• Guns n’ Roses’ Democracy to Hit Rock Band
• Jenny Lewis Hopes to Be “Intimate” on Tour
• Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Heads to Film
• Billy Corgan Blogs About Future of Pumpkins
• Weekend Rock List: Nirvana Songs
• Random Notes: Bono, Eminem and More
• Ex-Cop Admits to Peeing on Metallica Fan
• Universal, YouTube Announce New Video Site
• Keith Urban Joins Nashville Africa Benefit
• Britney Spears Delays Gig Over Weed Smoke
• Kanye Blogs About South Park Ego Slam
• Watch Metallica’s Rock Hall Set
• Unraveling the Mysteries of Lost
• Gorillaz Draft Bobby Womack for Next LP
• Beck Reveals One Foot Reissue Track List
• Fricke’s Picks: Nels Cline
• Keith Urban Narrowly Beats Prince to No. 1
• Eighties Musical Rock of Ages Hits Broadway
• Eddie Vedder Plots Solo Tour
• Breaking: The Airborne Toxic Event
• Death Cab for Cutie Rock Deep Cuts in PA
• Billy Bob Thornton Tries to Outdo Joaquin
• Remastered Beatles Catalog Due 9/9/09
• Eminem Mocks Spears, Palin in “We Made You”
• McCartney and Starr Reunite in New York
• Metallica, Run-DMC Join Rock Hall of Fame

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

Photo: Getty

• Rolling Stone was all over last weekend’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland, catching all-star performances and speeches by Metallica, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Flea, Ron Wood and many more. For all the news, photos and video from the red carpet, ceremony and backstage, check out our Rock Hall hub.

• Fourteen of the Beatles’ remastered albums will be re-released on September 9th, 2009, the same day The Beatles: Rock Band is out. Also, the Fab Four’s Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunited onstage during a benefit concert.
• Everyone was a target as Eminem unveiled the hilarious, celebrity-dissing video for his new single “We Made You,” off his upcoming Relapse. One of the Slim Shady’s biggest targets in the video, Britney Spears, had a little run-in with some marijuana this week, too.
• Billy Bob Thornton threatened to crush Joaquin Phoenix’s monopoly on awkward interviews after having an on-air hissy fit when a Canadian radio host accused the actor of being, gasp, an actor.

Photo: Splash News

There were a host of serious rock events to discuss this week: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in Cleveland, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr’s onstage reunion at David Lynch’s Change Begins Within benefit in New York. U2’s Bono took an opportunity to break away, though, and was snapped boogie boarding with the big boys on vacation in St. Barts. We’ve got Eminem at the Rock Hall, Chris Brown in court, Contantine Maroulis on Broadway, Fall Out Boy onstage and Billy Corgan with Tila Tequila — oh yes, you read that correctly — in our regular roundup of the week’s unbelievable rock photos:

• Random Notes: Paul & Ringo, Bono, Taylor Swift, Kanye West and the Week in Rock

Photo: Cowart/WireImage

The comments section in Rock Daily’s story about Britney Spears’ weed delay at a Vancouver concert turned into a forum about whether or not to “Legalize It,” with readers arguing whether it was wrong to smoke marijuana at a concert that had so many pre-teen kids in the crowd. Regardless of which side of the 420 line you stand, reader Swingline broke down the situation best:

“If you’re going to a concert, you’re openly accepting the notion that you’re entering a building with people who want to potentially cut loose.

This isn’t a Wiggles concert; the woman is prancing around in stripper gear. So if that’s what these people are bringing their kids to, they’re either completely ignorant or know and don’t care.

Not expecting a place like that to smoke it up like a Cypress Hill concert, but at the same time you’re asking for standards and decency when the main act is pawing herself in half of a cop suit.”

(more…)

Photo: Michael Ochs Archive/Getty

This week marked the 15th anniversary of the death of Kurt Cobain, and Rolling Stone is honoring the late Nirvana leader with a special page, Remembering Kurt Cobain, as well as a rock lost dedicated to Nirvana songs. Whether they appeared on the band’s three studio albums, Incesticide, B sides, imports or the countless bootlegs, tell us your favorite tracks by the grunge trio and on Monday we’ll reveal the readers’ list. Until then, here’s handful of Rock Daily’s most beloved Nirvana songs:

• “Lithium”
• “Drain You”
• “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter”
• “Dive”
• “Sappy”/”Verse Chorus Verse”

We could scour YouTube for weeks and not find a moment nearly as awkward as Billy Bob Thornton’s interview on a Canadian radio station earlier this week. But one can’t celebrate BBT’s viral sensation and Joaquin Phoenix’s headline-making appearances without first giving credit to the man who created the intentionally unintentionally awkward interview: Andy Kaufman. In the week’s Talk Show Flashback, the comedian visits The Johnny Cash Show, where after a few purposely bad imitations, Kaufman treats the Man in Black and his audience to the arguably the best Elvis Presley impression of all time.

In other Billy Bob Thornton news, the don’t-call-me-actor and his band the Boxmasters were loudly booed at Toronto’s Massey Hall while opening for Willie Nelson in the Canadian city. (more…)

Photo: Caballero/WireImage

a-ha, “Take on Me” [The Twelves Remix]
Shouldn’t there be a million and a half remixes of this song? Wasn’t everyone born after 1986 played this in the womb? We’re fairly sure this is now Rhode Island’s state song. What gives, Internet? All we’ve been able to find is this revved up Twelves remix and >this endlessly watchable video.

Keri Hilson, “Since U Been Gone” [Kelly Clarkson Cover]
We’re tiptoeing slowly back toward being OK with “Gone” covers. For a while there, every new version of this song seemed about as witty and original as your co-worker who’s still showing off his Borat impression. If you’re
an indie rock band, you should not ever cover this song. If you’re Keri Hilson, and you’re going for a slipper R&B version, we’ll let it slide. (more…)

Photo: Grimwade/WireImage

Jenny Lewis was just in Australia, where she learned that sports stars trump rock stars in the fame game. “We were on an airplane with two rival rugby teams and the paparazzi were waiting not as we got off the plane but as they got off the plane,” she tells Rolling Stone. “Later, on the news, I kind of saw our crew in the background.”

The Rilo Kiley singer isn’t fading into the crowd on her Acid Tongue headlining tour, a trek that has her hopping from giant festivals at Coachella and Bonnaroo to smaller club shows, which the singer admits she prefers. “In the club setting, you get to perform your intimate material. I’m hoping to do a little acoustic section within the show, but I don’t think that will necessarily work at an outdoor free show or Bonnaroo.”

Lewis’ band on Acid Tongue — her boyfriend (and fellow Laurel Canyon resident) guitarist Johnathan Rice, lap steel guitarist Farmer Dave Scher, drummer Barbara Gruska and bassist Jonathan Wilson — will back her on the road, and the singer-songwriter is eager to already start work a new LP. (more…)

Photo: Rodriguez/Getty

When the Smashing Pumpkins revealed in a pair of brief press releases that drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was leaving the group and the band would hold auditions to find his replacement, the band’s leader, Billy Corgan, remained silent. Today, Corgan finally took to the band’s official Website with a long State of the Smashing Pumpkins Address to discuss the future of his band, their planned reissues and the hunt for a new drummer. The post is sharp and coherent, but of its 2,400 words, not a single one is spent discussing or acknowledging Corgan’s former bandmate Chamberlin.

So tell us, Billy, why did you keep the Smashing Pumpkins moniker, even though three-quarters are the band have been jettisoned: “The simple answer is that when I decided to write and record again under the name the Smashing Pumpkins in 2005, I committed myself 100 pct. 100pct of my mind-body-soul to come back and make the band really be great again, and I feel in tune to SP in a way I haven’t felt in tune probably since 1995 or 1996. As they say in No Limit Poker, I’m ‘all in’. I’m not going to back out of the challenge in front of me now.” (more…)

Photo: Turner/WireImage

Current chart king Keith Urban will join Faith Hill, Dierks Bentley, Big Kenny, Brad Arnold of 3 Doors Down and the African Children’s Choir at the Nashville 4 Africa benefit concert, taking place at the Tennessee city’s Schermerhorn Auditorium on April 22nd. Tickets are available now and will benefit charities that help build schools and provide educational efforts in Africa. Urban jetted to Number One this week with his latest album Defying Gravity, beating Prince’s triple-LP Target-only release by just 4,000 sales.

Rolling Stone learned about Keith Urban’s addition to Nashville 4 Africa via a tip at our Twitter, @RollingStone. Keep it pinned to the Twitter for the latest news from all our blogs, plus more ruminations, observations and additional commentary from the RS staff — and if you have any news tips, definitely drop us a line there.

Also, if you’re not following @PeterTravers by now, here’s a word to the wise: add him immediately. In the past week alone, our intrepid movie critic has hung out with Michael Caine and director Peter Jackson and saw Hannah Montana: The Movie in a theater packed with 12-year-old girls. True story.

Last year news broke that Tom Wolfe’s classic The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test — the literary legend’s 1968 book examining Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters — would be heading to the big screen. Rolling Stone has an update on the Gus Van Sant-directed film, which is due next year. Check out our story, where Prankster Ken Babbs, Caroline Garcia (a.k.a. Mountain Girl) and LSD impresario Owsley “Bear” Stanley weigh in on the project, and their relationship to Wolfe’s work:

• The Ultimate Trip: “Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” Heads to the Big Screen

After complaining about the lack of ad revenues they receive from YouTube, Universal Music Group has struck a deal to create a new service to show off their music video library… with YouTube. The new site will be called Vevo and, according to Billboard.biz, the service “is designed as a central repository for all UMG video content initially — including music videos, interviews, concert footage and so on — and eventually to include that of the other major labels and independents.” So, essentially, YouTube is helping UMG create a competitor to their own service — a rock & roll ‘Tube.

The heart of YouTube’s feud with the record companies — and what drove Warner Music to ban their videos from the service — is ad money. As Billboard.biz reports, the record company was only receiving roughly $3-$8 of ad revenues per every 1,000-plus views of their videos, instead of the $25-$40 the labels think they should be getting. As their music video licensing deals with other sites (Yahoo, MTV Music, etc.) expire, UMG will make Vevo and YouTube the sole place to see UMG videos, and UMG and YouTube will split the ad revenue. Essentially, they’re doing away with the middle man, says UMG CEO Doug Morris. (more…)

Photo: Boston Police Department

In the final chapter of Rock Daily’s favorite story of 2009, former Massachusetts police officer Joseph Houston pleaded guilty in a plea bargain after being charged with assault and battery and a felony charge of open and gross lewdness, Cape Cod Online reports. That open and gross lewdness? As Rock Daily previously hypothesized and the guilty plea confirms, an inebriated Houston urinated on a fellow concertgoer during Metallica’s concert at Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden on January 18th.  Fittingly, Houston’s mug shot has the then-cop wearing a shirt that says “Alcoholic” in Metallica’s trademark font.

After downing roughly six beers before the concert even started, Houston made his way to his seat where he then “physically and verbally harassed a family that had traveled to Boston from out of state and were seated in the row in front of Houston and his brothers,” Cape Cod Online reports. Then this happened: “Houston pulled down his pants, exposed his penis and urinated on a man’s shirt, seat and the floor beside him, according to what the family told police. With his penis still exposed, Houston lunged at the man’s sister, according to the Brewster police investigation.” (more…)

Photo: Nunez/WireImage

• As if they weren’t busy enough on Jimmy Fallon’s show and prepping for Rock the Bells, the Roots are also expected to release a new album on June 23rd, ?uestlove’s Twitter reveals: “label heads are amped about (us?)….(again?) they want album out 6/23/09. prep time LET’S GO!”

• Almost three decades into their career, the Pet Shop Boys have been asked by animal rights group PETA to rename themselves the Rescue Shelter Boys, CNN reports. The synthpop duo have declined the “bizarre” request, saying they were “unable to agree” to the name change but “nonetheless think (it) raises an issue worth thinking about” regarding the “cramped, filthy conditions” of pet shops.
• Jan Adams, the plastic surgeon who performed surgery on Kanye West’s mother Donda before she died of heart failure, has surrendered his medical license, People reports. Numerous complaints, malpractice suits and a pair of DUI charges were filed against Adams, who opted to give up his license rather than fight the charges.

Get ready to sing like Axl and emulate whichever guitarist is in Guns n’ Roses these days: Gn’R debuted their song “Shackler’s Revenge” on Rock Band 2, and now Axl Rose will bring the rest of Chinese Democracy to the music video game on April 14th as a new batch of downloadable content. Thirteen tracks off Chinese Democracy — Rock Band is assuming you’ve already beat enough challenges to add “Shackler’s Revenge” to the in-game track list — will be available both in bulk and as individual tracks for Playstation 3 and XBox 360, while the Wii will only sell CD as individual tracks.

At least Axl is finally doing something to promote this album after failing to tour (so far) or give interviews through conventional channels or even release that video for “Better” that’s just sitting on a editing dock somewhere. As the album has failed to reach sales expectations since its release as a Best Buy exclusive on November 23rd, making the entire LP available to players might expose Axl’s long-in-the-works Chinese Democracy to a larger audience, ingraining itself into the skulls of users who might not have cared for “Street of Dreams” at first listen. (more…)