Music News: Headliners Added to Voodoo Experience, Virgin Mobile Festival Free in '09, Pixies Want to Record a New Album

- Eminem, the Flaming Lips, Jane's Addiction and Kiss have been added as headliners to the Voodoo Experience festival line up. Over 150 acts are currently scheduled to perform on eight stages spread throughout the city of New Orleans. Other perfomers include Gogol Bordello, Wolfmother, the Pogues, Ween, Mutemath, Alejandro Escovedo and George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic. [Billboard]

- How's this for a deal? This year's ticket price for the 2009 Virgin Mobile Festival is zero, as in free! Virgin Mobile customers and those who have bought tickets to previous Virgin Mobile festivals have gotten first crack at the 35,000 free tickets via an email alert. Starting on June 27, the general public will be able to order free tickets to the event, which has been rechristened the 2009 Virgin Mobile FreeFest, through ticketmaster.com. Ticketmaster will waive convenience fees for those who pick up their tickets at the festival venue in Columbia, MD or the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. Weezer and Blink 182 will headline the August 30th festival. Additional acts include Franz Ferdinand, Public Enemy, Girl Talk, The Bravery and Taking Back Sunday. [Billboard]

- The Pixies are planning to record their first new album since 1991. Pixies' Black Francis has said that he would like the album to tie into a movie, but a stand-alone album might become more appealing if the band continues to play live gigs. [NME.com]

- According to Ray Davies, a new documentary about the Kinks is in the pipeline, but the band doesn't plan to reunite any time soon. [Spinner.com]

- Phish's comeback album will be titled Joy. Phish's Trey Anastasio says that the album "feels more like a live record than a lot of our live records." [Rolling Stone]

- Rob Thomas has announced a 31-date North American tour in support of his upcoming album cradlesong. The tour will start on September 23 in Hollywood, FL and run through mid-November. [Rob Thomas' Official Website]

bxAv110 bxAv110 bxAv110

Film News: Bruno Crashes Into MTV Movie Awards, Another Alien in the Pipeline

- The MTV Movie Awards were held Sunday night, with sparkly vampire flick Twilight raking in a slew of awards including Best Movie, Best Female Performance (for actress Kristen Stewart), Breakthrough Performance - Male (for actor Robert Pattinson), Best Kiss and Best Fight. High School Musical actors took home two awards: Breakthrough Performance - Female (Ashley Tisdale) and Best Male Performance (Zac Efron). The biggest moment of the night however, was Sacha Baron Cohen (in character as gay fashionista Bruno) dive bombing straight into Eminem's lap while wearing chaps . . . and nothing underneath them. Needless to say, the following clip is NSFW. [MTV.com]

- Tony Scott, brother of Alien director Ridley Scott, has confirmed that 20th Century Fox is making a prequel to the 1979 sci-fi horror classic. In an interview with Collider website after the junket for his new film The Taking of Pelham 123, Tony Scott named Carl Rinsch as the new director and said that he hopes shooting on the film will begin by the end of the year. And that sound you hear? I'm pretty sure it's Pop Wench Joia railing at the heavens against this news . . . [Collider.com]

- Angelina Jolie was taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure on Friday after suffering a slight injury while filming an action sequence. The brief hospital examination Jolie received after suffering a bump to the head did not hold up production on the upcoming action thriller Salt for long. Columbia Pictures' spokesman said that the actress was back on the set on Friday and filming resumed later that day. [Associated Press via Yahoo! News]

[bxA]

- Steven Spielberg's 3-D motion-capture film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn has been slated for a December 23, 2011 US release by Paramount and Sony studios. The 2011 Tintin movie is intended to be the first of a series produced by Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Kathleen Kennedy. Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) will star as the young, world-traveling reporter Tintin. Daniel Craig (playing nemesis Red Rackham), Andy Serkis and Simon Pegg costar. [Hollywood Reporter]

- A few days after Paul Verhoeven signed on to direct The Surrogate, it's been announced that Oscar-winner Halle Berry is in talks to topline the thriller. Berry would be one-half of a couple "who hire a surrogate to carry their child and fnd out mid-term that the surrogate is insane." [Variety]

- Natalie Portman has joined the cast of Your Highness alongside Danny McBride and James Franco. Portman plays a warrior princess and McBride's romantic interest in the film, which "centers on an arrogant, lazy prince (McBride) who must complete a quest to save his father's kingdom. Franco plays the prince's "more heroic" brother. [Hollywood Reporter]

bxAv110 bxAv110 bxAv110

Music Notes: Phil Spector sentenced, De La Soul talk new music/Gorillaz

Semi-early edition of Music Notes today! But there's plenty to read:

- "Wall of Sound" creator Phil Spector has been sentenced to 19 years to life in prison for the second-degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson. He's also been sentenced to four years for the personal use of a gun. Spector does have plans to appeal the decision. [MSNBC]

- De La Soul recently worked on a 10-track mix of new material, Are You In?, which was commissioned by Nike. The group has also started work on their next actual album, You're Welcome, which should come out next year. It seems they'd like to get a guest appearance from Damon Albarn (Gorillaz, Blur). De La Soul actually worked with Albarn while rapping on Gorillaz' "Feel Good Inc." De La Soul members have already contributed to two tracks on the next Gorillaz album (release date TBA), and De La Soul's Posdnuos told Entertainment Weekly, "From what we've heard, it sounds amazing. To me, quite honestly, it sounds better than the last album." Exciting times! [Entertainment Weekly]
[bxA]
- Morrissey has canceled the rest of his UK tour dates, based on doctor's orders that tell him not to sing. Fans have been advised to hold on to tickets and wait for gigs that may get rescheduled. As someone who went through the cancellation fiasco the first time she saw Morrissey two years ago, I can say that holding on to the tickets isn't a bad idea (I was able to see him a couple of months later). But if you've seen Morrissey one or more times at this point, it might be better to spring for other concerts the next time he announces a tour. This is sadly not a new thing. [NME]

- Meanwhile, Mozzer's former bandmate Johnny Marr has revealed that The Cribs' new album is due out this September. [NME]

- The forthcoming DJ Hero, an offshoot of the Guitar Hero franchise, will feature music by Jay-Z and Eminem. A limited edition of the game will come with the artists' new greatest-hits CDs and could also feature unreleased tracks. A DJ stand and metal traveling case will also be included. The two rappers are going to serve as consultants. [USA TODAY]

- Nice little Q&A with Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 here. [SPIN]

- Singer-songwriter Kurt Vile has signed on with Matador Records, home to Jay Reatard, Cat Power and Yo La Tengo to name a few. His new album Childish Prodigy is due in the fall. [Pitchfork]

bxAv110 bxAv110 bxAv110

Music Notes: Muse announce newest album title, Scarlett Johansson does more music...

- Muse announced the name of their new album via Twitter. The album, The Resistance, should be out this September. [NME]

- Scarlett Johansson and Pete Yorn have teamed up, and plan to release a collaborative album that may have been inspired by Serge Gainsbourg's duets with Brigitte Bardot. The project, Break Up, was recorded a couple of years ago. It's supposed to come out September 8. [USA Today]

- The Noisettes plan to release their latest album Wild Young Hearts stateside in August. They also plan to announce US tour dates in the next few weeks. [NME]

- Eminem's Relapse is doing pretty well. Estimates indicate that the album will be the rapper's fifth consecutive Number One by next week, with 650,000 copies sold. [Rolling Stone]

And that's all for now. As I blogged earlier today, I won't really be around during the Memorial Day weekend. I'll resume posting Music Notes and other regular features on Tuesday. And the music round-up will also get posted on Tuesday, a day later than usual. Until then!

bxAv110 bxAv110 bxAv110

Music Notes: David Gahan rushed to the hospital

- Depeche Mode frontman David Gahan has been rushed to the hospital, resulting in the cancellation of a Tuesday night gig in Athens. Reports aren't very clear right now — some are indicating that the frontman has a case of gastroenteritis, and that a performance could be held tomorrow if all goes well. Either way, get well soon! [AFP via Yahoo! News]

- The Flaming Lips have announced plans to release their first-ever double album in September. The album, tentatively called Embryonic, might end up featuring quite a hodgepodge of sounds. In fact, frontman Wayne Coyne said one of the tracks sounds like "Joy Division-meets-Miles Davis Group." [SPIN]

- Jay-Z and Ciara are planning to tour together this summer. [Billboard]

- Uh, okay... Eminem will team up with Stewie (yes, the animated baby from Family Guy) to host FOX's Sunday-night line-up this weekend. Apparently, the rapper will take an opportunity to make a surprise announcement during the night. [Paste Magazine]

bxAv110 bxAv110 bxAv110