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  • Joanie Loves Miley

    Punk icons have been popping up in unlikely places on your TV recently. Perhaps you caught Iggy Pop strutting his tanned torso across the American Idol stage last week? That was like an appetizer for what went down on Oprah yesterday. It was Winfrey's "once-in-a-lifetime rock goddess-palooza!" (WIsh you'd thought of that one, eh, Sarah McLachlan?) That meant interviews and performances by Stevie Nicks and Sheryl Crow, Salt-N-Pepa, Sister Sledge, and two slightly eyebrow-raising duets: Joan Jett and Miley Cyrus, and Pat Benatar and Avril Lavigne.

    Let's just get this out of the way quickly: The Amp (well, this half of The Amp) genuinely likes Miley Cyrus. The girl wrote the lyric "She's just bein' Miley" and can handle her salvia. And Joan Jett didn't seem at all bothered to be performing alongside her, either -- she must be thankful Cyrus actually knows who she is, unlike Britney Spears, who famously covered "I Love Rock 'N' Roll" for the movie Crossroads and then told a reporter she

    Read More »from Joanie Loves Miley
  • The Beatles' legacy as The Greatest Band of All Time is so immense that fans are always eager to own any piece of the Fab Four's history, regardless of the price. John Lennon's suit from the Abbey Road cover? There's a wide market for it. Lennon's handwritten lyrics for "A Day in the Life"? Demand was so great that it sold for $1.2 million. Lennon's toilet bowl? Someone paid $14,000 to do business on the same porcelain John Lennon did business. It seems like every month -- maybe even every two weeks -- a one-of-a-kind piece of Beatles memorabilia hits the auction block. The April 2011 item is an especially major slice of Beatles lore: Lennon's hand-scribed lyric sheet for "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds."

    The lyric sheet for the Sgt. Pepper's classic, which may or may not be about LSD, will go to auction on May 14th in Beverly Hills, Billboard.biz reports. Estimated going price: $200,000, or a million less than what "A Day in the Life" sold for last year, which makes sense considering

    Read More »from Everything Ever Touched by John Lennon’s Pen Will Be Auctioned One Day
  • If you pay even the slightest bit of attention to how people get digital music these days, you've been keeping an eye on Europe's crazy awesome streaming service Spotify and wondering when it's coming to the States. Spotify is so appealing because it has a massive catalog (13 million tracks) of songs from all the major labels (EMI, Sony, Warner Bros., Universal) that you can listen to for free (if you're willing to deal with some ads). Paying for a premium subscription brings you a better bitrate, mobile access, and a life free from advertisements.

    The free-ness of Spotify is what makes it so revolutionary and user-friendly. But today the free-ness of Spotify got less free. Starting May 1st, users who don't pay will get 10 hours of total listening time a month -- a 50 percent cut from the 20 hours Spotify Open users enjoy now -- and tracks will only be playable five times ever before they get greyed out and marked as kaput. Shelling out for a premium subscription would eliminate

    Read More »from Awesomest Music Service Spotify Just Got Less Awesome
  • As promised, Prince returned to Lopez Tonight yesterday to help promote his 21-night residency in Los Angeles' Forum. Prince's best marketing campaign has always been his charismatic stage presence, so he broke out three tracks starting with "The Beautiful Ones" from Purple Rain, an incredible ballad we're glad became a regular at his gigs. He also showcased a pair of new tracks, "Laydown" and "You're the One for Me," a move that suggests Prince might use these L.A. shows to road test some new material.

    Prince's "21 Nite Stand" kicks off tonight at the Forum, and somehow tickets are still available. Even more surprising is the disparity in price between the cheap seats and the expensive seats. A ticket to sit in the upper deck or "non-VIP" floor is $25 total, whereas every other seat in the Forum is $179 apiece plus another $26 in service charges. (Yes, for what you'll pay more in service charges, you could purchase an actual upper deck ticket.) The Amp had nosebleed-ish seats for

    Read More »from Watch Prince Bust Out New Songs on ‘Lopez Tonight’
  • Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI's files on some of hip-hop's biggest crimes continue to steadily be unveiled. Last week, we got an in-depth look at the FBI's 360-page investigation on the Notorious B.I.G. murder, and now the Feds have opened their file on Tupac Shakur... only it's not the Tupac file anyone wanted to see. Like Biggie's murder, no charges ever came out of Tupac's drive-by shooting death in September 1996. Unfortunately, the FBI's investigation on that subject remains sealed, and instead we're provided with a strange 100-page document about how Tupac was extorted by a purported terrorist group.

    The FBI document essentially centers on their investigation of the Jewish Defense League, which the FBI deemed a "right-wing terrorist group." The JDL somehow had dealings with the famed West Coast label Death Row Records; it's been reported that they helped negotiate the release of Dr. Dre from Ruthless Records, the label that had Dr. Dre under contract at the

    Read More »from Tupac’s FBI File Not as Interesting as Biggie’s
  • Music superfans are a lot like sports superfans -- they're obsessed with stats, years, and debating who is The Best Ever, and spent a lot of their formative years collecting things in nerdy seclusion. Inspired by the NCAA's annual basketball tournament, MTV started a Musical March Madness, where fan voting determines a winner. But today the Awl identified an even more (scary? impressive?) bracket: An OutKast freak in Atlanta has determined the group's best song from a field of 64. The competition's name: Stankoff 2011.

    Rembert Browne, Stankoff's author, started with four divisions, each with its own Number One track: "B.O.B.," "Hey Ya!," "Rosa Parks," and "Ms. Jackson" (The Amp has a few quibbles with his seeding, namely the too-high placement of "Hollywood Divorce"). His rules mandated that each track in contention had to feature both Big Boi and Andre 3000. His play-by-play ranges from the well-argued to the hilarious:

    "I'm partial to anything associated with the Soul Food

    Read More »from Which OutKast Song is the Stankiest of Them All?
  • Ever wonder what happened to that $750 million BP gave to state and local governments after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill? Some of it went to environmental causes and resuscitating coastal businesses, but a lot of it went towards concerts featuring artists your parents like. The AP reports (via Gawker) that Florida spent over $300,000 on concerts by the Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. BP handed over an additional $250,000 to help cover the concert fees.

    Most expensive performance of "Black Water" ever? Maybe, but the concert was for a good cause: The shows were staged at Florida's Okaloosa Island in an effort to re-attract tourists to the area and prove to them the beaches were oil-free. (On a side note, we hope the Doobies didn't actually play "Black Water," that seems insensitive given the circumstances.)

    Compared to other grievous misuses of BP oil spill money -- the AP shows some government figures used their rescue cash for iPads, SUVs, and really expensive

    Read More »from BP Oil Money Bought Florida a Kenny Loggins Concert
  • This one is hairy -- zing! -- so read carefully. Tom Cruise has been cast as cheese-metal god Stacee Jaxx in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Rock of Ages. In the show, Stacee Jaxx sings Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive." To prepare for this taxing role of a lifetime, Cruise is training with Axl Rose's vocal coach. So the person who helped Axl hit the high notes on "Don't Cry" is teaching Maverick how to walk these streets with a loaded six-string on his back.

    We have to imagine this would irk Axl Rose because everything irks Axl Rose. But Jon Bon Jovi irritates Axl in a very unique way.

    In 1987, Rose gave an onstage speech recounting a disagreement the band had with "five guys in suits," one of whom called him "Bon Jovi" (Rose wasn't thrilled with that). In 2006, Bon Jovi allegedly bitched about Axl, "That m------------ hasn't made a record in 13 years and he gets all that attention. You know what I've done in 13 years? A lot. But they have continued to write about the

    Read More »from Axl Rose’s Vocal Coach Is Teaching Tom Cruise How to Sing Bon Jovi
  • Ugh. Music festivals are always packed with great artists in a short time span, so fans are faced with crummy days trying to figure out who to see and who to skip when the schedule is revealed. Today is one of those days. With Coachella only two sleeps away, the festival unveiled the set times for all the artists playing the Indio, California desert, and it presents some very difficult choices. Below are the five toughest decisions you'll have to make at Coachella. Picking favorites can be hard, so thankfully The Amp is here to help:

    5. Kings of Leon vs. Robyn, 9:55 p.m.-11:40 p.m., Friday night
    This one comes down to mood: If you feel like dancing or just an escape from the main stage crowd, obviously Robyn is the way to go. If you want to hear clean-cut Southern rock with a U2 polish, then the Kings' headlining set has your name written all over it. If you're craving both, then you're screwed. You'll face a similar situation earlier in the night when the synth group Cut Copy faces off

    Read More »from The Five Most Gut-Wrenching Coachella Scheduling Conflicts
  • Who's Number One: The most consistent seller of 2011 has returned to the Billboard Top 200's peak (and hit the million-sold mark!) simply by being consistent. Adele's 21 moved 88,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan, which is only a slight dip -- she's sold 94K, 96K, and 98K the last three weeks.

    Why?: 21 is a strong, classy album, and Adele has been diligently promoting it. And Britney Spears' Femme Fatale ultimately didn't give her much competition. Spears' sales fell 73 percent, from 276,000 to 75,000.

    Who's Fitter, Happier This Week: Radiohead! The physical release of The King of Limbs sold 69K last week for Number Six debut, but Thom Yorke and Co. climbed to Number Three here with sales of 67,000. Billboard blames a late shipment of deluxe discs for the second-week surge.

    Explain to Me Who Hollywood Undead and Asking Alexandria Are, Please: Hollywood Undead (Number Four) are an L.A. rap-rock crew who wear masks. Its members are named Charlie Scene, Da Kurlzz, Danny, Funny

    Read More »from Who Charted? Adele Rolls Over Britney to Reclaim Number One

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News for You

  • Palace sheds some light on Kate's baby plans

    LONDON (AP) — With Prince William and the former Kate Middleton expecting their first child in mid-July — and much of the world interested in the birth of a future monarch — the royals' office has released some of the couple's plans, although many details are still being kept private. Kate has made several public appearances recently but is expected to keep a low profile in the final weeks of her pregnancy. Here is the latest news about the infant who will, upon entering the world, be third in line for the British throne.

  • Mom: RI theater threw out disabled girl over noise

    NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — A woman says she and her 5-year-old developmentally disabled daughter were thrown out of a theater during a "Beauty and the Beast" performance because the girl was making giggling and humming noises she makes when she's happy.

  • Cher credits luck for her lengthy career

    UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. (AP) — Cher is no stranger to tabloid fodder.

  • Jenner: Kim Kardashian 'thrilled for the new baby'

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kris Jenner says her daughter Kim Kardashian is thrilled to have a new baby girl.

  • 'The Voice' Winner: Who Did the Experts Choose?

    By Jethro Nededog LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - NBC's "The Voice" will crown another winner on Tuesday night's finale. Season 4's three finalists - Daniellle Bradbury, Michelle Shamuel and The Swon Brothers - battled it out for the title on Monday's performance finale episode. Before the performances, coaches Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, Shakira and Usher performed The Beatles' "With A Little Help From My Friends." The Top 16 then got together for the second group performance of the night on Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros' "Home. ...

  • Miss Utah latest beauty queen to botch answer

    LAS VEGAS (AP) — Miss Utah Marissa Powell is the latest beauty queen to trip on national television, not over her gown, but during the interview segment.

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