More "This Day in Music..." can be found here.

1932 - Country star Johnny Cash is born in Kingsland, Ark. He writes his first song at age 12. Among his No. 1 country hits are "I Walk the Line" in 1956, "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" in 1959, "Ring of Fire" in 1963 and "A Boy Named Sue" in 1969. He is elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1980.

While I, myself, don't listen to him, he still deserves credit. Happy Birthday, Joaquin Phoen... err, Johnny Cash!

The full article can be found here.

A videotape showing Kid Rock and former Creed frontman Scott Stapp engaging in explicit sexual activity with four female fans on a tour bus has been acquired by California company Red Light District, the distributor of the notorious 2004 Paris Hilton sex tape "One Night in Paris."

The company has launched a 40-second preview clip of the 45-minute tape online and says it plans to release the entire video at some point this year.

Red Light District president David Joseph tells Billboard.com he purchased the tape, which was shot in 1999 while Rock and Creed were on tour, from "a third-party source who was about to put it out for free on the Internet. I basically stopped him from doing that."


Wow! You stopped them from ruining these guys' lives for free, and rather, have made it so people have to pay first! You're such a nice guy! These people are deranged.

Not that it's right to do what they did on that bus... but still. That's something that's between them and those girls. These videos don't need to see the light of day.

I have nothing more to say.

...I was right!

The full article can be found here.

If you think there is no rhyme or reason to what songs make the top music hits of the week, you may be partly right, researchers said yesterday (Feb. 9). They tried to find a way to predict which songs would be popular, and found it very difficult.

Researchers at Columbia University in New York used the Internet to create an artificial market for singles, all recorded by artists not on the current top 40 hit parade in the United States. They then persuaded more than 14,000 young Internet users to log onto the site and choose their favorites.

In a finding that may console losers in both the market and in contests such as this week's Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, they said the most popular songs were not always the songs that people thought were the best.

The full article can be found here.

"Michael Jackson could sing some of the prayers written by the late Pope John Paul, the head of the music company coordinating the project said today (Feb. 6).

Father Giuseppe Moscati of the Edizioni Musicali Terzo Millennio, which specializes in church music and organizes musical events at the Vatican, said his company had the rights to 24 of Pope John Paul's prayers and wanted to put together a group of international artists to set them to music.

"We have been contacted by people close to Michael Jackson who have expressed interest and we are thinking about it," Moscati said."

Oh yes. Because when I think "Christianity", I think "Michael Jackson".

The full article can be found here.


"In the clearest sign yet that Billy Corgan is moving ahead with his plan to revive seminal alternative rock act Smashing Pumpkins, sources say the group has signed a new management deal with Jared Paul and Paul Geary at the Irving Azoff-helmed Front Line Management.Billboard.com has learned that Corgan and Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin will initially begin work on a new studio album, the first under the group name since the original Pumpkins' 2000 swan song, 'MACHINA/the machines of god.'"

So, the Smashing Pumpkins are coming back? Hmm... nuts. Corgan's voice annoys me.

If you don't know about PLUG, here's an overview from their site:

PLUG is a collection of music lovers - writers, DJs, webmasters, bloggers, artists, filmmakers, managers, indie retailers, and most importantly fans - who gather together each year to celebrate the artists who live and flourish in the margins.

The PLUG Independent Music Awards is about the independent community coming together to recognize its own and about the bands we all devote our lives and careers to champion. For us fans, it ain't about the scans or the scrilla, it's about the music. It's about the artists who inspire and the music that disrupts the artistic and corporate mediocrity that dominates our culture.

Winners for 2006:

Album: Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty)
Artist: Bright Eyes
New Artist: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Song: Bright Eyes - "When The President Talks To God" (Saddle Creek)
Female Artist: NekoCase
Male Artist: Sufjan Stevens
Hip-Hop Album: Dangerdoom - The Mouse And The Mask (Adult Swim/Epitaph)
Punk Album: Sleater-Kinney - The Woods (Sub Pop)
Metal Album: Fantômas - Suspended Animation (Ipecac)
Indie Rock Album: Bloc Party - Silent Alarm (Vice)

For a complete list of winners as well as all the nominees, got here.

Tags: music, plug, awards, Sleater-Kinney, sufjan, indie, rock, metal, punk, hip-hop