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Tags: Britney Spears, Courtney Love, Fall Out Boy, Rock

Whenever rock ‘n’ roll is in trouble, you can count on Courtney Love.

Or something. In a new video posted today, Love confirmed the news of her guest appearance on Fall Out Boy’s upcoming reunion album Save Rock and Roll , but not with any ordinary press release or tweet. No, C-Love instead decided to spoof Britney Spears’ classic “It’s Britney, b—h” line (which has its own Urban Dictionary entry) by announcing, yep, “It’s Courtney, b—h in a six-second YouTube clip, which Fall Out Boy tweeted earlier today.

Behold below:

Mar 20 2013 03:53 PM ET

Bon Jovi tops albums chart, David Bowie takes second place on Billboard 200

Tags: Bon Jovi, Charts, David Bowie, Rock

Image Credit: Paul Kane/Getty Images

“Where are we now?” David Bowie asked on his new album. According to the charts, the answer is “right behind Jon Bon Jovi.”

The New Jersey rockers’ What About Now has won the week in album sales, making it the group’s third straight album (and fifth overall) to top the Billboard 200. The record sold 101,000 in its debut week, Nielsen SoundScan reports. This marks Bon Jovi’s 12th trip to that chart’s top ten.

This leaves David Bowie’s much-heralded comeback album The Next Day – hist first since 2003′s Reality – to come in at No. 2, with 85,000 units moved. The upside, though, is that that number is Bowie’s best sales week since the SoundScan era began in 1991.

Last week’s champ, Luke Bryan’s Spring Break… Here to Party, fell to No. 3, experiencing a 59% decline with 61,000 in sales. The chart’s next spot, however, was here to pray, not party: the Christian album Passion: Let the Future Begin bowed at No. 4, with 48,000 in sales.

Rounding out the top five was Bruno Mars, whose sophomore effort Unorthodox Jukebox dropped from No. 3 to No. 5, with 43,000 in sales. That’s a 17% drop from the previous week, but still enough to beat out Mindless Behavior’s All Around the World, which debuted this week at No. 6.

Mar 18 2013 06:00 PM ET

SXSW roundup: The non-superstar acts we loved

by EW staff

Tags: Hip-Hop/Rap, Indie, Indie Rock, Music Festivals, Rock, SXSW

Parquet Courts. Photo by Amanda Hatfield

What began as as intimate little outlet for indie bands and the people who love them has famously become a giant Pepsi Doritos playground for household-name brands like Justin Timberlake and Prince and Green Day.

And since Music Mix has already given you the skinny all the JT and GD happenings of the week, it’s time to go over the festival’s undercards. Our SXSW staff has each selected some of their favorite moments from the week:

Mar 18 2013 04:41 PM ET

Vampire Weekend premiere new songs 'Diane Young' and 'Step': Hear them here

Tags: Downloads and Streams, Indie Rock, New Stuff, Rock, Snap Judgment, Vampire Weekend

Image Credit: Alex John Beck

In between all of the epic Prince sets, Justin Timberlake covers of INXS songs, and Usher drop-ins, it would have been easy to miss one of the more exciting moments of SXSW weekend: the return of Vampire Weekend.

Playing their first North American shows since announcing their upcoming album Modern Vampires of the City, the New York quartet pulled the curtain back on some new music. The album is out May 6, but the band decided to put two new songs on the Internet today. Official first single “Diane Young” is an envelope-pushing blast of power pop, while “Step” is a mellower jam more akin to the band’s earlier material.

Listen to both songs below, and enjoy those mesmerizing images of cars on fire while you’re at it:

Mar 15 2013 12:30 PM ET

SXSW: Dave Grohl leads rousing Sound City performance

by James Hibberd

Tags: Foo Fighters, Music Festivals, Rock, Supergroups, SXSW Festival

Image Credit: WireImage

Coming off his must-read SXSW keynote address earlier that day (he didn’t even change his shirt!), Dave Grohl took to the stage at Stubb’s in Austin to lead his Sound City Players supergroup in an impassioned and largely hard-rocking showcase Thursday night.

The ever-charismatic Foo Fighters frontman declared that this was the group’s final performance together and pledged an “extra long and extra special” night. Sound City is less a band than a showcase for artists who were part of Grohl’s recent documentary (now streaming online) on the famed Sound City recording studio in Van Nuys, where famed artists recorded some of their best-known albums (Nirvana’s Nevermind, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush among them).

The Players were never meant to be a permanent thing, of course; they were put together to play a handful of show to support the venture and its soundtrack (Sound City: Reel to Reel), with Grohl serving as ringleader for the shows and heaping praise upon each of his rock idols (who then gamely return the favor — Masters of Reality’s Chris Goss called him a “national treasure”).

The Citi-sponsored three-hour-plus set featured Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, Rick Springfield and others from the project taking turns at the lead microphone for roughly five songs each (no Paul McCartney, drat). Grohl repeatedly noted how fortunate the crowd to see all these artists together on one stage, and it was tough to argue. READ FULL STORY »

Mar 12 2013 10:00 AM ET

Watch the 'Just a Ride' video from U.K. rockers the Virginmarys -- EXCLUSIVE

Tags: An EW Exclusive!, Indie Rock, Music Videos, New Stuff, Rock, The Virginmarys, Things That Are British

Image Credit: Ray Lego

Thanks to their debut album King of Conflict and its propulsive single “Just a Ride,” British alt act the Virginmarys found their way onto Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. Now the band has an official video for “Just a Ride”– and you can watch it exclusively here.

The buzzy trio (guitarist/vocalist Ally Dickaty, drummer Danny Dolan and bassist/vocalist Matt Rose) trade in the kind of unadulterated, shouty, hard-edged guitar rock that has become increasingly rare these these days. The clip is a similarly uncomplicated, consisting largely of the guys and their gear making a whole lot of noise.

Bu it’s exactly that back-to-basics approach that’s whipped up excitement for their SXSW debut tomorrow. Check out their ”Just a Ride” video below:

Mar 11 2013 01:19 PM ET

Mumford & Sons split four ways for 'Whispers in the Dark' video: Watch it here!

Tags: Indie Rock, Mumford & Sons, Music Videos, New Stuff, Rock, Things That Are British

When people think of Mumford & Sons as a throwback act, they mean that they use instrumentation and an aesthetic that dates back to the roots of American folk, country, and bluegrass. But when it comes to music videos, they are similarly old-school, in the sense that they really seem to be trying to make the sort of clips one of the biggest-selling rock bands in the country is supposed to make.

For their last video, they went the auteur route and handed over the direction and acting reigns to Luther star Idris Elba. For their new video for “Whispers in the Dark,” director Jim Canty (who has also worked with Mika and Mark Ronson) split the screen into four quadrants and gave each band member his own on-his-way-to-the-show narrative. In essence, it forces you to watch the clip four times to truly follow everything (though really, you probably only have to watch it three times — in his story line, Marcus Mumford simply gets on a motorcycle and rides to the gig).

Check it out below. READ FULL STORY »

Mar 7 2013 11:50 AM ET

Today in Morrissey news -- messing with David Bowie, bringing back Rickrolling

Tags: All The Old Dudes, David Bowie, Morrissey, Rock, Things That Are British

Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Morrissey, mo’ problems!

After spending his past week or two starting tiffs with Duck Dynasty, Jimmy Kimmel, Paul McCartney, Madonna, and Beyoncé, the former Smiths singer is now taking aim at David Bowie.

As vintage-British-rock enthusiasts already know, Morrissey is repressing his 1989 single “The Last of the Famous International Playboys,” complete with new artwork. (His same-era album Kill Uncle, is also getting a reissue by its label.) And therein lies the problem. Morrissey had planned on using a previously unseen picture of Bowie on the cover, but the famously guarded Bowie denied Moz the right to use his image. (Unfortunately, Bowie forgot to also nix the cover art to his new album The Next Day.)

So, with his back against a wall, Morrissey went a different route: He rickrolled David Bowie, putting an image of “Never Gonna Give You Up” singer Rick Astley on the cover instead.

Take a look at the new artwork for the single, due out Apr. 8, below:

Mar 5 2013 04:56 PM ET

Jack White collaborator Brooke Waggoner on her new album 'Originator' and working as a Peacock

Tags: Jack White, Buzzworthy, New Stuff, Rock, Country, Brooke Waggoner

Nashville (by way of New Orleans) native Brooke Waggoner spent last year working for a rather mysterious boss. The classically-trained pianist was called in to jam on some tracks for another Music City transplant: Jack White.

“I got a call one day to stop by and play some piano on a couple of things,” Waggoner said. “I had no idea what it was for or what Jack was working on. I was literally shoved into a room with three other girls I had never met. We just started playing, and Jack was there and the chemistry was really good. We just kept coming back every day, and about six weeks into it, we realized, ‘Oh, this is Jack’s solo record!’”

Those sessions blossomed into membership in a proper band called the Peacocks, the all-female back-up group during White’s huge tour for his solo debut Blunderbuss. “I had never played with that many females before,” Waggoner admitted. “It was really unique and cool. Honestly, I don’t really ever think about gender in music, but it was an interesting scenario to focus on gender in order to create mystique within the bands.” READ FULL STORY »

Mar 5 2013 01:31 PM ET

Today in Internet victory: This Carly Rae Jepsen/Nine Inch Nails mash-up