Yesterday began as a normal day for LiliAna Rose. She woke up and came to work at MTV headquarters in New York as a member of the integrated marketing team. But then she checked her RSS feed and saw something she was not expecting: Her own name.

When she's not working at MTV, Rose is nurturing her career as a singer-songwriter, and yesterday her song "Walk Across the Ocean" was featured on the official site of gossip writer/music label boss Perez Hilton. "This is so pretty!" the blogger wrote. "If you like Cat Power, Yael Naim or Joan Baez, then you will love this!"

"I sent an e-mail to Perez a week ago. He wrote back almost instantly, and he said 'I really love this song, send me more.' So I sent him some more," Rose told MTV News. "He wrote back 'Great stuff, I really love it.' I never heard from him. There was no indication that he was going to write about it, so it was really a great surprise."

Rose independently released her debut EP Postage Stamp back in February, but her passion for music stretches back to her childhood when she fell in love with her father's Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell records. "I was raised on a lot of singer-songwriters," she explained. "I love Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez. I really love Neil Young. My dad's a folk singer, so there was always a lot of music in the house."

The rub from Hilton has gotten Rose a lot of extra attention, and she hopes to parlay that into a spot on the Lilith Fair next spring. "I went when I was younger and it really touched me, so if anybody from there is listening, it's something I'd really like to do."

By Daniela Capistrano, photos by Bashira Webb

It felt destined to be an uneventful, summer rain-drenched night this past Friday evening in the trendy Village section of Manhattan. But a few strokes before midnight, DJ Herbert Holler strongly advised the staff at Le Poisson Rouge to wrap up sound check, as a throng of Amanda Blank fans were waiting.

"People are outside getting wet, man" he gently prodded.

While the petite MC wrapped up interviews backstage, DJ Herbert quickly warmed up the crowd with his blend of '80s top 40, hip-hop, house, rock, Motown and soca rhythms. The turnout was notably eclectic: A middle-aged man in a black suit gyrated on a small stage without much notice, while a preppy couple in Converse pogo'd nearby. Across the club, a group of ladies in almost identical jean skirts and flip flops mouthed lyrics to Naughty by Nature.

Though Santigold has been appearing on this tour (in support of Blank's new album I Love You), this show belonged soley to Amanda, and the fans seemed eager to get a taste of her not as a supporting character or hype woman, but as the main act.
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As usual, the lineup for this year's Bridge School Benefit concert — which raises money for the school co-founded by Neil Young and his wife, Pegi, for children with severe physical disabilities and speech impediments — reads like an awesomely random sampling from the musical phone book.

The 22nd annual event will be held October 25 and 26 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California, and will feature sets from Young, Wilco, Death Cab for Cutie, Cat Power and Jack Johnson, as well as one-day drop-ins from the Smashing Pumpkins, Norah Jones, ZZ Top and, um, Josh Groban, according to Billboard.com. Most artists play all-acoustic sets, and Young traditionally opens and closes each day, with some help from his friends, of course. Wilco and Death Cab are currently on tour with Young.

· The Game's frequently delayed third album, LAX, is still circling the calendar, waiting for a landing spot. Originally due June 24, then bumped so as not to compete with the upcoming G-Unit album, the record was pushed to July 8, and now it's looking like
July 22.

· Jessica Simpson is getting flack from PETA for a shirt she was recently spotted wearing that read, "Real Girls Eat Meat." Either she loves her some T-bones, or she was taking a swipe at on-off boyfriend Tony Romo's ex Carrie Underwood, who has been voted PETA's World's Sexiest Vegetarian twice.

· So his dad cost "American Idol" some extra licensing fees and reportedly got banned from backstage for his antics. That doesn't mean David Archuleta didn't have an awesome Father's Day with big poppa Jeff. In fact, their "neat" day included church and a trip to a lovely sounding eatery called Soup Plantation.

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We hate to say we told you so...but, well, we told you so (or rather, our sources told us so and we told you, but, you know...whatever).

On Monday, we got the exclusive scoop that Beck is planning on releasing a below-the-radar album sometime in the "next 4-6 weeks" -- one produced by Danger Mouse and featuring appearances from a handful of talent, including Cat Power. And while neither Beck's publicist nor his label would confirm the news, we felt confident in our sources and went with it anyway -- just like in "All the President's Men!"

The story got picked up by the likes of Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and Perez Hilton, but it wasn't until today that we got the official word -- or, rather, official press release -- that Mr. Hansen would, in fact, be releasing an album.

"Beck has recorded a new album, produced with Brain 'Danger Mouse' Burton, to be released this summer," the release read. "The as-yet-untitled album contains 10 new songs,...a tightly assembled group...that range in lyrical tone from introspection and social commentary to off-the-cuff wordplay and lighthearted humor...Musically, the album's ten tracks vacillate between economy and experimentation, hybrid and pop classicism."

Which is all a very longwinded way of saying "MTV Was Right." Now never doubt us again.

Though neither his publicist nor his label would confirm any of it, MTV News has spoken to several individuals close to Beck, and they all tell us that he's gearing up to release a brand new album in the very near future -- think the next 4-6 weeks -- through the Universal Music Group.

And that's not all -- we've also heard that said album will be produced by Danger Mouse and feature collaborations with a host of artists, including Cat Power.

Our amazing sources also say that fans can expect an official announcement about the album veeerrrry soon.

In the meantime, Beck is busy lining up appearances at various European summer festivals, in addition to a handful of shows on the West Coast in late August.

Anyway, don't say we didn't warn you...

The complete roster for Sir Richard Branson's third-annual musical shindig has been announced, with performers including Paramore, Cat Power, Lupe Fiasco, Iggy & the Stooges, Gogol Bordello and Lil Wayne joining previously announced headliners Foo Fighters, Jack Johnson, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots at Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course August 9-10.

"Now everyone can see that our goal is the Whoa! factor," festival producer Seth Hurwitz said in a press release. Good job, guy. Our first thought was "Whoa! Why the hell is Bob Dylan on this lineup but not headlining?" Check out the full lineup after the jump. Read more...

· Lily Allen has posted two news songs on her MySpace page. Relax, they’re just demos.

· Pour some out for longtime E Street Band keyboard player Danny Federici, who died yesterday of cancer at age 58.

· Cat Power, Jim James (My Morning Jacket), and Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward will headline a new spin on the Newport Folk Festival.

· Um, seems Nicholas Cage’s son Weston is into Norwegian black metal.

So on Friday night, the folks at Lollapalooza were good enough to give us a sneak peek at their lineup for 2008. They even included the Totalitarian Art-y poster you see accompanying this blog entry. The basic understanding was that we were to wait on releasing the full lineup until we received the okay from them (that's called an "embargo" in the news business … or whatever it is we do). And that is where things got completely effed.

See, this morning we published an interview with Lollapalooza mastermind Perry Farrell, who was none too happy with Chicago Sun-Times music critic Jim DeRogatis for leaking the Lolla headliners in a story he wrote on Friday. So during the course of our chat, Farrell called the famously cantankerous scribe "a stinker … a skunk at the party … Pepe LePew." This so angered DeRogatis that he decided to retaliate and post the entire festival lineup on his blog this morning (so much for that embargo).

Which means that our hand was pretty much forced. So, with all decorum thrown out the window, here's the full list of artists performing at Lollapalooza 2008 after the jump....

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The summer music festival circuit in the US is definitely hitting a fatigue moment, what with every little town organizing their own festivals and a handful of artists that seem to slut it up and play every single one. Which makes Lollapalooza, at least at this point, somewhat the victor. They seemed to have aggregated ALL the festival sluts into one place.

The lineup for the festival, to take place August 1-3 in Chicago, was supposed to be released to the media on Monday morning, but the headliners leaked last night, courtesy the Chicago Sun-Times. Even our cynical selves are impressed by the headliners: Radiohead, Kanye West, Rage Against The Machine, Nine Inch Nails, Wilco and Gnarls Barkley.

Also on the bill for the three-day fest: The Raconteurs, Broken Social Scene, Blues Traveler, Mates of State, Bloc Party, Cat Power, Stephen Malkmus, the Black Keys, Girl Talk, Grizzly Bear, Kid Sister, the Cool Kids, the Office, and the Go! Team.

We can confirm all of these acts.

Advance tickets are still available for $190 at www.lollapalooza.com

The full lineup is still sequestered, and we'll have that for you on Monday, and over the weekend, we might possibly have festival organizer Perry Farrell weighing in on the whole thing.

Stay tuned.