Here’s a quick listing of some of the new albums coming out today:

ALO Man of the World

Neil Diamond Hot August Night

Fear Factory Mechanize

Galactic Ya-Ka-May

The Pretenders Live in London

Sade Soldier of Love

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The initial Bonnaroo lineup has been announced.(Tickets are now on sale!)

Headliners include Jay-Z, Stevie Wonder, Kings of Leon and Dave Matthews Band.

Here’s who we know so far:
311, Aeroplane, Against Me!, Tori Amos, And You will Know Us by the Trail of the Dead, Asterisk*, Aterciopelados, The Avett Brothers, Baaba Maal, Bassnectar, Baroness, Jeff Beck, Big Sam’s Funky Nation, Diane Birch, The Black Keys, Blitzen Trapper, Blues Traveler, B.O.B., Zac Brown Band, John Butler Trio, Calexico, Brandi Carlile, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Les Claypool, Jimmy Cliff, Clutch, The Constellations, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Deadmau5, The Dead Weather, Death Cab for Cutie, Disco Biscuits, Dan Deacon Ensemble, The Dodos, Dr. Dog, Dropkick Murphys, Jay Electronica, The Entrance Band, The Flaming Lips (performing Dark Side of the Moon), John Fogerty, Michael Franti & Spearhead, The Gaslight Anthem, GWAR, Daryl Hall & Chromeo, Mayer Hawthorne, Here We Go Magic, Hot Rise, Isis, Japandroids, Jay-Z, Jamey Johnson, Norah Jones, Kid Cudi, Kings of Leon, Allison Krauss & Union Station, Kris Kristofferson, Miranda Lambert, LCD Soundsystem, Local Natives, Lotus, Lucero, Manchester Orchestra, Damian Marley & Nas, Steve Martin and Steep Canyon Rangers, Dave Matthews Band, Medeski, Martin & Wood, The Melvins, Mew, Ingrid Michaelson, Monte Montgomery, Mumford & Sons, The National, Needtobreathe, Neon Indian, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Julia Nunes, OK Go, Ozomatli, Phoenix, The Postelles, John Prine, Punch Brothers, Dave Rawlings Machine, Rebelution, Rise Against, Martin Sexton, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes, She & Him, Miike Snow, Regina Spektor, The Temper Trap, Tenacious D, They Might Be Giants, Thievery Corporation, Tinariwen, Tokyo Police Club, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Wale, Weezer, Stevie Wonder, The XX

GWAR is an interesting choice – good luck to any hippies on acid during that one…

Rumors that didn’t come true (yet) include Paul Simon, Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga, Roger Waters, Spoon, Pavement, Faith No More, Soundgarden, Neil Young, Furthur, John Frusciante…

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The lineup for this year’s Rock on the Range festival has been announced. Held on May 22 and 23 in Columbus, Ohio, the lineup is:

Godsmack, Rob Zombie, Limp Bizkit, Three Days Grace, Slash, Seether, Rise Against, Deftones, Papa Roach, Theory Of A Deadman, Mastodon, Killswitch Engage, Coheed & Cambria, Bullet for My Valentine, Puddle Of Mudd, Five Finger Death Punch, Apocalyptica, Drowning Pool, Halestorm, Sevendust, Skillet, Mushroomhead, Helmet, Airbourne, Anberlin, Cold, Nonpoint, 2Cents, Adelitas Way, Shaman’s Harvest, Year Long Disaster, Like A Storm, Taddy Porter, Janus, Columbus’ own Noise Auction and more.

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Evan Dando For those of us old enough to know better, Evan Dando will probably be linked with Kurt Cobain in perpetuity. Though Cobain was always considered The More Serious Artist, both were reluctant MTV poster boys in the early ’90s, scruffily-dressed Flannel Idols with sculpted good looks chiseled at the same granite factory. They both had healthy drug habits, too, which suffused their music. Drugs killed Cobain, of course, and when you’re hanging out and recording with Rick James and his crack pipe between sex slave kidnappings in the mid-’90s, it’s a good bet they nearly killed Dando, too. But he survived, and the weird thing is that, as I do the fine-wine maturing thing, I find those nifty little Lemonheads ditties have more staying power. With Kachina and The Activity. Tremont Music Hall

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Half-way through the Saints win during Super Bowl XLIV last night, The Who took the stage in Miami to perform the hits.

Now, I wouldn’t consider them crossover artists by any means, but I’m at least aware of them and willing to argue that everyone who’s ever watched TV or a movie has heard, “Who Are You” and “Baba O’Reilly” but following people’s reactions on Twitter, thoughts and opinions were clearly split along racial lines.

One side raved about the band, ’still having it’ and the lights being awesome while the other had lots of ”Who the fuck are The Who? and “That old white guy’s gonna die on stage” tweets, the funniest one from comedian Lil Duval, “I wonder is this how white people felt when Nelly performed at the Super Bowl?”

Light-hearted, but an interesting point.

Look, there’s no way of pleasing everybody, but will the halftime show of the biggest game of the year ever find an artist who can peak the interest of a majority? I thought Prince was a great choice a few years ago. I don’t really hear a lot of non-Blacks going on about “Purple Rain” or anything but back in the whole androdranas era, he was a crossover hit.

Mash-ups shows are always awkward, remember Aerosmith and Brittney Spears?

So, can we still blame Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson for widening the gap? (and ruining TV?) If you think about it, that was the last Super Bowl halftime show to really go for more than one group.

What’s the solution? At the moment, being bestowed with the honor of performing halftime of the Super Bowl seems to be a lifetime achievement award and a symbolic, one foot in the grave. We really don’t need teen girls ruining the party waiting on the Jonas Brothers or Miley Cyrus. Jay-Z is huge but realistically, could they even afford him?

What if they took it back to the first Super Bowl and get some black college marching bands to do halftime? That kinda just reverses the roles of the same problem.

What if the music reflected the actual players, kinda like basketball games where you don’t mind hearing rap blaring because all the players like rap, you could probably get a good mix of stuff there.

Either way, something needs to be done before we end up with American Idol runner-ups or some legendary group with one living member left doing a medley of hits with a bunch of singers who weren’t even born when the original song came out.

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Country fans rejoice — the megaticket for Charlotte’s Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre goes on sale on Friday, Feb. 19 at 9 a.m.

Concerts include:

* Country Throwdown 2010 Tour featuring Montgomery Gentry, Jamey Johnson, Little Big Town, Jack Ingram, Eric Church, Eli Young Band, The Lost Trailers, Heidi Newfield, Ryan Bingham, Jonathan Singleton & the Grove, Emily West on May 27.

* Brooks & Dunn with Jason Aldean on June 4.

* Rascal Flatts with Kellie Pickler on a date to be determined.

* Toby Keith with special guests on July 11.

* Tim McGraw with Love and Theft on July 23.

* Brad Paisley with Darius Rucker on Aug. 27.

* Sugarland with special guests TBD on Oct. 1.

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.357 String Band Assuming the .357 in the moniker is a nod to the firearm and not some extra-hefty guitar-string gauge, this self-styled “streetgrass” band from Milwaukee best pack the heat – and they do. Drawing on murder ballads, Outlaw Country and dark-hearted Gospel, the band’s drum-free, banjo-powered sounds are fermented in punk and rockabilly. Of course, they’re playing on the home-turf of America’s best-known punkgrass act, so comparisons with the Avetts are only natural, but in this case pretty misguided. These boys eschew the sweet for the sour, and pretty girls for naughty ones. Don’t expect to remain sober. With Bob Wayne, the Trouble Walkers and KpSoloMan5000. Snug Harbor

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Motion City Soundtrack Scrappy punk-pop quintet’s signature is crisp guitar riffs and a happy-go-lucky vocalist. Their freshly-released disc, My Dinosaur Life, salutes the band’s beloved influences, including Sunny Day Real Estate and Superchunk, while evolving over the past several years into something pretty darn original. Also on the bill are Set Your Goals, This Providence and The Swellers. Tremont Music Hall (Samir Shukla)

Between the Buried and Me The torn-throat vocals are still pervasive in their grinding metal, but of late Between the Buried and Me have taken a liking to a more progressive, epic rock approach. The machine gun drums and guitars leave more space between the bombast where jazzy forays and long guitar solos meet prog rock’s eccentric mores. Their most recent recording, The Great Misdirect, has six rumbling tracks that showcase this directional change. The Fillmore (Shukla)

Perpetual Groove The band’s newly released CD, Heal, brews neo-psychedelia, progressive rock, R&B and jazz together producing a suggestive Coldplay quality. While holding onto their rock persona, which magnetized many of their fans, they have tweaked their sound in order to grow as musicians. Fun fact for all pro-environment supporters – Heal was produced with renewable energy compliments of their partnership with Tree Studios. In other words, the music is coming to you clean. Perpetual Groove started off the new year with a sold-out performance and once you hear them you’ll understand why. Neighborhood Theatre (Nicole Pietrantonio)

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The Deal: The ATL-er teams up with DJ Drama, DJ Sense  and LRG for a appetizer to his new album, May 25th.

The Good: Bobby Ray has the unique ability to sound completely different on every song but drop a line or two that let’s you know, it’s still him. Who else can give you a stereotypical, ATL “trap-rap” track next to a guitar-driven track, then sing, produce and switch up the flow. Clever one-liners throughout and a couple songs that could be singles too. “Fuck The Money” with Asher Roth, “The Rain,” “Gladiators” with J Cole and “Out of Time” are tracks I really like, he even blew the dust of Charles Hamilton.

The Bad: Variety is awesome but at times it seems like Bob went out of his way to make sure no one could put him in a box. Extremely herky jerky.

The Verdict: Remember how early Kanye material was dope but kind of forced and all over the place? B.o.B. is a great talent, May 25th is good mixtape, but it suffers from the curse of creativity. Can’t be all things to all people though, let’s hope the actual album is in two lanes, not four.

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A new viral video shows pop star Ke$ha sneaking into the Hollywood sign and changing it to read Ke$hawood… The video is slowly hitting the ‘Net today and many people will wonder if it’s real or fake.

Here are my thoughts…

1 – Fantastic editing. If it happened last night, and the fell asleep in the limo like it shows, who was doing all that fantastic editing.

2- A cop is there before they go over/under the fence. He would have just walked away?

3 – The cop chases them off after catching them changing the sign, but then left the sheets up and the sign changed? I doubt it.

Still, a clever piece of marketing, the video is…

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