From idols to friends, these musicians had the experience of a lifetime. More »
The people behind the one-day indie-music-retail blowout Record Store Day are hoping so; they’ve declared the third Saturday of every month Vinyl Saturday, on which limited-edition vinyl releases will be available at participating indie shops. The first installment is Saturday, June 20, and there will be four special releases on shelves that day: More »
Welcome to the inaugural version of The Idolator Dozen, our new weekly countdown of notable-slash-positive happenings in the music world as decided by me. To answer your questions: “Why?”; “Ranking things is fun, duh.” “Why 12?”; “Because I like the number, and always have.” “What’s on the list?”; “Whatever I say, plus maybe a few things that I neglected to get to during the week.” “Why now?”; “Why not now?” “When will then be now?”; “Soon.” The top 12 after the jump!
The New York metropolitan area was treated to some fierce (in both power and awesomeness to behold) thunderstorms on Saturday, and they happened to coincide with R.E.M.’s concert at Long Island’s Jones Beach Theater–a venue which, as you might deduce from the name, sits right on the Atlantic Ocean, and which also has a “rain or shine” policy for pretty much all of its shows. In keeping with the evening’s theme, Michael Stipe & Co. opened their set (which was delayed by about half an hour) with a one-two punch of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” and their own “South Central Rain.” (What, no cover Live’s “Lightning Crashes” for the trifecta?) After the jump, footage of Modest Mouse playing through increasingly closing-in lightning, and R.E.M. pulling out a long-banished-from-the-set-list track for the soggy faithful.
Now that the final Soundscan numbers are trickling in, it looks as though today will soon be officially declared Modest Mouse Day–not only here at the Idolator flophouse, but around the world (Bush will speak on the matter at noon, and aides say the President will confess that he finds Johnny… More »
A mere 10% of our readers thought that Modest Mouse’s We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank would top the 125,000-copies sold mark last week, and it turns out that the minority was right: Thanks in part, no doubt, to some key American Idol placement, the Johnny Marr-fortified outfit sold 129,000 copies of Ship, a tally high enough to give them the No. 1 slot on this week’s Billboard 200. Coming in at No. 2 was ersatz soulstress Joss Stone, whose Introducing Joss Stone moved 118,000 copies last week.
