• Actor Corey Haim Dead at 38
• Kate Nash Talks My Best Friend Is You
• OK Go Split With EMI, Form New Label
• Lady Antebellum Retake Number One
• U2’s Spider-Man Loses Evan Rachel Wood
• New Music Report: Gorillaz
• News Ticker: DMX, Lady Gaga, Stars
• Watch Exclusive New Runaways Clip
• Beastie Boys Delay Hot Sauce to Late 2010
• Exclusive Premiere: Yeasayer’s “O.N.E.”
• MGMT Unveil New Song “Flash Delirium”
• Smashing Pumpkins Seek Two New Members
• LCD Soundsystem Debut Greenberg Tune
• Hear Dr. Dog’s New “Stranger”
• Samberg, Parnell Revive “Lazy Sunday”
• RS at SXSW: 100 Tweets, Two Showcases
• Win a Trip to See STP at SXSW!
• Coyne Wants Timberlake in Lips Film
• New Reviews: Broken Bells, Hendrix, BRMC
• Lil Wayne Begins Year-Long Jail Term
• T.I. Announces Return With “I’m Back”
• Foo Fighters Team With Vig For Heavy Disc
• Crazy Heart Wins Best Song at Oscars
• Watch Lil Wayne, Eminem’s “Drop the World”
• Simon & Garfunkel Set North American Tour
• Vampire Weekend Rock Galifianakis’ Beard Off
• Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous Takes Own Life
• Spring Music Preview 2010
• Corgan on Critics, Simpson: Preview the Story
• Animal Collective @ Guggenheim: Full Report
• Drake Debuts New Single “Over” Online
• Win the White Stripes’ Box Set
Scroll down for full news stories, commentary and much more in Rock Daily. Read more: |
This week Rolling Stone’s Daniel Kreps breaks down the Gorillaz’s Plastic Beach in our New Music Report. Kreps admits he didn’t immediately hear anything as instantly grabby as Demon Days‘ “DARE” or Gorillaz’s “Clint Eastwood” on their new disc — the closest relation here is the single “Stylo,” a catchy electro number that features Mos Def and Bobby Womack. But Plastic Beach is a real grower, and now he’s convinced it’s Damon Albarn’s most impressive work since Blur’s 13. With each listen, new highlights emerge, like the Think Tank-ish “Empire Ants” and his personal favorite, “To Binge,” which features the Swedish group Little Dragon. Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed, and members of the Clash and De La Soul all cameo on the disc, but the smaller artists — Little Dragon and U.K. rappers Bashy and Kano — make the biggest impact.
Catch up on all of Rolling Stone’s album reviews.
>>Watch every episode of our weekly New Music Report video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click “Launch application”). Every Tuesday, a new episode will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don't have iTunes, download it here.] Read more: |
Just two months after OK Go released their new album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky on EMI, the band has announced its split from the label by “mutual agreement.” OK Go are creating a new label, Paracadute Recordings, to promote and distribute the disc. “We’d like to thank the people who have worked so hard on our behalf,” said OK Go singer Damian Kulash in a statement. “And we’d like to thank our fans for making this choice an easy one for us.”
About two weeks before the premiere of their latest conceptual video for “This Too Shall Pass,” the band asked to be released from its contract, and EMI agreed. “We realized we wanted to leave EMI in 2002 — it was just a matter of when,” Kulash tells Rolling Stone. “It’s something of a gift for them to let us go. We’re not worth fighting and we’re not worth fielding annoying phone calls from all day long.”
 Photo: Rose/WireImage
The split comes just a little over a week after the group unveiled their new video for “This Too Shall Pass,” a Rube Goldberg-esque clip that has already racked up 6.8 million views on YouTube in nine days. (Watch it above if you’ve somehow missed it.) As Rolling Stone previously reported, OK Go were publicly feuding with EMI over the fact that the label’s “no embed” policy for music videos was hurting both the band’s popularity and finances — they first entered the national spotlight thanks to their treadmill video for “Here It Goes Again.” After a series of open letters and op-ed pieces and public statements, EMI finally dropped their “no embed” policy for “This Too Shall Pass.”
OK Go and EMI will officially part ways on April 1st, and OK Go will celebrate their independence with a performance on the Jimmy Kimmel Show that night. Two weeks later, OK Go will hit the road in support of Of the Blue Colour with a tour that includes stops at Bonnaroo, Sasquatch! and Bamboozle.
Related Stories:
• OK Go Slap a Tetherball for “This Too Shall Pass”: Behind the Clip
• OK Go Explain Viral Video Woes in “New York Times” Op-Ed
• OK Go Struggle With Label’s Rules Banning Embedded Video Read more: |
After releasing her hit 2007 debut Made of Bricks, Kate Nash got sick of her career. “Touring and doing loads of work all the time was a drag, and I became unenthusiastic about it,” says the British indie-pop singer. “I took a lot of time off so that I could do, like, normal things: hang out with friends, watch films, read books.” Now, Nash is ready for round two: her second album, My Best Friend Is You, will be out April 20th, and six days later, she’ll kick off a nine-date North American tour.
On her new LP, Nash lightens up on her trademark piano pop in favor of slightly punky, girl-group-inspired tunes like “Do Wah Doo” (watch the video above!) and “Kiss the Grrrl” — a nod to her recent obsession with Billy Childish poems (”I love the harshness and dirtiness of them”) and the Shirelles, the Chiffons and the Ronettes. “These girl-group songs sound really joyous, but the lyrics are quite dark and heartbreaking,” she says. With that dichotomy in mind, Nash and her producer, ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, crafted deceivingly upbeat songs like “I’ve Got a Secret,” about coming out of the closet. (Nash also plays drums on the song.) “Someone close to me was going through that recently, and it was a stressful situation,” she says. “It’s sad that someone would have to defend themselves for being gay in 2010.”
This summer, Nash will hit the road for a few dates with the all-female traveling festival Lilith Fair. “It’s really exciting, because it has a great history rather than just being a big party,” says Nash. “It’s a lot of girl power.”
Get the lowdown on 40 more of the spring’s biggest albums.
April 26 – Toronto, ONT @ Mod Theatre
April 28 – Boston, MA @ Great Scott’s
April 29 – New York, NY @ The Bowery
May 1 – Williamsburg, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
May 3 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
May 5 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
May 7 – Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s
May 8 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
May 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey
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• Artist to Watch: Kate Nash Read more: |
 Photo: Winter/Getty
The Big News: After spending the last three weeks at Number Two, Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now recaptured the top spot from Sade’s Soldier of Love in its sixth week on the Billboard 200, selling 126,000 copies to push past the platinum mark. After a three-week reign, Soldier of Love settled into Number Two with 79,000 copies sold. Below the resilient Top Two, four debuts lined up in Number Three through Six: Blake Shelton’s Hillbilly Bone, American Idol finalist Danny Gokey’s My Best Days, the Almost Alice soundtrack inspired by Tim Burton’s new movie and Lifehouse’s Smoke & Mirrors.
Gokey’s Number Four debut marks the second-best Idol opening week by a Season Eight contestant. Adam Lambert’s For Your Entertainment opened at Number Three in November 2009, though Lambert’s debut week sales of 198,000 far exceeded the 65,000 Gokey sold. Gokey did out-chart Kris Allen’s self-titled post-Idol (at Number 11 in November) and Allison Iraheta’s Just Like You, which peaked at 35.
Debuts: Two more newbies broke into the Top 10: Raheem DeVaughn’s Love & War Masterpiece at Nine and Easton Corbin’s self-titled at 10. DJ Khaled’s Victory debuted at 14, Peter Gabriel’s covers album Scratch My Back bowed in at Number 26 and John Hiatt’s Open Road scored 71.
Last Week’s Heroes: In its sixth week, Lady Antebellum somehow managed a six percent upswing in Need You Now sales while Soldier of Love dropped off 37 percent. With the surge of debuts near the top of the charts, a bunch of Top 10 mainstays found themselves in the teens for the first time, like Lil Wayne’s Rebirth and, after 15 weeks and 5.6 million copies, Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream, which fell from Eight to 18. Next week, we’ll see if Gorillaz’ Plastic Beach can shake up the Top Two. Read more: |
Actor Corey Haim, who starred in beloved ’80s films including The Lost Boys and License to Drive, died early this morning in Los Angeles of a suspected drug overdose. He was 38. According to reports, Haim was found unresponsive in an Oakwood apartment and taken to Burbank, California’s St. Joseph Hospital at around 3:30 a.m. PST, where he was pronounced dead. Police are calling Haim’s death “accidental,” the Los Angeles Times reports. The actor was reportedly at home with his mother at the time of his death.
Remember more young stars lost before their time.
The Canadian-born Haim rose to fame at a young age thanks to a string of hit movies, many with his frequent costar Corey Feldman. His most enduring role came in the 1987 vampire flick The Lost Boys, which has gone on to claim a cult following. Two decades after that film was released, both Haim and Feldman appeared in sequel The Lost Boys: The Tribe in 2008. Haim’s credits also include Lucas, Dream a Little Dream, Fast Getaway and National Lampoon’s Last Resort. He was slated to appear in American Sunset, a film due in January, according to his Website. Watch the film’s trailer below.
Like many child stars of his generation, Haim wrestled with drug problems after his fame waned, but recently the actor — who started to get steady work again in the latter half of the 2000s — said he was now sober. In 2006, Haim and Feldman reteamed for the reality series The Two Coreys. Haim was also the subject of a 2004 single by the Thrills called “Whatever Happened to Corey Haim?” Haim responded to the Thrills’ question, “I’m clean, sober, humble and happy.”
Watch a YouTube tribute video to Haim, made in 2008, below:
Trailer for American Sunset:
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