• First Listen to New Slipknot LP
• Britney Spears Returns to the Studio
• New Guitar Hero Adds Drums, Vocals
• Jimmy Buffett’s Expanding Empire
• Oscars Change “Original Song” Rules
• Random Notes: Kiedis, Springsteen and More
• Oasis Ink Deal for Three More LPs
• Weekend Rock List: Hidden Tracks
• Fricke’s Picks: Midnight Oil
• Cable TV Preview
• Loretta Lynn, More Inducted Into Songwriters Hall
• Single Minded: Ting Tings, Old 97s
• News Ticker: Voodoo Fest, Velvet Revolver

Top stories from the last three days:

• Pearl Jam, MMJ Jaw Backstage at Bonnaroo
• In the Studio: T.I.
• Girl Talk Offers Pay What You Want Album
• Coldplay Does Big First Day Sales
• Kid Rock’s Crazy New PSA
• Movie Reviews: The Love Guru, Get Smart
• “Chinese Democracy” May Have Leaked
• George Michael Opens U.S. Tour
• Lil Wayne Sells One Million in Debut Week
• Breaking Artist: Fleet Foxes
• Tom Petty Mines Deep Cuts in NYC
• Tom Waits Spins Yarns in Phoenix
• Amazon Offering Variably Priced MP3s
• Charts: Lil Wayne, My Morning Jacket
• Photos: Backstage at Bonnaroo
• Coldplay Showcase Viva at London Free Gig
• New Music Report: Coldplay
• The Coldplay Video Guide
• Metallica Title New Album
• Exclusive: Behind Weezer’s Video

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

• Lil Wayne needed only a week for Tha Carter III to get a platinum plaque. It will be a short tenure at the top, however, as Coldplay are on pace to usurp the Number One spot. And we promise no more “A Milli” jokes.

• The employees of Dr. Pepper are scheduled to work overtime this weekend, as news of the Guns n’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy leak may force the soda company to make good on their promise to give everyone a free can. But are these tracks for real, or the best demos ever?

• Who didn’t we see in concert this week? We caught shows by Tom Waits, Sigur Ros, George Michael and Tom Petty and lived to write about it.

• We somehow made it back from Bonnaroo alive with video of My Morning Jacket, Pearl Jam and Jimi Hendrix’s guitar pedals. We also discussed Kanye’s tardiness and hung backstage with Metallica and M.I.A.

[Photo: Getty]

Donnie Wahlberg (of the recently reunited New Kids on the Block) and Red Hot Chili Pepper Anthony Kiedis rooted against each other at game three of the Lakers/Celtics NBA finals. Plus, Bruce Springsteen continued his European tour (and added seven new U.S. dates in August), Pete Wentz was honored with a bulldog cake and Eddie Vedder hopped onstage with lots of folks. For those photos and more of the week in rock, click here.

[Photo: Getty]

Nothing got your keyboards buzzing like Kanye West’s controversial 4:30 a.m. Bonnaroo set this week. Here are the three best reader commentaries:

“Hendrix played at 6 a.m. at Woodstock. Since when did all you rockers have a bedtime? Staying up all night to watch the seminal rap artist of the age play a sunrise set is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I’m sure some lame hippies were selling uppers. Learn how to live. Barcelona’s Sonar Fest — the world’s premier avant music fest — doesn’t even get going until 3am!” — Ray LeMoine (more…)

Who says there’s no good TV in the summer? We’ve got smokin’ secretaries, an explosive Iraq War epic, a brand-new Gong Show and more insane Japanese game shows than you can swing a giant carp at! For the scoop (and some clips!) of shows including Generation Kill, which began as an award-winning series of articles by Evan Wright in this very magazine, click here for our cable TV preview.

[Photo: Paul Schiraldi/HBO]

Guitar Hero is set to go all Rock Band, as the mega-popular video game is adding drums and vocals for the upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour. The game’s new guitar will feature a touch pad that allows note sliding, and the ax will larger, nearly replicating the size of an actual guitar. The drum kit is more sophisticated than the existing Rock Band model — the drums are wider in diameter, touch sensitive (so hitting harder produces a louder note) and include dual adjustable cymbals. Van Halen, Linkin Park and the Foo Fighters are among the initial artists that will have playable songs. Plus, players will be able to make their own music tracks (without vocals) by starting with premade bass or drum loops, then using the various instruments to play with tempo, pitch and sustaining notes. For more details on the characters and the Music Creator feature, check out IGN’s preview.

As Coldplay fans may have noticed, the band’s new Viva La Vida contains not one, but two unlisted tracks. To pay homage to the secret song, a victim of the MP3 era, this week’s Rock List is dedicated to hidden tracks. Whether they’re left off the track list, tucked away on an album’s pregap or buffered by 10 minutes of silence after the last song, let us know your favorites and on Monday we’ll reveal the Readers’ List. Here’s our picks:

• Nirvana – “Endless, Nameless” on Nevermind
• Dr. Dre – “Bitches Ain’t Shit” on The Chronic
• Bruce Springsteen – “Terry’s Song” on Magic
• Blur – “Me, White Noise” on Think Tank
• Coldplay – “To Kingdom Come” on X&Y

A few more staff faves from the Nineties — a decade that was all about the hidden track — are after the jump. (more…)

Britney Spears is working on a new album, according to Jim Beanz, a vocal producer who’s a frequent Timbaland collaborator and worked on several of Spears’ Blackout tracks. “Everyone has personal stuff, but a true professional doesn’t bring it into the studio,” Beanz, who says he’s working with Britney again, tells Us, adding, “Britney is amazing.” Since the release of Blackout last year, Spears has reunited with Larry Rudolph, her longtime manager who guided her through her golden years (and who Spears promptly fired after emerging from rehab in 2007). Spears is currently taking a break from recording, however, as she’s in Louisiana to be with her sister Jamie Lynn, who just gave birth. Spears was recently in London starring in (and co-directing) the video for “Radar,” which will be the next single from Blackout, in which she searches the city for a boy she met in a club. As for Spears’ conservatorship — her father, Jamie, remains in control of her legal affairs — the matter will be reviewed in a Los Angeles court on July 31.

[Photo: Getty]

It’s been over four years since the release of Slipknot’s Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), the record that found the band splitting its sound wide open, adding acoustic guitars and a new range of attitudes while keeping its overall heaviness and claustrophobic sound intact. The Des Moines, Iowa, nine-piece’s fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, is set for a late August release, and as the six unmastered songs played for Rock Daily suggest, the band has again expanded its approach.

The album — the first Slipknot record to be recorded in the band’s home state — kicks off with a spoken word intro, as frontman Corey Taylor gradually grows more and more agitated, snarling, “Where are your gods and politicians?” and “You rage for no reason because to have no reason.” The first full song, “Gematria,” features twin guitar solos from Mick Thompson and Jim Root as Taylor repeatedly asks, “What if God doesn’t care?” while the band’s multiple percussionists generate a din that’s more suffocating than ever. Taylor repeatedly invokes America on the lengthy track, and his thoughts aren’t especially ambiguous. (more…)

During a trip to Australia in 1986, I spent a day with Midnight Oil at a mixing session in Sydney for their single, “The Dead Heart.” Part protest, part celebration, with a railroad rhythm and haunted-chant hook, “The Dead Heart” was the oils’ response to the Australian government’s return of the sacred monolith Uluru (a.k.a. Ayers Rock) to aboriginal custody. Singer Peter Garrett, drummer Rob Hirst, guitarists Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey and then-bassist Peter Gifford were also invited to play in remote aboriginal settlements. At the mixing session, the Oils suggested I tag along.

I should have gone. (more…)

While the rest of the show-biz crowd gets its annual ya-ya’s out at over-the-top affairs like the Grammys and the Oscars, songwriters celebrate themselves in a comparatively understated (but equally impressive) manner at the yearly Songwriters Hall of Fame inductions. For the 39th songsmiths’ shindig, honorees ran the gamut from country queens to pop princes: Desmond Child, Albert Hammond, Loretta Lynn, Alan Menken, John Sebastian were inducted, while Paul Anka, Anne Murray, John Rzeznik and Milt Okun were honored.

Joan Jett presented hitmeister Desmond Child with his award after he opened the show with a medley of blockbusters he penned for others, from Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer.” When pressed, Child admitted his favorite child is “a song I wrote with Hanson called ‘Weird,’ because it’s about being different, and I grew up poor, I grew up being Latin, I grew up being gay, and now I’m fat!” (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 Ting Tings, “That’s Not My Name” [Kasper Bjorke Remix]
Brit sensations get spit-shined and lasered-up in this shivery electro remix.

Cody ChestnuTT, “Afrobama” [Campaign Song]
Clawing his way out of obscurity, Cody ChestnuTT goes from four-track Prince to four-track Fela Kuti with this spry little Afropop endorsement of Barack Obama. Mighty Sparrow and Coco Tea were unavailable for comment.

Various Artists, Various Mashups [Mashup]
http://www.bootieusa.com/blog/
Forget that Girl Talk album; here’s a bunch of mash-ups custom-built for floor-moving. Show me a soul unstirred by the combination of Toto and Boogie Down Productions, and I’ll show you a soul I would never want to hang out with on a Friday. (more…)

While it seems like most bands nowadays are abdicating major labels, Oasis is bucking the trend, signing a three-album partnership with Sony BMG. Under the deal, the band’s own Big Brother Recordings will release the albums in a profit-sharing agreement with BMG. Big Brother will also handle the distribution and marketing of the band’s back catalog. According to Oasis’ management team, the deal “allows the band to take advantage of all the opportunities presented by the new business models available today as well as remaining totally in control of their own destiny. We are really pleased that Sony BMG have demonstrated the foresight and courage to engage with the band in this way.” Since the dissolve of Creation Records in 1999, Oasis have released their albums via their Big Brother label. The band’s first album under the Sony BMG deal is expected out later this year.

• Quick link: All RS reviews of Oasis albums

[Photo: Getty]

• Death Cab for Cutie, Panic at the Disco, Lupe Fiasco and more acts have been added to New Orleans’ Voodoo Festival on October 24-26. Wyclef and Tokyo Police Club also join a lineup that includes headliners Nine Inch Nails, R.E.M. and Stone Temple Pilots.
• Unknown singers lobbying to be Velvet Revolver’s new vocalist are campaigning on YouTube to get heard. While VR’s Matt Sorum admitted the band has listened to submissions mailed to the band, it’s unknown if the group is using YouTube to recruit a Scott Weiland replacement.
• According to reports, Live Nation chairman Michael Cohl is currently negotiating his exit from the concert giant. As we reported last week, Cohl had been feuding with Live Nation over the company’s direction. Cohl’s departure may have affected a potential Rolling Stones deal (a contract the band has denied), as Cohl has promoted every Stones tour since 1989.

  [Photo: Getty]

In an effort to prevent a single musical from monopolizing the Original Song field at the Oscars, the Academy has changed the rules of the category. While movies can submit any number of songs they want, starting with the 2009 Oscars, only two songs can be nominated per film. The move comes after two consecutive years in which a musical received nods for three songs in the category, Enchanted in 2008 and Dreamgirls in 2007. In both cases, however, dominating with three nominated songs ultimately proved to a curse, as Once’s “Falling Slowly” won this year’s Oscar and Melissa Etheridge took the prize in 2007 for An Inconvenient Truth’s “I Need To Wake Up.” In addition, the Academy will allow DVDs of musical numbers to be sent to members of the voting committee who are unable to attend screenings. Had this new rule gone into effect last year, it’s possible Eddie Vedder would have received a nomination for his Golden Globe-winning work on Into the Wild’s soundtrack.

[Photo: Getty]