Myspace The New iTunes?

Reuters reports: MySpace, the top social networking site owned by News Corp, is in talks to create an online music joint venture with the four biggest record companies, sources familiar with the discussion said on Wednesday.

The talks are part of Rupert Murdoch's plans to distinguish MySpace, born as a haven for new music fans, from fast-moving rival Facebook as the premiere destination for digital media.

One source familiar with the matter said MySpace has held talks with companies over the past few weeks to gauge interest in such a service, which would compete with Apple Inc's popular iTunes. - more on this story

Oscars Snub Vedder

antiMusic reports: Gibson has an interesting article about this weekend's yawnfest for film (the Academy Awards) and how they have snubbed some notable soundtracks this year including one from Eddie Vedder because it was "too song-based". Imagine that, music that is song based! What is the industry coming too! Here is part of the Gibson report:

As most of you already know, the Oscars are this Sunday, and two of the award show's most coveted honors are Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Unfortunately, some our favorite picks this year were deemed ineligible by the Academy for various reasons.

Eddie Vedder's soundtrack for the Golden Globe-award winning film Into the Wild was reportedly rejected because it was "too song-based." Come again? Regardless of this fact, the Pearl Jam frontman's vision perfectly matched that of director Sean Penn's and the soundtrack of primarily original music is a moving counterpoint to the Kerouac-esque tale of self-discovery. Bonus props go out to former Sleater-Kinney guitarist/vocalist Corin Tucker for contributing backing vocals to the breakout song "Hard Sun." - Read Gibson's overview of other soundtracks the Oscars snubbed over the snorfest nominees that made the cut.

Fiddy Ordered To Pay Up

Sohh reports: 50 Cent has been ordered to pay up after losing a lawsuit filed against him by a photographer.

The order came down from the judge this week, after a nearly five-year drag out, ruling that Fif must cough up an undisclosed amount of cash to the plaintiff.

Jim Alcorn, then a New York Post deputy photo assignment editor, brought the suit against the rap mogul in 2003 after being knocked to the ground by Fif's body guards outside a jewelry shop when he tried to snap a few pictures of the rapper. - more on this story

Jack Still On Top, Jacko Denied, Winehouse Jumps Up

antiMusic reports: An interesting week on the charts. The music industries annual infomercial, aka The Grammy Awards, seem to do their trick and jumped the obscure album of the year winner from Herbie Hancock up 154 spots to land it in the Top 5. Amy Winehouse got a big bump as well, but it wasn't enough to outsell the last week's No 1 from Jack Johnson or the self proclaimed king of pop. But Jacko was denied the No 2 spot on a technicality.

Here is a little on how the charts shaped up from Billboard: Johnson's "Sleep Through the Static" sold 179,545 copies in the week ended February 17, according to Nielsen SoundScan, enough to lead the field for a second week.

The new 25th anniversary reissue of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" would have opened at No. 2, thanks to sales of about 166,000 copies. But as a catalog release, it was ineligible to chart on the Billboard 200. Instead, the No. 2 slot went to Winehouse's "Back to Black," which yielded five Grammys on February 10. It jumped 22 places after selling about 115,000 copies. - more on this story

Brits Love Monkeys and Boy Bands

Idolator reports: The big winners at tonight's Brit Awards: the Arctic Monkeys (Best British Group, Best British Album), Take That (Best Live Act, Best British Single).

[Not ones to ignore non-Brits, The Foo Fighters took Best International Group, Best International Album.]

Also, Amy Winehouse performed twice, although her collaboration with Mark Ronson lost in the Best British Single competition to, yes, Take That. Boy bands will never die! - Full list of winners after the jump

Gene Simmons Reacts To Sex Tape

antiMusic reports: Kiss bassist Gene Simmons has commented on the alleged sex tape featuring him having sex with a woman identified as an Austrian babe named "Elsa," a spokesmodel for Frank's Energy Drink.

On his official website Gene Simmons issued the following short response: You may have heard or seen garbage that has sprung up from my past. Rest assured the proper legal team is looking at all ramifications and options.

And us? Shannon, Nick and Soph are happy and healthy. All is well. And thank you all for the kind words of support. - more news from Sleazeroxx

Iron Maiden Somewhere Back In Time In America This Summer

Iron Maiden reports: From onstage last night (Feb 19), amid the pandemonium in front of 14,000 screaming fans at a packed Los Angeles Forum, Iron Maiden announced the first leg of their eagerly anticipated North American summer tour.

Tickets for Iron Maiden's current "SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME -- WORLD TOUR 08" dates at the Los Angeles Forum and New Jersey's Izod Centre sold out months in advance, the band are delighted to announce they are coming back for more major USA concerts this summer which will take them to a number of cities they have not played in many years along with a return to the Los Angeles area with 2 nights at the 16,000 capacity Verizon Amphitheatre on Friday May 30 and Saturday May 31. Tickets for the majority of these shows will go on sale to the public on Saturday, March 1st. A special pre-sale will be made available exclusively to members of the Iron Maiden fan club, who will also be eligible to enter to be 'First to the stage barrier'.
- more on this story

Stalkerazzis Arrested

Jam! reports: Los Angeles sheriff's deputies arrested two cameramen photographing Britney Spears at a hair salon and two other photographers outside a trendy nightclub in a crackdown that follows a year of frenzied paparazzi swarms around the troubled pop star and other celebrities.

All four men were arrested for misdemeanour violations of obstructing a public walkway and released with citations, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said Wednesday.

Photographers David Tonnessen and Christian Shostoe were arrested about 7:50 p.m. Tuesday local time in front of West Hollywood's B2V Hair Salon, where 50 paparazzi tried to take shots of Spears, Whitmore said. - more on this story

Dillinger Escape Plan US Tour

Metal Underground reports: THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN and THE BLED appear to be teaming up for an upcoming U.S. tour.

The following dates so far have been released:

with HEAVY HEAVY LOW LOW:
April 7 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
April 9 - Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
April 10 - Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
April 11 - Boise, ID @ The Venue
April 12 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Avalon Theatre
April 18 - Fort Worth, TX @ Ridglea Theater
- more metal news

Pennywise CD Details

PR reports: Pennywise have revealed the album title and track listing for their forthcoming CD, due out March 25 via MySpace Records. Beginning March 25, fans around the world will be able to obtain a high quality, DRM-free, 320kbps MP3 free download of the REASON TO BELIEVE CD from MySpace for a period of two weeks.

To provide fans a sneak preview of the upcoming album, the new PENNYWISE song "Something To Live For" will be available for download as the MySpace "Single Of The Week" from Tuesday, February 19 through Friday, February 22.

For REASON TO BELIEVE--their ninth studio album--PENNYWISE enlisted Grammy Award-winning artist Don Clark of Invisible Creature, Inc. to design the album artwork. In addition, the band teamed with longtime PENNYWISE fan and seasoned producer Cameron Webb (Social Distortion, Motorhead, Sum 41) to produce and mix the upcoming CD. The full track listing is as follows: 1. (Intro) As Long As We Can 2. One Reason 3. Faith And Hope 4. Something To Live For 5. All We Need 6. The Western World 7. We'll Never Know 8. Confusion 9. Nothing To Lose 10. It's Not Enough To Believe 11. You Get The Life You Choose 12. Affliction 13. Brag, Exaggerate & Lie 14. Die For You - Myspace page

Govt Not Happy About Idol Breakdown

Reuters reports: A teenager who suffered a breakdown on the German version of "American Idol" could end up costing its broadcaster 100,000 euros ($147,000).

Germany's Cultural Council, an official youth protection watchdog, has recommended private German broadcaster RTL be fined for broadcasting the incident, and other humiliating moments on its top-rated "Deutschland Sucht Den Superstar" or "DSDS."

The Cultural Council accused RTL of "malicious disregard" for humanity on the show, arguing that the manner in which contestants are humiliated on the show could have detrimental effects on young viewers. - more on this story

Kate Nash US Tour

Filter reports: Get ready America, West London chanteuse, Kate Nash, will bring her brass wit and charm back to the US this spring.

The 20 year old has announced dates for her first ever North America jaunt.

Kicking off in April, Nash will headline the NME Awards Tour. No word on any supporting acts.
- more on this story

Al Jourgensen Goes Behind the Boards

PR reports: Rock 'N' Roll Books is excited to announce the recent completion of an interview with Ministry's Al Jourgensen for our 'Behind the Boards' Rock Producers Anthology.

Discussing his role as the brain-trust behind Ministry's 25 years shaping industrial rock, including the behind-the-scenes writing and production of landmark LPs including 'The Land of Rape and Honey' and 'The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste', Jourgensen joins a list of already-completed exclusive interviews with legendary producers including Bob Rock, Bones Howe, Bob Ezrin, Ritchie Zito, Butch Vig, Tom Werman, Andy Johns, Don Was, Linda Perry, Hugh Padgham, Ron Nevison, Butch Walker, Kevin Elson, Gil Norton, Michael Barbiero and Steve Thompson, Don Gehman, James Michael, Matt Wallace, Keith Olsen, Mike Flicker, Michael Beinhorn, Eddie Kramer, George Drakoulias, Sylvia Massey, Micheal Wagener, Duane Baron, Tom Allom, J. Mascus, and Chris Tsangarides, Dave Jerden, Scott Humphrey and Tommy Lee in an artist/producer segment.

Authored by Jake Brown, Vol. I and II will be released in June, 2008, and Vol. III, featuring Jourgensen's chapter, will be released in December, 2008. [disclosure time: Jake writes the Smack Down column for antiMusic] - Visit www.rocknrollbooks.com for further information on Behind the Boards.

Jakob Dylan Sets Release

PR reports: Columbia Records and Starbucks Entertainment are pleased to announce the co-release of Jakob Dylan's debut solo album, Seeing Things on May 13, 2008.

Seeing Things was produced by Rick Rubin at his home studio in the Hollywood Hills throughout 2007. Jakob Dylan's raw and dynamic performance on this primarily acoustic album reflects the continuation of Rick's spare and compelling production work.

A headlining tour will be announced shortly with festival dates at this year's Rothbury & Bonnaroo already confirmed and more to come. He will also be at this year's SXSW. Seeing Things will be available simultaneously at Starbucks company-operated locations in the U.S. and Canada and at traditional retail. - more on this story

Wait there is more!

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Subscribe to Day in Rock Report by Email

Add the Day in Rock to your site/blog/Myspace

Read Day In Rock Reports From Other Days

Submit news or a press release to the Day In Rock report