Archive for October 1st, 2009
Kanye West and Lady Gaga “Fame Kills” Tour Canceled
October 1st, 2009
Photo: Strauss/WireImage
Just two weeks after Kanye West and Lady Gaga announced their full slate of “Fame Kills” dates, the tour has been canceled. No official reason has been given for the cancellation, but ticket refunds will be available.
See Lady Gaga’s wildest looks.
After the backlash surrounding Kanye’s outburst during Taylor Swift’s VMAs acceptance speech, the tour was rumored to be embattled. Now official confirmation of the cancellation comes from concert promoters Live Nation.
See Kanye’s ...
Merle Haggard: The Essential Playlist
October 1st, 2009
Photograph by Martin Schoeller
In Issue 1088, Rolling Stone’s Jason Fine wrote an epic profile of badass legend Merle Haggard. Now he has provided us with a rundown of the country star’s essential recordings from “(All My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers” to “More Than My Old Guitar.” “With this playlist of my personal favorites, I’ve tried to focus on a more intimate of Haggard — the songs that chart his evolution as a songwriter and ...
Michael Jackson Autopsy Reveals Star Was Healthy Prior to Death
October 1st, 2009
Michael Jackson was for the most part healthy at the time of his death on June 25th, the Associated Press writes after obtaining a copy of the still-unreleased autopsy report. Despite rumors that Jackson appeared gaunt and was “listless” at rehearsals in the weeks leading up to his death, the autopsy findings reveal that Jackson weighed 136 pounds, within the normal range of a 5′ 9” man, and that “his heart was strong with no ...
Inside Muse’s American Invasion
October 1st, 2009
Photo: Hale/Getty
With a Top Five record and stadium gigs with U2, British trio Muse have finally arrived in America. David Fricke chats with Matt Bellamy and Co. in our new issue about instability (”I do have slight paranoid tendencies”), Queen (the band says they chuckled at their new album’s “United States of Eurasia”) and their struggle to bring their international superstardom to the States. Read his story here:
• Global Superstars Muse Explode in America
Kylie Minogue’s Spacey Spectacle Lands at First-Ever U.S. Gig
October 1st, 2009
Photo: Dowling/Getty
“You’re everything I’ve dreamt of for 20 years,” said Australian dance-pop princess Kylie Minogue to the lucky crowd that witnessed the Oakland opening-night performance on her first-ever North American tour. As a platform for a singer who only briefly tasted mainstream U.S. fame with her 1988 cover version of “The Loco-Motion” and her 2001 breakthrough “Can’t Get You out of My Head,” the show provided everything her patient cult would want — except a ...
U2 Beyond the “Horizon”: Plans for Next Album Take Shape
October 1st, 2009
Photograph by Sam Jones
When Rolling Stone’s Brian Hiatt hit the road with U2 to report on U2360°, the biggest tour in history for our new issue, he also got the band to open up about their next project — an album called Songs of Ascent — and the future of the songs for Bono and the Edge’s Spider-Man musical. Bono also revealed how the band views its haters (”They’re in the pub going, ‘I ...
Download Nirvana’s “Scoff” Live From “Bleach” Reissue
October 1st, 2009
We’re only a month away from the 20th anniversary reissue of Nirvana’s Bleach, and Sub Pop is offering up a free download of one of the songs on the remastered live disc that will accompany the band’s debut album. “Scoff” was recorded at Portland, Oregon’s Pine Street Theatre on February 9th, 1990, and judging on this track alone, the previously unreleased concert disc will put to shame all those pre-Nevermind bootlegs you purchased back in ...
Hype Monitor: Jemina Pearl, Cassius, Magic Kids
October 1st, 2009
The Band: Jemina Pearl
The Buzz: Ex-lead vocalist of art punkers Be Your Own Pet, Pearl is now primed to give Paramore a run for their money. With a solo release on the Thurston Moore-run Ecstatic Peace label due this month (and an appearance with Moore on Gossip Girl last year), Pearl’s harried, hooky punk combines the snap of yesteryear with a canny pop sheen.
Listen If: You have a soft spot for Avril Lavigne and Kelly ...
Springsteen Launches Jersey Stand With New “Wrecking Ball”
October 1st, 2009
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band kicked off their five-night Giants Stadium stand last night with a brand new song called “Wrecking Ball” — a tribute to the venue that’s months away from being demolished. In the surprisingly poignant track, Springsteen takes the voice of the gigantic concrete structure (”I was raised out of steel in the swamps of Jersey… I’ve seen champions come and go”) but was also clearly singing about his own ...
Gov’t Mule Break Out Alice Cooper Cover at “By a Thread” Preview Gig
October 1st, 2009
Photo: Ross McKillop
What should we call it — jam glam? Halfway through Gov’t Mule’s intimate September 30th set at Brooklyn Bowl in New York, singer-guitarist Warren Haynes started playing the most unlikely riff, a gnarly stuttering thing that many of the couple-hundred folks on hand to celebrate the release of the Mule’s new studio album, By a Thread, probably didn’t recognize: “Is It My Body,” from Alice Cooper’s 1971 dirty-glitter classic, Love It to Death. ...