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Day in Pop Report for 02/20/2015


Suge Knight Leaves Court In Ambulance
(Radio.com) Legal problems might not be the only current issue for rap mogul Suge Knight, who is currently facing charges of murder and burglary stemming from separate incidents.

It also appears that Knight is suffering from undisclosed health issues. Knight left court on Thursday in an ambulance, the second time such an exit has been needed for Knight.

Knight is facing charges of murder of 55-year-old Terry Carter, whom Knight allegedly killed with his car in the parking lot of a Compton burger stand last month. Knight is being held in jail without bail for the case. Read more here.

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Blur Release Song From First Album In Over A Decade
Blur have announced that they are releasing their first album in over a decade. The new effort, entitled "The Magic Whip", is set to be released on April 28th and the band has revealed the first song from the album.

The new album follows 2003's "Think Tank" which the band released after Graham Coxon left the group and "The Magic Whip" will be the first Blur album featuring the four-piece lineup of the band since 1999's "13".

The group began recording the new album during a short tour break in 2013 at the Avon Studios in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Then in November of last year, they resumed work on what would become "The Magic Whip."

The revealed the following tracklisting for the album, "Lonesome Street," "New World Towers," "Go Out," "Ice Cream Man," "Thought I Was a Spaceman." "I Broadcast," "My Terracotta Heart," "There are Too Many of Us," "Ghost Ship," "Pyongyang," "Ong Ong" and "Mirror Ball."

Fans will not have wait until April to get their first taste of the album as the band have released a video for the song "Go Out". You can check out the clip here.

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Iggy Azalea Leaves 'Negative And Draining' Social Media
(Radio.com) Iggy Azalea is tired of poeple having conversations about her body on social media. That's why she's leaving Twitter. On Wednesday night (Feb. 18), Azalea went on a tirade after reportedly learning that TMZ had been taking photos of her throughout her trip to Australia.

Worse, the staff was sitting around having discussions about her vacation butt versus her usual butt. That was the last straw for I-G-G-Y. "Just got back from a great vacation, came online and saw apparently it's shocking and unheard of to be a woman and have cellulite," Azalea tweeted. "Lol."

She continued by saying "everyone deserves peace" without a "perve with a long distance lense hiding out taking pictures" Azalea wrote that the "hatred and pettiness" she witnesses online is making her "become an angry person and I cannot be that," noting it would be a "disservice" to her fans. "I promise I will try to keep smiling," she wrote.

That is why she's taking some time away from Twitter and her other social media accounts. "I need to be happy and it is too negative and draining," she said.

She ended her screed with a rather poetic statement: "The Internet is the ugliest reflection of man kind there is."

Read Azalea's Twitter posts here.

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Lil Wayne Reveals 'Free Weezy' Album Plans
(Radio.com) While Lil Wayne's new album "Tha Carter V" remains delayed, the rapper revealed in a new interview that he plans to release his "Free Weezy" album next month.

He says he plans to release The Free Weezy Album for free in March but he does not give an exact date. This follows last month's release of his mixtape, Sorry 4 The Wait 2. "I'm working on it every day, man," he said. "I guarantee it's going to be something dope. If you don't want a musician being creative, don't get The Free Weezy Album."

In the interview with Rolling Stone, Wayne also talks about the recent happenings in his life, even addressing the $51 million lawsuit he filed against Cash Money Records late last month. Well, kind of. His only response was, "That's a legal matter, homeboy." Read more here.

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Will Smith Gets Jiggy Wit It On Letterman
(Radio.com) On Wednesday night (Feb. 18) rapper turned actor Will Smith got on the mic again, this time with Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra, for his classic "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It."

Smith was a guest on Late Show with David Letterman, and Paul and the band played the song as Smith's intro; after shaking Letterman's hand, he went back to Shaffer, grabbed a microphone and dove into the 1998 hit.

Letterman said, "That's so great: I can't do that." Smith disagreed, saying, "There's a negro inside of you Dave!" "Wow!" the host responded. "Well! That's the best news I've had in years! I gotta run home and surprise the wife!"

Watch the performance here.

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5 Seconds of Summer Embrace Worst Band Dishonor
(Radio.com) For most artists, being bestowed with the award for "Worst Band" would be a buzzkill, like winning a Golden Raspberry for acting; for 5 Seconds of Summer, it's an honor.

After NME announced the pop-punk boy band was the recipient of this year's Worst Band, the Australian four-piece did the opposite of what you might expect: they bragged about their victory on social media.


"Won the NME worst band award," the band's guitarist Michael Clifford tweeted. "I'm so damn happy right now. thx to everyone who voted #dreamscomingtrue."

Likewise, bassist Calum Hood and the group's official Twitter account reveled in the win, retweeting a fan's post that said, "5sos won worst band I'm so proud of them." Read more here.

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Brian Wilson Reunites With Two Beach Boys For 'The Right Time'
(Radio.com) Brian Wilson reunites with fellow Beach Boys Al Jardine and David Marks for "The Right Time," the first single off his upcoming album No Pier Pressure.

On Thursday (Feb. 19), Wilson released the song via a lyric video for the song, documenting a performance in the studio recording the tune while the lyrics pop up in the video.

"Could it be the right time?" Wilson asks over lush strings and harmonies, typical of his work both solo and as part of the Beach Boys. It's the first taste of the album and the first of two songs on which Marks and Jardine appear. Other guests on the album include a whole slew of artists--Nate Ruess of fun., Kacey Musgraves, She & Him's Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward among them.

Check out the song here.

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Eric Church's Second Son Tennessee Hawkins Is Born
(Radio.com) Looks like Eric Church's family is a little bit bigger this week. And by little, we mean 6 pounds, 12 ounces larger. We mean 21 inches larger. We mean adorably larger.

Yes, the country superstar and his wife Katherine have a new baby in the family, their second little boy. The Church's are naming the baby Tennessee Hawkins Church, and plan to call him Hawk for short.

Church made a statement about the birth, which took place on Sunday. 'I'm thrilled that Hawk and his mom are doing well," Church said. "We aren't sleeping very much, but we are enjoying every part of this incredible journey. I'm very blessed and thankful." Read more here.

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CHVRCHES Give Justin Timberlake's 'Cry Me a River' A Makeover
(Radio.com) It might not be an original CHVRCHES song but the Scottish synthpop group has at least gifted their fans with new material. While stopping by the BBC Live Lounge, singer Lauren Mayberry and bandmates Iain Cook and Martin Doherty took on Justin Timberlake's 2002 Justified single "Cry Me a River."

Even without seeing CHVRCHES' name attached to the track, you could easily guess it's theirs from the laser-sharp synth work and Mayberry's sugary vocals.

The rendition is yet another in CHVRCHES' growing list of covers that includes Lorde's "Team," Arctic Monkeys' 'Do I Wanna Know?" and Whitney Houston's 'It's Not Right, But It's Okay."

As far as their own songs go, the band recently contributed a track to the Mockingjay soundtrack called "Dead Air." It seems likely that we'll hear more new songs from the band soon though as it's already been a year and a half since they released their debut album The Bones of What You Believe and entered the studio last month. Check out the cover here.

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Sleater-Kinney Go Tina Belcher For 'A New Wave' Video
(Radio.com) Sleater-Kinney and Tina Belcher: a match made in heaven. The rock band's song "A New Wave" now has its official music video, and it stars the three-piece as animated versions of themselves in the world of the FOX animated TV series.

The clip opens with series favorite Tina Belcher placing a CD into her CD player and pressing play, at which point the three ladies appear in the corner of her room, rocking out to the up-tempo track.

But naturally, don't think Tina's the only one who gets in on the fun. She's soon joined by siblings Gene and Louise, and together the group moves through psychedelic hues, designs and animations before a final teaser for the album and the show, which are out now and air Sundays on FOX, respectively, appear.

Watch the video here.

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Alabama Shakes To Perform On Saturday Night Live
(Radio.com) As they gear up for their second album, Alabama Shakes will be hitting another second milestone this year: their second appearance on Saturday Night Live.

The band will be the musical guest on the show when it returns to live episodes next weekend (Feb. 28). It'll come almost two years exactly since their last performance on the show, which came in February 2013.

Dakota Johnson, star of the new Fifty Shades of Grey film adaptation, will host the episode. The performance precedes the release of Alabama Shakes' new album Sound & Color, which is due out April 21. Read more here.

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New York Fashion Week Creator 'Kind of Over' Kanye West
(Radio.com) While the music world anxiously awaits more new music from Kanye West, the rapper has been focusing equal (or more) recent energy toward his fashion endeavors.

And while it might seem to be going great from an outsiders perspective, one notable fashion figure isn't as sold on West. Fern Mallis, the creator of New York's Fashion Week recently told the New York Post's Page Six in an interview that she's 'kind of over Kanye."

'I mean, I'm not a fan of his music," she said, "and the attitude and the agenda is not my style." It's important to note that these critiques say nothing about his actual fashion designs. Read more here.

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Neil Patrick Harris Plans To Top Ellen's Selfie At The Oscars
(Extra) Neil Patrick Harris is getting ready to host The Oscars and he has a plan to top Ellen's record breaking selfie from last year. Neil talking to "Extra's" Tracey Edmonds saying he is ready for the challenge, "That selfie was a terrific element of her show so I gotta figure out what to do, I gotta take that selfie to the other level." The actor laughed, "So, I think that just may be the downstairs level and I'll just take a picture of my stuff!"

In all seriousness, while he has hosted other award shows and looks completely relaxed, Neil admitting he is nervous, "Very, very nervous, but nerves are a part of the process, I think if you didn't have nerves hosting The Oscars, you'd be some sort of robot person, and while I'm part robot nerves still exist within me."

The Oscars host giving a little insight into how this show will be different from when he hosted the Emmys and Tonys, "You're dealing with movies, the cinema, dealing with visuals more than dealing with performers or people on TV shows and the glamour, the scale of movies is much larger so you have to be creating content that honors that larger form."

Neil also revealing he is secretly rooting for his "Gone Girl" co-star Rosamund Pike to win, "She is gorgeous, super talented, super funny, smart, she just had a baby, she couldn't look more beautiful�I'm the luckiest guy ever to be able to have been in a movie with her and been able to be intimate with her without a lawsuit or a restraining order."

Check out Extra's video here.

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MisterWives Go From Reflections To Our Own House
(Radio.com) The title track from MisterWives' Reflections EP is also the anchor for the band's first full-length Our Own House, out Feb. 24, a bubbly and emotive collection of dancefloor ready indie pop.

It's an album that exhibits the many elements that make up MisterWives' collective musical personality: a bit of rocksteady reggae, a dash of Broadway balladeering, a splash of EDM and heaping helpings of neon-tinted new wave.

'The awesome thing is that we all come from different backgrounds," Hehir says. 'So what we personally listen to is so eclectic. We traveled so much in support of Reflections that we'd all take turns on the road playing our favorite songs for an hour at a time. That lent itself to a lot of experimentation once we started playing with each other and writing for Our Own House."

Besides their shared interest in all things musical, what helps drive MisterWives is how well the core trio get along. Sure, it helps that Bowler and Lee are a couple but, even with that, as Hehir put it, 'it's an anomaly."

'We never have fights," he continues. 'We all get along incredibly well. Our personalities really match one another." Read more here.

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