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Today's Top Rock News Stories From Across the Web
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Paris Hilton Superhero
Contact Music reports: Comic book guru STAN LEE is working with PARIS HILTON on a new cartoon series for MTV. Details are sketchy at present but the Marvel comics superhero creator admits he's delighted with the project so far. 

He tells TV Guide magazine, "She won't be your typical superhero." 

[instead of fighting crime she'll be seen shopping in Beverly Hills, partying at Losers Lounge (a.k.a Hyde), fighting her evil nemesis (TMZ) by getting loaded and running them over with her overpriced car. But she'll be good in the sex scenes. Must see TV indeed.]- Lee had more to say on this ridiculous development, read that here. 

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Pop Star Held Hostage
Contact Music reports: Former ATOMIC KITTEN singer KERRY KATONA was held hostage at her home by armed robbers on Monday (16Jul07). Three masked men armed with a sledgehammer, crowbar and knife burst into her home in Cheshire, England at the early hours of Monday morning - and held a knife to her throat. 

Her husband and their five-month-old daughter Heidi were also in the house at the time. They were taken downstairs by one of the robbers, while the other two carried out the burglary. 

They escaped with two televisions, an Xbox and a Playstation 3 gaming consoles, jewelry and watches.- more on this story

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Monday
Zutons Fire Lazy Guitarist
Gigwise reports: We can confirm guitarist Boyan Chowdury has left The Zutons. 

Our impeccably placed source reports Chowdury was in fact kicked out of the band. 

A general "lazy" attitude over the past months eventually came to a head recently, and he was told his laconic lead guitar services were no longer needed.- more on this story

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Fiddy Delayed Again
Reuters reports: 50 Cent's new album, "Curtis," has been pushed back another week, from September 4 to September 11, according to Interscope, which declined to give a reason for the move. 

"Curtis" originally was slated for a June 26 release but was pushed back in late May. 

Two singles from the project have met with little success on radio. [that's what happens when you offer 50 cents as payola]- 
- more on this story

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Snoop Reality Televizzle
BBC reports: Rapper Snoop Dogg and his family are to be the subject of a reality TV show for US cable network E! Entertainment. 

The broadcaster said the show would be "hilarious and heart-warming" and would show the rapper balancing family duties with the world of hardcore hip-hop. 

The 35-year-old star, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, has three sons and runs a youth American football league.- more on this story

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Remy Ma Arrested for Murder
BBC reports: Grammy-nominated rap star Remy Ma has been arrested on charges of attempted murder, police in New York have said.

The 26-year-old, whose real name is Remy Smith, was sought for questioning after a woman was shot in New York's Meatpacking district on Saturday. 

She reported to police and was also arrested on charges of assault and criminal possession of a weapon.- more on this story

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more stories including: Remy Ma Arrested for Murder- AC/DC Recording New CD- Snoop Reality Televizzle- Garbage- Sony Sues DRM Co- Silverchair Postponements- Zutons Fire Guitarist- Fiddy Delay- Net Radio Reprieve- Led Zeppelin- Rooney- Breaking Benjamin- The Red Chord- Layne Staley- The Wailers- G. Love- Talib Kweli- more

Tuesday
Classic Hard Rock Still Strong
antiMusic reports: It seems that people are opting for classic hard rock and metal CDs over most generic "new" music. This according to a report by the Associated Press. While record companies try to fathom reasons why people aren't buying their "new" product, by ignoring the most logical explanation and looking to court tweens to help pick up their bottom lines, it appears that music from other eras where A&R people took chances on bands that didn't sound like everyone else and bands were allowed to develop a fanbase over several albums is still attracting a lot of buyers. 

Twenty-Seven years after its release, AC/DC's Back in Black is still selling almost enough copies a year to qualify for a gold record. Last year while we were treated to dozens of sound-alike emo bands that didn't sell many CDs, AC/DC's landmark album managed to sell 440,000 copies in the US. 

While [insert silly multi-worded name here] was struggling to attract the attention of TRL girls, other albums from long-ago were also moving pretty heavy numbers. Metallica's jump to the commercial mainstream, aka The Black Album was added to the CD collections of 275,000 US music fans last year and Guns 'N Roses debut which broke records when it was released in 1987 is still a hot seller, welcoming 113,000 more people to the jungle last year. And the album that killed "hair metal" and touched off the grunge trend of the early 90s (Nirvana's Nevermind) is still going strong with 143,000 copies sold last year. 

David Geffen should be proud to have two bands that he took a chance on still selling today and showing us why we need trendsetters and not trendfollowers running labels more than ever. On the other end of the spectrum, when you think of today's blasé music scene, you might think of the "genius" of Clive Davis and while his "genius" isn't selling record breaking amounts of CDs right now, he did manage to give us the best selling CD of 1986 in the form of Whitney Houston's self-titled debut. However, like most things that Clive touches it may sell today but doesn't have much of a shelf life (like real cheese) as Houston's CD only manages to attract about 7,000 new people a year, easily beat by Radiohead's "OK Computer" which turned on 94,000 additional people last year. 

There is definitely a lesson to be learned here. But will the people that need to learn it the most, take heed? Probably not, as they are too busy trying to find clones for the few bands of today that manage to sell a decent amount of CDs. That's when they are not working to shutdown online radio, installing rootkits on customers PCs and suing people.

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BBC Apologizes to "Metalica" Fans
antiMusic reports: When you are apologizing to fans of a band it is usually a good idea to spell the name of the band correctly. UK metalheads were a bit miffed at the BBC coverage of Live Earth because the producers decided to cut away mid-song from Metallica's performance at Wembley stadium in favor of Crowded House in Sydney. In other words, the network upset some of the very few people that actually tuned in to the "world changing" event.

The move prompted protest from a few hundred Metallica fans, so the BBC issued an apology and explanation for this decision. According to the Guardian "The BBC was at pains to point out that the decision was not taken out of 'prejudice about heavy metal music or any other music'." 

"We received complaints from some viewers that the Metalica [sic] set was not shown in full," BBC said in a statement on their complaint site. "This was a global event and we were keen to reflect the other concerts as well as the one in UK.

"We took editorial decisions in advance and on the day, about the times and places we would do that." [so they decided in advance to cut off the "Metalica" set"} 

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Destiny's Child Onstage Collapse
Gigwise reports: Kelly Rowland worried fans when she took a fall during a show in Lagos, Nigeria. 

The former Destiny's Child singer, currently touring to promote her second solo album, Ms. Kelly, was performing at the This Day Music Festival when she collapsed from dehydration. 

Kelly was treated at a local hospital and is back on her feet and in good condition, her rep tells ET.- more on this story

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more stories including: Destiny's Child Onstage Collapse- Star Held Hostage- Morrissey Vs Madonna- Write A Song, Go To Jail- Kelly Johnson RIP- What To Watch- What To Buy- Diddy- Seether- Hell Within- Schenker May Never Tour US Again- Strata- AusFest- Rilo Kiley- We Now Know Who To Blame for Disco- more

Wednesday
Quickies: Jacko, Paris, Underwood and Sum 41
antiMusic reports: A Superior Court judge has ordered Michael Jackson to pay $256,000 to the lawfirm Ayscough & Marar. The firm sued Jacko after the singer stiffed them for legal fees related to work they did to help prevent "the release of some information to the public and to lawyers in civil cases during his 2005 criminal trial," according to AP. 

The follow up to Carrie Underwood's six-million plus selling, Some Hearts, has a release date. Arista will drop the new one from the country pop idol on October 23rd. Mark Bright is producing the as-yet-untitled album. 

Speaking of sophomore albums, Paris Hilton is going to give a pop career another shot. The heir head is working on a new album, despite being dropped from her label. "I'm already working on my new record," Hilton told E! Online. "I've been in meetings with Scott [Storch] and we've been working on it." No word yet if it will include a cover of "Jail House Rock". 

Avril posted a statement on her Myspace blog thank fans for their support through the entire song theft ordeal but unlike her public denial of stealing from The Rubinoos, she didn't counter the latest claim that she ripped off Peaches "I'm The Kinda". Instead she asked her punk rawking fans to support the equally hardcore new album from her boyfriends band. That's right Sum 41 is releasing a new CD, Underclass Hero, and it's streaming in it's entirety on MTV.com's The Leak.- Click here if you are punk enough to handle it. 

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Rammstein Singer Switch a Hoax?
Blabbermouth reports: According to The Gauntlet, RAMMSTEIN's management has dismissed as a hoax a press release that was issued on the band's behalf announcing the departure of singer Till Lindemann and addition of En Esch (KMFDM, PIGFACE, SLICK IDIOT) as his replacement. 

"[The news that Till would be leving the band following the completion of the band's new record] is not true and was not released by either band or management," a group representative said. 

"We have no idea where this comes from. The band is writing a new album at present."- more on this story

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Court Stings Sting
BBC reports: Rock star Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, have been ordered to pay their former chef compensation after losing a sexual discrimination case. 

Jane Martin, 41, was awarded £24,944 ($51 K) in her case against the couple at an employment tribunal in Southampton. 

She claimed she was sacked by Miss Styler from the couple's estate in Wiltshire because she became pregnant.
- more on this story

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bin Laden Targets Singer
antiMusic reports: The mystery of identy of the 7,000 people that still buy Whitney Houston CDs has been partially solved. Turns out that when Osama Bin Laden isn't plotting the destruction of the "great satan," he's blasting Whitney's music in his cave. That also goes a long way in explaining why the rest of al-Qaeda has a deep hatred of the West. Imagine how bad it would be if Osama loved Celine?

You see, ol' Osama is infactuated with the screeching singer and as a result he is reportedly gunning for Bobby Brown's ass. This all came to light via an article by Sudanese writer Kola Boof. Since then Bobby has been watching his back.

"Come on, if anyone is threatened by al-Qaeda they'd take it seriously," Bobby reportedly told an Austrailian radio show. "I figure if Bin Laden wants me, and everybody is looking for him, it won't happen. But if he wants to try and find me for something so stupid, then he can if he wants. I have to leave it in the hands of a higher power." 

Even scarier is the fact that Brown is in Australia for a series of concerts.

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Thursday
Fall Out Baby?
antiMusic reports: It was a pretty dead day for real music news but children's entertainment had some hefty headlines with a reported leak of the ending to the final Harry Potter book (he falls in love with Clay Aiken) and news of a Fall Out Baby. 
Will the world soon welcome an eye shadow wearing, lip-synching, emo love child? According to a host of always reliable tabloids the answer is yes. Pete Wentz has reportedly proven his manhood by knocking up Ashlee Simpson. Of course, this news comes from the sources that give us UFO sightings and the adventures of rabbit boy. 

The tabs took it one step further and reported that Wentz will do the honorable thing and wed the lip-synching popstar. The couple were reportedly engaged under of the romantic backdrop of New Jersey during the Live Earth debacle. However, the mime's representatives told USmagazine.com that the engagement story was "absolutely not true." 

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White Stripes Screw Fans
antiMusic reports: Is your album not selling as well as you hoped? Even after staging a heavily covered publicity stunt in Hollywood to kick it off? Not to mention using planes, trains and other vehicles to try and generate interest. What's a band to do? If you are The White Stripes you trick some of your fans into attended a secret performance and reward them with a single note. 

It's being billed as the briefest White Stripes gig ever by the more generous reporters. In fact, it was one of the silliest publicity stunts thus far from Jack White and co. And that's saying a lot.

Jack and Diane, oh wait... Meg, reportedly had a stage set up Monday on George Street in St. John, Canada, where they jumped up and played a single note before rushing off to their real concert at Mile One Stadium. In case you were wondering, the note was a C-sharp according to reports. 

The suckers that turned out for this "secret gig" did get a sound byte from Jack who reportedly exclaimed, "We've now officially played in every province and territory in Canada." Good for you Jack. Bad for those that wasted their time to hear that proclamation.- more on this story

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Rapper Smashes Pumpkins
antiMusic reports: Billy Corgan's new Smashing Pumpkins project wasn't strong enough to kick T.I. to curb, or rather from the spot atop the Billboard 200 charts. The Smashing new CD 'Zeitgeist' did attract 145,000 fans this past week to debut at No. 2. T.I.'s "T.I. vs. T.I.P." took a sharp nosedive in sales (65%) but still managed to hold on to the top of the chart with sales of 175,000.
Miley Cyrus' "Hannah Montana 2" dropped one spot to No 2 on sales of 128,000 units proving once again that Tweens with their mother's credit card can inflict damage. Interpol's major-label debut "Our Love To Admire," debuts on the US charts at No. 4 with sales of 73,000 while Kelly Clarkson assumed the No 5 position with her latest "My December" which grabbed the attention of 59,000 more people last week which helped her relegate Bon Jovi's "Lost Highway" to sixth place with 4,000 fewer copies of the country hair metal opus being sold last week. 

The big question though: Is Velvet Revolver now firing blanks? The band's sophomore album, "Libertad," debuted last week at No. 5 with disappointing sales of 92,000 copies but the second week saw them drop 16 places to No. 21 with sales of just 33,000. Maybe their PR people should have responded to those requests for reviews?

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Friday
Shavo Says System Not Down For Good
antiMusic reports: Shavo Odadjian has assured fans that System of a Down is not over. He reassured fans even more by saying "System is alive and well." before pulling the carpet out from under their hopes by adding, " We're just not working together right now." 
Shavo was speaking to Launch when he made the revelations that the System is still intact, just out of order at the moment. "We kind of like split up at first, but you know, we're brothers, man, we'll take bullets for each other. So it's like, you kind of miss each other after a while and you, one guy makes the first move, then another starts making phone calls....this is a juggernaut, man. System Of A Down is my lifeline. It'll never go away. We could not make a record for 10 years � that's not gonna happen, but I'm just saying we could � and we'll come back strong."

While he waits for the phone call to turn the system back on, he's going to be taking on Myspace with his new venture called urSession.com. It's an online music "community" but with a catch, it'll also somehow be a record company. Look for that later this summer.

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Lily Allen Returning to US as Shoe Saleswoman 
antiMusic reports: You've probably been asking yourself two questions lately. When in the hell is Lily Allen going to be touring in the US again and why hasn't Nike put out a special American themed Lily Allen shoe yet? We have answers to both questions for you. 
Allen will be returning to US shores in September for a string of West Coast dates kicking off on the 6th in San Diego, from there she will hit Vegas, Anaheim, San Fran, Portland before hitting Seattle on the 15th. 

You're probably saying that's all well and good but what about those nifty Nikes? Seems the shoe giant asked Lily to design a signature version of the Air Max 90 shoe. Lily opted for a patriotic American theme for the shoes which will be red, white and blue and have stars on the laces so if you don't buy them you will be helping the terrorists. 

September
6 San Diego, CA - House of Blues
7 Las Vegas, NV - The Joint/Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
10 Anaheim, CA - House of Blues
12 San Francisco, CA - Warfield Theatre
14 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
15 Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre

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Jovi Vs Java
AP reports: Jon Bon Jovi wants the owner of the Mijovi energy drink to change its name, arguing it is too similar to his famous moniker. 

But Marcos Carrington says his coffee-based energy drink is named after his girlfriend, whose name is Jovita, not the 45-year-old rocker. 

In a Jan. 22 letter, Los Angeles lawyer Peter Laird, representing Bon Jovi, objected to the word "Mijovi" as well as other words "itsmijovi" and "itsmilife" that appear in the company's marketing materials and on the can. Rather than use Carrington's spelling, the letter used the phrases, "It's My Jovi" and "It's My Life."- more on this story

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Singer Spits on Fans
Contact Music reports: British singer AMY WINEHOUSE managed to sink to even lower depths than she had before with fans, after a catastrophic 'performance' in Cornwall. 

The REHAB singer was appearing at the Eden Project this week - her first gig for two weeks after claiming "exhaustion" - when she dashed off stage during her first few songs. 

In front of a frustrated and confused crowd, Amy then returned and proceeded to slap herself around the face and bash the microphone on her head. According to the Sun, she then forgot the lyrics to her songs, spat into the crowd and mumbled swear words.- more on this story

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