• Record Label Features Iraq War Vets
• Photo Gallery: The Beatles in London, 1963
• Album Preview: Panic at the Disco
• Peter Travers Picks Best Supporting Actor
• T.I. Talks “American Gangster,” New Album
• TVT Records Files Chapter 11
• News Ticker: U2, Nas, Billy Joel
• Idol News: Show Changes, iTunes Deal
• News Ticker: Paul McCartney, Fall Out Boy
• New Music Report: Ray Davies

Top stories from the last three days:

• Interview Panic at the Disco!
• Album Preview: Madonna
• On Tour: Vedder, Jimmy Eat World/Paramore
• Boston Songwriter Chastises Huckabee
• Scarlett Johansson On Waits Album, Bowie
• 1988: The Year Hip-Hop Exploded

Scroll down for full news stories, commentary and much more in Rock Daily.

To The Fallen Records is a unique record label in that it puts out compilations of songs written and recorded by veterans of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – some even recorded in the field. On the occasion of the release of the new compilation To The Fallen Records Presents: Rock Vol. 1, Rolling Stone’s Evan Serpick took a look at the origins of the label. To read the full, in-depth exploration, click here.

All this week, Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers will be making his Oscar picks. First up is the contest for Best Supporting Actor. Will Javier Bardem come out on top, or will he be one-upped by Hal Holbrook, Casey Affleck, Phillip Seymour Hoffman or Tom Wilkinson? Click here for Travers’ pick, and be sure to check back tomorrow for his pick for Best Supporting Actress.

Watch every episode of our weekly Peter Travers video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click “Launch application”). Every Friday, a new episode will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don’t have iTunes, download it here.]

The new issue of Rolling Stone will be unveiled tomorrow, but Rock Daily likes to tease, so today we offer an ear. But whose ear is it? Leave your best guesses in the comments, and be sure to tune in to Rock Daily tomorrow morning for the full image and an excerpt of the cover feature.

Last week, we asked you to name the best songs that feature numbers in their titles. Since the seemingly-infinite number of picks were all over the spectrum, we decided to break down down this Rock List “March Madness”-style. To see your picks for the “Best Songs With Numbers,” hit the jump. (more…)

Flo Rida
Bloomingdale’s, New York, NY
Flo Rida shopped at the Bloomingdale’s in midtown while wearing a hoodie that featured the release date of his new album.

Josh Hartnett
Brooklyn Masonic Temple, Brooklyn, NY
Hartnett spent Valentine’s Day at the Band of Horses show at the Brooklyn venue.

Danny Masterson
Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY
Danny enjoyed the set by buzz band the Foals in New York.

Lindsay Lohan
Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, NV
Lohan was spotted around the WWE’s “No Way Out” event at the arena. Not sure if she was there to watch the show but did pose for a picture with John Cena.

[Photos: Getty]

On Friday, Rolling Stone caught a sneak preview of Panic at the Disco’s second album, Pretty. Odd., due on March 25th. The hyper-sexualized lyrics and synth-heavy beats from 2005’s A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out are gone, replaced by a sound that’s directly influenced by Sgt. Pepper’s-era Beatles. Guitarist Ryan Ross, who picks up singing duties for the first time, takes on the role of Lennon to frontman Brendon Urie’s McCartney. (more…)

The struggles of the music industry has claimed another victim as TVT Records, once voted Billboard’s Top Independent Record Label for five consecutive years between 2001 and 2006, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and fired the majority of their staff. TVT’s shuttering likely makes unrestricted free agents of artists like the Polyphonic Spree, Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz, Pitbull, Ambulance LTD and many more who were signed to the label. Also, it marks yet another former American Idol contestant getting dropped, as Season 5’s Paris Bennett will likely have to find a new home after releasing her debut album on the label. TVT once boasted artists like Jimmy Page, Gil Scott-Heron, the Brian Jonestown Massacre and KMFDM on its roster, and was also responsible for making it virtually impossible to find a new, non-imported copy of Nine Inch Nails‘ Pretty Hate Machine prior to 2005. Keeping with its acronym (TVT stood for T.V. Tunes) the label also had a sublabel, TVT Soundtrax, which specialized in the soundtracks of films, television shows and Broadway productions.

Related Stories:

• EMI Chairman Confirms Cutbacks, Says Bands May Be Sponsored Like Football Teams
• Rolling Stones “Shine a Light” on Universal, Tenure With EMI Likely Over
• Decline of the Music Industry Hits Home: Rolling Stone Loses Its FYE

• U2 are shacked up in a Dublin studio as they continue work on their new album with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, the same producing tandem responsible for The Joshua Tree. According to Lanois, the recording sessions may yield two new albums worth of material.

• Nas‘ new album Nigger is once again in danger of having its title changed before its release, if it’s released at all. Island/Def Jam chairman L.A. Reid said “We’ll have to see” regarding the album’s title, which was slated for a December 2007 release but has been pushed back to April 2008.

• A planned Hot Boys reunion concert last weekend in New Orleans, featuring rappers Lil Wayne, B.G., Juvenile and Mannie Fresh, was cancelled after two people were shot outside the venue.

• Billy Joel has added a “second and final” show to his Shea Stadium run on July 18th after the July 16th date sold out in under and hour.

Michael Jackson, Akon and will.i.am, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ 2008″
Akon remakes MJ’s jam as a surprisingly soulful piano ballad. [Listen]-[Review]


The Raveonettes, “Aly, Walk With Me”
The Danish duo’s stark, pulsating shoegazer ballad burns slowly until the guitars erupt.
[Review]


Janet Jackson, “Feedback”
A high-voltage club jam with thumping, robotic beats and Jackson’s vocals digitized so she sounds like a brand-new megapop superstar.
[Listen]-[Review]


Aidan John Moffat, “Hungry Heart”
Ex-Arab Strap singer delivers a dirgelike Springsteen cover that’s just as moving as the original and slightly dirtier.
[Review]


Bob Mould, “Again and Again”
Over acoustic guitars and synths, Mould delivers a furious midlife-breakup anthem. Proof that old punks still rage.
[Listen]-[Review]

Forty-five years ago today (long before Sgt. Pepper told his band to play), the Beatles hung out in Liverpool, visited their manager’s office and played one of the last gigs they would ever do at the famed Cavern. Photographer Michael Ward was on hand, snapping photographs of a group of young men who within a year would become some of the biggest stars in the world. Check out the candid collection of highlights from A Day in the Life, Ward’s new book of photos from that day, here.

[Photo: Michael Ward]

In American Gangster, Clifford “T.I.” Harris plays Frank Lucas’ nephew, who gives up dreams of being a baseball star after moving from North Carolina to New York to help build Lucas’s drug empire. In real life, T.I. is stuck in Atlanta on house arrest for owning weapons (a violation of the terms of his probation), but he checked in to talk about American Gangster, which comes out in DVD today, and his “eloquent” new album Paper Trail. (more…)

Every Week on CMT’s new reality show Gone Country, a motley mix of Nashville misfits try to make it big on the Chesney tip. We’ll be watching (and chuckling):

Thirty Minutes of Kentucky Fried Reality in Four Sentences: “I usually fight people that try to wake me up,” prefaces a hungover Bobby Brown as Maureen McCormick (Marcia Brady, if you haven’t been following along) mocks him into arising with songs. The Diddy of this Nashville version of Making the Band is John Rich, who tells our seven contestants that this week’s challenge is about community, which is Tennessee-speak for hosting a car wash with all proceeds going to a local children’s hospital. Sisqo vacuums the cars a little too well, offering an interesting insight into what he’s possibly been doing post-”Thong Song.” Then it’s off to the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital so our clique can serenade the kids with “Old McDonald.” Seriously. (more…)

Every Tuesday Single Minded highlights new tracks hitting stores (or the Web) this week. On Fridays, come back for rarities, remixes, mash-ups and more.

The Raveonettes, “You Want the Candy” [MySpace]
They don’t need no stinking zeitgeist! Everyone got really excited when the Magnetic Fields suddenly remembered Psychocandy, but Sharin & Sune have had that game on lock for years.

The Mountain Goats, “Sax Rohmer #1″ [Video]
The best-ever lyricist in indie rock returns, singing about a whole new batch of crazies, druggies and lonely lovers. On TMZ, those same people would be called “celebrities.”

American Music Club, “All the Lost Souls Welcome You” [MySpace]
Mark Eitzel has never sounded better. And by “better” we mean “sadder.” Someday we will corner Mark and tell him how much “Johnny Mathis’s Feet” once meant to us.

Nicolay & Kay, “Blizzard (ft. Toby Hill)” [MySpace]
It’s hard to say what the best part of this song is, the psych-soul hook, the old-school R&B production, or the faux-Prince scream that shows up every coupla bars. But we’re going to keep listening, again and again and again, until we figure it out.

Allison Moorer, “Mockingbird” [Official Site]
So, wait: first Shelby Lynne does an album of Dusty Springfield Covers, then Cat Power does a second covers record, now Allison Moorer turns in an album of — you guessed it! — covers. Are times really that tough for female singer-songwriters? Should we be worried that Miranda Lambert just asked to borrow our Debbie Boone albums?

In an effort to boost decreasing viewership and relevancy, American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe held a press conference to discuss the series’ new twists. The most noticeable difference this time around will be the contestants’ use of instruments during the competition (already seen in many of the auditions). The number of celebrity judges has also been scaled back to four for this coming season, but those four have not yet been announced. The series will also focus more on contestants’ backstories this season, something AI moved away from in latter seasons, in an effort to get the viewer more enthralled and involved with the fate of the twelve finalists. The show will also throw the spotlight out on former contestants from previous seasons as part of a weekly “Where Are They Now?” segment. We can’t wait for the Jessica Sierra edition. We also learned that the theme for tomorrow’s episode will be “Songs from the 60’s.” American Idol also announced that they have worked out a deal with iTunes so that the digital music store will make available mp3s and videos of each contestants’ songs the day after the episode airs. Videos will become available starting March 12th, when the group of twenty-four has been pared down to twelve.

Related Stories:

• “American Idol” Cuts Top Fifty Down to Twenty-Four Semifinalists
• Randy Jackson: “There Would Be No Chris Daughtry if There Wasn’t ‘American Idol’”
• Chris Daughtry Feels the Heat for Comments on “American Idol” “Decline”