• First Listen: Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown
• Sources Speak on Rihanna/Brown Relationship
• Springsteen Blogs About Super Bowl Slide
• Lily Allen Keeps It Dirty at NYC Gig
• Sirius XM Heading to Bankruptcy
• Grammys Respond to LeRoi Moore Snub
• Sly Stone, George Clinton Funk Up L.A.
• Breaking: N.A.S.A.
• Springsteen Slips as the Fray Top the Chart
• Know Your Stump: Patrick vs. Dog
• American Idol Plays Up Tatiana Drama
• New Music Report: Mastodon on Grammys
• Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer Team for Show
• Muzak Files for Bankruptcy
• Crash Survivor Emma Sophina Speaks
• News Ticker: Lil Wayne, R. Kelly

Top stories from the last three days:

• Report: Rihanna’s Injuries “Horrific”
• Blink-182’s History in Photos
• Plant & Krauss, Lil Wayne Win Big at Grammys
• Live Nation, Ticketmaster Announce Merger
• Inside 2009’s “Scratch: The Ultimate DJ”
• Your Grammy Highlights: Hudson? Coldplay?
• What You Didn’t See at the Grammys
• Snoop Partners With MTV For LP, Talk Show
• Ticketmaster Faces Scalping Suit
• New Reviews: Lily Allen, Van Morrison
• Coheed and Cambria Talk “Melodic” Next LP
• Wolfmother Back With New Members
• Watch the Osbournes’ Return to TV
• Grammys: Backstage With Adele, McCartney
• Office Space Cast Reunite for 10th Bday
• Whitney Houston Returns to the Stage
• McCartney & Grohl: The Grammy Bromance
• Axl Rose Talks Democracy, Slash in Interview
• Sean Penn: Story Behind the Story and Q&A
• Wolfgang “Is a Part of Van Halen”
• Pearl Jam Head to Studio for ‘09 LP

Scroll down for full news stories, commentary and much more in Rock Daily.

Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown won’t land in stores until May, but Rolling Stone scored an early listen to six tracks this afternoon — and confirmed that the trio will kick off a massive world tour of indoor arenas in July. A full in-the-studio report by David Fricke will hit newsstands in our next issue, but here’s a sneak peek at what Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool and Mike Dirnt have been cooking up with legendary producer Butch Vig at the same California studio they recorded the Grammy-winning American Idiot, Warning, Insomniac and Dookie.

As previously reported, the 16-track album is broken into three acts — Heroes and Cons, Charlatans and Saints, and Horseshoes and Handgrenades — and Dirnt told AP magazine that the songs “speak to each other the way the songs on [Bruce Springsteen’s] Born to Run speak to each other. I don’t know if you’d call it a ‘concept album,’ but there’s a thread that connects everything.” The songs are defiant, but also defiantly hopeful, referencing the unsettled political climate as well as more personal and generational turmoils. Its blend of claustrophobia and freedom is well illustrated by the album’s cover art, which depicts a tight shot of a young couple kissing against a graffiti-covered wall.

The title track quickly kicks into a familiar Green Day three-chord blast, but morphs into multiple movements like some of the more rock-opera-heavy numbers on American Idiot. “My generation is zero/I never made it as a working class hero,” Armstrong sings, making a reference to the John Lennon track the band covered in 2007. After a big drum breakdown, the song winds into a slower “Bohemian Rhapsody” moment. (more…)

Photo: Shearer/WireImage

Chris Cornell tests out his Timbaland-produced album Scream on the road, the Walkmen set out on tour with Kings of Leon and MSTRKRFT take their vowel-less ways and glitchy dance jams for a trip. Full dates for all three treks after the jump. (more…)

This week’s news and reviews report has a very special guest: Metal kings Mastodon stopped by the Rolling Stone office last week to offer up their Grammy predictions, insisting that Robert Plant & Alison Krauss should win the Record of the Year award for “Please Read the Letter” if only because the Led Zeppelin frontman has “loose leaf papers flying around his home, desperately in need of a paper weight.” The band also talked about their notorious walk down the Grammy red carpet two years ago, when Brooke Hogan gave Mastodon the distinction of being the “Worst Dressed.” Check out footage of Troy Sanders and Brann Dailor’s interview, above.

RollingStone.com deputy editor Caryn Ganz also breaks down the Grammys, where Mastodon’s prognosticating came true as Robert Plant & Alison Krauss cleaned house by winning a best-in-show five awards, including the prestigious Album of the Year for their Raising Sand. (more…)

Who: N.A.S.A., a collaboration between DJs Sam Spiegel and DJ Zegon, who convinced some of music’s biggest names to drop into their Los Angeles studio in an alley inhabited by crackheads and contribute to their five-years-in-the-making debut album Spirit of Apollo.

Sounds Like: It depends on the song, really. Beats range from Afro-pop to jungle to rock to reggae from verse to verse, thanks to the eclectic roster of guests. On “Money,” Public Enemy’s Chuck D, Seu Jorge and the Talking Heads’ David Byrne pitch in. Kanye West, Santigold and Lykke Li all contribute to “Gifted,” while the amazing pair of Tom Waits and Kool Keith join forces on “Spacious Thoughts.” Other guests include M.I.A., Ghostface Killah, Karen O, George Clinton and countless more awesome artists. “This record is about bringing the craziest combination of people together,” says Spiegel. “It’s about people from totally different worlds, just like Zegon and I come from different worlds.” (more…)

Photo: Getty Images

Muzak may have haunted the aisles of its last supermarket: the company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Somehow, Muzak has accumulated between $100 and $500 million worth of debt, yet has assets that are only worth $50,000, according to Billboard.biz. Which means if enough Rock Daily commenters banded together, they could feasibly buy Muzak. That is, if that $500 million in debt thing doesn’t scare you off.

Although it’s more well known for torturing your ears with watered-down, vocal-free versions of Top 40 songs, Muzak also create playlists and installs sound systems for retail stores. Aside from owing $371 million to U.S. Bank and failing to make good on a $105 million loan extension, Muzak also owe a bunch of record companies some license fees for being allowed to turn their hits into elevator music. Universal Music is due around $350,000, EMI Capital has a $320,000 tab, there’s a $213,000 IOU for ASCAP, etc. And when your company has assets totally $50,000, we imagine it’s hard to pay those companies back. (more…)

Photo: Shirley Halperin

Sly Stone is famous for a lot of things, chief among them his reclusive nature and tendency to flake on the rare scheduled gig. Which made last night’s unannounced appearance at Silver Lake hot-spot the Little Temple Bar, his second public showing in Los Angeles in one week, all the more shocking. But being a family man, Sly apparently couldn’t pass up an opportunity to come out in support of his daughter, Novena, and her band, the appropriately named Baby Stone. Sly also brought along an old friend, fellow funk legend George Clinton.

But as is typical in Sly world, things didn’t go quite as smoothly as planned. He arrived at the bar at the same time as the fire marshal, who came to investigate a water leak. Soon after, it looked like the place was going to be shut down, but Sly was adamant about going onstage. The bar’s management tried in vein to dissuade him from doing so, and it wasn’t long before the two funkateers launched into “I Want To Take You Higher,” kicking off with a rap by Clinton. Both were in great spirits, with Sly decked out in a purple velvet pimp suit, and the crowd responded in spades, singing along enthusiastically to every word. Sly kept the party going with “Stand,” then passed the baton to Clinton who jump-started a rousing rendition of “We Want The Funk.” And that was all they wrote. Three songs and out. (more…)

Photo: Caulfied/WireImage

In the journalism game, yelling “Breaking News” is akin to shouting fire in a crowded theater — it better be warranted. But to heck with that: Breaking News! MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice are joining forces for a one-night-only joint show. “Hammer Pants and Ice” goes down Friday, February 27, 2009, at 8:00 p.m. at the McKay Events Center in Orem, Utah.

We can’t possibly answer the inevitable “why” question, but here’s how it will all go down: Hammer is bringing 24 dancers and a full choir; Ice is bringing … himself as far as we can tell. It is evidently the pair’s first show together since the early 1990s, when both were whole-scale radio stars. (more…)

Photo: Soul Brother/FilmMagic

Last night, Lily Allen hit New York’s Bowery Ballroom to perform a concert as part of MySpace’s “Secret Show” series. While the gig was partly sponsored by Turbo Tax (yes, really) the British singer didn’t let up on the rock & roll behavior: she dropped F-bombs, sang about blow jobs and gulped wine onstage.

Allen’s second album, It’s Not Me, It’s You, only dropped yesterday, but the wall-to-wall crowd recited all the words. “You’ve been illegally downloading, you fuckers!” she said, before launching into the bouncy, George W. Bush-slamming rant “Fuck You.” (The chorus would make your mom proud: “Fuck you, fuck you very, very much.”) Dancing around the stage in a red mini-dress and Michael Jackson-style half gloves, Allen dug into her new record, which swaps the ska-flavored tunes of her 2007 debut for glossier pop. Highlights included the country-flavored “Not Fair,” on which Allen laments, “I spent ages giving head”; “Never Gonna Happen,” an accordian-filled kiss-off to a dense boy-toy; and “Back to the Start,” an electro ode to Allen’s sister on which she apologizes for her sibling rivalry. (more…)

Photo: Squire/Getty

More than a week after his rocking 12-minute set during halftime at this year’s Super Bowl, Bruce Springsteen took to his official Website for a play-by-play of the exciting days and moments leading up to performing in front of the largest audience of his life. From figuring out what boots to wear to practicing the now-famous “Springsteen slide” in the rain, Bruce the blogger provides an amusing account of how one prepares for the biggest gig of your life.

“I’m somewhat nervous. It’s not the usual pre-show jitters, not ‘butterflies,’ it’s not wardrobe malfunction anticipation anxiety, I’m talking about five minutes to beach landing, ‘Right Stuff,’ ‘Lord Don’t Let Me Screw the Pooch in Front of 100 Million People one of the biggest television audiences since dinosaurs first screwed on earth kind of semi-terror,’ ” Springsteen writes, reminiscing about the moment before the band was called onstage. “I feel like I’ve just taken a syringe of adrenalin straight to the heart.” How Pulp Fiction!

As for Springsteen’s slide into America’s living rooms, the Jersey rocker writes, “Then the knee slide. Too much adrenalin, a late drop, too much speed, here I come Mikeā€¦ BOOM! And I’m onto his camera, the lens implanted into my chest with one leg off the stage.” (more…)

Photo:Busacca/WireImage

While the police continue to be tight-lipped about the Chris Brown/Rihanna assault case and the two stars’ camps remain silent, sources close to the artists have been slowly revealing information about the Sunday morning incident and earlier problems in the singers’ relationship. A Rihanna confidant tells Us Weekly that the Barbadian singer had visible bruises on her neck in early December. “I asked is everything was OK with her and Chris,” the friend says. “She told me, ‘We broke up again.’ I didn’t pursue the issue further.”

Rolling Stone has tracked Rihanna and Brown’s movements in the days and hours leading up to the incident in a photo gallery of Grammy parties and galas the pair attended together. On Friday, both stars hit the Staples Center to rehearse their Grammy performances; Brown’s practice started late and ran from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. A Grammy source says, “He came in with an enormous posse … Afterwards, he did look kind of cranky and sullen. He did not look approachable at all.”

Later that night, the pair arrived separately at Timbaland’s Friday night pre-Grammy bash, where Us reports the couple squabbled over infidelity. (more…)

Photo: Squires/WireImage

Dave Matthews Band fans who tuned in for Sunday night’s Grammy Awards were livid, and with good reason: In the “Encore” segment of the broadcast, which honors musicians and industry vets who have passed away in the past year, the Recording Academy didn’t give a screen time mention to DMB saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who died last August following health complications he sustained after an ATV accident.

The Recording Industry has responded to the outcry, releasing a statement that reads, “Nearly 250 members of our music community have passed in the last year, and all of them have been listed in the program book for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, including LeRoi Moore. For the “Encore” segment of our annual Grammy Awards telecast, unfortunately we are unable to include all of the talented and wonderful people within the allotted timeframe. The Academy recognizes Moore’s contributions to music and music education, and we are deeply saddened by his premature passing.”

Despite the Grammy’s excuse, the omission of Moore, who won a Grammy in 1997 with the rest of DMB for “So Much To Say,” is a major oversight. (more…)

Photo:Kravitz/FilmMagic (Patrick Stump), Clary/AFP/Getty (Stump)

This morning a lot of rock fans woke up with some confusing headlines in their RSS feeds: Somebody named Stump had suddenly shot to stardom. But it wasn’t Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump, but Stump the spaniel, who became the oldest canine in history to win the prestigious Westminster Dog Show. So how can you tell Stump the pup from Stump the singer? A quick guide:

Pedigree:
Patrick Stump: 24-year-old from Glenview, Illinois (born Patrick Martin Stumph)
Stump: 10-year-old Sussex Spaniel from Houston, Texas (born Ch. Clussexx Three D Grinchy Glee)

Attention-Hogging Colleague:
Patrick Stump: Pete Wentz
Stump: J. R., a bichon frisé who won Best in Show at Westminster in 2001 with Stump’s handler, Scott Sommer (more…)

Photo: Mazur/WireImage (Springsteen), Kent/WireImage(Fray)

The Big News: Post-Super Bowl sales weren’t super enough to keep Bruce Springsteen’s Working on a Dream at Number One. The Fray’s self-titled second album, the band’s first LP in four years, sold 179,000 copies to lock up the top spot. Working moved 100,000 units to settle into second place in what proved to be a bizarre week on the charts. In the past seven days country singer Dierks Bentley’s Feel That Fire somehow scored the Number Three slot over Taylor Swift’s Fearless and Beyoncé’s I Amā€¦ Sasha Fierce.

Debuts: Other chart rookies include the superfluous Kidz Bop 15 at seven, the Red Jump Suit Apparatus’ Lonely Road at 14 and Ben Kweller’s Changing Horses at 92. Former American Idol contestant Melinda Doolittle sold 10,800 copies of It’s Your Love to place at 58. The Heartless Bastards, who recently stopped by our Smoking Section for an awesome performance (check back soon to check it out!), landed at 150 with Mountain. (more…)

As the crew and passengers of US Airways flight 1549 make the media rounds this week, we’re seeing a familiar face. Our friend Emma Sophina turned up on The Howard Stern Show this morning. We first told you the Australian singer-songwriter’s remarkable story over in the Smoking Section, with Sophina recounting how a site-seeing trip to New York ended with an emergency landing in the Hudson River.

“I couldn’t leave New York because my passport and everything I had went down in the river,” she told the Smoking Section’s Austin Scaggs. Sophina was then inspired by a producer to turn her experience into music, booked some studio time and recorded the songs “Wake Up” and “Send Another Prayer.” With record labels already calling her, Sophina’s next goal is to pull a Jonas Brothers and sing alongside Stevie Wonder. Read the whole story,
Flight 1549 Survivor Makes Sweet Music, over in the SS. (more…)