My Chemical Romance Drummer Fired For Stealing
Drummer Michael Pedicone, who joined My Chemical Romance last year, following the departure of Bob Bryar, was abruptly fired on Thursday night. According to a blog post by guitarist Frank Iero, Pedicone “was caught red handed stealing from the band and confessed to police after our show.” Iero also stated that the band does not intend to press charges. This afternoon, Pedicone released a statement via Kerrang! that stated, in essence, that he’d actually been caught attempting to frame a member of the band’s crew for the supposed theft. “I made what was certainly the poorest decision of my life,” he wrote. “Rather than address the issues that I had with the crew member in an open and honest manner, I tried to make them look irresponsible.” And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those pesky Fabulous Killjoys. [AV Club]
Madonna Is Working On A New Album Madonna just premiered W.E., the historical drama she directed, on Thursday at the Venice Film Festival, but she’s already talking about new music. She’s re-teaming with her Ray of Light collaborator William Orbit and other producers including Martin Solveig (if his name doesn’t ring a bell, “Hello” might). She hopes to have a single ready for January or February and an album in the spring, and whether she hits those marks or not, she’ll certainly be disappearing into the studio for a while after the promotional push for W.E. wraps. [Popdust] [click to continue…]
The Mercury Prize announced its twelve-album shortlist of the best British and Irish albums released between July 2010 and July 2011 earlier today, and Adele and PJ Harvey are the leading nominees—at least according to British bookies, who gave 4-to-1 odds for each of the two artists. Both have been nominated for a Mercury Prize before: Adele in 2008 for 19 and PJ Harvey three times, of which she won once, in 2001, for Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. Other nominees that have gotten some traction with United States artists include British rapper Tinie Tempah and Jamie Lidell-via-dubstep soulster James Blake, who played at this weekend’s Pitchfork Music Festival.
The closed-door judging process for the Mercury Prize, founded to be a “Booker Prize for music,” is best explained in a 2003 Guardian piece. The shortlist ranges from the obscure and localized (localised?), like King Creosote & Jon Hopkins‘s Diamond Mine, to, well, Adele. The nominees also span ages, from neophyte rock bands like Everything Everything to UK mainstays like Elbow. And despite some of the left-field nominees, the prize’s short history has British favorites of ours like Suede and Pulp, so we’re curious who will walk away with the prize in September.
The 2011 Coachella Festival is a wrap! Sadly, we didn’t go, but here are five reasons we wish we had:
LAURYN HILL
Those who stuck it out through Cee Lo Green‘s transportation-delayed (and, by some accounts, uninspiring performance) on the main stage Friday were rewarded with a razor-sharp set from Lauryn Hill, who immediately followed. After the enormous success of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which struck a chord with millions—Adele called the album “life-defining” in last week’s Rolling Stone— Hill shrank from the spotlight, and her performances of late have been as sporadic in quality as they have in quantity. But Spinreports that she was in top form at Coachella, and we can’t doubt after watching set-closer “Doo Wop (That Thing)”:
