MUSIC

 

Beyoncé Gets Emotional After Blue Ivy Says "Hi, Mommy" During Grammys Rehearsal

 

 

Beyoncé got one very special distraction during rehearsals for her Grammys performance last month.
A video just surfaced of Bey practicing "Drunk in Love" at dress rehearsals when toward the end of the song, Blue Ivy Carter can be heard saying "Hi, Mommy!" over the sound system.
And while the little one's excited voice is enough to make us melt, it was the singer's reaction that stole the show. If you listen closely enough you can also hear Blue say, "Surfboard." In a word? Amazing.
Bey said "Hi, Blue Blue" on her mic back to her daughter and made the most priceless facial expression afterwards.
The 2-year-old's sweet moment wasn't included in the actual performance, but we almost wish it was!
The Carters are currently in Europe where Bey is hitting up city after city on her enormous world tour.


She and Jay Z were spotted enjoying a dinner date together at popular eatery Cecconi's in London Friday night while in London.
The two were also seen hanging out at the elite Arts Club in Mayfair multiple nights earlier this week.
Queen B performed a whopping six nights at the O2 Arena and is now expected to play in Dublin for four shows.
After that, she's heading to Cologne, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona and Lisbon.
When all is said and done, Bey and family will have been globe-trotting for almost an entire year.
That's bound to be a lot of passport stamps for little Blue!

 

 

 

Christina Aguilera Rocks Baby Bump at Wango Tango—See the Pic!

 

 

Christina Aguilera isn't afraid to show off her baby bump.

The pregnant pop star put her blossoming bump on display in a form-fitting little black dress Saturday night at the KIIS FM Wango Tango concert in Carson, California.

 She wore her blonde locks up, and paired her dress with platform pumps.

The singer was full of energy as she belted out some of her biggest hits.

Aguilera, 33, is expecting a baby with fiancé Matthew Rutler. It's baby No. 2 for Aguilera and her first child with Rutler.

The songstress is already a mommy to 6-year-old Max, her son with ex-husband Jordan Bratman.

 

Aguilera wasn't the only pregnant pop star out and about in Southern California.

Mother-to-be Ciara, who's due any day now, wore a flowing white maternity dress to her pal Kim Kardashian's bridal shower in Beverly Hills.

The 28-year-old "Goodies" singer rounded out her ensemble with comfy white espadrilles and wore her long locks down.

These ladies know how to make pregnancy look chic.

 

Is Katy Perry Pulling a Lady Gaga at Concerts? 

 

  

When Katy Perry's Prismatic world tour kicked off May 7 in Northern Ireland, audience members were treated to a video montage of the "Roar" crooner sticking her finger in her mouth, spitting up blue and green paint, and splashing it everywhere in a stark white room and all over herself.
Perry's stunt comes just a couple of months after performance artist Millie Brown vomited on Lady Gaga (on purpose) during the singer's performance of "Swine" at the SXSW festival in Austin in March.
The on-stage gross-out drew criticism from the likes of Demi Lovato, who accused Gaga of glamorizing eating disorders.

 

Courtesy of SPE, Inc./Michael Buckner, Todd Williamson/WireImage

File this one under make it stop.
When Katy Perry's Prismatic world tour kicked off May 7 in Northern Ireland, audience members were treated to a video montage of the "Roar" crooner sticking her finger in her mouth, spitting up blue and green paint, and splashing it everywhere in a stark white room and all over herself.
Perry's stunt comes just a couple of months after performance artist Millie Brown vomited on Lady Gaga (on purpose) during the singer's performance of "Swine" at the SXSW festival in Austin in March.
The on-stage gross-out drew criticism from the likes of Demi Lovato, who accused Gaga of glamorizing eating disorders.

"Sad… As if we didn't have enough people glamorizing eating disorders already. Bottom line, it's not 'cool' or 'artsy' at all," Lovato wrote after the pair's performance, adding, "Would you let someone bring a needle and shoot up on you? Addiction is addiction."
While it's not clear if Perry's paint-puking performance was some sort of wink to Gaga, it is a bit ironic considering the "G.U.Y." singer appeared to be throwing shade Perry's way earlier this week.
During a Twitter Q&A with Mother Monster, Gaga tweeted, "It looks like green hair and mechanical horses are the thing now [eyeballs]." It just so happened that Perry had just rocked a green wig and rode a mechanical horse during her first performance of her tour Wednesday.
The ARTPOP singer, who has also sported green hair and ridden mechanical horses in the past, recently addressed comments about comparisons between her and Perry, saying, "I don't know what the f--k I have to do with Katy Perry. My music is so completely different and I couldn't be more different."
And yet, their onstage performance tactics seem to be a bit of the same.

 

Counting Crows' Duritz: New Album Will Be 'More Imaginative'

 

 

"We've got eight or nine labels interested," the singer tells Billboard of the band's first LP since 2008.

Counting Crows are planning to end a six-year gap between new albums with a set of new songs that frontman Adam Duritz is "kind of flipped out about."
"I think this record's pretty amazing," Duritz tells Billboard about the as-yet-untitled set, which will be Counting Crows' first of all-new material since 2008's "Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings" (with a covers album, "Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation)," that came out in 2012). "The songs are different from anything I've ever written before, I've got to say. They're a little more imaginative, a little more imagery-heavy. They're willing to be a little goofier and have a little more of a sense of humor, occasionally. It's really cool."

The album's nine songs -- "I wanted to make a record-record, something digestible," Duritz says -- were recorded with Brian Deck, who worked with the group on "Saturday Nights..." and "Underwater Sunshine," and are currently being mixed. Titles include "God of Ocean Tide," "Scarecrow," "Palisades Park"  and "Earthquake Driver," and most of the material was started by Duritz, who then enlisted bassist Millard Powers and guitarists David Bryson and David Immergluck to come to New York, where Duritz lives, once the ideas started to coalesce after last summer's Outlaw Roadshow tour.
"Somehow the four of us being there made it so I could write and just be part of the writing with everyone else," Duritz explains. "I started writing all these songs that were a little weirder than songs in the past, a little more imaginative. There were more spaceships and different things, a wider sort of range. I wasn't really sure about them at first, so I could come out of the room with verses and say, 'What do you guys think of this?,' and where I would've thrown a lot of these things out, the guys were so flipped out I'd be, 'Okay, maybe I'll stick with this,' and keep going. The second time we got together, I wrote five songs in six days with their help."
Counting Crows plan to preview some of the new songs during a summer tour with Toad the Wet Sprocket, which starts June 11 in Tampa, Fla. Meanwhile, Durtiz and company hope to have the album out by fall and are entertaining a variety of offers for its release.
"We've got eight or nine labels interested, so it's kind of like our first album, being chased around by labels," Duritz says. "Some of them are majors, some of them are more like distribution deals. It's not the same as it was when we left Geffen (after 'Saturday Nights…'), and it was really hard to work with a major label that seemed to want to pretend the Internet didn't exist. It's definitely changed a bit since then. Part of me feels like it's been great to not have the headache of being frustrated with an insane record company's ideas the last few years, but there's a part of me that also feels like people are really flipping out over this record, and I really like it. I'd like a lot of people to hear it, and promotion is the one thing record labels can do. So if we find a label that can help us rather than hinder us, we might go that way again."

 

 

What was Coachella’s Best Dance Music Moment? (Poll)

 

 

Once confined to smaller stages, dance music has occupied an increasingly growing footprint at the desert music festival. This year’s edition was no exception to this trend, as Coachella featured some of the most exciting dance artists in the game playing on marquee stages.

While both weekends were filled with a multitude of memorable moments, you have a chance to pick the one that stuck in your mind and made the biggest impact on your experience this year.

Calvin Harris Makes it to the Coachella Stage


Scottish hitmaker Calvin Harris commandeered the main stage DJ slot this year and drew one of the largest crowds of the weekend. While his set didn’t feature any surprise, special guests this year, it hardly mattered to his enthralled audience.

Coachella 2014: Calvin Harris, Disclosure Bring Big-Stage Dance Parties

Disclosure Jams with Mary J Blige, Aluna Francis, and Sam Smith

 Scottish hitmaker Calvin Harris commandeered the main stage DJ slot this year and drew one of the largest crowds of the weekend. While his set didn’t feature any surprise, special guests this year, it hardly mattered to his enthralled audience.

 The British duo’s sophomore Coachella outing featured a bevy of live guest acts joining them on a trio of tracks from "Settle." Sam Smith reprised vocal duties on the soulful “Latch,” while Mary J. Blige and Aluna Francis manned the mic on “F For You” and “White Noise,” respectively.

 Given a chance to unleash their electrofunk on the main stage, Chromeo did not disappoint. The duo’s spirited performance was capped off with a memorable rendition of their catchy new single that featured soaring talkbox harmonies from P-Thugg.

Mash-up maestro Greg Gillis always ensures his stage is crowded with fans when he plays, but this year he brought rappers onboard the main stage in droves as well. Weekend one featured Busta Rhymes, Juicy J, Too Short and E-40, while Gillis and Rhymes were joined by Tyga, Freeway and Wacka Flocka Flame for weekend two.

 Following a Twitter exchange between the two artists, rumors have surrounded the rising Australian producer’s supposed remix of Lorde’s album opener. Flume’s rework lived up to the hype as he chopped up the British crooner’s voice over dueling synth stabs and a bumping beat.

 Coachella 2014 featured the best underground dance music offerings of any edition to date. The Yuma Tent was populated by an eye-popping array of talent, from Duke Dumont’s vocal deep house vibes to Maceo Plex’s interstellar artistry. However, it was Innervisions boss Dixon who was given the honor of finishing out Yuma on the first Friday, treating attendees to melodic techno clinic in the process.

 

AC/DC: Band says ailing guitarist Malcolm Young is 'taking a break'

 

After forty years of life dedicated to AC/DC, guitarist and founding member Malcolm Young is taking a break from the band due to ill health. Malcolm would like to thank the group’s diehard legions of fans worldwide for their never-ending love and support. In light of this news, AC/DC asks that Malcolm and his family’s privacy be respected during this time. The band will continue to make music. 
What that means for the band’s plans for a 40th anniversary tour and scheduled booking in a recording studio in May in Vancouver (as frontman Brian Johnson recently told the U.K. Telegraph)is unclear, 61-year-old rhythm guitarist Malcolm has been integral to the band’s lineup since its inception, and he and his younger brother, lead guitarist Angus, are generally known as the band’s core songwriters.
“I wouldn’t like to say anything either way about the future. I’m not ruling anything out. One of the boys has a debilitating illness, but I don’t want to say too much about it,” Johnson said yesterday, declining to identify Malcolm by name. “He is very proud and private, a wonderful chap. We’ve been pals for 35 years and I look up to him very much.”

“AC/DC is such a tight family,” he continued. “We’ve stuck to our guns through the Eighties and Nineties when people were saying we should change our clothes and our style. But we didn’t and people got it that we are the real deal.”

 

Justin Bieber And Lil Wayne Hit The Studio: See What They're Cooking Up

The Biebs continues his YMCMB-filled week.

  

On Friday (April 11), the Biebs posted two pictures on Instagram of him and Lil Wayne together in the studio. "Me and Tunechi in the studio," he wrote along with the first picture, before adding the equally nondescript "me and wayne" caption to his next photo. 

 Birdman also shared a visual from the evening. "Latenite studio flow @justinbieber music amazin @birdman5star RG YMCMB," he wrote on Instagram,with a picture that looked to be from the same session as one posted last week, where Birdman also praised the young star: "Day 3 in studio late nite workin with nephew @justinbieber tht @austinmahone song is a HIT just heard tha mix RG YMCMB @birdman5star."

 Not long after his photos went up on Instagram today, Bieber tweeted, "No one knows what Im planning ;)." Did that relate to his session with Weezy? Maybe, but maybe not — no one knows, of course.

What we do know is that, while he's not officially signed to YMCMB, Bieber has been treated like family by the crew's big dogs of late. On Monday night, he posted a picture of a Bugatti on Instagram, writing, "Uncle Stunna luv. My first Bugatti." Later in the week, reports surfaced that it was a loan, not a gift — but it's surely a telling gesture, no less.
If the end result of the Biebs and Tunechi pics is a collaboration, it wouldn't be their first. The two worked together on "Backpack," from the singer's last release, Journals.


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Michael Stipe Recalls Meeting Kurt Cobain -- And His Blue Eyes

The former R.E.M. frontman, along with St. Vincent, reflect on a legend.

 

A litany of musicians were honored at Thursday's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony — KISS, Peter Gabriel, Cat Stevens — but the name of everyone's lips as the night drew to a close was undoubtedly Nirvana.
The seminal grunge band found its place among the legends last night, a fitting tribute that fell close on the heels of the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death.

"Nevermind came out when I was nine and it changed my life and I wouldn't be playing music if it wasn't for Nirvana," St. Vincent — a.k.a. Annie Clark — said backstage before she joined Lorde, Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, Joan Jett and the remaining members of Nirvana in a medley of classics.
"It's a real honor and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little bit melancholy, too — with the gravity of it," she added, reflecting on how surreal it was to practice with the band before the show. "Hearing Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear f—ing playing," she said. "That was rad."
Michael Stipe inducted Nirvana into the Hall of Fame, a fitting choice, as he served as kind of a mentor to Cobain as R.E.M.'s former frontman, the glory of which you can relive on Record Story Day when Unplugged: The Complete 1991 and 2001 Sessions drops and right now on the band's MTV Artist page.
On stage, Stipe said, simply, "That voice, that voice. Kurt, we miss you. I miss you," after earlier in the evening recalling how he first met Cobain.
"He was late," Stipe said backstage to a room full of reporters, his tie loose around his neck. "It was in Krist's basement in Seattle — he and Courtney had moved into the house next door to my former guitar player Peter Buck. ... The first time I looked into his eyes I just went, 'I get it. He is all that. He is a very special person.'"
Then, almost as an afterthought, Stipe said with a smile, "He had really blue eyes."
Stipe and Clark were only two of many performers and friends to remember Nirvana and Cobain Thursday night. In addition to the aforementioned medley, Cobain's family, along with Hole's Courtney Love, offered up remembrances, and a cadre of musicians extended the Nirvana tribute after the show at a venue in Brooklyn.
What was your favorite Nirvana moment from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony?


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Lorde Still Freaking Out About Playing With 'True F---ing Rock Stars' Nirvana At Hall Of Fame Ceremony

St. Vincent called Thursday the 'F&$%-ing best night of my life.'

 

It's rare to get a chance to jam with one of the most legendary rock bands of all time. It's even rarer to get to do it when you're 17 and you were born two years after that group's singer committed suicide.
Which might explain why Lorde was still pinching herself and freaking out Thursday night after sharing the stage with surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic at the 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony
.

Lorde was one of four rock ladies who had the honor of singing in place of late Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain, joining leather rocker Joan Jett, former Sonic Youth bassist/singer Kim Gordon and St. Vincent during the band's set.

  

One of the other highlights of a night when even the battling members of greasepaint light metal rockers KISS put their legendary animus behind them was the seeming peace made between Cobain's widow, Hole singer Courtney Love and longtime rival, Grohl.

 

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Need To Know: Miley Cyrus Shares Topless #TBT

Lorde joined Nirvana on stage for a special performance at Hall of Fame induction while Kim Kardashian and Selena Gomez attended the Ryan Seacrest Foundation fiesta.

  

Miley Shares Topless Selfie, No One Is Shocked
Cyrus posted some #tbt (or #fbf, depending on your time zone) images to Instagram late last night, showing us some never-before-seen shots of the big haircut of 2012. Wrapped in a towel, the pop princess is glowing in both shots, clearly hyped on the big transformation. Remember when the haircut was the most shocking thing Cyrus had done? LOL.

 Nirvana, Lorde Perform At Hall Of Fame Induction

The Seattle grunge legends were honored last night, along with KISS, Peter Gabriel, Cat Stevens and more, with an induction in to the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. Singers like Lorde and Carrie Underwood helped celebrate with renditions of the inductees hit songs. One noticeable absentee? Kurt Cobain, gone now for almost exactly 20 years.
Kim K, Selena Attend Ryan Seacrest Foundation Dinner
The two stars shared snaps from the "American Idol" host's foundation fiesta last night. Kim showed off her assets in a plunging white Wes Gordon gown alongside mom Kris while Selena posed with the host and Kevin Systrom, the co-founder of Instagram. Pretty cool party. Our invite must have gotten lost in the mail.

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Jesse Winchester Dead at 69, Singer-Songwriter Became Anti-War Icon

"Jesse's music stands up today as good as it did then," says Robbie Robertson

Jesse Winchester, the esteemed singer-songwriter who became a symbol of the anti-war movement when he moved to Canada to escape the draft in the Sixties, died April 11th from bladder cancer. Winchester, who was living in Virginia when he died, was 69.
While never as well known as peers like James Taylor and Jackson Browne, Winchester wrote some of the defining singer-songwriter tracks of the seventies — evocations of American and Southern life like "Yankee Lady," "Biloxi," "Mississippi You're on My Mind" and "The Brand New Tennessee Waltz" that ached with feelings of loss for the country he decided he had to leave. The songs gained him a cult following and critical respect, and were covered by everyone from George Strait to Tim Hardin. Winchester was considered such a formidable songwriter that a 2012 tribute album, Quiet About It, featured versions of his songs by Taylor, Elvis Costello, Jimmy Buffett, Rosanne Cash, Lucinda Williams, and Vince Gill, among others.
Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1944, Winchester started playing music in Memphis, where his family later relocated. In 1967, he received a draft induction letter, but instead of showing up, he took a plane to Montreal. "I was so offended by someone's coming up to me and presuming to tell me who I should kill and what my life was worth," he told Rolling Stone in 1977. He arrived in Canada with only $300 and no connections, but settled into a new life, joining a local band and finally writing his own material.
In 1970, Robbie Robertson of the Band, another Canadian musician, met Winchester in the basement of a monastery in Ottawa. "A friend of mine told me about him, and we went from Montréal, where I was living, to pay him a visit," Robertson says. "He sang me a few songs, and I knew immediately he was the real thing.  Great songwriter, with a very moving vocal sound."
Robertson not only hooked Winchester up with the Band's (and Dylan's) manager, Albert Grossman, but produced Winchester's eponymous 1970 debut album, recorded in Toronto. "We had to do it in Canada because he was a conscientious objector to the war in Vietnam and was avoiding the draft," Robertson says. "When the record came out, it was received with open arms, and many recording artists covered his songs. Jesse's music stands up today as good as it did then, and I am so proud to have been a part of it."
Winchester released several more albums, including 1972's Third Down, 110 to Go, produced by Todd Rundgren. No matter the producer, Winchester's voice and songs largely remained gentle, thoughtful and restrained. Unfortunately, he couldn't leave the country to tour or promote any of his early albums. "People say, 'Coming to Canada, that must have been a hard decision,'" he told RS. "But that really was the easy part. The hard part comes later, when you start trying to live your life in line with that decision. That's when it gets complicated." Winchester became a Canadian citizen in 1973.
During this period, Winchester's mythic status grew: During one of the Rolling Thunder Revue shows in 1975, Joan Baez dedicated a cover of the folk-pop hit "Please Come to Boston" to Winchester. In 1977, Winchester was pardoned by then-President Jimmy Carter and was finally able to tour America, although he wouldn't move back to the States for another quarter century.
Winchester continued recording sporadic albums and, about a decade ago, returned to the States; he and his second wife lived in Memphis before finally settling into Charlottesville, Virginia. In 2011, Winchester was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus, but he beat the disease and eventually mustered the energy to record a new album, A Reasonable Amount of Trouble. Produced by Mac McAnally, the album will be released this August. But this February, the cancer returned, to his bladder, and Winchester had spent the last week in a hospice.
 Although Winchester was keenly aware of his lack of commercial success, he maintained a sense of integrity that proved as influential as his songs. "I didn't want to get into this business of trying to be the top shit or something like that," he told RS in an earlier interview in 1970. "I'd rather just hang in there all the time with good music, slow and steady, and share it, rather than set the world on fire all at once."


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Luke Bryan, Imagine Dragons to Perform at Billboard Music Awards

 

John Legend and OneRepublic will also join previously announced Jason Derulo as performers at the May 18 show

The first round of performers for this year's Billboard Music Awards has been announced and it's a star-studded selection of recent chart-toppers. Imagine Dragons, Luke Bryan, John Legend and OneRepublic have all been confirmed, joining previously announced performer Jason Derulo in the lineup.

The BBMAs will be broadcast live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, May 18, on ABC at 8 p.m. ET. Citi cardmembers will have exclusive early access to tickets through a presale beginning April 12. Tickets go on sale to the general public on April 17.

Imagine Dragons tied Lorde for landing in the most categories this year with 12. The rock band is a finalist for Top Artist, Top Duo/Group, Top Hot 100 Artist, Top Digital Songs Artist, Top Radio Songs Artist, Top Streaming Artist, Top Rock Artist, Top Rock Album, Top Hot 100 Song, Top Digital Song, Top Streaming Song (Audio), and Top Rock Song twice, for “Demons” and “Radioactive.”
Luke Bryan is a finalist in six categories this year, more than any other country act. His nominations include Top Male Artist, Top Billboard 200 Artist, Top Country Artist, Top Billboard 200 Album, Top Country Album and Top Country Song twice.
John Legend is up for the fan-voted Milestone Award. His hit single “All of Me” is currently No. 2 on the Hot 100 and marks his highest selling and charting single to date.
OneRepublic and recent Billboard cover star Ryan Tedder are finalists in Top Duo/Group and in Top Digital Song for their hit “Counting Stars.”
Fellow performer Jason Derulo appeared on "Good Morning America" yesterday  to announce his performance, as well as the first round of finalists. The full list of finalists can be viewed here.


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Nirvana Joined By Joan Jett, Kim Gordon, St. Vincent, Lorde at Rock Hall Ceremony

 

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame audience had to wait a long time for Nirvana to hit the Barclays Center stage on Thursday night.
More than four hours into a show that veered between galvanizing and grueling, the band's surviving members, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, its special guests, family, extended-family and new family members got it just about perfect, from the speeches to the four-song performance, which saw the group fronted by carefully chosen female singers who ran a fitting and fascinating spectrum across the band's history and its influence.

It added up to a tribute to Kurt Cobain and Nirvana's history and legacy that carried all of the dignity and respectful reverence that its surviving members have shown over the past 20 years.
And whatever wasn't perfect was, in its way, perfectly appropriate.
The five-years-and-change arc of the band's career dovetailed with the Rock Hall's schedule to make this evening the cap on a crescendoed series of 20th-anniversary landmarks -- "In Utero," "Unplugged," the final gig and Cobain's April 5 death -- since September. Thus, a certain degree of Nirvana fatigue is to be expected, which makes the evening's achievement all the more remarkable.
The choice of the singers who fronted the band was nothing short of masterful: One performer who influenced the core band members as teens, and even produced the only album by late-era guitarist Pat Smear's first band, the Germs (Joan Jett); another who was both an influence and a key mentor early in the band's career (Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon); another who discovered Nirvana at the age of nine and has gone on to a highly individual career -- and is herself a shredding guitarist (St. Vincent's Annie Clark); and finally, a highly individual teenaged singer who wasn't even born when Cobain died, and who looks to be doing a good job so far of facing down the star machine that caused him so much pain.
 

Michael Stipe was arguably the only person to induct the band: an influence, a fan, a friend, and someone who saw the darkness spreading over Cobain and reached out to him in the final months of his life. According to a Hall source, there was talk of the R.E.M. frontman singing "All Apologies," but the plan was scrapped to make way for the girls.
Stipe took the stage after a five-minute-long historical video introducing the band ("I'm always in pain, and that adds to the anger in our music," is one of several Cobain quotes in the video).
"It is the highest calling for an artist as well as the greatest possible privilege to capture a moment, to find the zeitgeist, to expose our struggles, our aspirations, our desires, to embrace and define their time," Stipe said. "Nirvana captured lightning in a bottle. The potency and the power of their defining moment has become for us indelible."
 
"Solo artists almost have it easier than bands; bands are not easy. You find yourself in a group of people you rub each other the wrong way in exactly the right way, and you have chemistry, lighting in a bottle, and a collective voice to help pinpoint a moment. To understand what it is that we're going through. Nirvana tapped into a voice that was yearning to be heard.

"They spoke truth and a lot of people listened. They picked up the mantle of that particular battle. They were singular loud melodic and deeply original, and that voice… that voice. Kurt, we miss you. I miss you."
Brief speeches from Grohl -- who classily thanked each of the Nirvana drummers who preceded him, particularly Chad Channing -- Novoselic, Kurt's mom Wendy Cobain, and Courtney Love followed. Courtney kept hers short and focused on thanks, including  "Frances, our daughter, who can't be here because she's ill." The appearance marked a poignant detente between Grohl and Love, who've had a cantankerous relationship for years.
The band took the stage with Jett, and wasted no time getting into a flawless rendition of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (days ago, we predicted both the song choice for Jett, and that it would be awesome). Jett positively nailed the song, bringing the perfect amount of both melody and throat-shredding gravel to it, soaring on the choruses, and bringing a Gibson roar with her guitar playing that perfectly complemented Smear's phased, subtler sound. It's hard to describe the emotion of seeing the band play the song again -- Novoselic twisting, Grohl's hair flying -- after all these years; the cameras cut to Wendy Cobain at her table, smiling and weeping at the same time. Jett looked enormously relieved when she finished -- but she also knew she'd nailed it.

Kim Gordon, clad in a striped, Riot Grrl-esque dress, was up next for "Aneurysm," an unexpected but perfect choice for her singing style. She bounced all over the stage, falling at one point -- probably by accident, but she went with it, yelling into the mic from the floor as if it were part of the plan. She exited the stage laughing, thanking "Frances, Kurt, Courtney, Krist, Dave, and everybody fuckin' else." Very punk rock.
Annie Clark (St. Vincent) brought her own badass-ness to "Lithium" with some overdriven guitar and a vocal performance that wasn't as shredding as Jett's -- who's is? -- but with plenty of power and her distinctive quaver toward the end. Like Jett, she had a look of palpable relief on her face at the end.
 Finally, Lorde, clad in hot pink suit and black halter top, came out for "All Apologies." Krist switched to accordion, Gordon played bass and Jett and Clark joined in on guitars. Like Clark, Lorde brought a deep, un-Cobain-like but still fitting vocal performance to the song, doing her trademark animal-like arm gestures, dropping down even lower for the "all we know is all we are" repetition at the end. The camera cut to a teary-eyed Stipe and Love standing side-by-side at their table.

Images of Cobain and the band had been projected behind the musicians for the entire performance, and the last was a shot of Kurt Cobain (photographed by Jeff Kravitz) at the mic during the "In Utero" tour, with the wings from the mannequin feature on the album cover sprouting out from his shoulders angelically. That image remained on the screen as the crowd filed out.
Earlier in the evening in the press room, Clark talked about the influence Nirvana had on her. "'Nevermind' came out when I was nine and it changed my life," she said. "It's the reason I'm playing music. I would be lying if I said [tonight] weren't a little melancholy."
Asked about the decision to have women front the band, she said, "Those guys were feminists in the early '90s, when it wasn't hip to be, and they were rad and forward-thinking. If you're going to play these songs again, do it from a little bit of a different angle." She added that "the most surreal moment [of the past few days] was hearing Dave, Krist and Pat f---ing playing."
Stipe was asked about the first time he met Kurt Cobain. "He was late," said the singer. "It was in Krist's basement. He and Courtney had moved into the house next door to my former guitar player Peter Buck; they lived side-by-side. ... The first time I looked into his eyes, I thought, 'I get it. He really is all that.' He was a really special person [And] he had really blue eyes."
Following the ceremony, the Nirvana super group reunited at Brooklyn's St. Vitus bar where, as of 3 a.m., they were still playing. More details to come.


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Paul Stanley Calls Kiss the Rock Hall's 'Worst Nightmare'

 

"It's a small group of people who decide who they want in their little club," he says. "They're pencil pushers and I play a guitar"

It's taken 14 years, but pyro-glam rockers Kiss are finally being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After being passed over for so long, it was already a major story that the New York quartet (born of equal parts ambition, determination and desperation) had finally made the cut.

EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: Paul Stanley in NYC

But since the four original members -- singer-guitarist Paul Stanley, singer-bassist Gene Simmons, guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss -- haven't been shy about expressing how they think the induction and celebratory performance should be handled, Kiss' Hall of Fame entrance has become one of the most talked-about rock stories this spring.

Stanley, who co-founded the band 40 years ago with Simmons, sat down with Billboard to discuss the buzz surrounding the induction, which he believes is the Rock Hall's "worst nightmare."

"The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is not the hall of fame of the people, or of other bands," he said. "It's a small group of people who decide who they want in their little club and who they don't. The fact that they would only induct the four original members -- and when I asked about that it they said it was a non-starter -- is interesting. Because they're pencil pushers and I play a guitar. So for them to tell me what is a non-starter is arrogance."

He added, "I don't know if I was inducted or indicted. But I really don't care. I'm going because there are fans who it means something to."

He also opened up about his new autobiography, "Face the Music: A Life Exposed," where he discusses the history of Kiss and his own formative years. Born deaf in his right ear, which was deformed, the resulting social ostracism he experienced as a child burdened him with feelings of inadequacy for decades before he finally faced his demons. The book about Stanley's life is just as candid as his interview here.

 

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Kiss Enters Rock Hall With Little Drama, But Stern Words for Voters

  

Fifteen years after they were first eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, pioneering theatrical rock act Kiss were finally given the honor in one of the most controversial, acrimonious moments in the institution's 31-year history. Surprisingly, though, they played nice onstage, with barely-there tension between the four founding members – Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss. If anything, their anger was directed at the Hall and the critics who never respected their theatricality – the makeup, the fire, the giant boots, the armor, the blood, the shameless merchandising – and dismissed them as schlock.

 Even Rock Hall and Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner announced them tepidly: "From New York, in platform shoes and tight pants, Kiss."They got a standing ovation for that. 

After all the sniping in the press, the decision not to perform, and the fuss about the Hall's exclusion of the other six members who've donned the famous makeup, things were much different than anticipated when Kiss finally took the stage at Brooklyn's Barclays Center: They acted reserved, humble, graceful, and downright cordial.

Tom Morello, who lobbied hard for Kiss' induction, introduced his all-time favorite band with a tremendous speech, saying it was never easy being a fan of theirs. "I recall as a 15 year old, telling one bully, 'You can kiss my Kiss-loving ass,' because Kiss was never a critic's band, Kiss was a people's band." He extolled their "impact, influence, and awesomeness," their hundreds of millions of albums sold, and made mention of the "fifth member," the devoted Kiss Army. He finished up by yelling, "Tonight, it's not the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Tonight it's the Rock and Roll All Night and Party Every Day Hall of Fame!"

 

 

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