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Kim Kardashian's Foot Injury Puts 'Dancing' Chances In Jeopardy

Posted 8/25/08 10:28 am EST by in dance

Kim KardashianThis morning, the rumor that reality-TV fixture Kim Kardashian would be participating in the next season of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" was confirmed. But according to news reports, Kardashian may have hurt her chances on the show before her first fox-trot, now that she's damaged her twinkle toes.
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Jerry Finn: You May Not Know The Name, But You Know His Work

Posted 8/25/08 9:54 am EST by in Obituary

AFI's Sing The SorrowLast week, the music world lost a great producer. Jerry Finn, who was just 39, died on August 21, close to two weeks after he'd been taken off life support and about one month after he had suffered a massive brain hemorrhage.

The name may not be instantly recognizable, but chances are you're familiar with Finn's work. He mixed Green Day's 1994 release Dookie and their 1995 LP Insomniac, and produced Rancid's breakthrough disc ...And Out Come the Wolves. He also helmed records by Blink-182, the Vandals, Fastball, Madness, MxPx, Sum 41, Sparta, Alkaline Trio and Bad Religion.

Finn will always be remembered, in my mind at least, for mixing Jawbreaker's 1995 offering Dear You. But more than that, for me, he'll always be the dude who worked with AFI on their two smash hits, 2003's Sing the Sorrow and 2006's Decemberunderground, two records that brought the band out of obscurity and straight to TRL. The man will be missed.

Do you have a favorite Jerry Finn-produced album? Let us know about it in the comments section below.

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Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy To Be Wal-Mart Or Best Buy Exclusive?

Posted 8/15/08 1:29 pm EST by in guns-n-roses

Axl RoseHe's been working on it for more than 14 years now, and still, there are no concrete signs that Axl Rose's magnum opus, the oft-delayed Chinese Democracy, will be in stores anytime soon. But on Friday, Billboard.com reported that, according to several unnamed sources, the long-awaited album could soon be coming to your local Wal-Mart.

The report claims that negotiations have begun to make Chinese Democracy a retail exclusive, either at Wal-Mart or Best Buy. The article further purports that negotiations to distribute the record through conventional channels have also been ongoing.

Of course, no one from Guns N' Roses' management firm, Front Line Management, was available to comment on these rumors, but Irving Azoff, who runs Front Line, did work with the Eagles to get their Long Road Out of Eden on Wal-Mart's shelves, making that album an exclusive for the chain. Additionally, representatives from Best Buy and Wal-Mart would not confirm the rumors.

Could the release of Chinese Democracy be imminent? Perhaps, considering Harmonix and MTV Games announced last month that "Shackler's Revenge," a track from the perennially delayed LP, would be making its worldwide debut on the forthcoming "Rock Band 2," which will be released next month for the Xbox 360. We'll believe it if, and only if, Axl Rose himself makes an official announcement about the record's release. Until then, we'll keep our fingers crossed.

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Miley Cyrus No Match For 'Mamma Mia!' Soundtrack On Billboard Chart

Posted 8/13/08 1:03 pm EST by in Charts

It's Wednesday, and you know what that means: We've got just two days to go before the start of another weekend, and the latest albums sales figures are in. Unfortunately, this week's SoundScan report's kind of a snoozer, but there is a new #1 album to laud.

After five weeks of slowly climbing up Billboard's top 200, the "Mamma Mia!" soundtrack has finally reached the top, bumping Sugarland's Love on the Inside from #1 to #3, on the strength of nearly 130,700 scans (the country duo sold 91,400 units). The soundtrack actually sold more copies last week (around 137,800), but thanks to generally sluggish sales, the set moves from #3 to #1 on next week's chart. Wedged in between "Mamma Mia!" and Sugarland, we find "Hannah Montana" star Miley Cyrus' LP Breakout, which, after three weeks in stores, continues to generate impressive scans, this week adding another 102,400 units to its tally; all told, that offering has sold exactly 636,800 copies.

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Usher To Anchor NFL Opening-Kickoff Event; Bruce Springsteen Boss Rumored For Super Bowl Set

Posted 8/13/08 12:13 pm EST by in Bruce Springsteen, Sports, Super Bowl, Usher

Are you ready for football season? We know we are. But if your enthusiasm for the start of this year's NFL season could use a little kick in the pants, check out the planned — and rumored — musical performances associated with the launch and conclusion of it.

The NFL has now confirmed that its 89th season will be ushered in by ... well, none other than Usher.

The R&B star will perform during a special and (more importantly) free pregame event on September 4 at 3 p.m. in New York's Columbus Circle. Country crooner Keith Urban will also take the stage, right before the defending Super Bowl champs, the New York Giants, face the Washington Redskins in this year's season opener.

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Velvet Revolver Still No Closer To Announcing Weiland Replacement

Posted 8/8/08 12:36 pm EST by in Music

Scott WeilandLast week, the Internet was all abuzz with speculation that Velvet Revolver had finally arrived at a Scott Weiland replacement and that that man was Spacehog's Royston Langdon — despite SH's recent reunion for two shows in Los Angeles. Well, it seems Velvet Revolver haven't made any decisions yet.

Bassist Duff McKagan told Billboard.com that, while the band has played with Langdon and that "he's f---ing awesome," they don't think he's the man for the job.

"We just have to make sure it's the right guy," he told the site, adding that Weiland's acrimonious departure some months back brought the rest of VR — guitarist Slash, drummer Matt Sorum, and guitarist Dave Kushner — closer. "Karmically, we deserve the right guy. It's a tough thing, man. We make a pretty big noise."

And while the guys take their sweet time finding their next voice (McKagan said they aren't actively auditioning potential replacements), they've been busy writing new material, which Duff calls "killer." Can't wait to hear it, Duff — but something tells us Chinese Democracy will hit stores before the next VR LP does.

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'Turn That Down!' Or The Persecution Of The Office Metalhead

Posted 8/8/08 9:58 am EST by in metal

MTV News Writer Chris HarrisWalk around the MTV News office on any given day, and you're bound to hear music, because, while we may be journalists, we're all music lovers first and foremost. It's what drew us all to the job, and it's just what we do. Often, I'll stroll past hip-hop editor Shaheem Reid's office, and he'll be cranking the latest mixtapes. Right next door, in rock writer James "Hollywood" Montgomery's office, he's almost always blasting Radiohead or the Hold Steady or whatever indie band everyone's talking about this week.

Me? I'm the metal writer, so I'm almost always listening to something loud, offensive and objectionable. Of course, those are adjectives other people use to describe the music I love. To my ears, it's smart, technically demanding music that takes an immense amount of talent to create. But that's just my opinion. Unfortunately, no one else — save my boss — appreciates heavy metal and hardcore, which makes working in the newsroom all the more ... well, I guess the word would be annoying.

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Miley Cyrus Loses #1 Billboard Spot To Sugarland

Posted 8/6/08 12:19 pm EST by in Miley Cyrus

Miley CyrusDespite being the world's most famous (and richest) teenager (not to be confused with Dick Clark, the world's oldest teenager), Miley Cyrus just couldn't replicate the first-week sales success of her latest LP, Breakout. Thanks to a 56 percent plunge in retail interest, Cyrus' new one sold just 162,800 copies during its second week of commercial release, which wasn't enough to keep the "Hannah Montana" star's set at #1 on Billboard's weekly albums sales chart.

Instead, last week's #2, country act Sugarland's Love on the Inside, climbs to the chart's peak, selling 171,400 copies. Of course, that doesn't mean one week on top is all Cyrus is going to get — hell, if Sugarland can do it, Miley certainly stands a chance of reclaiming the throne next week. On the other hand, the new Jonas Brothers' LP dropped on Tuesday, which means the next chart is going to be a doozy. Read More...

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Metallica: So Happy Together

Posted 8/6/08 7:52 am EST by in Metallica, New Music Update

Last week, when we sent our cameras to the set of Metallica's forthcoming video for their track "The Day That Never Comes," we were greeted by a band that seemed genuinely happy — not the same contentious group we saw in 2004's "Some Kind of Monster."

And the difference, it seems, is bassist Robert Trujillo.


Not only does Trujillo sometimes play referee between frontman James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, he also pitches in with his own ideas, coming through in the clutch when the band gets stuck during the songwriting and recording process. Hetfield praised Rob's skills when we asked him what it was like working with the band's newest member on Death Magnetic, which hits stores September 12.

"If someone had said 10, 15 years ago that this dude was going to be in my band, I would have said no way," Hetfield said. "In the studio — and no offense towards Jason — but Rob has already contributed more to this record than [Jason Newsted] did in 14 years. A lot of it did have to do with our fear of losing some kind of control, no doubt about that. But Rob has slipped in somehow easier."

Perhaps the real difference for Metallica isn't Trujillo's presence but the former bassist's absence. Check out the full story here.

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Lindsay Lohan Stays Calm While Blasting Police Chief's Remarks

Posted 8/4/08 11:21 am EST by in Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay LohanYou've got to hand it to Lindsay Lohan — she's cool under pressure.

When surrounded by paparazzi in an airport, less than a day after Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton's comments about her sexuality, the actress kept her composure, refusing to give the tabloids the kind of sound bite they were probably hoping for. Instead of ripping into Bratton who, the day before, claimed Lohan had "gone gay" (a remark he later tried to quantify by saying his own sister is a lesbian — which apparently makes such comments acceptable in his mind), she followed her PR training to the letter, calling the cop's aside "inappropriate."

Maybe, being a public figure, Lohan can't simply spout off to the media, even after being attacked like that. But most of us wouldn't have been able to bite our tongues, right? Would you have been able to refrain from ripping Bratton a new one, or would you have taken the Lohan approach? Let us know in the comments section below.

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