• New Music Report: My Morning Jacket
• Lil Wayne’s Unusual Route to Number One
• Sex Pistols Hit Vegas at Only U.S. Tour Stop
• Friends Honor Bo Diddley At Funeral
• Leonard Cohen Broods and Croons in Toronto
• The Roots, Gnarls Barkley Play Picnic in Philly
• AC/DC Go Wal-Mart Exclusive
• Secrets of the Guitar Heroes: Buddy Guy
• On Tour: Bob Dylan, Collective Soul
• Gnarls Barkley Play it Cool for MySpace Show
• New Kids On the Block’s New Video
• Meg White Cameos During Raconteurs Show
• Jimmy Page Jams With Foo Fighters
• Radiohead Play New Song, Cover Portishead
• News Ticker: Paramore, Janet Jackson
• Check Out Rolling Stone Mobile

Top stories from the last three days:

• Bob Dylan Speaks Out for Obama
• Coldplay Streaming “Vida La Viva”
• R. Kelly Defense Casts Doubt on Tape
• Gene Simmons Hiring New KISS
• Two Marvin Gaye Biopics in the Works
• The Police Announce Final Concert Details
• Lou Reed Does Not Care About Dow Jones
• Ask a Rock Star: David Cook
• Van Halen Tour Grosses $93 Million
• On Tour: Mike Gordon, Van Morrison
• R. Kelly Trial: Girl’s Relatives Testify
• Gibbons, Thorogood Remember Bo Diddley

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

In this week’s New Music Report, Associate Editor Brian Hiatt takes a look at one of the best albums of the year so far in My Morning Jacket’s Evil Urges. The band’s fifth studio outing blends elements of Southern rock, funk, soul, jam rock and R&B to create a wholly unique brand of American rock and roll. Click above for the complete rundown of Evil Urges, and click below for the Rolling Stone review and for a video walkthrough of the album care of MMJ frontman Jim James.

• Review: My Morning Jacket’s Evil Urges

• Video: My Morning Jacket’s Jim James Breaks Down Tracks From Evil Urges

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

[Video: Jennifer Hsu]

Bob Dylan lines up a late summer tour through the U.S., Collective Soul, Live and Blues Traveler hook up for the best tour of 1996 and the Watson Twins set out without Jenny Lewis. The complete dates for all three treks are after the jump.
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Tomorrow sees the release of one of the most highly-anticipated hip-hop albums in years in Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III. Long thought of as an underground sensation, Weezy has parlayed his saturation of the mixtape market into a number one single in “Lollipop,” and Tha Carter III stands to do big business. Why all the free music? “When I put out so many different types of music, you can’t help but know me or notice me,” he explains. “If I get that one moment of attention, then I know I’m going to make you like me. You want every record to be bigger than the last. That Tha Carter II didn’t do what I wanted it to do was a disappointment because I put my all into it, just like I did with this one, but I ain’t gonna dwell on it.” Click below for more on the evolution of Lil Wayne, check out the four-and-a-half star review of Tha Carter III and stay tuned to RollingStone.com for an in-depth Lil Wayne interview later this month.

• How Lil Wayne Became a Superstar

• Album Review: Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III

It’s been a long, long time since some of us have seen a New Kids on the Block video, so it’s only fitting that the group kicks off their clip for their comeback single “Summertime” by re-introducing us to each member via some well-placed text. We see Joey manning a yacht, Jon texting or something and the guy from The Sixth Sense piloting a helicopter as the group slowly reassembles over the course of the first verse on some tropical beach. From there, the quintet attend a party filled with music video girls, but someone forgot to invite any other men to the fiesta so there’s a ratio of about twelve bikini-donning females for every New Kid. It’s like 1989 all over again. It’s not “Flashing Lights” parts one, two or three in terms of artistry, but it’s a pretty good *NSYNC facsimile.

Philadelphia played host to an eclectic bill this past Saturday with hip-hop’s premier band the Roots taking over Festival Pier for the first Roots Picnic. Gnarls Barkley, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Deerhoof and Diplo delivered genre-clashing sets to a smoked-out crowd that braced sweltering heat during the daylong festivities. Click below for photos and a live report from the festival.

• The Roots Picnic: Hip-Hop’s Greatest Band Welcomes Gnarls Barkley, Diplo, Deerhoof and Jazzy Jeff to Philadelphia

[Photo: Jason Bergman for RollingStone.com]

Ten months after her acute anxiety forced the White Stripes to cancel their 2007 autumn tour, Meg White made a surprise return to the stage this weekend during her a Raconteurs concert in Detroit. Meg White emerged after the encore break, accompanied by only Jack, and sat at the drum kit and banged on a couple of drums. “Hey everybody, this is Meg White,” Jack announced as the crowd erupted. The duo didn’t perform any songs, however, nor did Meg sit in for the encores, as she exited the stage while the remaining Raconteurs came back to play the final songs. Still, the reemergence of Meg White onstage gives Stripes fans hope the duo will once again reclaim the stage. Jack White has already admitted the former husband/wife team is at work on the seventh album.

[Photo: Getty]

The social ironies of the Sex Pistols showing up in a Vegas casino for a concert were all confronted the last time the band played the Hard Rock, home of the Sid Vicious slot machine, a few years ago. Now, the Sex Pistols are another reunited oldies act: just more self-aware and ironic than, say, Duran Duran.

• Photos from the Sex Pistols’ Vegas gig

Of course, many still seemed surprised that the Pistols would pick Vegas for their one and only U.S. stop on their 2008 summer tour. But really, what place could be more perfect? At one point a block of the sold-out audience was crushed back by security so a local power couple — MMA fighter Tito Ortiz and adult-film legend Jenna Jameson — could cut in front and have a private elevator ride to their exclusive seats without mixing with the plebes who bought tickets. Why wouldn’t these Vegas characters, the ultimate embodiments of the crass commercialization of violence and sex that the Pistols predicted in 1977, deserve special treatment in a city that worships the shallow and famous? As Johnny Rotten’s first words declared upon taking the stage, there was fellowship between the band and audience: “You know who we are, hello, Las Vain-gas.” (more…)

Buddy Guy has spent a tumultuous career playing blues, jazz, R&B, rock and everything in between. Click below for more on the last of our guitar heroes, including what led to his experiments with distortion and feedback and an essential album guide.

• Secrets of the Guitar Heroes: Buddy Guy

• Buddy Guy: The Essential Album Guide

[Photo: Max Vadukul]

Radiohead kicked off the European leg of their In Rainbows tour this weekend with a two-night stop in Dublin, bringing with them a new song “Super Collider.” The song had previously been sound-checked by the band, and Thom Yorke used the encore portion of both Dublin shows to try the song out on a live audience with a solo performance. Check out the video above. Also performed during sound-checks, and posted in a video on Radiohead social network waste.central, is Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood attempting Portishead’s “The Rip,” from that group’s new album Third. The video, which was posted by Colin Greenwood, shows the duo covering the song backstage at the band’s show last month in St. Louis, Missouri.

“It is extremely hot,” said Cee-Lo Green from the stage of the Filmore at Irving Plaza in New York City last night. He wasn’t kidding. Show-goers who stumbled from the main floor into the hallway in search of precious fresh air looked like they’d just stepped out of a swimming pool — hair matted, clothes soaked straight through.

The occasion was the 150th MySpace Secret Show, an event that — bizarrely — paired Green’s band Gnarls Barkley with brutal New York math rock outfit Battles. Like all MySpace Secret Shows, there was no way to purchase tickets for the event. Interested parties had to add the Secret Show profile to their MySpace “Top 8″ in order to receive instructions on where and when to pick up the wristbands that gained them complimentary admission to the show.

“I want to give these kids memories,” explained MySpace music editor Isac Walter. (more…)

If you need music news on the go, RollingStone.com has you covered with the launch of RollingStone.com Mobile. Just point your cell phone’s Web browser to the site below for Rock Daily headlines, album reviews, features and the hottest photos. It’s everything you love about RollingStone.com stuffed into your pocket.

• RollingStone.com Mobile

Under a blazing sun, the life of rock pioneer Bo Diddley was celebrated with a four hour funeral in Gainesville, FL. While the music of Diddley was never far from the minds of the more than 500 people that were in attendance, the service celebrated Diddley as a member of the community, a figure who was well-known to the residents of north central Florida. “The last time I saw him he was carrying two bags out of the grocery store,” said Gainesville mayor Pegnenn Hanrahan, who announced to raucous applause that Gainesville’s downtown square would soon be renamed Bo Diddley Plaza. (more…)

Walking into the Sony Centre for Leonard Cohen’s Toronto concert on June 6th people had plenty of reasons to think the show might be a disappointment. The 73-year-old songwriting legend hadn’t performed a single concert in 15 years before this tour kicked off a few weeks back. He’s rarely been seen in public since then, and when he showed up at his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction earlier this year he looked pretty meek and refused to perform. Also, it’s quite clear the only reason he agreed to do this tour was the fact his manager stole nearly all his money during his five years Buddhist retreat on Mount Baldy in California and he needed a nest egg for retirement. Yet, like a master bank robber forced out of retirement for one last gigantic score, Cohen poured everything he had into a stunning performance.

Cohen walked onstage with a nine-piece band promptly at 8:00, wearing a dark, double-breasted suit and a fedora — he looked like he just stepped out of the Dick Tracy retirement home. From the first seconds of “Dance Me to the End of Love” it was apparent that his deep baritone hadn’t deteriorated a bit since the 1993 tour. (more…)

Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones joined the Foo Fighters on stage this weekend as the Foos played London’s Wembley Stadium. The LZ duo played two songs with the band, with Grohl taking over drums and drummer Taylor Hawkins taking vocals on “Rock And Roll” before Grohl returned to the mic for “Ramble On.” Grohl, who has expressed his desire to fill in for John Bonham since Zeppelin first announced their reunion concert last year, told the crowd “Welcome to the greatest day of my whole entire life.”

The Foo concert also provided Page a venue to field more questions about whether or not Zeppelin will reunite again for a full tour. Page, who has been in favor of a reunion tour since the onset, said the band is ready to play more shows. Unfortunately, the members of the band all have individual projects to tie up, Page added, so fans might have to wait until autumn 2009 before Zeppelin re-launches.