Rolling Stone’s Top Stories

• “Led Zeppelin Are Over,” Says Page Manager • Phish Add New Tour Dates: Report • Springsteen’s Super Bowl Is a Super Gig • Live Nation Ticket Sales Start With Big Fees • Man Bob Dylan Made Infamous Dies • Travers on Che, Bride Wars, Golden Globes • What’s Big in Australia? Empire of the Sun • Vinyl Sales Nearly Double in [...]

Tour Tracker: Initial SXSW Lineup, Thievery Corporation and George Thorogood

Photo:Fox/Wireimage SXSW has announced the first batch of bands that will rock Austin during the annual industry festival (the list includes Primal Scream and Peter Bjorn & John). Plus, Thievery Corporation continue to plot out Radio Retaliation dates and one bourbon, one scotch and one beer for everyone as George Thorogood comes to town. All the [...]

“Diddy” Gets in Touch With Rolling Stone, But Fails to Mention “Notorious” Soundtrack

Yesterday, Rolling Stone received an e-mail press release informing us that the soundtrack to the Biggie Smalls biopic Notorious will be out on Bad Boy January 13th. We also received a package in the mail from Bad Boy’s little-known and uh, fictional, Valley Village, California outpost from “Diddy,” who was promoting a disc from a [...]

On the Breaking Blog: My Brightest Diamond Cover “Tainted Love”

The Guilt by Association album series features indie-rock artists tackling more mainstream tunes. The second volume (due February 17th) features covers of everything from Billy Joel to My Chemical Romance and the Breaking Blog has an early sample: onetime Breaking artist My Brightest Diamond taking on “Tainted Love.” Check it out here: • Hear Hear My [...]

On the Travers Take: Golden Globes Rant, Reviews of “Bride Wars” and “Che”

Peter Travers is ready for a fresh start, but the first movie from a major studio in 2009 is … Bride Wars, a film that makes 27 Dresses look like Citizen Kane. Could this horrific bomb actually hinder Anne Hathaway’s chances of scoring an Oscar nod for her excellent performance in Rachel Getting Married? [...]

Get Ready to Pay Big Fees: Live Nation Ticketing Service Launches

After splitting with Ticketmaster and locking down massive 360 deals with Madonna and Jay-Z, Live Nation has finally launched its own ticketing service. As of right now, Live Nation tickets can only be purchased for concerts taking place in smaller Live Nation-owned venues, as the bigger amphitheatres are still locked into ticketing deals with Ticketmaster [...]

Man Bob Dylan Made Infamous With “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” Dies

William Zantzinger, the subject of Bob Dylan’s 1963 protest song “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” has died at age 69 according to a local paper in Maryland. In 1963, a 24-year-old Zantzinger was attending a Baltimore hotel when he struck Hattie Carroll — a 51-year-old black barmaid — in the head and shoulders with [...]

Radiohead, Neutral Milk Hotel Help Vinyl Sales Almost Double In 2008

Photo: Getty While CD sales continue to decline, vinyl is still experience a renaissance: 89 percent more LPs were sold last year than in ‘07. Part of the leap can be attributed to Capitol Records’ decision to reissue many of their most famous albums on vinyl, as the Beatles’ Abbey Road was the year’s second-highest-selling vinyl [...]

On the Breaking Blog: Hype Monitor Featuring N.A.S.A.

Like a self-styled super hero, the brave Hype Monitor trolls the Internet looking for the best new music you need to hear now. Click on over to the Breaking Blog to peep today’s offerings: Cali lo-fi outfit Wavves, Portuguese rockers Bildmeister and N.A.S.A., a group RS brought to your attention in our annual Hot List. [...]

Empire of the Sun’s Electro-Pop Is Huge in Australia and Heading Your Way

Our intrepid Australian correspondent Pete Maiden just returned from a voyage to his homeland and reports that this is the biggest thing on the other side of the globe: an insanely catchy electro-pop tune by Empire of the Sun called “Walking on a Dream.” The group — Luke Steele of indie-pop band the Sleepy Jackson [...]