Prince attends the "Purple Rain" premiere in L.A. on July 27, 1984
Photo: MTV News

You need to see this. On Friday, July 27, 1984, MTV headed to Hollywood for the A-list red-carpet premiere and booze-fueled afterparty for Prince's seminal rock film "Purple Rain." Eddie Murphy showed up sporting a leopard-print blazer, a bare chest and a leather bandana tied around his neck. Pee-wee Herman drove up in a hot-rod-flamed clown car and busted into a nasally version of "When Doves Cry." And Prince himself — his "royal badness," as the VJ Mark Goodman declared — arrived in a purple stretch limo and, flanked by beefy bodyguards, sashayed down the carpet carrying a single rose.

Today, on the 25th anniversary of the "Purple Rain" premiere, we have unearthed MTV's two-hour-long special since it is an unparalleled window into our pop-culture past, because Prince is a timeless rock god and because the footage is, pure and simple, freaking amazing. (Read what Kurt Loder had to say about Prince's landmark album and movie.)

Why had everyone gathered a quarter-century ago beneath the sweltering California sun to celebrate this man and his operatic movie loosely based on his own life?

" 'Cause Prince is bad!" Murphy said.

We couldn't have put it better ourselves. By '84, the singer had already established himself as one of the most talented, charismatic and unpredictable pop stars on the planet. But with "Purple Rain" — and the album that accompanied it — Prince was set to reach an entirely new level. The disc hit the top Billboard spot, spawned two #1 singles and went platinum a staggering 13 times. And the movie, which saw Prince portray a Prince-like character trying to succeed as a musician and a lover while avoiding the alcoholic failings of his father, won an Oscar and grossed nearly $70 million at the box office.

The 1984 premiere featured appearances by some of the music world's biggest stars at the time: Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, Lionel Richie, Little Richard, John Mellencamp, Sheila E., "Weird Al" Yankovic and Morris Day.

On the carpet, Day commandeered Goodman's mic and announced to the crowd, "I wanna see the movie and then I wanna see some lovely young ladies, so y'all hang around, OK?"

The entire special had an endearing, basic-cable rawness to it, a compelling contrast to the slickly produced, highly professional nature of so many contemporary TV events. The sole set-decoration at the afterparty was a purple sign with shimmery silver ribbons hanging underneath. Interviews took place around unadorned cocktail-party tables and were interrupted with calls for more champagne. Goodman read from note cards clutched in his hand as he attempted to guide the live event.

And yet both the premiere and the film were part of a new beginning, a fresh way of approaching pop culture that brought together artists, celebrities, technology and, increasingly, the inclusion of fans in the entire process.

"It now becomes an extension," Richie said. "What we've been doing for a long time is taking each song and making a video out of it. What [Prince] has made now is a motion picture out of his album. It's a very important step."

Check out everything we've got on "Purple Rain."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

• Happy Birthday, 'Purple Rain'!

• Prince

Apollonia Kotero and Prince in "Purple Rain"
Photo: Warner Bros.

It's not hard to grasp why Purple Rain was such an event when it was first released, 25 years ago this summer: The album was a dizzying synthesis of rock, pop and R&B, and it still sounds groundbreaking today. (Look back at MTV's coverage of the "Purple Rain" premiere here.)

This was a defining moment for Prince and his greatest band, the Revolution (with which he shared, for the first time, both an unambiguous cover credit and, inside, some co-songwriting nods). The musicianship displayed on the record is exceptional: The arrangements are intricately structured, and the vocal work is dazzling; the electro-percussion is fat and beautifully ornamented, the guitars range from full-crush to feathery arpeggiation, and there are times when synthesized or actual orchestral beds drift off into stretches of harmonic abstraction that's rare in music aimed at the pop charts. (Four of the album's nine tracks were Top-40 hits; two of them — "Let's Go Crazy" and the great "When Doves Cry" — went to Number One.)

Purple Rain is of course the soundtrack from the movie of the same name, which accompanied the record into the world. The film and the album set up a powerful synergy. The picture depicted the glitzless Midwestern capital of Minneapolis (Prince's hometown) as a glam-pop fairyland, where the men were flamboyant fashion studs, the women lightly attired babes, everybody had talent, and the music that filled the air was, pretty much without exception, fabulous. The album called this vision up every time you played it. Which made you want to see the movie again. And then go home and keep playing the album. (And of course the songs were all over the radio, too.) Small wonder the record spent 72 weeks on the Billboard chart, and has sold more than 13-million copies to date.

But even without the movie (which won a soundtrack Oscar), Purple Rain would probably stand as a mighty achievement on its own. Prince had already proved himself an outsized talent with the three albums that preceded this one: Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy ('81), and 1999 ('82). With Purple Rain, he confirmed his mastery of both rock and R&B idioms (and more, both of his parents being jazz musicians); and the Revolution, a racially and sexually integrated band, was his perfect instrument. (The group's distinctive sound owed a lot to keyboardists Matt Fink and Lisa Coleman, and to Coleman's lifelong friend Wendy Melvoin, who'd just been brought in on guitar). And so while the album's title track is a grand echo of Jimi Hendrix (the opening chords recall his "Little Wing"), and "I Would Die 4 U" is a flat-out terrific dance track, the record is peppered with other elements of striking originality. There's the dreamy vocal montage at the end of "Darling Nikki," which suddenly flips and starts running backwards, amid a gentle drizzle of falling-rain effects; and of course the epochal "When Doves Cry," which offers a new kind of hook — a carefully rushed lyrical structure in which the beginning of each verse is butted up against the ending of the previous one. (The track famously has no bass line — apparently there was one, but Prince dumped it. Who can now imagine this one-of-a-kind song sounding any other way?)

Purple Rain stands as Prince's commercial peak. He went on to have lots more hits ("Raspberry Beret," "Kiss," "U Got the Look," and so forth), to top the charts again (most recently with the 2006 3121), and to collect more Grammys (this album won two). But with Purple Rain, he ruled the world of popular music. And after all these years, the album itself still rules.

• Happy Birthday, 'Purple Rain'!

• Prince

Lil Wayne
Photo: Getty Images

Main Pick Preview: Young Buck's Back on My Buck Sh--

Nuh-uh — you can't get the whole thing this week. We're gonna give you a quick taste of the product, and we'll see you with the main pick in its entirety next week. We got a nice sneak peek, though.

Young Buck just dropped his mixtape Back on My Buck Sh--, and his stance on his affiliation with the G-Unit (at least in this interview) has softened a bit. "Much respect to them dudes, but I'm doing my thing right now," Buck said.

Like Lloyd Banks, Buck said he's officially off Interscope but still signed to the G-Unit.

"To be honest, I'm trying to get away from that situation," he said in Atlanta. "No sooner than I get away from that situation, you'll be hearing from Young Buck."

By that, he means a full album. He has secured distribution through Sony Red for his Cashville Records. C-Bo and the Outlaws are still down with him.

If there's one thing Buck has learned from having his differences with 50 Cent and his pitfalls in the music industry, it's that the game is "90 percent business and 10 percent talent." Sticking with the business theme, he said fans should check for his track "Letter to the Labels."

"That's letting the labels know I'mma do it with or without you," he said. "Cashville Records, we got this."

Buck is shooting a movie called "No Warning" with Omar Gooding.

The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground

Lil Wayne got a huge laugh out of watching Forest Whitaker perform "Di-- in a Box" during last week's MTV Movie Awards. That's definitely a moment he didn't expect form his "Hurricane Season" co-star.

"I just finished shooting a movie with Forest too. He's a very serious guy," Wayne said after the show in Universal City, California. "I just spoke to him before he went out there, and he was like, 'You did good in the movie.' Then he goes out there and sings that. I'm like, 'Wow.' "

"Hurricane Season" comes out later this year. The movie centers on a high school basketball team in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. "Everything was wonderful, and just doing it in New Orleans, it being a true story, and just contributing in any kind of way, it was great for me."

Wayne — who also gives his stamp of approval to "Twilight" (his daughter is a fan) — says he doesn't have any other roles lined up yet, but his album The Rebirth is dropping August 18. If Wayne had to choose his dream movie role, it's easy for Weezy: He'd be the Kid.

"Prince in Purple Rain," he answered when asked what role he would want. "Watch out now."

MTV News is celebrating Miami Week this week. You'll get to see the top MCs right now, the legends, the producers, the DJs — all the upcoming talent. We're loaded. Although Wayne reps N.O. at heart, he loves Miami. Not only does he have a crib out there, Weezy makes songs out in M.I.A. Take a look at the footage we have of Mr. F. Baby during the Tha Carter III recording sessions.

Miami Mind State

Shout-out to all the natives who made Miami theme records and repped their city hard. Here, we're calling out some records that gave props to M.I.A. There's a million of them — these are just a few we love.

Jay-Z's "Reservoir Dogs" (featuring the LOX, Beanie Sigel and Sauce Money)
Lyric: "Gangsters don't die, they get chubby and move to Miami"
Conclusion: Jadakiss' line is a classic. Even the toughest dude can find a place to chill down bottom. Just be careful not to consume too much of that good food at Phillippe or Mango's on the strip.

Rick Ross' "Rich Off Cocaine"
Lyric: "Miami nights/ I'm living the life"
Conclusion: Avery says it all. Whether you're ballin' on a budget or sitting on Tony Montana paper, you can literally have the time of your life on just a regular night in Miami.

Nas' "Blaze a 50"
Lyric: "Blaze a 50/ Sit back in the drop-top Azure Bentley/ Of course with me, this chick who'd make Bobby divorce Whitney/ Brazilian candy from Miami/ Masseuse, wedding ring on, lovin' Celine Dion"
Conclusion: Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston's divorce kinda takes the sting from Nas' rhyme, but back in the '90s, that line was the truth! In short, there were and always will be bad chicks in M.I.A.

For other artists featured in Mixtape Daily, check out Mixtape Daily Headlines.

• Mixtape Daily: Lil Wayne, Young Buck & More

• Lil Wayne
• Prince
• Young Buck

Stevie Nicks
Photo: MTV News

For a person who's proud to own neither a computer nor a cell phone, one doesn't expect to hear the name "Timbaland" at the top of Stevie Nicks' list of potential collaborators. When we asked legendary Fleetwood Mac frontwoman about rumors that she was interested in working with Timbaland, she exclaimed, "Oh, I would love to!" But as far as what their work together might sound like, she replied, "Well, I don't really know, so that's why it's exciting."

While this might be news to some of her fans, Nicks — who is currently on tour with Fleetwood Mac and released the concert DVD "Live in Chicago" on Tuesday — said she's long been a fan of R&B, "I learned to sing to R&B artists, not rock and roll or country artists," she said. "That was my first love, strangely enough. I am really very, very R&B, for my own music. When I'm listening just for my own fun, when I'm dancing around my apartment, I'm pretty much listening to R&B," she continued, noting that she's a fan of both contemporary and classic artists in the genre.

That love came into play more than two decades ago, when she collaborated with Prince. The story began on the first night of her honeymoon with Kim Anderson, to whom she was briefly married. "I'm driving to my honeymoon night in Santa Barbara from L.A., and 'Little Red Corvette' comes on," she recalled. "We're like oh my God, it's Prince! So I start singing all these words, and I'm like, 'Pull over, we have to get a cassette player! And we have to record this!' I'm writing in the car — here we are, newlyweds, and we get to our hotel and we're setting up the tape recorder and I've made up my whole new melody to [the song]. So I haven't really ripped off the song, because I'm admitting that I have done this. So we go into a studio in Los Angeles a couple weeks later and I track down Prince's phone number — and because I'm Stevie Nicks, I can get it.

"I call him, and I never thought he was going to answer, or that it would be him, or that I would ever find him — and he answers. I said, 'Prince, this is Stevie Nicks, and I wrote a song to your song 'Little Red Corvette,' and we're at Sunset Sound right now, and I was wondering — first of all, I wanted to tell you that I'm giving you 50 percent of [the royalties] it if it ever goes anywhere, but are you in town? If you are, how would you feel about coming down and playing on it?' Never in a million years did I think this man would be like, 'I'll be right there.' He was there in 20 minutes and he played [she mimes instrumental parts of the song] on 'Stand Back,' and he was there an hour and a half, and then he left."

But that was far from the end of their musical relationship. "Prince and I became really good friends," she said, "and he actually gave me a cassette, and said, 'There's a song on it, and I would like you to write.' I take it home and put it on, and I'm listening to this like amazing song ... and it's 'Purple Rain'! And I'm like, I can't write a song to this! It [wasn't] 'Purple Rain' yet, but it [was] the track that became 'Purple Rain.' "

Times have changed since in the past 25 years, but Nicks is still writing new music, and thinking of new collaborators, like Timbaland. When asked what he might think of her interest in working with him, Nicks laughed and said, "Of course, he'll hear about this and go 'Oh my God, why in the world?' "

Tim, it's your move.

• Fleetwood Mac
• Timbaland
• Prince

Prince performs at the"21 Nights" Book Launch in New York on October 10
Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

The end of a week in which our country's economic picture looked more bleak than ever perhaps was not the ideal time to charge $1,000 per ticket for a Prince concert. But it's not every day that one gets to see the enigmatic legend in a setting as intimate as his two New York performances on Friday night: the rooftop of the Hotel Gansevoort, for about 250 people each (the late-night party could be had for the "bargain" price of $325).

The shows celebrated the release of a new multimedia book, "21 Nights" (Atria, $50 — head over to the Newsroom blog for photos and info on that), chronicling Prince's 21-night run last year at the O2 arena in London.

The photo book also includes a CD of exclusive material, and proceeds from the launch party were to go to two charities, Love 4 One Another Charities and Urban Farming (both with connections to Prince's beloved hometown of Minneapolis). Needless to say, economic strife or not, both shows were packed and Prince did not disappoint.

Prince acknowledged the sign of the times as he opened his first set, kicking off with an improvised blues jam that riffed on the bleakness of the economy and technology, before ramping up the energy level with his most famous end-of-days anthem, "1999." Prince even tweaked the lyrics to the decades-old hit when he sang, "stock market crashing" instead of "sky turning purple." Backed by just a drummer (Cora Coleman-Dunham), a bassist (Cora's husband, Joshua Dunham), and a keyboardist (Morris Hayes), plus at times two backup singers (Marva King, Shelby Johnson) and a harmonica player (Frederic Yonnet), Prince seemed comfortable in the small setting and in good spirits, effortlessly running from one song to the next.

The two-hour opening set featured mostly well-known Prince hits — like an extended medley of "I Feel for You," "Housequake" and "Controversy" — punctuated by cover songs like the Rolling Stones' "Miss You" and Chic's "Le Freak," and songs he had written for other artists, like "Nothing Compares 2 U," which was made famous by Sinead O'Connor. Prince was affable with the crowd, at one point joking with the room that sometimes, when he's at the airport, people call him by the name "Purple Rain" (which he also performed). Celebs like Spike Lee, Howard Stern, Dave Chappelle and Anderson Cooper could be seen enjoying both the music and the banter.

Like most Prince appearances, the early show was followed by a much later — and looser — afterparty, which had a start time of 1 a.m. People often forget about Prince's inimitable guitar-playing, and he showcased his chops throughout the three-hour set, which featured a wider spectrum of his hits that weren't a part of the night's earlier show: "7," "Girls and Boys," "Alphabet St.," plus recent singles like "Musicology" and "3121." His cover songs, too, got the room bouncing, like when he turned the Cars' "Let's Go" into a funk-filled mantra for the evening ("I like the nightlife, baby!"), or turned both the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women" and the Beatles' "Come Together" into celebratory soul jams.

Midway through, Prince left the stage for an extended period — at which time Dave Chapelle came up to "fill time," telling half-done jokes about flying coach and a recent trip to Africa. One of the world's most famous comedians, Chapelle appeared to be just as excited as the rest of the room by the intimacy of the night.

At about 3:15 a.m., Prince asked the crowd if he could play one more song (the answer was a resounding "Yes!"), but that turned into a 45-minute jam that rolled two Prince-penned hits for the Time ("Jungle Love" and "The Bird") into two more Prince-penned hits for Sheila E ("Glamorous Life" and "A Love Bizarre") to finally close out the night.

"Don't tempt me, I gotta lotta hits!" he boasted from the stage. "We could be here till tomorrow afternoon."

Economic downturn or not, everybody in attendance would have enjoyed that.

• Prince

Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea in 1999
Photo: MTV News

• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• AC/DC
• Jane's Addiction
• Metallica
• Beastie Boys

Prince in a 1999 interview with Kurt Loder

When you've been interviewing people for, oh, a hundred years or so, you build up quite a backlog of banter and chat. A lot of this stuff is inevitably ephemeral — the day will surely never come when anyone cares what Vanilla Ice ever had to say about anything. On the other hand, it is kind of interesting to look back on the vintage natterings of people who are still on the scene and still entertaining us, either with their work or with their dotty behavior.

We've been exhuming a ton of this stuff over the last several months — interviews from the vaults going back not only to the early '90s, but even beyond. Most of these ancient tapes are fun in one way or another; some are scary, which is even more fun. We're going to be posting these old interactions every Tuesday from now on, and if some of what you see seems a little silly at times, well, the past is filled with silly things. Much like the present.

We flew up to do Prince, in the interview sense, in October of 1999. His extravagantly stylish recording complex, Paisley Park, is located about half an hour outside of Minneapolis, in the totally glam-free municipality of Chanhassen. The first thing I noticed, upon walking into this deluxe facility with our producer and camera crew, was a strange, plaintive sound. Looking up toward a kind of gallery on the second floor, I saw a group of large cages, filled with birds. Doves, in fact. Crying. So this is what it sounds like, I thought, dopily.

Prince himself was standing outside a glassed-in control booth doing some kind of business involving papers and personnel. We had interacted before over the years, once in Berlin, during the world tour for his epochal Sign O' the Times album, when at least one actual German princess turned out to party with the great man after the show; and once in Paris, where he threw one of the most awesome post-concert bacchanals ever on a small island in the middle of the Seine. Prince is a sharp, funny guy who sometimes gives the impression of being in on an especially amusing joke of which no one else is aware. In Paisley Park, where he has legendarily spent countless hours of his creative life churning out tracks that are by now quite possibly beyond numbering, he seemed totally at ease.

We slipped into the control booth to listen to some new songs from his Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic album, whose release was about two weeks away.

It was to be the first major-label Prince album since his long, drawn-out and noisily acrimonious split with Warner Bros. three years earlier. Prince had been irked by the injustice of not owning any of the master recordings he'd made for Warner since 1978; and so, just to mess with executive heads, apparently, he had legally changed his name in 1993 to an unpronounceable symbol — a stunt only slightly less silly than the subsequent lemming-rush among the media to begin referring to him as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince." (At MTV News, we continued to know him as Prince, on the theory that that was almost certainly still the name on his driver's license.)

Following his departure from Warner, Prince had decided to go the indie route, and would eventually begin releasing large amounts of his music via the Internet, by subscription. (His astonishingly prolific musical production may have been one factor in the decline of the enormous chart impact he'd enjoyed in the 1980s.) For the Rave album, though, he'd been lured back to the majors by Clive Davis, then head of Arista Records, the veteran hit-maker and comeback guru who just that summer had managed to reposition Carlos Santana, of all people, as a pop sensation with an album of celebrity duets. Could Davis work the same revivifying magic with Prince? Inasmuch as Prince is not the sort of artist to offer himself up to be "worked" with, the prospect seemed remote (and in fact, the album ultimately did little business). At Paisley Park that day, however, there was other business to attend to.

Our interview got off to a slightly awkward start when the producer asked Prince to please remove the shades he was wearing. This is standard TV procedure: Obscuring the eyes as they do, dark glasses have a distancing effect; they also reflect camera lights, which can be distracting. With the offhand politeness of someone turning down a second helping of broccoli, Prince declined to remove the problematic eyewear. The producer withdrew, reformulated her question, then returned to try again. No, no, Prince said, seeming more amused than usual — he would just be leaving the glasses right where they were, thanks. And so the interview began.

There were some obvious questions to ask — about a rumored collaboration with Madonna, for one thing; and of course the inevitable necessity of having to haul out his old '80s party anthem, "1999," for some sort of New Year's Eve performance two months hence. I remained fixated, however, on that symbol he was still using for a name. The damn thing was an affront to logic. If people had actually gone along with his insistence on being referred to by this emblem (which in conversation, of course, they didn't), it would have been impossible to refer to him at all. I was determined to pin him down on this. He proved to be slippery about it, though, as you'll see.

After our little talk, the evening became progressively more interesting. I took a quick spin with him in the slick purple roadster he had parked out back. Then Prince had the members of his current band — including god-like bassist Larry Graham, once a member of Sly and the Family Stone — summoned to the studio for a late-night jam. E-mails were also dispatched to local fan-club members, and soon they were pouring into the studio where Prince had set up his group. Over the next 90 minutes or so, he proceeded to demonstrate that he is, first, one of the most gifted performers of his generation, and second, quite likely the most imaginative loud-and-fast guitarist currently walking among us. That night, he was playing a beautiful white full-size hollow-body, and at one point he flipped it over to show me the signature on the back, inscribed by the man who'd given it to him. It was jazz star George Benson, an admirer, obviously. As who isn't?

Enjoy digging through The Loder Files? You'll find more here, and there's much more to come from the vaults — check back every Tuesday!

• The Loder Files: A Trip Inside The MTV News Vaults

• Prince

Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor
Photo: Karl Walter/ Getty Images

Radiohead fans apparently like to buy the cow when they already get the milk for free. Though the band already offered downloads of In Rainbows essentially for free in October, the album will debut atop the Billboard albums chart next week, begging the question: Who might be next in line to give the pay-what-you-want experiment a whirl?

With Madonna leaving Warner Bros. for a deal with concert promoter Live Nation, Nine Inch Nails striking out on their own, and a number of major, established acts either not under contract or working album-to-album, it seems like the time is ripe for Act II in the name-your-price sweepstakes.

Not long after Radiohead announced their intentions, a number of groups said they were considering following suit, including British funk-dance act Jamiroquai and Oasis, who are without a label and released their first digital-only single in October. But not long after the news about Oasis broke, singer Liam Gallagher quickly put an end to the rumors, saying he'd give an Oasis album away for free "over my dead body."

Another English act, however, the Charlatans, have confirmed that they will release their yet-untitled 10th studio album in March as a free download through online radio station XFM. They already tested the waters last summer with a free single, "You Cross My Path," and a second freebie, "Oh Vanity," is reportedly due out in February. Another once-popular British act, Ash, claimed in 2007 that their most recent album would be their last traditional release and that they would only put out digital and physical singles from now on.

One manager (who requested anonymity) of a major artist considering a set-your-price scheme said the key to success is twofold: 1) It should be an artist established enough to draw a large group of fans who might choose to pay a reasonable amount. 2) Unlike Radiohead, the band should avoid appearing to pull the bait-and-switch of offering low-quality MP3s for the pay-what-you-want price and then selling a more polished album at a later date. "We would never have put songs out at that bit rate," the manager said. "What's the point?"

But for a world-renowned artist like Prince, who does not have a label deal, Radiohead's model could be tantalizing. Prince has already experimented with everything from giving his albums away at concerts to including free copies with British newspapers and delivering fresh tracks directly to fans through his now-shuttered NPG Music Club site. Though a spokesperson for Prince could not be reached for comment, the move would be in keeping with his unpredictable approach over the past few years, as well as another stick in the eye for the major labels, with whom he famously battled during the 1990s.

And then there is NIN's Trent Reznor, who famously split with his label last year, telling fans, "I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different." As an alternative, he said he wants to have "a direct relationship with the audience." Reznor's manager said an announcement of the NIN leader's next move would come by the end of January.

Reznor has suggested he might release his next NIN album on his Web site for much less than the nearly $20 his former label charged for his most recent album. His first experiment with the process, rapper/singer Saul Williams' name-your-price The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust, left Reznor in a foul mood, however. Of the 154,000 who downloaded Williams' album, only 28,322 (just over 18 percent) paid the recommended $5.

"Is it good news that less than one in five [fans] feels it was worth $5?" Reznor asked. "I'm not sure what I was expecting, but that percentage ... seems disheartening."

A recent Billboard article suggested a number of other major acts who might be considering the move, including ex-Hole leader Courtney Love, who expressed affection for the Radiohead stunt on her MySpace page and is currently without a label to release her long-delayed How Dirty Girls Get Clean. Also mentioned were recent Interscope defectors ... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead — who left the major with great animosity and are said to be considering a digital-only release in advance of their next album — and French techno duo Daft Punk.

Though they are still signed to Virgin, Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter told Billboard last summer, "What we might be interested to do from an artistic point of view might not have the same agenda as a major label for using physical formats. ... Personally, we still buy music, but we hardly buy any physical music. We've definitely changed our habits."

The other potential player is Seattle veterans Pearl Jam, who have been selling live CDs directly to fans through their site for years and have signed one-off deals with J Records since leaving longtime label Epic several years ago. Even as its physical-album sales have shrunk over the years, the group's large, devoted fanbase has continued to turn out for arena shows. They are the musicians who could most likely make the pay-by-choice option work in their financial and artistic favor. A spokesperson for Pearl Jam said the band is not discussing its future plans at this time.

Regardless of who follows Radiohead's lead, in these perilous times for major labels, selling just one copy of a physical album after offering it online for free could be considered a success, according to Eric Garland, co-founder and CEO of online media measurement company BigChampagne. "I will go out on a limb and say if Radiohead [or any other band] give away one copy of that pre-release version, and they succeed in getting someone to register at their official site and download that album and open that communication channel, even if they don't pay for it, it's a net win," he said. "Because unlike every other artist in the world who is being victimized by people downloading their music on some rogue P2P site, they have at least a chance to create a dialogue with that fan."

When Radiohead first announced the download plan, a number of managers and label execs told MTV News they thought the offbeat approach was a good public-relations move for an established act like Radiohead but would not likely work for lesser-known acts who might, literally, not be able to give their music away. But once the second, retail-store half of Radiohead's plan came into focus, Garland said his view changed.

"Given what they ended up doing, I think any band can do that if they want to sell a CD and capitalize on some of what you already know will be occurring, which is unauthorized downloading," Garland said. "Will it increase sales and add money to the bottom line? There's not a guarantee, but I guarantee you will get some benefit, where before there was none, because if there's any demand for the record, it will be downloaded without your permission."

The one sector that appears to be taking the Radiohead model most seriously is exactly the one that could have the hardest time making it work: mid- to lower-level bands and formerly popular major-label bands that have been out of the spotlight for several years. What's funny is that many of these bands got on the free-download wagon way before Radiohead, most not bothering to ask for payment at all.

Harvey Danger, who had a minor hit in 1998 with "Flagpole Sitta," self-released their album Little by Little as a free download last summer. "In preparing to self-release our new album, we thought long and hard about how best to use the Internet," the band wrote in a note explaining the move. "Given our unusual history, and a long-held sense that the practice now being demonized by the music biz as 'illegal' file-sharing can be a friend to the independent musician, we have decided to embrace the indisputable fact of music in the 21st century, put our money where our mouth is, and make our record ... available for download via BitTorrent, and at our Web site."

Like other indie acts who've given it away — such as Rancid leader Tim Armstrong, who posted free copies of the tracks from his 2007 solo debut, A Poet's Life, last year — Danger also released a physical version with bonus material.

This time last year, Anti- Records singer Tim Fite gave away his second album, Over the Counter Culture, for free. And though the new album from Bob Mould (formerly of Sugar and Hüsker Dü) is coming out traditionally via Anti- in February, in October he asked fans on his official site if they would support some other models he was considering. Among them: $1-$2 individual songs that would be available in DRM-free formats as Mould finishes them; DRM-free albums for $10-$20 that fans would be notified about via e-mail as soon as Mould finishes them; or an annual fee of $20-$40 that would cover all the music he releases as it's created, in addition to some exclusive content.

More recently, punk stalwarts Pennywise announced that on March 25, they will be offering a DRM-free copy of their new album for free for two weeks, through a deal with MySpace and the text-messaging company Textango. The album will also be released in a physical version with some bonus material on the same day. In a press release, singer Jim Lindberg explained, "I think for a band like ours that has put out eight albums already, it's a great way to give back to our fans for their support over the years. We can also potentially expose our music and message to people around the world who may have never had the opportunity to hear it because they either couldn't afford to buy a CD or they didn't have access to music outlets or good distribution."

Punks aren't the only ones getting in on the action. Over the holidays, emo-rap act Atmosphere posted a copy of a new mixtape, Strictly Leakage, on the Rhymesayers Web site for free download as a thank-you to fans, in the hope that it would create some hype for their next album, due in the spring.

But while major and independent artists alike are taking matters into their own hands, it's the superstars who would seem to stand to gain the most from doing so. After all, while bands like Radiohead have ridden the traditional industry into the ground, they've amassed much of their money and promotion through the old system. It's the established artists who would seemingly be able to exploit the DIY approach to its fullest.

Regardless, what all the acts that are making the move realize, Garland said, is that having fans get the music for free directly from the artist (in exchange for e-mail addresses) is better than having them go to a shady part of the Internet to do it. "You can't steal what's already being stolen," he said.

[This story was originally published on 1.10.08 at 5:44 p.m. ET]

• Nine Inch Nails
• Pearl Jam
• Prince

Amy Winehouse and husband Blake Fielder-Civil
Photo: Dave Hogan/Getty Images

The trial involving Amy Winehouse's husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, has been delayed in light of allegations that he "perverted the court of justice," or the U.S. equivalent of obstruction of justice. He was back in court on Monday (November 12) for a brief hearing, and according to Agence France-Presse, he smiled throughout the session. The trial, previously slated to start Monday, has been adjourned until November 23, and Fielder-Civil — who was arrested last week following a raid on his and Winehouse's London home — is to remain in custody until then. Michael Brown, a 39-year-old who is supposed to stand trial with his friend Fielder-Civil, was not in court on Monday, and a judge issued a warrant for his arrest. BBC News also reports that James King, who was allegedly beaten by Fielder-Civil and Brown in June, was one of the men arrested last week, and that he has also been charged with the aforementioned crime. Fielder-Civil was remanded on technical bail. ...

Teeing with JT: Justin Timberlake has inked a five-year deal with the PGA Tour that will find him hosting a tournament in Las Vegas next year. "Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open," which will be played October 13-19, will help raise funds for the Shriners group, which provides medical care at no charge to children under 18 years old. The singer will play in a celebrity-golf game that week as well. "Raising money to better children's lives while playing golf? I can't think of a better way to pass the time," he said in a statement. ... Timberlake's visibility has also landed him on Barbara Walters' "10 Most Fascinating People of 2007" list, and they'll be seen chatting on an hourlong ABC special set to air December 6 at 10 p.m. ET. Former President Bill Clinton, Jennifer Hudson, Posh Spice and two surprise guests will also appear on the show. ... Could J.K. Rowling top Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore on a competing list, Time's Person of the Year? That's how the voting is shaping up on the Time Web site, although, as it indicates, the editors reserve the right to give the honor to the person of their choosing. Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are also in the running, and the December issue will be on sale December 21. ...

Radiohead have set the North American release date for In Rainbows. The album will hit stores January 1 through the band's own TBD Records (which, as expected, is teaming with ATO Records Group for the release), with "Bodysnatchers" and "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" as the first two singles. According to a press release, more information on the album and the band's tour plans will be announced soon. ... In case teens need an extra incentive to rack up credit-card debt, branded cards featuring Hilary Duff and Usher are on the way, according to Brandweek. Duff is getting a prepaid Visa gift card "aimed to show the young ones how to manage their pocket change (and learn about service fees)," according to the branding-news magazine, while Usher has a Debit MasterCard that features an empowerment message. The Platinum Plus Visa card devoted to Elvis Presley actually has a charitable aspect, as money from it goes to a foundation that helps homeless families. A Kiss credit card is available too. ...

Tom Morello, guitarist for reunited rockers Rage Against the Machine, serenaded some 3,000 people involved in the Hollywood writers' strike outside 20th Century Fox Studios in Century City, California, last week, the Los Angeles Times reports. ... Chiodos, Mindless Self Indulgence and Finch are among the first confirmed bands for next year's Bamboozle Festival, which is scheduled for May 3-4 at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Jack's Mannequin, Less Than Jake, Forever the Sickest Kids, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, I Am the Avalanche and the Starting Line have also been booked for the bill. ... Xzibit has signed on for a tour of duty in Oliver Stone's upcoming Vietnam movie, "Pinkville." The film revolves around the 1968 My Lai Massacre, during which 500 people — mostly women, children and the elderly — were killed by U.S soldiers. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the "Pimp My Ride" host will play a soldier who is convinced he acted ethically when he carried out his orders. ...

My Chemical Romance's Bob Bryar has issued a statement concerning the band's cancellation of a recent gig at the University of Maine, which had prompted school officials to consider legal action against the band. Late last week, the college's newspaper, The Maine Campus, announced that MCR would be paying the student government $20,500 in restitution fees for scrapping the October 27 show. The student government had previously said it would pursue legal action against the band unless it paid all expenses incurred by Monday, arguing that if it did not recoup the money, it would cost more than $2 from each student's activity fee. "We are very sorry about canceling our recent show in Maine. I have been having many problems with my wrists over the past few years," Bryar wrote in his statement. "They have been getting worse but I kept playing. I have seen many doctors to get some relief so I wouldn't have to stop playing. I guess I pushed it too hard this time. During our [recent] show at Maxwell's [in Hoboken, New Jersey], I got a golf ball-sized lump in my wrist, I started to not only have pain, but lose control and feeling in my fingers. I went through a process to control the swelling and attempted to play the show [opening for] Bon Jovi the next day. The Bon Jovi show was really bad for me — I was dropping sticks and could barely hit my drums. After that show, we decided I had to go get immediate treatment. I had to leave the tour. Being the stubborn person I am, I made a last-minute decision to give it another shot on the second Bon Jovi show. It didn't work, [and] we had to cut the set in half. We have a fill-in now as I am getting treatment. He learned the songs in one day." At press time, the identity of Bryar's fill-in was unconfirmed. ...

In a note posted on his Web site late last week, Kid Rock gave props to the head of his security team, Little Bear, for "finding a hidden camera in the dressing room at the show at the Myth Nightclub" in Minneapolis on Thursday night. "Little Bear, who runs SpyOps.net, discovered the device before the show and alerted the authorities, who are now investigating," Rock wrote. TMZ obtained photos of the alleged spycam from Little Bear that appears to indicate it was set up to broadcast on the Internet, but in a statement from the club released to the Star Tribune, the management explained, "The green-room camera in question is part of the venue's security aspect, available for viewing by head of security only ... Rock's allegation that there was some kind of Internet broadcast in progress is simply not true and without foundation." ...

The Broadway stagehands' strike isn't just affecting theatrical productions — Duran Duran's 10-night residence at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theatre has also been stymied by the protest. The band canceled its Saturday night show and moved its Monday and Tuesday gigs to the Roseland Ballroom. "We are really disappointed that we weren't able to finish up the run on Broadway, which has been in the planning for months," singer Simon LeBon said, according to BBC News. "However, we are relieved that there was somewhere else available to us so that we don't have to disappoint our fans by not playing." ... With Army of Anyone's future in doubt — the band, featuring former Filter frontman Richard Patrick and two former members of Stone Temple Pilots, is said to be on "hiatus" — drummer Ray Luzier has opted to handle drum duties during Korn's upcoming European tour, set to begin in early 2008. Luzier replaces Slipknot's Joey Jordison, who in turn replaced Terry Bozzio earlier this year, as the band's touring drummer.

11.9.07

Britney Spears fans must be asking themselves why the singer risks getting behind the wheel anymore. According to a video posted on TMZ.com, the singer blew through a red light and made an illegal turn against oncoming traffic, with her two sons in the backseat of her Mercedes as she was driving in Los Angeles on Thursday. The footage also apparently shows Spears' court-appointed monitor ducking in the passenger seat. The video came to light following Thursday's emergency hearing in her child-custody dispute with Kevin Federline, her ex-husband. Federline's lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan hadn't seen the footage by the time the hearing commenced, and there's no word yet if this will affect his motion to prevent Spears from driving with her kids. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department told MTV News on Friday that authorities weren't planning to cite Spears with any traffic violations because they hadn't been made aware of any unsafe left turns. The spokesperson also said police hadn't heard anything further about Spears recently running over a cop's feet. ...

Weezer fans, the countdown for a new album has begun. The band's mysterious AlbumSix.com Web site has posted release dates for two upcoming projects: Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, which is due December 11, and the simply titled Album Six, which is poised for an April 22 release. ...

Chamillionaire invited old pal Paul Wall to perform with him onstage at a BET Black College Tour stop at Texas Southern University earlier this week. The once-feuding Houston rappers performed their classic collaboration, "N Luv Wit My Money." ...

The nominees for this year's People's Choice Awards rolled out Thursday — and not surprisingly, they're the usual suspects who have been cropping up in other awards competitions throughout the year. Beyoncé is up for three awards; while Justin Timberlake, Maroon 5 and Daughtry landed two nods each. Also in the running in various categories are: Kanye West, Gwen Stefani, Rihanna, Linkin Park, the Killers, John Mayer, Ne-Yo, Plain White T's, Timbaland, Shop Boyz and Shakira. As for the movie contenders, Matt Damon, Jessica Alba, Jamie Foxx, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and others are all in the running. The awards show will air January 8 at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. ...

Radiohead have been busting out some surprise covers on Radiohead.tv, which has featured live webcasts by the band for the past two days. Alongside live versions of their own songs, Radiohead have ripped into Björk's "Unravel," the Smiths' "The Headmaster Ritual" and New Order's "Ceremony," according to RollingStone.com. ...

Prince is "not suing his fans," his U.K. tour promoter AEG Live insisted in a recent statement, according to TheDailySwarm.com. Earlier this week, Prince fan sites claimed to have been hit with cease-and-desist letters from his lawyers demanding the sites remove all images, artwork and fan-submitted pictures related to the singer. "Prince is not suing his fans, is not looking to penalize fans and nor is he looking to or inhibiting freedom of speech in any way," the statement reportedly read. "In fact, he is simply looking to provide Prince fans with exclusive music and images entirely free of charge, and bypassing unofficial and unauthorized phony fan sites that exploit both consumers and artists." AEG did, however, single out the fan sites that assembled to create a new URL, PrinceFansUnited.com. While the promoter said mediations are being conducted between the parties to resolve the issue, it claimed, "The three sites in question have falsely positioned themselves as representatives of millions of Prince fans. In fact, many have come out in support of Prince at his official site and even on the messageboards of the unofficial sites in question." More revealing perhaps is that, according to the reported statement, Prince is taking on ThePirateBay.com, the self-proclaimed world's largest BitTorrent tracker. "They are in fact exploiting copyrighted material for their commercial gain," the statement claimed. "The site has flouted constant legal notices from artists and corporations throughout the world while cashing in on advertising monies. All the time, they keep up the pretence of being an anarchist, 'free music' fan site when it is really a massive moneymaking venture." ...

ThePirateBay.com is likely hoping it doesn't meet the same fate as Demonoid, a Canadian BitTorrent tracker that recently folded after coming under fire from the Canadian Recording Industry Association, according to Idolator.com. The CRIA has allegedly threatened the company that had been renting servers to Demonoid, which had moved its hosting company from the Netherlands to Canada because the latter country reportedly has less strict copyright-infringement laws. ... This year's Bang! Festival is a bust. The two-day event, which was set to feature Kanye West and Smashing Pumpkins as headliners and go down this weekend in Miami, has been postponed, according to the Bang! Web site. No reason was announced for the postponement, although tickets can be refunded at point of purchase. ...

Neverland Ranch is safe ... for now. That's the word from a spokesperson for Michael Jackson, who denied reports Thursday that the embattled singer's mansion is facing foreclosure. A day after notice of default on Neverland was made public, spokeswoman Raymone K. Bain issued a statement saying Jackson was never in default on the loan. Bain explained that Jackson's former advisers refinanced the loan in 2006 and that the loan matured last month, and now he's refinancing again. "Mr. Jackson is in the final stages of refinance and will not lose Neverland Valley Ranch," Bain said. The copy of the default notice posted on the Web site of local station KSBY-TV said that as of October 12, Jackson owed $23,212,963 on a $23 million loan. ...

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to terminate the nearly weeklong Hollywood writers' strike. According to Reuters, the actor-turned-politician said on Thursday that he has taken on an unspecified backstage role in trying to end the strike, which is already having a serious impact on shows like "Desperate Housewives" and "24." Schwarzenegger revealed during a press conference at the State Capitol in Sacramento, "I'm talking to the parties that are involved because I think it's very important that we settle that as quickly as possible, because it has a tremendous economic impact on our state." He did not, however, specify his role in the talks. ... Ellen DeGeneres has also made her feelings about the strike known — she has crossed the picket line, People reports. While her talk-show peers have taken an indefinite hiatus, the TV host is continuing to film her daytime program, "Ellen." She skipped her monologue on Friday (November 9), saying she was doing so in honor of her writers. As for the rest of the show continuing, she qualified on her show, "It's sweeps, which is a very important time in television, because that's when you do your best shows, your funniest material." The Writers Guild of America responded to DeGeneres on Friday, saying it was "extremely disappointed to see that Ellen has chosen not to stand with writers during the strike," according to UsMagazine.com. "Ellen's peers who host comedy/variety shows have chosen to support the writers and help them get a fair contract, Ellen has not. On her first show back, Ellen said she loves and supports her writers, but her actions prove otherwise." ...

Krist Novoselic, former Nirvana bassist and current member of Flipper, kicked off his Seattle Weekly blog this week. In his first entry, he posted about Kurt Cobain, Nirvana's iconic "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video and anarchy, one of the clip's prevalent themes. "Indeed, [ex-Bikini Kill singer and Cobain friend] Kathleen Hanna wrote, 'Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit' on Kurt's apartment wall," he said in the post. "I recall seeing it and thinking, 'Too much cheap red wine!' I don't know why she wrote it, but I know for sure that Kurt Cobain did not have any odor problems. Even though his place was a mess, he took care of his hygiene. This person would soak in the bath night after night only listening to the Beatles." ...

A rededication ceremony for the Peace Garden at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in Stone Mountain, Georgia, is set for Saturday afternoon. The ceremony will begin with a drumline procession into the Peace Garden, followed by a performance from Pac's Kids (students from the center's outreach program); a prayer for peace from the late rapper's mother, Afeni Shakur; and a ribbon-cutting. The free ceremony will end with the release of butterflies. The rededication comes three weeks after vandals defaced a statue of Tupac Shakur in the garden by pasting racist messages on it and hanging a wooden cross around its neck. Earlier this week, a man was charged with felony second-degree criminal damage to property in connection with the incident. Kenneth Anthony Wilson, 43, is being held in DeKalb County jail on a $1,500 bond, though a police spokesperson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that authorities doubt Wilson, who is black, had a racial motive in the incident. ...

Hallmark has filed a motion seeking the dismissal of Paris Hilton's lawsuit. The heiress is suing the company for a half-million dollars for using her photo and "That's hot!" catchphrase on one of its cards. Hallmark argued in a statement that, "Hilton has become a household name, based in large part on her efforts to draw attention to herself," according to "Access Hollywood." "Having done so, she has subjected herself to public scrutiny and the parodist's pen. The First Amendment does not allow her to respond by welcoming the fawning and flattering, but silencing the critical and comical." ...

Winona Ryder, mommy dearest to ... Spock? You read it right — the 36-year-old actress will play the mother of Zachary Quinto's character in J.J. Abrams' upcoming "Star Wars" reboot, Variety reports. She joins Simon Pegg, Eric Bana and other previously announced members of the cast. ...

The popular Pandora Radio Web site made the jump to cell phones on Thursday when AT&T announced that it will offer personalized radio stations from Pandora on eight of its cell phones. As on the Web site, AT&T users can type in a song or artist and start listening to a personalized station within seconds on their handset, according to a press release from AT&T announcing the deal. Songs heard on Pandora can also be bookmarked and purchased later at the AT&T Mobile Music Store. The service is free for five days and then costs $8.99 a month.

• Amy Winehouse
• Radiohead
• Hilary Duff
• Xzibit
• My Chemical Romance

T.I.
Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

T.I. is under house arrest as he awaits his trial on weapons charges — but he doesn't want that to get in the way of the holidays. The rapper (real name: Clifford Harris) has asked a judge to let him host a Thanksgiving Day celebration at his home in Jonesboro, Georgia, according to The Associated Press. On Tuesday, his attorneys requested that a list of family members be given "approved visitation to have dinner with the defendant" from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on November 22. T.I. isn't allowed to have visitors without prior approval and can't have more than three visitors at a time, with minor exceptions. His October 26 release on bond is being supervised by a monitoring service, which would also be present for the Thanksgiving celebration. ...

Lawyers for Britney Spears and Kevin Federline will be in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday for an emergency hearing in their ongoing custody dispute, TMZ.com reports. The hearing was reportedly called by Federline's attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan, who is alleging that the singer has not followed drug-testing procedures. Neither Spears nor Federline are expected to show. In other Brit news, her longtime photographer and friend Mark Lidell revealed to "Extra" what went wrong at the notorious OK! magazine photo shoot earlier this year. "Paparazzi absolutely killed and ruined our day ... they were everywhere ... and it made our shoot absolutely impossible." He said Spears later told him, " 'Mark, if you want me to come back afterwards, I'll do my best and get back' ... but she had to go and finish off the music video [for 'Gimme More']." ...

Embattled pop star Amy Winehouse has been granted a visa allowing her to enter the United States but will still not be making any of her previously scheduled appearances, her publicist confirmed to MTV News on Wednesday (November 7). The "Rehab" singer was set to appear at the mtvU Woodie Awards on Thursday and as the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" (which is now in reruns anyway, due to the writers' strike) this weekend. Some speculated Winehouse's recent visa troubles were thought to have something to do with her recent arrest for marijuana possession in Norway. Winehouse will next visit the States in January to kick off her U.S. tour. ...

Lily Allen doesn't show much skin when she performs — but she's stripping down to model lingerie as part of a new six-figure deal, according to MTV UK. Like Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dita Von Tesse and Kate Moss before her, Allen has signed with risqué clothing company Agent Provocateur. The singer has also recently modeled for a shampoo company and is working on a TV show. ...

Michael Jackson's Neverland nightmare might be coming true — according to TMZ, the estate has gone into foreclosure per a Notice of Default report for California's Santa Barbara County. The singer was reportedly delinquent on a $23 million loan as of October 12. ...

Lil Wayne, Against Me!, Juelz Santana, Arctic Monkeys and Fat Joe, all in the same place? Indeed — you'll find those artists, as well as Ol' Dirty Bastard, Lady Sovereign, Pete Doherty and others, showcased in "The Vice Photo Book," a new volume culling shots from the magazine's 13-year history. The 336-page tome will be sold for $45 at bookstores starting in December. ...

Swizz Beatz and T-Pain took the stage on Tuesday night at the "Women of King" Calendar party held at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York. Q-Tip, radio personality Wendy Williams and Dres of Black Sheep were all on hand as D-Nice manned the turntables at the shindig, which was sponsored by Remy Martin. ... Talib Kweli, Strong Arm Steady and Jean Grae got together onstage at Belvedere Vodka's Apollo Lounge in New York's Harlem neighborhood on Tuesday night in an effort to draw more young people to the famed Apollo Theatre. Fonzworth Bentley was in attendance. ...

Diddy got a break on Tuesday when a district attorney in New York decided not to charge him with assault in an alleged incident last month. Well, now comes more good news for the music mogul, albeit of a very different variety: His YouTube search for someone to hold his umbrella has ended, he announced on Tuesday on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." He gave the job to Heather Thompson, who remarked, "I understand who the star is in this relationship." Diddy said he's looking for four assistants in total, so his YouTube quest goes on. ...

In what could amount to a case of Jessica Alba mirroring Madonna, the "Fantastic Four" actress, who doesn't have any stage experience, has been approached to star in a new Broadway production of David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow" in which Madge previously starred, the New York Post reports. According to the Post, James Gandolfini is being considered for one of the male lead roles. ...

My Bloody Valentine fans, the wait is over — that reunion album you've been hoping for is a go, and apparently it's even happening this year. TheDailySwarm.com reports that on Monday VBS.tv will launch an exclusive video interview between My Bloody Valentine mastermind Kevin Shields and Ian Svenonius (Weird War, the Make Up) as part of the online TV channel's "Soft Focus" series. In the conversation, Shields reportedly said a yet-untitled album — which involved the band getting back in the studio for the first time since 1995 — will be dropping this year. "It sounds like what we sounded like — different but not radically different. People will go, 'Yeah, it sounds like My Bloody Valentine,' " he reportedly said. ...

Sub Pop — the record label that boasts "Podfisting our way to your blog. Or whatever" as one of its current slogans — has launched a new digital-download music store. Among the initial 200 offerings in the store, which will eventually incorporate out-of-print material, are releases by the Shins, Sleater-Kinney, David Cross, Low, Band of Horses and Iron and Wine. Customers who purchase files through the store will be able to download them multiple times, which also means that fans will be able to get additional bonus tracks or improved sound quality if and when the releases are enhanced. ...

Radiohead's name-your-own-price album scheme has resulted in only two of five listeners paying for the band's new In Rainbows LP, but the noble pursuit might have landed Radiohead some additional profits. Billboard reports that the band's seven previous albums have sold 35.8 percent more copies since Radiohead made the In Rainbows announcement on September 30. ...

Pete Doherty showed signs of improvement in his ongoing battle with drugs last month when a judge gave him a suspended jail sentence after seeing signs of progress — but now there's more bad news for the Babyshambles frontman. "Peter sadly relapsed last week and is now looking to check himself back into a rehab clinic so that he can try to continue the hitherto excellent attempts he had made to break free of heroin," his record label, EMI, said in a statement, according to AP. The announcement was made after a video of Doherty recently injecting himself with heroin surfaced online. According to EMI, Doherty considers the incident "a stupid, stupid action for which I feel only shame." ...

Cowboy Junkies go to church: The Canadian alt-rockers recently returned to the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto, where they recorded 1988's The Trinity Session, to commemorate the album, which many consider to be their most important work. Ryan Adams, Vic Chestnutt, Jeff Bird and Natalie Merchant joined the Junkies for The Trinity Revisited, a reworking of the album that is coming out in the form of a DVD/CD set on February 26, in time for the original effort's 20th anniversary. ...

Actors have been showing their support for the writers' strike in recent days, but former Disney chief Michael Eisner has a much different take on the protest: In a word, it's "stupid," he says. "I've seen stupid strikes, I've seen less stupid strikes. ... This is a stupid strike," he reportedly remarked during a panel discussion at a conference in New York on Wednesday, Reuters reports. "It's a waste of their time," he added. "[The studios] have nothing to give. They don't know what to give." ...

Politically inclined music fans are probably familiar with HeadCount, the voter-registration that teamed with the Dave Matthews Band, the Allman Brothers Band and other artists to register 50,000 people for the 2004 election. Well, the volunteer-run group is coming back for next year's races — and has an even loftier goal in mind: to register 200,000 new voters. HeadCount — which more recently became aligned with O.A.R. as well — is seeking volunteers to join its street teams, which will register people at future concerts. Go to HeadCount.org for more info. ...

Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Hank Thompson died of lung cancer on Tuesday, days after he canceled his tour, AP reports. October 8 — which turned out to be the day of his last show — had been declared "Hank Thompson Day" by Texas Governor Rick Perry and Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy. Thompson was 82.

11.06.07

Britney Spears is giving an early Christmas gift to ex-husband Kevin Federline — $120,000, for the legal bills he has amassed in his child-custody battle with the pop singer, the Los Angeles Superior Court confirmed to MTV News on Tuesday (November 6). Commissioner Scott Gordon made the ruling in light of the "disparity between the parties' income" and that "the vast majority of the ... litigation deals with [Spears'] conduct," according to documents released Tuesday, TMZ reports. As it was revealed last week, Spears earns approximately $737,000 each month, while Federline made $7,436, after business expenses, in all of 2006. Federline's lawyer had originally requested $160,000, the total costs for Federline's fees, according to UsMagazine.com. He currently receives $15,000 a month from Spears in child support and $20,000 in spousal support, which expires November 15. ...

Should Stephen Colbert be pointing his finger at Barack Obama's camp for his presidential bid being shot down in South Carolina? According to CNN, two of the Illinois senator's supporters called state Democratic Party officials to urge them to keep the "Colbert Report" host off the primary ballot. Obama's campaign is denying that it had any connection to the phone calls. "Democrats in South Carolina, including supporters of ours, had strong feelings on both sides of the ballot issue, and ultimately it was South Carolina Democrats who made this decision," said Kevin Griffis, Obama's South Carolina communications director. At least one member of the executive council — which denied Colbert's bid by a 13-3 vote — said he felt pressured by former State Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum to oppose Colbert's bid to be on the ballet, according to CNN. Tenenbaum is a well-known Obama supporter, and his camp has embraced her endorsement publicly. "She said it wouldn't be fair to the other candidates. That he [Colbert] wouldn't be sincere. That he was only running in one state," said the official, who requested anonymity, according to CNN. "The Obama people, they just didn't want him at all." Tenenbaum said that was a mischaracterization, telling CNN, "I called them to see what they were thinking and if they had made up their mind. I am a volunteer in that campaign, and so I am not a staffer. And I thought it could have taken votes away from a lot of people." South Carolina State Representative Bakari Sellers, who has also endorsed Obama, revealed to CNN that he also made calls to members of the executive council in an attempt to persuade them to deny Colbert's bid. "I placed the calls as a concerned Democrat, realizing that we are a country in despair," Sellers said. "It is not a time for games or to make a mockery of the process." It's unclear what effect the calls had on the executive council's vote. ...

Obama's got someone else on his side — Borat. In a recent Reuters interview, the crazy Kazakh spilled that he would like to see the junior senator from Illinois be president ... er, "premier." "I cannot believe that it possible a woman can become Premier of US and A," he said, clearly referencing Democratic candidate Senator Hillary Clinton. "In Kazakhstan, we say that to give a woman power, is like to give a monkey a gun — very dangerous. We do not give monkeys guns any more in Kazakhstan ever since the Astana Zoo massacre of 2003 when Torkin the orang-utan shoot 17 schoolchildrens. I personal would like the basketball player, Barak Obamas to be Premier." Borat gave the interview to hype the Tuesday release of his new book, the not-so-concisely titled "Touristic Guidings to Minor Nation of U.S. and A. and Touristic Guidings to Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." He had previously planned two books but wound up combining them into one volume. ...

When 50 Cent famously said earlier this year that he would retire if he were to lose to Kanye West in their much-hyped album showdown, his critics were apparently listening. Christian media watchdog group the Resistance is demanding that the rapper keep his promise and quit, according to TMZ. "It is time for 50 Cent to be a man of his word and retire," Mark Dice, a spokesman for the group, reportedly said. "The world will be a better place when this satanic piece of filth retires and stops making music." The group is also asking for people to go to 50 Cent's MySpace and post comments asking him to quit. ... Jay-Z unleashed his American Gangster album on Tuesday, but don't go looking for it on iTunes — it won't be available there. In a statement issued Tuesday, the hip-hop mogul said he isn't selling the album on iTunes because he doesn't want the songs available for individual purchase. "As movies are not sold scene by scene, this collection will not be sold as individual singles," he said. That's probably just as well for Universal Music, which distributes Jay's Def Jam label — earlier this year, the company's chief, Doug Morris, refused to re-up a multi-year contract with iTunes to put Universal music in the online store. Morris has been trying to enlist other industry heavyweights to team up for a competing online music service. ...

Chris Brown has his hands full with a just-released new album, Exclusive, and an upcoming movie, November 21's "This Christmas," but he's taking on another project — and this one's for a good cause. Brown is starring in a new video that encourages middle school students to get interested in math and fundraising. The video — which incorporates elements of the singer's "Run It" clip and will be shown in thousands of schools — is part of the Math-a-Thon program St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has been running for almost three decades. Students who participate in Math-a-Thon complete math problems after getting pledges from family and friends, and the money raised is used to help children with cancer and other diseases. Brown visited the Memphis, Tennessee, hospital last year and has been a steady supporter. "We can all make a difference in the lives of others," Brown said in a statement. "I'm proud to help St. Jude. I feel like I'm just a regular person helping out." ...

Backstreet Boys, Joss Stone, Grizzly Bear, Band of Horses and Garth Brooks have all been forced to scrap their planned late-night talk-show appearances this week due to the ongoing writers' strike, RollingSyone.com reports. ... Prepare to be judged — by Will.I.Am. The Black Eyed Pea will be among the preliminary-round judges for a Super Bowl-related battle-of-the-bands competition being put on by Doritos. The band that wins "Crash the Super Bowl 2" will get a major-label contract and see its original song air during the big game on February 3. Voting is being held at SnackStrongProductions.com. ...

A man has been charged in connection with vandalism at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in Georgia last month, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Kenneth Anthony Wilson, 43, was charged late last week with a felony second-degree charge of criminal damage to property and is being held at jail in DeKalb County jail on a $1,500 bond. The building had been defaced and a noose had allegedly been hung around the neck of a statue commemorating the deceased rapper, though police later said the object was actually a cross hung on a string. Police also said defamatory stickers and papers were left on the statue and that a pair of underwear had been wrapped around its head. A police spokesperson told the newspaper that authorities doubt Wilson, who is black, had a racial motive in the incident. ...

Though they still haven't spoken in detail about the nervous condition affecting drummer Meg White which forced them abandon their world tour this summer, the White Stripes announced on their Web site that they've been in the studio and have cooked up some new tunes. The post reports that "the White Stripes have just filmed an exciting new video and recorded three never-before-heard original songs (with a special collaboration) and one unique new version of a song from their latest album, 'Icky Thump.' " No information was given about the release date of the new music or the debut of the video. ... Danish lo-fi rockers the Raveonettes have a new home: Vice Records. The duo's fourth album, Lust Lust Lust, will drop early next year. ...

Prince has beef — with his fans. Lawyers for the singer have been hitting Prince fan sites with cease-and-desist letters demanding that the sites remove all images, artwork, fan-submitted pictures related to Prince, including ones of tattoos and license plates that refer to him, according to RollingStone.com. A handful of Prince fan sites have assembled to create a new site, PrinceFansUnited.com, and said in a post on it that they vow to "defend their position in the proper court of law, as well as fully prosecute any claims to which they are justly entitled." ... Expect to hear music again at legendary New York punk club CBGB, which closed last year — but if you go there to check out a band, expect to be surrounded by men's clothes when you do. The space will soon be home to a new John Varvatos boutique, Billboard.com reports, but the fashion designer told the news outlet that he plans to hold in-store performances at the location and will be integrating the permanent CBGB stage into its design as well. ...

Jimmy Page has more to say about his fractured finger, which forced Led Zeppelin to postpone their hugely anticipated reunion show last week. The guitar icon, who apologized for the concert's postponement on Monday, spoke to reporters at the Classic Rock Awards, according to BBC News. While he said the injury would take "a little while to heal," he also admitted that, "I've broken fingers before, a lot worse than this." "It's a nuisance because it's really needed," he added of his finger, saying that the damage wasn't permanent. The concert has moved to December 10, though it will still be held at London's O2 arena. BBC News also reports that Meat Loaf was not at the awards to receive his classic-album award — the singer, who seemed to have declared an end to his career when he ended a recent concert midway and canceled two shows last week, is reportedly recovering from a bout of acute laryngitis. According to BBC News, it was the illness that caused Meat to cancel two subsequent shows on his U.K. tour. ...

Move over, Elvis Presley — Garth Brooks is now the best-selling solo artist in history. The Recording Industry Association of America recently honored Brooks with a Special Career award for selling 123 million units in total. Presley has sold 118.5 million units. ... Country singer/songwriter Rosanne Cash, the eldest of late country icon Johnny Cash's five children, reports on her Web site that she will have brain surgery for a "rare but benign condition." The condition caused Cash, 52, to cancel four November dates on her Black Cadillac tour, but she said she expects to fully recover from the unnamed ailment and start touring again in the spring after she finishes work on her new album.

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Warning: These Album Covers May Contain Explicit Content

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Prince Performs At The Super Bowl XLI Halftime Show

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Prince Live In Los Angeles, 03.29.2004

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