 19, also helped British artists snag their biggest share of U.S. album sales in a decade. With combined sales of more than 6.65 million, Adele, along with Mumford and Sons (1.4 million) and several others helped account for an 11.7 percent share of all albums sold in the U.S. in 2011. Also helping to goose that figure were albums by Coldplay and Florence and the Machine.

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Pink Floyd's Roger Waters Announces The Wall Tour

12 Apr 2010 13:27:00 EDT

Band's co-founder celebrates the album's 30th anniversary on the road this fall.
By Gil Kaufman

Three decades after Pink Floyd's epic double-album head trip, The Wall, blew a generation's mind, the band's co-founder Roger Waters will perform the entire rock opera in concert again on an upcoming tour. Waters left Pink Floyd in 1984 but has continued to perform his iconic songs as a solo artist for years. The Wall tour will mark the 30th anniversary of the British psychedelic rockers' debut of the now legendary stage show for the ambitious album about isolation and madness. On the tour, Rogers has promised to perform an updated version of the original stage show, which included the construction of a massive white brick wall between the audience and performers during the course of the show. The band performed the album in its entirety on its 1980-1981 tour, and Waters revived it for a star-studded event in 1990 that was filmed in front of a massive 500,000-person audience to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany. Waters' 35-date solo tour will kick off on September 15 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto and is slated to wrap up on December 13 in Anaheim, California.

"Thirty years ago, when I wrote The Wall, I was a frightened young man," Waters said in an interview with Spinner.com. "It took me a long time to get over my fears. In the intervening years it has occurred to me that maybe the story of my fear and loss with its concomitant inevitable residue of ridicule, shame and punishment, provides an allegory for broader concerns: nationalism, racism, sexism, religion, whatever! All these issues and 'isms are driven by the same fears that drove my young life."

The album, one of the best selling of all time, features such classic rock radio staples as "Comfortably Numb," "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2," "Run Like Hell" and "Mother."

The Wall tour dates:

» 9/15 - Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
» 9/20 - Chicago, IL @ United Center
» 9/21 - Chicago, IL @ United Center
» 9/26 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Consol Energy Center
» 9/28 - Cleveland, OH @ Quicken Loans Arena
» 9/30 - Boston, MA @ TD Garden
» 10/5 - New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
» 10/8 - Buffalo, NY @ HSBC Arena
» 10/10 - Washington, DC @ Verizon Center
» 10/12 - Uniondale, NY @ Nassau Coliseum
» 10/15 - Hartford, CT @ XL Center
» 10/17 - Ottawa, ON @ ScotiaBank Place
» 10/19 - Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
» 10/22 - Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center
» 10/24 - Detroit, MI @ Palace of Auburn Hills
» 10/26 - Omaha, NE @ Qwest Center
» 10/27 - St Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
» 10/29 - St. Louis, MO @ Scottrade Center
» 10/30 - Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
» 11/3 - New York, NY @ Izod Center
» 11/8 - Philadelphia, PA @ Wachovia Center
» 11/9 - Philadelphia, PA @ Wachovia Center
» 11/13 - Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Bank Atlantic Center
» 11/16 - Tampa, FL @ St. Pete Times Forum
» 11/18 - Atlanta, GA @ Philips Arena
» 11/20 - Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
» 11/21 - Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
» 11/23 - Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
» 11/26 - Las Vegas, NV @ MGM Grand Garden Arena
» 11/27 - Phoenix, AZ @ US Airways Center
» 11/29 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Forum
» 12/6 - San Jose, CA @ HP Pavilion
» 12/10 - Vancouver, BC @ General Motors Place
» 12/11 - Tacoma, WA @ Tacoma Dome
» 12/13 - Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center

Which big tours are you looking forward to this year? Sound off in the comments.

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Pink Floyd

Coldplay, Led Zeppelin Album Covers Featured On New British Stamps

07 Jan 2010 13:49:00 EST

Album art from Pink Floyd, Blur and David Bowie also included.
By James Montgomery

On Thursday (January 7), the U.K.'s Royal Mail unveiled a series of 10 new stamps, honoring the most iconic album covers of the past 40 years.

The albums featured in the new series are the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed, Led Zeppelin's IV, David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, The Clash's London Calling, New Order's Power, Corruption and Lies, Primal Scream's Screamadelica, Pink Floyd's The Division Bell, Blur's Parklife and — the most recent album on to make the cut — Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head.

Meant to honor "the most potent graphic images of modern times, many of which have provided a visual soundtrack to people's lives," the series is the end result of a lengthy research process by the Royal Mail, who looked through thousands of album covers by British artists before deciding on the final list. And, during a Wednesday night BBC Radio broadcast, it was revealed that the queen herself actually approved each design.

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page — who helped design the cover for IV — was on hand to celebrate the release of the stamps and recalled the mysterious nature of the album's iconic imagery.

"Almost 40 years after the album came out, nobody knows the old man who featured on the cover, nor the artist who painted him," he said. "That sort of sums up what we wanted to achieve with the album cover, which has remained both anonymous and enigmatic at the same time."

Of course, any great honor is befitting of an equally great contest, so, on the same day the stamps were made available to the general public, Coldplay decided to give one of their Rush of Blood stamps away. In a message on their official site, the band held a contest to send one lucky fan "a letter using a Coldplay stamp, postmarked with today's issue date."

"We visited our local post office earlier today and bought some of the Coldplay stamps," the message read. "Very nice they are too."

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Coldplay Perform Free Show At London's Carling Academy Brixton

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Chris Cornell Compares Timbaland To Pink Floyd, Promises 'Cinematic Video' For 'Scream'

06 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST

'I just really didn't know how much is possible in the musical spectrum until I met Timbaland,' singer says of their collaboration.
By Chris Harris

After working with TimbalandTimbaland on his forthcoming album, Scream, Chris CornellChris Cornell has realized something about himself: He doesn't need a band behind him to create great songs.

That's why the former SoundgardenSoundgarden and AudioslaveAudioslave frontman has made the decision to continue working solo for the foreseeable future.

According to Cornell, working with the producer du jour has been an eye-opening experience in more ways than one. "There's this concept that, as a songwriter and a singer, I can't do it without a band," he explained. "This Timbaland/ Chris Cornell album is a perfect example of why I want to be solo. [I've learned that] there's so much, musically, that I haven't done. I've barely scratched the surface, and I have a lot of catching up to do. I feel like I want to fast-forward into my future of musical expression, because there are just so many different things I haven't done yet."

Cornell recorded Scream's 13 tracks with Timbaland over a six-week period, working only at night. He said they would hit the studio at 1 a.m. and record until sunrise. It was all very new to Cornell, who praised Tim's production on the disc.

"Timbaland's diversity — in terms of his feels, the ideas he brought in, the beats, the rhythms, the musical themes and auras of the different songs — was incredible," he said. "His focus was very much, 'I don't repeat myself, and I won't let you repeat yourself.' Being someone that writes songs mainly from an organic platform, I just really didn't know how much is possible in the musical spectrum until I met Timbaland. What he brought in, every day, was a surprise. He would surprise me with ideas he would bring in or ideas he was working on every time. Timbaland's music, coming from someone like me who started in rock music, I view it as being psychedelic music more than hip-hop, more than pop, more than beat-based music. It's atmospheric, like Pink FloydPink Floyd is atmospheric — he creates a sonic world that you get lost in, and you listen to it and you start to trip out."

While there is still no official release date for Scream, Cornell has been getting ready to tour in support of the disc. He plans to play the whole thing live, from front to back, in one continuous hour of beat-driven rock, because to him, the album is one big song.

"I've been rehearsing this as a musical piece that's an hour long," he said. "I've been rehearsing it with an entire band, and it's kind of taken on a new life. Something happens to a song when you play it live — it sort of transforms over time. And to have a whole album with these different musical interludes and these different mood changes in between the songs ... to perform that whole thing live, it's kind of transformed into this living, breathing animal, which isn't something I expected. It's challenging, but it's really fresh."

Cornell has also shot a video for the album's title track, with director Alan Ferguson (Fall Out BoyFall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes Gym Class Heroes). Filmed in Orange, California, last month, the clip reflects the feel of the album, he said.

"The idea Alan had for the video, which is pretty ingenious, is sort of capturing the two moods of the music," he said. "There's kind of two things going on. It's a record that's 111 beats per minute, which is fast. But the music and lyrics and the vocals are actually kind of slow and relaxed and flowing over this beat that's pretty uptempo and kind of chaotic and excited. The way Alan's shot the video, he's shooting both at the same time. My role in the video is performing the song in super-slow-motion, where I'm existing in this Zen-like world, singing these song lyrics and everything going on around me is super-fast, super-chaotic, and I'm just suspended in it. It's a filmic piece that has something to say about the song lyrics and the feel of the music. It's going to be very much a cinematic video."

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Pink Floyd Keyboardist Richard Wright Dead At 65

15 Sep 2008 14:36:00 EDT

Founding member and songwriter had a 'short struggle with cancer,' spokesperson says.
By Gil Kaufman

Founding Pink FloydPink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright died in England on Monday (September 15) at the age of 65 after a battle with cancer. No further information about the cause of Wright's death was available at press time, according to The Associated Press.

"The family of Richard Wright, founder member of Pink Floyd, announce with great sadness, that Richard died ... after a short struggle with cancer," read a statement from a spokesperson. "The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this difficult time."

The self-taught keyboardist met bassist Roger Waters and drummer Nick Mason in architecture school and in 1964 joined their group Sigma 6, which eventually evolved into the Pink Floyd Sound. With the addition of late singer/guitarist Syd Barrett — who left the band in 1968 and died in 2006 of cancer — the group, now called Pink Floyd, began its rise as one of the most creative and powerful psychedelic bands on the British scene.

In that early period, Wright was a major force in the band's pioneering experimental sound, penning the songs "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Us and Them" on Floyd's legendary 1973 black-light rock opus Dark Side of the Moon. He also added key vocals to the 1971 20-plus-minute epic "Echoes" and made significant contributions to the songs "Atom Heart Mother" and the 1975 Barrett tribute "Shine on You Crazy Diamond."

At their peak, from the early 1970s through the early 1980s, Floyd were one of the most popular, successful and influential rock bands in the world. The group regularly filled stadiums with an elaborate show that at different times included brain-bursting light displays, wild props, a giant inflatable pig and, during the tour for 1979's The Wall, the nightly construction of a giant wall across the front of the stage — a symbolic depiction of that album's central themes of loneliness and disconnection.

Floyd's commercial breakthrough, 1973's Dark Side of the Moon, was their first #1 album in the U.S. and spawned what is likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime chart juggernaut, remaining on the Billboard albums chart for an incredible 741 weeks to date — including 591 consecutive weeks, from 1976 to 1988 — on its way to selling more than 40 million copies worldwide. The Wall served to further establish their commercial status by spinning off such classic-rock radio staples as "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" and "Comfortably Numb."

However, as the 1970s progressed, Wright, along with Floyd singer/guitarist David Gilmour and Mason, found his contributions diminishing as Waters increasingly dominated the band's songwriting and direction.

In a group whose history is rife with decades-long grudges, Wright was not immune to the inter-band drama, splitting with Floyd in 1979 during sessions for The Wall, due to his strained relationship with Waters. He returned to the group as a paid session musician for shows in 1980 and 1981, but he was not included on 1983's The Final Cut, the only Floyd album on which he didn't appear. Following Waters' departure, Wright rejoined the band in 1988. He played keyboards and sang on A Momentary Lapse of Reason and co-wrote five songs on 1994's The Division Bell.

Wright, who performed on every Floyd tour, was also onstage in 2005, when the surviving members of the band played a rapturously received reunion gig at the Live 8 concert. Wright released a handful of solo albums and appeared on records by Barrett, and he had been performing regularly with Gilmour.

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Pink Floyd

Coachella Will Make A Lovely Business Trip, In Bigger Than The Sound

23 Jan 2008 07:51:00 EST

California fest seems to be straying from core audience with inclusion of Roger Waters, Jack Johnson on lineup.
By James Montgomery

On The Record: Take Your Business Associates To Indio

I am on an airplane, flying from New York City to Chicago, watching 20-something business-school grads pull important-looking legal documents out of mahogany-colored folios, leaf through them, highlight the salient bits, shuffle and fold, then place them back into the same mahogany-colored folios. They have been doing this dance — pulling, highlighting, shuffling, refiling — for about an hour now, each trying to look grown-up, professional, on-the-ball, each in their cornflower-blue button-ups, silky, color-coordinated ties, pleated black pants and smart, polished, patent-leather shoes. One of them just ordered a cranberry juice, "straight — no ice." Their bosses are seated across the aisle from them. Their hair is gray. One of them smells slightly like gin. They read newspapers and loosen their ties. They have made this flight at least 700 times in their lives with a different group of 20-somethings each time. And as such, they view them with a mixture of annoyance and humor, because they are not threats, they are not the competition; they are sort of ridiculous. They are entertainment, fodder, someone to highlight salient bits on important legal documents. They don't even know their names, which is OK, because why would they? They probably don't care about them at all.

Rewind four hours. I am sitting in the terminal at LaGuardia, waiting for my flight. There is an e-mail from Goldenvoice, the California concert-promotions company, announcing the lineup for the 2008 Coachella Festival. Somewhere among the coffee and muffin, the tiny music snob inside me stirs. After all, it is a banner day for indie-rock fans and bloggers (if there is even any difference between the two) everywhere. The grand unveiling of the Coachella lineup ... the end of a long winter spent filling message boards with fantasy lineups ("Sources close to the fest tell me they've already got the Smiths, My Bloody Valentine and Pavement confirmed!") and the day to unfreeze assets and begin booking JetBlue flights to the Ontario, California, airport. It's the day when the secretive geniuses at Goldenvoice lift the curtain and reveal just what form of musical madness they made happen for us this year. Surely, it is something epic, something can't-miss. Probably Bowie and the Moz and Kevin Shields jamming together as the sun sets over the Empire Polo Fields, while Daft Punk plugs in the Pyramid across the lawn and Kylie and Madge begin limbering up in the dance tent. And Thom Yorke and Kanye will be there, doing a live version of The Eraser and handing out 7-inches and sunglasses and Ecstasy. It's going to be amazing. You have to be there. You have to.

This is all running through my head as I read the e-mail. "Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival announces line-up [yes! yes! yes!] ... tickets on sale Friday, January 25 at 10:00 am [OK, OK ... gotta remember to set my alarm] ... line-up includes [OK, here we go!] ... Roger Waters [huh? OK, flying pig, metaphorical brick wall constructed onstage ... I can live with that] ... Portishead [Oh, sweet!] ... and Jack Johnson [end of inner monologue, as soul is crushed and head has exploded]."

Now, far be it from me to nitpick and complain (despite the fact that it's what myself and most Coachella-heads are really good at), but ... wow. There's not a word to describe how I felt after glancing through the remainder of the lineup, but something like "underwhelmatrayedappointed" — equal parts "underwhelmed" "betrayed" and "disappointed" — probably does the trick. No Radiohead. No MBV. No Smiths (it was a long shot, but still). No must-see set. No steak. No sizzle. Instead, we get a formerly indie-centric fest headlined by a guy who just penned an opera inspired by the French Revolution, a guy who penned the soundtrack to the "Curious George" movie ... and Portishead. To say that Goldenvoice let us down would be incorrect. Rather, they hurt us this year. Really.

Because this year's Coachella fest wasn't booked for me or the die-hard, make-it-to-Indio-at-all-costs-so-I-can-do-drugs-and-have-a-blast indie kid/ hipster contingent I represent, the one that has buttered Goldenvoice's bread for nine years now but rather for the people I spent the first 270 words of this column talking about: aging, graying businessmen — the kind who used to totally burn one to Dark Side and now look back on those halcyon days as the greatest of their life (bonus points since most of them even sort of look like Roger Waters) and their slicked-back, eager-to-please cronies, who are all totally into Jack Johnson and frequently urge me to "really check him out." (Speaking in generalities is so the best.)

And though it's disappointing, maybe you can't really blame the folks at Goldenvoice for the Coachella '08 lineup. Perhaps they got tired of hearing the whining from their too-picky fans (the backlash over the Red Hot Chili Peppers headlining a night in 2007 was rather legendary) or grew weary of continually trying to top the previous year's festival. So they just said, "You know what? Screw this. Let's just book a couple of headliners that'll bring out regular folks. The kind with plenty of disposable income. The kind who think Black Kids are a public nuisance, not an over-puffed blog band."

Or maybe the folks at Goldenvoice were being smart about things. After all, they've just announced plans for an East Coast version of Coachella — the All Points West Festival (which, of course, organizers would prefer you didn't refer to as an "East Coast version of Coachella") — and the last thing they'd want is to launch the new fest with a less-than-stellar lineup. So maybe GV was willing to sacrifice a bit of its flagship festival's luster to give the shine to the new venture.

Who knows if it will all work out? Clearly, Coachella '08 marks the festival at a crossroads: still begrudgingly recognizing the past (as evidenced by Saturday's Portishead, Kraftwerk, Death Cab for Cutie, Rilo Kiley, Hot Chip, Stephen Malkmus, "Blogger's Choice" bill), while looking to seize the present — and firm up the future. It's a pretty solid business plan — diversification, expansion, franchising — one that a whole bunch of eager businessmen-to-be would gladly highlight, shuffle, then file away in their folios.

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

The puff-paint on the sunglasses; the Cornholio-channeling chorus of his new single, "Yaaaah"; the delusions of grandeur — Soulja Boy is my favorite rapper ever.

I hate that I read this article and went, "Yeah, totally."

Who will fill the "Old Coot dispensing homespun wisdom with a delightfully antiquated Southern Drawl" role in the GOP now that Fred Thompson has bailed out of the race?

Questions? Concerns? Angry e-mails from Goldenvoice employees? Hit me up at BTTS@MTVStaff.com.

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M.I.A., Roger Waters, Portishead Lead Coachella Lineup; East Coast Festival Also Announced

22 Jan 2008 10:42:00 EST

California event will also include Raconteurs, Verve, Tegan and Sara; new East Coast fest announced for August.
By Gil Kaufman

As usual, this year's Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival will feature more than 100 acts, including several reunited alternative-rock giants mixed in with some of the hottest acts touring today. The festival will take place on the weekend of April 25-27 in Indio, California, and be headlined by Jack Johnson, Jack White's Raconteurs, reunited bands the Verve and the Breeders, Death Cab for Cutie, My Morning Jacket and former Pink Floyd leader Roger Waters (who will perform Dark Side of the Moon).

Festival organizers also confirmed that they are launching a new event on the East Coast called All Points West Music & Arts Festival, a three-day event set for August 8-10 at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. No lineup or ticketing information has been announced for the event, which appears to be in direct competition with the Vineland Music Festival slated to launch in New Jersey this summer from the people behind Lollapalooza and England's Reading Festival.

Among the rarely touring acts performing over the course of the Coachella weekend are trip-hop legends Portishead, who are releasing their first album in more than a decade in April, as well as German techno pioneers Kraftwerk and long dormant English psychedelic rockers Spiritualized. The first night of the festival is packed with some of the best dance and alt-rock bands of the moment, including the National, Animal Collective, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Battles, Aesop Rock, Spank Rock, Santogold, Vampire Weekend, Black Lips, Rogue Wave and Architecture in Helsinki.

Saturday night's lineup is just as strong, with acts that include M.I.A., Cold War Kids, Café Tacuba, Rilo Kiley, Mark Ronson, Islands, Cinematic Orchestra, Jamie T, VHS or Beta, Bonde Do Role, Akron Family, MGMT, and the Bird and the Bee. In addition to the sure-to-be-trippy capper from Waters, the final night will also feature a reunited Love and Rockets, dance stars Justice, gypsy-rock punks Gogol Bordello, Chromeo, the Streets, Metric, Simian Mobile Disco, Murs, Autolux, Les Savy Fav, the Cool Kids, Sia, Black Kids, Black Mountain, Kid Sister with A-Trak, I'm From Barcelona, Manchester Orchestra and the Horrors.

Tickets for the fest will be available this Friday, with three-day admission going for $269 and single-day tickets for $90; camping is an additional $55 per person.

The full lineups for each day are:

Friday, April 25: Jack Johnson, the Verve, Raconteurs, the Breeders, Fatboy Slim, Tegan and Sara, Madness, the Swell Season, the National, Animal Collective, Slightly Stoopid, Múm, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Stars, Battles, Aesop Rock, Midnight Juggernauts, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Minus the Bear, Spank Rock, Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip, Diplo, Adam Freeland, Santogold, Jens Lekman, John Butler Trio, Vampire Weekend, Dan Deacon, Architecture in Helsinki, Sandra Collins, Busy P, Cut Copy, Black Lips, Datarock, Professor Murder, Reverend and the Makers, the Bees, Porter, Rogue Wave, Modeselektor, American Bang, Lucky I Am.

Saturday, April 26: Portishead, Kraftwerk, Death Cab for Cutie, Café Tacuba, Sasha & Digweed, Rilo Kiley, Dwight Yoakam, M.I.A., Hot Chip, Cold War Kids, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, DeVotchKa, Flogging Molly, Mark Ronson, Turbonegro, Scars on Broadway, Islands, Enter Shikari, Calvin Harris, Boyz Noize, Junkie XL, Cinematic Orchestra, Jamie T, the Teenagers, VHS or Beta, Carbon/Silicon, Erol Alkan, Yo Majesty!, Little Brother, Bonde Do Role, St. Vincent, Akron Family, MGMT, Institubes DJs (Surkin, Para One and Orgasmic), James Zabiela, Sebastian, Kavinsky, Dredg, the Bird and the Bee, Grand Ole Party, New Young Pony Club, 120 Days, Yoav, Electric Touch, Uffie.

Sunday, April 27: Roger Waters, Love and Rockets, My Morning Jacket, Spiritualized, Justice, Gogol Bordello, Chromeo, the Streets, Metric, Danny Tenaglia, Simian Mobile Disco, Booka Shade, Murs, Dmitri from Paris, Autolux, the Field, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Les Savy Fav, the Cool Kids, Sons & Daughters, Sia, Holy F---, Black Kids, Black Mountain, the Annuals, Kid Sister with A-Trak, Man Man, Duffy, I'm From Barcelona, Manchester Orchestra, Deadmau5, the Horrors, Austin TV, Shout Out Louds, Plastiscines, Brett Dennen.

Planning on going to Coachella or any other big music fests this year? Be sure to join the You R Here community, where you can upload your concert photos, videos and reviews. Go there now to check out coverage of last year's Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo festivals.

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Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Amy Winehouse, More At Coachella 2007

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Britney Spears' Assistant Served By Kevin Federline; Plus Diddy, Notorious B.I.G., Jennifer Lopez, Amy Winehouse & More, In For The Record

13 Aug 2007 17:25:00 EDT

Diddy to executive produce Biggie biopic; Lopez pegs release date for LP; Winehouse scraps gigs.
By MTV News staff

Britney Spears' assistant was served with court papers Sunday morning to give a deposition in a legal matter between the singer and Kevin Federline. Mark Vincent Kaplan, Federline's attorney, told The Associated Press that Alli Sims will be asked to offer a statement "in connection with the Britney Spears/ Kevin Federline issue," although he didn't elaborate. He added that Sims is "believed to have relevant information" but didn't go into specifics about that either. On Wednesday, Kaplan filed documents in Los Angeles Superior Court for primary physical custody of Federline's two sons with Spears. ...

Diddy will executive produce the upcoming biopic of the Notorious B.I.G., Variety reports. "Soul Food" director George Tillman will be behind the lens for "Unbelievable: The Life, Death and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G.," for which an open casting call was launched nationally on Sunday. ...

Jennifer Lopez has pegged October 9 as the release date for her English-language album Brave, her second LP of the year and sixth studio disc overall. The set is highlighted by the just-released single, "Do It Well," and will be produced by J.R. Rotem (50 Cent, Christina Aguilera), among others. J. Lo's other album this year, Como Ama Una Mujer, is the best-selling Spanish-language debut LP ever. ... Amy Winehouse, who was hospitalized last week for severe exhaustion, has scrapped two planned shows in Germany opening for the Rolling Stones, RollingStone.com reports. The singer told Britain's News of the World, "I don't know how to explain what happened. ... I can't remember what I looked like. I couldn't recognize myself. It was terrifying." ...

Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, Kid Rock and Velvet Revolver will anchor Los Angeles radio station KROQ's Inland Invasion fest — which has been renamed the L.A. Invasion, since its relocation from a venue in Devore, California, to one in Carson. Against Me!, Chris Cornell, Hot Hot Heat, Satellite Party, Paramore and Cypress Hill round out the bill for the show, which will take place September 15. ...

The French publisher of the "Harry Potter" series will not seek damages against a 16-year-old who allegedly posted online an unauthorized French translation of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," publishing house Gallimard Jeunesse said Monday (August 13), The Associated Press reports. The case is still being investigated by French authorities, who will decide whether to bring it to trial. ... Robert Smith of the Cure, Julian Casablancas of the Strokes, Frank Black and Tom Waits will judge this year's International Songwriting Competition, RollingStone.com reports. ...

Bloc Party, Múm, Of Montreal and more have been confirmed for the ninth annual Iceland Airwaves festival, set for October 17-21 in downtown Reykjavík. ... The Shins have beefed up their fall tour schedule with a smattering of new U.S. dates. After playing Seattle's Bumbershoot festival on September 1 and Chicago's Download Festival the following day, the band will take a month off, then hit the road again beginning October 5 in Berkeley, California. From there, the Shins will play more West Coast and Southwest dates before dipping down South and winding their way up the East Coast for a two-day stand at New York's Terminal Five on October 23-24. They'll cap the tour with a pair of gigs at Las Vegas' Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel on October 27-28. ...

Wilco are bumping a pair of concerts because guitarist Nels Cline has come down with the chicken pox, according to the band's site. The Tuesday night show in Duluth, Minnesota, will now be staged September 4, and a concert scheduled for Winnipeg, Manitoba, will be postponed or scrapped entirely. ... "You Hear It First" vets the Shout Out Louds will tour for a month after they drop their new album, Our Ill Wills, on September 11. The indie-pop quintet will embark at the LA Weekly Detour festival in Los Angeles on October 6 and stay on the road through a November 3 show in Dallas. ...

According to Killswitch Engage bassist Mike D'Antonio, the band will head out for a co-headlining run with Lamb of God this winter. Suicidal Tendencies and Every Time I Die are in talks to open the gigs. ... Alice in Chains have been working on its first new material in more than a decade, according to frontman William DuVall. He said working with the band has "been deeply rewarding" and the new material sounds "insane." No word yet on when the reunited grunge rockers will release their next LP. ...

"Big Lebowski" fans who incessantly re-enact scenes and dialogue from the cult flick are about to be able to make their interpretations even lifelike: action figures are on the way. Seven-inch scale figures devoted to the Dude and Walter will be available in October and can be preordered here. ... Barenaked Ladies will host another cruise in 2008 called Ships & Dip III and leaving Miami on January 27. Tickets go on sale March 22. Meanwhile, Lynyrd Skynyrd (with guests the Marshall Tucker Band) are also hosting another cruise, while Sister Hazel and Toad the Wet Sprocket are signed on for Rock Boat VIII. ...

According to the Asbury Park Press, police charged 33 people with underage drinking last week at the Family Values Tour's Wednesday stop at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey. Thirteen others were arrested on various other charges, including resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and assaulting a trooper. In all, 46 people, ranging in age from 16-47, were taken into custody during the gig, which was headlined by tour founders Korn. ... A James Brown trustee accused of misappropriating $350,000 of the late singer's money has resigned, the Chicago Tribune reports. David Cannon turned over a check for the sum at a hearing on Friday. A follow-up hearing has been slated for September 24 as wrangling continues over Brown's estate.

08.10.07

Think 50 Cent is taking his upcoming face-off with Kanye West lightly? In an interview posted on SOHH.com on Friday (August 10), Fiddy threatened to end his rap career if he gets upstaged by 'Ye when their albums go head to head on September 11. "If Kanye West sells more records than 50 Cent on September 11, I'll no longer write music," he said. "I'll write music and work with my other artists, but I won't put out anymore solo albums." 50's Curtis will square off against West's Graduation. ...

Lily Allen has canceled gigs once again, this time because she has strep throat and sinusitis, she says in a post on her MySpace blog. "I'm back in London eating my mum's chicken soup, 'cause I'm afraid the traveling has caught up with me," she wrote in the post. "Before anyone starts trying to accuse me of neglecting my fans, I want to apologise and say how sorry I am, but I can't risk causing any permanent damage." Defending herself further, the singer also posted an image of her holding her doctor's note. ...

D'Angelo received suspended jail sentences Friday after pleading guilty to charges of driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license, AP reports. A Virginia judge revoked his license for 13 and a half months and fined him $1,250, with additional penalties suspended. A reckless-driving charge was dropped. ... Beastie Boys finally said hello to Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday night with — if you can believe it — their first-ever concert in the borough. RollingStone.com reports that the group, which played at McCarren Pool in Greenpoint, aptly opened the set with "Hello Brooklyn" and closed it with "No Sleep Till Brooklyn." ...

Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae and Joss Stone are chipping in for Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino, which arrives in stores September 25. Paul McCartney, Elton John, Robert Plant and other classic-rock vets also salute the bluesman on the two-disc set, the sales from which will go toward buying instruments for public schools in New Orleans, rebuilding Domino's home there and helping other Crescent City-related programs. ... Emma Bunton, a.k.a. Baby Spice, gave birth to a, um, baby boy in London on Friday. It's the first child for the singer and boyfriend Jade Jones, who used to be in a pop act of his own: boy band Damage. ...

Bright Eyes are lighting up their tour schedule with seven additional dates: September 14 (Boise, Idaho); September 15 (Spokane, Washington); September 18 (Fairbanks, Alaska); September 19-20 (Anchorage, Alaska); September 23 (Eugene, Oregon); and September 24 (Chico, California). ... Waiting for a Cure LP? Well, the wait just got a bit longer. The band's new album was supposed to drop earlier this year, got bumped to the fall — and now won't be ready until the spring, Billboard.com reports. The band is busy touring and frontman Robert Smith hasn't finished writing yet. ...

Underoath will hit the road with Every Time I Die, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster and Poison the Well for a fall tour beginning September 22 in Houston and ending November 6 in Orlando, Florida. ETID, who are still on the Sounds of the Underground Tour, will drop their new Ferret release The Big Dirty on September 4. Earlier this week, they posted "No Son of Mine" — a track from the Steve Evetts-produced (Dillinger Escape

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A.M. Surf Report: Depp Talks Daughter's Illness; Pink Floyd Re-Unite (Kinda); Mirren 'Mortified' Over Queen Snub

11 May 2007 09:34:00 EDT

Plus: Rob Zombie, Sam Mendes, others say what they'd do with final 'Harry Potter' flick.
By Jem Aswad

The news happens all the time, even while you're catching up on sleep. Check out this brief rundown to bring you up to speed this morning — a quick heads up from your friends at MTV News.
Here's what we've got:
You won't need a social life from now till Labor Day thanks to our mad-packed summer movie schedule. From "28 Weeks Later" to "The Comebacks" — with "Pirates," "Potter," "Rush Hour," "Ratatouille" and even "The Simpsons" in between — we've got everything you need to know. ...
In other movie news, now that David Yates has been announced has the director of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," some other directors — including Sam Mendes, Rob Zombie, Guillermo del Toro and Zack Snyder — give an irreverent take on what they'd do for the final "Harry Potter" flick. And check back later for Kurt Loder's review of "28 Weeks Later." ...
The real hardest-working man in show business — James Brown — passed on late last year, but T-Pain is doing that legacy proud. The MC, whose "Buy You a Drank" is burning up the clubs as we speak, has guested on a boatload of records this year, and tells MTV News about how Chris Brown, Usher, Charlie Wilson, Britney Spears, Nick Lachey, Joe, Twista, DJ Unk, Bow Wow, Mya, Sammie and R. Kelly have all put in calls for his services. ...
And finally, check out how metalcore outfit the Chariot turned a common grade-school poem into the tracklist for their new album, plus loads more news on things hard and heavy in Metal File ...
Quote of the Day: "It ain't that I'm doing something other people are doing — I'm doing something they're doing and doing it better." — T-Pain
Here's what everyone else is talking about:
Johnny Depp spoke for the first time about his daughter's illness, according to Britain's Daily Mirror. "It gave us a great scare," he said. "It was a very bumpy patch, but she has come through it beautifully and unscathed, and she is now as healthy as she always was. She is wonderful." Lily-Rose, Depp's 7-year-old daughter with French actress-singer Vanessa Paradis, was hospitalized in London earlier this year while Depp was in England filming "Sweeney Todd." ...
"The Queen" star Helen Mirren is reportedly "mortified" over reports that she snubbed the real Queen Elizabeth II's dinner invitation, according to the New York Post. The actress insisted that she tried desperately to rearrange the schooting schedule for "National Treasure," but could not make the trip from South Dakota to London without shutting down production for at least three days. ...
Not long after announcing a 21-date concert stand in London earlier this week, Prince played one of his infamous surprise gigs in the city on Thursday night. According to England's New Musical Express, the singer played several hits — and tantalized the crowd by naming several more he wouldn't be playing — and did a lot of jamming with his band. ...
All four members of Pink Floyd appeared at a tribute concert for founding member Syd Barrett — but not together. According to the BBC, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright joined for the show's finale of Barrett's "Bike," while earlier in the show, Roger Waters performed one of his own compositions solo. Barrett, who wrote most of the songs on the group's 1967 debut but grew increasingly unstable due to drug abuse, died in July of last year. ...
A former high-school classmate who was dating producer Phil Spector said he was "not his usual self" in the days leading up to the death of actress Lana Clarkson at Spector's home in July, 2003. According to The Associated Press, Rommie Davis said at Spector's murder trial on Thursday that she was concerned about him because he was drinking and taking medication.

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For The Record: Quick News On Hilary, Joel Madden, Green Day, AFI, Trent Reznor, 'Harry Potter' & More

22 Nov 2006 17:23:00 EST

Duff, Madden trick paparazzi; Green Day reissues dropping soon; PETA honors AFI, Reznor.
By MTV News staff

Hilary Duff is onto the paparazzi's moves, and she's got a surefire trick to throw them off. The singer/actress said in an interview featured in the December/January issue of Jane that she has a tactic to duck photographers trying to capture her in a tough moment with her boyfriend, Good Charlotte's Joel Madden: "If we're out someplace, we could totally be fighting, but we'll be looking at each other like this," Duff explained, reportedly flashing a big smile, "because there's a camera right there. Then we end up forgetting we're in a fight, because we're laughing since it's not a real thing to do, and we're both such real people." Real people who listen to music you may not expect, Duff insisted. "I love the Faint. If they would do a song for me, I would blow a fuse." ...
Reprise Records will re-release early Green Day material December 19. The band's 1,039/ Smoothed Out Slappy Hours and Kerplunk! were originally issued on Lookout! Records, and then reissued by that same label in 2004, but Green Day removed the LPs from the Lookout catalog last year after allegations that the band was owed royalties. ... AFI, Trent Reznor, Rise Against and Hellogoodbye have been named winners of the Libby Awards, a new honor put on by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. ("Libby" is short for "liberation.") AFI won Best Vegetarian Band, Rise Against's "Ready to Fall" earned them Best Animal Rights Song of 2006 and Nine Inch Nails frontman Reznor was honored as the Best New Fur Foe. Runners-up included Silverstein, Motion City Soundtrack and NOFX. ...
We're just months away from seeing exactly how "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" translates from book to the big screen (Feast your eyes on the film trailer right here), and now the young wizard's fifth adventure is about to go interactive. The "Order of the Phoenix" video game, scheduled for a July release, will allow players to explore Hogwarts and control multiple characters, including Harry, Sirius Black and Dumbledore. The game is currently being developed by Electronic Arts and will be released for the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2 and 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC. ...
Capitol/Priority is commemorating the 20th anniversary of hip-hop pioneers N.W.A, with The Best of N.W.A: The Strength of Street Knowledge, due December 26. A deluxe version of the 17-song retrospective CD comes with a bonus DVD featuring previously unreleased interviews with Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E. In other N.W.A news, nine songs by the act will debut as ringtones on December 12. ... Lil Scrappy's "G's Up TV," a weekly show recounting the rapper's journey to music from the streets, launched Tuesday at GsUpTV.com. In addition to Scrappy's firsthand accounts of his life and career, the series features skits — including a cognac tasting with Lil Jon — and celebrity guests such as Three 6 Mafia, Young Buck and Jamie Kennedy. The series will run through December 5 release, when his debut LP, Bred 2 Die, Born 2 Live, drops. ...
Angelina Jolie made an unannounced visit to Cambodia on Wednesday (November 22), The Associated Press reports. The actress, who adopted her son Maddox from the country, spoke with government officials about the $1.3 million nature-conservation project she is funding there. ... The advice may be too late for Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson, but Will Smith is sharing his secret to keeping a celebrity marriage alive: "Divorce cannot be an option," he revealed in the current issue of Reader's Digest. Smith explained that he quit his marriage to first wife, Sheree Smith, when he "could have fixed it" — and he said he won't make that mistake again with Jada Pinkett Smith. "With Jada, I stood up in front of God and my family and friends and said, 'Till death do us part.' So there are two possible outcomes: We are going to be together till death or I am dead." ...
After separate jaunts opening for Killswitch Engage and Dragonforce, piping-hot Massachusetts metallers All That Remains will head out for their first headlining track in support of this year's The Fall of Ideals. The band is hoping to have a permanent drummer by the time it kicks off the North American trek, slated for late January. ... Bayside — the New York band that lost a drummer in a van accident while on tour with Hawthorne Heights earlier this year — have assembled a short December trek with Junior Varsity and others called the Holiday Havoc Tour. The outing begins December 3 in New Haven, Connecticut, and winds down December 11 in New York. Bayside's junior album is due February 6. ... Pop punks Cartel will hit the road next year with Cobra Starship, Boys Like Girls, Permanent Me and Quietdrive. The 19-date trek kicks off February 7 in Carrboro, New York, and makes stops in Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Dallas, San Diego, Las Vegas and Seattle before winding down March 9 in Milwaukee. ...
This Christmas, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour will release three live tracks that he's dedicated to former bandmember and friend, the late Syd Barrett — who died this summer of pancreatic cancer. An acoustic cover of Barrett's "Dark Globe" and two new versions of Floyd's "Arnold Layne" will be available for download through Gilmour's Web site beginning December 25. ... Reunited New Jersey hardcore pioneers Lifetime will release their first studio album in more than 10 years on February 26 through Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz's Decaydance/ Fueled by Ramen label. The self-titled outing will boast 11 tracks in all, but no song titles have been revealed yet. Lifetime plan to spend much of next year on the road touring in support of the disc. ... Influential Delta blues musician Robert Lockwood Jr. died Tuesday of respiratory failure in Cleveland. The Grammy-nominated singer/guitarist and W.C. Handy Award winner was 91.
11.21.2006
Although he bombed at the World Music Awards last week, Michael Jackson is going to give another celebration a try. The singer will go to Japan for a December 19 Christmas celebration that is also commemorating the upcoming 25th anniversary of the release of Thriller. "I look forward to visiting Japan again, and greeting my fans and friends," Jackson said in a statement. ...
Jay-Z recently joined forces with another New York heavyweight — New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez — for a celebrity-poker tournament that benefited their respective charities, the A-Rod Family Foundation and Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation. The tourney, which raised a half-million dollars, was held at Jay's 40/40 Club in Manhattan and also counted Nelly, Cedric the Entertainer and baseball vets Cal Ripken, Gary Sheffield and Mariano Rivera among the players. ...
Alicia Keys' new Web site launched Tuesday (November 21), and one of the features on the way is a book club. "I always loved the way Oprah did that," she told MTV News. "To do that with my style and the books I like to read would be really fly." Keys plans to start the group with "The Temple of My Familiar," a novel by Alice Walker. "She is insane, in the best way, when it comes to writing. There's something about a book that engages you, when you become enraptured in the whole thing like it's your life and you're yelling at the book." Keys also plans to recommend the W.E.B. DuBois novel "The Souls of Black Folk," which she just finished recently. "I love to read. It makes you write better, and I just want to open that conversation up, to talk about many things, many styles." ...
Green Day have teamed up with the Natural Resources Defense Council for the Move America Beyond Oil campaign. "People are sick of our oil addiction and feel like nobody is doing anything about it," frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a statement. "Our message is that it's OK, and very rebellious, to take on that responsibility." Visitors to GreenDayNRDC.com can access a tool to send text messages directly to lawmakers and corporate leaders to demand change. ... Rock the Bells is about to get a little bit louder. The hip-hop festival's first world tour will now include Ghostface Killah, Pharoahe Monch and EPMD, in addition to previously announced acts Redman and Raekwon. The jaunt begins Tuesday in Washington, D.C. ...
Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin has updated fans of the reunited rockers on the progress of their comeback album in a post on the Pumpkins' MySpace page. "We are moving along nicely in the studio," the drummer wrote. "[Frontman Billy Corgan] pulled off a magnificent guitar symphony last night and it is still ringing in my ears this morning. Eight guitars resonating in one big harmonic handshake. ... Today we will be working on vocals and solos. Tomorrow, who knows?" The Pumpkins' forthcoming LP, which is being produced by Roy Thomas Baker (Queen, the Cars), is slated for release next year. While Corgan and Chamberlin are back on board, it remains unclear who else will be in the resuscitated band. ... Come 2007, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will be a year older and a day longer. The now-three-day fest will take place April 27-29 in Indio, California. ...
It's a good thing the "Borat" movie is making so much cash, because the lawsuits just keep coming. The latest is from two residents of Glod, Romania, who claim they were tricked into participating in the

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Photos | Madonna, Snoop, U2, Coldplay, Mariah, Velvet Revolver: Live 8 London

02 Jul 2005 00:00:00 EDT

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