What's Hot

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–The Maine drummer Pat Kirch recently revealed that the band is set to hit the studio after their current tour.
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–Joe Jonas will release his first solo single “See No More” on June 3rd
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–Bonnaroo has officially sold out so if you want tickets you better start frantically searching the Internet.
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–Lady Gaga released a new track “Hair” yesterday on iTunes. It’s the fourth single to be released from Born This Way, which will be released next Monday, May 23.
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–Rihanna has explained why she still follows her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown on Twitter
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–Bassist Nick Osborne has returned to VersaEmerge for the band’s upcoming tour.
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–Demi Lovato has tweeted pictures of her bikini body. These are the first revealing pics of the pop star since her stint in rehab.
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–Beyoncé will debut her new video for “Run The World (Girls)” on tomorrow’s episode of American Idol. [press release]
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–Devo have announced a string of four concerts in June to promote their most recent album Something For Everybody. The New Wave icons will kick off their mini-tour at the LC Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio and hit Pittsburgh and Toronto before wrapping up at the Sound of Music Festival in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. [press release]
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–The Who guitarist Pete Townshend will release a memoir entitled Who He? It is expected to hit shelves in the fall of 2012.
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– Texas band Design The Skyline have signed to Victory Records. Watch the video announcement here.

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The official launch of Lady Gaga’s second full-length album began in February with an announcement: Born This Way would be released on May 23, and an expanded version of the disc — featuring bonus material — would be available only through an exclusive partnership with Target. Deals like this are not uncommon; big-box stores like Target are responsible for almost 40% of all physical CD sales in America, and even superstar artists like Gaga are at the mercy of the increased promotion and exposure these stores can provide in a failing retail climate. What made this deal unique, however, was exactly how much Target stood to reap from their half of the partnership. More than mere record sales, an association with Gaga could have ostensibly regained some of their lost cachet with the gay community, who had begun a grassroots campaign against the store last year following reports that the company provided significant financial support to a number of anti-gay politicians in 2010 — including a $150,000 donation to Minnesota Republican Tom Emmer, whose vocal opposition to same-sex marriage and gay parenting seems almost humanitarian in comparison to revelations that he made his own donations to a Christian ministry that once endorsed religious-sponsored executions of LGBT people.
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Needless to say, the deal backfired. After a failed attempt at damage control, Gaga abruptly dissolved the partnership with a terse statement simply stating that the two parties “didn’t see eye to eye on Target’s policy of political donations.” Curiously, the topic was never raised again.
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For an album whose lead single features the most unambiguous gay rights lyric of any #1 song in the history of the world, it was a clumsy — and unlikely — start for Lady Gaga 2.0, who seems like she should have known better to begin with. But it was also an instructional moment: For as much as it’s difficult to remember pop music before Gaga, we shouldn’t forget that her ascendancy did not begin in earnest until the summer of 2008 — which means that, at only 25 years old, she’s had less than three years to become the biggest pop star on the planet, and even less time than that to figure it all out. It also means that despite the image of the fully-realized artist that she’s been successfully projecting for the last couple of years, it isn’t very clear whether or not a truly holistic identity of Lady Gaga has actually emerged.
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  EMILY ZEMLER  

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Lady Gaga has announced the tracklisting for her upcoming new disc Born This Way. The singer tweeted the song titles for both the original and deluxe versions of the record, which comes out May 23rd.
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The special edition of the album contains five extra tracks, according to Gaga, including the country version of “Born This Way” and a remix of “Judas” by DJ White Shadow. DJ White Shadow recently spoke with MTV News about the album. “I don’t even know how to explain it. [Born This Way] is not a pop album; it’s a pop masterpiece of music,” Shadow said. “If there was no category of pop music, you wouldn’t call it pop music.”
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He added, “She thinks of shit that I can’t comprehend. It doesn’t make sense to me, and I’m a creative person… Working with her is totally different than anyone else I’ve ever done anything with. She’s the most hands-on person I’ve ever run into. She could walk into Steve Jobs’ office and tell him he’s doing Apple wrong, and he’d listen. As a producer, it’s super cool to be with somebody who generally cares and is fully involved.”
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  DAN HYMAN  

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This Friday morning, Prince William will wed his Princess-to-be Kate Middleton. And you can be sure that virtually every single news source– from the entertainment hyenas jockeying for the best photo to “legitimate” news sources concerned with what esteemed world leaders are in attendance– will be covering this monumental event. So, naturally we thought we’d jump in the mix. And because we tend to think of everything from a music-related perspective, we’re running down our ideal playlist of songs that we think should accompany the craziness at the royal wedding. Sadly, the royal family has not officially consulted us for our input, but after looking over our suggestions, perhaps they’ll reconsider.
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–Linkin Park’s song “Iridescent” will be featured in the new film ‘Transformers: Dark Of The Moon.’
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–50 Cent is reportedly the victim of credit card fraud. Read how his credit card number was comprised.
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–Death Cab For Cutie have released a new song titled “Some Boys.” Listen to it here.
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–Korn and electro-star Skrillex release joint track titled “Get Up” Check it out here.
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– Animal Collective have announced a string of U.S. tour dates. Check them out here.
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–Face To Face have announced that their new album, Laugh Now, Laugh Later will be released on May 17th. Get the tracklist here.
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–Warren G has released a tribute song to his late friend, singer Nate Dogg. Check it out here.
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–According to a tweet, Andrew W.K. is recording a new “party” album.
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–Lady Gaga, after initially not approving, has agreed to allow Weird Al Yankovic’s parody of “Born This Way”– titled “Perform This Way”– to appear on the famous satirist’s new album.