Blog Posts by Matthew Perpetua

Recently disbanded alt-rock legends R.E.M. will release their first career-spanning retrospective Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982-2011 on November 15th. Few details of the set have emerged, but Rolling Stone
has confirmed that the compilation will include a handful of tracks
recorded this year after the completion of the band's final album, Collapse Into Now.

Though
R.E.M. have released a handful of compilations and hits collections
over the years, the material on those sets has always been divided
between their IRS Records years, which covers the Chronic Town EP on through Document in 1987, and their Warner Bros. catalog, which includes all of their material from Green through Collapse Into Now. Part Lies,
presumably a multi-disc set to cover the sheer volume of the band's
hits, will be the first collection to provide an overview of their
entire body of work.

Related

• R.E.M. Break Up After Three Decades
• Rob Sheffield on the End of R.E.M.
• R.E.M.'s 15 Greatest

Click to listen to Spank Rock's 'Everything Is Boring And Everyone Is A F**king Liar'

Spank Rock's second album, Everything is Boring and Everyone is a F**king Liar,
finds the Baltimore rapper exploring fresh new sounds and beats while
retaining the rowdy, sexy party-rap vibe of his 2006 debut. The new
disc, which features collaborations with producers Boyz Noise, XXXchange
and Sam Spiegel and guest vocalists Santigold and Big Freedia, has a
harder edge. Cuts like "The Dance" and "#1 Hit" lean on heavy, distorted
electro hooks, while "Car Song" balances a warm bass groove with an
icy, bad-ass tone. The album will hit stores on September 27th, but you
can preview it in full now.

Photo courtesy Bad Blood/Spank Rock

A contract revealing that the Beatles refused to perform in front of segregated audiences in the United States has sold for $23,033 at an auction in Los Angeles, well over the $3,000 to $5,000 expected by the auction house.

Photos: Rare Beatles Pictures

The
document, which was signed by the band's manager, Brian Epstein,
stipulated that they would "not be required to perform in front of a
segregated audience" for their gig at the Cow Palace in Daly City,
California on August 31st, 1965. In addition to the desegregation
clause, the contract guaranteed the band $40,000 and at least 150 police
officers to provide security at the show.

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Usher is being accused of plagiarism
by a songwriter who claims the singer's 2004 Number One hit "Burn" rips
off one of his own compositions. Last month, a California federal judge
found that there was sufficient evidence to suggest that Usher and
co-producer Jermaine Dupri had access to complainant Ernest Lee
Straughter's 1998 song "Reasons."

The judge also accepted a
musicologist's report demonstrating the similarities between the two
songs, which share a "highly unusual" 18-bar intro, strikingly similar
arrangements, melodies and vocal phrasing.

Photos: Usher at Essence Music Festival 2011

It
is believed that Usher had access to Straughter's material through
Warren G, who had collaborated with both men. Usher and his attorneys
have filed papers in the hopes of convincing U.S. District Court Judge
Christina Snyder that Warren G had no connection to the creation of
"Burn" and that the singer was not familiar with Straughter's work. If
she is not persuaded, the case is likely to

50 Cent is being sued for an attack
on a woman at his home, though the rapper was not present when the
alleged crime went down. According to TMZ, the suit targets Dwayne
McKenzie, an employee of the rapper, and claims that 50 Cent was fully
aware of McKenzie's criminal past.

Photos: 50 Cent and Kanye West

The
plaintiff, Vasti Ortiz, says she was invited to 50 Cent's Connecticut
mansion, where McKenzie made "graphic and vulgar" sexual requests. When
she attempted to leave the premises, she claims to have been physically
assaulted by another woman while McKenzie held her down.

Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images

The "classic" lineup of Guided by Voices have recorded an album
of all-new material to be released on January 1st, 2012. The band, who
reunited last year for a run of shows focused on their early Nineties
output, quietly recorded Let's Go Eat the Factory sometime earlier this year. It has not been revealed which label will release the set.

Photos: Random Notes

This
particular lineup of the band, which includes frontman and songwriter
Bob Pollard along with Mitch Mitchell, Tobin Sprout, Kevin Fennell and
Greg Demos, have not recorded together since 1996's Under the Bushes, Under the Stars. This will be the first new material credited to Guided by Voices since the band's supposed final album, Half Smiles of the Decomposed, was released in 2004.

Here is the track listing for Let's Go Eat the Factory, courtesy of Mojo.

"Laundry and Lasers"
"The Head"
"Doughnut For A Snowman"
"Spiderfighter"
"Hang Mr. Kite"
"God Loves Us"
"The Unsinkable Fats Domino"
"Who Invented the Sun"
"The Big Hat and Toy

Thom Yorke revealed plans to launch a full-scale Radiohead
tour next year while he was co-hosting Giles Peterson's BBC Radio 1
show last night. "The idea is to go out and play next year on and off
during the year," says Yorke, who added that Portishead
member Clive Deamer may join the group on tour as an auxiliary
musician. Deamer recently performed with the band when they filmed an
episode of Live From the Basement for the BBC.

Radiohead have mostly avoided live performances since releasing their eighth album, The King of Limbs, earlier this year. The band played a surprise set at the Glastonbury Festival in June and will play two concerts in New York City next week while they are in town for tapings of Saturday Night Live and the Colbert Report.

Photos: Radiohead at Glastonbury 2011

Yorke also mentioned on the show that his other band, Atoms for Peace, is close to completing an album. Yorke says that the project, which includes Red Hot Chili Peppers
bassist Flea and longtime

Bloc Party
frontman Kele Okereke says that he is unsure whether or not he is still
a member of the band. "I hope I haven't been fired," the singer told the NME. "I don't really know what's going on, because we haven't really spoken recently and I'm a bit too scared to ask." 

According
to Okereke, he recently learned that his bandmates have gone to a
recording studio without inviting him to join the sessions. "I was
actually having lunch about three weeks ago, just here on 8th Avenue,
and I saw somebody walk past and I recognized the haircut," he said. "It
was Russell. I was like, 'Hey!,' but he didn't see me and I followed
him around the corner and then I saw Matt, Gordon and Russell all
standing outside this rehearsal space. They all went inside."

Photos: Bloc Party at Siren Festival 2010

Okereke released The Boxer, his first album as a solo artist, last year. A second solo release, an EP titled The Hunter, is due out late next month.

Photo by Zak Kaczmarek/WireImage