As Jay-Z and Kanye West‘s Watch The Throne tour kicks off this week, there’s really not all that much else to talk about. Between set lists, leather outfits, copious bling and “OMG WILL PREGONCÉ OR FRANK OCEAN OR BOTH MAKE AN APPEARANCE?”, it’s a truly immersive experience, permeating all facets of daily life and conversation. So while we wait very impatiently for our turn to Watch The Throne, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite collaboration albums of all-time.
Pegi and Neil Young‘s Bridge School Benefit turns 25 this October, and the all-acoustic show has a silver anniversary-worthy lineup, including Foo Fighters, Mumford & Sons, and Eddie Vedder. [Rolling Stone]
Paramore played an Fueled by Ramen anniversary show last night, and MTV.com streamed it, and is now sharing highlights, including “Brick by Boring Brick.” The band also premiered a new song called “Renegade.” [MTV News]
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It may seem surprising that hip-hop would dominate anything at Bonnaroo, the giant music festival (and party) that began in Tennessee a decade ago with hippie-ish jam bands and roots rock. But this is what we discovered when using Next Big Sound to gather social media stats on all 150 or so acts on the lineup. For our inaugural “Bonnaroo By the Numbers” feature, we’ve compared the top 20 acts on the lineup versus their total number of social media fans (Facebook, Twitter, LastFM, MySpace, YouTube, etc.).
While the top acts on the lineup are a solid mix of roots rock, hip-hop and indie rock, the hip-hop artists tear it up in the social space. Eminem, Lil Wayne and Wiz Khalifa would be the top three acts if Bonnaroo were to order its lineup based on which artists have the most social media fans. While Eminem tops both the bill and social media (nearly 50 million followers!), Lil Wayne is #7 on the lineup and Wiz is down at #44. Atmosphere would also be #10 on the lineup, not #39.
After the top three hip-hop acts, the next three would be a trio of indie luminaries: The Strokes, Arcade Fire and The Decemberists. It’s not too surprising that the roots rock or jam band contingents don’t register very high. To be fair, we didn’t break out the individual musicians of the reunited Buffalo Springfield — and Neil Young has more than a million Facebook followers alone. Then again, we can’t really imagine him sharing his knack for poetry on Twitter.
He once owned record label named Apple. Now Paul McCartney is throwing in with frappucino fiends. The cute Beatle and beleagured husband of that Dancing With the Stars contestant is releasing his upcoming disc on a Starbuck’s-centric imprint. It should get plenty of distribution, given this booming news. That’s what happens when you’re a billionaire sweetie-pie.
Can’t say how high Macca’s disc will chart on release in May. But we now know the kind of crazy juice Neil Young still has. An archive release from a 1971 show has clocked in at Number 5 on the charts this week. Young’s going to lay some more stuff from his personal library on us soon, too. Guess calling for the president’s impeachment doesn’t hurt you that much.
