Blog Posts by Daniel Kreps

As if being the favorite for the Grammy's Best Alternative Album wasn't enough, Arcade Fire are now on the ballot of two more awards shows as of today: Canada's Juno Awards, which reward the best in music from the Great White North, and MTVu's Woodie Awards, which gives trophies to artists that somehow captured the short attention spans of college students these past two semesters. Arcade Fire are up for the prestigious Woodie of the Year award for "The Suburbs" music video at the Woodies, a music award show so reputable that it will air live at the primetime hour of midnight on March 16th.

The Juno Awards, however, are a bigger deal -- to Canadians anyway, this is like their Grammys -- and Arcade Fire are up for six awards at the ceremony, including Group of the Year, Songwriters of the Year, and Album of the Year for "The Suburbs." Depending on the category, Win Butler and Co. will face off against fellow Canadians like Drake and Justin Bieber (for Album of the Year) and Broken

EMI Music, the home of the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Coldplay, Katy Perry, and hundreds more artists, is now the property of Citigroup, the financial company that scored all that great press during the recession ordeal. Mired in debt, equity group Terra Firma handed over ownership of the major label to Citigroup in a move that might actually make the label solvent again, but based on 2010's sales numbers, even that seems unlikely given the miserable state of the music industry. Under the deal, Citigroup also takes ownership of Capitol, Astralwerks, Priority, Virgin, and all the other record labels operating under the EMI Music umbrella.

"We have a clear vision for the future, a strong and committed management team, and now the right capital and financial structure in place to deliver successful outcomes for artists and songwriters," EMI chief executive Roger Faxon said in a statement (via Hypebot). By giving ownership of EMI to Citigroup, who recommended Terra Firma's ill-advised purchase

We're huge fans of oddball singer/songwriter Will Oldham (or Bonnie "Prince" Billy, as he's known) and oddball R&B icon R. Kelly, so when we found out that Oldham would be asking Kelly the hard-hitting questions in the new issue of Interview magazine, we likened the encounter to an absurd musical version of the "Frost/Nixon" conversations. Unfortunately, the interview between Oldham and Kelly didn't reach our insanely high expectations, as many of our burning questions went unanswered: Will there be more chapters to "Trapped in the Closet"? How did Oldham score that cameo in "Trapped in the Closet" in the first place? Why doesn't anybody want to live in Kelly's old Chicago house?

Still, the meeting between Oldham and Kelly did yield quotable moments and stunning insight into one of music's most prolific and risk-taking talents. Here's some of the highlights:

1. The interview kicks off with this exchange, easily the high-water mark of the whole article:
WILL OLDHAM: Do you watch "30

Music Festival Announcement season rages on! Today brings what's probably the summer's loudest and most handbangingest lineup -- Columbus, Ohio's Rock on the Range. A Perfect Circle and Avenged Sevenfold will headline the fifth annual event, backed by a supporting cast that includes Disturbed, Korn, Stone Sour, Bullet for My Valentine, Alter Bridge, Black Label Society, and Danzig, because what's a hard rock festival without a little Danzig? Also, the fest will feature the first Staind concert in two years. Rock on the Range hits Columbus Crew Stadium on May 21st and 22nd.

Mounting evidence seems to suggest that "rock is dead" in the eyes of the music industry, but Rock on the Range does a superb job of corralling most of the survivors and putting them on one bill that serves as a weekend-long Eden for hard rock fans. "Virtually all of the bands that make up the top of the Active Rock charts are performing at America's biggest Rock festival," Rock on the Range organizer Del Williams

Usually when a major tour is announced, it comes via press release, or an updated website, or even a press conference (or Facebook chat, if you're Katy Perry). News about the Rolling Stones' much-rumored 50th anniversary tour arrived as an allegation in a lawsuit between Live Nation and their ex-chairman Michael Cohl. Surprise! The Rolling Stones are planning a big 50th anniversary tour!

According to Billboard.biz, the Live Nation lawsuit and Cohl's countersuit boil down to a "non-compete exemption" that would have allowed Cohl to promote a Rolling Stones tour later this year with Live Nation's help. Cohl alleges that Live Nation tried to "interfere" and "destroy" his plan by staging their own Stones tour without him, breaching the exemption.

It's no secret the Rolling Stones were planning to celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2012 in some capacity, but so far they've refused to say that they're going on a half-centennial tour. In November 2009, it was rumored that the Stones would

Kool Herc, the Bronx DJ recognized by rappers and hip-hop fans as one of the artists responsible for the birth of the genre, is gravely ill and requires surgery, All Hip-Hop reports. "Kool Herc is very sick," Gang Starr's DJ Premier said on his Sirius XM show. "He's very sick and has no insurance... [he] needs to pay his bills so he can get out of hospital." It's unclear what illness landed Herc in the hospital, or how long he's been unwell.

UPDATE: New York's Daily News reports Herc is suffering from kidney stones. The hip-hop pioneers' sister Cindy Campbell told the paper, "He's been in terrible pain for months. The doctors say they've got to come out, but we just don't have the money." She said Herc's bills already total $10,000.

Herc, born Clive Campbell, served as a DJ for house parties at his housing project at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, which is now considered the birthplace of hip-hop. (In 2007, Herc led the battle to keep 1520 Sedgwick Ave a rent-controlled

It's taken a little longer than expected for Seattle's Fleet Foxes to produce a second disc, but three years after the band introduced their neo-folk-rock sound, they're returning with "Helplessness Blues" on May 3rd. They've also announced a whole slate of tour dates and released the album's title track (listen below). "Helplessness Blues" will feature a dozen songs and was mixed by Phil Ek, who produced the band's debut.

Fleet Foxes have earned positive comparisons to harmony-heavy acts like Crosby, Stills and Nash and British folk-rock movement bands like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. "Helplessness Blues" sure sounds like the Fleet Foxes, but a touch more Simon & Garfunkel influence in the melody line. And that's welcome news -- when the album was delayed because the band scrapped songs and sessions we were a little worried the Foxes had drastically changed direction. Their new LP was already one of the albums we were most looking forward to in 2011, and this song is

The world is full of Michael Jackson impersonators delivering their best "Bad"s everywhere from Hollywood Blvd. to your local subway station. But how many of those performers can deliver a spot-on King of Pop impression while beat-boxing and driving you from one place to another? Meet Jean Walker, a cab driver in Brazil who gets you to your destination in a timely matter and is likely the closest thing his native country has to a faux King of Pop (via Buzzfeed).

It's hard to truly evaluate Walker's Jackson skills without seeing him dance or don a sequined glove, but based on his rendition of "Billie Jean," his beat-box talents, and the fact that he can keep his eyes firmly on the road at all times, we're impressed not only by how much he sounds like Jackson (though the thick Portuguese accent sneaks through) but also by his ability to multitask. Be sure to tip Walker well if you ever encounter his cab.

In other Jackson news, the title track from the "Thriller"-themed, post-Super Bowl