Courtesy Island Def Jam

Florence Welch channeled her best Evil Queen with her song “Breath of Life” for upcoming feature film Snow White and the Huntsman. She’s also summoned forth the souls of Johnny and June Cash in her “Jackson” duet with Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age.

As of late, it seems as though most of crimson-haired singer’s performances have been adventures into a dreamlike fairyland as fans at this year’s Coachella Fest can attest.

To add to the singer’s already busy schedule, Welch just announced that her band will join yet another festival: the “Bestival” on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom which is curated by radio personality Rob da Bank. In order to celebrate the festival’s “wildlife” theme this year, Florence and her machine dressed up in animal costumes and covered the 1986 Talking Heads tune “Wild Wild Life.”
Watch Florence Welch sing in a bear costume.

Photo by Kevin Winter//Getty Images

Placed twice by Rolling Stone magazine on a list of the Top 100 Guitarists of All Time, John Frusciante–the ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers musician who saw the band through hit albums like Mothers Milk, Blood Sex Sugar Magik, and Californication–is prepping to showcase his skills on a new solo EP called Letur Lefr.

Released on July 9th, the album will be Frusciante’s twelfth solo album; Frusciante’s début, 1994′s Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt, was surrounded with controversy over his self-proclaimed “junkie” drug use.

Almost two decades later and three years after his critically acclaimed The Empyrean album, Frusciante is once again ready to highlight his eclectic guitar phrasings.

Learn more about the EP here.

Photo: Facebook/Mark Zuckerberg

The day after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg officially became a multi-billionaire via the most anticipated IPO ever, he wed his long time girlfriend of more than nine years. In a private ceremony in Palo Alto, California, Zuckerberg married his college sweetheart Priscilla Chan. Chan, who graduated medical school last week at University of California at San Francisco, has dated Zuckerberg since his dorm room days prior to launching Facebook. Her character was absent from the film The Social Network in favor of a more dramatic dating story.

The guests all thought they were coming to celebrate Chan’s graduation but were told after they arrived that the event was in fact a wedding. “Everybody was shocked,” one guest told the AP. Zuckerberg made the nuptials public when he updated his status to Married, which garnered 800,000 Likes by Sunday evening.

According to the Mercury News, a special performer was brought in to entertain the guests; Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong sang a few acoustic tunes including “Tell Me When It’s Time To Say I Love You.” In a TMZ video, with audio slightly obscured by passing cars, Billie can be heard dedicating a song to the newlyweds. “This song is one I wrote for my wife of 18 years… uh… it better be for her or I’d be in trouble. This song’s called ‘Last Night On Earth.’”

Watch a live version of ‘Last Night On Earth’

(Photo: Amanda Graziano)

In an interview with Ted Stryker just prior to a dress rehearsal for a small group of fans, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda shares some insight into the creation of their latest album, Living Things.

The band calls the new record a “developing journey” and one where they had a discussion about “getting real with who they are.” For Shinoda, that meant co-producing the album with Rubin, although he deems the word co-production a “technicality.”

“Rick comes in about once a week and he does a few hours with us where he hears it with fresh ears and gives us the Rick Rubin take,” Shinoda explains.

“There are a couple misconceptions with a band writing a song,” Shinoda continues. “One is that you think of a song, you like dream it up, and then you make it. And that’s not how it works for us. Another thing is people think maybe a band jams and then they write a song and then they go into a studio and then they record it and then when they’re done recorded they go mix and master and then the put it out.”Shinoda says the writing process is weird.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Last night’s Billboard Music Awards attempted to differ from other awards shows in that producers focused less on the awards and more on the performances. With an audience comprised of thousands of Las Vegas music fans packed in the MGM Grand, acceptance speeches were shorter and the pace of the show was seemingly faster. Despite being dominated by acts like LMFAO, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Rihanna etc., it was still one of the most watchable award shows for rock fans.

Coldplay did the most damage in the rock category, taking home Top Rock Artist, Top Alternative Artist, Top Rock Album and Top Alternative Album. U2 stole Best Touring Artist from the hands of Bon Jovi and Taylor Swift while Adele kept the gold statues out of the hands of Bieber, LMFAO, Perry, Gaga and Lil Wayne in the Hot 100 and Hot 200 categories.

Coldplay won four awards at last night's @Billboard Awards! Info at coldplay.com/newsdetail.php… A—
Coldplay (@coldplay) May 21, 2012

Linkin Park’s performance stood out from the seemingly endless supply of teen-soaked pop. Chester Bennington and crew brought the heat with “Burn It Down,” the first single from their upcoming album Living Things.
Watch Linkin Park’s performance, see Miley’s legs.

Photo: Cody Black

In an interview with Ted Stryker just prior to a dress rehearsal for a small group of fans, the band recollected the early Hybrid Theory days of their career–the days of dog collars and jelly bracelets–and how it compares to twelve years later in the Living Things stage of their musical journey.

Shinoda told a funny story, about two years into their career, when Bennington was hungover and had to get through an airport security line with all his rock and roll metal.

“There was a day when he was wearing a dog collar, he had the metal in his ears, he had the metal in his lip, he had spike bracelets from his wrist to his elbows, he had a belt that had metal all over it with like a chain, and metal in his boots and he goes to the airport with us,” says Shinoda. “And we see him, we get to the airport, we’re in the security line with this guy going, ‘Ummm, there’s like two people in front of you and we don’t say anything to him because clearly he was hungover.”
Continue with Shinoda’s funny memory.

Courtesy RCA Music Group

Most would agree that remixes rarely add or transform the original song into something better. All too often we hear “I like the original better.” Rarely does a remix come along that evokes a positive emotion from the band’s most loyal fans.

Known as Trouble Productions, the duo of The Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr. and producer Gus Oberg, give Walk The Moon’s “Anna Sun” a smooth, sultry yet bold electronic make-over. Hammond is a respected rock figure, but what about Oberg? Among the names Oberg has engineered sessions for are greats like Strokes, Neil Young, Postelles and Moby.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, lead singer and humble Ohioan, Nicholas Petricca couldn’t hold back his excitement, “We’re psyched about how quickly “Anna Sun is spreading and how positive the response has been! Also, our heads exploded a little when we think of Albert and Gus remixing the track. Huge honor!”Listen to the remix and find out who Anna is.

Alexandra Wyman /Getty Images

As Facebook went public today, reports are calculating that Bono’s investment company, Elevation Partners, stands to make up to $1.5 billion off of the IPO. According to Inc.,
Elevation owns 1.5 percent of Facebook’s shares. What percentage will go to Bono is unknown, but as a co-founder of the company, he likely stands to make a considerable profit. That’s especially good news for the U2 frontman, who was once referred to as “the worst investor” in America: one of Elevation’s notoriously bad investments was in Yelp, which has since been plagued with class-action lawsuits and extortion accusations.Which singer does Bono bump down the wealthiest list?

Photo: Alex Rauch

In 2009 the State of Arizona passed the highly controversial immigration bill known as SB 1070. A public backlash ensued. Rise Against stood in solidarity with others who supported the Sound Strike movement. Sound Strike was a collection of artists who swore off playing live concerts in Arizona. The goal was to raise awareness for the injustices they believed the law would bring against immigrants.

Recently, that ban has been lifted and artists are inking deals with venues all over the state. Rise Against has announced that they’ll Flagstaff and Tempe as part of their North American tour. According to the band, 100% of the proceeds from the Flagstaff show will be donated to the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project. The organization’s mission is to assist those detained by Immigration and Customs in Arizona.

Rise Against will set out on tour beginning September 11 in Quebec, head down into the Mid-West, turn around to go back up the West Coast, stopping to play the Honda Center in Anaheim, September 29th before ending the tour in Edmonton, Canada in October. Tickets go on sale Thursday, May 24th at 10am via Ticketmaster.

They’ll be supported by The Gaslight Anthem, NOFX and Authority Zero on various dates.Get Rise Against’s tour schedule.

Mike Coppola / Getty Images

Apparently the suits behind the Guinness World Records book didn’t take well to Jack White’s claim that they dismissed his record-breaking attempt at playing the shortest public concert ever.

White was under the belief that he and former bandmate Meg White held the record for shortest concert ever, consisting of a single, quickly muted cymbal crash.

According to a dialog between a Guinness rep and British music magazine NME, “The White Stripes were in fact recognized in the 2009 edition of the Guinness World Records book for the shortest music concert ever when, on July 16 2007, they played just one note at St John’s in Newfoundland, Canada.”See what Guinness had to say.

Courtesy Fueled by Ramen

Fun.’s newest single “Some Nights” entered this week’s KROQ most-played list at #11, while their hit song “We Are Young” took the #1 spot. Gotye’s “Somebody The I Used To Know” came in at #2, followed by Linkin Park’s “Burn It Down,” Grouplove’s “Tongue Tied” and M83′s “Midnight City” rounding off the top 5.

Jack White’s “Sixteen Saltines” also entered the list this week at #29.

See the full playlist here.

Photo: Annie Reuter / CBS Local

The Gaslight Anthem played to a sold-out crowd Wednesday night at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg. While several hundred lucky fans got an in-person view of their set others could watch the entire show as it webcast live around the globe.

A preview of what’s to come on their new album Handwritten, due in stores July 24, the New Jersey band’s nearly two hour performance included the energetic first single “45″ as well as the bluesy “Biloxi Parish” which showcased a new side of the band. With distinct groove, though a slight deviation from the expected, Brian Fallon’s familiar vocals and memorable guitar licks impressed.

The band’s set covered the entirety of Gaslight Anthem’s catalog, from the poignant “Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts” and the classic “Wherefore Art Thou, Elvis?” off their first EP Senor and the Queen to the more familiar “Great Expectations” and “Old White Lincoln” from breakthrough album The ’59 Sound. All the while frontman Brian Fallon expressed his gratitude to the fans.
Watch the entire set and read the review.

Photo by AFP//Getty Images

California punk-rock pioneers, NOFX, have eleven studio albums under their studded belts but fans are clamoring for more from the irreverent, bawdy four-piece that has never been signed to a major label in the almost three decades of their existence.

Yesterday, the band released a new song titled “My Stepdad’s A Cop and My Stepmom’s A Domme.” The premise of the song is how an allegedly moral, upstanding cop’s career is on-par with that of a professional dominatrix–all handcuffs, night sticks, beatings, and boots.

NOFX has a new 7" out today. My daughter helped me with lyrics to the title track even though she doesn't know it. fatwreck.com/news/detail/475—
Mike Burkett (@FatMike_of_NOFX) May 15, 2012

Listen to the new NOFX single here!