Did you know that more than 15 billion bottles of water are produced every single year?

And of that number, only 12 percent are actually recycled, meaning that nearly 40 million plastic bottles go into the trash or become litter every single day?

Yeah, neither did we. Luckily, the Gloomy Guses in Radiohead are always around to remind us of what a terrific job we’re doing raping the planet. This time their helpful reminder comes in the form of these custom-made water bottles, which they debuted onstage this past Monday at the kickoff of their North American tour in West Palm Beach, Florida.

And even though they’re not exactly the most, uh, rocking bit of merch, we totally want one! If only so we can scrawl our name on the front, just like Thom Yorke does! (Oh yeah, and to save the environment or whatever.)

A quick look through the W.A.S.T.E. Shop on their official site didn’t turn up a single mention of these Swiss-made beauties, so we’re asking fans who’ve been lucky enough to catch Radiohead live for help: have they been selling the bottles at the merch table?

There are several things that are awesome about Cobra Starship’s new “Guilty Pleasure” video (above), and Patrick Stump’s cameo is most of them. Don’t get us wrong, we’re suckers for Rollerblades, Zubaz, and DeLoreans, but it’s P’s turn as Cobra’s manager — “Rob McFlynn” — which steals the show (and not just because he appears sans hat, for probably the first time ever).

No, we love it because he’s doing a dead-on impression of Fall Out Boy (and Cobra Starship’s) real-life manager, the burly and barrel-chested Bob McLynn. Stump’s no stranger to acting (earlier this year he logged a “Law & Order” cameo), but his McLynn impression is so great — check the bellowing baritone and the wild gesturing — that we have a newfound respect for the frontman. He’s like our very own Rich Little or something.

Anyway, we’re also fired up about the impression because back in March, when we were down in Chile with Fall Out Boy on the whole Antarctica debacle, we witnessed Stump working on his McLynn impression first hand. And we’ve got the video to prove it.

For a rare look inside the mind of a Method actor, watch the clip after the jump. Read more…

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…

For some reason, people in the MTV Newsroom tend to consider me “The Weezer Guy.” This is probably because I am an older indie-rock dude who wears glasses. Or perhaps because I’ve written stuff like this or this. Or maybe because I once did an interview with Rivers Cuomo that he roundly criticized later on his MySpace blog.

Anyway, yeah, I’m the guy everyone goes to here whenever there’s news about Weezer, which means that today my inbox is overflowing with messages from my fellow employees, all of whom appear to be super-psyched about the brand-new Weez album (June 24th). And then there’s the first single from that record, “Pork and Beans,” which is already streaming on the band’s site and garnering plenty of “Weezer returns to form!” props.

“I. Love. It. And I hate saying it. The music harkens back to The Blue Album, while the lyrics are rather questionable,” some Internet person wrote. “It’s as if Rivers of present day went back in time to Blue Album Rivers and wrote these bad lyrics. That Timbaland one makes me laugh, though.”

Here’s the only problem: I know I should be doing cartwheels about this. I should be playing “Pork and Beans” over and over again and annoying my officemate. I should be as psyched as everyone who’s emailing me.

Only I’m not.

For whatever reason, I can’t get into “P&B.” In fact, I basically think it’s a complete mess. Sure, the chorus is classic — ah, those chords! But there’s so much going in the verses — the plinky keyboards, the goofy “Oohs!” on the backing tracks, the overall Casio-ness of the thing — that it’s borderline un-listenable. It’s herky-jerky (and not in the way Pinkerton was) and geeky-for-the-sake-of-being-geeky, and it kind of sounds like The Muppet Show, whatever the heck that means.

And then there’s Cuomo’s lyrics, which (of course) are still self-loathing to the bone, but now seem so full of “gee-ain’t-I-clever” mentions (check the nods to Rogaine, Oakley shades, and, of course, Timba) that I’m beginning to wonder if his whole “Industry Outsider” thing isn’t a complete sham. After all, there’s only so many times you can dip your feet in the pop-cultural pool (like he did on “Beverly Hills”) without getting wet, no matter how thick your Coke-bottle specs are, or how tight your itchy cardigan is stretched over your pasty gut. Or something like that.

OK. Go ahead. Send in your protests…

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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Dear Incredibly Angry, Somewhat Delusional, Easily Offended NKOTB Fans Who Have Been Bombarding The Newsroom Blog With Comments Ever Since We Made One Joke About The Band Reuniting Because They Needed The Cash:

Hi there. Look, we just want to talk. Can you put the torches down for a second? Honestly, you didn’t have to form a mob and storm the gates here at MTV Manor. We were just kidding when we suggested that the deciding factor in the New Kids On The Block reunion was money. Obviously that’s not the case!

Come on!

We’re sure Danny Wood uses $100 bills to light cigars! Joey McIntyre (or, excuse us, Joe) was on “Boston Public”! There’s good money in David E. Kelly dramadies! We know they’re not broke! Psssssh!

Jeez, it’s like you guys can’t take a joke or something. Clearly the only reason five dudes in their late 30s would willingly choose to reform under the mantle of “New Kids,” perform synchronized dance routines and belt out tunes about “Hangin’ Tough” is because they all really loved the music or really missed performing for all of you. Well, either that or they’re all going through a collective mid-life crisis and couldn’t afford matching Corvettes.

Okay? Good. We just wanted to clear that up.

What? Oh, yeah, also, we didn’t mean to suggest that just because you’re a fan of a boy-band that hasn’t had a hit single or been culturally relevant in more than 15 years doesn’t mean that you’re old and/or out of touch in any way. It merely means you found something you liked — in this case, cheesy, hormonally stunted, pre-fab pop sung by five kids from Boston with lines shaved into their hair — and you’ve stuck to it ever since. We admire that perseverance! Really, we do! Stop throwing things!

And finally, we wanted to bring up the fact that you’ve said some pretty hurtful things to us personally. Like that we should replace the “M” in “MTV” with an “R,” since all we do is broadcast Reality TV programs anymore. Or that that we don’t know anything about music, or that we’re mean-spirited “LoserHaters” who are simply jealous of NKOTB’s success.

We’re not gonna lie; those words cut deep. And we’d like to point out that we actually do still play music videos, a lot, on any of our three channels — MTV, MTV2 and mtvU. And you can watch tons of them on our website, though we understand that you might not be able to do that, what with your dial-up connections and all.

Anyway, we feel a little better now. And hopefully you do, too. Frankly, we’d just like to put this whole dark saga behind us. So, if you’ll go back to your cat-hair strewn dens and Precious Moments collections we’ll go back to our ivory towers and inflated sense of purpose.

Deal? Deal.

Sincerely,
James

Look, we here in the MTV Newsroom aren’t necessarily bad people. But when news broke that “American Idol” frontrunner/comb-over king David Cook had been rushed to the hospital following last night’s show, our first thoughts weren’t “Boy, we hope he’s okay,” they were more along the lines of “Wow, I wonder what color ambulance he was loaded into?”

After all, we’ve been watching this crap for more than 15 years now (ever since Eric Nies bump-and-grinded his way into our hearts and loins on the first season of “The Real World“) and over that time, we’ve seen more than our fair share of buxom blondes and beefy dudes being strapped to gurneys or whisked away by paramedics. In fact, a ride in an ambulance is sort of like a rite of passage for many of our favorite Reality TV stars.

So, in honor of David Cook’s hospital trip (watch that blood pressure!) we’ve compiled a list of our favorite E.R. All-Stars: those brave (and often, drunk) men and women who’ve risen above the blur of bodily harm, black outs and blood to earn a place in the Reality TV Pantheon. Our list, after the jump.

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THIS IS THE LAST THING WE’LL WRITE ABOUT FALL OUT BOY’S TRIP TO CHILE. WE PROMISE.

So, as you certainly must know by now, last week I was with Fall Out Boy when they came up short in their attempt to set a world record by playing a show in Antarctica. And when I wasn’t fanning the flames of international tensions with blog posts that insulted Chile’s rather overzealous youth, I had a front-row seat for the inner-workings of the entire Antarctic trip, which was sort of like being in the engine room of the Titanic, only with better schwag.

Because while the whole thing was starting to sink, FOB let me in on a little secret: Seems that in order for their attempt to be validated by the Guinness Book of World Records, they had to play an actual concert, before a “paying” audience in Antarctica, meaning they had to print a batch of tickets for the gig — tickets that would then be “purchased” by the staff of scientists they’d be playing for, with all funds going to Greenpeace. The only problem is now that the show was off, they were stuck an entire ream of entirely worthless ducats.

Not willing to see them all end up on eBay, they gave some to me. And here’s what one of them looks like. It’s okay to be jealous (I am a vindictive jerk). Picture and more after the jump.

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Dear Incredibly Enthusiastic, Astonishingly Persistent, Slightly Terrifying Mob of Fall Out Boy Fans That Have Surrounded The Finis Terrae Hotel All Week,

Hey! How are you? Okay, okay, okay…Stop screaming! Seriously, stop!

Fall Out Boy left this morning! They’re gone! You don’t need to peer through the windows or pound on the glass anymore. Pete isn’t going to hear you. He’s back in Los Angeles. There’s no reason you should be climbing the back gate of the hotel right now! Really, the guys left. They’re not here. I promise.

What? No, I can’t give them a note you made. Not even if you say “please” 456 times in a row.

Look, I realize Fall Out Boy coming to Punta Arenas is probably the biggest thing to happen in town since, well, ever. And I know you all mean well. But, really, all the chanting and pushing is getting kind of old. Also, I see you’re wearing a school uniform. Shouldn’t you be in class right now? Don’t you have homework to do? Don’t you have parents?!?!

What’s that? No, I’m not in Fall Out Boy. Honestly, I’m not. You don’t need to take a millon pictures of me! Seriously! What’s that? You want me to sign your hand/backpack/notebook? Why? I know I’m one of only 15 Caucasians in this town, and I’m one of only 7 wearing skinny jeans, but I promise, I’m not in Fall Out Boy. Really.

You’re starting to freak me out. Go home! It’s over! What? No-no-no. Stop screaming.
You don’t need to crowd me…I really can’t breathe… Aaaaaaah!! Please…It’s getting dark…Please!

Sincerely,
James Montgomery