I really don’t know if I’m eligible to put R&P in front of this question but since it looks high and mighty I’ll go for it.
Anyways, what are your top ten contenders for Album of the Year so far? as in, albums released THIS year?
Fair To Midland- Arrows and Anchors
Skindred- Union Black
Bon Iver- Self Titled
Sepultura- Kairos
Thomas Giles- Pulse
Born of Osiris- The Discovery
Last Chance To Reason- Level 2
The Human Abstract- Digital Veil
Floating Me- Self Titled
Ocoai- The Electric Hand

50 Cent Tweeted on Friday night that he is close to finishing his fifth studio album, tentatively titled Black Magic. “Here I am I’m back did you miss me?,” the rapper tweeted, without any edits from us. “I was working on the album today. I think I’m 80 percent done.” If 50 Cent is 80 percent done…

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J. Cole is spending his summer vacation on tour with Rihanna, but the rapper is set to rock his debut album by summer’s end. He will also announce the official title and first single shortly. “The announcement’s coming soon,” Cole told Billboard.com. “We gotta clear the sample for the single, which…

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Country cutie Luke Bryan has put the finishing touches on his new album, Tailgates & Tanlines, due in stores August 9th. He has announced the tracklisting for the album. The new album contains eight songs co-penned by Bryan, including his current Top 15 hit single “Country Girl (Shake It For Me).” Find out more by visiting the link

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There’s an unsettling beauty to Staind’s new music. It’s marked by the same kind of unnerving emotion that turned Dysfunction into a classic for fans worldwide. However, that emotion has been siphoned through a much tighter, tougher, and more tremendous catharsis. Guitarist Mike Mushok played me Discover more great content by visiting the link below

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Digest: Black Eyed Peas Open Music School; Moby Announces New Book and Album

Black Eyed Peas Open Music School
The Black Eyed Peas have announced plans to open a school in Manhattan, where local teenagers can learn video and music production skills on professional equipment. The Peapod Adobe Youth Voices Academy, the result of a partnership between the group’s Peapod Foundation and the Adobe Foundation, will offer classes for students ages 13 to 19 beginning in July. Billboard

Moby to Release New Book and Album
Moby is set to release a new record and book of photography, both titled Destroyed, on May 17th. The projects are the result of the artist’s decision to write music on tour and document the experience of traveling from show to show with his camera. Moby says the new music is inspired by Kraftwerk, Suicide, Silver Apples, Brian Eno and other early electronic music pioneers. Billboard

Michael Jackson Estate Settles With Charity
The estate of Michael Jackson has reached a settlement with the Heal the World Foundation over its use of the late pop star’s likeness. The estate sued the charity in 2009 for misappropriating the singer’s trademarks to create an association with his defunct organization of the same name. The agreement states that the charity can no longer use the Heal the World name or Jackson’s image.  BBC

Patti Smith, Rufus Wainwright to Play River to River Festival
The lineup for the 10th annual River to River Festival of free concerts in New York City has been announced. This summer’s schedule, which will fall between June 19th and July 17th, includes performances by Patti Smith, Rufus Wainwright, Sean Lennon, Laurie Anderson, Rosanne Cash and My Brightest Diamond. The festival will kick off with the annual Bang on a Can Marathon, a 12-hour event that will feature Philip Glass performing music composed by David Byrne, St. Vincent’s Annie Clark, the Sun Ra Arkestra and Glenn Branca. press release

Andrew W.K. Plans Party Album
Rocker Andrew W.K. announced to his fans on Twitter yesterday that he is the process of making a new record. “Do you realise I’m recording my new full-length party album? It is a mega-party vibe,” the singer wrote. The party-centric theme is not exactly a surprise coming from the man who penned the anthems “Party Hard,” “Long Live the Party,” “Big Party” and “Party Til You Puke.” NME

MORE: Jeff Bridges to Record Album; Animal Collective Announce Summer Tour

Billboard reports that Bloc Party will call an end to their two-year hiatus when they begin working on their fourth album this September. Guitarist Russell Lissack said, “We’re having a bit of a break until the festivals are over, because people have commitments during the summer, but we’re going to…

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The Hollywood Reporter reports that reality star and celebreality star Paris Hilton revealed her new album will be released “in the next few months.” Hilton was not forthcoming with the details of the album, instead telling THR that she wants to keep her collaborators and producers “a surprise.” Find out more by visiting the link

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Recently I was digging for concert photos… I stumbled onto this sweet snapshot: Ra Ra Riot – 5 of 6!

Ra Ra Riot – 5 of 6, according to the author:

At the Great American Music Hall. The violinist is out of the picture.

Here is the album that this concert photo was taken from because you might want it.
Will a few people describe a different point of view?

Eminem ‘s ‘Recovery’ album was the biggest-selling album in the US last year, new figures have revealed. According to entertainment data information system Nielden SoundScan ‘s annual report, the album sold 3.42million copies in 2010. As expected, the year-end Nielsen SoundScan numbers once again tell a tale of an industry in turmoil.   There were a few bright spots, but 2010 was mostly about diminishing returns. Lady Antebellum ‘s ‘Need You Now’ was the second highest-selling album, shifting 3.09million copies, while Taylor Swift ‘s ‘Speak Now’ was third highest-selling, with 2.96million sold. Recovery is also the No. 1 digital album, with 852,000 copies, and Eminem trumps competitors in digital tracks, selling a combined 14 million. Beside winning four coveted prizes at People’s Choice Awards, Eminem is also celebrating another accolade as he scores 2010′s U.S. best-selling album with his latest set ” Recovery “. The disc, which was the rapper’s sixth chart-topper, has moved more than 3.4 million units since its June release. In 2002, The Eminem Show sold 7.61m copies. This is the second time he reached the landmark, making him the first act to top year-end sale number in more than one year. Taylor Swift’s third album, “Speak Now,” came in at No. 3 with 2.96 million in sales.

She becomes the only artist to have sold more than 4 million albums in each of the past three years. In the five prior years, catalog albums had outperformed current album sales. In the 52 weeks ending Jan. 2, album sales fell 13% to 326.2 million units, and digital track sales managed only a 1% gain, to 1.17 billion. For the year, it garnered 31.4% market share in albums (including track-equivalent ones), beating out Sony Music Entertainment’s 27.4% slice and Warner Music Group’s 19.8% performance. That hefty consumption of downloads helped offset overall music losses, which fell only 2.4%. EMI finished fourth with 9.6%, while the indie sector collectively garnered 11.6%. Antebellum sold 3.09 million copies with their ” Need You Now “, and Swift scanned 2.96 million units with her ” Speak Now “. Only 13 albums sold more than 1 million copies in 2010, down from 22 in 2009. More than one-fourth of albums sold last year were downloads.

Several slots lower, Perry places her single “Teenage Dream” at No. 12 (3.01 million) and “Firework” at No. 28 (2.33 million). Fans bought 71% of vinyl albums in independent record stores. U.S. best-selling albums: ” Recovery ” – Eminem (3.42 million) ” Need You Now ” – Lady Antebellum (3.09 million) ” Speak Now ” – Taylor Swift (2.96 million) ” My World 2.0 ” – Justin Bieber (2.32 million) ” The Gift ” – Susan Boyle (1.85 million) ” The Fame ” – Lady GaGa (1.59 million) ” Soldier of Love ” – Sade (1.30 million) ” Thank Me Later ” – Drake (1.27 million) ” Raymond vs. Eminem and Rihanna ‘s ‘Love The Way You Lie’ was the third most downloaded song, selling 4.25million copies. In the vinyl sales stakes things were a bit more indie, with The Beatles ‘ ‘Abbey Road’ reissue selling the most, with 35,000 sales.

Gorillaz, created over a decade ago by Blur frontman Damon Albarn and British cartoonist Jamie Hewlett, have released their promised ‘Christmas’ album, entitled The Fall. For members of the Gorillaz’s fan club, the album is avaiable for downloading. For the rest of us mere mortals, it is available Discover more great content by visiting the link below

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I grew up in Potomac and became a Beatles fan in 1974, when my brother, Mark, gave me my first Beatles album – ” Something New ” from 1964. I immediately ran out to Waxie Maxie’s in Congressional Plaza and bought all four of the Beatles’ then-current solo singles. I bought every album and single I could, building a pretty substantial collection (which I still have). At the curtain call, the show’s star, Patti LuPone, asked for a moment of silence for the slain ex-Beatle. Oh my God!” I couldn’t believe it. Somebody would shoot a Beatle? My roommate, Jeff, had been watching “Monday Night Football,” on which, like many Americans, he heard ABC’s Howard Cosell break the news about John. Having rekindled my interest in the Beatles, I took over a Beatles fanzine, Good Day Sunshine, in 1995, and ran it for about five years. The guy who sold me the magazine was Charles F. Yet, in retrospect, even his failures take on the glow of nobility: the fact that he cared so much shines through his occasional shortcomings.

Like me, a little after 11 p.m. on Dec. 8, he received a call from a friend who gave him the news. Lines like “Looking through the bent backed tulips” and “Fixing a hole in the ocean” (from “Glass Onion”) could only have come from Lennon. We needed to commiserate and share together.” It wasn’t until the next Monday, after the whirlwind of news and conventions had passed, that the reality of Lennon’s death finally sank in. I pulled over, and I just started crying. Many of Lennon’s White Album tunes sardonically addressed issues: the hippie dream world (“Glass Onion”), gun toting (“Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill”) and the group’s short-term involvement with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (“Sexy Sadie”). I n November of 1968, the same month The White Album was released, John Lennon and his new love, Yoko Ono, issued the first of their experimental, tapebuzz LPs, Unfinished Music No. 1 — Two Virgins. Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions (1969) was painful, dealing in part with Ono’s miscarriage. Because of her avantgarde singing, Ono took quite a critical beating for these LPs. (Nowadays, she sounds positively New Wave, and her influence has been obvious on such contemporary rockers as Lene Lovich and the B-52′s.) Throughout the attacks on his wife’s talent and her “screeching” vocal style, Lennon demonstrated love, loyalty and a strong belief in both Yoko and her commitment to conceptual art. Side one contained potent oldies (“Blue Suede Shoes,” “Money,” “Dizzy Miss Lizzie”), a slashing version of “Yer Blues” and fiery live renditions of two singles from this period. Here, he turned the pop cliché that everyone’s a star into a rousing, prolife anthem. Thus there was virtually no instrumentation beyond a primal rock band composed of Lennon on rough lead guitar, Ringo Starr on drums, Klaus Voorman on bass and Billy Preston’s occasional keyboards: boards: the music didn’t cut, it bit…. Almost every track offered a shot of adrenalin. “God,” a towering refutation of counter-cultural idealism and the idea of omniscient leaders, delivered the coup de grâce to the Beatles mystique with the shattering admission, “The dream is over.” Perhaps the LP’s best song was the Dylan-esque acoustic ballad, “Working Class Hero.” This brutally tight-lipped put-down of the socialization process transcended even the issues of class with which it so fervently dealt.

For 20 minutes, I just cried. He was as close to me as someone could be without me knowing them,” he says.

The president of the Recording Academy, Neil Portnow , said so himself : the Grammy Awards nomination concert, now in its third year, is no “ratings juggernaut.” What it does do, however, is raise awareness for the main event on February 13. Craig Ferguson , nominated for Best Spoken Word Album for his audiobook “American on Purpose,” joked that compared to his fellow nominees Carol Burnett, Woody Allen, Jon Stewart and Sarah Silverman , “I’m the crappiest person in this!” Anticipating that his chances are “zero,” he joked, “you get nominated and people immediately start preparing you for being a loser.” “When you talk about a career or longevity, you can’t be a one-trick pony. Katy Perry , Bruno Mars , and Lady Gaga also have something to sing about, as they’ve all earned multiple nominations. The anticipation for the Grammys begins to build after the stars come out to play, literally. “You’ve gotta get louder than that!” he demanded during a practice cheer. ——— LL Cool J, the nomination concert’s host, was all business when preparing to present from the mezzanine during one commercial break. Arcade Fire, meanwhile, is up for Album of the Year — arguably the show’s top prize. Bieber’s My World 2.0 is also up for Best Pop Vocal Album, but he’ll have some stiff competition against Gaga, Perry, John Mayer’s Battle Studies and SuBo’s I Dreamed a Dream .

Fox, and joked, “I’m the crappiest person in this race.” ——— When asked what he thought of his band’s nomination for rock alternative album, Bill Reynolds of Band of Horses asked reporters, “Can I cuss?” The bassist said he drove down from his house in rural Ojai, Calif., in his truck to attend the nominations, while the rest of the band was on the East Coast. Reynolds said they’ve been writing more music on the road because of “this thing they have called the iPad.” That show will also air on CBS and Global. Nominated as a featured guest on B.O.B.’s “Airplanes” (as well as with her own band on the fantastic ballad “The Only Exception”) she explained how the collaboration came to be. “It fell into my lap,” said Williams. “Someone dropped a demo off, I played it loud and the guys told me I was crazy if I didn’t do it.

I love the song, and I don’t think I’d ever do anything if I didn’t fully believe in it.” Williams and B.O.B. only met two months ago at the VMAs, the rest of this Grammy-nominated duet, including the video, was done separately. “Hey, it’s 2010,” Williams shrugged. “We’re just living in the future.”    Indeed, some of the night’s nominees couldn’t wait to get rocking.

Boyle said she has “never felt happier” than seeing “The Gift,” match her first record’s successful debut. “The Gift” reached No. 1 in the U.K. on Sunday and topped the U.S. charts Wednesday.

Susan Boyle ‘s The Gift debuted atop the Billboard 200 album chart this week after selling more than 318,000 copies in its first week of release.  This marks Boyle’s second consecutive No. 1 debut. According to her record label, the Scottish star is only the third act to achieve that feat twice within a year. Her first album, I Dreamed a Dream , entered the chart at No. 1 in 2009, and remained on top of the chart for six weeks. Quite simply, Scotland’s finest songstress has the number-one album in the U.S. and U.K. at the same time. Her first album “I Dreamed a Dream” was the world’s top seller in 2009, shifting more than 10 million copies. Sunday, and repeated the trick in the U.S. Wednesday. This is an amazing result and one I never expected.” The singer became a star after her performance of “I Dreamed A Dream” from the musical “Les Miserables” stunned the audience and judges on the ITV show. Simon Cowell, whose Britain’s Got Talent TV show made Boyle a star in 2009, said he was “thrilled” by the news. Boyle is the first ever woman to do it, her record company, Sony, said. She is my superwoman.” In 2009, “I Dreamed A Dream” became the biggest-selling album in the world and has sold nine million copies. Sugarland ‘s The Incredible Machine dropped five spots to No. 8 on sales of 60,000 copies. It went on to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide.

The eccentric Scot shot to international fame after her audition for the TV show “Britain’s Got Talent” received more than 120 million views on YouTube. Boyle’s first album, “I Dreamed A Dream,” came out in 2009 and has sold more than 10 million copies.

The song ” Opis None ” was pulled from the archives of JacksonSecretVault.com … a company in which Katherine Jackson is a partner. The company owns nearly 300 unreleased MJ tracks … along with never-before-seen video and memorabilia. The cover art for a new album of previously unheard Michael Jackson songs, which will be released on 14 December 2010. Ahead of the world premiere of Michael Jackson ‘s new single “Breaking News”, an official trailer is brought forward to tide fans over. “The songs which are being released on the new Michael Jackson album were unfinished and incomplete tracks that Michael said over and over many times he never wanted released,” Oxman said. Sony said the album would be labelled Michael. Really, it does, even after James Franco finds himself trapped beneath a boulder for — that’s right — 127 hours while exploring caves and canyons. You have the band in front of him, marching … and you have the cult around it,” West said. “We have complete confidence in the results of our extensive research as well as the accounts of those who were in the studio with Michael that the vocals on the new album are his own,” Sony told ABC News. Jackson’s commercial fortunes were on the wane long before his death, though grieving fans turned him into one of the biggest selling artists last year. Last year, the track This Is It appeared online and was touted as the first posthumous Jackson release, only for it to emerge that it had first been recorded in 1983. Jackson’s career has continued to flourish, even in death.