Hey folks, just a quick note to let you know we’ll be liveblogging the American Music Awards this Sunday night (ABC, 8/7central — we’ll be here for the Pacific time zone broadcast) so please come by as we bow down to/bitch about who won what, who blew whom off the stage and who ripped off Lady Gaga’s look most blatantly. A few things we should all reasonably expect to see: MORE »
Always thinking out of the punk-rock box, Green Day is re-recording their hit “21 Guns” with the cast of the American Idiot musical, in addition to shooting a brand new music video for the song featuring the cast. (No word if all the cast members will start making out in the middle of the vid.) The digital recording will be available in late November, and the highly-praised musical (which we thought was freaking awesome) is heading to Broadway in the not-so-distant future. Trailer for the rock opera after the jump—it’s a helluva lot louder than Showboat, we’ll tell ya that much: MORE »
And so today brings the final nominees list for the People’s Choice Awards, a roundup of the some of the less-challenging artists and material from the past year or so. And—yippee!—this was the first year that “we, the people” were allowed to have somewhat of a say in the nominees. But despite this privilege, snubs still abound in the music categories. MORE »
Britney Spears: The Opera? New Kids on the Block: The Musical? Could these fake jukebox musicals really become a reality? Well, considering how much influence pop music has on Broadway already… MORE »
Over the weekend, 50 Cent appeared on Vh1’s Top 20 countdown—yes, it is focused on music videos!—and while introducing the No. 6 video of the week, Green Day’s “21 Guns,” Curtis said to host Jim Shearer, “Man, I’d love to be able to have a song called ‘21 Guns’ on VH1.” This isn’t the first time that 50 has (rightly) noted the odd discrepancies in MTV Networks’ lyric-bleeping thresholds, but it is a good moment to maybe do a rundown of what MTV and its matrix of sister networks have censored lately? (Hey, the lousy economy is resulting in all those channels playing more music videos!) A few noticeable omissions and non-omissions from recent tracks after the jump—feel free to add your own! MORE »
Beyoncé, Kings of Leon, and Shakira have each scooped up multiple nominations for MTV’s European Music Awards, which will be held in Berlin on Nov. 5 and feature performances by Green Day, X Factor-winning warbler Leona Lewis, and “popular on the Internet” mope-rock act Tokio Hotel. The winners in most of the categories—save Best Video Of The Year, which inexplicably includes Eminem’s stale-on-arrival “We Made You” as the lone male-fronted video in its ranks—will be determined by fan voting, which probably explains the Jonas Brothers vs. Tokio Hotel matchup in the “Best Group” category. (Gimme an S! Gimme an E! Gimme an O!) Full list of non-regional nominations after the jump. MORE »
Green Day and Pink are the latest additions to the “featured performers” lineup at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, taking place on Sept. 13; they join Muse and Taylor Swift on the evening’s bill. Pink will continue to flog Funhouse, which only came out a year ago (it feels like forever!); meanwhile, I am wondering if Green Day will bring out Stephanie, a fan in attendance at the band’s Madison Square Garden show the other night who hopped onstage and performed “Jesus Of Suburbia” with the band on guitar while clad in a Misfits T-shirt, and who had the crowd eating out of her hand by the time she was done. (Hey, the VMAs are in New York this year!) Clip of what is, I hope, the first of many incredible moments in this young woman’s life after the jump. MORE »
The people behind the one-day indie-music-retail blowout Record Store Day are hoping so; they’ve declared the third Saturday of every month Vinyl Saturday, on which limited-edition vinyl releases will be available at participating indie shops. The first installment is Saturday, June 20, and there will be four special releases on shelves that day: MORE »
From the looks of their tour openers, it would seem that Green Day is still pretty nostalgic for the year that American Idiot came out: Franz Ferdinand, the Kaiser Chiefs, and the Bravery will open for the band as they crisscross the world from July to October. No, really, I swear this story isn’t a piece from 2004 that had a re-datestamped version of it horked up by Google News! Here’s proof! [LiveDaily] MORE »
Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown is not available at Wal-Mart because the band refused to reconfigure the album into a cleaned-up version required by the Arkansas-based megachain. Yet it sold better than every other album that was available at a Wal-Mart last week. Is this a sign that holding on to artistic integrity pays, or just that your typical Green Day fan is more of a Target type? [AP] MORE »
