Rapper’s long-awaited seventh album finally gets an official title and release date.
By Gil Kaufman

src="http://www.mtv.com/news/photos/v/voodoo_fest_2009/promo/281x211.jpg"/>



Eminem


Photo: Chelsea Lauren/ Getty Images

News about a hip-hop album being pushed back multiple times or even scrapped entirely in favor of fresh tracks is not exactly a shocking development these days. But when the artist is Eminem and the release is the highly anticipated sequel to his comeback album, 2009′s Relapse, every scrap of information is treated like a Dr. Dre-blessed gold nugget.

So it was confusing on Wednesday when Slim Shady shocked fans by telling them that there would be no Relapse 2. Just like that, after a year of hype, Em had given up on part two, which was reportedly going to be more emotional and lyrical than the first installment.

	The Evolution Of: Eminem

Just hours later, though, he revealed that it would be replaced by a whole new album called Recovery, due out on June 22. Wait, what?

The long and winding road to Recovery began way back in November of 2008, when details first began to leak out about Relapse. By January of 2009, 50 Cent revealed that Relapse was “almost done” and we soon learned that it would drop in May.

By March, it was already known that Marshall had recorded so much material that he planned to put out a follow-up LP by the end of 2009. Because the reclusive rapper didn’t do many major interviews to set up Relapse, most of the news about his plans came out through 50 and other members of G-Unit.

“You can’t ask for more excitement from a hip-hop perspective than two Eminem albums,” 50 said in March of 2009. “One is great. It’s a treat. But the second one is exciting. … Actually, it was my idea for him to release two albums, because he had so much material over a time period,” Fif added. “The [second album] kind of feels like a sequel. They’re both written to one album topic almost, that it felt like part one and part two of the [same album]. They tie together.”

A month later, Em himself revealed on his Shade 45 Sirius satellite station that he was planning to release Relapse 2 at the end of 2009, since he was already almost done with it.

“It’s extremely close to being finished,” he said of the sequel LP at the time. “It just depends on how many songs I wanna put on it.” Around the time of the first album’s release, there was a lot of talk about the blood-drenched video for “3 A.M.,” the run-in with Brüno at the MTV Movie Awards and some smash first-week sales, but then things got a bit quiet for most of last year, save for a few beefs with the likes of Mariah Carey and her hubby, Nick Cannon.

By September, talk of Relapse 2 heated up again as DJ Whoo Kid promised a more “maniacal” Slim Shady. “The comeback is crazy,” Whoo Kid said about Em’s return earlier in the year while previewing new tracks he’d heard. “What I really laughed at was the Mariah Carey [dis record]. That was funny. But that’s nothing compared to Relapse 2. What I heard, that’s just 2 percent [of the intensity]. Eminem from back in the day has returned. The crazy, lyrical, maniacal Eminem is back. Maniac! … Now that he’s comfortable, now he’s gonna be like [a monster] in Relapse 2. Good luck, people.”

A month later, Em said that he was bringing in production help for 2 after letting Dr. Dre helm all but one of the first album’s tracks. Again speaking on Shade 45, he told Whoo Kid that Just Blaze would be sparking some tracks, along with Mr. Porter, a D12 member.

“I definitely feel like I’m in a little different space right now,” Em said about the sequel album. “With the last record, it had a lot to do with me getting sober and just my eyes being open again and my brain went into overdrive. With Relapse 1, I was just trying to prove to myself that I could do it again. It was a [re-introduction] and what made me in the first place with the zany, loony, ridiculous sh–. I felt like a lot of that album, I kind of wanted to [spit] rapid-fire and [do] punch lines.”

Shady also revealed that he and 50 had recorded songs for each other’s albums and that a duet with Fif would likely end up on Relapse 2. At that point, the album was still expected before year’s end.

That same week in an interview with DJ Tony Touch on Shade 45, Slim said the second effort would portray his more emotional side. “[The album] is gonna be a lot different than people expect,” Eminem said. “As far as the contrast from the last album to this one … I went back to songs that are more emotionally driven. The last record I made, I think I was concentrating more on spitting. On this album, I feel like there’s some of that, but I went back to songs with [feelings] to them as opposed to just rap records.”

While he tried to prove he could spit again on Relapse after suffering from some crippling writer’s block during its genesis, Shady said he broke free and wrote three albums’ worth of material, which his camp decided to cut down to two releases. Because he was working so hard on the second half, Em said he made few appearances over the last year, but would consider touring once both parts were out.

“During the process of me getting sober and starting to record again like I used to, I got so excited about making music again that I wanted to concentrate [just] on that,” he said. “I started recording so many records that we thought about putting out two albums. Then that became my motivation. I wanted to stay grinding and keep making music. But the time I got engulfed in [Relapse 2], it just kind of worked out this way, where I wanted to fall back from live performances for right now and concentrate on making the best music I could make. After this record comes out, we’ll see what happens from there.”

Blaze confirmed in late October that things were going well with his new collaborator and that they had made solid progress on 2. In mid-November, there was a sudden shift in plans and it was announced that a bonus version of Relapse entitled The Refill would drop on December 21, with five new songs and the hit Drake track Em guested on, “Forever.”

“I want to deliver more material for the fans this year like I originally planned,” Em told his official Web site. “Hopefully these tracks on The Refill will tide the fans over until we put out Relapse 2 next year.” In an interview with Complex magazine in December, Shady further explained, “When I finished Relapse, I had a whole album of material that didn’t make it that I wasn’t ready to throw away, so that was going to be Relapse 2. But then I got with Dre in Hawaii and started recording more, and now the new material has knocked out all the old songs. But yeah, the new material is definitely different.”

And then radio silence … until this month, when Blaze popped up again and said that Eminem “[is] really back spitting. The wordplay is crazy, the metaphors are crazy. He’s really back on his game. He had his ups, he had his downs, he’s back way, way, way up. This is definitely going to be up there with the best of his albums, for sure, for sure. The fact that he’s branched out working with a lot of different people now, collaborating in a lot of different ways that he never has before, I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people.”

That hype boosted expectations, until Em mysteriously announced on Wednesday that “there is no Relapse 2.” Period. No explanation. Fans were left dumbfounded. Was it really possible that one of the most anticipated and hyped albums since Wayne’s Tha Carter III could just vanish into thin air without ever getting released?

And that brings us to a few hours later when, just as abruptly, Shady announced that while he’s scrapped 2 he’s got a renamed effort, Recovery, slated for release in June.

“I had originally planned for Relapse 2 to come out last year,” Eminem said in a statement. “But as I kept recording and working with new producers, the idea of a sequel to Relapse started to make less and less sense to me, and I wanted to make a completely new album. The music on Recovery came out very different from Relapse, and I think it deserves its own title.”

We don’t know much about it, except that it has production from Blaze, DJ Khalil, Jim Jonsin and Boi-1da and that it’s coming out in six weeks … unless it doesn’t.

Are you looking forward to hearing Eminem’s new songs? Let us know in the comments below!

Related Photos

• The Evolution Of: Eminem

Related Artists

• Eminem

View full post on MTV News

One unexpected event has already struck: Pierre lost his while on tour overseas last month, and though vocal rest and a few days off at home in Minnesota to recharge have helped, Pierre says it’s still not where he’d like it to be as the band prepares to play the first show on their “Dino Initiative” tour tonight. Named after Lost’s Dharma Initiative — a move fitting for the band’s pop sound and frequently tongue-in-cheek lyrics — the month-long trek will find MCS mixing longtime live staples with tunes from the new record, culminating with a set at the annual Bamboozle festival.

Two nights before Motion City Soundtrack play their own material, they’ll tackle a set of Nine Inch Nails songs as a part of the fest’s Hoodwink pre-show (Say Anything will cover the Misfits and Saves the Day will perform Weezer’s Pinkerton at the fest, too). While the band as a whole are fans of Trent Reznor and Co., Pierre reveals bassist Matt Taylor is in charge of MCS’ tribute set, which will likely include “Closer,” “Head Like a Hole” and Pierre’s personal favorite, “Perfect Drug.”

“I don’t know if people would put Nine Inch Nails and Motion City Soundtrack in the same room together,” Pierre acknowledges. “But it actually feels like it makes a whole lot of sense that we’re doing this just based on the material of what the songs are about. It’s crazy how much I relate to them even now.”

While the NIN songs likely won’t appear in MCS’ set, Pierre says fan requests via Twitter and band meet-and-greets may help determine the songs played each night. Even still, some songs from Dinosaur may not make the cut — or will they? “We want to play them, but we want to do it right,” Pierre says. “Or maybe we’ll just wing it and see what happens.”

View full post on Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily

Seger last hit the road in 2007, which was his first outing in over a decade. Three days ago Walmart began selling Early Seger Vol. 1, a collection of remastered Seger songs from the early 1970s.

Related Stories:

• Fricke’s Picks: Bob Seger’s Detroit Rock City
• Video: Bob Seger on “American Idol” and Detroit Radio
• Bob Seger Stops by RS for Sandwiches, Life Lessons

View full post on Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily

Photo: Loud/Getty

In addition to headlining Bonnaroo for the first time, Kings of Leon will hit the road this summer for a tour of mostly outdoor amphitheaters and sheds. The Followill boys will kick off a 31-date trek on June 5th in Atlantic City, New Jersey, before crossing the country to perform in most American cities ranging from San Diego and Phoenix to Hartford, Connecticut, and Pittsburgh. The tour wraps up on September 23rd in Dallas; tickets go on sale this Friday and Saturday. “We are stoked to get back on the road,” Nathan Followill tells Rolling Stone. “We’ve had a little break and are starting to get that itch. It will be cool to see if we can sneak in some new shit to see if the kids dig it. Late April the next musical adventure begins.”

Check out photos from Kings of Leon’s family album.

Expect demand for tickets to be high and the crowds to swell at these shows. The Kings just picked up three Grammy wins including Record of the Year for their monster hit “Use Somebody.” And their latest album Only by the Night was also certified as iTunes’ top-selling album of last year, beating out Lady Gaga’s The Fame and Taylor Swift’s Fearless. See the full itinerary after the jump.

Thirteen things you didn’t know about Kings of Leon.

June 5 – Atlantic City, NJ @ Borgata Event Center
June 6 – Saratoga, NY @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center
June 8 - Scranton, PA @ Toyota Pavillion at Montage Stage
July 9 - San Diego, CA @ Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre
July 10 - Phoenix, AZ @ Cricket Wireless Pavilion
July 12 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
July 14 – Irvine, CA @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
July 17 – George, WA @ The Gorge Amphitheatre
July 19 – Salt Lake City, UT @ USANA Amphitheatre
July 20 – Denver, CO @ Comfort Dental Amphitheatre
July 23 – St. Louis, MO @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
July 24 – Chicago, IL @ First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
July 26 -  Cleveland, OH @ Blossom Music Center
July 28 - Toronto, ONT @ Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
July 30 – Darien Center, NY @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center
July 31 – Detroit, MI @ DTE Energy Music Center
August 3 – Hartford, CT @ Comcast Theatre
August 5 – Camden, NJ @ Susquehana Bank Amphitheatre
August 7 – Bristow, VA @  Jiffy Lube Live
Sept. 3 – Indianapolis, IN @ Verizon Wireless Music Center
Sept. 4 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
Sept. 7 – Pittsburgh, PA @ First Niagara Pavilion
Sept. 8 – Hershey, PA @ Hershey Park Stadium & Star Pavilion
Sept. 10 – Charlotte, NC @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Sept. 11 - Virginia Beach, VA @ Virginia Beach Amphitheatre
Sept. 13 – Raleigh, NC @ Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek Amphitheatre
Sept. 17 – West Palm Beach, FL @ Cruzan Amphitheatre
Sept. 18 – Tampa, FL @ Ford Amphitheatre
Sept. 20 – Birmingham, AL @ Verizon Wireless Music Center
Sept. 22 – Houston, TX @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Sept. 23 – Dallas, TX @ Superpages.com

View full post on Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily

Photograph by Neal Casal courtesy of Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: A View of Other Windows available through Abrams Image

For four years, photographer Neal Casal played with Ryan Adams as part of his band the Cardinals, touring the country and cutting three records with the singer-songwriter before the band split in early 2009. In that time, Casal snapped thousands of candid pictures of Adams in the studio, backstage and on the road. Those images have been recently compiled in the gorgeous new book Ryan Adams & The Cardinals: A View of Other Windows (out now from Abrams Image).

See the photos: images from Ryan Adams & The Cardinals: A View of Other Windows.

The book reveals Adams to be fascinating, endlessly mutable subject: on one page, he might be smoking cigarettes in the studio with Willie Nelson or snuggling up to his wife Mandy Moore, but on another, Adams is shown backstage sporting glittery, Kiss-style platform boots or comparing Black Flag tattoos with Henry Rollins. “From one day to the next, Ryan has a completely different look and vibe and a whole different energy,” Casal tells Rolling Stone. “It’s amazing — and one of the reasons I love photographing him so much.”

Adams has kept a low profile in recent months — he cited “balance and hearing issues” as a reason for the Cardinals split — but it looks like he’s gearing up to release more music in the coming months through his own Pax Am label. On Friday, Adams unveiled his latest track “Orion,” which he describes as his “most legit metal record.” He’s not kidding: the raging track features Adams squealing, wheezing and howling like the devil’s spawn over a jangly riff that calls to mind Blue Oyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” Hear it on his RyanAda.Ms Website.

View full post on Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily

Remember that guy who had a show and then had another show? Well, he now has a tour.

Conan O’Brien will hit the road for a live comedy/music tour — dubbed the “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour” — starting April 12. The two-month …

Read More >

Other Links From TVGuide.com

• Andy Richter
• Conan O’Brien
• Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien

View full post on TVGuide.com: Breaking News

American Chopper is riding off into the sunset for good.

The TLC reality series is closing shop after six seasons, with the series finale airing Thursday, Feb. 11 at 9/8c…

Read More >

Other Links From TVGuide.com

• American Chopper

View full post on TVGuide.com: Breaking News

Make it so! I hate reporting these kind of rumors, but after the Grammys last night, there’s not much else to report on. Ain’t It Cool News got a random and unconfirmed email “report” from a fan in Australia claiming that it might be possible that Patrick Stewart could appear in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road. We just announced four new cast members last week for this new sequel, which means it’s definitely gearing up to start shooting sometime in the next few months. And if Stewart is in Oz and if he actually said “he may be back here soon to film a movie with George Miller” then it sounds like it could be true. You never know?

Here’s the important email bits from AICN that potentially reveal Stewart’s involvement in Fury Road:

I got to ask him whether he’d like to make a movie in Australia and he said he may be back here soon to film a movie with George Miller. I – embarrassingly – blurted “Happy Feet 2! great!” and he said “No, another one“. Only other one I can see that Miller is doing is the new Mad Max movie. Patrick is sexy, but surely he’s not playing mad max! hee hee – - assume he’s playing another role in it. keep up the good work, ‘TrekGirl’

I don’t know if I trust this “TrekGirl.” However, at this point (since Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome was released in 1985), the Mad Max franchise has certainly made its way into the mainstream, and I don’t think it would be hard for George Miller to cast some big names in this sequel. In fact, I can see Stewart playing the lead villain or some post-apocalyptic punk badass. All of the other baddies (especially in Road Warrior) were bald or had some crazy mohawks or something like that, and that’s exactly the kind of character I could imagine him playing. No word yet on if this is legit, but for now it’s only a rumor. We’ll keep you updated!

Discover More: Movie News, Opinions, Rumors

View full post on FirstShowing.net