Archive for December 30th, 2009
2006 Flashback: “Modern Times,” “Crazy” and the Year’s Best Music
December 30th, 2009
It was the year that gave us our Number One single of the entire decade: Gnarls Barkley’s 2006 hit “Crazy.” Bob Dylan got the friskiest he’d been since 1968’s John Wesley Harding on his stellar Modern Times, the Red Hot Chili Peppers churned out the two-disc Stadium Arcadium and T.I. had everyone chanting “What You Know.” As we continue to look back at the Best Albums and Songs of the 2000s, check out what ...
Eddie Vedder Sued Over “Hard Sun” Lyric Changes
December 30th, 2009
Photo: Dyson/WireImage.com
We’ve seen our share of strange lawsuits in 2009, from Joe Satriani versus Coldplay versus Cat Stevens over “Viva la Vida,” Starbucks’ battle with Carly Simon — even Eddie Van Halen taking Nike to court over a color scheme — but a new suit involving Eddie Vedder seems unprecedented. The Pearl Jam frontman covered the band Indio’s “Hard Sun” for the Into the Wild soundtrack, and now songwriter Gordon Peterson alleges that because Vedder ...
James Blunt, Snow Patrol Rule Decade-End U.K. Charts
December 30th, 2009
Photo: Furniss/WireImage.com
While the Beatles’ greatest hits compilation 1 was the bestselling album in the U.S. this decade, the charts across the pond told a decidedly different story: James Blunt’s Back to Bedlam, which boasted the hit “You’re Beautiful,” was the bestselling album in the U.K. in the 2000s, BBC reports. The disc finished Number One on a Top 10 that featured nine Brit artists and an unlikely American act.
The U.K.’s second biggest seller of the ...
Breaking: 2009’s Best New Artists
December 30th, 2009
Rolling Stone has named the 25 Best Albums and 25 Best Songs of 2009, and our readers have weighed in with their own year-end picks. Now’s the time to look back at the year’s great new discoveries: our 45 Breaking Artists from 2009 and five Artists to Watch. A few of these folks — including Dirty Projectors (video above), Girls, the xx, Grizzly Bear, the Big Pink, Avett Brothers, Dawes and Drake — managed to ...
On the Charts: Mary J. Blige Not “Stronger” Than Susan Boyle
December 30th, 2009
Photo: Loud/Getty Images
The Big News: For the second consecutive time, Mary J. Blige had to settle for a Number Two debut as the diva’s Stronger With Every Tear was outsold by Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream on the Billboard Top 200. Stronger sold 330,000 copies, but it wasn’t in the same weight class as I Dreamed a Dream, which moved an additional 510,000 copies to remain Number One. Boyle ended the week with 2,968,000 ...
Autopsy on Avenged Sevenfold’s Sullivan Inconclusive; Tributes Pour In For “The Rev”
December 30th, 2009
Photo: Miller/FilmMagic
An autopsy on Avenged Sevenfold drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan has come back inconclusive and the coroner’s office in the investigation has ordered toxicology and other laboratory tests to determine why the 28-year-old drummer died, My Fox L.A. reports. As Rolling Stone reported yesterday, Sullivan was found unresponsive in the Huntington Beach, California home he shared with his wife Leana MacFadden Monday night, December 28th. A police officer on the scene said that it ...
Bruce Springsteen Honored at Kennedy Center By Mellencamp, Vedder, Sting
December 30th, 2009
Earlier this month, Eddie Vedder, Melissa Etheridge, John Mellencamp, Ben Harper and Sting brought the songs of Bruce Springsteen to an unlikely venue: Washington, DC’s opulent Kennedy Center. The full Kennedy Center Honors aired on CBS last night, giving fans the opportunity to see the New Jersey legend sitting beside President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as a cavalcade of artists professed their admiration for his life and music. Caroline Kennedy described Springsteen as “a ...
News Ticker: Michael Jackson, Thom Yorke, Limp Bizkit, Tim Hart
December 30th, 2009
Photo: Ochs Archives/Getty
Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video has been added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. The 525 films in the registry have been deemed “works of enduring importance to American culture,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. This year’s other selections include Dog Day Afternoon, Pillow Talk and The Muppet Movie.
Thom Yorke, Philip Glass and Damien Rice are composing music for a new documentary about Tibet titled When the Dragon Swallowed the Sun. A ...