Carrie Underwood has Blown Away the competition for a second week in a row.
The American Idol winner’s fourth album topped the Billboard 200 once again this week with sales of 120,000, holding off new debuts from Silversun Pickups, Tank, Keane, and Karmin, as well as Mother’s Day-boosted sales from top-selling artists like Adele and Lionel Richie.
Here’s how the Top 10 fared: READ FULL STORY »
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The Rock the Bells Festival has announced its ninth annual lineup, and the show is not slouching this year.
The talents on the 2012 roster include both the young and frisky (Kid Cudi, Wiz Khalifa, J. Cole, 2 Chainz, Kendrik Lamar) and less young but still frisky (Missy Elliott, Nas, Timbaland, Big Daddy Kane, Ice Cube, Salt-N-Pepa, Slick Rick, Bone Thugz ‘n Harmony).
For the first time, the fest will stretch over two days, though it is still partial to coasts-only tour stops: NOS Events Center in San Bernardino, California (Aug. 18-Aug. 19), Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California (Aug. 25-Aug. 26) and PNC Bank Arts Center in Homdel, New Jersey (Sept. 1-Sept.2).
There will also be a final double-header at Miami’s Bay Front Amphitheater on a yet-to-be-announced date in December.
More on EW.com:
Coachella producers announce 2013 dates and prices. So who would you like to see?
John Mayer talks voice issues, being an ‘idiot’ on ‘Ellen’
Our weekly Spotify playlist: Beach House, Adam Lambert, Killer Mike rub elbows
Image Credit: Gari Lamar Askew
Former guitar-solo-face-making bad boy John Mayer is pretty serious about courting forgiveness for past transgressions. The entirety of his new album Born and Raised is a lengthy apology to the people—mostly female—he’s wronged over the past few years. And yesterday, he took the seat opposite Ellen DeGeneres to chat about his tabloid-worthy exploits.
“It was a very strange time and it sort of rocketed me into adulthood,” Mayer told the host of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “It was a violent crash into being an adult.” That violent crash was the main reason Mayer decided to decamp from L.A. to a ranch in a particularly remote part of Montana. “The question ‘Why Montana?’ is the answer,” he said. “Why not be happy after awhile? You get to a certain age where you prepare yourself to be happy, sometimes you never remember to actually get happy. So I remembered how to get happy.” READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Reuters/Mike Blake/Landov
Skeptics had little faith in Coachella’s plan to stage the festival with identical lineups on consecutive weekends for the first time this year, but the folks putting on the show ended up laughing all the way to the bank.
Coachella 2012 was a wild financial success, and thanks to the specter of a deceased rapper, became the most talked-about weekend in the desert since Roger Waters lost track of his inflatable pig.
It only makes sense, then, that the same plan will be executed in 2013. Next year’s Coachella will run on April 12-14 and again on April 19-21. Advance passes go on sale this Thursday morning for $349, though you can dole that out in installments using their payment plan.
When you consider the additional money you’ll spend on travel, lodging, food, water, and a healthy supply of sun-blocking floppy hats, that’s a not-unserious chunk to invest in a festival that as of now (and most likely, for the at least next six months) has exactly zero confirmed acts.
Luckily, the Coachella lineup tends to follow a pattern every year, which is why there are a few safe assumptions about who you’ll see in Indio next year.
Image Credit: Liz Flyntz
Things kick off this week with Baltimore’s organ-happy indie duo Beach House’s dreamier-than-thou “Wishes,” one of our favorite tracks on their new album Bloom. Rye Rye (with teammate M.I.A.) take the baton from there with the Go! Pop! Bang! highlight “Sunshine,” while pop maven Adam Lambert, rappers 2 Chainz and Killer Mike, and indefatiguable Alanis Morissette each hit us with their own new cuts.
Also on deck this week: shiny-haired Malibu songstress Colbie Caillat, ’90s indie-rock revivalists the Cribs, and not one but two excellent U.K. soul imports, Alex Clare and Cold Specks. Check it all out by streaming the playlist below:
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Sad news for all the Little Monsters in Indonesia.
Conservative lawmakers and religious activists in the majority-Muslim country have forced Lady Gaga to cancel a sold-out June concert in Jakarta because “her sexy clothes and dance moves will corrupt young people,” the AP reports.
The scrapped Born This Way Ball was slated to be the biggest show of the Gaga’s Asian tour, filling all 52,000 seats in Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno stadium, but Indonesian police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar announced today that the pop star’s permit for the June 3 date was denied.
READ FULL STORY »
What’s a typical day like for Adam Lambert? We tagged along with the the Idol alum turned Grammy-nominated solo star — whose second studio album, Trespassing, hits stores today — as he juiced, jogged, and hung with Jimmy Kimmel on a recent Thursday in Los Angeles.
1:06 a.m. Send early-morning tweet @adamlambert: “So excited to perform on @jimmykimmel tomorrow…er tonight. Thats my cue to get to sleep. See you all onstage! 
” Reply from @jimmykimmel three minutes later: “yes – GO TO SLEEP! (I am very demanding)”
10:30 a.m. Wake up, get juiced “I actually did a cleanse last week, and I have a juicer that I’m obsessed with. I try to have a fresh vegetable juice everyday. I did a mixture of beets, carrots, celery, apples, lemon, and ginger. All those things are supposed to be really good for you.”
11:30 a.m. Quick jog around the Hollywood Hills with his boyfriend, Finnish reality star Sauli Koskinen “I listened to some good music, moving around the neighborhood. It was dance music, to keep me on task.”
Image Credit: AP
Slash, Tom Petty, Bill Wyman, and Booker T. Jones have all paid tribute to legendary bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn, who passed away yesterday in Tokyo at the age of 70.
Slash wrote in a tweet that Dunn “was one of the greatest side & session, blues, R&B, Soul bassists of all time”; Petty tweeted that the Stax Records mainstay “will be dearly missed”; and a message on Wyman’s website described how the ex-Rolling Stones member was “saddened to hear of his friend’s passing, and Bill and Donald both were in touch daily. Bill has known Donald since the 1970s, and had been emailing Donald the day before his death.”
Finally, Dunn’s longtime collaborator Booker T. Jones has published a lengthy tribute to the Booker T. and the MGs bassist on his website, in which he says that he “can’t imagine not being able to hear Duck laugh and curse.”
You can read the full statement below. READ FULL STORY »
Jay-Z is in a Philadelphia State of Mind. The rapper has announced a two-day music festival in Philadelphia. It’ll feature nearly 30 acts “that embody the American spirit” across three stages at Fairmount Park on Sept 1. and Sept. 2, which is Labor Day weekend.
Jay-Z was joined by Mayor Michael Nutter on Monday atop the city’s art museum steps, made famous by Rocky. The “Budweiser Made in America” festival will benefit United Way Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. Tickets go on sale May 23 and will include rap, rock, R&B, Latin and dance performers.
The New York-born rapper says 70 percent of the acts are confirmed. A feverish crowd of fans was on hand, chanting his name. When one yelled out that Jay-Z’s was the best, the rapper paused and said: “I agree.”
Read more:
Jay-Z burns through SXSW
Jay-Z and Beyonce both reportedly working on new music
Jay-Z plays Carnegie Hall, brings Alicia Keys, Nas, and ‘Glory’ with him
Image Credit: Universal/Everett Collection
Legendary bassist and Booker T. and the MGs member Donald “Duck” Dunn died this morning in Tokyo at the age of 70. Dunn’s death was announced by his friend and fellow MG, guitarist Steve Cropper. “Today I lost my best friend, the world has lost the best guy and bass player to ever live” Cropper wrote on his website. “Duck Dunn died in his sleep Sunday morning May 13 in Tokyo Japan after finishing two shows at the Blue Note Night Club.”
