... but sharing the completed masters for Chinese Democracy is another story. Rose responded to Dr Pepper's declaration that it would give a free soda to every American—save Buckethead and Slash—if his long-delayed album came out this year via a statement on the official Guns N' Roses site:
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Yesterday, a song from Gnarls Barkley's forthcoming album The Odd Couple leaked, and late last night, the Daily Swarm wondered if it was a sign that the viral marketing for the duo's next album, out in April, had already begun. This sounds like a job for our long-dormant feature Track Marks, in which we track the popularity of a blogger buzz band—especially since the hype cycle on this traveled so fast, and even made a pit stop at our inbox. So without further ado...
ARTIST: Gnarls Barkley
HOMETOWN: The Internet Los Angeles
ALBUM: The Odd Couple, out April 8
Is the question being posted by Paste magazine as it restructures its subscription prices around this crazy pay-what-you-will idea that everyone's currently so enamored with.
Lost in all the In Rainbows hoopla earlier this week was the fact that the Arcade Fire—who, you may remember, put out the most important album of 2007 first—would be unleashing a huge surprise via the Web site BeonlineB this Saturday. Speculation over what the site, the name of which is derived from an anagram for Neon Bible, would be launching has run rampant over the past few days, with most of the guesses using the words "remix," "b-sides," "remixes," or "James Murphy." But what if the ever-innovative Canadians are going for something completely ... different? Something with a little bit of le Web 2.0 flair?
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"Virtual Lower East Side is having a big [party] to celebrate the release of This Is Next and, to quote the Dismemberment Plan, you are invited ... VLES is a photo-releastic virtual world that recreates NYC's Lower East Side. This particular party is going down in the virtual Bowery Ballroom and will include an in-world appearance by members of Of Montreal (your avatar can talk to them, dance with them, vomit on them...yes, seriously) as well as a real concert by the Cold War Kids." [Subterranean Blog]
McDonald's is holding parking-lot concerts (why not in the ball crawl?), Taco Bell is shoving burritos down the pieholes of musicians (as part of their egregious "Fourth Meal" plan to make America even fatter), and Burger King is slinging MP3s along with french fries. This podcasted interview with Sherri Daye Scott, editor at restaurant trade mag QSR, and a marketing guy from Taco Bell goes into a little bit more detail about the fast food chains' latest attempt to paint themselves as "hip" and "with it" and not, you know, large, faceless purveyors of fat-choked snack treats.
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This Saturday, "brand ambassadors" will distribute samples of Beyonce's new fragrance, "Diamonds," at B's Madison Square Garden concert. [Page Six]
Last week, the music-distribution company Burnlounge, which calls itself a "fan-driven download community" but resembles a multi-level marketing enterprise in many ways, was sued by the Federal Trade Commission for being an illegal investment scheme. The State reports that the business was particularly popular in Columbia, S.C.:
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From a New York City tipster, a tale of a musical publicity stunt gone awry:
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Oh Word's Sacha Orenstein looks at factors affecting sales by recent offerings from Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah and Bay area rapper E-40. Ghostface's album, Fishscale, scooped up heralds from critics and bloggers left and right, while E-40's My Ghetto Report Card recieved little press; yet it wasn't the recipient of the huzzahs whose album went gold. Orenstein's analysis is a solid read, particularly for this nugget:
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We have no idea whether this was a mass e-mail, or an offer sent specifically to nutjobs such as ourselves, but we just received one of the most 
Idolator
